Dubai

Outside the 

When planning our trip, we discovered that many flights from Kenya to Beijing went through Dubai. Our good friends, Grace and Andrew, are teaching at an International School in Dubai, so we thought we'd stay a few days on our way to Beijing. If I had one to describe Dubai, it would be New. If I had a sentence it would be "The new part of Vegas, minus the vices". Since we were coming, Tom Cruise decided to come as well and premiere Mission Impossible 4, which stars that funny guy from Shawn of the Dead and this really big building.
It is difficult to describe the Burj Khalifa except to say that it is a really big building. Dubai's skyline is impressive, but the Burj gives everything a Napoleon complex.
Dubai is set up with with multiple sub-cities that are oriented around specific industries. There is an academic city with university satellite campuses from around the world, a technology city where Microsoft has a high-rise, and a theme park city known as Dubai-land. We stayed at Grace and Andrew's apartment in Motor City. The don't build or sell cars in Motor City, they race them. An impressive race track, overlooking the sea is at the heart of Motor City. Charlotte and I enjoyed breakfast at Starbucks, while watching a class learn to race Ferraris. Dubai is a bit of a car culture, where Porsches are as common as Corollas. I guess when you can't eat Pork BBQ (redundant BBQ can only be pork) or drink anything harder than coffee, fast cars are the next best thing. They also have excellent shopping, and the largest mall in the world. Between the tall building and biggest mall, it seems that Dubai is just trying to make America jealous.

The night pictures are from the observation
deck of the Burj Khalifa. 

We enjoyed our brief time in Dubai, were able to see a few things, and get a great time catching up with Grace and Andrew. Going from Kenya to Dubai was in many ways like night and day. Not that one was better or worse, just that they are two distinctly different places.

Public Service Announcement

We interrupt your regularly scheduled non-programming to bring you the following...
So we hit a little mix up in our travels, and found it almost impossible to blog from Dubai, as Google, in its infinite wisdom decided that since we were in Dubai, we wanted to read and write in Arabic. (Mark Davis is pleased with my run on sentence). Never mind that 90% of Dubai is international and likely doesn't speak Arabic. When we asked Google to translate everything back into English, they neglected to change grammar and punctuation rules. So the blog has been once again neglected by the Rippys.
I'll catch you up on where we are, and then go back to posting previously planned updates as we had a few adventures that we'd like share.
After school we went to Lamu for 5 days of R'n'R, then back to Nairobi for 1 week to tie up loose ends, then off to Dubai to see our good friends Andrew and Grace for 5 days before heading to Beijing visiting family for Christmas. We are now in Beijing. Do the math and it adds up to neglecting "Around the World in 120 Days". At least now you understand the title.  
...We now return you to the Lifetime Original movie that has become your guilty pleasure

Nairobi Game Park

If you look closely, you'll see a rhino hiding behind a shrubbery

An ostrich and her cubs

 So a couple weeks ago, we had a great opportunity to go with Ken and Linda Wiley to Nairobi game park. Ken and Linda are missionaries with Africa Inland Mission, and when we mentioned getting someone to drive us through the park they volunteered Ken and their Land Cruiser. To my great pleasure, it had been a rainy week in Nairobi, and the park was full of mud and puddles. Ken and the Cruiser proved quite capable and (un)fortunately we didn't get stuck. We had better luck finding animals. The one big animal we fouled off on our trip to the Mara was a Rhinoceros. I glimpsed the backside of one, but he moved quickly towards interior forest. We were able to track him down later by following his footprints in the mud. I am not making that up. Big footprints, sniffing droppings was not necessary but mildly tasty. Big Game Tracker Achievement Unlocked (xbox360 ftw). We stumbled upon Terrance (he had a "Hi my name is.." tag on) and happened to be down wind of him. Uncertain of our location, Terry tried hiding behind a bush. Fortunately, we were able to get lots of good photos and videos. See if you can find Terry in the top photo on the right.

This is an Impala (I think)

We saw many other animals and Charlotte spotted a lion in a tree. The lions will climb trees to get out of wet grass. We watched her climb somewhat awkwardly down from the tree. Thankfully she got down without the help of the local fire department.

A fun time had by all at Nairobi game park, right in our own back yard. Make sure you check it out next time you're in town.

