Food

I spent some time in the hospital... I have been sick for some time (since last Christmas)... BUT we found the culprit!!! FOOD. If I don't eat I am fine!
Actually, I just can't eat wheat or milk. But cutting out wheat and milk cuts out my favorite foods-chai and mandazi... also ice cream and other yummies. But so far the feeling healthy has been worth the sacrifice of not eating those foods.


"The good ol' days", when I could drink chai and eat mandazi!!!

Early Morning Walk

Last year we had a tradition of rising before the sun and going for a nice long walk. It has been some time since I actually had the energy to do so. But this morning Barbara and I started again, our first walk of many more to come!
Kalacha has its own rugged beauty and I love watching the sun climb into the sky and bring everything to life!

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

Monique

This post is dedicated to the great and wonderful Monique. Thanks for the 'grass'!!!
Little tiny Guchi LOVED to sleep on the grass. Everynight she would climb up under the table to enjoy 'her grass'.
Guchi grew and was promoted to being an outside dog. She hadn't seen 'her grass' since she was very little, but on the day we were cleaning and put 'her grass' outside, she went straight to it and was delighted!
Now, because of a rabies scare as well as very hungry hyenas, Guchi is sleeping in the house again... the FIRST thing she did when we brought her into the house was to climb up onto 'her grass'.

Kadeti Wa Kristo

"Kadeti Wa Kristo" - basically it's a christian girlscouts. We meet together on the weekends to learn, sing and have some fun together. This week they did a small preformance for the church.
Salome - our wonderful Kadeti leader!
Shukhu - our neighbor's little girl.
The Kadeti girls made chai and mandazi for the whole church!!!

Paul and Ja-el - who was happy to be looking like a princess!
"Askari" (soldiers)
Salome (back left)and the girls.
Some of the littler ones wanted their pic as well!

Youth Camp in Marsabit

We went to a Youth camp in Marsabit (a nearby town, about 3 hrs drive from where we live) and it was a very encouraging few days! "Camp" at home is all about having fun together and the programs and such... here it was more like an intense Bible College course. Lectures all day long - it was great!
Marsabi it on a mountain so it is colder than Kalacha, MUCH colder... so our youth, who are use to the desert, found it a bit chilly!
Chai time between teachings.
Lunch time and then back to teaching!
Laundry night! I don't quite get the laundry system yet - if you don't have a sister then the guys have to find some other girl to do their laundry for them, then they stand around and tell stories and joke while the girls do all the work!
The kitchen!
This is all of us, several different tribes together learning about God (which is only amazing after you have been in the north and live the reality of traibal clashes!) Only through Christ will there ever be true peace between these tribes.
Evenings were my favorite because all the different youth groups would share songs and skits that they had prepared!
And every trip is remembered best by the breakdowns! Scott's car was spewing oil and they tried to fix it... but in the end I ended up towing them all the was back to Kalacha, in the dark. It was a great trip! And I hope and pray that our youth were challenged and encouraged by the camp.

Sorrio

We attended our friend's 'sorrio' (sacrifice). It was for his father who died last summer.
The main thing was the slaughtering of the camel, but there are many traditions and customs that I don't know or understand.
During the time of mourning the guys are not allowed to cut their hair or fingernails, so during this sorrio our friend and his three sons all got to shave thier heads and cut their fingernails.
Everyone - family, freinds, neighbors and so on - gets some meat from the slaughtered camel! Barbara and I ground ours up and made camel burgers!
The elders under the tree.
Abbo (our Dad) and I. He also had a sorrio for his brother, who died over a year ago. So today he went from a years worth of hair to bald and I could hardly recognize him!

Korr - Our friends across the desert.

On our way home to Kalacha we go to stop by Korr and attend the church there... it is neat how each and every church in each and every tribe is so different! The Rendille live in Korr, and if you want to see and read more about Korr check out Hillary's blog (on the side bar) - it is quite awesome!

Sunday school.


This is who I got to look at during the whole sermon, what a cutie!

Gatab - the mountain getaway!

We drove across the desert...
We drove through dust, lots and lots of dust...
Avoiding the dust.
We drove up the mountain road that is quite narrow and drops off into nothingness on the one side... just hope you don't meet any on-coming traffic!
We drove until we reached the forests of Gatab. Ah, beautiful, wonderful Gatab.
Gatab - a small village up ontop of a mountain. Just 5 hrs drive from Kalacha you can come to a place that has flowers, trees, gardens, cold and other things that we are lacking in the flat desert of Kalacha.
Ezra being super cute as always.
It is so 'cold' in Gatab that we got to enjoy a fire place! Oh how wonderful it feels to be cold enough to wear long sleaves and sit by a crackling fire and smell the smoke of the cedar wood... paradise!
There has been no rain since October. The elevation brings in a cold mist every morning that sustains the life of the forest.
Way up at the very top there was a Samburu village, it took a good half hour of hard 4x4ing to get up the very steep road (if you can call it that!) Here they have some farms, shepherd their animals and enjoy the best views around!
The crazy road up was worth it because of the amazing view that we got from the top... 7,000 or so feet above sea level.
On top of the world!
Paul and Salome were so happy to be in a forest! Their home is much MUCH more lush and green than Kalacha. Paul was ready to become nomadic and 'shift' to Gatab.
We got to visit Ponisa, who came to be a nurse at Kalacha for a few months last year... I can see why she was excited to go home to her family in Gatab, it's so beautiful up on the mountain!
Salome and Ezra outside of Ponisa's family's house. The Samburu huts are much different than the Gabra huts. The walls are made out of mud and cow dung and it is almost as strong as cement mix!
Ponisa's mom showing us her gourds that they use to milk the cows.
Ponisa's garden... FRESH VEGGIES! What a blessing!