KAM News

One last Safari

2010-10-26T19:49:00.009+03:00

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

2010-10-26T12:29:00.003+03:00

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..

2010-10-26T11:54:00.006+03:00

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

2010-09-14T21:54:00.004+03:00

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.....

2010-09-10T18:03:00.006+03:00

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......

Good Samaritan's Orphanage

2010-09-09T18:36:00.002+03:00

A few weeks ago, I went with a friend of mine again to do a health clinic. Her name is Robyn Moore and she is totally amazing! She has been here in Kenya for over 25 years. She is with World Gospel Mission and has an organization call, the Least of These. Robyn is a nurse practioner and more! She goes to a number of orphanages over Kenya. This day we went to one called Good Samaritan's and is located in Mathere Slum - maybe it's the 2nd largest in the Nairobi area? I'm not sure. This was my first time actually inside a slum of any kind. We went with another nurse practioner and 2 student nurses from Ireland that had just arrived the night before! Ok, they are young! :)

While we were there we saw 81 kids, including 3 babies. This girl here (above) is actually 3 years old - she doesn't look like does she? She's had a number of health issues, but according to Robyn, she is doing better. We saw a lot of kids with ear infections, scabies and signs of HIV. It was so refreshing going with Robyn, as she has so many connections to doctors and clinics in the area. If she had any question about tests needing done, she could just call and set things up. It just felt good to know that things would some how get followed up with - and she will be back here again in a few weeks or so. Plus, Robyn is so easy going - and so good with nationals.

If you've noticed, the kids are eating PIZZA! When we were done, 2 families from Robyn's mission came with pizza for all the kids! I wish I could really explain how amazing that is for these kids and really to just bring what I think was 20 or 30 pizzas into a slum area! I was actually a bit scared things would get out of hand, but the guys really made sure it was under control. They made all the kids sit by the walls (below) and stay sitting - or no pizza, and then handed each child a piece. :) I think this may have been a first for them. The way they ate it was so funny, they picked off all the toppings and then folded it over and ate the rest! :) It was such a treat for them!

Here are the kids all lined up - and one of the daughters of the families that brought the pizza. Sorry, no pics of Robyn examining the kids - I was trying to keep up with her getting the meds ready and having them take a dose etc. At one point we heard a rat crawling somewhere and were hoping it wouldn't decide to come out. Also the flies were really bad - it wasn't a hot day, but they just wanted to stick on you. These are times when I wish I didn't have such a good sense of smell....These kids were so amazing too - just holding them or playing with them - you could tell they enjoyed it.

Catching up...

2010-09-08T20:59:00.005+03:00

Wow, it has been sometime now since I've attempted to get this updated! So, this blog is just a mixture of this and that. Many of you know that we have decided to return to the US at the end of October. We appreciate your prayers as we make yet another move and find where and what God has for us. Below is a pic of my friend Margaret and 2 of her friends. I think it was 2 weeks ago, we had made a list of all our things we needed to sell. So Margaret came with her friends to see. It was really amazing, we had a number of people just stop by that weekend and just about claimed everything!

Ok, here is my one and only pic of Twix...(for this blog) He just loves to lay on me everytime I get this white blanket out. Then he finds such goofy ways to position himself. Oh, he is really our best cat ever! ...don't you all think we should bring him back with us? He is just priceless!! right?! :)

One evening Micah said he needed dessert and we didn't have anything really, so he went into the kitchen and came out with this plate.... here it had 3 sweet bananas sliced with peanut butter on and a few peantbutter chips put on top .... too funny!

Also a few weeks ago, we went to Diamond Plaza to eat Indian food and walk around the shops etc. This evening they had a few different entertainment things going. Here was a funny sign...only in Africa...

Ok, this is what I'm talking about! They had 2 people dressed up and walking around - one was a weird looking bunny (on the right) and the other this rather scary wolf thing! I mean it was scraggly, dirty and well - scary! A number of kids would start crying when it walked up to them! Maybe they think that is funny?

One day I was watching Dinah, John and Ruth. They enjoy playing with the play kitchen set that I have here, so I thought maybe we should have a picnic with them. So we have peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches on these little plates and water in the little cups - even Dinah's stuffed animal joined us.

These top pics are just for fun. Sometimes when I'm at the grocery store, I am amazed at where some of the products come from.

The bottom pic is a rather large papaya! Papaya are in season now and you can buy big ones like this or smaller. Are friends Robb and Char found this one at a market a little ways from here. It lasted for at least 4 or 5 breakfasts!

The last one is funny....Kurt went to a veggie store and was looking at the melons, I guess this little one got his attention. He asked the clerk what kind it was and he said "cantelope". I think that is the smallest melon I have ever seen! plus, it sure didn't last long.

Mombasa!

2010-07-22T22:13:00.006+03:00

Here is the beautiful sunrise we saw the morning we left.
This is the very pink house that we stayed in. Funny as the week went on, we didn't think that much about it. :) It had 4 bedrooms, so we had plenty of room.

Kurt and I had one bedroom off the upstairs balcony, and Judith the other. Micah had one room to himself downstairs, and the Roberts had the other.

The beach was really private - we only had 1 or 2 locals come and ask if we'd like to buy some shells. When the tide came in, it was almost to the top of the sand line - then when it went out, it was way out there. It was so fun to walk when it was out - plus the water was warm!

We enjoyed breakfasts and dinner here, and had lunch poolside.

Here is Christine - our house lady for the week, and Sharif, our cook.

Part 2 - pool & relaxing

2010-07-22T21:19:00.006+03:00

Here we all are. Judith joined us on Friday. Here is John and Ruth enjoying the water.

Of course Micah enjoyed the pool and had to challenge himself...

Ruth really enjoyed the water.

The monkeys came to the windows where we ate in the diningroom.

Micah didn't have a chance to get bored. :)

Nathan got a bit of sun...for some reason he didn't apply sunblock

for the 15 minutes he was in the sun....

bordom?.....

We enjoyed some good seafood everynight.

We found some great treasures from the ocean.

This was the greatest starfish we have ever found! Only thing was that is started smelling and well...kind of rotting...I thought it would dry in the sun, but didn't so we had to leave it behind.

What a great time we had! :)

events of May

2010-06-02T21:34:00.007+03:00

Who is taller? Mom or Micah? We know what Micah says, but it's pretty close. Kind of inevitable though I think unfortunately for Angie. (note - Micah has since got a long awaited hair cut - acually Angie too!)

Mother's Day - Micah gave me these flowers - the picture really doesn't show how beautiful they really were.

Here is the skype phone we now have. We're just a phone call away anymore for anyone who would like to talk with us. As long as we have power for our internet that is.

Here was kind of an experiment. A chocolate trifle...I had never made on before and needed to make a dessert for a ladies lunch - pretty good...chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, dream whip. :)

This is our front door. Soon after we moved in last year I planted this viney plant that that has orange blooms. Well, I actually planted it out front over our wall and in the back over the wall. They all did really well, except this one by the door. I had to replant a few times - but now it is growing great! We've had a lot of rain and as you can see on the below pic - the first bloom! weehoo!

I had to put one pic of Twix. He is such a baby. We had a water leak in Micah's room and needed to have the landlord and workers come to fix it. Well, Twix is afraid of strangers and as soon as he saw these guys coming he ran up to our bedroom and crawled in the made bed, up under the pillow to hide. poor kitty...

Micah really enjoyed the care package he received from the Sonnenberg Venture Club. He has been playing with all of the different things and enjoying the "American Gum".

When Kurt was away last week over night Micah got a great idea to change his Wii person to an "old" man by adding wrinkles and glasses on his nose....it was pay back time for when Kurt gave Micah a girly nose and he didn't even notice it for a few days.....

West Nairobi School had their very first Graduation! Some of our good friends' son was in the class. They had 17 students graduate from 8 different countries.

This past Sunday we took Micah and his friend Ruben to camp for a week. Sorry I was determined to take pics of them and their room - but guess I was just too excited! :) Here is part of the camp and below the sign. It really looked nice. We are anxious for Micah to come back Saturday and tell us all about it!

This past Tuesday was Madaraka Day, Kenya's Independance Day. Since it was a day off I helped Margaret move a few things she had bought from a missionary leaving to her home. She works at Tumaini, I have come to really appreciate her friendship. Here we are in her livingroom just after having chai.

Trip to Port Victoria and Western Kenya

2010-05-13T21:02:00.009+03:00

We had the privilege again of traveling to another orphanage and a couple of churches this weekend. Our truck was loaded up and we took off on Friday morning with the Scheck's (Rob, Char, and little Micah) in their car. Our trip was to go look at one of the orphanages that we've been helping out a bit as we can. Angie had been to this one last year, but we were interested in seeing some other ways we could possibly help out some more. So we put all we could on and in a Samaritan's Purse truck we borrowed and headed out for our 9 hour drive toward the Ugandan border.

We bought some of our produce along the way. We had to put it at our feet because we just didn't have anymore room in the truck and car.

At one point we had to divert on some small paths, through people's yards, because some trucks decided to dump their loads of gravel in the middle of the road.