Playing a little catch-up

Good Morning from sunny Lamu, Kenya. Charlotte and I are here to spend a little time with a missionary to the Aweer People, and getting some R&R on Lamu Island. So we're playing a little catch up on the ol' Blog, but I'm sure you'll forgive us.
Charlotte's duties with the office of Communication and Development continued sadly and unexpectedly as she helped coordinate the on-campus memorial service for Dr. Steven Sesi. Dr. Sesi was a beloved member of the AIU faculty, and his loss deeply impacted the community. Additionally, Charlotte has been working to support the launch of Serve the City Nairobi, develop a 5-year project plan for AIU's Center (or is it Centre?) for World Christianity, and do ministry profiles for student ministries. All while keeping me fed and clean. Another full-time job.
By comparison, I have been slacking off, reading and writing for school. Exam week ended Friday, and the sum of the semester is 1,700ish pages read and 140ish pages written, double spaced 12 font, so its not really that impressive and even less so if you bothered to read any of it. Please don't, you've got more important things to do. The final push for reading tests and papers meant I was a bit of a study-hermit the last couple weeks. Thankfully, EB was good about stopping by and pulling my head out of the books. We went together to downtown Nairobi, went to a guitar store, and got lunch at a KFC. It was EB's first time, and he was pretty impressed, deducing that it was the Kentucky that made the Fried Chicken so good. I wish I'd made up the last part.
I think our biggest pangs of home-sickness hit Thanksgiving week. I whine about missing football, but Thanksgiving is something that Charlotte and I both love, and it is defined by the people we celebrate with. Besides, Tennessee has been so bad at football, its kind of nice to be out of the country. Thanksgiving is really a favorite holiday of mine because it is about being together. Thanksgiving doesn't possess the busyness of Christmas, and hopefully true reflection of what we are Thankful for will give perspective that we are so blessed. We were able to celebrate with 2 missionary couples from the U.S. and it was a good time with lots of good food.
So that's why you haven't heard much from us lately. Kinda a newsy update that we've been busy, but nothing too exciting. We'll get some fun stuff up about our time in Lamu. We return to Nairobi Thursday night, and fly to Dubai the following Wednesday. Time is ticking off pretty fast.
John

Playing a little catch-up

Good Morning from sunny Lamu, Kenya. Charlotte and I are here to spend a little time with a missionary to the Aweer

It is official...

...we are the worst bloggers of all time.  It has been 24 days since our last post. But let's face it - we haven't really been all that consistent since the beginning.  Finding time to blog has been more difficult than we expected!

So what have we been up to for the last month?  A lot!  On one hand things don't look all that different from home.  We've been going to work/school, grocery shopping, cooking, meeting friends, going to church, reading, trying to keep up with email, taking turns beating each other at settlers of cantan on the iPad(our new favorite way to unwind), etc.   Lots of normal every-day life stuff.

Yet on the other hand, things can look quite different.  Some every-day life things take a lot more time.  For example, going to the grocery store can take up to 3 hours! First you walk half a mile to the main road, catch a matatu down to Karen, walk to the store, shop, look for a cab, come home, walk another half mile.  A bit abnormal for us, but very normal for much of the world.   Dishes also take a little more time.  For starters, there is no dishwasher!  Secondly we have no hot water in the kitchen so we've mastered the art of washing, rinsing, boiling water, rinsing again to sanitize and then drying!  And you never quite know when the power is going to cut off - candles a and a good computer battery are a must!  And I am not going to even go into traffic.  We'll do a whole post in pictures of what it is like on the roads here.  Let's just say you never quite know what you might see!  

But in the midst of the normal, and the not so normal things here, we've been living in a full, stretching, life-changing kind of way.  Living in another culture, particularly in a developing country, makes you stop, think and take stock of life.

We do hope to blog more often over the coming weeks - even if it means writing about things we did 6 weeks ago!

I have been QUITE busy in the development office this past month.   We have launched the big capital campaign and are now working on follow up and strategy plans for the next 5 years.  It seems that project plans, spreadsheets and politely nagging people (who are not my husband) is part of my life regardless of what continent I am on!  I have learned a LOT by trying to work and produce in a culture that is not my own. That deserves its very own blog post.  But thankfully my main responsibilities i are winding down.  I am hoping to focus on a few more relational projects during out last few weeks here.

John has just 2 weeks left in the term.  He has been working extremely hard and is really enjoying his courses, fellow students and professors.  Let me tell you, this is no joke though.  The work is rigorous and stretching.  But that is part of why we came.  This week is reading week and then he has exams and final papers are due.  I see the back of his head at the computer a lot these days.

