some last photos from Kenya's coast.

Enjoying the coast on Diani Beach

A view of Gedi Ruins from a community treehouse. (People pay a small fee to view the ruins from a tall treehouse and the money goes back into community sponsored projects.)

In the mirhab wall of the ruins.

Kyle with a hawkbill seaturtle! at the Turtle Watch rehabilitation centre.

boys playing soccer in the surf at Malindi's main beach.

salt and pepper at supper in Malindi served in clam shells.

This is the view as you drive up to Lamu - The island of no cars, just donkeys, beach, and beautiful ocean

Kyle enjoying our rooftop lounge at the Hotel in Lamu. Lamu was our favorite place.

Fresh juices in Lamu - Kyle had Passion fruit with Pineapple.

Kate had coconut

A fancy dinner on a rooftop restaurant.

Kyle had crab!

The narrow streets of Lamu

Kyle sitting at the Lamu Fort

Our new beachfront property. i wish.

i built a sandcastle - Shela beach near Lamu

Shela Beach - There was only about 8 people on this 14km long beach.

Playing a bao game at our hotel in Lamu

So many cats in Lamu!

A last dhow says goodbye to us as we leave for Nairobi and fly out of Kenya.

a final effort to help..

Please, if you have time visit this link: 

http://www.co-operative.coop/join-the-revolution/gioto-garbage-slum-project?

A fellow volunteer, Hannah started this up. There is a contest for funding a volunteer project, and Gioto garbage slum is currently in 1st place! The winner will receive 5000 euro of funding for their project.  Please help keep us in first place. It takes about 2 minutes to sign up, and you can vote every day. It will mean so much to children and families who have so little if we are able to win this for them.

Thank you for your help and support.

Kyle and I fly to Europe tomorrow morning. It is a bit sad to be saying goodbye to Kenya. We have had such an amazing time here. I will try and do a better job describing it when I got home, but I hope this blog has served it's purpose. I hope everyone has been able to see a little bit of the situation at the two volunteer projects we were at, but also got to see the joy in the childrens faces, the beauty of this country's land and people.

Kwa Heri Kenya.

Goodbye Kenya.

-Kyle and Kate

more coastal adventures.

Hello All,

Since leaving Mombasa, we have been to Watamu, Gede, Malindi, and Lamu. We are still in Lamu, enjoying our last few days in Kenya on a quiet Swahili/Arabic island where Donkeys and Dhows are the main forms of transportation. We can't upload any photos here due to slow internet... but we will add some to this post when we get the chance.

Perhaps I should start with Watamu - we arrived by matatu and got to our hostel via motorbike. It was a nice town, full of Italian influence - as most places on the coast seem to be. Our plans for Watamu were to see the sea turtles and visit the Gede ruins. The sea turtle rehabilitation centre was closed in the morning, so we went to Gede first. It was amazing. We walked into the ruins of a 14th century village. Nobody really knows why the village was abandoned - not even our Gede tour guide "Mr.T". They suspect that maybe the water table dropped and their wells were no longer useful, or perhaps they were invaded... It was a peaceful and enchanting way to spend the morning, walking through crumbling walls of a home left centuries ago.

Then, we saw the sea turtles! The Watamu Turtle Watch and Rehabilitation centre is doing a great job to save these amazing animals. We got to visit two sea turtles (one green and one hawksbill) who were in the rehab programme - one for a broken shell, and the other had been there for five years because she has a curvature of the spine, and needed to learn to adapt to her condition and get strong enough to swim in the ocean. They are hoping to release her sometime this month!

Next, We caught a matatu to Malindi. We went to a restaurant there serving amazing italian food and spend the evening walking along the boardwalk, piers, and the beach.

Bright and early we caught a bus to Lamu, where we are now. The bus dropped us off at a ferry, and we  arrived to Lamu island by boat - The best way to arrive at any destination. The town is made of narrow walkways, three-storey stone buildings, and has a relaxed atmosphere. The guest house where we are staying is a restored coral castle. We had breakfast in its central courtyard this morning, and played board games on the rooftop lounge area last night. Lamu is great. Fresh juices that cost about a dollar Canadian for a pint, and lots of seafood. Kyle even ate a king crab last night! We had to break into it and everything! haha

We will be here for one more day, and then return to Nairobi to catch our flight to Europe. We will arrive back in Canada on April 5th.

Our time on the coast has been fun, relaxing, and has given us time to reflect on our volunteer experience. We are looking forward to sharing some more stories, photos, and videos with you once we return home.

