Nyahururu
Just take it one syllable at a time. Nya. Who. Roo. Roo.
Easy.
The real purpose of this trip was to gain insight on registering, starting, and running a children's home in Kenya from our friend who has been doing this for many years. But, I will talk about that on Maisha Kamili's blog later in the week. We have one more job to do first, then I will update. Over here, I am talking about family time and sightseeing.
This trip we saw the two tallest mountains in Africa - Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya. Kilimanjaro we saw from the airplane and Kenya we saw from about 20 miles away in Nanyuki. It was cloudy most of the trip, so we didn't see the peak of either.
We saw and drove across the Great Rift Valley. That was very cool.
We went to Lake Nakuru. We saw lots of cool animals, including the black and white rhino. Now we have seen 4 of the Big 5 of Kenya: lion, elephant, buffalo, and rhino. We lack only the leopard.
We stayed at Thomson's Falls, which is lovely, even though the county charges you to get close enough to see the whole thing. The lodge we were staying at let us into the viewing area one morning before the county employees showed up, so we didn't have to pay, but it was a bit too misty for clear pictures.
We saw coffee and tea plantations and drove through Nyeri, where the president of Kenya is from, and where they have the nicest, smoothest roads in all of Kenya.
And we crossed the Equator, on land, several times. Of course, we fly over the Equator every time we come to Kenya or go to the US. They poured water into bowls on each side of the Equator to demonstrate the different swirling.
We called the area up there a land "flowing with milk and cabbage." There are lots of dairy cows and lots of cabbage farms. It was interesting to see the difference in the people, farming techniques, and lifestyle there compared with coastal people.
Ben spent this trip mastering walking. He had taken about a week off from trying to walk, when he was focusing more on communication. After learning several new signs (including blanket, juice, brother), he decided to work on walking again. But my favorite picture of him from the trip, he was crawling.
Nate loved seeing all the new things. Just 4 months ago, we went on safari to Tsavo East, for our first game drives. In these few months, he suddenly "got" the concept of seeing things out the window of the car. He saw a lot of the animals on our first safari, but this time, he really enjoyed it, looked for animals, and identified them before we told him, for example, "Look, there's a buffalo." And he was equally excited about seeing the mountains and lake. My favorite picture of him from the trip was at the airport in Nairobi, watching airplanes load and unload.
Easy.
The real purpose of this trip was to gain insight on registering, starting, and running a children's home in Kenya from our friend who has been doing this for many years. But, I will talk about that on Maisha Kamili's blog later in the week. We have one more job to do first, then I will update. Over here, I am talking about family time and sightseeing.
 |
| Nate with some of the nursery school kids at Hope and Victory. |
This trip we saw the two tallest mountains in Africa - Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya. Kilimanjaro we saw from the airplane and Kenya we saw from about 20 miles away in Nanyuki. It was cloudy most of the trip, so we didn't see the peak of either.
 |
| Clearest shot of Mt Kenya we managed on the cloudy day |
 |
| Mt Kenya, mostly covered by clouds and rain |
We saw and drove across the Great Rift Valley. That was very cool.
 |
| the road we took through the valley |
 |
| I love the cloud/rain in this pic |
We went to Lake Nakuru. We saw lots of cool animals, including the black and white rhino. Now we have seen 4 of the Big 5 of Kenya: lion, elephant, buffalo, and rhino. We lack only the leopard.
We stayed at Thomson's Falls, which is lovely, even though the county charges you to get close enough to see the whole thing. The lodge we were staying at let us into the viewing area one morning before the county employees showed up, so we didn't have to pay, but it was a bit too misty for clear pictures.
 |
| the full falls from my phone's camera - didn't have the real camera when we snuck down to the viewing area. |
We saw coffee and tea plantations and drove through Nyeri, where the president of Kenya is from, and where they have the nicest, smoothest roads in all of Kenya.
 |
| a coffee plant |
And we crossed the Equator, on land, several times. Of course, we fly over the Equator every time we come to Kenya or go to the US. They poured water into bowls on each side of the Equator to demonstrate the different swirling.
We called the area up there a land "flowing with milk and cabbage." There are lots of dairy cows and lots of cabbage farms. It was interesting to see the difference in the people, farming techniques, and lifestyle there compared with coastal people.
 |
| A milk truck, but most milk was transported by donkey and cart |
 |
| lots of cabbage piled on the side of the road |
Ben spent this trip mastering walking. He had taken about a week off from trying to walk, when he was focusing more on communication. After learning several new signs (including blanket, juice, brother), he decided to work on walking again. But my favorite picture of him from the trip, he was crawling.
 |
| I just love his face. |
Nate loved seeing all the new things. Just 4 months ago, we went on safari to Tsavo East, for our first game drives. In these few months, he suddenly "got" the concept of seeing things out the window of the car. He saw a lot of the animals on our first safari, but this time, he really enjoyed it, looked for animals, and identified them before we told him, for example, "Look, there's a buffalo." And he was equally excited about seeing the mountains and lake. My favorite picture of him from the trip was at the airport in Nairobi, watching airplanes load and unload.
 |
| He can't wait to go on an airplane again. Lucky boy - it will take 3 planes to get us from here to Texas in a few months. |
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