Before the New Years Starts

Hello world!  The New Year is nearly upon us!  I hope that all are having a wonderful holiday season; enjoying family, friends, and meeting new and wonderful people such as I am.  Let me tell you a bit about what we have been doing this last week.  First you need to know that Kenya is having an exceptionally rainy time right now, which has resulted in a lot of mud and flooding.  So we haven’t been able to do a whole lot, but we certainly have stayed busy.  New Christmas presents have occupied our time most of the time.  We did however get to visit some friends down town and stay the night at the apartment where they were staying.  It is amazing how wonderful a warm shower feels after bathing by bucket.  We had fun playing games, watching movies, and enjoying each other’s company.  We also had a chance to visit the Safari walk.  We got to see some animals and see a bit of the national park.  Tomorrow we head to Mombasa to enjoy some time at the coast.  Nothing like waking up in the new year at the coast.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all!

So this morning started out like any usual Christmas, little kids eagerly anticipating the unwrapping of their Christmas gifts.  It is completely understandable why my parents allowed us to open our stockings before they woke up.  We had breakfast and gift opening, then lunch preparation began and family began to arrive.  Lunch was basically an all afternoon affair….so let us compare Christmas feast menus

Our meal started with

·      Vegetables (sweet carrots, green beans, a bit of onion) they tasted candied and yet there was nothing added (the carrots are that good)

·      Pilav (spiced rice with a few veggies and beef)

·      muikio(mashed potatoes, maize, peas)

·      chicken which also created the gravy or soup as they call it around these parts

Next as we were finishing up, the namachoma (roasted goat) arrived.

After goat, we had cake, cookies, fresh fruit

This meal lasted most of the afternoon and everything was really delicious.

In the evening we began a game of Monopoly but of course did not finish due to the arrival of the children’s bedtime.  Have no fear, Marianna and I shall win tomorrow when we pick up where we left off!

I hope that everyone had a blessed Christmas and happy boxing day!

Glimpses of Kenya

I have gotten to go out and about here in Kenya a bit.  We got to ride in a matatu (really it is a 15 passenger van that they use like public transportation.  You don’t have to pay for the kid if they sit on your lap, and they certainly squeeze people in).  We went to a mall to eat out for lunch (what a privilege to eat without having to prepare anything).  It was pretty bizarre to wander around in a mall.  There was a variety of Christmas decorations which was nice.  Also guess what crossed the road right behind us as we drove by…..nope not a deer…..not a chicken……no goat, pig, cow…..it was a pair of baboons.  Now that is not something you see everywhere.

I must say, I am very much thankful for the invention of the washing machine.  Where we currently are staying all clothing is washed by hand.  There is a lady who comes once a week to do laundry, but considering I am with children and we did not pack very much, we are doing laundry quite a bit.  Also undergarments are not given to the laundry lady (well adult variety) so we do our own in the shower.  It is a lot of work to do wash by hand in large quantities.  It makes me very grateful for help.

Tomorrow brings making of Christmas cookies and more fun!  We played bowls tonight (for those of you who know the game) and sang Christmas carols while the kids danced in the living room.  More to come as the adventures continue!

To Kenya we have come

So we have finally arrived in the beautiful country of Kenya.  Travelling went fairly smoothly for us.  We even managed to get our entire luggage down to 80Kg including carry-ons, pretty impressive for 6 people planning to travel for 6 weeks.  We were able to get a flight from Sarh to N’Djamena through MAF.  It was very nice.  Instead of a 14 hour bus ride, we had a 3 hour flight (with one stop in-between to drop some pastors off.  The stop in between was just a landing strip and we were greeted by lots of children.  It reminded me of landing in Karawa.  The MAF flight was on Thursday and we had the opportunity to spend the time with family friends (a MAF engineer’s family).  The kids had a blast playing with the other children in the compound which has a pool, big trampoline, bikes, roller blades, jungle gym/tree house (basically a children’s dream place).  It was a wonderful time despite it being so short.

