5 Cent Mission: 2016

We left hot and humid Togo for a totally different climate! Who was expecting this?? We needed hoodies and pants in Kenya. With hot, sunny days interrupted by afternoon rains and quite cool evenings and nights, it was a far cry from the hot and humid 'round the clock that we experienced in southern Togo.

After arriving in Nairobi, we checked into Hampton House, a small Christian guest house that has a nice little setting a couple of blocks off one of the main roads in the city. Once inside the gate, it was quiet and tranquil. We spent a couple of days in the city, being tourists. We visited the Nairobi Museum, the Snake Park, the Elephant Orphanage, a giraffe sanctuary and a really neat bead-making company, called Kazuri.

I was invited into the python cage by the museum director
so I could 'get better pictures' at the Snake Park. Crazy... but I went in!
Only in Africa.

The gorgeous-but-deadly green mamba

Fair warning has been given.

The boomslang

Here a boomslang just struck a chameleon and is pumping in
the venom

Grasping the chameleon to get ready to eat it.

and this is the last expression on the poor chameleon's face.

Baby elephants at the orphange

This one can serve its own breakfast

His first kiss!!!

Kazuri started years ago as a micro-company to employ a couple of single mothers who were having a hard time making ends meet caring for their kids and maintaining a home. They now employ a couple of hundred women and ship their colourful bead necklaces and bracelets all around the world.

Hand-making each bead.

Looking at the finished products.

Somehow, inexplicably, Christine ended up bringing a couple of their offerings home with her! At least she was supporting a good cause...

We shopped for some groceries and supplies to take to our final destination – Tenwek Hospital guest house - just outside the town of Bomet.

On Safari

On the way out to Bomet, after descending into the great Rift Valley, we stopped for a couple of days for a safari experience on the Mara. Since we were driving right past the Masai Mara Conservancy, and since we may never get here again, it just made sense to see this amazing wildlife area of the world. We were fortunate to see so many animals, in such great numbers!

Heading out on safari early in the morning

Photos justice don't do it justice, as we could drive and drive and just keep seeing more animals.

Here's a quick list of most of the animals (and a few of the birds) we were able to see:

Topi antelope Eland

Thompson's Gazelles Impala

Wildebeest Zebra

Giraffes Lions

Cheetahs Warthogs

Maribou Stork more Wildebeest

Secretary Birds Fish Eagles

Ostrich Cape Buffalo (and Oxpeckers)

Rhinoceros Hippopotamus

Hyenas various vultures

many small birds like the acrobatic bee-eaters, crafty constructors like the weavers and brilliant rollers... and probably a bunch more that I have overlooked.

The very tall Maribou Stork, some vultures and the pied crows
finish of what's left of a wildebeest.

A long line of wildebeest

Rin blowing across the Mara

Our driver / guide named Joseph was the best. He had retired from guiding a couple of years earlier but had been called out of retirement to help during the busy time. He could read the posture and actions of the animals and lead us to some really neat sights.

Posing for a picture on a cool and windy morning

Rhino hike!

Just a cute, docile two tonnes of rhino!

Sun setting over the Mara

Look up, look way up.

Whether facing the sun or looking away from it, like the picture below
this one, the views are dramatic.

All I did was turn around right where I was standing after taking the
picture above. God painted the picture.

The kids at play.

Topi antelope

Buffalo

Many buffalo

Hyena tearing up a wildebeest

A huge fish eagle

Vultures waiting for the alpha predators to finish eating...

Little oxpeckers, well... ox-pecking, I guess.

The elegant Secretary bird

A Ruby-Breasted Roller hitching a ride on the centre wildebeest

And then taking flight .

Some male impalas hanging out together

Green birds??? No, White-Fronted Bee Eaters

Breakfast on the open grasslands

Elephant on the horizon

Another bee eater

This little guy snagged a dragonfly out of mid-air, then came to
perch in front of me to gobble it down.

A mother cheetah and her two cubs

Another Ruby-Breasted Roller

A Velvet Monkey. Okay, it's actually the eyes of a male velvet monkey.

We also stopped at a small Masai village (population 80) for about an hour. The Masai are somewhat nomadic, living out on the grasslands. They are famous for their bright red dress and living in the savanna.