Thanks for sticking with us even if our posts are few and far between.  This has definitely been a crazy adventure of amazing and wonderful things mixed in with hard and very difficult things.  But it has been worth every minute.  We firmly believe God is using this for our good and for his glory.

Lions and leopards and cheetahs, oh my!

Well I don't know about you, but I see nothing wrong with having a massage as part of our safari adventure...who says they are mutually exclusive!  

Anyway, last weekend we flew to Masai Maura (in a very small plane I might add for any fellow small plane fearers) and had an amazing experience in one of the world's most beautiful places.   Words and pictures will fail to justly describe what we saw.  We landed on a red dirt landing strip in the middle of nowhere, met our guide Deadon and jumped into a land cruiser that had no windows and an open roof and headed to our lodge which was only about 5 minutes away.  We saw lots of zebras and a few wildebeest on the way to the lodge - we were beside ourselves already!

We arrived at the lodge where you are greeted by someone with cool towels and then are handed a glass of some type of fresh tropical  juice...needless to say the service at this place was top notch.  Each room at the Serena is shaped like a little Masai hut.  They were really cute and had an amazing balcony where you look out and the sky and the land seem to go on forever.  And you could see zebra, elephants and giraffes milling about and walking across the land!  

We went on 4 games drives throughout the weekend.  You go out at 6:30 am and 4:00 pm each day since that is the best viewing time.  Most of the animals are asleep in the middle of the day.  Our first game drive was on Saturday at 4 pm and we found everything amazing!  We raced out with all the other trucks because there was a large herd of wildebeest near the Mara river.  Apparently it is quite rare to see a herd cross a river.  We waited about 20 minutes but it looked like they weren't going to cross and then all of a sudden they just went for it!  Thousands of wildebeest crossing the river - it was incredible.  You could also see a croc in the water watching them!  Apparently it tried to attack, but the wildebeest just kept on kicking and got away!  

So I could go on and on, but here is a recap of the animals we saw:  

• Tons of elephants - including lots of babies.  The elephants always travel together in groups and their tusks are incredible.  
• 3 cheetahs - 2 that were just relaxing and sleeping and one that was walking away from eating about half a wildebeest.  John and I thought she looked pregnant but our guide said she had just eaten so much.  She was stunning.
• More wildebeest than we could possibly count.  Thousands for sure.  They are currently migrating back to Tanzania.  They usually spend about 3 months in the Mara
• More zebras than we could count - they are beautiful and are also migrating to Tanzania.  We saw lots of baby zebras
• At least 25 hippos - we had an amazing outdoor breakfast by the Mara river where the hippos are often found
• 3 crocodiles
• At least 20 giraffes at various places in the park.  At one point one walked RIGHT in front of our truck.  Their size is stunning and you can always tell it is a giraffe.  Sometimes when you are looking far out you don't know if it is a bush or an elephant or a rock or a lion.  But there is never a question about a giraffe
• 4 male lions.  2 together sleeping, one early in the morning walking towards the woods and one walking in the middle of a field.  The last one was one of the highlights for me - the sun was washing the field in light and it walked right by us - maybe 10 feet away!  Majestic is the only word to use
• 7 female lions.  3 sleeping together in a field, 2 sleeping on a rock and then a single lion dozing. She would look at us and yawn!  A group of impalas almost ran right by her but stopped at the last minute.  We thought we were about to see a kill.  
• lots of impalas, gazelles, waterbucks, buffalo
• hyenas 
• warthogs
• lots of amazing birds 
• a huge group of vultures feeding on what the cheetah left behind
• A leopard in a tree!!  This was amazing b/c it is quite rare to see leopards.  Their paws are HUGE
• We kind of saw a rhino - but i don't think it really counts.  With binoculars you could make out a grey mass but he never came out of the woods
• Monkeys
• lots of lizards - extremely colorful

So all in all we couldn't have really asked to see anything more.  We were so struck by the expanse - the sky is so big.  The land seems to roll on and on.  It truly felt surreal to see such beautiful creates.  You couldn't help but worship in the midst of the beauty.  

And here is what you probably really want to see - pictures! 

I guess you could call it a Safari...

but Charlotte is getting a massage as we speak, and after dinner last night a Kenyan man with a voice like Paul Simon covered Dylan and Clapton. We are staying at Serena Mara, thanks to the always sound advice of Lois Shaw, and its pretty sweet. The accommodations are very nice, and the views are amazing. I am typing this sitting on our balcony. Through binoculars I see 5 elephants trekking across the plain, along with hundreds of zebra. We have been on one end of day animal drive, and one at dawn this morning. This is of course an excuse to post animal pics for nieces and nephews. We'll see how much bandwidth we can pull out of the wilderness.

