Safari in Maasai Mara!

(I haven't gotten any safari photos from Lanae yet, so those will come later)
Monday, 7/26/10
Up early and on the way to Siana Springs in Masai Mara for safari. It was a long 5 hour drive to our lodge, but it was through such beautiful country and we enjoyed getting to know our safari driver David. He is half Masai and half Kikuru and very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna, geography and culture. We drove on the Great North Road aka: the silk trade route, the longest road in Africa that stretches from Egypt to Johannesburg. A short way from Nairobi we hit the bush, passing through the Savannah into the Great Rift Valley which starts in Israel and runs through Africa. We passed fields of corn, barley and wheat. The land is owned by the Masai community and they rent it out to the Kikuyu people in small plots.

We checked into our luxurious safari tent – it is sooooo cool! There is a huge grassy area with lots of deer grazing, not sure which kind – but they are very cute, and baboons and monkeys are frolicking in the trees! Had a delicious and plentiful lunch, then started on our first safari run in Masai Mara. All the roads are very rough; dirt or rock or gravel, nothing paved, so the drive is very bouncy! The top of the van pulls up into a canopy and we can stand up in the van looking out as we drive. We feel like puppies with our heads hanging out of the window - it is so much fun! I love Africa!

We saw thousands of animals; giraffes, zebras, different types of gazelles and antelopes, birds and cape buffalo. We woke up a lion and lioness who were taking a nap and we were 10 feet away from them – it was amazing! Then our driver tried to go around another driver on a narrow road, got stuck in a deep hole and had to be towed out by another driver - such fun! Then a gnat flew into my eye and David performed surgery with a piece of grass – I’m happy to report that it was successful!

We were on the Mara for the sunset and it was spectacular! We arrived back at the lodge in the dark just in time for a camp fire and dinner. There is plenty of delicious food, buffet style and of course tea with milk and sugar – the Kenyan staple. We were just finishing up our dinner when several Masai warriors ran in with high pitched calls and scared Ryana half to death! They were joined by another 20 or so young men who danced and jumped and performed for the dinner guests. Then back to our incredibly cozy room and comfortable beds for a good nights sleep!

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night to these crazy animal calls! They were so loud and something heavy was jumping around on our tent roof; I think it was the monkeys! It wasn’t a dream, even though neither of my daughters woke up to hear it, but it was a wonderful, wild, jungle moment for me!

Tuesday, 7/27
Up early again today and on the road for an all day drive. We are heading to the Mara River to see the great wildebeest migration. On the way we saw a cheetah which we are told is very rare to spot. She had cubs with her but we couldn’t see them because they were hidden in the grass. There were thousands of zebras and wildebeest herds migrating in the hills and we drove through them all day! We saw amazing herds of giraffes, elephants and more lions. We are still looking for rhinos and leopards.

We had a delicious picnic lunch overlooking the Mara then arrived at the River. Unfortunately, there were no herds on the other side of the river ready to brave the crossing, but we saw huge crocodiles and hippos! As we reached the summit of a small hill near the river, we had an incredible view! Mara means spotted (because of the trees dotting the plains) or meandering. As far as the eye could see was wide open space, herds of animals and blue hills in the distance. I imagine after God created Africa, He viewed his work, smiled with deep satisfaction and said “it is good!”

Imagine the Wild Animal Park times a million or so more acres, with no fences, pens or structures; and the animals have to catch their own meals! It is absolutely incredible!

Nine hours later we return to our lodge. We are dusty, tired and happy. You know those Footsie Wootsies they have at the fairgrounds? Imagine a full body footsie wootsie for 8 hours! We are a little weary but very satisfied with our adventure today! We actually have a little down time before dinner is served so we are reading, writing, and enjoying chai tea in the open air lounge. The generator was just tuned on so there are now lights and electricity for the one outlet in our tent and best of all – the water is hot for our shower! They just lit the huge bonfire so I will sign off for now. I won’t be able to post to the blog until we return to Nairobi and pay for Internet service, so there will be lots of information and photos at once!

