Our trip was absolutely amazing and we’re so thankful for each and every one of the people who had a part in it. It is an experience that has changed our lives. We have learned and done so much in the last few months, it’s hard to believe that it is over.

There are still projects that we’re working on and I’m sure more will come, but here’s a few of the things that are still to be completed:

• website for Felkners
• brochure for Cheppema Children’s Home
• organizing 7500 (!) photos
• preparing a dvd containing a slideshow of the entire trip
• designing case for above-mentioned dvd
• Summary write-up for Worldvision
• Re-working of this site: add more photos, finish archive pages, change structure to reflect a completed trip rather than one in-progress, etc.

Besides those projects, in a couple weeks we head over to Vancouver Island where we’ll be living and working at Camp Qwanoes until early next year. From there we’re still planning, but most likely we’ll be heading back to the Rockford (IL) area.

In the mean time, you can keep up with us on our personal website - www.ourlife.ca. (The domain may take a few to days to show up - it’s brand new)

France has been so cool. The photo above is of Carcasonne, a medieval town that we visited the other day. Coming to France from Kenya has been quite interesting and a good easing back into our own culture.

It’s hard to believe that in one week we’ll be back in North America. We’ve been working on sorting through our past several months. Somehow we have to figure out the best way to communicate with our friends and family back home (and abroad) our experiences while in Kenya. Much of that sharing will be through photos, both in slideshows and here on our website. We’re also working on a few other ideas and concepts.

Tomorrow we head out to the Brittany coast (far northwest corner of France) and then to Paris where we return the rental car Monday morning and stay with friends in Paris until Saturday morning. We’re working on getting more photos uploaded to the photos section now that we have high speed access periodically. I’ll let you know when more are up. Keep praying that our bags will be located. They have found one of our four so far, we’ll catch up to that one in Vancouver.

Aside from that, we have had a great time so far. Danielle is doing great with her French (making up for my lack of). Today we’re heading toward the Atlantic coast of France where we’re told it’s cheaper to eat and sleep, since there aren’t so many tourists there this time of year.

We’re hoping to be able to post more often, but thus far there hasn’t been much opportunity for using the internet here. It may seem strange, but internet access was more readily available in Kenya than it has been in France. While we’re in Paris next week, however, we expect that to change.

Here’s a photo we took yesterday evening when we first arrived in Chamonix. As a side note, we highly, highly recommend the Hotel de L’Arve. We do not recommend the bed and breakfast called Beauregard, where we had originally planned on staying.

Leaving Kenya isn’t easy, though. We’ve been told that we’ll go through the second phase of culture shock after we return home - we’ll be missing Kenya as much as we missed home. Indeed, Kenya has become our home these last several months. We’ve become accustomed to potholes and trash everywhere. Burning garbage no longer stinks…well almost. It’s no longer strange to see thousands of people walking everywhere or street kids sniffing glue (though it does still break our hearts). Using bottled water to brush our teeth is normal, and we’ve learned to not drink water while in the shower. Sleeping under a mosquito net is no longer romantic. We’ve been dewormed and are almost finished with the medicine that kills any amoeba in our systems. We’re almost packed, yet we’re not quite ready to finish packing. We’ll wait until 4:30, 15 minutes before we leave for the airport, once we’ve finished bidding Kenya farewell, hopefully. Kenya we’ll miss you.

To everyone we’ve visited while here, thank you. We pray that we were as much of a blessing to you as you were to us. We have learned and seen so much. We will be sharing the incredible work that you’re involved in with friends and family back home. Keep up the good work. We’ll be praying for you.

To our faithful readers and supporters, many of whom we don’t even know, thank you. You’re from the U.S., Canada, Kenya, Russia, China, Belarus, Belgium, France, UK, Trinidad and Tobago, and Romania. You’ve followed us on this journey, you’ve supported us financially, and you’ve prayed for us. Thank you. We can’t wait to share more of our stories and photos with you in the days and even years to come. This trip has been an amazing experience and we pray that we’ll never forget what we have seen. (The 6300 photos may help with that.)

Continue praying for us, as we need to get on the flight tonight (as standby passengers) and get to France tomorrow morning (Saturday) safely. Once there, besides looking forward to seeing a developed country and Danielle speaking French, we are looking forward to spending lots of time thinking back on the trip, reading what we’ve written, assimilating all that we’ve seen and done and preparing to return home. It hasn’t been easy living in a third-world country for two months, traveling from one side to the other. Many things have broken our hearts, but many other things have encouraged us. It has been such an interesting trip. You can look forward to more stories and photos that we’ll continue to post here during the next few weeks.

