Hey everyone,
I know last time we said we were going to post more often but time got away from us, so its been another 2 weeks since we last posted.
A lot has happened as usual.
April 8, started out a little rough. It was Easter Sunday morning and Maxine and I were all excited to go to church to experience how Kenyan's do Easter. Usually JD picks us and the kids up at around 9:00 for church but for some reason at 9:00 he wasn't there. A little after 9:00 I asked the oldest girl at HLCH, Louis, if JD was coming and she said that he was. Before we realized it it was 10:00 and that is when the service starts. I was frustrated so a went downstairs and asked a mom to call JD to see where he was. she did but there was no answer. With all that said we missed church and JD was about 45 minutes away at the new church location in Kenol. We ended up just reading our bibles and watching some videos on youtube! haha
Monday, April 9th was a great day! It was my birthday and Maxine treated me like a king! Earlier in the week we were planning to hick Mount Kenya but plans fell through so we just had a day at HLCH. She made me breakfast (which she always does haha) and i didn't have to clean the dishes! She also surprised me with a birthday cake! She asked me to bring a knife to the downstairs kitchen for one of the moms and when i walked in, there was a cake with candles and all the kids sang happy birthday to me. It was a really fun time with all the kids there. Everybody got to eat the cake and its was very delicious. That night we went to Safari Park Hotel to get dinner and we ate at place with a lot of American food. Originally we were going to get sushi but i changed my mind at the last minute and it wasn't a good choice! haha The food wasn't great but we still had fun. After we got back at around 7:00 we went and played with George, one of our favorite babies, in our room.
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| Baby George |
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| George just threw up on Maxine |
Tuesday, April 10th Pastor Peter took us to the other HLCH location called Juja. It is 5 acres in the middle of know where. It is about 45 minutes from where we live. Juja is where they plan to have school age kids live. Currently they are doing construction to get it ready so kids can live there. They plan to have a school and a few houses for the kids. There is a multipurpose building (its being used as a church right now) that is already built and they are building the first set of houses where the kids will stay with a mom to get the feeling of a home environment. 2 guys live at Juja and take care of it. They have 2 green houses, 2 cows, 250 chickens, and around 6 goats. It is so awesome to see what HLCH is accomplishing!
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| one of the houses being built at Juja and the green house |
Thursday, April 12 was very long. Around March 28, Margaret ( Maxine's mom) sent 2 packages for us and said they should get to Kenya within 10 days. It had been more than 10 days so we decided to go to the post office to see if we could pick it up. Also we were leaving for Mount Kenya on Friday and we wanted to see what was sent. We get to the post office around 12 and there wasn't a notice to pick up a package. We talked to a lady that was working and she said you can track it if you have the tracking numbers. We decided to call and wake up Margaret at 6:00 a.m. to see if she had the tracking number. Luckily she did! By the time we got the tracking number it was lunch time so we had to wait 2 hours until lunch was over so they could track it. We got it tracked and it turns out it arrived April 3rd. Once they found the package for us we had to go through this long process of paying all these fees. The post office tries to charge you 25% plus 16% of the packages total value. They ended up wanting us to pay around 40 dollars to get the package that was already paid for in the US. We bargained with them and only paid 20 dollars! We didn't leave the post office until 5:00!
Friday, April 13 we left to hick Mount Kenya (4 days and 3 nights) as my late birthday present. Our driver picked us up from HLCH at 8 and we were off for our big adventure. It is 200 km from Nairobi to Mount Kenya so we had about a 2 hour car ride. On our way we stopped at the equator for a water spinning demonstration and to look at the shops.
We ended up buying a ebony elephant from this guy who wanted a ton for it at first but we talked him down to 1/3 of of what he wanted! After that we stopped at the place where we met our guide and porters (guys that carry your stuff, food and gear). After getting all of our stuff situated we left for the park entrance. For our trip we exited at a different entrance than where we came in. On our way up the mountain we took the Sirimon route, which is the dry side and the most gradual and on the way down we took the Naromoru route. For our first day we hiked 9 km. We went from 8,700 ft to 10,800 ft in 3 hours. We stayed at Old Moses so we could get acclimated to the altitude. I can't remember what we had for dinner but every meal was 3 courses and tasted amazing. Maxine got a recipe for butternut squash soup from Mundi, the cook.