Weekend Adventures in Kenya

Sat. July 24th
I've noticed that most homes, businesses, organizations, hotels, etc. are either in compounds or behind guarded gates. Here is a photo of our hotel behind the electric fence. Those two little windows on the top floor and in the center of the photo are the windows to our room.

Our room fee comes with breakfast in a little café downstairs. Every day the menu is the same - we have a choice of fried eggs or Spanish omelet, toast and tea. For variety we get bananas or pineapple or watermelon after the meal. We see a lot of different people each day from all over speaking many different languages! We love the staff, they are so incredibly polite, adorable and friendly. I love it here!

Bishop Kamau was officiating at a wedding on Saturday and invited us to attend. Our driver picked us up at 9am for the wedding that was supposed to start at 10 but by the time we picked up other passengers we didn’t get to the wedding until 11:30! The ceremony was just getting started – that’s “Kenyan time”. The wedding was similar to our weddings in America, except the pastor preached in Kiswahilli and told a bunch of jokes that we didn’t understand.

The food was excellent and we were treated like royalty. We went to stand at the end of the long, long food line but a young man pulled us out of line and took us directly to the front of the line! We felt really embarrassed about cutting in, but the Kenyans in line were so gracious and wouldn’t let us go to the back of the line.

After the meal, all the Kenyan women dance with the bride and groom, leading them into the wedding party area. One of the Kenyan women pulled me into the dancing line so I danced with them! She gave me directions and helped me with the dance steps. It was so much fun!

We left the wedding before it was over so we could make it back to the Bible study on time. The Bible study is for the teenagers who are teachers in the children ministry. We joined them in chai tea and a delicious snack and finally met Becky, the Children’s Director, who was off on vacation with guests all week. She is incredibly nice and an amazing leader. She and her husband met Bishop at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California then later joined him in ministry in Kenya. They’ve been here 12 years and their 2 children have grown up in Kenya.

Sunday, July 25
I feel like we have hit the ground running and haven’t stopped since we landed in Nairobi. We are also a little jet lagged, so I find myself falling asleep each night as I am doing my devotional. We’ll probably need to plan some down time, but I can’t imagine sitting still for too long!

We arrived at church this morning at 7:30 am for prayer with the teen teachers, then attended the 8am service – mostly in English with some Kiswahilli. It was similar to our services and Bishop preached a great message on humility and thankfulness. He introduced us at the service and announced that we will be teaching a parenting seminar next Saturday.
Then we attended the teen class where we unsuccessfully tried to learn all their names and they learned how to throw the nerf footballs we brought with us.

Lanae and Ryana went into the younger children's class and I went with the older children. Here are a few photos of those adorable little ones! Ryana's little friend was so comfortable that she fell asleep in Ryana's arms.

I got to lead a small group of 12 year old Kenyan girls. They are so beautiful and sweet and soft spoken. They were very excited after the small groups when it was time to pull out all the equipment we brought; nerf footballs, Frisbees, double dutch jump ropes. They had such a blast and were so excited to have these new toys. I jumped rope with the girls too! Thanks to New Hope for the donations for these items!

Becky invited us to her home after church for Chinese take out. We had such a good time getting to know each other and sharing lunch with her family. Then our driver picked us up and took us to the market for some shopping. It was like a mini swap meet with all kinds of Kenya arts and crafts and it was crazy crowded with so many people! But we found a few treasures and gifts to take home and we had so much fun negotiating!

A Day with Children and their Families

This morning we met with Bishop Kamau to finalize our safari plans and booked 2 nights at a lodge in Maasai Mara. We head there next Monday for 2 days and we’re pretty excited about it! Then we bought and packaged food for 5 very poor families and took off to Cornerstone Ndeiya, one of their 30 sister churches planted in Kenya. The church was about 45 minutes drive outside of Nairobi and the country was beautiful! They have a preschool for the children (4-6 years old) in the area who are orphans, living with guardians (usually Grandmothers) or whose families can’t afford school. We got there right as they were having lunch; ugali and greens. All I can say is that these children are stinkin’ adorable!

The church sent along bags of clothes for the children and they let Ryana and I present shirts to the kids. I was playing peek-a-boo with the little guy as I put on his shirt!

They sang songs for us and they loved the bubble gun we brought and were total hams for Lanae’s camera.