Once again, to all, thank you. To Kenya and the people of Kenya, thank you for welcoming us with warm hearts and open homes. Goodbye for now.

Here’s another photo that is sized for use as a desktop image. This time, however, there is a story to go along with it.

Worldvision focuses on four main areas of development: Food, Water, Health and Education. While visiting the Worldvision Doldol ADP (Area Development Program), we were exposed to each of these sectors. On our first day, we visited a farm of a man who had had water for irrigation for several years. He showed us his crops and shared with us how much Worldvision has helped him. Sweet peas, which he is holding in the photo above, are grown strictly for export. They are referred to as a “cash crop” because they bring income. This may sound strange, but most farmers here don’t grow crops to sell, they eat everything they grow. Maybe a little bit of leftovers will be taken to the market, but otherwise, there isn’t water available, seeds are expensive and there is often drought which makes it hard to even grow enough for them to eat.

Our first thought when hearing about a village getting running water for the first time was about sinks, bathrooms, etc. Very few places have “flush” toilets - try a hole in the ground. The saying, “water is life”, however isn’t referring to flush toilets and sinks. Water enables farmers to grow crops, earn money and provide for their families.

Worldvision has partnered with local communities to bring water to farmers. These farmers are then able to grow things such as sweet peas, which require a lot of water, and export them. One farmer we met had just finished his first harvest since having water. It was the first income he had earned in his life - a total of 40,000 Kenyan Shillings, equivalent to about $500 USD. There are three growing seasons in the year, so if his other two are as successful this year, he will have an income of $1500 this year. This enables him to provide for his family, start saving some money and invest more in his farm - currently everything is planted and harvested by hand.

The farmer whose hands you see, is the first one I mentioned. He has had water for several years now. His farm has grown and he has hired a few neighbors to help him harvest the sweet peas for export. So, he has now provided for his family and is helping to provide for other families by hiring them to work for him. Indeed, water is life in this dry community.

Below are the desktop sizes that I have made available. If you need a size not listed here, leave a message in the comments and I’ll do what I can.

• 800×600
• 1024×768
• 1152×864
• 1280×1024
• 1600×1024
• 1600×1200

P.S. Happy Birthday, Eric!

I found the seminar both easy and difficult. Easy because some tips were completely new to them - who would’ve thought they had never heard of “Say Cheese!” ? I wouldn’t have been surprised if they didn’t know about the rule of thirds, but say cheese? So, the morning went really well. Luckily I had a nice library of 6000 photos from our time in Kenya to choose from for examples. Before our lunch break, I gave them an assignment: take pictures. I gave them some homemade reflectors to play with and learn how reflectors could help them get better photos, especially when they have to shoot during high-noon. I stopped back by a while later and they were all back, sitting around the tables talking and playing with the cameras. I asked them how it was going. Turns out nobody had yet taught them how to use their digital cameras. Some have had them for months. You have to realize that they are using fully manual 35mm cameras for the fieldwork and for taking photos of the sponsored children. They hadn’t figured out the digital cameras yet.

So, change of plans. We’ll cover exposure tomorrow. We spent the remainder of the day learning what all the little icons mean on a digital camera, what all the buttons do, what a megapixel is and the relationship between quality and resolution. The most difficult part was that many of the people don’t use computers regularly. Ah well, it was fun. Now, say cheese!

As I was going through photos for the seminar tomorrow, I came upon a few that I had planned on making available as desktop pics for anyone who wanted them. Here’s the first: a shot of the gorgeous Kenya blue sky above a golden savannah. It’s one of my favorite photos that I’ve taken. Enjoy. If you need it in a size that isn’t listed below, or if you’d like it at higher-resolution for printing, let me know.

Eventually I’ll create an album of desktop photos in the photos section, however that will have to wait until I’m back in North America with our beloved high-speed internet access and time on my hands. Two things I haven’t had lately :-)

Here’s the sizes I have made: (if you don’t know which, try 1024×768)

• 800×600
• 1024×768
• 1152×864
• 1280×1024
• 1600×1024
• 1600×1200

Today we spent half the day driving around Nairobi trying to track down the adapter that I need to connect my laptop to a projector. I had resorted to doing the seminar without it, but we were able to locate the adapter, so we’re good to go. I wasn’t looking forward to doing a photography seminar without any visuals.