Sorry folks, pics seemed more than than Orange could handle. We'll work on getting some pics up soon.

Now some pics. We got back last night, and I am reading for class by posting pictures.

There's a saying about not waking sleeping lions...

The Croc and the Hippo

Rare Two-headed Giraffe

I believe these are called effalumps

A guitar lesson

My friend EB is from Rwanda. He is in the Bachelor of Business Programme (yes that is how program is spelled). Having guessed at his age and I did the math on my fingers and toes and figured that he was 1 or 2 when his family left for Kenya. Last night EB came over and we played some guitar (many thanks to Mark Shaw for sharing). He asked about a harmonic trick that I'd shown him the last time we'd gotten together. We were working on this when he shared that his favorite bass player used harmonics beautifully. "Well he can't use them better than Victor Wooten" I said. "Yes Victor Wooten, he is my main man" EB replied. "He is from my hometown, my friend is the band director at his old high school and he's trying to get Victor to come back for homecoming" I bragged. "Whoa". I had him right where I wanted, I could now brag and reminisce about seeing Victor with Bela Fleck when I was in 9th grade. To keep EB in the conversation I asked him "What were you, 3 in 1996?" "No, I guess I was 9..." Wait a minute, how old is this guy? I subtly look down at my toes... "I was born in 1987..." EB said, pretending not to notice. "So you remember leaving Rwanda?" "Yes, but that is a long story." "You might as well go ahead, I don't have any more I can show you on guitar." I don't. I have been playing since EB was 8. Long, sad, contemplative pause.
Moving on.

EB began to unravel the tale of his journey from Rwanda. It is an unbelievable story, but EB is as sincere as they come so believe it. He told the story in a less than linear fashion, first his story and then his parents'. I will try to line it up for you non-creatives that don't like syrup on your pancakes. You know who you are and you are probably an engineer or accountant. (A great thing I've learned to do while in Africa, stereotype. This is perfectly fine here. One tribal group is good at business, another at animal husbandry, Certain nationalities are not to be trusted in business... You get my drift.) EB. Right.

EB's father is a pastor. He was doing ministry in rural Rwanda when the violence began. EB's mother made the decision to leave the city for safety without knowing the where abouts or well being of her husband. She took her 5 children along with 3 others away from the violence. They fled with several others, and his mom formed a prayer group among them. As they moved from one village or campsite to the next, this group would pray at least daily. Through divine and miraculous interaction they were able stay ahead of the violence, often leaving just in time. As they neared Congo, they had to paddle a large dugout canoe to cross Lake Kivu into the border. They encountered large, perilous waves on their journey, but were able to stop on the island in the middle of the lake. They lived there for some time, but the water made several of EB's sisters sick. They arranged to have another boat, this time with a motor take them the rest of the way. Unfortunately it was a set-up, and their boat was to be robbed in the middle of the lake. By another miracle, the leader of the "pirates" was overcome with conviction and his supposed victims led him as he became a Christian. In the middle of the Lake. Safely ashore EB's mother found a church in Congo that allowed them to live there.

Meanwhile, EB's father had made his way to a refugee camp in Tanzania. He organized the refugees, while continuing to work as a minister. Discouraged that he had yet to find his family, he asked about possible alternative refugee sites. Apparently the network among the refugees was incredible. Without phones, it was difficult to know what was going on, but word of mouth seemed capable of transmitting accurate information. His father heard enough rumors to leave Tanzania and search Congo for his family. One evening, during his journey, he asked about where he might stay for the evening. A Congolese man directed him to a church that was known to house Rwandan's. EB and his siblings recognized and ran to the sound of their father's voice while he was still outside the church. They all clung to him as they slept that night.