We finally got to Rosemary's house in Port Victoria. It's a pretty nice place which doesn't have electricity but does have running water when they are able to pump the tanks full. We stacked up the boxes containing the shoe boxes in her living room until we needed them. Rosemary is one of AIM's receptionists who has worked there for 25 years. She runs two different orphanages along with her job at AIM. She stay's pretty busy.

Her house is about a quarter mile from the shore of Lake Victoria so we took a walk on Saturday down toward the lake. There were lots of fish drying on netting. They call it herring, but it's just basically small little fish that they catch in nets during the night and put out to dry for the day.

The boy is sorting the size of fish and turning them over to dry faster.
We loaded up for the orphanage and headed off for the distribution.

We arrived at Sheryl's Orphanage Children's Center which is just about half a mile from Rosemary's house. The orphanage is actually a day center for about 120 children, because the children all stay with guardians. About 95 percent of them are orphans because of HIV/AIDS.

This Mzee (old man) is the guy who offered up the land for the orphanage. His house used to be on the land, but chose to build another one further up the hill after he gave the land.

We had a few extras that we loaded up to take on to some churches the next day.

This is the kitchen where they cook at least one meal for the kids each day. They usually eat beans, corn, rice, or maize meal.

The kids eat their meals under this cactus tree. They all have to wash their own dishes as well.
The little kids were really fun to watch sing us songs.

They all come together for a picture.

This cute little girl kept coming over to shake our hands and feel our skin/hair.

Then they all lined up outside to get ready for the shoeboxes.

They filed in and little Micah handed out the shoeboxes.

Angie helped them find seats to wait for everyone to get their boxes.

We couldn't believe how patiently they were sitting there with their unopened boxes.

The smiles and excitement were building.

Rob was showing them their pictures on the camera. The kids especially love to see themselves in the camera.
After that we went back to Rosemary's house. Big Micah was enjoying his DS for some of the afternoon.

The next morning we were off to a town called Kakamega about three hours away.
On the way we passed through surgar cane territory. Lots of big trailers on the road that we passed.

We arrived at a little country church for our first distribution.

There was hardly enough room to park our truck, but the congregation was warm and we enjoyed their singing and warm welcome.

Again, the kids eyes and expectations were so much fun to watch.

Getting ready to leave to the second church.

The little path we drove down to the next church.
We arrived at the next one.

Micah said that this lady leading songs was doing it "rapper" style.
The distribution at this church was a little more difficult. We had about 75 boxes and there were probably about 200 children. We did our best to give out to the orphans first, however things ended up getting pretty confusing and a little strained with all of those kids who didn't get any boxes.

The kids ended up pushing foward which made it very difficult to hand out the boxes. What a great trip we had though. We felt privileged to be able to take part in the weekend. What a tremendous amount of things we saw on this trip.

St. Paul's Children's Home, Health check-ups

2010-05-05T20:55:00.006+03:00

This past Monday I went with a group of nurse and 2 nurse practitioners to St. Paul's Orphanage about 3o minutes out of Nairobi. The nurse practitioner that runs this program is with World Gospel Mission. She travels around to about 10 different orphanages in a month doing health checks on the children. This orphanage has about 65 kids from 4 weeks of age to 17 yrs. Today we saw 60 of the kids! I tried to get these in order - but didn't quite...I'll try to explain.

The below is the line up of kids. We were in the building on the left.
This is inside - Kimberly, one of the nurse practitioners, is checking one of the teen boys.

After we got about half way thru - they had a Bible story for the kids.

The above is Robin - the nurse practitioner that runs this program. She has been here for over 30 years! :) Here she is talking to one of the nurses about a baby she is checking on our right.

Here is Kimberly again - this little girl was so cute! (above)

Here we are weighing the mom and baby first - then just the mom to get the baby's weight. (above)

At the end of their check-up they took a multivitamin and deworming tablets - then got a smiley face on their hand so we knew who all was finished. :) We a few kids that were malnurished - possibly do to HIV, few streps, eye infections, some dehydrations and numerous kids with ear irrations do to wax or other.....

After the Bible story the kids each got a picture to color. They really took their time and really colored beautifully!

It was a good experience and hope to be able to go again when they need help! :)

And to end it up here is a couple of pictures of Micah with his club team during one of their practices. They played in a tournament a few weekends ago and did really good. Micah is the oldest on the team so before too long he'll probably not be able to continue, but he's enjoying it for now.

Cheryl's Orphanage - Narok

2010-04-12T21:13:00.010+03:00

Yesterday we went with the Roberts to an orphanage to hand out Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. The orphanage is put together and run by one of the ladies at our hangar. (Rosemary) She gives a lot of time to a couple of orphanage's that she and a few others started. It was just past a town called Narok, and just a little more than two hours drive from Nairobi.

We drove through a number of small towns that looked like this to get there.

There were quite a lot of small villages like this as well.

Cheryl's orphanage. It's a single building that has a couple of storage areas, a common bunkbed area that sleeps around 25 kids, and some outhouses.

We got a tour of the orphanage. Here we are looking at the bedroom area. There is another area that is not completed yet so the orphanage should be able to house around 50 when it's all finished. They still have so many needs yet as well. One of the biggest needs is to fence in the lot with the orphanage on it. There are quite a lot of wild animals around and sometimes the children have to stay inside because of elephants, leopards, and other animals that could harm them.

All of the cooking is done outside as you can see here. Most of the time they eat ugali, beans, rice, carrots, and potatoes. Occasionally they get meat as well.

The guys carrying the OCC shoeboxes down to the church were they would be handed out.

We first attended about a 2 hour program at a very small one room church. There were a couple of sermons brought. Including mine. :-)

It was a pretty small church, dirt floor, wooden benches and open enough that the wind could come through and help take some of the heat out. It was nice to feel the breeze once in a while.

After the service the kids were all lined up to receive their boxes.

The kids had a sticker on their forehead which showed which ones were to receive the boxes.

We all also got our chance to hand out some boxes. Here Nate is handing some out.

The kids went back into the church and all posed with their boxes. They were excited to open them up, but patient enough to wait.

After church walking back up toward the orphanage behind the kids.

Opening the boxes, what fun and how exciting to watch them.

Angie helping some of the kids see what's in them.

The boxes also contained pamphlets that help understand why people would want to give them the boxes. It contained the message of Christ and the "gift" that the Father has given us.

Of course the candy in the boxes was one of the first things they found. Some of the big hits in the boxes are: candy, hats, small clothes, t-shirts, cars and small toys, dolls, soft stuffed animals, crayons, etc...

One of the boys wanted to take pictures so I let him have the camera. He figured out that he could take a self portrait pretty quick.

And then he wanted to show how cool he was yet too. :-)

And he took numerous pictures of the food as well. funny,,,

And they all were eating around their bunk beds as well.

Then on the way home we were climbing the escarpment back up toward Nairobi and turned around to see the sun shining through in shafts on the Rift Valley floor. There was a lot of really great scenery on the trip.

Cheese Run

2010-04-03T19:44:00.004+03:00

Yesterday we made a day trip up to Nanuki which is near the equator. We go there about every three months because we like the little airport cafe and we get cheese to shred and put in our freezer. This first picture is of a cafe latte that Angie got when we went to a coffee place called Savannah's in downtown Nairobi. It's the first time we have tried Savannah's and it was pretty good. We still like our Java though!

It's been raining quite a lot lately in Nairobi and north of here. We've seen quite a few rainbow's lately which can be very colorful.

At Silent Valley Cheese we were met with about half a mile of muddy road to get through if we were to get cheese. Welllll, we all enjoyed the slipping and sliding and slinging of mud, but I probably enjoyed it a little more than the others.

We were able to pick up our cheese, but also quite a lot of mud which we ended up having to wash off the car today. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that though.

On the way back we stopped along the road and picked up some great deals. The whole stalk of bananas and bunch of carrots were a great deal. Only put us out about $3 for all of it.

The carrots here are very good and some are pretty big as you can see.

Then today we started shredding and ended up with all this! Plus a bonus of blue cheese for me. I crumbled it all up and would like to make a few recipe's from it.

All put away in the freezer. It nearly filled it up as you can see.

Last couple of weeks flying

2010-03-14T12:05:00.005+03:00

I thought it would be nice to show a little of the flying I've been doing over the last couple of weeks. The first set of pictures is when we took a medical team (Volunteers in Medical Missions) into a small very remote village in Sudan called Pibor. The team was made up of about 4-5 Doctors and some nurses and they planned on doing clinics in the town for the week. Dropped them off on a Saturday and then picked them up a week later. We first stopped in another small village called Akobo on the way back to pick them up. Can anyone find the airstrip for Akobo? It's only about 3 miles away on this first photo, but difficult to pick out.

Here's another picture of the Akobo airstrip after we took off. The dust cloud is where we started our takeoff roll.

the next few pictures are in Pibor picking up the medical team. They worked almost non-stop and over the course of a week were able to see 1,200 people with quite a range of medical issues. A lot of syphillis, malaria, intestinal parasites, injuries, infections, and many more I am forgetting already. Needless to say they were VERY tired on their way out.b

It was about 110 degrees and everyone was looking for some shade to get out of the sun's fury.

