Kenya Thoughts To Come...

We have been home in Fresno for six days! My heart and mind are filled with so many things that I haven't yet been able to put them in a concise form for you to read.

I keep hearing that you all loved Brian's humorous accounts of our adventures. He does keep us laughing.

The Lord worked in mighty ways and I can't wait to boast in Him! He has grown my love and faith in Him.

Thank you again for all of your support. We are humbled that you would sacrifice time to lift us up to the One who is magnificent and intercede on our behalf. We love you.

At the End...Literally

As we finish up our time in Kenya it seems Kenya wanted to leave us with some lasting memories.  My peaceful morning was initially broken by my daughter narrating her emotions... "I'm not freaking out, I'm not freaking out"  Seems an African spider had joined her in bed during the night...

Additionally, while preparing for the morning I felt a needle being shoved into my neck... seems an African wasp had decided to pick a fight with me...He lost but not after leaving his mark.

We headed back to the House of Hope for a half day of work.  Half of our team again headed down a different route to the orphanage and came across another African specimen

This was the most "tame" photo I had.  We had our fill of dead animals for the day.

Once we were all back the orphanage, we completed as much work as we could before saying good-bye at lunch.  I'm not sure but maybe they'll need to finish up the bathroom project after we leave.  Wasn't the most private as of yet.

Of course before leaving I had to get another little nap in... Hey, lead by example.

We got to also leave a bit of home with the kids.  Hope they don't use the slogan "Eat Mor Chikin" for their English lessons.

We headed back to Kijabe for a day of rest before our trip home.  The girls decided to take the day and paint one of the rooms in the hospital for the kids.

We will head off to one more mission stop on our way to Nairobi at a special school for disabled kids called Joy Town tomorrow then to the airport for our trek back to the states.  We'll leave Kenya tomorrow night at 11pm and should arrive back in LA around 1pm on Saturday.  I have to give back our access to the internet tonight so this is our last official post in Africa.  If something exciting happens on the way home, I'll add that once we get home.

What an adventure...

Toilets and Honey

We awoke in the morning to a pancake breakfast.  The Heart of the Bride has partnered with some people who built homes and allow people visiting to use them.  Our group was the first one to occupy this new home – or as I called it, Lodge.

We headed back to the orphanage for our work day.  The kids who were shy the day before warmed up more quickly to our group.  This boy was named Brian...

The guys continued on the work of their new bathroom.  It was quite interesting to see how they built the foundation and prepared to pour a concrete pad over it.  All of the concrete had to be hand mixed so we again moved rocks and sand from piles and formed new piles which we than added some concrete powder and the moved that pile to another pile and back again to mix it.  Yep, it was that exciting.

Of course, like all the other days…it rained.  Just as we started to mix the concrete.  We had to wait inside one of their classrooms for about 45 minutes before we could continue.

During one of the breaks the kids in school had, we broke out our skits and performed it to the little ones.  They really liked Daniel and the Lion’s Den – especially when the lions got to jump all over the bad guys.

Late in the day our team started to feel the effects of being on a missions trip for several weeks… They take it after their dad.

On the way home, some of our team rode in a more rugged vehicle and took a much more scenic route back home.  Along the way they saw some antelope and zebra.  I, being with the rest of the group, saw more dirt roads…

For dinner we had the pleasure of enjoying hamburgers, hot dogs, and potato salad.  Then our hosts led us out into the bush where we came across a group of men - one of which specialized in collecting honeycomb from a local beehive.  Up the hillside we walked following this guy and a smoking stick.  He used the smoke to “calm” the bees and stuck his hand inside the 4ft long hive.  It was getting dark so all we could hear was the buzzing of bees around us.  He pulled out two honeycombs and shared them with us.  That is when we realized he had brought some friends with him.  Mind you these are AFRICAN KILLER BEES…

 But the honey did taste good...

The Sun 'll Come Out Tomorrow

It’s funny how well you can sleep regardless of the circumstances if you are tired enough. The bouncing, rocking, whistles, etc certainly didn’t cease but morning came way too quick. During the last part of the trip we were able to view some of the Kenyan wildlife along the tracks.