The family was able to travel safely to the refugee camp in Tanzania, where they lived for two years. EB's father left the camp to try to establish a home for the family in Kenya. While away, Rwanda had been reopened, and it was required that everyone return to Rwanda. Some were determined to avoid the exodus and make way to Kenya. During the first day of the migration, EB, now probably 8, was separated from his mother and the rest of the camp. He managed to connect with other groups of refugee's and was determined to not be forced back to Rwanda. As he was telling me, EB was laughing at the poor logic of his 8 year old self. He and an older boy survived in the wild for several weeks, until they wandered upon another camp this one mainly of refugees from Burundi. He managed to settle into the new camp, and established a new life. Eventually other Rwandan's made their way into the camp, and the word of mouth network informed EB that his father was in Nairobi. Thinking that there might be potential for a reward, a young man in the camp decided he would take EB to his father. The 2 travelled an underground railroad across borders and military checkpoints, getting harassed and robbed along the way. They made it to Nairobi without a schilling between them, and needing assistance to find EB's father. They got off the bus at the main bus station, and were pointed immediately to the eastern side of town, as that is where a "Rwanda town" was emerging. From there the network set about getting EB to his father's home. Again their reunion was a surprise unlooked for. It took another year for rest of the family to arrive from Rwanda. It was something his mother prayed for all along.

The Nairobi bus station where Ebenezer was pointed to Rwanda Town

EB ended his story. I realize that this began because I was trying to inform him about one of the most exciting things I did in 1996. I went to a concert. By 1996, as a 9 year old, EB had done more living than I could ever imagine.

I have left out details in a failed attempt at brevity. I am hopeful that EB will write his own story with the voice and detail it deserves. If you would like to encourage him in that regards, let me know I would be glad to pass it along.

R1

Well once again we apologize for our silence.  It turns out this consistent blogging thing is harder than we thought it would be!  We've been dealing with a lot of reading (john), a little sickness (both of us) and a bit of culture shock this week (charlotte - working in Kenya is bit more complex than I thought it would be).  Still, those are only semi-legit reasons for not blogging.  Here is a post we intended to write about 2 weeks ago.

Our first 12 days in Kenya we lived near the edge of campus on a small compound with some other westerners and professors.  All along we had planned on living in the student housing, but it wasn't ready when we first arrived.  We found out we really had 3 options for housing.  Option #1 was we could stay where we were - it was quiet and peaceful, but a little removed from campus and other students.  Option 2 was to rent a small cottage near Kijiji (campus guest house that generates revenue for the school) which was warm and homey feeling and closer to campus, but still not near other students.  Option #3 was to move into student housing which was our initial plan.  When we toured campus housing we started to get cold feet.  The housing was a bit more, we'll say basic (one western described it as spartan) than we had anticipated.  Think concrete everything, bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and no hot water.  That's right, no hot water.  The no hot water was a bit of an issue.  I wasn't sure I could handle 4 months without a hot shower.  In the big picture that is kind of pathetic I know, but it is how we were feeling.

So began the pro and con lists and the debates.  We are only here for 4 months and we wanted to get an authentic as possible Kenyan experience.  We also wanted to have real relationships and be normal students - or as normal as we can be, which may not being saying much.  Anyway, we discussed our options and thoughts with an American couple who has been here for 6 years, 5 of which were spent in student housing with 3 children.  In a completely non-salesy way they totally sold us on the benefits of student housing.  The 2 biggest reasons are it really is the best way to form relationships with students and it gives us more authenticity.  We can relate better to other students if we are doing the same things and living in the same places and going through life just like they are.  So the decision was made and we haven't looked back.

We moved into R1 almost 2 weeks ago and have settled in easily.  It's not perfect - there are a few roaches and it can be a bit noisy, but it is a good fit and we have not doubt that it was the right decision.  And it is not nearly as sterile as I thought it might be.  With a little love and a LOT of help from the Shaws it feels like a home.  Since the Shaws are currently nomads traveling from home to home on campus while their new house is being built they had plenty of items in storage that we are now using including their bed and their oven (student housing only comes with a 2 burner plate).  And about the hot water situation (some things are hard to give up) - it turns out for about $50 you can purchase a special shower head that can be hooked up to power to generate hot water.  It is perhaps the best $50 we have ever spent!

Here are a few pictures of our new place! Please excuse the random order - blogger has not been very cooperative!

The front of our building

The view of the Fourplex (student housing area) from our front door

Kitchen - notice the stove!  This is rare in student housing

Living room

Bedroom

Other side of the room - sorry about the strange lighting issue

Best $50 we've ever spent = a hot shower!

Office - seems like this room is a mess no matter what country we are in!

 

Another view of the living room including our dinning room table

We are bad bloggers...

Sorry about the long silence. Charlotte and I have both had a busy week. This is probably a good thing. The short of it is we moved on Monday, I sat in on some PhD lectures, Charlotte started working for the school, I had to read for my real classes (we are paying for them), Charlotte played home maker, I went to class, Charlotte continued to work for the school and here we are. And now for some details.