As you may have noticed from Danielle’s post, we are planning on heading out of Kenya this Friday. We really struggled with that decision (whether or not to leave a week early), however we have come to realize that we need time to process all that we have seen and done in the last few months. We accomplished all that we came to do (and much more) and if we don’t have time to work through our experience and debrief, we likely won’t have a chance to for several months. We hit the ground running once we get home. So, it’s off to France a week early. We’re really looking forward to our time there and our time together. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support these last few months while we have been in Kenya. We have appreciated them greatly and look forward to sharing our many stories and photos with you in the next few months. During this week, keep praying for us, that the seminar would go well and that our final days in Kenya would go as smoothly as the rest of our trip has. Pray also that we are able to get on the flight (going standby) Friday.

We just returned from a wonderful weekend with the Felkners in Nakuru. Of our entire trip so far, of which today marks seven weeks, I would have to say that this weekend has been the highlight.

We had the opportunity to meet William and Miriam Kotut, the couple who started Cheppema Children’s Home. There are orphanages spread all throughout Kenya, we’ve been to several different ones. Cheppema was quite different, however.

William and Miriam have dedicated their lives and everything they have to helping children in need. They started in 1982 by taking in 4 boys. Now, 22 years later, they have 45 children and an amazing ministry. Unlike many other orphanages we visited, Cheppema is run entirely by Kenyans. While they rely on support from friends and Churches in North America, their ministry is not controlled nor dictated by their supporters. An example of this is a clinic that they are currently completing the construction of. William shared that a group from Pennsylvania came and helped build the clinic, however it was William himself that sketched out the plans for the building. He was asking Marcia (who is an RN) how he did with the design and layout of the clinic. He instead could have relied on the group coming from the U.S. to come up with the plan for it, or spent money hiring somebody else to design it. They realize, however, that when they struggle to buy enough corn every month to feed 58 (the number of children and staff who live on-site) and they desperately need a clinic, anything will be better than nothing. It met Marcia’s seal of approval, by the way.

William had his post-secondary education paid for by the former President of Kenya, Moi, who was a personal friend. Many people who start out with such blessings as a paid-for education take it for granted and begin to rely on the aid of others for everything. We have witnessed this in many of the orphanages and other ministries that we have visited. Cheppema is different, however. William and Miriam have given up everything for these children. Even though they receive so much financial support, the money goes straight to caring for the children. There isn’t even a stove on the property - they cook outside over an open pit - here’s a photo of Miriam preparing our lunch.

One of the neatest things was to see the excitement of Marcia and Dennis Felkner, who we’ve been staying with in Nairobi. They absolutely loved Cheppema and are already planning their next trip up there. It was awesome to realize that we were able to facilitate (more like God was able to) the connection between these two families serving in very different capacities within the same country. We were blessed to have visited Cheppema. Look forward to more photos and stories from the weekend.

We leave in a couple hours to head up north with WorldVision. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but we’ll be working at the Doldol Area Development Program doing photography and writing a few articles on the work that is going on there. We’re excited, but a little nervous, as we have no idea what to expect. We were told that we’d be staying in a hotel, but in Kenya that doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot. I’m sure that everything will be fine and the the experience will be amazing, however. Keep us in your prayers. Most likely we won’t be able to update anything until next weekend - see you then!

The best way to sum it up is “support and report”. Here I’ll explain the “support” part, later I’ll explain “report”. All of the time that we’ve been in Kenya so far (except for the travel study portion) has been spent with missionaries here. We weren’t sure what to expect when we decided to visit missionaries, but we have been greatly enlightened in the last 2 months.

The first family that we stayed with was the Milligans - Bob, Stephanie, Brad, Jon, Julissa, Paul, Kira and Joey. They are serving at Rift Valley Academy, where they’ve been for three years now. They are dorm parents for grade 11 guys (19 of them), since RVA is a boarding school. Bob Milligan also teaches chemistry at RVA. There are approximately 500 students attending RVA from Kindergarten through 12th grade. The curriculum is North American and the school fills a huge need for families desiring to serve in East Africa but still desiring a quality education for their children.

Is it a really a quality education? Well, Brad Milligan just graduated from RVA last month and is currently heading to the States with a scholarship to attend Princeton in the fall. I’d say that’s pretty good quality. Without people like the Milligans to serve as dorm parents, a school like RVA wouldn’t be possible.