Once back in Nairobi we joined up with our drivers and headed off to Navasha to an orphanage there sponsored by Heart of the Bride. We noticed two things on the trip – it had rained quite a bit while we were gone and the traffic had quite decreased. The reason the traffic was light was that the Matatus were on strike for the day to protest bribes the police had been requiring.

The orphanage is called House of Hope and once we got there Brad instantly began testing a new method of church tithe gathering…

The girls instantly jumped in playing with the kids and enjoying making them smile and laugh.

Although our work day really isn’t until tomorrow we decided to go ahead and start some work today. The women helped with laundry and cleaning – until the rain started.

The guys started building another Choo – or bathroom. Our hosts led us over to a covered up hole in the ground and showed us the work 2 guys had done over the past 3 days –

That hole was 40 feet deep. One guy was on the bottom digging and the other one was up top lifting the dirt out with a bucket. You can see the hand holds they dug in the side to get out.

In order to build the structure we needed to move some stones from a pile on the other side of the property. Back and forth the men marched moving the stones. The kids jumped in from time to time to help – but Brad had the bright idea to give one of the kids a ride…show off. The rest of the time, we had kids hanging on us as we worked…thanks Brad.

Before leaving, the kids brought out the balloons and constructed many different types of animals – none of which I think are real… but the kids didn’t care.

We met up with the family who works with Heart of the Bride who offered to allow us to stay in some cottages at their home. As we packed up we realized we had too many bags to fit inside the vehicle – since it had already rained we figured all the rain has passed… we were wrong. It wasn’t surprising to us to find ourselves back on another loooonnnnngggg dirt road in the midst of a downpour.

We were welcomed to a wonderful dinner of….lasagna. Our housing is straight out of Country Home magazine – along with a setting of Jurassic Park. This trip continues to keep us guessing.

Sand, Sun, & Creatures of the Mist

Sleeping in Mombasa proved to be more troublesome than first thought.  The temperature probably was about 80 degrees all night which wasn’t too bad, but the humidity stayed around 100 percent.  Our beds were wrapped with mosquito nets which just added to the trapped moisture.  Now I know what it is like to try to sleep wrapped in a wet towel.

I was a bit groggy in the morning but many of the team awoke to see the sunrise over the ocean.  Brad spent the morning in prayer trying to implore the Lord to start the Well’s next campus in Mombasa.  With the 11 hour time difference, he could preach here Sunday morning and have the video sent to the US before the 9am service… just a thought.

We decided to have our church service down on the beach.  We had been able to meet a few other people who were staying at the same place and invited them to join us.  Charlotte led worship on her guitar which was quite a task for her to stand in the sun sweating and trying to hold her guitar. 

After Brad’s message, Fletcher and McKenzie were baptized in the ocean.  Actually McKenzie was baptized twice because I forgot to hit the record button on the video camera – or maybe she wasn’t held under long enough…

The boys spent the rest of the morning collecting animal specimens for the Smithsonian.  Every time they found something it was bigger and more dangerous than the last.  We capped off the morning by being visited by some apparently frustrated monkeys…

We were picked up in the afternoon and headed back to the train station.  Martin, our driver, again made some tactical driving maneuvers to bypass the line for the ferry – probably not the best way to encourage good relationships between tourists and the locals.  Back at the station we found the car we were riding in – 2^nd to the front.  Of course the entrance to the rail yard was at the rear of the train.

Once on board we settled in for the second half of our adventure.  Brad decided he would play dress up as the train engine…

We knew we were in for another great adventure when we discovered the lights in our car did not work very frequently and the train was completely booked.  Walking back and forth 6 cars to the dining car and back certainly was hard on our shoulders as we bounced between the side of the train and the other rooms.  I got the pleasure of taking that trip multiple times that night for various reasons.  With the added humidity and the additional occupancy of the train – it wasn’t long before we all locked ourselves into the cabins for the night.