Last Sunday we attended Nairobi Chapel, an evangelical church that has a healthy (in my never humble opinion) amount of charisma (energy). The back story of Nairobi Chapel is worth telling, I will do my best to summarize. A dying (losing numbers, aging) congregation asked for help from a healthy local church. Local church sends a young NEGST (where I am studying) graduate to lead as a pastor. He has a strong emphasis in discipleship and leadership development. The church grows, and is good about making clear to attendees the beliefs of the church, and the expectation the church has of its members to be involved. The church grows to the capacity of its building (5,000ish with multiple services). The church simultaneously develops 5 ministry staffs ie senior pastors, worship leaders, Christian Ed, etc. Each team takes turns leading, and on the same Sunday the church splits into 4 new sites as well as the original site. 1 church into 5 like that. Rather than permanent buildings, each new campus is a collection of very large tents, with between 3,000 and 5,000 attendees per site. So that is a brief history of Nairobi Chapel. Anywhy, we worshipped at the Nairobi Chapel on Ngong Road. This was an excellent 2 hours of lively worship, (by lively I mean we were instructed to dance, which we did, it was hard not to), and sound teaching. One interesting aspect of the tent (think the Peninsula Greek Festival x4) is that it feels accessible to any regardless of their background or status.

Looking out the window in the office, the local school and playground

On Monday we moved into our new apartment. I'll leave Charlotte to do a write up, but it is nice to be getting settled in. We are living in student housing, which is full of children. From the time school lets out at 3 until its dark around 7:30, the courtyard is full of laughter, shouting, and some crying. There were several evenings in a row where groups of girls would get the courageous and introduce themselves to their new(read white) neighbors. It is a fun atmosphere. I am glad to be living in student housing, as it is giving us more opportunities to interact with fellow students, and to live in community.

So I mentioned sitting in on PhD lectures. Africa International University has brought on Andrew Walls as Research Professor for Global Christianity. For every reader of this blog except for Charlotte's dad, this means very little. Professor Walls is the foremost living expert in the field of Global Christianity. It took some effort, but I was able to blackmail my way into his lectures (amazing what photoshop and google images will do for you). Prof. Walls teaches by telling stories from history. He emphasizes the story, crafting it in such a way that his point rarely has to be stated or clarified. I learned a great deal, and am still chewing on much of what he had to say.

I have said a lot but there is still much more to say. I would like for us to write more frequently, but in shorter bursts. We'll see if we can manage this. Also Tennessee plays football against Florida today. 3:30 pm Eastern 10:30 Kenyan. Pending the outcome I will write about the difficulties of trying to stream sports here and methods of staying awake in church after staying up until 2am, or I will write about how sports can be an idol in my life and that I am thankful that I have fewer opportunities to be distracted by said idols while here.

Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Park

Well John and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Saturday in a way that we may never celebrate again - by going to see baby elephants and giraffes!  

Running in for their feeding - they run faster than you might think!

We started the day at an elephant orphanage.  Elephants are extremely social creatures and if orphaned they will often die due to depression.  They only come out once a day so they do not get too attached to tourists.  Their trainers stay with them day AND night (we saw the trainers bunk in each elephant stall!) and they are fed every 2 to 3 hours.  They are allergic to cows milk and you can't milk elephants so they drink LARGE portions of Similac formula.  All the elephants we saw were ages 2 and under - they were extremely playful and VERY excited about their bottles.  The red Kenya dirt helps act as sunblock for their skin and keeps insects away.

The orphanage does release the elephants back into the wild near other elephants, but it is often a 5 to 10 year process.  It takes a long time for them to leave their trainers and bond with other elephants - which is a must for these social animals!

Getting a little love from one of the trainers

Happily drinking Similac formula

The baby of the bunch - just 11 months old!

Covered in red dirt

Drinking water

playtime

After the elephants we headed over to the giraffe park.  Seeing the giraffes in person was a little surreal - they are so big and majestic.  The giraffes are completely free in this park - they are able to roam at will and the property is connected to the Nairobi game park.  However, they certainly have some incentive to come visit - they are fed well by excited visitors.  In fact if you don't feed them they are likely to head but you...John learned this firsthand.  Daisy thought he was a little slow in feeding her and she got impatient.  The larger giraffe is Daisy who is expecting.  The smaller giraffe is Helen who is only 2 years old.    There is no other animal quite like a giraffe and it was amazing to see them in person.  We might be making another trip before our time here ends...