In Peace,
Kate and Kyle


p.s. miss you moms and dads, brother and sisters.

saying "kwa heri" to Nakuru, arriving on the coast.

Wednesday was our last day in Nakuru.

We went back to stock up the food supply of the feeding program at the slum, give Pastor Antony another donation for water trucks to give the people at the slum clean drinking water, and say our final goodbyes to the friends we have made in Nakuru and to the family that hosted us.

We got to see Kennedy (one of the young adults we sent to driving school before we left for Kisegi) and he is doing very well. He has passed his driving test and has gotten a job driving a lorry for delivering goods. He thanked us for sponsoring him and believing in him, and he says he can't wait to start getting paid so he can plan to get his family out of the slum. People can change if you give them a chance.

It was sad to be leaving, and we didn't have enough time to see everyone that we would have liked to say goodbye to but hopefully that means that we will see them again, sometime in our lives.

We are happy with how the volunteering went, during our stay we were able to establish a feeding program, get about 60 young children from the slum into a pre-school/kindergarten, saw another 16 children going to a private boarding school, 3 young adults into driving school, and were able to get almost all of our older students into accredited secondary schools! There is a popular thought in Kenya that says - Education is the key to our future. We hope the children will make the most of the opportunity.

After a final meal at Guava (the local volunteer hangout place - excellent cafe) we were off to Nairobi. The drive usually takes about 2 hours, but as a final show of Kenyan corruption, our matatu took backroads and were able to avoid all the police checkstops (the matatu was not exactly in "working condition" for driving on highways with passengers). We literally would drive up to a checkstop, do a U-turn and find the next backroad.... the drive took a good five hours. Luckily, we got there with enough time to catch a night bus that evening to Mombasa for a coastal adventure.

We had planned our week on the coast like this - Tour of Mombasa's Old Town, A few nights at Diani Beach, Visiting Sea Turtles in Watamu, viewing the Gedi Ruins, Eating Pizza in Malindi, and finishing off the the Swahili island village of Lamu. (and then approx 16 hours on a bus back to Nairobi.. ugh)

We are currently on our way to Watamu - just stopped in Mombasa again to use the internet.
So, since we are done the Mombasa and Diani part of our trip, here are some photos. Get ready for jealousy...


Kyle and I on Diani Beach

In Mombasa, we arrived on the bus quite early, headed for Uhuru park to see the tusks (I won't post the stereotypical tusks picture that everyone who visits Mombasa probably has) and then went to old town where we saw Fort Jesus, and some pretty cool old Swahili buildings. People are still working to restore a lot of them with the carved wood exteriors. It's quite beautiful.

Some grafitti in Old Town Mombasa

In Diani we got to go snorkeling (I held a bright red starfish!), spear fishing (the boys caught an octopus!), and spent most of our time just relaxing on the beach. We met up with some friends (other volunteers we knew from Nakuru) and had supper at the cottage they rented with them one evening. By making our own meals most of the time we were able to save some money. We got bread, peanut butter, and bananas for our breakfasts. We stayed at a place called stilts in treehouse kind of villas, where we got to eat breakfast with monkeys! Or should I say - the monkeys stone some of our breakfast, haha. They seemed to like the peanut butter and banana sandwiches as much as we did. I even saw some dik-diks from my shower one morning. Everything was very open and beautiful and full of wild nature.


On the boat - going snorkeling and spear fishing



Our treehouse at Stilts



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Sharing bananas with a monkey



We are on our way to Watamu today, and hopefully next time we check in we will have some more pictures and stories to share.

-Kyle and Kate



getting back to civilization.

Hello All!

Us infront of our hut.

It feels as though we haven't made a blog post in forever!

A view of Kisegi from the water - Lake Victoria

For the past two and a half weeks we have been living in a small town called Kisegi, and working at the Kisegi Orphanage School. During our time there we were teaching - Math, Science (Kyle) and English, Computer (Kate) and working with the director and headteacher of the school to get some things for the school that they desperately needed. Firstly, Kyle and I bought 6 desks for the students in Pre-Unit (the desks hold about 4 students at a time) who were previously sitting on the dirt floor during their lessons. They love their new desks! and were very proud to show us which "spot" was theirs.

The classroom pre-desks, pupils would just sit on the dirt floor.

Classroom with new desks!

 We also were able to give a donation to the school to put towards getting a fence put up around the school and the playing area, to keep the local drunks (fishermen...) away from the kids. Apparently, the men who stay out all night long to catch omenna (the tiny fish, we know as minnows that they EAT.. ew) return home in the wee hours of the morning and drink in a building quite near to the school. Kyle and I had to deal with removing unwanted visitors more than once.