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| Base Camp |
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| the living/eating room at base camp |
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| Bed room at base camp |
Saturday, April 14 we started our day at 6:00 a.m.. If the rain held off we were to hike 14 km to a camp right below the top of Mount Kenya. The hike was so challenging! I did not realize how out of shape i was or how much the altitude effects you. It almost felt like the both of us weren't going to make it. We ended up getting to camp at around 2. We were so exhausted after hiking from 10,800 ft to 13,800 ft in 7 hours! God was looking out for us the entire trip because he usually held off the rain until we got to camp.
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| A huge hill we were about to climb. You can see the path if you look closely. |
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| we took a break and ate some cashews! |
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| just filled up my water bottle from the stream |
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| you can almost see the top of Mount Kenya |
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| Mount Kenya in the clouds |
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| taking a break after climbing a huge hill |
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| camp the second night. Shipton's Camp. elevation 13,800 ft |
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| The cook on the left and the porters on the right |
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| an amazing sunset at Shipton's camp! |
Sunday, April 15 we started at 3:00 a.m. in hopes of reaching the top to see the sunrise. We got dressed and ready to go then it started raining. Our guide suggested we wait for the rain to stop because when its cloudy you cannot see anything when you get to the top. It only took 30 minutes for the rain to stop so we left at 4:30. We only had to hike 4 km but we had to go up over 3,000 ft to get to the top. This hike was so tiring! We didn't make it to the top before sunrise but we still had the most amazing views. The pictures can't show how beautiful it was! Once we got to the top Maxine and I had altitude sickness and weren't feeling very well. Our guide, Jasphert gave us some medicine for sickness. We stayed at the summit for about 15 minutes and then headed down to another camp for breakfast. After breakfast we hiked 14 more km to the next camp. For the first time it rained on us while we were hiking. The rain wasn't too heavy and it only lasted for about an hour. We got to our camp around 3:30 after a very long day.
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| Sunrise but not at the top |
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| This is a lake almost at the top of Mount Kenya. |
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| we are above the clouds |
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| such a good background |
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| so amazing |
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| me, almost at the top |
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| Maxine holding the sun haha |
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| looking down |
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| Maxine at the summint |
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| The top of Mount Kenya |
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| The Kenayan Flag |
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| at the top |
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| Coming down the mountain using ropes |
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| Glacier on the right |
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| Eating cashews again after running down a huge hill with loose rocks |
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| Resting my legs after running down the huge hill |
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| A burnt tree from a forest fire a month ago |
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| The path on the way down the mountain |
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| Maxine, Robert, and I |
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| the spot where we climbed to |
Monday, April 16th was the last day of the hike. We only had 9 km left until we were done. When we woke up and walked outside we were surrounded my monkeys. The guys warned us to keep our door shut or else the monkeys would take our stuff. After we ate breakfast we left for the last little bit of hiking. This part was so easy compared to the other days. On the way down we kept looking for buffalo and elephants because their poop was everywhere. We never saw any animals besides monkeys. At the end of the trip we hiked 54 km and went up 8,000 ft and down 8,000 ft. After we packed up we had lunch with the group at a butchery. When we walked in flies were all over a piece of meat hanging in the window. It was not very appealing! I ate the meat but Maxine ate mainly chapati. When we got back to HLCH pastor peter invited us to dinner with his family at an Indian restaurant. It was so amazing!
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| A monkey at the last camp we stayed |
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| the crew |
Tuesday, April 18 -Maxine had a girls day and went with Judy to the market to shop. She had a wonderful time and got some cool gifts for friends. I think she really needed and wanted a girls day after hiking for 4 days with 7 guys haha! I just rested at HLCH and help with laundry.
Yesterday and today have been low key. We helped with 3 of the 4 feeding and played with the older kids. The past 2 nights we have been going to the t.v room where all the kids play. I wrestled with the kids for so long and was so tired afterwards.
Right now i'm writing this post while David and Fred watch me! haha
Whit