A few of the giraffes stayed in the field

Daisy on the other hand was more than happy to stand by the platform and eat!

Pictures fail to show their impressive height justice!

Me and Daisy

How often do you get the chance to kiss a giraffe?  

We'll be back with a few more photos tomorrow - blogger is taking forever to upload pictures!  We will also post a couple of albums to facebook in case you want to see more pictures.
It was truly amazing to see and touch (and even kiss) these incredible animals!

Week 1 Highlights

Sorry for the silence, I think you should take it personally. Our days have been a little full, but that is no excuse. We promise to do better. Eventually.

So to play catch up Charlotte had a great idea that we'd share some week 1 highlights. So while we're thinking about our week 1 highlights, I'm going to upload this picture. It should buy us 15 minutes....

These are called birds of paradise and they are delicious. Fry up nicely.

John highlight- being flooded by reading assignments and realizing my only job is to be a student

Charlotte - Tuesday's chapel service.   The energy and joy expressed was very moving and there is just something about African music sung with gusto in worship that gives you energy and makes you feel alive.  Many students shared stories of thanksgiving and the story that made an indelible mark in my mind was from a young man from south Sudan.  He had been a child solider and was freed from that life of captivity and is now attending a university.  I believe he must understand what it means to be thankful in a way that I do not.  

John- ok so Charlotte continues to overachieve. I have enjoyed meeting many new people, especially students from other parts of Africa. I enjoy hearing their stories, and their passions in ministry.

Charlotte - taking a mutatu (public transport of sorts - really worthy of its very own blogpost) into Karen Town and having pizza at Que Pasa - sometimes something familiar just hits the spot. 

John- they are called Mondazi and they are delicious. sweet dough fried. kinda like a donut, but with no filling or glaze so they don't come with any guilt

Charlotte - well they are fried, so they come with some guilt!  Learning how to shop at Nakumat - a target/walmartish type store where I will do a lot of grocery shopping.   I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but there will be a little education time required to determine what is cheap and what is expensive, what kind of substitutes will I need to find, etc.

Another highlight was having tea and bites (appetizers) at the beautiful Karen Country Lodge

Charlotte - being pleasantly surprised that in just a week's time certain African sounds, names and phrases roll off the tongue much easier than they did 7 days ago!  We still have a long way to go, but progress is progress and that is enough for me right now!

John- posting this and going to bed. Giraffes and Baby Elephants tomorrow. Try to get you highlights soon.

The $80 Droid Phone

In the midst of preparing to leave for Kenya I stumbled upon this article talking about a new Droid phone that was doing well in Kenya. This intrigued me as there are so many benefits for Kenyans to have access to affordable smart phones. Since my (dying) Palm Pre is allergic to non US phone systems, and I am seriously considering a switch to a pay-as-you-go service upon returning to the US, I thought it'd be worth picking up the little robot phone. Lucky for you, I am excited to pretend to be a technology review person and blogger. So follow me after the jump so I can get page views up and pay bills (I don't know how to make a jump or pay bills with the inter webs).

Yes I took this picture. Yes I like it. No I can't do it again.

The Ideos is a Chinese manufactured android phone with version 2.2 software. It cost 7999 kenyan shillings and came with a 250 k/sh calling card. Thats a little over $80 if you count the card as a discount. Talk requires "Top Up" cards that are pre purchased phone and data credits. Basically $.03 a minute for talk and $.01 per text. Data is a-la-carte, with this phone I purchased a data bundle of 250MB download/upload for about $3. This lasts for 30 days or until I use up the data whichever comes first. 3G speeds that are indeed comparable to 3G with Verizon. This is through Safaricom.

The phone itself is pretty slick. The Mobile WiFi hotspot works well, and has come in handy. The phone can also provide internet through USB tethering and Bluetooth. I have not tried either of these. A great feature with many new smart phones is the ability to sync contacts from the web. Contacts saved in gmail and Facebook came right over for both Charlotte and me. This phone does what a smart phone should do, and has yet to seem overwhelmed when processing. To cut costs a microSD card is required for additional memory and many apps. I don't have one yet, so we've basically been using it as is out of the box.

This phone at this price is indeed a game changer. Through one service Kenyans have affordable computing and communication in one package. I see great opportunity for locally produced and oriented apps to make a difference.