Our next flight was on Saturday.  We flew from N’Djamena to Addis, and then Addis to Nairobi.  The flights went smoothly.  After having our passports checked around 6 times in N’Djamena, we were finally able to board, and the people around us were kind enough to switch seats with us so that we could all sit together.  I sat between the two girls and assisted them, trying to keep them entertained.  The next flight we weren’t quite so lucky.  People were not really willing to change seats, so I ended up sitting by myself.  I tried to get as much sleep as possible, but did not get as much as I would have liked, considering we were coming into Nairobi around 2:30am.  Here is a little tid bit of information for you.  In Kenya they keep time differently.  One o’clock is really about 7am.  They start the day when the sun rises and then continue from there.  So 12:00 is around the time the sun is setting.  As I understand it, they have the 12 day hours and the 12 night hours.  It makes it interesting for figuring out pick-up times and arrivals.  It really makes one think when someone asks the time.

Sunday, we all slept in as much as possible, though near the apartment where we are staying there is a church which we could hear all the music and speaking.  It was only about 4-5 hours long quite the difference from our keep the service to an hour or less.  I have been here a few more days now, and have discovered that not only is there church all day Sunday there is also church every evening, typically multiple hours.  Nothing like live music, if only it were Christmas carols then it would really feel festive…at least we are getting the idea of what the donkey in the Christmas story sounded like (they use donkey pulled carts around where we are).  There were a few lights around the airport as well as wreaths in the airplane.  There are those hints of Christmas around.

Thus far, I have not done much exploring of the city.  We have been settling in, meeting Moses’ family, and a few of the family members have done some applications for passports.  I have been able to be useful by watching the children who didn’t need to go into town (making passport applications so much easier).  I am happy to assist.  It is also a lot of fun to see all the cousins spending time together.

New Species

In science we have been studying a variety of animals including their habitats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. I skipped ahead in the curriculum so that we could focus in on things we might be seeing in Kenya. The girls were focusing on African land animals (many of which we will get a chance to see) and the boys have been studying ocean life in anticipation for Mombasa. This week we decided to combine art with science and dream up our own sea-creatures. We were all scientists who discovered a new species, but there were a few things we had to know about the new creature. Below are the responses of the kids and myself. You will just have to decide for yourself what picture matches which description. One never knows what strange creature might just wash up onto the beach from the Indian Ocean!

Elin's Creation

Name - Bottlenose Jelly
Size - 1 foot
Color - translucent
Food source - small shrimp/algae
Defense - electric/poison tentacles
              - sharp and powerful nose
Special ability - can move quickly in all directions
                        - invisible
Home - tropical coral reefs
Predators - reef sharks

Katelyn's creation

Name - Monster fish
Size - 10 inches grown-up
        - 3 inches as a kid
Color - blue
Food - jelly fish (tiny ones)
Defense - stingy things on the side
Special abilities - cut stuff with the stingy things
Home - Pacific ocean, close to the ground
Predators - whales eat it

Marianna's creation
Name - Stinger Viper Snake
Size - 1 in. as a baby
        - 1000 miles as and adult
Color - lots of different colors
Food source - lots of sharks in one day
Defense - It stings, scratches, hits, pecks
Special ability - it is a combination of lots of different animals
Home - in the sea (to eat), out of the sea, outer space
Predators - Polar bears eat it

Josh's creation
Name - Spiperm fish
Size - unknown (it is always changing size) <maximum 2 miles, minimum 2 mm>
Color - always changing
Food source - eats anything within 5 feet
Defense - teeth, stinging tentacles, poison and electric spikes
Special ability - changes color for camouflage and emotions
                        - extra speedy
                        - extra eyes
                        - second mouth underneath
                        - blow hole
                        - changing size
Home - Loch Ness lakes
Predators - Stinger Viper Snake

Zack's creation
Name - Viper Snake
Size - 20 feet
Color - blackish grayish
Food source - Spiperm fish, clown fish
Defense - hides in the dark places - nocturnal
Special ability - turns and twists easily
Home - in dark caves
Predators - Giant squid