Loading the team back up to leave. Notice the T shirt. We see a lot of used clothing advertising stuff from all over the U.S. It's really funny to see and sometimes the kids have no idea what is really on their shirt.

On the way back to Loki we ran into this storm. We are needing to land just on the other side of the second rainshower. We landed fine, but soon after were drenched by a half hour rainstorm. This is in the north of Kenya, where it's a desert. Seeing all this green up here is really unusual. They have had more rain than normal this year.

We had to wait 30 minutes for the rains to slow down so we could go out and fuel the airplane for our return trip to Nairobi.

After being fueled and ready to go, this is just after takeoff. The soil just doesn't want to accept the rain in the desert.

Then early last week I flew up to an airstrip in Eastern Sudan near the Ethiopian border for a mission group who were building a school. There wasn't anybody there to pick us up because their car had broken down so we stayed there on the airstrip for a couple of hours. In the end we left the missionaries there and made a plan to come and pick them up the next day. Flexibility to what is happening is really crucial in this kind of work. This was near a small village called Kuron. The kids who came out to the airplane were pretty primitive and as you can see in some of the pictures some of them were totally naked. (the boys at least) Most of the people in this kind of environment are wearing everything that they own.

At the other end of the small airstrip. It was a pretty narrow turn around at the other end. You can see my inside tire tracks where I turned around. Also a "dry" only airstrip for the King Air. If it would rain the airplane would definately get stuck as it was really soft ground.

Quite a few AK47's and this guy like everyone else was just looking for some shade under my wing. He kept (inadvertantly) pointing this gun at us while he was talking to his friends and we kept moving out of the way, but finally he decided to lay down and rest for a while.

The kids love to have their pictures taken and then look at themselves in the little screen. Piercing has always been pretty popular with the girls mostly. They use either wire, or just sticks to make their holes as you can see. The scars and burn marks on their heads and shoulders are made on them when they are going through the passage ceremony. The time when they pass from childhood to adult status in their culture.

Loki here we come!

2010-03-07T22:24:00.004+03:00

Last weekend Micah and I, Becca and her girls Tara, Rissa & Jenna joined our husbands on a trip to Loki, in north west Kenya - just a few miles from from Sudan. This is a staging airport for fuel and for passangers going in and out of Kenya. They would be away all weekend, so we decided to join them and see some of what they do and something new. Here is the DC3 - they were getting ready to load. We kept waiting and waiting for them to say we could get on. We soon found out that some of the cargo they had from another mission had smuggled something that were not legal. It made for quite a situation. Kurt was surprised that we were even able to go on, but since the cargo wasn't on the plane yet - Kurt wasn't responsible. whew!

Here we are in Loki - I just couldn't resist taking this! The girls were about the same size as the DC3's wheels. This was my first time flying on it.

Here are from left to right - Kelly, Kurt and Amanda, after unloading some cargo and getting ready to head out for the day. Becca, kids and I stayed to scope out our living quarters for the weekend and hoping to find a pool - in the middle of nowhere. :)

It was quite an adventure riding in this! It just doesn't seem like it could take off and land on short air strips - but does! I was most impressed at how taxing and turning to get ready to take off have to be as much as a challenge to learn as flying it.

While we were in Loki Amanda was getting the caravan and her passengers ready for a flight.

Well, here is the first pool (of 2) that we found. It was the closest - we just walked across the road from where we were staying. Yes, a bit green - but didn't stop us from getting in. But honestly - as soon as we got back to our room - I immediately rinsed off with a lot of soap!!

We stayed at a camp where they served a different theme each night for dinner. Wow what luck that our first night - Saturday - was African! :) (joke) we were really hoping for mexican - but it was ok. Just didn't have to worry about eating too much! :)

We had been told by our husbands that we will find Loki - hot and dry - hence the longing to find a pool to hang out at! :) Well, Saturday night it started raining and well - continued to rain till the day we left. It really was quite a muddy mess.

This is the camp that AIM has a mission family staying at. They are on home assignment now - so we just went in and looked around the area.

Here is another house - a house made out of 4 containers! It has been used as well for AIM pilots.

Their were a couple of monkeys where we stayed - and lots of cats!

Ok, alas we found the second and best pool! What a wonderful sight! It was clean and even had step for the girls to play on! weehoo! The rain stopped in time for the men to join us and even for us ladies and kids to swim a bit before we left to come home on Monday.

The kids enjoyed playing with the soda bottle caps - first they used them in the pool - I'd throw them and then they'd go down and get them. (this is Tara)

Here is a phone booth just along the road (not a paved road - just sand). It really was quite hilarious! I phone booth in the middle of no where! This is little Jenna.

All in all, we enjoyed getting out of Nairobi - we were excited to see what all our husbands experience and do. Even though they had flights Saturday and Monday all day - we enjoyed spending time with them Sunday, driving around seeing what all Loki is like. It really kind of a ghost town now. It used to be quite a happening place about 18 years ago. When Kurt worked with AirServ he'd fly in and out of here often. I even got to visit here back then, so it was interesting to come back and see it now. Lots of run down places and no real grocery store - few shops and little dukas (by the road shops). Of course part of being in Africa is that things aren't always the way the way they should. We went to restaurant that wasn't with a camp - maybe the only nice one and they only had a few things on their menu. The guys said we had to go there to get a milkshake - Saturday - no ice cream and no frenchfries - Sunday - still no icecream - Monday just before we left - still no ice cream, but they said they should have it later that day! Ha - maybe next time. :) We do thank God for safety on the our trip home. We didn't leave Loki until 5:30 after a long day of flying for the guys. About half way to Nairobi smoke started coming in the cockpit from an electrical short in one of the instrument panels. But the guys were able to figure it out and stopped it. whew! Then after we landed we ended up with yet another security check and visit from the security officers from the airport - all from the situation when we had left on Saturday. Wow - africa....adventures...I think this will do me for some time now. :)

Happy Birthday Micah! surprise......

2010-03-07T22:01:00.003+03:00

We celebrated Micah's birthday Feburary 25th after school. We had planned to surprise him, but that didn't exactly work. :( I had planned for his 3 good friends from school come home on the bus after school while I picked Micah up and took him to violin lessons. When we got home they were there to surprise him. Here he had actually had read my previous emails to the moms so here he knew for 3 weeks and didn't say anything! eek...so that did kind of end up being funny in some ways. But - the boys ended up having a great time.

These top 3 pictures were gifts from us and Warden and Brandon.

Here are the boys right and early for school the next day. They did so well at getting up and ready - even devoured an entire batch of pancakes! :)

Our baby is 12!!

from left to right - Nat DeHaan, Ruben Van Tilberg & Eric Smoot

They all had fun playing the wii!

This and That....

2010-02-23T21:37:00.003+03:00

Here are just a few things from the last few weeks of just around here. Of course the first few are of Twix - he is doing some crazy things - and really is our cheap entertainment.

Brandon - sorry, Tiwx has taken to finding cheap things around here to play with. I will have to get some of the toys out that you got for him. He has been going up to my sewing table and carrying things down again....

My friend Candace has been making whole wheat bread lately - so it has inspired me to make some myself. Wow, where is my bread machine when I need it! :) So this is the final product. Not bad - needs some improving...Thanks Candace!

Kurt usually gets flowers for me once a week or so. This time he picked out these Lillies. They were incredible...they lasted for 2 weeks and opened so nicely. Only thing was that they smelled so potent that I had to put them out on the back porch and we still could smell them inside.

Dad - this picture is for you! :) Wycliff came the other day looking like this!! Remember this ball cap you gave him! He said he had to wear the red shirt to go with it! :) I think he likes it!

Ok, lastly here is our car from about 6 weeks ago. I was driving to the library and a matatu wanted to come in my lane. Well, I was determined to not let him in. He just clipped my bumper and pulled it right off...

Hiking Mt. Longonot

2010-01-31T08:51:00.006+03:00

Yesterday we had a great time with the Roche family hiking (or scaling??) Mount Longonot. It's an old volcano that still has the rim the whole way around it so it took a little over an hour to reach the rim and then 3 1/2 hours around and of course about 45 minutes back down off the rim again. It was quite a hike and very dusty. We were pretty filthy when we came back and took a shower, but sure was fun and had wonderful scenery all the time. (any direction you looked!) I'll just post the pictures below for you to see. The orange shirts you see occasionally ahead are Micah and Jonah.

We also went to the beach, fun...

2010-01-17T21:03:00.004+03:00

Time spent as a family was precious and we enjoyed the few days we were able to spend on the beach down south of Mombasa. We were able to do some snorkeling on a coral reef, and just spend some time in the sun.

The next few blog entries are also full of pictures from their visit here.

Visit to the Masai Mara

2010-01-17T20:15:00.007+03:00

We had a great few days at the Masai Mara. We saw a lot of animals including the big 5 which was lucky. Even the leopard was kind enough to show itself to us.

In and around Nairobi

2010-01-17T18:48:00.007+03:00

Just some pictures of the time we had with family during December when they came to visit. We had a great time and were really sorry to see them all go!!

2009-11-22T21:58:00.005+03:00

Some photo's of recent flights and around Nairobi.
Yes, we can find a "flat stanley" nearly anywhere around the globe. Here he is at 12,000 feet above the South Sudanese flat land and the Nile River.