Whirlwind Nairobi Tour

Well our last blog post was certainly the result of some serious jet lag!  I took a 30 minute turned 4 hour nap and left the husband blogging unattended.  Shame on me.  But let's face it, the entertaining entries (albeit embellished) will be from John and the informative posts will be from me!

We are continuing to settle in - the jet lag is fading, our stomachs are slowly adjusting and we are beginning to adjust to Kenyan accents and phrases.

Downtown Nairobi

Saturday was quite a day!  We took a trip with other new students to tour Nairobi and learn important things like where to change money, how to take the bus from downtown back to Karen (suburb where AIU is located) and where to find local markets.  There were 9 students on the tour - 5 Kenyans, 1 Ethiopian, 1 from Malawi, me and John.   We started with a stop at Uchumi - a Walmart/Target type store where I was reminded that carrying tissues is a must as public restrooms do not supply their own toilet paper!  I left Uchumi with several packs and now have a stocked purse.  Next we drove into downtown Nairobi which is a mix of old and new buildings, plenty of traffic and the smell of diesel exhaust.


We took a quick tour of the chaotic rail yard where you can pick up bus 111 to get from town to Karen.

Rail yard - although I only saw buses, no trains!

We then drove about 15 minutes outside of downtown Nairobi and stopped at a market for lunch.  Here's where things started to get interesting!  We moved past the tables of produce, shoes, and clothing to a series of buildings and alleyways.  All the buildings were painted red and had a coke bottle and the coke logo displayed on the side.

The alley was full of men in white coats cooking meat over open fire and thick smoke hung in the air.  Our tour guide Daniel was surrounded as each vendor vied for our business.  He disappeared through the crowd to try to get a group deal while the rest of us waited on the outskirts of the alley.  While we waited we were constantly approached by the cooks.  I kept hearing "sister, sister come and eat."  Finally we made our way through the alley to the shop Daniel had chosen.  We were about to eat a real Kenyan meal - nyama choma with ugali.  Nyama choma literally means meat roasted and ugali is kind of like grits the day after cooking them (that's how Lois describes them!).  Big sides of raw beef were hanging in the windows of the shop and they cut off a piece, salt it liberally and throw it on the fire - and then use the same knife to cut off a hunk of ugali for your bowl!  Once cooked they chop the meat and place it on a wooden platter.  Everyone has their own bowl of ugali and you are supposed to take a small bit, roll it in your hand and use it to pick up the meat.  I was a bit nervous about the meal as thoughts of food poisoning ran through my mind, but when in Rome....and beside we are here to learn and experience Kenyan culture and it is my understanding that this meal is common and ugali is definitely a staple.

Ugali

nyama choma

We proceed on our tour and were slowed considerably by some serious traffic, but finally made it to a second market.  We saw produce, cows, goats and chickens and caused some heads to turn since we don't exactly blend in.  I bought a pineapple for about 80 cents - but only after one of the Kenyan students asked about the price.  It is quite obvious that we don't exactly know what we are doing!

Produce at one of the markets we visited

It's now about 3 pm and we are beginning to fade as afternoon jet lag sets in.  We return to the van and proceed to a third market about 10 minutes from AIU called Dagoretti.  This market was definitely a little intimidating.  The people in the market were a bit more aggressive - we were constantly asked to buy things, to hire a matatu (vans that give rides) to interact in some way with the locals.  Small shacks lined either side of the road and water and sewage ran down ditches.  Someone tried to pick pocket both of us but John was completely prepared and had his wallet attached to his belt and I was carrying no money.  Thankfully the man quietly slipped away when he realized he couldn't get anything from us.  We were later told that if we had pointed out the man, the community would have rebuked and beaten him.  This points out that the community wants to be able to do business, and not scare off potential customers. We are thankful that such a scene was unnecessary.

Dagoretti was a difficult place - and not just because we were weary from a long day, or that someone tried to take some money from us.  It was a realistic view of poverty and although forward, these people were simply trying to make a wage.  The majority of our experiences so far with Kenyans has been lovely - they have been welcoming and friendly and we are grateful to be received with such warmth.

The day and our experiences pushed us out of our comfort zone, but we believe that is a good thing and part of the reason we are here for the next few months.  It was good to see lots of different sides of Nairobi - from the quiet and tranquil Karen Blixen Coffee Garden to the harsh and dirty streets of Dagoretti.  I have a feeling we will be spending the next few months exploring what it means to live among these extremes.

Charlotte