It's technically winter in Kenya, but all day yesterday we were enjoying 70-80 degree weather so we assumed that would be the case for the whole week. Unfortunately...we were wrong. Today we woke up to a campsite enveloped in fog - misty, chilly weather. Marissa, Steve, and Ryan were assigned to our first "Game Count," in which we take a pick-up truck out with the researchers to collect a count of the game we see along pipeline trails outside of Salama (the closest village to our campsite). We got to ride with our heads sticking out of the open top of the truck, which was very enjoyable minus the freezing rain hitting our faces. The group came back so thrilled with their experience, however, that they decided to lie to the rest of the group and say that it was the worst time they had ever had in their lives. Nobody bought it, and everyone is extremely excited for their game counts. The scenery was breathtaking.
Next up: The Stevens' Cow Ranch Cattle Dip. Cattle in this area experience a high rate of death due to disease-carrying tics. In order to prevent this, cattle ranchers must periodically "dip" all of their cattle in a chemical bath to kill tics. Our group had the pleasure of visiting the Stevens' Ranch, 5000 acres with over 1000 cows! The chemical bath smelled unpleasant, but it was seriously incredible to see hundreds of cows jumping into a trench and emerging tic-free. What a crazy experience!!!
We were most looking forward to visiting the kids today, and sure enough we were able to make it out for the end of their school day (approx. 2 pm to 4:30 pm). Kiima-Kiu Secondary School has about the same amount of students as KCHS - but we were working in particular with about 36 students grades 9-12. Here they refer to high school grades as Form 1, 2, 3, and 4. We all went around and introduced ourselves in slow English (since they're still learning) and played a bunch of "ice-breaker" games to get comfortable with one another. Every kid was very enthusiastic and full of smiles - it made our day! We are so excited to spend the rest of the week with them.
Quick endnote - on FOOD! Our meals today consisted of seasoned eggs with vegetables and delicious pancakes and sausages and ham for breakfast; "chapata" bread with curried lentils (green gram, so Kenyans call them) for lunch; and "ugali" corn cakes with beef and carrots. Yum. Our stomachs are being fed well :)
We are absolutely loving our time here - the only thing we are really missing (besides YOU) are continuous hot showers - a luxury we have taken for granted! Our showers are buckets with a small faucet - we heat up our own water over a fire, pour it into the bucket and mix it with some cool water - and hope it will do! Oh well. We're getting relatively clean. We think.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
Traveling/Day 1
Well, here we are at our remote campsite in southern Kenya...we can't believe there's an internet connection! We'll try to cover as much as we can because we don't have much time. We're in the same room with our guide, Mary Wykstra, as well as a bunch of masters students and assistants who are looking at the pictures of cheetahs they captured with a hidden camera earlier. Wonderful people doing crazy things!
Traveling wasn't so bad- the flights were smooth and we all watched lots and lots of movies. Swiss Airlines was incredibly nice, we all had our own tv screens with a wide variety of music and movies and tv shows, it made the two very long plane rides bearable (thankfully). Total it was 28.5 hours of traveling and we were all extremely loopy at the end when we finally arrived at the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi! At last.
The Guest House was absolutely beautiful - all stone buildings with lots of old-style windows, patios, and French doors. Mary ordered our group 6 large Kenyan pizzas from down the road - barbeque beef, spicy chicken, and veggie! Delicious...and we were all starving since most of us had slept through the second flight and missed our meals. We settled in, chatted a bit about our agenda for the next day, and went to bed. In the morning we packed up the backpacks for the kids after a wonderful breakfast with fresh coffee and were picked up by our drivers, Joseph and JJ, to travel once again.
Our drivers told us the usual time traveling estimate, "It'll take about 10-15 minutes." Instead it took about 45 to get to the money exchange and then back on the road! We headed to Mamba Village for lunch, which is named after its huge crocodile population. They served us a huge buffet style lunch that was extremely delicious and we all left stuffed and refreshed to travel to Kenya Wildlife Services. Here we toured the animal orphanage and got close to leopards, lions, giraffes, and lots of other beautiful creatures. It was a lot of fun!
Next we had a two hour drive to the campsite we are at now. Upon arrival, many of us were having small panic attacks since few of us have ever TRULY camped before - here they collect their own water in a rain basin (though as a backup source there is also a house which can connect its hose to the basin) and boil and filter it to purify it. We had to set up our own tents (which, actually, was not so hard) and got settled in. We went to the main campsite, started a fire, and waited for dinner to be ready. We, VERY fortunately, have a cook who will be preparing our meals all week. Tonight's was white rice with a minced meat dish (broth, vegetables, spices). Very yummy.
After dinner, we all bonded with stories over the bonfire. We played "The Poop Game" and talked to the masters students. Its been a lot of fun and you can tell that everyone here is unbelievably passionate about their work, its extremely inspiring and admirable. A couple researchers here only work with poop- that's dedication. Its beautiful here, although very cold at night, and being without technology is really freeing. We'll blog more when we can :)
Traveling wasn't so bad- the flights were smooth and we all watched lots and lots of movies. Swiss Airlines was incredibly nice, we all had our own tv screens with a wide variety of music and movies and tv shows, it made the two very long plane rides bearable (thankfully). Total it was 28.5 hours of traveling and we were all extremely loopy at the end when we finally arrived at the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi! At last.
The Guest House was absolutely beautiful - all stone buildings with lots of old-style windows, patios, and French doors. Mary ordered our group 6 large Kenyan pizzas from down the road - barbeque beef, spicy chicken, and veggie! Delicious...and we were all starving since most of us had slept through the second flight and missed our meals. We settled in, chatted a bit about our agenda for the next day, and went to bed. In the morning we packed up the backpacks for the kids after a wonderful breakfast with fresh coffee and were picked up by our drivers, Joseph and JJ, to travel once again.
Our drivers told us the usual time traveling estimate, "It'll take about 10-15 minutes." Instead it took about 45 to get to the money exchange and then back on the road! We headed to Mamba Village for lunch, which is named after its huge crocodile population. They served us a huge buffet style lunch that was extremely delicious and we all left stuffed and refreshed to travel to Kenya Wildlife Services. Here we toured the animal orphanage and got close to leopards, lions, giraffes, and lots of other beautiful creatures. It was a lot of fun!
Next we had a two hour drive to the campsite we are at now. Upon arrival, many of us were having small panic attacks since few of us have ever TRULY camped before - here they collect their own water in a rain basin (though as a backup source there is also a house which can connect its hose to the basin) and boil and filter it to purify it. We had to set up our own tents (which, actually, was not so hard) and got settled in. We went to the main campsite, started a fire, and waited for dinner to be ready. We, VERY fortunately, have a cook who will be preparing our meals all week. Tonight's was white rice with a minced meat dish (broth, vegetables, spices). Very yummy.
After dinner, we all bonded with stories over the bonfire. We played "The Poop Game" and talked to the masters students. Its been a lot of fun and you can tell that everyone here is unbelievably passionate about their work, its extremely inspiring and admirable. A couple researchers here only work with poop- that's dedication. Its beautiful here, although very cold at night, and being without technology is really freeing. We'll blog more when we can :)
Saturday, June 30, 2012
The Purpose of the Blog!
This blog was created by the mission team so that all of our generous donors, supporters, churches, and family members could keep an eye on our activity while we are across the globe in an effort to serve. Please use the gadget to the right to follow this blog by e-mail! :)
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