Here is the airstrip in Yei with the SP staff gathering their things around the truck after we unloaded.

We landed just a little after some rains, but it was firm and all we managed to do was get the airplane dirty.

We spent a night in Yei and while there were advised of a possible medevac which came to the airplane the next morning. He was a Kenyan and even though we didn't know exactly what was wrong with him we decided to take him on down to Nairobi.

In the airplane getting ready to go. We both used disinfectant wipes. No, we didn't have gloves but they are one of the next things that will be going onto the airplane.

On final going into Loki where we had to stop for fuel. Loki is the airport where we used to fly out of back in the 90's when we were living in Kenya.

We had a nice bbq the other evening in our back yard with friends.

catching up....

2009-10-22T17:19:00.003+03:00

Hi - here are a few pictures of the last few weeks for Micah and myself. Last week I went to Amani and helped a lady there by the name of Dorcas. We pieced together this quilt. This is her in the top picture - and laying it out. The pictures are out of order - sorry, I actually thought I had the "blogger" figured out! Still working on that! :) The below picture is of Maggie, she works in the shop where they sell their items. She is such a nice lady.

FYI - this quilt is called the Neutral 4 Patch. Ha - what do I enjoy more than neutral colors! I even need help with colors living in Africa! :)

We went to the Nairobi National Game Park about a month ago. We went after one of the first rains and thought maybe we'd see more animals. We saw quite a few - and lots of zebra!

Here is Micah and Twix again! Yes, Micah has this same "Central" shirt on! Will it ever wear out?! This is one of Twix's many funny cuddle up positions.

Ok, anyone want to guess what this is a glass of?

......and the answer is....water from our tap! eek, isn't that scary! Actually, it was just like this one morning. Not sure what happened. Our water city water is off from Tuesday - Thursday. This morning was Friday after it had just been turned on. Our main underground tank looked like this too - after it all the dirt settled to the bottom it was ok. Guess this is why we filter our water! :)

Fun things from the last few weeks.....

2009-09-27T18:58:00.004+03:00

Here are some misc. pictures of events from the last few weeks. The first 2 pictures are of a friend of mine, Flora. She works at Tumaini Counselling Center, as a cleaning lady, the lady in the white t-shirt is Margaret the main cleaning/cooking lady there, and the lady onthe far left is Flora's mother.

Flora was hit by a car, Aug.2. A man was teaching his child to drive and he hit her, then they got out and switched places so it looked like the dad was driving and not the boy. In the mean time he literally ran over her with the tires and then thought she would have been too badly hurt, so they backed over her to finish her off! It is such a sad story. If she would have died, then the man wouldn't have to pay for her medical bills. But God was with her! The man did take her to the hospital. It the next few weeks she learned she had many broken bones. She said she layed in bed for 3 weeks without being moved or turned. She said she cried and cried as the pain was so bad. After about a month she was transfered to another hospital for better care. Finally when she could sit up she was able to go home. Only thing was, was that she had to pay all of her bill before she could leave. The man didn't pay most of it. We all at Tumaini chipped in to help her. :) So, here she is about 6 weeks after all that happened. She just kept saying how fatihful God is and that she thought so many times she would die, but He didn't let her. My oh my, their are so many people here with stories like this....

Next is Ruth Roberts first birthday party! Can you believe that she didn't even get messy eating her first piece of cake (even first real sugar!!)

Today we went bowling for the first time. It is about 30 minutes away when their is no traffic. Let's see....I won't tell the scores as Micah doesn't want anyone to know. :)

Lastly, a few weeks ago on Sat. Kurt, Micah and some friends all went Go-Carting. I think the pictures say it all.....Micah is in the green suit and Kurt is in the blue.

Ostrich Farm

2009-09-26T11:47:00.004+03:00

Hi! Last Monday was a muslim holiday - Eid al Fitur - so Kurt was off for the day. So we decided to go with 2 other families about 45 min. away to the Ostrich Farm and "Resort". The farm raises ostriches from babies up. They had a few in the different ages, but not that many. They also had ostriches to ride, a pool and restaurant. We enjoyed the pool - it was cold - but refreshing after our tour. It has been warming up and very dry now. We also had lunch there. Kurt had Ostrich filet, Micah had an Ostrich roll (like filet rolled up with onions in it) and fries, I, well...I had fish! ha, pretty safe! It was a great to get away to something we haven't seen yet. Micah had some fun playing with the kids that were with us that day. Micah thinks he should have a little sister!! help! Like that's gonna happen! That is Ruth in the picture with him. She turned 1 year yesterday.

Rainy Season in South Sudan

2009-09-15T21:01:00.006+03:00

Yes, it is the rainy season in Southern Sudan where I do a large part of my flying. I thought it would be nice for everyone to see what kind of airstrips and freight I am dealing with on a week to week basis. I just can’t seem to fly the DC-3 without coming back looking like a mess. Angie has the difficult task of getting all of the grease and mud out of my tan pants and white shirts. We carry lots of tires, cement mixers, welding units, generators, truck parts, quads, food, medicines, and just about anything else you can think of when it comes to supporting the guys in Sudan who are building churches, clinics, schools, and running a hospital in Kurmuk. I heard the other day that we have rebuilt something like 260 churches and now they are starting to branch out to some more areas so there are more to go yet. It’s really interesting work that always seems to come up with something new that I haven’t seen before or been part of. We also do a lot of flying around Kenya supporting missionaries in the remote areas of northern, eastern, and western Kenya.

We often have to fuel out of drums because there aren’t enough fuel depot’s scattered around south Sudan. Here you can see one of the SP guys (Chase) standing on the wing fueling. But also we have to often pre-position fuel to some outlying remote airstrips for when the Caravan’s or the King Air need to stop by for fuel. We have 5 or 6 places where we do this. One of them is Pieri which is a small airstrip in the middle of South Sudan surrounded by swampland. (in the rainy season at least) This is one of the areas I used to fly into back in 1994-95. Back then it was normal to land and not see many clothed people, but today pretty much everybody is clothed and you don’t see the spears and jewelry like we used to. Storing our fuel under a tree like this picture is typical of how we do it. There is usually a guy who watches it for us and for payment we either give him the empty drum or pay him a stipend. Empty fuel drums bring a pretty hefty price in this place. Usually around $50 per drum. On this trip we loaded 7 drums onto the DC-3 (as you can see us doing) and dropped them in Pieri. That should keep us going a few more weeks.

Our King Air is finally about ready to start flying again. It has been down for some extended maintenance for the last month so yesterday I flew it on a test flight. It went very well and just a few small adjustments and it’ll be ready to start flying again. That’s good because the DC-3 is scheduled to start maintenance at the end of this month and will be out of commission for about two months. That means that we’ll be flying the King Air hard again during that time. There are a few trips already scheduled.

Weekend fun

2009-09-06T20:33:00.000+03:00

Last weekend we went to the Nairobi National Museum with the Roberts. We walked around looking at all kinds of bird species, reptiles, and other animals. It was fun to see all of the different kinds of animals and some of the history of Kenya. Then when we went outside there was a boxing exhibition going on. We watched for a little bit before we left. After the museum we enjoyed a new restaurant called Acapulco.

This weekend we went ahead and got a bike for Micah. He has enjoyed riding it around the housing community where we are living.

Last few weeks...

2009-08-23T19:19:00.000+03:00

I just thought that I'd put a few pictures on from the last few weeks. We have actually gone to a number of places, just around town here - with all the saddness of the memorial services for Frank and Ryan, and thinking, praying and trying to do anything to help the families, we have enjoyed doing things with friends - ha, mostly eating out and well just being with others. It has also made us also miss our family and friends more - as we have to just trust the Lord in his timing. :)

This is a picture for Warden and Brandon! See - Micah is juuuussst not quite as tall as me yet! This was taken at a new Mall like plaza with parking in the basement - it was quite funny as we could just walk thru it! :)

Here is Micah and his friend Jonah. He and his family just moved here a few weeks ago. So he and Micah enjoyed M's last few weeks of summer break.

This is Kurt and John. We went out to eat Ethiopian food with our friends Nate, Candace & kids. We always make a joke about the injera - the sour tortilla like bread. Nate calls it "stinky, wet ace bandages." So here is Kurt "bandaging" John with the injera - ok, the waiters probably didn't think it was so funny!

These last few pictures are from a place called Diamond Plaza. It is an outdoor mall with lots of little stores. It is all run by Asians so it feels more like you are in India then Kenya! :) Here is a guy cutting up fresh coconuts. He'd cut the top off so you could drink the milk out and then eat the coconut. They had one little area with these hilarious rides that seemed like they were from the 60's and were loud!! - but that didn't matter - kids love that!

Here are Kurt and Nate putting Dinah's Christmas present together! - Yes,that's right - Christmas in August! Candace and Nate got this for her for Christmas and they couldn't wait any longer to give it to her. We he had it stored at our house, so they are getting it ready for Dinah!

