No Snow in Kenya

I know I mention this often, but the weather here really is perfect. Don't get me wrong I like the seasons and am a little bit jealous that I missed the snow at home yesterday, but for it to be 80 degrees and always sunny in January is pretty nice.

It is hard to believe that my time here in Kenya is already half-way finished. At times it feels like I just got here and other times it feels like I've been here for a long time. It still feels that at times I am still struggling with some of the same things that I was when I first got here and that can be frustrating. One example would be in my work at the Center. My role there is essentially focusing on building relationships and there were a couple of people that I felt like I was beginning to do just that, but both are working now and no longer come to class, so now I'm back to square one. It can make you wonder if you are being effective at all when you only get to work with someone for a couple of months and then they are gone. I'm grateful for the ones who are still there that I'm still getting the opportunity to know better and for the new students that are coming. I really enjoyed the English classes this past week and had some good conversations about topics that are a little more important than when to use "was" or "were" correctly in a sentence.

It looks like I'm going to have more opportunities to travel around Kenya these last several months. That is one thing that I wanted to do when I got here, to be able to see a lot of the country and see what God is doing. One of the trips will be to an orphanage to play with the kids and do whatever else I can, others will be to visit Mennonite churches and communities. Another trip will be to the coast for an ultimate frisbee tournament over Easter weekend. Most of the trips will take place after I finish up coaching at Rossyln in mid-March. Speaking of Rosslyn, I've been working hard with the boys the last couple of weeks to get them ready for the upcoming season. We now practice three times a week and on the 31st we play our first game. I wasn't sure exactly how much I would like coaching an actual team as opposed to coaching kids for a week with UW, but I actually like it a lot. It is fun to see the boys improve and catch on to what you are trying to get across to them.

Random thoughts for the week:
- I really really wish I could watch the Giants game against San Fran tonight, but I don't have TV and it comes on at 2:30 in the morning here. This playoff run feels a lot like there run in the 2007-2008 playoffs when they went on to knock off the Pats in the Super Bowl, lets hope I'm right.
- I miss going to Bucknell basketball games, especially since they have another very good team this year.
- February is soon here which means that baseball spring training starts real soon!!
- I started working on filling out applications to return to Liberty this coming fall for grad school. I'm pretty excited about going back and working as a GA in the Athletics Communications Department, plus my little sister will be joining me as a freshman.
- On Friday I saw a thief try to steal a woman's necklace or bracelet and subsequently get grabbed by a couple of other guys and get his butt kicked. They started punching him and threw him to the ground and kicked him until he was able to get up and run away. This all happened right in the middle of downtown with hundreds of other people around.
- I realize that most of my random thoughts are about sports....I wonder why?

God Bless and if it worked two weeks ago I've got to say it again GO BIG BLUE!!

A Safari Trip with my Brother.

My brother Chad arrived last Monday and it has been a joy to have him around. He is doing an around the world trip and his first stop was here to see me. It has been fun just hanging out, chatting, throwing frisbee around, and doing some travelling around together. Last week we went to the Masai Mara National Park for a few days to camp and of course see the wildlife. During migration season the park boasts a wildebeest heard of over a million plus thousands of other animals that flock to the park in search of more food. This isn't migration season, so we didn't see nearly as many animals, but it was still very cool. The Mara is much different than Meru National Park which is where I was a couple of weeks ago. It is much more open with miles upon miles of open grasslands dotted here and there with Acacia trees.

The road leading to the park is bad to put it mildly. After leaving the last main town, Naruk, the road gradually gets worse, from black top to black top with potholes to potholes with a little black top and finally a rough dirt road. It took us a little over 5 hours to reach the park from Nairobi. Once we got into the park and had only travelled a few kilometers our car broke down. We had some local mechanics come and take a look at it and they told us that it would be best to tow the vehicle back to their "garage" and work on it there. Thankfully they were indeed able to fix the vehicle (for the time being) and after charging us the "tourist rate" for their services we were back on the road and into the park.

I've posted a video below that Chad put together of all the animals that we saw, so I won't got into detail about that. Once again it was so amazing to witness all of the animals in their natural habitats instead of behind bars at a zoo. There is something to be said about being within only a few yards of lions, cheetahs, water buffalo, and hyenas. The only animal that we didn't see that we were really hoping to was rhino despite the best efforts of our guide.

