Seeing the real Africa

We got up early to go to Dunga Bay to see the fishermen come in (from the night fishing) and go out (for the day fishing) on Lake Victoria.

I was impressed with their boats. The masts were made from trees. I know, imagine that, trees. I guess I'm so use to thinking that lumber comes from Lowe's that I forgot not everyone buys their lumber and that it originally was a tree.

Self Portrait of me and my girl!

This boat cracked me up!

One of the things Marian is most interested in doing is eating African food. She really wants to try stuff. Her grandfather obliged her by bringing home some of these momosas (I'll have to check on the name). They are meat and spice filled dough that is fried. It was quite spicy, but she ate half of it and was very pleased.

We went to the Market today! And how did we get there? We took a boda-boda! A boda-boda is a bicycle with a padded seat on the back for passengers. For 20 shillings (about $.25) each, we all took a bike ride to get to the market. It was a little scary, but fun.

Deborah was brave and went side saddle!

Here we are at the market. Deborah was cross that they invited you into their narrow stalls and then stood in the entrance so it was tough to just leave. We did have a marvelous time though and made many thrilling purchases! Marian was so cute, carefully selecting certain gifts for people. The vendors liked her a lot.

Laden with purchases, we opted to take a Tuk-tuk to get home. This little 3 wheeled (I hesitate to call it a) car sets 3 in the back, but we crammed all 5 of us in. This is Mom, negotiating the price.

It was a fun ride!! And yes, we tipped him for letting us take silly pictures.

After lunch and quiet time, we went to visit some church members who live in the Slums. It was very interesting. No electricity in most, no water or toilets at all. There are communal bathrooms (hole in the floor potties) that were a little scary. The children were fascinated by Marian. She was not thrilled to sit inside a hot, tiny "house" to visit, so she ran around outside making friends. she had a blast with the children there and they couldn't get enough of this weird white kid!

I took a picture of Marian and the kids were enthralled! They all wanted their pictures taken. They were all jumping and shoving to get in a picture. It was a mob scene!

Here are some of Marian's 500 new best friends. She was enamored with this goat, and loved to pet it. Then the goat would suddenly leap and buck and all the children would scatter. It was a hoot and Marian said that the "Goat Game" was her favorite part of the evening.

We also got to enjoy a genuine African dinner, prepared by our friends that we were visiting. Rice, and beans called "green graham". Marian proclaimed it tasty, and it was.

We have been enjoying our experience and Marian has been a fabulous travel companion.

Driving in Kenya

Driving in Kenya is a whole new experience! And I'm only going to show pictures of the rural roads. Here are some things you may see while taking a little trip from Kisumu to Busia (pronounced Boo-see-uh).

Animals.... lots of animals. They just seem to roam and eat right next to the road. Marian was delighted with this rooster.

Crazy traffic. This is a dreadful dirt/rock road, and it is really bumpy. Note that there are no lanes and people just go. There apparently is some method to the madness, but to me it is just insane!

This van is a Matatu (Maa-ta-too). If you look on the left side, you can see that the door is open, and the "conductor" is hanging out. The motorcycle is a piki-piki, and carries passengers on the back.

Did I mention the animals?! Here are cows, placidly nibbling grass just off the road where people drive 70 kmh.

This is a nifty compound, surrounded by a shrub "fence". We thought the thatched roofs were pretty cool.

This is a river and there are naked people bathing in it. That's why I did not enlarge it more!

Companies will paint your building if they can use it for free advertising. This building is notable because it is the front of the building that the church rents for meetings!

Lots of donkeys. The amazing thing is that they have nothing on their heads to guide them!

The things they can carry on their heads is impressive. I was doubly impressed that such little girls were all carrying things on their heads.

Oh, this is what part of the road looked like. Most of it was actually paved, but even that has horrendous potholes and random speed bumps. And their speed bumps may be one large hump, or 2 small ones, or even 3 small humps in a row. You should see how it feels to hit one of those going 60! Wowsers!

Sufficeth t say, driving has been an experience here. I'm so glad I am not doing the driving! I am very happy to hang out the window, gawking, with camera in hand! And I'll share more pictures later.

AWESOME!

Today we got to experience some Africa! It was awesome! We were in Nairobi and went to the Giraffe Center. We got to see, touch and feed giraffes. It was really neat. Deborah was the only one brave enough to get a giraffe kiss.

Marian had a great time feeding the giraffes and looking at them. They were tall!

Do you like my cool hat?! My mom got one for Marian, and one to take home for Joshua, but i have commandeered it for the trip. It may be a bit small, but it is a great hat!

I thought this sign was amusing, so I had to pose with it. I think I am so funny!

You could feed the giraffes from head high, or the ground. this was Marian on the ground with one of the big beasties.

After we hung out with the giraffes, Marian was thrilled to pet a tortoise. Then it was off to the Elephant Orphanage. It was amazing! They walked the baby elephants out to this mud hole and fed them their bottles. Then they talked about them while the cutie patootie babies played. they were beyond adorable. There were 2 groups we got to see. Each group spent about 30 minutes there. And there are a total of 17 orphans currently there. They youngest is 4 months old.

We were about 5 feet away- no zoom needed for this picture.

The elephants came came close enough to pet! Too close to actually get a good picture of Marian petting them. Their skin is tough and not as soft/supple as it looks!