Tribute to Frank and Ryan

2009-08-13T21:31:00.000+03:00

I’m sure that most of you have heard about what happened here on the 1st of August. In case anyone hadn’t we had an airplane accident where one of our pilots (Frank Toews) and one of our mechanic’s (Ryan Williams) was killed. They were doing a photo shoot over Kabira which is one of the largest slums in

Africa and we believe experienced an engine failure of some sort and had to put the airplane down in a very heavily populated area just on the edge of Kabira. There were two photographers in the back of the airplane who survived. One with serious injuries and some broken bones, the other with injuries, but not quite as serious.

Frank and Ryan were great men. They will be greatly missed. They have both left a wife and 4 children behind. Sometimes we just don’t understand why things happen, but we can be certain that God really is in control. They paid the ultimate cost of following Jesus as you can read in Luke 9: 57-62. How much does it really cost us to follow Christ? Of course the costs are going to be different for each of us. Frank’s wife Tiffany and Ryan’s wife Dawn will need a lot of prayer and support in the days, weeks, and months to come.

The AIM AIR family is working through this tragedy. Plans are being made to begin flying again in another week or so. Although this has been a tragic event the ministry and support that AIM AIR has is a very significant part of many mission organizations in East Africa. With God’s help it will continue to be, but we covet your prayers as we move forward.

You can find a lot more information on the AIM AIR website (aimair.org) about the accident and their families who have been left behind as a result. You just need to click on the LMB accident site once there. http://www.aimair.org/

Zanzibar weekend

2009-08-04T21:31:00.000+03:00

This past weekend Angie and I traveled to Zanzibar to celebrate our 25th anniversary which is coming up next week. We had a great time on the north coast at a place called Blue Bay Beach Resort. It reminded us a bit of Siesta Key in Florida, but with beach boys who keep trying to sell you things. We arrived on Friday around noon and were there until Sunday afternoon. Micah stayed behind in Nairobi and we had a friend stay with him at our house. We had a good time relaxing on the beach and also took in a couple of tours including a spice tour as Zanzibar is known as the "spice island", and a tour of stone town which is a very old part of the city. It used to be a major slave gathering and sale point. We got to tour some of the areas where they were kept and sold. They used to whip them to see how strong they were and by that they knew how far they could ship them with them still surviving.

The resort was pretty cool with great food and a nice pool to lay around as well.

We stayed in the unit on the left. We could see the beach which was full of blues and greens similar to what you can see in the Caribbean.

The spice tour was pretty cool. It was a walking tour where we walked all through an area for a few hours learning (and tasting) where the spices come from.

This is a nutmeg. I had no idea that they were actually seeds in an apple like fruit and that they are surrounded by a red cover that is used for mace.

Next are cloves which grow on pretty big trees. There are a number of different qualities which you can tell just by looking at the growing plant before it's picked and dried.

This is peppercorn. I did taste one of these. It was pretty warm! Even green and raw.

And here are some samples of what all we saw. We enjoyed the tour.

Then we were off to Stone Town where we walked the narrow streets and found a number of interesting historical things to learn about. It was pretty fun and ended up sitting on a balcony having a coke at the old British Officer's club.

It was a great weekend.

DC-3 Video of a recent flight

2009-07-23T10:52:00.000+03:00

A few weeks ago we had a pilot on our flight who was taking some video. We flew another radio tower into southern Sudan (Nasir). He put this together which shows a little more what our day is kind of like.

Kitale weekend

2009-07-22T12:06:00.000+03:00

This weekend we traveled up north to visit with some friends we have made here. He is actually one of the guys who comes to our house and cuts our grass and keeps the bushes trimmed. His story is one that just leaves you amazed and wondering how this world works sometimes. His name is Wycliffe. He lives in Kabira with his wife Celine and son Brian. Kabira, I think, is one of the largest slums in Africa. It’s just half a mile from where we live. It’s a place that foreigner’s like us normally don't go. A very dangerous place because of muggings and killings, etc…

Wycliffe was a street kid growing up and used to watch people’s cars for them while they were at the market. By God’s grace he was able to stay on a straight path and find some odd jobs from missionary families who needed yard work done. We learned that he and Celine were trying to build a shamba (small house) out in western Kenya. We decided to help them out with buying some cement and over time we wanted to go out and visit to see the house.

Well, this weekend we were able to do that. We drove nearly 6 hours over some paved, some dirt, some rough, and some very dusty roads. (as you can see)

This is the path we had to drive down to get to the house we stayed in.

We had a good time and enjoyed staying with them. It turns out the house isn’t quite ready to be lived in yet so we stayed at another house, but got to see it and meet some interesting people along the way. It is a pretty primitive way of life out there, but there is corn, peas, carrots, cabbage, avocados, and other crops that people grow for cash. Some of it is sent to Nairobi to be sold as well. We had a simple meal for supper of chicken, rice, ugali (cooked corn meal), and potatoes. Of course we had to finish it off with chai. Then we all slept in one of the two rooms of the house that was about 8 x 12 feet. We ate, talked, and slept all in the one room. The other room of the house was for storing supplies. Some of the cooking was also done outside over a small fire. There wasn’t a toilet, electricity, or running water. We used one of the neighbor’s pit toilet and he also had a hand dug well which many from the community use for their water.
As you can see the corn does pretty well here. Micah is about 5 feet tall now! We also met Pastor Joel who lives near where their house is. He is a very interesting pastor who has a church just down the road.

Celine doing dishes and making Chai for us.

Wycliffe, Celine, and Brian in front of their house being constructed. Micah also in front of their house.

This is the house we stayed in with them. It was a good weekend, but humbled us greatly with the kindness and generosity of the people there.

summer vacation?

2009-07-16T08:17:00.000+03:00

Here are a few things that Micah and I have been doing so far this

summer. It actually feels more like fall here in Nairobi. This is Micah's room with his cup stacking cups in a tower but he took it down and put it on his desk in the biggest form even with the smallest super stacks.

We have cool nights in the high 50's days in the 70's. Alittle too cool for swimming, so we have had to find other things to do. These pictures are out of order, so I will try to explain them. We are seeing some improvements in Nairobi. The first picture above - they started painting lines in the middle of the main road by us to prevent "overlapping", that is when the Matatu's (public transportation vans) just make another lane of traffic and cause a bit of congestion. We will see if this works. Their is another picture of this below. :) The second one above is a picture of a stand that we bought from another missionary. It's more like an island - the top opens up on each side for more space. It all looked the same color as the top now. I painted it black and then sanded it so it would look a bit more rustic - then put new knobs on. :)

Micah took this picture of a box of cereal that I "caved in" and bought for him. I don't ususally buy sugar cereal - and well maybe next time I won't take him with me grocery shopping!

My tomatoes are making progress - they have a few little green tomatoes on them. :)

One more picture of the yellow lines on the road.

Micah and I try to do at least one fun thing a day each week. Yesterday we went to mall like place with a few friends looked around at the shops and had lunch out. Here is Micah with his ususal "out to eat" meal. Cheeseburger and fries.

This was a picture on Father's Day - ok, boo-hoo, minus Warden and Brandon.

Our latest flight attendant, and more work pictures.

2009-07-04T21:16:00.001+03:00

On a fairly recent trip up north I was able to bring Micah along. We were taking medicines into an airstrip for World Vision and didn't have any passengers so since Micah is out of school he was able to ride along in the DC 3TP and helped unload the medicines. Then on the first leg back since it was a long day and the airplane was empty he decided to take a break in a hammock. After we made a fuel stop at Wajir, Kenya we picked up a couple of passengers to take back to Nairobi. We will give the Kenyan Civil Aviation guys rides when we have space available. Micah enjoyed serving the guys water, juice, and cookies that we normally have along with us. It was a fun day, but he was pretty tired after the day was over.

Then a couple of weeks ago I had the priviledge of going to the mission airstrip where I first went way back in 1982. It's in the CAR and called Zemio. We were transporting 15 drums of Jet fuel so another airplane could do some flying out of there. The house in this picture was in process of being built and I helped do some of the wiring and building during that time. It was pretty cool to get back to the mission station where I spent those few months.

Here is also the airstrip just a couple hundred yards from the station. We also brought out 30 empty barrels that were there from previously used up fuel. It was a quick, but enjoyable trip.

Just the other day I transported quite a few guys and their broadcast equipment to western Kenya. I believe that they are from God TV and were planning on doing a live broadcast of drilling a well in one of the villages that is having trouble getting water. We had to transport all of their equipment which was quite a lot, plus all of the broadcast guys. The remainder of what you see in this picture is just a small portion of what there actually is.

Now we also have made one more addition to our back yard. We had this table and umbrella made a week ago. They make them here, but normally too big so we had someone make us this one for us and the chairs. It's perfect and we can now enjoy eating outside a little more. It is winter here though so at times it's a little too cold right now, (around 60 degrees) but we do try to take advantage of it whenever we can. :-)

Kichwa Tembo in the Mara

2009-06-19T20:09:00.000+03:00

Over the weekend we had the chance to fly a group of missionary supporters down to the Masai Mara which is a game park here in Kenya. Probably one of the best game parks in Kenya from what we hear. Angie, Micah, and I left Nairobi on Saturday morning and flew up to Lodwar which is a town toward the north of Kenya and picked up 7 people who were there for a week spending time with a missionary that their church supports. Then we flew down to the game park for the

m to finish off their Kenya or Africa experience.

