Hair, and then some

On the day before we left Kenya Becca, me and our friend Angie went to Kenyatta Market and got our hair done.  It took about 10 ladies, 4 hours and 4 packs of extensions each.  But the results were well worth the pain (which was more than you'd think).  My hair is now very long, most of the way down my back to be exact.  I'm not going to try and explain any more, you can see for yourselves.

Angie, me and Becca - still with sore scalps

Angie had had her hair done in braids once before and managed to keep them in for 3 and a half weeks, so that's my target.  I'm almost at 2 weeks right now, so it's looking good.

Lake Nakuru game park

During the 2 weeks at the end we took the opportunity to go on another safari.  This time the party consisted of Claire and Alicia from prayer retreat, Tabea (a lovely German girl who's working in an even more remote area than Kalacha) and Rob (a short-termer who's working with On-Field Media (the AIM media people)) plus me and Becca of course.

The one lone, sleeping, lion I saw the entire 4 months

A male water-buck

A buffalo who decided we were too close

Flamingoes, about a 10th of how many
there were on that stretch of the shore

The closest we got to a hippo

Pelicans

Baby zebra!!!

Baby Thompson's gazelle

A whole group of rhinos that crossed the road ahead of us

We also went waterfall hunting, and, depressingly, discovered that this waterfall that we drove right up to was far better than the one we hiked 4 hours to see the week before.  Typical.

This just amused me, Becca, Rob and Alicia,
all taking pictures of the waterfall

And then there was the monkeys.  There are 2 types of monkeys in Nakuru, the cute type:

And the not-so-cute and definitely-very-mean type (aka baboons):

Look at the wittle baby one!!!
Ok, so they can be kinda cute when they're little

But it was baboons like that one that really made us not like baboons.  We stopped for lunch at a picnic place with a great view of the whole game park.  And were immediately surrounded by baboons.  One ran at me and Claire (who both ran away screaming) and stole a bag of fruit right out of Claire's hand.  And another one got inside the car and had a tug-of-war with Becca for her lunch before running off with a bag of candy.  Baboons aren't just thieves though, they have big teeth and big claws, and no fear of humans at all.  So at this point we got back in the car and ate whilst we drove instead.

Home Sweet Home

First of all I have to apologise for the lack of posts in the last few weeks, I have been having computer issues.  But it's fixed now, so please keep your eyes open for more posts over the next few weeks.

And secondly, yes, I am now back in England.  I arrived at 5.30 yesterday morning so it hasn't exactly been long, but I'm home.

The Youth Group

By the end of our time in Kalacha we were meeting up the church youth 4 evenings a week.  Mondays and Wednesdays were 'Manyatta Singing'.  That basically means that the youth and the church elders get together at various people's houses and have some worship and a bible study together.  It's cooler than it sounds.  Mostly because you're sitting outside and it's pitch dark and there's just a really good atmosphere.  There's just the added complication of finding it, one of the boys in the youth group would come and collect us and then walk us home again so we didn't get lost in town in the dark.  Then on Friday and Saturday evenings the youth met in the church to sing together very informally and practice their songs for Sunday morning.  Then add to that the meeting after church on Sunday to discuss what's going to happen during the week, and the fact that the youth clean the church on a Saturday afternoon.  That's a lot of time taken up.

Youth meetings were always interesting, they were led almost entirely in Gabra.  We didn't understand a word of what was going on!  And yet despite that we somehow managed to enjoy every minute of it.  (wow, cheese Emma, cheese).

Back:  Guyo Jillo, Fathe, Bebi
Clockwise around the circle:  Tura, Guyo Berilli, Galgallo, Guyo Ali, Duub

P.S.  Were you counting Guyos?  Yes, there was 3 of them.

Goodbye Kalacha

We left Kalacha on Friday :(

Right now we are staying at RVA in Kijabe for the AIM conference.  Which means I have decent internet again!!! YAY!!!  Be prepared for blogs in the past tense for a while, I have stuff to tell you that never got told.

Becca has already written about a lot of the things we did in the last week so I'm going to direct you there http://www.beccaisinafrica.blogspot.com/


Cold, wet and happy

Anyone who knows me at all will know that that's a really weird thing for me to say.  But when its 50 degrees outside (yes 50 - http://desertharvest.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-hot-is-it.html).  Being cold and wet is so much more enjoyable.  The combi has its own swimming pool and on several occasions Becca and I took the Andersen children swimming during the afternoon.  The thing we loved to do the most though was to wait until it was like 8 or 9 pm and pitch dark, and then go swimming.  For one thing you don't want to be able to see all the dead bugs that you're swimming with, and for another, this way we got to go to bed damp.  [insert some smart physics explanation as to why evaporation makes you cooler].

Ja-el tries to take Uriah down

Acacia learnt to swim (with arm bands but without holding on)

Silas learnt to jump in

 One of the things the kids enjoyed most was that we let them loose with a pack of bath-tub-crayons.  There's no walls to draw on in the pool, so they drew on each other instead.

Life on a farm

Ok, so it's not literally a farm, but sometimes I think it might as well be.

There's the chickens, who just generally get under your feet and constantly need shooing out of the house.


Rooster - isn't he pretty!

And when we arrived there was 3 broody chickens, so now there's like 14 chicks.

That's only the first 5, I fail at taking pictures

And then there's the goats and sheep, who in theory go about as a herd with a herdsman, but there always seems to be 1 or 2 just wandering around, and they eat everything!

I didn't even go outside to take this picture,
they paraded right past our window

Goats - eating a bush

 And there's the 2 baby goats and the lamb that are still too little to go out with the herd, so they have the run of the combi.


Ja-el and Miwani (the friendly goat)



Coco (the goat that's scared of the world)

Ja-el and the lamb (at less than 48hours old)

And then there's the dogs.  The Andersens own 2 dogs, Kinga - a little Jack Russell/Daschund mix who hunts lizards and scorpions and things - and Max - a 'village' dog who keeps other dogs and hyenas and things off the combi.  And then the day guard, Isacko, owns a dog called Gucci (yeah, like the clothes designer) who has just recently had puppies - as yet unnamed.

Kinga

Max - the doormat

Gucci and the puppies





Prayer Retreat - The Goat

As the Andersens leave Kenya to go on home-assignment soon they are looking for homes for all their animals whilst they're away.  This includes a herd of goats.  The Samburu man who was cooking all the food (which was amazing by the way) really likes Gabra goats as they are both hardier and prettier than Samburu goats.  So Eddie and Rachel decided to take him 'the gift of a goat' as thanks for all his hard work.

So on the morning we left for prayer retreat, this happened:

Step 1 - catch your goat

Duub and the goat (named John)

 Step 2 - tie his legs together so he can't squirm too much

Poor goat didn't know what'd hit him

 Step 3 - put the goat in a sack so he really can't squirm

Yep, that's a goat, in a sack

 Step 4 - put the sack in the back of the car under the children's feet


 Step 5 - drive 4 hours across the desert.  Laugh everytime you go over a bump and the goat complains, loudly.  And laugh even harder when he lifts up his head and the child nearest (Acacia) screams at him and bursts into tears (and the goat shouts back at her).