While staying with the various missionaries, we have had three specific goals:
1. Help them practically, in whatever way possible.
2. Encourage them in their continuing ministry.
3. Enable them to communicate more effectively with friends and family back in N. America.

While at RVA, we were able to stay with the Milligan’s six kids and act as dorm parents for a weekend while Bob and Stephanie “got away” for a relaxing weekend to themselves. That was the first time in their seven years overseas that they’ve been able to do that. We also took lots (over 1000) photos during our time there. They will be able to share those photos with friends and family when they go back Stateside, helping them to effectively share with others what exactly goes on at RVA. They also mentioned that all their kids except Joey had spent time in the U.S. while they were young so they had formal photos taken while they were growing up. Joey, since he had spent almost his entire life in Africa, hadn’t had any taken. We learned of this after one afternoon in which Joey got to be a model and I took quite a few photos of him.

The other thing I was able to do for Bob, was to create a website for his chemistry classes that will enable the students to access a calendar, notes, announcements and other items that will help them in their classes.

From RVA, we moved on to Nairobi where we’ve been staying with Dennis and Marcia Felkner. They’ve been family friends for a long time and it seems like they’ve blessed us far more than what we’ve been able to do for them. They assure us, however, that we have been an encouragement to them, especially during this time when all three of their kids (ages 17, 18, 19) are in the States. Indeed, they’ve felt like parents (a few times we’ve referred to them as our “African Parents”), so I can understand when they call us their kids.

We’ve been able to take lots of photos of the area where they work. As well, I’ve been working on a website for them that they will use much like we’ve been using our website to communicate with you. They will be able to post updates on it, as well as share photos with their friends, family and supporters. Below is a little teaser of the site. Because of the extent of the site, it won’t be finished before we get back home, but here’s a little view of the design of it. It’s called Felkner Footprints, which is what they’ve called their newsletter for the last 19 or so years since they’ve been on the missions field.

Dennis and Marcia work for Wycliffe Bible Translators, where Dennis works in computer support and publishing. Marcia is one of the branch administrators and also the medical liaison for the group that is here.

This weekend we’re taking Dennis and Marcia away for the weekend as a thank-you and also to allow us to meet a Kenyan family who run an orphanage (Cheppema Children’s Home) near Nakuru. Then we leave on Sunday with Worldvision to head north near Mt. Kenya for a week where we’ll be doing some writing and photojournalism projects for them.

This has been a long entry, but hopefully it helps to clarify what we’ve been doing this summer. So, what have you been doing? I know that there are nearly 100 of you who check this site on a regular basis, so let us know what you’ve been doing - we’d love to hear from you! Either leave a message for us in the comments, or send us an email and let us know!

Sight
People walking (many people)
Very bad roads
Dukas - little shops/stands lining the roads
Amazing Flora
Wild Animals
Beatiful blue sky and the fluffiest white clouds
Lots of poverty
Flies on kids faces and eyes
Gorgeous sunrises and sunsets

Smell
Flowers
Clean Air
Polluted Air
Dust
Dung
Fruit
Smoke
Sunscreen

Taste
Roasted maize (corn)
Cooked cabbage
Bananas (so fresh!)
Dust
Lots of Buffets
Potatoes
Rice
Chapati (mmm!)
Chai (tea)
Fresh Juice

Sound
Silence at night in a city of 4 million
Waterfalls
Wild Animals
Cheetah growling (at me!)
Wind on the savannah
Way too much 80’s and 90’s soft rock
Children laughing and playing
Tribal dances

Touch/Feel
Kids caressing our skin and hair
Rough, black giraffe tongue
Wind
Foam mattresses
Lumpy pillows
Mosquito Bites

Now half of the group is heading back home and everyone else parts ways to do internships and travel. We’re going to be staying with the Felkners for the next week before we join up with WorldVision for two weeks. While with WorldVision, the first week we’re going to an area near Mt. Kenya to work on a photojournalism project. The second week we’ll be at the WorldVision headquarters. More details later, we’ve gotta go.

I’m feeling quite a bit better, but Danielle still has a ways to go. Marcia got about half of the sea urchin spines (there were almost 60!) out of her foot and hand, the rest will come out tonight. I didn’t mention this yesterday, but we ended up coming back to Nairobi a day and a half before the rest of the group because we were sick and because Danielle couldn’t really walk on her one foot. Tomorrow we meet back up with the group for the last three days of the travel study. I’ve gotta run, more as soon as we have internet access again.

