There is so much to be gained from fellowship!

Since it is holiday time and a bunch of our youth are home from boarding school we decided to have a fellowship weekend. Teaching, singing, games, chai, eating and just a time to be together filled up friday and saturday.
Chai time!
Barako and Guyo awaiting their instructions!
Never let the blind lead the blind!
The blind one had to listen to the instructions of their 'shepherd' as they navigated through the obstacles.
I don't know what it's called, but we are playing the arms-in-a-knot game, where you try to undo the knot without letting go!
Tug-of-war!!!
My team won! Dad, its your fault I am so competitive!
Top to bottom guys - Barako, Guyo, Barako and Golo. Girls - Robe, Arbe and Baby.
The girls turn to sing and dance!
Robe pretending to preach (in English), while I pretened to be her translator (in Gabra).
Barako and Guyo cleaning the church.
The singing and activities attracted many kids who are not from our church, so we sang and had some fun with them over lunch break.
"Freely you have received, freely give" - was our theme. So here we were learning about being a 'servant'.
Some of the older girls are not so shy that you can't get pics of them, but it took some convincing to get them to stand for this pic.
A few of our guys - tallest to shortest!
Talaso, one of the up and coming youths, is being chased down by a photographer who was trying to get pics of some of the sunday school girls... the photographer was not very successful. The girls are so very shy you hardly know what to do with them!
Sitting inside of the church is too hot because there is not enough wind, so we sit in the shadow of the church.
There were many 'onlookers' who were interested not only in the fun but also in the teaching and songs.
Robe trying to escape from the guys!

I showed a few of the youth how to use my camera... so they had lots of fun taking many pictures! Our game of 'BLOB TAG' was great... but its very hard trying to keep up to these Gabra youth - they are so fast!
To end off a great time we gathered at the Hampton's house for a movie!

April Showers... no flowers yet

It's a good thing I had lots of practice building and re-building fences at home because of my horses. This is us re-making the shamba (garden) fence to try to keep the kids (both goat and human) out! I have lost count as to how many times I have replanted this shamba!
This could be a 'kid in refugee camp' pic... but its just our sister watching us re-build our shamba!
Our neighbor Wato with her daughter... everytime her daughter saw us she use to burst into tears... but after a year she no longer crys, but still isn't sure about us 'wazungu'.
Some neighbors stopped by to see what we were making, and then wanted a picture! Wato on the left with baby Madina, and then Yatane on the right with her baby Madina, and Yatane's son Dulacha with our sister Sabdio. Madina = born on monday
I never tire of watching the goats going in and out. One day I want to go with them just to see what it is like!
This is our goat eaten 'shamba'... they only ate the one tree and some of the sunflower. We had to beef up our fence again! Can't blame them though, they have to eat as well!
It rained!!! This is the first time that there has been enough rain to make puddles since we got here (1 year). We are still waiting for more rain, if it doen't come then a bad drought will cause all sorts of problems.
Aunty Joyce!!! Look I can cook! I made a salad! It was SOOO yummy! I didn't even know there was such a thing as 'chinese cabbage'!!!
Playing clapping games with Jillo, she is so incredibly cute!
Our house isn't very 'peaceful' when we have our crouds of visitors... because we are just 'girls' we don't get many adult visitors. But we enjoy the kids. They help us with our language learning ("don't touch that, be careful, don't fight..."), we read books with them, the provide entertainment and it keeps us very busy!
This is the 'quiet' little neighbor girl, another Madina.
We love our spray bottle... but there are some who think its WAY to cold! This is Dub and Adan having a water fight while our little sister, Jillo, is taking a nap. I am amazed at what these kids can sleep through! She also slept through a rather violent (and very vocal) game of spoons!
Ping-pong! A fun game, but they are too fast for me.

Sheldrick's place for cute baby animals.

This is the world's most successful animal orphanage.
Most of these orphans were rescued from being stuck in wells! They are from all over the country and are eventually released into the wild.

Only a little tiny rope between us and all of those little elephants.

Mud baths for everyone. Those of us watching were close enough to share in some of the dirt spraying.
I am touching an elephant!!! One step closer to my life long goal... one day I will ride one!
Susie and Kyle
I got to pet a rhino! He was only 3 or so months old and SOOOO cute!
Doesn't he look like a big turtle?

I never want to go back to a zoo...

"Widow maker"
God sure did make some creative animals... how all that blood gets up to his head and how he only has to sleep for 1 and a 1/2 hrs or so a day really amazes me.
The wonderful people who took us to the game park and fed us ANZAC biscuits.
Where is Waldo. I am not sure if this is Waldo's cousin or not, but I AM sure that they are related.
I have been told that these guys really taste good.

I want one of these! What neat animals!
The quick... and then the not so quick.
Stripes vs Horns! I heard that these two species hang out 'cause then you only have to out run your neighbor to survive the lions!
The wild nicely horizened with the city buildings...I am so glad they have these parks to keep space and land for the animals and the pastoralists to continue on.
Stampeding Zebras!!! They would be so much fun to ride!
Barbara scolding me... "What, they just felt like stretching their legs... it had NOTHING to do with me getting too close!"
What I wanted to do after our little outing.