We were picked up at the airport by Sophie who ended up being our park guide for the next two days. You can see her in the land cruiser along with a few others stopped where we were watching a rhino. You can also see the tent where we stayed. It has three beds in it and a bathroom in the back with a flush toilet. Can you imagine. And to top it off they put hot water bottles in your bed sheets later in the evening to keep you warm at night. The altitude is up around 5,200 feet so it gets a little cool at night.

What we saw over the next couple of days was amazing. Here is a lizard that was peeking up over a cement bunker on a bridge. Lots of color and pretty cool.

We saw these two giraffe fighting each other. They would push on each other with their bodies and then whip their necks together so hard you could hear them smack. Then they decided to stop and pose for us for a while. It was pretty funny to watch.

Micah was able to catch this cheetah facing off with some cape buffalo. Angie and I weren't there, but he said that for a while it looked like the cheetah was ready to pounce on them.

We came up to this elephant and were admiring it's size and how close we could get to it. Then just a little after I took this picture it decided we were a little too close and made some disturbing noises and started charging us waving it's ears all around. Sophie, our guide, gunned the vehicle and we took off with the elephant running behind us at least for a little bit. The guys in the back got pretty excited about that.

We had to get some birds into this blog just for Dan and Joyce. (the birders of the family) These are crowned cranes which is actually the national bird of Uganda. They are really cool looking birds!

We got a kick out of these Topi. They sleep with their noses on the ground to keep a certain kind of fly from climbing up their nose while they are sleeping. I guess if the fly climbs up their nose it drives them crazy and they run around going nuts with the fly up in their sinuses.

Then of course there were lots of Lions. When we first got there we came upon this pride of 4 females and 5 cubs who had just brought down a cape buffalo that morning. They were busy starting to eat it when we got there. The females who had brought the buffalo down were still almost too tired from bringing it down to start eating. We were atble to watch them eating on the buffalo for the next couple of days. The next day the buffalo's were chasing the lion's around which was interesting to watch as well. Apparently the buffalo's can trample the cubs so the females would hide the cubs in the grass while one of them would keep the buffalo's at bay. Then that afternoon we found them close by laying in the grass sleeping on each other.

Beyond the pictures you see here we also saw hyena's, bushbucks, monkeys, baboons, vultures, lots of other birds, crocks, hippo's, jackals, and so many other animals. It was a nice break from the city of Nairobi for a couple of days.

Favorite things and daily life things...

2009-06-07T16:18:00.000+03:00

Since Micah wrote last week, I (Angie) thought maybe I'd let you know some of the things in my week that are my favorites and not so favorite. :) First of all my (and I think "our") favorite place to eat is Java House. It is like a Starbucks that serves American food. We go here every Sunday after church, and sadly enough order the same things! We even have the same server each time and she knows what we want. Ok, Kurt is the only one who changes it up a bit. Micah always orders cheeseburger/fries/double mocha milkshake, me - Malindi chai latte (of course extra hot!) bagel with cream cheese, Kurt does always get a double latte - but then something different each time. Kurt says I like Sundays best as it is the only day I actually "know" what we are going to do! Here is a picture of my chai - isn't it beautiful! :)

One of my favorite places to go too is called Toi market. It is about 5 miles from our home. It is a huge tarp covered "city" of vendors selling used and some new items - which most items are used from the US. You can find: sheets, blankets, clothes, socks, bags, rugs. They also have veggies etc. You do have to bargain and really look over the item before you buy as it could have holes or be stained etc. I have bought a number of things already for our house like, fitted sheets for $3-$4. In the stores a set would be about $60!

This is my favorite place to be here at our house. Our little back yard. We now have a few chairs and hopefully a table in the next few months.

Some of my favorite foods here are the yogurts and I'm so happy the have Diet Coke - only called Coke light here. Also every morning Kurt and I have a mango and sweet bananas (small little ones) for bkfst.

This is Tumaini Counseling Center where I go two days a week to help in the library. It is of

course one of my favorite places to be as it is so quiet, has beautiful gardens and of course all the wonderful self-help books you could want to read! :)

Here are a few things that are becoming more of my favorite things. First of all this is the car we drive that is provided to us by Samaritan's Purse. It is a 2003 Subaru Legacy, stick shift. I know how to drive stick - but everything is backwards here - the drivers side is on the right hand side, and the stick is on the left - and wipers, blinkers etc. are opposite, add in that you also drive on the left side of the road - and often drivers do not follow road rules, it can be a bit confusing. :o

Here is my washing machine. I am very thankful for it - but it only can be used when we have enough water pressure, or when we turn the water pump on, or if I fill it myself with water. I'm still getting used to the fact that I can't just turn it on and leave it as I have to make sure I'm there for the rinse cycle to add water, or it won't fill. eek....

Also, here is our water filter that we use for all cooking, drinking, rinsing veggies and fruits.

Last but not least. This picture doesn't have anything to do with my favorites - but I just had to put this in for Brandon. We had our good friends over last weekend for a bbq. Can you believe that Kurt even made veggie burgers for them! They are vegetarians and we still wanted to bbq. They were pretty good! So, Kurt and Micah were talking with them about Myth Busters and the Menthos & Coke experiment. So what do you think they had to try??? Yes, our cheap entertainment! :)

We won't be posting to the blog next week as we'll be all flying with Kurt on a trip and be back on Monday.

West Nairobi School

2009-06-02T21:31:00.000+03:00

Micah finished up school on Friday. The last week was filled with lots of fun things as his teacher decided to finish up most of the school work by the end of the week before school let out. He would like to show some more of what his school is like so the following are pictures mostly of his school.

His bus that he rides about and hour and a half every day.

The front gate. His school is on a hillside so everything is kind of built on one side of the hill.

His classroom for this year was in the building behind this one which looks like this one.

More of the campus. It's are really beautiful setting.

This is the food banda or cafeteria. The students line up to get their food in this tukel and then eat in a couple more of them off to the side just like this one.

And the soccer field at the bottom of the school grounds.

Next year (August) Micah will begin 6th grade. Yes, he did do well enough to move on.

School, Soccer, Tomatoes, and Church

2009-05-24T16:34:00.001+03:00

We thought this week we should show you some more pictures of what we do here in Nairobi. Micah only has one more week of school left and they had a play which he was in on Friday. His teacher pretty much finished up the school work this last week so this week she said that she’ll be doing fun things and cleaning up. They have a pajama party on Wednesday and a field day on Thursday. We hope to be involved on Thursday some at one of the events.

Here are also a couple of pictures of our back yard. Angie finally was able to get the grass growing ok and we’ve added a few small trees and potted plants. Along the one side is also her “garden” which is some tomato plants. We’ll see how they do, but I'm sure we'll have the chance to enjoy some fresh tomatoes in a couple of months.

Micah has also started playing some soccer. He’s enrolled in a club league and yesterday was his second week. Here are a couple of pictures of him playing. I think that they will be getting their uniforms next week.

We’ve also included some pictures of our church. The sign, but also a shot of the worship team this morning. The church we’ve been attending works directly with the Nairobi University and there are a lot of students who attend. It’s usually a pretty lively worship time which we are enjoying.

Pancakes and a Doctor

2009-05-17T17:16:00.000+03:00

This week has proved to be another interesting one. Nothing real different happened and the flying is down a bit, but we still managed to find some interesting things to write about. First off we had our normal Saturday pancakes and when Micah looked at his he had a comment that it looked like the continent of Africa. Then he had to tear off a little piece of another one and make Madagascar to complete it. (as the picture shows)

The rest of this blog is a couple of stories that Kurt is relating after spending a night up in the Nuba mountains in Southern Sudan. Sorry there aren't many pictures to accompany it, but hopefully the story will help understand even a little more what kind of work we're doing.

Last week I was in the Nuba mountains at a place called Kauda. It’s a compound that Samarian’s Purse has built and houses quite a lot of their staff who are working on various projects like the church reconstruction project, some farming and water initiatives, and such. Every two weeks we make a rotation into Southern Sudan which is kind of the lifeline for many of the Samaritan’s Purse programs working there. We take things like building supplies, vehicle parts and tires, electrical parts, fruits and vegetables, medicines, and just basic supplies that are difficult to find in Sudan. We normally will fly up from Nairobi with the airplane loaded down with the supplies and staff. Last week we had about a ton (2,000 lbs) of supplies and 15 people on the way up. We stop at Loki which is a paved airstrip just on the border of Kenya and Sudan where we get fuel and our official government clearances to fly into Sudan. Then from there we branch out to numerous destinations and start dropping off our supplies and people, plus start picking up people who normally will ride with us until we return to Nairobi. On Wednesday we flew to Webuye, El Doret, Loki, Yei, Yirol, Rumbek, and then on to Kauda which is where we stayed the night. The next day we flew to Kurmuk, Piere, Juba, Kapoeta, back to Loki and then to Nairobi.