They let the children out early from school since it was Friday and we crammed 5 children and 4 adult teachers into our van. We visited the families of these 5 children and I was totally humbled by their homes and the simple way they live. The mothers were gracious and appreciative of the food and I got to pray for each of the families and bless them and their homes. Below are 3 of the children we took home, one of the moms and me presenting the food gifts to another mom. The last is of a young girl doing laundry in a wheel barrel - everything here is done by hand! And behind her is her home, built with a frame of sticks then filled with mud.

They live in tiny one room shacks with dirt floors and tin and scrap wood held together with nails. They have very few possessions and moms are struggling to raise their children in these conditions. One mom shared with us a traditional meal of beans and corn which she had just prepared. She washed the utensils by rinsing with a cup of water and put them in the food dish. So we prayed that we wouldn’t get sick and we tasted her Kenyan meal. It was quite good!

It was an amazing day spent with the children and their families. I have so much respect for what this church is doing for their people. And of course I want to help them care for the children.

We were covered with red dust from walking through the red soil all afternoon; we returned to our hotel, tired, dusty and happy.

We had delicious pizza in the restaurant and relaxed in the hotel until bed time. We finally figured out how to use the showers. There is a heater switch that you have to turn on to get hot water. We didn’t know that, so our first showers were very invigorating with cold water! Sure was nice to discover hot water tonight!

We're finally here!

Wow, 19 hours in the air and 10,557 miles traveled and we’re finally in Kenya! We zipped through airport security at every airport, actually enjoyed our layovers in Detroit and Amsterdam and the airline meals were plentiful and pretty good! The best part of the long flight was flying over the Sahara Desert; miles and miles of golden sand - it was incredible! We were very relieved when we got through customs in Nairobi and saw a Kenyan man holding a sign that read “Tamara x 3”. He helped us get checked in to the Shalom Guest Hotel with our 6 huge duffel bags and our first night in Nairobi was uneventful as we schlepped our heavy bags up the stairs and passed out in our cozy little beds.

We finally met our host Dr. Bishop Kamau and his wife in person after 3 months of email communication. He is incredibly nice and provided an orientation and tentative itinerary for our time here. He thought we might like to rest after our long flight, but we were ready to see Nairobi! So after a tour of Cornerstone Faith Assembly, we hit the ground running; exchanging our dollars into Kenya shillings and visiting the Giraffe center where Ryana kissed a giraffe. Well, technically, the giraffe licked the nugget of food out of her mouth with his enormously long tongue, but it’s more fun to call it a kiss.

We saw a sign for the Kazuri Bead Factory and stopped there for a tour. It was a beautiful and peaceful place where single moms from the slums work to feed their families and make a living. It was very cool watching the whole process from the raw clay rocks to the finished product. We bought items they made in the factory to help support those single moms!

We visited the Karen Blixen museum (the author of Out of Africa) which was a gorgeous house on manicured grounds and then we dined on local African food that was very delicious.

Back at our hotel, we enjoyed cappuccinos in the cozy little restaurant and played with a little grey kitten that was wandering about. It was an absolutely wonderful day!

We’re finally heading to Kenya!
Four years of planning and delays, 2 more days of packing and preparation and we’re almost there! Lanae, Ryana and I take off from LAX at 7am Tuesday morning. We arrive in Nairobi at 7:30 PM on Wednesday evening – a loooooong trip.

The first week of our stay will be spent in local ministry, site seeing, shopping, and safari/game drives at Lake Nakuru and Mt. Kenya. Then we’ll get down to business, working with a local church training their children’s ministry teachers and putting on a VBS. It will be a lot of work and challenging because there are so many unknowns. But we know that God is in control of this entire adventure and He totally knows what He’s doing! All we have to do is trust Him!

I am excited about this trip for so many reasons:

I get to experience it with my precious daughters
It took us 4 years to actually get there
The ministry adventure is thrilling and challenging
The potential ministry opportunities are huge
Making new friends in Kenya
Experiencing entirely new culture, language and people
Three weeks off of work ;)

Check back as frequently as you like, we'll be updating the blog with our adventures and Lanae's photography!