Some of the Standard 3 students at Kisegi Orphanage school.

Other things we did while visiting the Lake Victoria area: mostly visited with our family. Introduced them to things like ipods - which Mr.Zachary liked VERY much. He kept mine clipped to his shirt at all times, which was funny. He showed it off to all his friends and I let him keep it the whole time we were staying there. It made him so happy. His favorite bands were The Who, Kid Cudi, and Daft Punk. Good choices, Zachary. He was even able to wire up an ancient looking stereo and play it over the speakers. We also introduced them to binoculars, which were pretty amazing to them. Even the kids at school thought it was cool how it brought the lake right up next to them. Zachary liked to use it to spy on his brothers working in the shambas from our sitting place near the hut. He said he "liked to know their secrets" Hahaha. What a creeper... By the end of our trip we started calling Mr.Zachary "Daddy" Mostly because we went everywhere with him. We were his children, we couldn't even go to our house alone from the eating house. We also had security guards the entire time we were there, I felt famous.

Zachary and his daughter Vida, who was absolutely terrified of our whiteness

We also went to a football match, which was pretty fun even though I (Kate) have minimal interest in soccer. Whenever a team would get a goal, the whole fan section would rush the field and do flips, dance, and cheer along with the players. The celebrations only lasted a few minutes, until the referee blew the whistle... but then next goal, it would be the same thing. It was fun to watch.

We also went out on the lake in a wooden boat at a day trip one Saturday. The big islands on Lake Victoria are Mfangano and Rusinga. They were pretty far away, so we opted for the closer small island of Kiwa. It was super hot, and with the sun reflecting off the lake, we both got bad sunburns (Despite having sunscreen on) We had to explain to our family what sunburn is, and they thought we were kidding. Although being a bit crispy by the end of the day, it was very fun. The boat we were in had to constantly be bailed, due to three small holes letting water in, and we had no lifejackets (which only became apparent to me when we got into the deep, very wavy water). We also saw two hippos! I didn't get any pictures, mostly because we were speeding away from them. We were about 10 feet from the mother and baby - way to close to an angry mommy hippo.

Kyle pushing the boat out with some of the guys.

All in all, our second volunteer placement was very good. It was definitely much more relaxing than our time at the slum. The two projects have very different needs, and it was very nice to see another side of Kenyan life, where even those with little can be happy because they are with family. When we were leaving it was very hard to say goodbye. We were their first volunteers! Two of the eight wives of the husband (Eunice and Christine - the eldest mammas) even gave us gifts to give to our mothers, and told us to greet them for us. They want us to come back and visit with our families. I think my dad, Clancy would enjoy it a lot there - even the eating minnows part! I would like to hope that one day we will visit again. We will always remember our Luo family.

Eating Omenna and Ugali ... yum?

 Our next plans are to go say goodbye to everyone in Nakuru, have a quick meeting in Nairobi with our volunteer organization about our most recent placement (as we were the guinea pig volunteers for that project) and head onward to the coast to see Mombassa, the beaches, Watamu (sea turtles!), Malindi, and Lamu.We fly out of Kenya on the 19th, and are home in Canada on the 5th of April.

We will be sure to update whenever we can.

In Peace,
Kyle and Kate

Kisumu?

We have moved to our new placement, which we were told was in Kisumu.. but in reality is about a five hour drive from Kisumu...

We are still on Lake Victoria, in a small fishing village where we cannot get cell-phone service (we may have fixed that problem though by switching providers..) and live with a polygamous Luo family. The grandfather had 75 children! with 8 wives! Everyone we have met so far has been an uncle, auntie, or cousin. Kyle and I work at an orphanage school run by the family for children who have had parents pass away from HIV. So far, we have been able to teach about 4 classes each - it was intimidating to be left on our own with the classes at first - but the kids are very well behaved. We also got to play some games with the children. The school has about 250 children. I think we will need a miracle to learn the names.

So... other than having no idea exactly where we are in the world... We are doing fine. Kyle and I live in our own little hut with a thatched roof with our giant insect roommates and eat minnows for supper (Kyle did - I have yet to dare try them...) This is a lot further from what we are used to than our placement in Nakuru. It is good though, very peaceful and the scenery (lake, hills) is beautiful!