During the evening in Kauda I had the chance to talk with one of our passengers who had left Nairobi with us and was still with us awaiting to be dropped off at a town called Kurmuk the next day. His name is Dr. Atar and he is a Sudanese Doctor. Educated in England I believe. We got talking and he started telling me about how things were during the war in Kurmuk. (around 2001-2004) He isn’t from there originally, but felt God’s hand leading him there before they even had a clinic or hospital in Kurmuk. When he first went there he said that they didn’t have any medical supplies so they would send porters over into Ethiopia to try and find some basic things. About the best they could come back with was plain white cloth and salt. Many injured and wounded soldiers were bandaged with the reams of cloth and salt. Can you imagine! Then he had a visit from a British official who promised some hospital supplies. She said that she would send an airplane three days later loaded with supplies to an airstrip located about 20 miles away and that they wouldn’t land unless they saw him there on the ground waiting. Well it was the rainy season and they didn’t have any way to get there because of the bad roads except to walk. The day before the plane was supposed to arrive he was finally able to arrange for about 10 people (and a few soldiers to protect them) to travel and they started out in the afternoon. During the night the traveling was so difficult that they had to leave everything along the path (including all of the guns from the soldiers except one) to just be able to make it there the next morning. When morning came they were still a little way from the airport when they saw the airplane arrive and start circling. They ran the rest of the way and got there just in time for the airplane to land and off load the supplies. Then they took three days to return with all of the supplies. It took 300 people to carry everything back and the supplies kept the hospital going for the next three years. Once the north figured out that the hospital was up and running they also tried to bomb it many times. They had bomb shelters built right in the hospital and many times had to spend tense moments in them, but were never hit directly by the bombs which were 55 gallon drums filled with fuel and a detonator rolled out the back of Russian antonov airplanes.

One other story he said was the first time he attempted to use anesthesia. There was a guy who had a big growth on the top of his head and he needed it removed. He had ketamine which can be used as an anesthesia. He didn’t have any way to intibate or help him breathe however so decided to use only half a dose (1cc) to keep him sedated, but awake so he could continue to breathe on his own. His assistant drew the dosage and gave it to him, but soon after that he stopped breathing. That was about 3pm and they started doing mouth to mouth to keep him alive. There were three people and they continued to do mouth to mouth until he started breathing on his own again at 8am the next morning. (that’s 17 hours of mouth to mouth!!!) In the end he survived, but Dr. Atar figured out that his assistant drew the ketamine up to the first line, but it was measured in 2’s so actually had given him the full dosage instead of half. Samaritan’s Purse came in and started assisting the hospital and now send supplies, Dr’s, and equipment to Kurmuk. It is one of our main stops in Sudan. It still is a difficult place to live and work, but now they say that if you need a spinal it is the place to go. They are well known for their ability to deal with difficult and emergency cases. We also help with transporting medevacs into Kurmuk instead of having to bring them all the way down to Kenya. It is a definite bright spot that God has blessed in an extremely difficult environment.

2009-05-10T20:39:00.000+03:00

We had a great time last weekend at a place called Naro Moru River Lodge. It was about 2 1/2 hours drive north of Nairobi and we had decided to get away for the weekend. The place we stayed had a pool, tennis courts, and we ate breakfasts and supper's there as part of the package. It was a very peaceful and beautiful place as you can see by the pictures. In the mornings there were lots of interesting birds that came to the trees just outside of our room. We had a really good peaceful break. The lodge was also just a couple of miles from the equator which we had to stop and get a picture of. :-)

We were also very near Mt. Kenya National Park and there are a couple of pictures of that included here as well. It was some beautiful scenery and also a couple of trails of army ants crossing the road. We parked on the road that leads up to the top of the mountian and walked a mile or so up the road. There were lots of cape buffalo tracks in the road and we kept hearing some baboons in the trees, but didn't see them anywhere. Angie thought it was kind of like hiking in a Jurassic Park movie.

Also this week we had to take our cat Twix back to the vet. He initially was bitten on the neck by a stray cat and it became infected so a couple of weeks ago we had to take him for surgery for a few days. Well after a week or two home it showed up again so this time he stayed there for thre or four days and he has a big shaved area with a scar and stitches. We hope this will be the last time we'll have to take care of this and it'll heal without getting more infections.

Kurt flew up in South Sudan this week and this picture is of Pierre which is a place that they keep some of their fuel in drums. They had about 15 passengers and were just dropping off 4 drums of jet fuel. It was kind of muddy, but difficult to see on the airplane because it's kind of a white sand/mud. It is the beginning of the rainy season in South Sudan so mud is going to be a part of his life now for the next few months.

This past week;

2009-05-01T19:28:00.000+03:00

We'd like to try and keep you updated on our last week or so. I have done a fair amount of traveling. I took a group of Boy Scouts down to the coast for a weekend of camping on the beach, took a group of Christian donors up to southwestern Sudan to dedicate a new hospital, and flew back up to South Sudan to bring a team of missionaries back from a conference in Yei.

Micah and I also had a chance to go and see the US National Rugby team play the Kenya National team in a Jr. World Championships. The US ended up loosing in the last couple of minutes, but it was a pretty exciting match to watch.

Here are the people that come and bring items to house:

Here is Wycliffe - he comes and cuts our grass and trims things if needed. Can you believe that he came one week with this shirt on!! :) I said, "Wycliffe, I love your shirt - that is our favorite team in Ohio!" He said he loved that shirt too....cause it is a tank top! :) Isn't it funny that it is even #23!! Who would even give that shirt away?!

This is the vegetable lady - Monica. She comes once a week with any vegetables that we text her the night before with! Isn't that a hoot! Everyone has cell phones here!

Here is Elizabeth our beloved Fish Lady! She doesn't enough for us! Actually, she comes about every three weeks. She brings the fish whole - Tilapia (m-m-m...) and filets it right here. We usually let her keep the head and tail as that is a treat for them to make fish stew with.

All these people are faithful christians and have such amazing stories of how they found the Lord and their family struggles. Sometimes we have time to sit and chat - sometimes not. They are quite inspiring to me.

Here is Micah with his friend Ruben. He stayed over night and then we went to get Kurt after his trip. They boys enjoyed looking in the airplanes. :)

Micah

2009-04-21T16:14:00.000+03:00

We thought you might enjoy seeing pictures of what Micah likes to do when not in school. :)

Right: Micah and his pet Twix go everywhere together at home.

Left: enjoying a friends pet.

Micah and Twix....

Above: enjoying miniature golf.

Right: Stuck in traffic - a bit too close to the Matatu driver.

Right: Waterslide park.

Above and below: enjoying the pool with friends at the game park and Mt.Kenya.

Right: Micah & I talking to Brandon on skype - Brandon has his web cam on.

Cleft Lip Surgery

2009-04-13T10:22:00.000+03:00

Last week I took a team of Surgeon’s and crew up to a town whose sole purpose was to do cleft lips on mostly children. I’m not able to disclose the location, but suffice it to say that it’s an area that’s very closed to most outsider’s. We arrived there on Sunday and that evening yet were doing evaluations of the candidates for the surgeries. Since I was to stay with the group for the week I made myself useful and became the person doing the registrations and paperwork along with taking pictures for their records.

The funding is through a program called Bethany Kids and in order to secure the funding there is a lot of documentation that needs to happen along with pictures of the before and after for the records.

Some of the small children were difficult to see with such deformed faces, lips, and teeth. It was really an amazing site to see. But the most interesting was probably the teen girls. They came very beautifully dressed, but very hesitant as to what to expect. You could tell that they were really not sure if this was the thing that could change their lives. People told us that it does. It was really heart wrenching. Fixing a cleft lip is such a visible thing which you can tell by some of the pictures below. In the end we did 69 surgeries.

It was quite a dangerous area to be in for us, but the town really protected us well. We were there on their invite and they had armed guards with us everywhere we went. Even if we walked off to one side someone was there with an AK 47 to follow us.

It ended up being a very interesting week. The Dr’s have started a relationship with this town that is such a positive thing that I think there will be quite a bit more opportunities for these kinds of trips which is very good news. It’s an area that has been relatively abandoned and forgotten by the outside world. An area with a definite need for us to continue praying about. I felt privileged to be a part of the week and look forward to being able to return on another trip.

Khartoum trip with Samaritan's Purse

2009-04-13T09:16:00.000+03:00

A few weeks ago I had an interesting week. I ended up in Khartoum, Sudan for much of the week flying around visiting the Samaritan’s Purse projects. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to take pictures as security has a major presence and in general it’s not legal to take pictures, especially at the airports. I didn’t feel like getting my camera taken away so decided that I’d just have to write more this time around.

Khartoum was quite different than when we used to live there in 1994-95! Back then it was much more primitive with few restaurants and hotels around. Today it is a bustling city with many restaurants, more than twice the vehicles so traffic is sometimes pretty bad, and some very nice hotels and businesses. There is even a pretty nice “shopping mall” with a grocery store in it. How fun to go back and see those changes. I was also able to renew some acquaintances from back then which was good.
From Khartoum we flew out to the Darfur area (Nyala) to do a visit there. Even with all of the political upheaval of the ICC and the indictment of President Bashir we were still able to obtain permissions to get around which was amazing. We also visited Kauda which is where SP has had some long term projects.