During the two hours that I had to wait for a ride to the hospital, I seriously thought I might die. I have never hurt so much. Finally we were picked up and driven to the nearest hospital which was an hour away (this is in a major city, too). We were attended to pretty quickly - details of the hospital may come later - but then after the blood test we had to wait another hour before getting the results. This is in a packed, smelly, un-air-conditioned waiting room. The temperature outside was at least 85 (around 30 or so celsius) with 100% humidity. My temp was still hovering around 102.

Long story short, I didn’t have malaria as we had expected. It was an upper-respiratory bacterial infection. I’m now on 6 (!) different medications and finally today my fever went below 100. Danielle ended up coming down with it today, but not before getting stung by sea urchins. So, we’re recovering. I’m doing better than she is (right now Marcia is playing surgeon and trying to extricate the sea urchin stingers). All said, we aren’t really complaining and the trip is going great. Seriously. More tomorrow, including more photos - goodnight.

We visited a school for orphan children yesterday. It was encouraging to see such a ministry which was started by women in the local community. It was sad, however, to learn that the children are orphans because their parents have died of aids. They don’t have enough money to test the children for hiv, but it is very likely that the majority of them have it. Since they don’t know, however, all they can do is hope and pray that the children will live long enough to be able to use their education.

We also walked through the Kakamega Forest, a tropical rainforest. It was cool to see a climate in many ways similar to Vancouver Island, yet with so many exotic tropical plants. This morning we visited Covenant House, a children’s home here in Kisumu started by a British woman about 15 years ago. She started in a small home and now there are 180 children that live with her. It was unlike many orphanages since the children aren’t up for adoption and they have a real “mother”.

Tomorrow will be another long day, as we drive all the way from Kisumu to Nairobi, then get on the overnight train to Mombasa. We’re looking forward to staying in one place for more than two nights - we’ll be there for six nights! Mombasa is on the Indian Ocean, so I’m sure we’ll be able to report back on the warm temperatures of the water.

Speaking of photos, we’ll probably hit 4000 later today. And to think we’ve still got almost 6 more weeks here!

We thoughts the roads around Nairobi were bad…oh my. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Luckily we had a video-camera to capture a little bit of the feeling of driving over roads that are no longer existant.

We’re now in Nairobi, staying at Pan Africa Christian College for two more nights before heading out to Kakamega, a small town north of Lake Victoria. The weather has been beautiful and we’ve seen so much. We’re pretty tired, but luckily we have a couple days to rest before heading back out.

We’ll be writing again before we head out (On Sunday) so be sure to check back.

While it is nice to be with so many friends from home, sometimes it gets frustrating. It’s hard enough being white in the midst of so many black people, it’s even harder walking around in a group of 20. Before many people looked at us, now everyone does. In most cases the people are welcoming, but there are also a fair share of unfriendly looks.

We’re heading out on a safari tomorrow morning, so it’s hard to know whether we’ll have any internet access until later in the week. Right now we’re sitting in an “internet cafe” in Nairobi, hence the lack of photos with this update.

Yesterday (Wednesday), Danielle and I met with Worldvision. It went really well, however we don’t know much more yet. They wanted to get to know us a bit and get a feel for what we could do for them, as well as what we wanted to do, so that they could match us up with the appropriate people and programs there. It sounds like we’ll be going up to Northern Kenya for part of the time, however we don’t know much more than that. The Director of Communications, Charles Maingi (who we met with), is going to call us sometime in the next few weeks to nail down some details. Keep praying for this part of our trip, that the details would come together and the rest of the funding we need for this would come in. If you’re able to help, feel free to donate online (using a credit card) or by sending a cheque. Visit the support page for more info.

Following Worldvision, we went to the Sheldrick Animal Orphanage and got to see the daily feeding of a baby black rhino and four baby elephants. They were so cute and it was so cool to see how they interacted with their caretakers. I just posted a bunch of photos, so be sure to take a look. I also added descriptions to the Kibera photo album.

Our time with the Felkners has been great. We’ve loved getting to know them and spending time with them. I’m working on a website for them (as we speak), however it won’t be finished for several weeks. I’ll be sure to pass on the address when it’s finished.