We left the park late morning on Thursday and after making it only a few kilometers outside of the gate our vehicle began to experience the same problems and shut off again. Thankfully this time around we were able to figure out what the issue was and were able to fix it and make it back to Nairobi without having to use the services of the mechanics again.

Chad brought with him a suitcase full of "tastes of home". Namely he brought 11 boxes of quality American cereal, including: Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruit Loops, and others (picture below). I really look forward to breakfast now and allowing my taste buds to once again experience the goodness of quality cereal. The suitcase also contained Nature Valley granola bars, Swedish fish, Jack Links beef sticks, Combos, and fruit snacks. So if anyone out there ever feels the need to send me some cereal or other quality American junk food I will not be upset.

Have a blessed week everyone and GO BIG BLUE!

Meru National Park

On Wednesday morning I set off with my friends Dave and Caroline out of Nairobi northeast towards Meru National Park. I was really excited to get out of Nairobi for a few days and see some more of Kenya and some of the magnificent wildlife this country boasts. After finally getting through the urban sprawl of the city we began to travel through lush green country side dotted everywhere with small homes and corn fields. The terrain was hilly for the most part but there were patches of flatter land which was used for growing rice. We passed through many smaller towns which meant speed bumps galore. Being in other countries has made me appreciate the lack of speed bumps in the States. Between the park and my place (approx. 355 km.) there are 259 speed bumps give or take a few. The countryside was very beautiful as we continued to make our way towards Meru with the terrain becoming more mountainous. After a couple of stops we arrived at the park after about 6 hours of being on the road. Shortly after entering the park we stopped at the education center where the main attractions were a display case with a couple dozen samplings of poop from different animals and a collection of "naked mole rats". The poop samplings were actually quite fascinating and helpful later on when we were driving through the park. The naked mole rats were quite ugly to say the least but still pretty cool to look at and watch. After we were finished looking at rats and poop we made our way towards our campsite to get set up and on the way we saw water buck, antelope, zebra, giraffe, and elephants. It is one thing to see some of these animals in a zoo, but to see them in their natural habitat is amazing. After getting our tents and the rest of camp organized we went back out for an evening drive which didn't yield as much game as we hoped but we still saw hippos, dik-diks, and some more of what we had seen earlier. We weren't able to find any maps anywhere so traveling in the park got kind of confusing sometimes and on our way back to camp that night we got slightly turned around, but Dave got us home. When we got back to camp we had a delicious supper of hot dogs, potato salad, and salad and then retired for the night.

Camping in the middle of the African wilderness is just a little bit different than campin in Central PA. In PA you don't really have to wonder if maybe hippos will come out of the nearby stream during the night and trample your tent or any other number of wildlife strolling through and snooping around your camp. Our camp sight had an abundance of baboons and monkeys nearby and they certainly made their presence known during the night. There were multiple times where they seemed to be a little upset with each other and there was a chorus of screams and shouts which didn't exactly make for great sleeping.

We got an early start on Thursday, 5 am, with hopes of catching some lions and other night time critters before they disappeared for the day, but we were largely unsuccessful. Since we just came through the rainy season the vegetation was quite tall which made it very difficult to see very far or spot smaller animals. There could have been lions 10 yards from our vehicle and we had no chance of seeing them. We drove to the Tana River but got there a little to early to see crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks of the river. We returned to camp and had breakfast and then relaxed for the afternoon. We headed back out around 4 and made our way to the rhino sanctuary with high hopes of seeing rhino but ended up not seeing any. We continued to drive around and we still got to see a number of animals including water buffalo, wart hogs, and many more elephants, zebra, antelope, giraffe, and other animals but once again no lions. After polishing another wonderful supper we went to bed early again in order to be well rested for an early start. Thankfully it seemed as if the baboons and monkeys had resolved their dispute from the night before because it was a fairly quiet night. The campsite host said that he had heard lions roaring near the camp during the night, but I must have been sleeping too soundly to hear anything.

Friday morning was another early start and we ventured out for one last chance at seeing lions and once again they eluded us and we didn't see one. Thankfully there were still other animals including our first ostrich sighting. We arrived back at camp, ate breakfast and broke camp and made our way out of the park back towards Nairobi. It felt so good to get out of the city for a few days and see God's amazing creation, but as we got closer to Nairobi I actually got excited to be back in this crazy city. For the first time it felt like I was going "home" and it was nice to get back to the friendly confines of the guest house.

