"All that is not given is lost"

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Saturday, November 08, 2008

On our trip down I was one of the drivers, for starters, only until the pavement started. I have been observing the driving patterns here but have not come to any conclusions, except you have to be crazy and calm to survive! Offensive driving, with some arrogance and skill mixed in!

Lets just say it will be quite some time before I attempt to drive near any town or city!

Police check/stop. They don't have police cars here, so these stops are scattered about the roads to keep traffic laws. They do random checks and signal you to stop with a wave (or at night with a flashing flashlight). I wondered what would happen if you didn't stop... no one 'doesn't stop' - they have spikes and guns.

On every road, big or small, there are animals either beside the road grazing, crossing over in herds, darting out for fun or some sheep and goats even pick nice busy streets to take their naps in... they know they are important and that trucks will drive around them.

I wonder if there really are such things as 'lanes', no one follows them. If you are big, you may drive where you like! Passing is crazy, avoiding pot holes is important and on the whole you never really know where people will be driving.

This was the ferry scene - people, cars, bikes mixed in with some chaos.

Normal. Even in lanes of busy roads these are common obstacles to maneuver around.

Now this is more like it... I think I could handle this type of driving!

Kijabe - Rift Valley Academy

Steve and Angie, the proud parents of Ezekiel Stone Harding.

Finally we got to see the new baby and his happy parents.

Barbara, delighted to be at a piano again, playing with Kyle and Keadon. I think she likes pianos as much as I like horses... if that is possible.

Oh to see flowers again! I never knew how much I loved or missed them!

This could be a scene out of Pride and Prejudice. It was so refreshing to have so much greenery surrounding us on all sides!

Kieran!

To the Pavement!

Normally I dislike driving... but here it is fun!

River crossings become very tricky when this dry land finally gets some rain. This lori had been stuck there for 3 or 4 days all ready. We drove across with no problems.

Mr. Lizard

This river bed wasn't so easy to cross... We had to be winched out of this one. Because of the rains a trip that normally takes 4 hrs was lengthened to 1o hrs because we had to back track to find a way around the impassible river beds.

This had all been dry just two day before when we came down to Kurungu.

Even when you hit pavement not all is easy going...

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Kurungu Nomadic Conference

Here is the whole party!

A few trinkets...

This is what we looked like after the long drive to Kurungu!

5 hrs of 4x4 driving gets us to Kurungu (AIM station) and there we met with 30 or so other missionaries from the northern part of Kenya for a conference/prayer time about reaching nomadic peoples. It was amazing for me to just sit and listen to their stories, ideas, life lessons, trial and error successes and failures and their visions and dreams for the future of nomadic ministry. Being the youngest one there (besides the kids) I felt that I had little to contribute, but it was very encouraging to be around such admirable people. Plus there was the added bonus of a baby dik dik, a chance to go sand boarding and one night of ice cream!

Kyle and the baby dik dik! SO very cute! (Kyle is cute as well!)

Alisia feeding little Ellie... I assure you Aunty Joyce that dik diks are slightly smarter than deer! They make GREAT pets!

After finally making up sand hill we went in search of the very top! Beautiful!

Jillo checking out the surrounding country.

Sand Hill. As you climb up it grows taller and taller!

A Samburu guy saw us having fun so he came to join in! After practically jogging up the hill he made the ride down at top speed two times without crashing! I got a video but can't seem to load it onto the blog so sorry.

Monica (lives at Kurungu with her husband Walter and their 3 kids) had a fantastic crash!

Scott and Kaedon on their way down!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Badda Huri (the hills of mist)

The Huri Hills. Beautiful. Full of trees and grass. No water (except what is collected by rain). Home to the nomads who live on the rocks with their animals. A place in need of prayer.

"Fora" is living with the animals, where the grazing is, far from family, far from comfort. This camp had a few men, two young girls under 14, a dog and a bunch of sheep and goats.

This is the life of the 'fora' people. Always on the move, hard to keep track of, hard to find.

See the road? Really, look harder! This is why it costs so much for transportation up here. We were going to visit the family of the one fora guy, only half a days walk away.

The 'rain birds', they come before the rains... rain and peace is what a Gabra person will always ask and pray for. Rain and peace is what keeps them alive. We came up here for the weekend to pray.

The view from the mountain that we climbed was amazing! I even got to see a rainbow, it was wonderful. Kalacha is just to the left of where the sun is beaming down.

Jarso, Scott and I decided to climb the mountain that is next to the station... hiking in a skirt is hard enough, but trying to keep up to a Gabra guy is impossible!

Jarso and I on the windy side of the mountain... if you threw a rock into the wind it would start to come back towards you! Just behind us to the right you can look into Ethiopia!

Water and accessibility are the two main challenges... so much time and money has to go into those two areas just to make it possbible to live up there.

Normally the clouds hide the sun sets in the hills, but God blessed us with a spectacular show!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Life Goes On - camels, deserts, wood

Robe took us to get firewood! She has taught us so much! Our Ayo (mom) has a sore foot and needed firewood... and since her daughters are in bording school

she had no one to get wood for her. So we said we would go. Where? How? We had to ask Robe to show us! It was a fun 4 hr outing, we got home past dark but that is the best time to be walking because it is less hot!

Robe, Myself, Dub and Barille ready to head back.

Barille in search of a 'tooth brush' - a special soft stick that works well for cleaning teeth!

It is so beautiful out there! This is one of the "ollas" (villages) just a half hour walk from Kalacha.

Dub climbing the thorn trees in barefeet in search of dead branches to chop off. He did most of the work while we were out there, and then its the ladies job to carry the wood home.

Barbara and Dub gathering some wood that he had just chopped off of the trees.

Barille's first time using a camera... allthough he did get us all in!

Barbara's B-day! YAY! celebration out in the desert for a picnic and sunset watching!

The kids having fun on the "big toy" out at our Chalbi picnic!

Barbara and I came to help with the food preparation for the new house celebration... but we ended up just watching. And we discovered that the i-pod can plug into thier home made sterio sysetm!!! the wrecked speaker form an old sterio is used somehow and then a hole in the lid of a bucket is used as a sort of sub woofer to provide base! amazing!

We had a Christian celebration for this family's new house, a new thing that we weren't really sure what it should look like... but food, music, prayers, blessing, songs and a nice time together was all involved!

Little Jillo helping me with laundry!

A shepherd and his camles by Kalacha Dida.

Camel shots are hard to get because here taking a pic of someones camel is to steal their blood. Lets just say it makes for some creative photography, or many times no pics at all!

I was able to get these shots because we helped the shepherd by driving out the camel eye doctor who sucks thorns our of camels eyes with his mouth. yuck, but amazing to watch!