Tomorrow our study-portion of the trip begins. We will greet 14 of our friends at the airport tomorrow morning and embark on the next portion of our trip. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here almost three weeks! The next three weeks will fly by and we’re really looking forward to all that we’ll be seeing and doing. Thanks for the continued emails and comments - we really appreciate them.

The photos are on the photos page that has been sitting unused until today. This week, I’ll try and work backwards, getting as many photos up as possible while I have this higher speed internet connection. Anyway, Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there, especially mine.

A little over a year ago, Kenya elected a new president. Already he has made significant improvements to the government and instituted many changes that affect everyday life here. However, there is so much to do that it will be many years before any major progress is made - there is so much to do.

There are busses called matatus. Most locals don’t drive, so they rely on this form of transportation. The busses (more like vans) typically have seats for about 15 people, but often you will find 30, 40 or even more loaded in and on, and even hanging off the sides. This creates a problem though, because if there is an accident, many people are killed. This was one little issue that the new president took care of, as it is now required that everyone have a seatbelt. In most areas around Nairobi, this has solved the problem. In rural areas, however, there is often only one matatu going into town in the morning, and with that being the only form of transportation available to the people, the new law has no effect.

One of the major changes that has already taken place is the reduction of corruption throughout the government. The last president was involved in several different scams and before long there was no money left in the treasury. This meant that government workers didn’t get paid. Including police. So, they expected to get a cut of anything that was paid (tickets, fines, etc). As well, it was assumed that a bribe would be paid.

With the new president, however, the government workers are now getting paid again. As well, they have been able to crack down on crime that was rampant throughout the last few years. Carjackings and robberies are one of the crimes that they have been working hard to reduce and eliminate. There are now police checkpoints a various locations along the major roads. On the highway from Nairobi to Mombasa, 600 people have been arrested in the last year for carjackings and robberies.

On the road that goes from the highway to RVA, during the last several months there have been a few carjackings. Just a few weeks ago, however, the police caught the guys (6 of them, I think) and ended up having a “shootout” with them. Somewhat reminiscent of the wild west, the police won out and all the “bad guys” were killed. In many cases, the police will kill a criminal rather than go through the hassle of arresting them and putting them in jail.

I share these stories not to put fear in the minds of our friends and family back home, but to show how different the culture is here. While we have only mentioned brief little instances of some of the differences we have picked up on, this is a completely different culture and life is not the same as in North America, by any means.

Two last, quick things, there is no fire department - anywhere. All the buildings and houses in an area like Nairobi are made out of stone or concrete. If there is a fire, typically the content of the home will burn, but the structure is fine. Recently in City Hall (in Nairobi, the capital city), there was a fire. There was no choice but to let it burn until the fire burned itself out. Felkners mentioned this while we were watching “Out of Africa” last night. While the coffee storage area was burning, Marcia mentioned that even today, almost a hundred years later, nothing has changed. If that happened today, you would just have to watch it burn.

Here in Nairobi, it is common to see a herd of cattle moving through the city. This is in the capital city, where several million people live. As a result of the deal that the government struck with the Maasai people (referred to as Kikuyu in Out of Africa) following Karen Blixen’s departure from Kenya, the Maasai people, who are herdsmen, are free to travel wherever they need to with their herds. This quite often means right through the middle of town.

A different culture indeed. We are loving it, however, and trying to soak up as much as we can. Today we’re headed to a large market and will try to put a lot of photos online this weekend.

We have really been eased into this culture, which has been great. While at RVA, we could definitely tell that we were in Africa, however everything was safe - we didn’t have to worry about the water, food, etc. Now that we’re in Nairobi, we still have clean water to drink, however we have to get it from bottles - the tap water isn’t safe for us to drink. We just went to a market and the first thing we did when we got back was put all the fruit and vegetables into bleach water and wash our hands. It was so hard to not drink any water in the shower!

While here at SIL (Wycliffe), with Dennis and Marcia Felkner, we have high(er) speed internet - not high speed by North American standards, but faster than dial-up, so I’ll try and get a bunch of photos up on the photos page this weekend. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers - the trip has already been so amazing and we’ve already experienced so much. We can’t wait to share more with you. Please keep praying that the remainder of our support will come in.

We’ve now been in Kenya for one week, however it seems like it’s been four. We’ve had a great time, met lots of wonderful people and seen so much.

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to be dorm parents for 19 guys (grade 11) and had a lot of fun. We also were babysitting for the Milligan’s kids, all six of them, but they really took care of themselves.