I'm off on another safari trip on Tuesday, this time with my brother Chad. He arrives on Monday morning and then we are off to Kenya's most famous park, the Masai Mara. I have great hopes of seeing many more animals including lions for sure.

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all have a safe and joyous start to 2012!

Of course you have to take a sign with the Equator sign when you pass by it.

Naked Mole Rat

Water Buck

What an amazing creature to see in the wild.

There were about 6 hippos here at this pool, but it was hard to get good pictures of them in the water.

Baobab tree

Dik-dik

The crocodile infested Tana River.

Leopard tortoise

Beautiful African sunset.

Our campsite.

My friends Dave and Caroline.

Our safari vehicle, Dave's Toyota Hillux.

On our way out of the park we ran into a family of Ostrich.

Merry Christmas!!

A very big Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone and since I'm in a former British colony, Happy Boxing Day. I really didn't know how I would feel on Christmas. You see, Christmas is the time of the year that I love the most. I love the music, the food, the cold weather, the giving and receiving, the time with family and friends, all of it is wonderful. Well, a lot of what I love about Christmas I don't have here which is why I wasn't sure how I would feel. It made me realize though that maybe I've put too much emphasis on these other aspects of Christmas and not enough on Jesus himself. How easy it can be to forget that when you live in the States where Christmas has become so commercialized and the true meaning of Christmas seems to have been diluted somewhat. The story of Christmas is so amazing and so out of the ordinary and it was really good to reflect on that more this year.

My Christmas day wasn't extremely eventful and I did miss being with my family, but I really did end up having a good day. I spent most of it here with my friends here at the guest house. I got to skype with my family and with another good friend, I tossed some frisbee around, and then enjoyed a very good meal at the guest house for supper. All in all I can say that my first Kenyan Christmas was a very good one.

The center closed last Tuesday so I've been on my Christmas vacation since last Wednesday. On Tuesday the one group of English students had a little party which was quite fun. We played some games and had a bunch of snacks. On Thursday I went with my friends to a water park. I was just as surprised as you that there would be a water park here, but sure enough we rolled in and there it was. It wasn't exactly the best park I've ever been to, but it was still fun. They had probably about a half-a-dozen slides, some of which were decently fast. Saturday I went to a Christmas Eve brunch at some other friends' house. They had quite the spread of great breakfast foods and since breakfast is my most favorite meal of the day I put away my fair share of calories. Today is Boxing Day and I enjoyed a nice lunch with my neighbors and then played some more frisbee.

This week I'm going to Meru National Park to do some camping, hiking, and check out the wildlife. I'm very excited to get out and see more of Kenya and hopefully next week I'll have some pictures to put up from my trip.

Random thoughts for the week:
- It was great to see the Giants knock off the Jets and their big mouth coach.
- Also really great to see Jimmy Rollins resign with the Phils. It would have been hard to see him go somewhere else.
- My brother Chad arrives next week and I can't wait.
- Skype really is a great invention.

Have a blessed week and a safe and happy New Year, everyone!

Another Video Blog

Living Out the Hope That We Have

I was challenged this past week to take a look at hope and how the hope that I have affects how I live my daily life. We discussed hope at the home group that I attend on Wednesdays and it was a really good discussion. We talked about what exactly hope is and what it means for each of us and how it does/should affect how we live. Those of us who are followers of Christ have the hope of salvation and an eternity spent with Jesus in heaven. There is certainly nothing better than having that hope in our lives. Does that hope change how I live my life on a daily basis? Sadly, I'll admit that it doesn't as much as it should. I want that hope to permeate every every aspect of my life, from how I interact with the students I teach, the basketball players that I coach, my friends here and at home, to the random people I meet on the streets or on matatus.

Happy Jamhuri Day to everyone! Jamhuri Day is one of the most important holidays celebrated here in Kenya. It marks the date of Kenya's establishment as a republic on December 12, 1964. Jamhuri, in Swahili, means "republic". So I'm at home today "celebrating", actually I can't say that I'm doing anything special to celebrate besides playing ultimate frisbee later on this afternoon.

On Saturday, our season ending softball tournament was held and I am proud to report that my team, the X-pats, took home the championship in dominating fashion. This was the first time in nine years that the X-pats took home the crown. We garnered the number one seed for the tournament and took out the fourth seeded Rosslyn Academy team by a final score of 18-3 in the semi-finals. We advanced to the championship game against the American team and sparked by an eighteen run third inning, rolled to a 30-12 win. I even had two homeruns in that game, mind you they were of the inside-the-park variety, but when there is no fence that is the only way to get them. Which is nice because I can't hit the ball over any fence anyway. The spring season will kick off in late January or early February and we'll be primed to repeat.

