One last Safari

Camp Ol'Moran - Masai Mara

A few weeks ago we went on our last safari here in Kenya. We went with our friends Robb, Char and little Micah. We hadn't been to this camp before or part of the Mara. We decided to drive this time and see a different part.

We left early Saturday morning and had a driver come for us - he was our driver then for the whole time - in the park and back home again. His name was Patrick - I'm sad I don't think I have a picture of him. He was really good and his laugh pretty much made us all happy! :) This is the camp we stayed at. It was quite a bit smaller than what we had before. It had 12 tents total.

We left home at 7:30 a.m and arrived roughly at 1:30 at the camp. We had lunch and a little rest, then were off on our first game drive. It was amazing - in just 2 1/2 hours we saw 3 of the Big 5 - lions, buffalo, elephants, plus, giraffe and others. It was a good start.

Here is a picture of a safari van that got off the main path and got stuck - that can be kind of be a bit scary...it was kind of neat how many other safari drivers heard he was stuck over the radio, so many went to help push and pull him out.

Here we all are in our vehicle.

Little Micah enjoyed sitting up on the seat looking out.

As well as big Micah :)

These 2 pictures top and bottom are quite funny. All the drivers have radios, and when any of them see something special, they tell the others and soon you have a traffic jam in the middle of no where!

Sunday morning we left about 7:30 a.m. for an all day game drive - we had a picnic lunch under a tree with the wildebeast coming up the hill behind us. This was just at the end of the wildebeast and zebra migration. So we saw many of them yet that hadn't crossed over the river for some reason. We arrived back at camp around 4:30 and it had started to rain. It was a long day - but got to see alot of great animals.

I love this picture above - looks like you could just pet him! :)

Another few pictures of the vehicles coming to see something awesome!

Monday we went out early at 6:30 for one last quick game drive. We thought since it had rained we'd see alot of animals out. We didn't have much luck for some reason - and didn't end up seeing much.We got back to camp about 8:45 a.m. had breakfast, packed up and headed back to Nairobi. It was a great get-a-way and just so special to see so many animals up close and also the Mara itself.

Tumaini friends

Monday was my (Angie) last day at the Tumaini Counselling Center Library. So we all went out to the Karen Blixon Museum and cafe after work and enjoyed coffee and dessert. The picture above is the group of us and below shows not only are good friends, Judith and Becky, but the most decorative way to serve a chocolate fudge brownie. :)

Visiting "Java" Suzan..

This is our friend Suzan. We met her one of our first times going to the Nairobi Java House to eat. I believe she was our first waitress. We have have enjoyed getting to know her each week that we visited there over the last year and a half. She went on maternity leave over the summer to have her 3rd child. So we decided to go visit her and her new little girl "Janelle".

Isn't she a cutie! I think she is around 2 1/2 months in this picture. Suzan also has a girl named Jasmine and a boy named Jamal. They are all so cute. We have sure enjoyed our friendship with with Suzan.

The picture above was on the way - this motorcycle passed us with I think about 20 live chickens hanging on it.... you just never know here! :)

Micah's first soccer game

We had a great time watching Micah in his first game today. He is playing as a defender. They had a really good game and won against Hillcrest 6-1. His coach plays a flat 4 defense and he is one of the middle guys. It was kind of fun to see one of our boys playing soccer again! Looking forward to more games in the next few weeks.

They have a great coach. He seems to have quite a lot of experience and is a great encourager and supporter of the boys.

Their defense marked up well as you can see.

Celebrating their first win!

On the Job with my Hubby.....

Last week Kurt made it happen for me to go along in the DC3 on one of the Samaritan Purse trips they make every two weeks. I wan't so excited about the flying part - but was wondering how, what, where etc. of how things worked when he was away. Our day started Wednesday getting up at 4:50 a.m. to leave home by 5:30 and be at the hanger soon after. Below, Kurt is looking over the DC3 and doing a preflight. We taxied to customs by 6:30 t0 get all the cargo and passangers. I certainly didn't realize how much stuff this plane can hold! We had some interesting things to take from luggage, huge tires, rolls of wire, a wardrobe, boxes, crates of fruits and vegetables and even a crate with 2 ridgeback puppies!

Ok, these pics didn't come out quite right, but we then took off soon after 9:30 and headed for a day of adventure - for me that is. We made a total of 3 stops I believe before we ended the day at the Samaritan's Purse camp in Sudan at about 4:30 p.m. I was amazed at how much physical work it is do all that they do! Sorry honey...I didn't realize how much loading and unloading, loading and unloading, making sure this and that is placed in the right places, the heat and humidity, flies, pumping fuel - literally - physically (as you can see below from the barrels!), smells, mud, serving the passangers and making sure they are ok, and then of course flying the airplane!

Here in the pic below - one of the airstrips....

It really wasn't as smooth as it looks to place 2 cinnamon rolls on the dash and they not fall off - ok, maybe at that moment only....my seat was right there behind them. I have never sat up in a cockpit of anykind for more than a minute, honestly - that is not a place for me....so, it was quite interesting for me to listen and watch Kelly (left) and Kurt (right). It is quite a process for taking off, landing and in the air stuff. Did you know that you can fly this plane and have the windows up there open! :) ok - a first for me. Also, after about the 6th take off and landing I got used to hearing a few things that were a bit interesting like - each of them looking out the window saying, "I have a wheel", counting up, counting down, cross check this, cross check that - fuel here - flaps....etc

Ok, the next few pics are when we landed to stay the night. More unloading and making sure the plane is ok for the night.

We had quite an interesting evening at the camp. A number of workers were finishing up their contracts and leaving with us the next day. After dinner, they had a time for everyone to get together and tell each one of them (the workers) how much they were appreciated and how much they will be missed. I was touched by the bond all these people had with each other - some knew each other for only a few months - to a few years. They were people who were working on church and bible college building, starting aids clinics and health care workers. They were placed in a remote area there to do a job and to do it in a way to make it happen. These workers were done here now, and moving onto another place or heading back to the US. This was a reminder for me again of the real Africa, to me, Nairobi isn't exactly that and was a good reminder for me to see God at work in these people.

Of course, I couldn't not take any kid pics. These two pics below are just so precious! Don't you just want to just scoop them up! :)

This little guy (below) didn't want to smile - but when I showed him the pic of himself in my camera - he had a big smile! :)

Ok, so we left then that day - Thursday, to make about 2 or 3 more stops before our final destination of Nairobi. I believe we took off about 7 a.m and arrived back to Nairobi around 5 p.m. This is a trip I won't forget - people, places, workers etc. Thanks honey for taking me along and also for phenergan......