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.