They played in the water and were so cute. They gave themselves dust baths (and covered us in red dust as well), and they carefully climbed into the mud hole. We got to learn about the different babies and how they became orphans. There were 2 groups of babies- the under 2 year olds and over 2 year olds. The babies stay at the Orphanage till they are 3 and then go to a different place where they are introduced to the wild and other wild elephants, and are gradually integrated back to the wild, in a process that takes about 5 more years. (Was that a run-on sentence?!) It was so neat to see and learn about them. Baby elephants are so doggone cute! And they play just like little kids.

You can't tell, but I totally touched this warthog. It was really funny, because just a few minutes before, there was another warthog by a bush. I ran my hand down his back, which startled him, and he jerked his head up and got swapped by the branches, which really scared him and he made this dreadful noise that scared me to death. So I was a little afraid to try again!

Then we drove the 6 hours to Kisumu. I did not know Africa had such mountainous regions. And the traffic is astounding! Yikes! This picture doesn't show how green it was. SO beautiful!

While very tired, we are having a great time!

Here I am!

Here I am with Marian, near the end of our final flight. This is me, after 27 hours of waiting in an airport, followed by a 7 hour flight, 2 more airport hours and another 8 hour flight. This is me, after sleeping on an airport floor, waiting in too many lines, after no shower for 48 hours and I'm so nasty, I can't even stand myself! This is me, having worn the same clothes for waaaay too long, looking forward to some sleep and a shower. This is me, not caring because I'm on a trip with only ONE child and it is glorious!!!

Its taking too long to load pictures, so this is all you get for today. I assume you know that since I am blogging, then we have safely arrived in Nairobi and we are alive and well, but very tired. so I'm off to a much needed shower and then to lay down in a real bed! I'm too excited about clean underwear and deoderant to deal with pictures, so you'll have to wait.

Why I am not in Nairobi

Last night, we got to hear Virgin Airlines announce their flight status, and we paid close attention because it seemed to be a prelude to ours. The difference we noted though, was in their attitude. I would totally chose Virgin Airlines over any other right now. Last night they kept their people updated, and when they cancelled their flight, they explained why, and then told their people what they could do for them- meal vouchers, taxi vouchers, blankets, snacks, and they offered assistance in whatever way they could. 30 minutes after their terminal was deserted, our flight was canceled and the announcement went something like this: "The flight is cancelled. Go to the ticketing desk to get the number to call to rebook." No offer of help, no perks, no nice attitude. Our airline sucks.

Fortunately, I already had a phone number to call and we were rebooked before we left the area to go collect our bags. We still got to wait in line, because we wanted to see if we could get perks. We did get vouchers for meals and a taxi. the taxi line was over 3 hours and the drive would have been as long, so we didn't take a taxi. We found an untaken spot of floor and camped out.

I have discovered the USO and am making use of it. If we stay much longer, I may post the pictures of Marian having a blast in the airport. I do not think she slept at ALL last night! She ran all over the deserted airport. That's why she is sacked out right now on a chair with Aunt Deborah. And I shall go join them after I grab some snacks!

This takes the cake!

The Boy Scouts made mini cakes last Mother's Day. Since Dan was in charge of the project, I got to purchase about 10 mini cake pans. I was quite cross when Dan returned home without my pans. I wanted those pans! I harassed him for a few months and yesterday, Dan got in the car after church with pans in hand! Yay! I was so excited to have them that the kids and I made mini cakes after school. I let them eat half their cake and the rest was saved for dessert after dinner tonight. They enjoyed their confectionary delights and it was a lot less messy than I expected. Well, with the exception of Delaney, who opened all the lids on the sprinkles and dumped them all on at the same time.

This was Marian's pose of choice. Such a silly pickle!

At least Marian's pose is better than Joshua's. I was just happy he didn't grimace!

Delaney was in rare form! This is what she did when I said I wanted to take her picture.

Then she was so busy gobbling her cake she forgot to keep her eyes shut.

Such a cutie pie!

Why I love making the kids walk to school, even when its really cold!

Oh, and look who came to visit last night!!

Random Shots this week

A few weeks ago, I heard something invading our recycling bin and when I poked my head out to see what was making the rukus, I was pleasantly surprised to see 3 fury little raccoons running away. They were really cute. I must have scared them, because I didn't hear them again. One night recently, I was excited to hear the clatter of glass and cans and I thought to grab the camera this time. Unfortunately, THIS is what was scrounging for scraps!

EEeewwwww! Ugly, overgrown rat. And Now I know why its called "playing possum". I turned on the outside light and took several pictures of this ugly guy, and he just backed up and froze. Like we were just not going to notice him sitting there!

This is what I awoke to on Tuesday morning. THIS is what they cancelled school for. I know, seriously?!! If you can't play in it, its not worth missing school for. Plus, the high temp of the day.... yeah, 43 degrees. We better not have to make up snow days this year, that's all I'm sayin'.

The chiropractor loves Rylee's little mullet. I couldn't get a great picture of it, but she has a pretty good one going on. See, business in the front.....

....... Party in the back!

And THIS is Joshua's Pinewood Derby car... er, skateboard. He chose the design and did most of the work. I did a very poor job of putting the wheels on, but he's very pleased with this.

They set the track up at church and let the boys come and practice on it. I really just needed to make sure the car met the required specs. It met them well enough. We were also able to weigh it and see how much more weight we could add. Joshua had a marvelous time!

They got to do some practice races, which was great for the boys, especially since it was a pretty good free-for-all.

Joshua's car did fine in some preliminary matches.

And not so well once the left front tire flew off. I wanted pictures, because I will miss his Derby, and I'm taking the camera with me to Africa. So these may be the only pictures documenting all of his hard work.