Random thoughts for the week:
- The rainy season seems to have finally ended. It has been a week since we last had rain and the weather has turned absolutely beautiful, with daytime highs in the mid to upper 70s with plenty of sunshine and a nice breeze.
- This is the last week for intramurals at Rosslyn. Wednesday we'll have the championship game and then take a break for the holidays and return to action in January. We had to make final decisions on who to put on the two teams for next season, which was harder than I thought it would be. We had to cut about twelve players, most of whom I had become fond of and would have liked to keep around.
- Stella is still running good and there are no accidents to report yet, let's hope it stays that way.
- I'll admit that right now I'm listening to the John Tesh Radio Show on 100.9 The Valley. I'm not really listening for his "intelligence for your life", but more for the Christmas music. I have yet to hear a radio station that plays Christmas music here, which is completely different than back home. There you can't get away from it, here you have to look hard to find anything that reminds you that Christmas is only thirteen days away.
- Huge win by my Giants last night against the Cowboys. I'm liking there chances to ride this big win all the way to the the NFC East title.
- I'm really, really hoping that J-Rol resigns with the Phils. I can't imagine him playing in any other uniform. He needs to retire in those red pinstripes.
- Friday was UW's annual "Pride on Nine" day. This is the day in which all current and past Udub'ers are to wear their UW gear and show their pride. I didn't really have much gear to wear, but I did get a couple of pictures taken in Eastleigh, which I've posted below along with a couple of other random pictures.

I hope everyone has a blessed week and let's all live out the hope that we have in Christ.

With one of my students and friends, Yahyah.

Another student and friend, Fieyssa.

UW pride in Eastleigh.

I was trying to get them to put up a "UW" with their fingers.

Locking down third base, gold glove style.

That's me down at first base, coaching away.

More coaching, helping out the elder statesman on our team, Peter.

Stella!!!

I have decided to name my newly acquired motorcycle, Stella, in honor of one of my all time favorite Seinfeld clips. The clip presents Elaine, a little loopy from pain medication, meeting Jerry's Aunt Stella. Upon meeting Aunt Stella, Elaine begins to immediately yell out "Stella" in a deep throated voice. I just watched the clip and it makes me laugh every time. Random, I know, but that is what I came up with. I rode Stella for the first time on Tuesday and was instantly reminded of how much fun it is to ride motorcycles. I feel bad for those of you who don't ride, because you are missing out on one of the greatest joys in life. Riding here in Nairobi is definitely different than back in the States. When I hit a line of traffic, I just ride right by it instead of waiting in line. Why wait when it is perfectly acceptable to go to the front of the line? Stella isn't exactly like my Wee-Strom but she gets the job done. She actually has more power than I expected, seeing is how she is only a 185cc. With a little roll on the throttle she can easily pass any slow poke drivers. I look forward to many more adventures and quality time spent with Stella. (pictures of Stella below)

Happy December to everyone. It is hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. It is even more hard to believe when I am sitting here in shorts and a t-shirt on this 75 degree day. There also aren't as many decorations plastered everywhere reminding you what time of year it is. I'm listening to Christmas music as I type hoping that it will help induce more excitement within me for the upcoming holiday.

Random thoughts for the week:
- I'm happy to see that the NBA will indeed have a season this year. The league is way too popular right now for them to forgo an entire season.
- A torrential downpour last night caused flooding all around my apartment. There was a good foot of water in the driveway and in the back yard. The neighbor children certainly enjoyed the newly developed "pond" in the backyard. Once again an example of the poor drainage system here.
- For whatever reason, I've been more dedicated to jogging since I got here and I actually am enjoying it somewhat.
- I'm also reading and journaling, two things that before were nearly non-existent, especially the journaling. Who would have thought that reading books could be so enlightening?
- We only had one basketball practice this week. We got rained out on Thursday. (pictures of the boys below)
- The managers of the Guest House returned from their time in the States on Thursday night and I'm looking forward to hanging out with them and getting to know them better.
- I randomly started driving on the right side of the road the other night and was quickly reminded that that was the wrong side as I saw headlights coming directly at me. I quickly corrected the problem and returned to the left lane where I belonged.

With my new friend.

Stella

The Snow Leopards

The Panthers

The Spicy Wings

Team Aqua