We had to drive for four hours to use the internet today though, so we are not sure how much we are going to be posting while at this placement. We will try, but if you don't hear from us for a couple of weeks, don't worry. (This means you, Mom)

Much love,
Kyle and Kate

Masai Mara

Last weekend Kyle and I decided to go on a trip to the Masai Mara national park.

Our safari guy, Joseph (the same one who took us to Amboseli) met us in Nairobi with another two people - Jess and Jackson from Australia. We all went together and arrived at the camp just outside of the park on Friday, late afternoon. The camp was great! We slept in tents that were huge and pitched on a cement pad, so we had a floor to walk on. Also, built onto the back entrance of each tent was a tile floor bathroom, so each tent had their own toilet, sink, and shower. This was luxury camping for sure!

It was very much fun at the camp, but the real excitement was found inside the park! During our game drives we saw so many animals. We saw a trio of cheetahs, a massive group of about 15 lions, zebras, antelope, gnu, wildebeest, giraffe, gazelle, elephants with babies, so many birds, and even dik diks! A dik dik is a very small deer-like thing, its only about the size of a rabbit.. and they are not very common, so I was super excited to see them! They live in couples and (as Joseph told us...) "they mark their territory with shits!" Joseph was such a great safari guide, he could answer almost any question about the wildlife, the trees and habitat, the parks.. even questions about Kenya and Africa. He is the best. If anyone is going on safari in Kenya, I have his contact info. He was also great for Kyle and I because he knew that we were volunteering here and gave us a really good price.

On our last day, we had the choice of going on another game drive, or going to a traditional masai village to see a performance. we had heard from other volunteers that the village was pretty fake and not work the extra shillings, so we decided to see more of the wildlife. We are so glad we decided to go back into the park - we spent our morning watching a lion eat an ostrich! The pair of lions had already killed the ostrich by the time we arrived, and we got to see the feast. We were so close that we could even hear the lions tearing the flesh from bone. It was so sweet. We took so many photos and videos. It was a great way to end our safari.
I can only upload of couple of photos.. so here is the highlight of the safari:

This lion dragged his kill right in front of our van.

Our Safari Group - Jess, Jackson, Me, Kyle, and our guide Joseph

We got a ride back to Nakuru with one of Joseph's safari friends, and when we got home the rest of the volunteers had planned a birthday surprise for me. It was so nice, we went to one of our favorite restaurants here - Hudson's, and had some good food and laughs with some great friends. The Hudsons even made me a special birthday cake!

It was a good way to say farewell to the friends we have made in Nakuru. We are moving on to Kisumu tomorrow and will try and find a good internet place there to continue our blogging. We plan to come back to Nakuru on our way through at the end of our trip to check up on things and say our final goodbyes. 

As a good end to a great weekend, we took another two children (I suppose I should say adults, as they are both 18) from the slum to Nakuru to enroll them in driving school. Kennedy, our first student is doing very well and his final test is scheduled for the 20th of this month!
The two that we brought today are Gerald and Josephine. We hope that they will do well also. We gave them a little talk about how we can provide them to opportunity, but it will be their responsibility to work hard and achieve what they want from it.

Kyle with three of Nakuru's newest student drivers!

Kennedy is one of the older kids from the slum, he is 20. He is shy, but polite and makes friends easily. It was sad to say goodbye to him today, as we are moving on soon, but he thanked us for the chance we gave him and gave us wishes for safe travels. Kennedy lives with his older sister, as his mother passed away due to HIV. His sister was raped at a young age and now has four children. Kennedy goes to driving school in the mornings, while the children are at school, so that he can be home in the afternoons to help look after them. He wants to get a job with his driver's training and use the money he gets to move his sister and her kids from the slum to somewhere safe for them. Kyle and I are both extremely proud of Kennedy, and the pride he has in his abilities are finally showing through in his attitude.

Where you came from doesn't matter, it matters where you are going.

Peace
-Kate and Kyle

the hardest days.

Kyle and I just went through some of the hardest days we have had since being in Kenya.

As you know, we have been working with some high school aged children. We try to get them into schools, and in the meantime we do lessons at the slum to keep them occupied and out of trouble.We have been doing this for just over a month.

Last week, one of the girls (16 years old) at our school approached some of the female volunteers and asked for counseling. We couldn't provide her with anything immediately, as none of us are counselors. But we told her we were there for us if she needed to talk about anything, that we would listen. She was very hesitant for us to bring in an outside counselor, and only wanted to speak with us in private. She also would ask us not to look at her if when she was speaking to us.