On Saturday, Danielle and I had a chance to get away for a little while and we hiked the “guard’s trail” around the RVA campus. RVA is completely fenced in with an 8-foot tall barbed-wire fence. It seems like a bit of overkill at first, however, this is the highest concentration of US expatriots anywhere in Africa, so it is actually considered a major “target” for terrorism. There are several guards on duty 24-hours a day. During the night-time, they walk the perimeter of the campus (just inside the fence) with dogs. That path around the perimeter is known as the “guard’s trail”.

The Milligan’s house is right up against the south edge of the trail, so we decided to walk it ourselves. We realized that RVA is a lot larger than we thought! It took us about an hour to walk the entire perimeter and it was pretty steep in some places due to the fact that we’re on the side of a mountain. We were rewarded with some awesome views. Above, you can see the view of the Rift Valley as we relaxed in the grass for a few minutes - it was a gorgeous day.

On Sunday, Danielle helped out with one of the children’s Sunday School classes, while I worked in the nursery. (These were roles that Stephanie Milligan normally fills, so we did them for her so they could get away for the weekend). It went fine and we both had a lot of fun playing with the kids and getting to know more families here.

In the afternoon, I got to ride on a “picky”. The nearby villagers call motorcycles “pickies” because of the noise they make (picky, picky, picky, picky - come on, say it out loud!). Jon and I rode down into the Valley. It was my first time riding a motorcycle (more like a dirt bike than a Harley, by the way) and I didn’t even drop it once! I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to going riding again.

All said, the weekend was great and a fantastic end to our first week in Kenya. It looks like we’ll be here until Wed. or Thurs. then we’ll head back to Nairobi to visit the Felkners for a week before meeting up with the group from Vancouver for our three-week travel study. Below is a photo of Joey, the Milligan’s youngest. I’ll be writing more about the family in a day or so. If you want to see some monkies, be sure to check out Danielle’s journal.

This is the new church. The stonework will be completed tomorrow and they’ll start the roof on Saturday. All of the stone is cut by hand.

This photo and the one below are what the current church looks like. It is constructed similar to most of the houses in the area and is actually made out of mud. The inside is very small and dark, and there is a firepit just inside the door on the right.

The old church from the back.

The Rift Valley is beautiful and there are cows and goats roaming everywhere. Giraffes, Zebras and Monkeys wander through periodically and there are quite a few Cape Buffalo around (they’re very dangerous), though we didn’t see any today.

This is what the inside of the new church looks like. The floor will be cement, however they don’t know how to float it, so they will put plaster down (on top of the rough cement) on the floors which means they have to re-plaster it quite often. The roof will be wood (they call it timber) covered in corrugated tin.

This is what I was doing all day - tying re-bar. We first had to bend all the steel bands that go around, then tie it all together. My hands were raw at the end of the day, but it was actually pretty fun.

The kids here are great. They (and a lot of other things) remind me of Mexico. They loved the camera and made it difficult to take pictures without them in them!

One of the boys who was helping all day today.

The street/path through the village is lined with buildings like this that house multiple shops. In this picture the shop is closed. You can also see their fences that they make out of sticks.

This is the view of the Rift Valley that we have from our bedroom window. It is gorgeous. The mountain that you see (to the left) is Mount Longonot. Down in the valley are a few villages, mostly of Masai people (a tribe). If you watch Survivor, you may remember when they shot a cow in the neck and blood spurted out. They collected blood into a glass and mixed it with milk. That is a Masai tradition. They often will live only on this concoction for extended periods of time. Fortunately, we have yet to witness this custom.

Though we have yet to see much in the way of wildlife, in that same valley can be found roaming zebras and giraffes (so we’re told). Here on the campus of Rift Valley Academy, baboons are seen quite often and the Milligan family have even had monkies come into their kitchen to steal bananas. On one occasion they found a monkey sitting on their family room couch, scouting out the place.

The weather has been quite cool. We have been quite surprised; we’re in Africa, after all! However, it hasn’t even been warm enough to wear shorts yet. Once we’re out of the mountains, it will be a bit warmer, but this is the coolest season of the year, so it likely won’t get extremely hot.

Jet lag has taken it’s toll (as Danielle mentioned in her entry) and I’m working on getting over it as quick as possible.