Singing and dancing at the welcoming ceremony

Logan showing his manliness by jumping into the air

Hudson, in full Masai dress, doing the same

Showing how they make their fires

They are mostly shepherds and cattlemen, but have the reputation of being fierce warriors when called upon. We were welcomed in to participate in some traditional (and rather bizarre) songs and dance (the men compete by leaping up in the air) and to view their huts and see their bushcraft skills. They also make handcrafts and which we were offered for purchase, of course. I like the bright red fabric used as a robe, a blanket, a shawl – very similar to the pagne used in Togo.

An elderly Masai woman

Some of the bead crafts they were selling

Hudson - or 'Maasai' - getting a hug goodbye
from one of the warriors

Hudson was warmly accepted into the tribe, and was given the name 'Maasai'. By the time we were ready to leave, Hudson was decked out in a nice red blanket/robe, a small ceremonial staff and a couple of the decorative necklaces the warrior men wear! We discussed leaving him there with the Masai people, but brought him home with us after all.

To Tenwek

After the safari was over we were picked up by a hospital driver and taken a couple of hours further from Nairobi to Tenwek. We were put up in a nicely sized apartment in the guest house. Christine's friend Annette, a Respiratory Therapist at the hospital, showed us around and got us settled in. Tenwek has been around for decades, and is well respected in Kenya as a top level hospital to receive care. The hospital has a waterfall power generation system and a waste water treatment system. It covers most of a hillside with hospital care, community health, a nursing school, a chaplain school, an orphanage, a church, residences and staff quarters. There are many differences between Tenwek and HBB in Togo. Nothing bad, just different.

The sign says it all.

Christine was busy helping Annette with some of the work around the hospital, testing equipment and assisting with some training lectures and hands-on teaching. The boys were chasing chameleons and playing with a whole pack of missionary kids here.

Heading off to the hospital. Hudson is jealous of the fancy
lab coats all the staff wear.

Logan and I were able to join a bunch of others from the hospital for a trip to Mount Longonot. It is an extinct – for 100 years or so – volcano that formed a large mountain with a large bowl, the caldera, in the centre.

Beautiful daybreak on the way to the volcano.

Mount Longonot in the distance.

There is a hiking trail up the side of the mountain and around the entire rim of the caldera. In typical Kenyan fashion, it's a direct trail up to the rim, no switchbacks. Making switchbacks in the trail would be too easy! The entire trail covers about 9 miles. We made it the whole way up and around the rim – almost 3000 feet of elevation gained – in 5 hours, but we suffered! After living in Tsiko for five months at an elevation of maybe 900' of elevation and then trying a strenuous hike beginning at 6500' of elevation... we felt the difference. At the top we were at 9000' feet. Logan wondered what happened to him! “Dad, why can't I climb up this trail without huffing and puffing?” A few more days to acclimate to the altitude would have been nice. (A big reason why Kenyans are such great Olympic level distance runner, for sure!)

It was hot, sunny and dusty. The worst part of it was the fine dust, the texture of baby powder, that puffed out from underfoot. It covered everything that was exposed, filled your nostrils and went in your mouth when you took a deep breath or talked. However, the views into the caldera and out to the surrounding countryside made the strain and pain worth it! It was amazing. Steep drops on both sides of the trail, lush vegetation on the slopes and caldera floor below, and views for miles were the reward. I met Alan on the trail. He's the Longonot record holder for making 233 ascents up the trail to the rim of the volcano. He was aiming for 100 ascents up the mountain initially, but he forgot to stop!

Alan, who has probably now surpassed
ascents numbers 234 and 235, loving the view
up here.

Logan, also enjoying the awesome view into the caldera of the
old volcano.

At the summit we found the sign in a bit of disrepair.

Fixed it!

Homeward Bound!!

There were a few opportunities to help at the hospital, see the countryside and rest up before a long trip back home. We did go to the Tenwek-supported orphanage. We took some big bags of rice and oranges to them, played with the kids for a bit, and looked around the site.

The boys and I also were able to help unload a truck for one of the missionary ladies. She had a bunch of furniture, appliances and boxes delivered and needed some help with getting them off the truck. We sorted a bunch of donated clothing into gender and size categories to be distributed to the kids at the orphanage, too.

Goodbye, Africa

Leaving African will be bittersweet. We're looking forward to being home. The flight – layover – flight – drive to London will not be a highlight. Seeing some familiar faces will be! Our first Sunday in London will be October 18^th. We're anticipating rejoining our church family after being away for so long.