She finally opened up to us about the abuse going on in her home. We immediately brought in a Kenyan counselor and took her away from the slum and put her into a boarding school. To think that it had still been going on for the month that we had spent with her while she was gaining trust for us sickens me. What is worse is that she had to endure this torture since she was 11 years old.

The counselor we brought in was extremely kind and helpful. She has been dealing with issues like this for so many children, and I don't know how she can go on. It is unimaginable and heartbreaking to hear of people committing such awful acts to innocent children, especially by those who are supposed to be the ones they trust.

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued prayers while we are away.
We love you and miss you.
Kate and Kyle

Medical Camp

A few weeks ago, we held a medical camp at Gioto.  This was a chance for those living there and in the nearby districts of London and Hilton to recieve medical treatment free of charge.  This is not the first one that has been held there by volunteers, but it was the first one that we were a part of.  The last one was held only a few days before we arrived here in Kenya.  It took a lot of planning and organization, but it was worth it in the end as everything ran (relatively) smoothly and everyone who showed up was treated.

 

setting up the tents

 

 

taking vitals before seeing the doctors

We arrived early at the slum to set up everything that we needed: the tents, chairs, tables, signs, and medications.  With everyone helping out, we were able to see the first patient at 10:15, only 15 minutes late. By Kenyan standards, this is amazing.  13 staff from the Department of Health were there to help us out, along with people from the organization we are volunteering through.

We had the camp organized so that everyone got an opportunity to use all the services that we had there for them.  They started by going into one tent where one of our volunteers who is trained as a nurse took down their vital information, like blood pressure and temperature.  From there, they moved to the next tent, where family planning and counseling was offered.  Next, there was a tent where HIV testing and counseling was offered in private.  Following the HIV testing and counselling area, they had a chance to talk to a nutritionist, who also gave out vitamins and other nutritional supplements.  Next, they were able to see one of the doctors in a separate tent.  Finally, they moved to our last tent which was a makeshift pharmacy.  There, they could pick up any medications that the doctors had prescribed for them or their children for free.

Jane, a 15-year old rape victim, and her 8 month old child at the medical camp.

By around 3:00, the everyone had been treated.  In total, the doctors saw about 150 patients.  This is quite a bit lower than showed up to the last camp and lower than what we had planned on seeing, but it might be that with the feeding program that we have for the kids now they aren't getting sick as often.  Unfortunately, there was a higher positive rate from the HIV testing than the last time the camp was held.  About a third of the people who were tested ended up being HIV positive.  This doesn't necessarily mean that the rate is going up, but maybe those who were scared to get tested the first time realized that it is better to know so that they can take advantage of the counseling that we have to offer them.  A lot of those who came to our medical camp did not want to go into the virus testing and counseling tent out of fear for the result.  We did not force them to go, but strongly encouraged them to.

HIV testing

Family Planning

After all those who wished to see a doctor were through with the camp, we had to take down all the tents and pack up all the tables, chairs, and left over medicine.  It ended up being a long day, but I'd like to think that it was a successful day where we were able to help a lot of people.

-Kyle and Kate

feeding program update.

Hello again everyone!

I am really happy to be writing this update about the feeding program we and the other volunteers started here. Perhaps you remember our first post about the feeding program. Since then, we have moved from doing five days a week of Ujii porridge, to doing four days of Ujii - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and one day of rice and beans on Wednesdays. With some help from an extra donation towards the feeding program, we are also able to give the children bananas on Mondays and Fridays. We also give out vitamins on Tuesday and Thursday, and de-worming pills every second month.

The feeding program serves about 100 children - 50 from an AIC (African Inland Church) pre-school that took in many of its students from our garbage slum, and the other 50 are the older children that we have been working with to get into technical schools and secondary schools. The younger kids are around age 3-6, and are working on the three years of pre-school that you have to complete in Kenya before beginning Class 1. The older children range from age 14 - 19. Before we were able to get our school going the older children were left to look through the garbage for food for their meals. Now, they are more focused and many of the parents have come to thank us for giving them lessons during the day to keep them out of trouble. 

We are so happy to have the feeding program going. Since we started it, we have noticed that the children have much more energy, and are getting sick less. We are pleased, and the kids seem to be also. Here are some pictures:

Kim eating her rice and beans! She's adorable.

Emmanuel and Joseph

One class of the younger kids having their meal.

Kyle passing out bananas in school.

Kate pouring ujii for the little ones.