The last two days have been spent getting to know people and learning our way around. I’ll be doing a lot of photography this week and it looks like I’ll be doing a few design projects, as well. This weekend, Bob and Stephanie (the parents of the family we’re staying with) are going away and we’ll be watching their 6 kids, as well as taking over being dorm parents for 19 11th grade boys. The kids are great, and the dorm guys are pretty cool, too. We’re looking forward to it and to giving the Milligans a chance to get away for a few days to relax.

Finally, we just heard back from WorldVision. No more details yet, however I have the director’s phone number and will be giving him a call tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll know more then. I’m off to bed (hopefully to sleep tonight). Keep praying that our support will continue to come in.

For the last week I’ve been telling Danielle that I was going to try and get us into business class. (I had heard that British Airway’s business class was amazing) Obviously we couldn’t pay anything extra for upgrading, and I knew it wasn’t likely to happen, but I figured I could always dream.

Anyway, we were in O’Hare, checking in, and the guy behind the counter (Richard Anderson - I’m making a note of it to write and thank him) was super friendly and about our age. After he printed our boarding passes, I asked how full the flight was. He replied, “Very full - only a few empty seats. I’ll see if there’s anything further forward, though.” As he was checking, I said “Is it ever possible, if you’re nice to the staff, that you can get upgraded a class?” We were booked into the lowest economy class, World Traveller, and then there is World Traveller Plus, and then Business and then First Class.

He smiled and replied, “Normally, yes, it is possible. In fact, had you been here about 40 minutes ago, I could have done that.” He paused for a second and then said “Let me see what I can do.” He walked away for a few minutes before coming back with a big grin on his face. He proceeded to tear up our boarding passes for seats 51b and 51c (out of 64 rows) and print out new ones for row 17 - business class. Wow. We were floored. Hoping that maybe he could pull off getting us into World Traveller Plus, but not expecting even that to happen. It was amazing. The seats went completely flat, like beds, meals were served on real dishes (!), and there were even foot rests. It was the most relaxing flight that I have ever been on in my life. By the time that we arrived in London eight hours later, neither of us felt like we had been on a plane for eight hours. We were rested and relaxed for the second leg of our flight from London to Nairobi. We weren’t spoiled again for that part of the trip, unfortunately, but the flight was smooth and uneventful.

It’s time to grab a quick bite to eat before heading off to bed and hopefully sleeping for a little while. Jet lag is looming over us.

She thought for a minute and then responded “hee hee, I thought I was dreaming!” The next few minutes were filled with laughter as we realized that she had been dreaming about packing and wanted to make sure that she didn’t forget the pillowcases. She proceeded, in her sleep, to remove the pillowcases from the pillows and place them at the foot of the bed, ready to be packed.

Needless to say, the pillowcases won’t be forgotten.

It’s interesting to think about our trip and have no idea what to imagine. We quite often go to an image of a safari, of sand, the desert or the painted faces we are accustomed to seeing in National Geographic. When describing our trip to people, we don’t want it to seem like we’re just looking forward to the safari we’ll be going on - it’s only three days out of the 70 or so that we’ll be in Africa - but it’s easy to visualize a safari (or so we think!). I’m sure that when we return in the fall, the safari will only be one small highlight of a wonderful trip. Our eyes will be opened as we discover the true Kenya, and we hope and pray that we’ll be able to effectively communicate all that we have seen.

Note: the above photo is not of Kenya, rather it is Mt. Baldy, a large sand dune in Northwest Indiana.

We found out on Sunday that my cousin was tragically killed early that morning. It was the type of thing that you hear about in the news but find it easy to distance yourself from - deaths like that don’t happen to people you know, let alone your own family. It’s already become something real, though, and as we travel to the funeral this week, it will become even more real once we’re with the rest of the family. Please pray for our family and the healing that needs to take place - it’s going to be a long, hard road.

In other news, we’re getting closer to leaving - even closer than we had thought! On Sunday evening, we discovered that the 5th of June is a Saturday, not a Sunday like we had thought. All along, we were planning on attending Church Sunday morning and then leaving from there for the airport. Our flight, however, is on Saturday instead.

Finally, the site is almost finished. There are still a few details that we need to take care of - if something doesn’t look quite right, chances are we’ll get it fixed this week. We tested out the online donation system and it works really well - feel free to try it yourself :-)

On a whim, I decided to check Southwest Airlines to see what kind of fares they had. Hmmm…$182.90. Interesting. Again we were faced with a dilemma. So, we went for a walk. Weighing the pros and cons of each, we decided to drive.