Kichwa Tembo in the Mara

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...

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

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.