 Kyle and I are getting close to the end of our time at the garbage slum, and soon we will be moving on to Kisumu - a city in Western Kenya. We will be moving on Feb.16th, and stay in Kisumu until March 8th or so. We feel good about what we have done here, but of course wish we could do more. Thanks to some donations from our friends, family members, and our church families, we will be able to fund the feeding program for at least another three months.Please know how much we and the kids here appreciate it.

We will also be giving towards another water truck just before we leave, to provide the families that live in the garbage slum with clean drinking water. We were trying to help them with a more sustainable way of getting clean drinking water, but the politics and corruption here can be unbelievable sometimes. Aside from that, we cannot build any structure for them to collect rain water because the land where they are living is not theirs. We will keep working on it while we are in Kisumu, and hopefully be able to put something in place when we visit after we are done in Kisumu on our way back.

We have lots more things to post about, so check back often as we are still catching up on some events that already happened.

Thanks,
Kate and Kyle.

Our Amboseli safari.

Hello everyone!

Sorry that it has been a while since our last post. Hope our parents are not too worried about us. We have been extremely busy at the slum - four children (John K, John M, David, and Isaak) went to school last week after getting our help with uniforms and basic school fees. One of the boys, John was so happy to be back in school. He and his sister Ruth have been coming to the pseudo-school that we run in the field at the slum, learning basic math and English lessons. They are fairly new to Gioto - they have only been there about 2 years since their father locked their mother and both children out of the house and told them that he could into support them. The father would not even let them back in to collect their things. Despite this, Ruth and John are two of the most optimistic children at the slum. They welcome us every morning with a handshake and a smile.

The four boys showing off their new uniforms. John is on the far right.

Ruth! One of the nicest girls at the slum. She reminds us of Erin, Kyle's sister.

So, John went to primary school last week and this week we are hoping to get Ruth into a secondary school. We are facing challenges with that though, as you need your test scores from primary to get in to a secondary school, and everything she had was left when they were kicked out from their home. One of the other volunteers will try and go her primary school (about 2 hours away) and ask for a copy of the original test scores. We want so badly for Ruth to be in school, so we are hoping that this works.

After our busy week, our safari man Joseph called and asked how soon we could get to Nairobi, as he would be able to take us to Amboseli and Kilimanjaro the next morning. Kyle and I rushed home to shower, pack, and hop on a matatu to the big city. After sleeping at the volunteer house, we were up first thing and ready to go. The drive to the park was about 3 1/2 hours, but Kyle and I enjoyed it because we had never been southwest from Nairobi before. The landscape was amazing, and very different from that of Nakuru and the Rift Valley.

When we got to the park gate, we immediately were excited, Joseph told us that Kilimanjaro is a pretty shy mountain, and not to get our hopes up for seeing it. I was pretty bummed, and we could see that the cloud cover was pretty thick. As we entered the park and began to drive toward our tent camp, we saw ostriches and some giraffes. It was so cool to see them in the wild. We also saw some elephants! And this was only on the way to lunch.

After taking a delicious lunch of fish, chapati, and fresh fruit, we were off on our first game drive! We saw so much, and the clouds covering the mountain top started to part - perfect timing! We even saw lions, which are rare for Amboseli. More cool things we saw - trumpeting elephants, baby elephants, and a standoff between a hippo and a gigantic elephant (the hippo retreated, and the elephant moved around his pond). W even saw the largest group of elephants in Kenya - a group of about 200!  Joseph called us the lucky couple after seeing all that we did in only 24 hours. Other animals we saw - jackals, zebras, hyena, warthog, impala, thompson's gazelle, grant's gazelle, gnu, wildebeest, lizards, eagles, and lots of other birds. I took roughly 400 pictures.

After our short safari we are even more excited for our 3 day one - and we will definitely be going with Joseph again - he was an amazing tour operator and so knowledgeable about the animals. I cant even begin to describe how amazing it was, so here are the pictures:

trumpeting elephant

Lion!

elephant line up

our tent accommodation

me and the mountain at 6 am

Some zebras and Kilimanjaro

We decided to go on safari on a Friday and Saturday in order to get back for Sunday, a big day at our house. Pastor has his ordination at church. Now we live with a Reverend! Reverend Anthony. There were about 1000 guests at the huge church, we had cake for Anthony and a meal afterward. It was nice. Also, we saw some of the children that we know from the slum there, as his new church is quite close to Gioto. One of the kids we know is even in the church choir. His name is Peter. I even took a video of him singing and dancing! It was great. We will have to share that video once we are back, because the internet is quite slow here for uploading. Here is a picture from the 6 hour long ceremony. yep, you read that right, no typo.... SIX hours.