Here are the two airplanes we were flying on our trip. We spent a few hours there and then returned back to Khartoum. The next day we departed Khartoum for Juba. Spent a few hours there and then flew over to a small village called Yei for the night. Here are a few pictures to show what Yei is like. It’s another SP base where they have a workshop for the church building program. So far we have built more than 250 churches. It’s an amazing program!

The next day I had the privilege of being part of an Operation Christmas Child distribution. (The shoebox gifts) It was at an orphanage way out in the bush and all I can say is it was really a moving experience. The excitement in the kids was amazing. It’s so cool that the gospel is handed out with these gifts. Here are a few more pictures of that.

We returned then to Nairobi on Thursday. It was a good trip.

Catching up....

2009-03-26T17:13:00.000+03:00

Ok, I'm trying again to get caught up! I apologize for the way the layout has been with the pictures etc.! I'm still fumbling thru! Does anyone have a "Dummies Guide for Blogging?" :) Ok, I'm not sure how the pictures will come up, but I will explain. The white tent is one of the churches we have been attending. It is one of 5 churches that has been started from the one church we attended 13 years ago - Nairobi Chapel. We have visited 2 of them so far. The singing group is "Jars of Clay". They came to Nairobi about a month ago and did the worship for us at church. They also gave 2 concerts in the city that weekend. Then a few pictures of the airplanes Kurt is flying - and lastly the addition to our family - "Twix".

Game Park Weekend

2009-03-26T14:36:00.000+03:00

Well, we finally took the time to go out with some friends to one of the closet game reserves and tented camps, called Sweet Waters. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Nairobi. We left early Sat morning, stopped at Mt. Kenya National Park, then ate at a place called Tree Trout Restaurant. That was so interesting! It literally is a restaurant in a big tree - kind of like the Swiss Family Robinson! They raise trout there, so they had all the pools there that we could see the different stages. Then we arrived at the game park/camp in early evening. THis camp is centered around a watering hole in the middle of the game reserve. Our tents (that were covered with thatch roofs) surrounded the one side of the watering hole, so you could see the animals coming and going. Our tents had electric, running water and our own bathrooms! Then there was a Lodge type place where their is a dining hall, lounge area and store etc. Really nice for the middle of no where! :) In the morning we went on a game drive (we could go in our own car) saw lions, warthogs, gazelles, zebra, giraffe, rhino, hippo etc. Then came back had lunch and then swam. It was pretty cool to have the pool right there where you could still watch the animals come and go to the watering hole. It nice and peaceful there too. It was a nice get away!

We also finally got a "real" pet! We learned of the KPCA (like the SPCA in the US) so we went there and Micah picked out a kitten. He named it "Twix" as it has the white with different shades of gray. He is very tame and extremely playful! He goes everywhere with Micah around the house.

Kurt has been busy flying and has one more trip of pictures he'd like to get on here yet. Sunday he leaves for a week with a group of doctors to do cleft palate surgeries - so more to come on that! :)

Mal wal kon radio tower

2009-03-10T13:05:00.000+03:00

A couple of weeks ago I was able to fly out to a small village in western Sudan called Mal wal kon. We had on board about 30 sections of radio tower and all of the equipment for a mission who is setting up the tower for Christian broadcasts into the Darfur area of Sudan. The idea is to broadcast on a single frequency and sell small very inexpensive receivers that will only get that one frequency. In other words when you turn the radio on you just have one radio station that it'll receive. What a great way to focus the gospel I thought! People in villages like this are thirsty for news and things outside of their environment and will listen. Especially when it's in their own language. There will also be news broadcasts included in each day's message.

Lots of kids came out to see the airplane and watch us unload. Women were out across from the airstrip at the borehole getting water for the evening.

Since it was late in the day we stayed at the village for the night. It was a very simple compound made of mud houses and thatched roofs. The missionary ladies had "ordered out" from a local restaurant. Well, that is they had to supply them with bowls and containers for the ful (beans and lentils) which we dipped bread in. There was also a little meat. It tasted very good, then I had an open air shower (under the stars) which felt absolutely wonderful before going to bed.

This is pretty typical of many of our trips. Sometimes we spend overnights, but many times we return home for the night. Many more pictures and stories to come.

2009-02-28T16:22:00.000+03:00

So sorry this has taken a few weeks to update! We will try to do better! I wanted to share some of my adventure last weekend. I went with another girl and a Kenyan lady who started an orphanage out in a village called Port Victoria. It is all the way to the Uganda border - right on Lake Victoria, it took us 10 hours to drive there! This was such a fun trip for me. The orphanage is really more like a center now as they need funds badly for the building, food and many, many other things! Right now the children are from 2-18 years. The kids stay with guardians at night only then the older kids go to school - while the youger ones are taught there at the center. They kids are so precious! I think they had only one swing and just about 2-3 other toys! I keep praying about how I can help! The lady that started it "Rosemary". Has so many ideas for it, like starting a veggie garden to help with food, starting a clinic so the kids can be treated right there. That would be so awesome!

Anyway, let me start from the beginning of the trip - we left Nairobi at 7 a.m. on Friday and arrived at 5:30. We drove thru the Rift Valley, past Lake Navasha, past tea plantations, sugar cane fields and rice fields! It was so amazing! Then it got rather hilly and rocky and more dry when we got to the village. I don't think the villagers had seen any "white" people in some time - they seemed quite fascinated with us (Liz, the other white girl), when we would walk around the village we often had a crowd of kids singing and saying things! I don't know what all they said, but the word for "white person" often was mentioned! :)

This is a village that mostly survives on fishing for a living - they know of nothing else - even vegetable growing would be strange for them! Oh - mu how I just want to get out there and teach them - but its just not that easy! We spent most of Saturday walking around the village, spending time at the center, getting food for the kids, and taking a boat ride on Lake Victoria. We had all Kenyan food for the weekend which really was pretty good. The first night we had chicken with rice, for breakfast on Sat. it was the most wonderful tea I have ever had! and mandazi - a dough like thing in the shape of a triangle that is fried - quite tasty! For lunch it was suckumweki - cooked kale with onions and ugali, a kind of cooked cornmeal. For supper then it was beef pieces in a sauce with ugali and chapati's. Ok, I didn't eat any meat on this trip - but I did enjoy the rest! :) I think we had tea quite a few times and drinking water was a problem, so we had a lot of sodas! We had the same bkfst on Sunday and then left for the trip back. It really is funny how you resort back to your past when you go thru new experiences. It brought back so many memories of our first time overseas living in the Kahalari desert in Botswana! Wow!

Well, once I got back 2 says later Kurt left for an 8 day flying trip to Sudan and some of Kenya. We celebrated Micah's b-day early - went out to eat at Java House, a glorified Starbucks that serves mostly American food - we thought since he has tried many new foods he should be able to eat something "normal" on his birthday. He enjoyed a cheesburger and fries! :)

More next week on Kurt's trip!

The Cat - the House...the adventure....

2009-02-10T19:01:00.000+03:00

We picked up what we thought would be such a fine kitty a week ago. Oh did we forget that it was not a normal north american "pet". The first night it jumped out of the front fence - Kurt and Micah chased it down from behind our place and then as it started attacking Kurt so he threw it up and over the fence to yet jump up on porch roof and sit...Sooooo, I crawled out of the bedroom window to catch it and bring it in. That lasted one day. I do think though he must have thought he had died and gone to kitty heaven - he was petted, had a soft kitty basket to sleep in, real catfood, a nice antibacterial bath, and dried fish aaahhh....well, he continued to leave each day, and after school Micah would come home and go look for him and bring him back. Finally, Sat. he left and didn't come back.....we later received a text from the family we got him from saying that he had returned there...we left him there. We will wait for a kitten.... :)

Here are also some pictures of the house as we have it now. Kurt is working on a valve in one of the water storage tanks. We have three, one in the attic which is where all of our house water comes from and two in the back yard. The normal hot dog is a foot long as you can see Micah holding.

Getting here

2009-02-01T14:11:00.000+03:00

From Akron/Canton, to the snow of Detroit, to Amsterdam, over the Alps, over the Sahara, to Nairobi. Some of these pictures will help you visualize what we saw on our trip.

Welcome to our Blog site!

2009-02-01T13:48:00.000+03:00

We hope that this blog site will help to keep up with us and what we are doing. We have been in Nairobi for two and a half weeks and are starting to get settled into our new house. Micah has been attending West Nairobi School and really enjoying his time there. (and the school bus ride) On his first day back from school his comment was; "it's almost like going to camp!" That due to all of the outdoor walking between classes and eating outside under a grass roof hut.

Kurt will begin flying this week. An overnight trip to northern Kenya and they hope to have the King Air up and going soon. Angie is adjusting to a slower pace than she was used to. She said she will be the primary caretaker to the new addition to our family. (Simba - the yellow cat) :-) We are working on getting adjusted to life here. The house now has the basic essentials, but lacks some furniture and shelving to put things on. Things just take more time here than in the U.S. Just the other day we spent 4 hours, driving to 4 different places, to find one of the only stores in Nairobi that sells a washing machine hose.

We hope that you enjoy our postings. We will try to keep it updated so check back every once in a while.

Kurt, Angie, & Micah