Kenya Update 1/18/10 - Borrowed Time

It seems like 2010 is not the year for writing in this blog. It's definitely not for lack of activity, as I've been here and there and everywhere for the last couple weeks. My time is running very short in Kenya, I will be home soon! It is very surreal, being so close to coming home. I have really grown to love the people here, my little community at ANU, and Kenya in general. Consequently, it has been an emotional roller coaster, every 8 hours or so I swing from being so excited to come home and see everyone I love and miss so much, to being extremely sad to be leaving this place that I've grown to love and will miss so much. Once again, it seems the best things in my life are always bitter sweet.

Last week on Thursday one of the more significant role models and mentors in my life died of cancer. John Williams was an incredible man who was in love with Jesus Christ. This love inspired every word and act of his life. His love of Christ and consequential love of everything transformed everyone he came in contact with. Near the end of his life he became increasingly positive and shared more and more love with everyone around him. John's faith was unshakable. He was absolutely and unequivocally convinced that everything he did, and everything that happened to him would bring about God's will. John finished his life epitomizing what it means to be a Christian - finding increasing measures of joy in the face of sorrow and suffering, finding a real vision for God's plan not only through his life but through his death and beyond. It takes real faith to look in the face of death and smile. How I long for that faith! How I long for that vision! John's life has helped me see that it is possible.

Like I said earlier...some of the best things in life are bitter sweet. Life is a peculiar dichotomy between sadness and joy. One of the many things I learned from John is that when you are following Christ, there is nothing in life, whether it is cause for mourning or celebration (or both!), that is without hope.

I have quite a few goals for the next just-over-a-month, I will definitely be busy. Yet, I will need prayer to find the wisdom to identify the most important needs I can meet, and realize the discipline to work hard and leave this place better than how I left it.

In other news, I went to Mombasa! I explored around with Dr. Mark Pitts' son Ben and my friend Graham. Check out my Picasa albums for all the bloody (not really) details. I am quite sun burned, but happily so having experienced a true tropical paradise. Also, I retrieved my pictures from my trip to Luo-land in December. Included is a link to that album on Picasa!

Christmas in Kenya

Mombasa, baby!

Kenya Update 1/4/10 - "Happy New Year!" or "Wild Animals and Birthday Cheese"

I have been having a great time as 2009 departs and as I grow accustomed to 2010. From this point on, we will be able to say it is "two thousand and ten" or "twenty ten". This will not change for 90 years, we will always have 2 ways to describe the date. My friend Jessica made a comment about the relativity of time that still has me thinking. At this point in my life, 1 year represents 1/23 of my life. When I was young (say, 4 years old), 1 year represented 1/4 of my life. Thus, the years are getting shorter and shorter.

Anyway - I have seen some animals and spent some time with good people the last few days of 2009 and these first few days of 2010. On New Years Eve we got together with the Pitts family, Riao Yi and his wife, the Dibos and myself to go to the Giraffe Center in Karen. We were able to feed the giraffes, pet them and kiss them which looks much more gross than it is, don't worry! After the giraffe center we hustled over to the Nairobi National Park to see the baby elephants at the elephant orphanage. They were cute and dirty, and the sun was hot!

The rest of New Years Eve was very fun as well, we had dinner at the Pitts and lit off ghetto firecrackers and had a silly dance party in the driveway under a nearly full moon. It was super fun! Also, Charles spent the night in my flat, which is always a good time, though we went to be early (big plans for New Years Day...)

On New Years Day, we piled into the Pitts car at 5:30 am to go to Amboseli National Park down close to Tanzania and Mount Kilimanjaro. It was such a cool trip, we saw so many animals: buffalos, flamingos, hippos, monkeys, baboons, and of course elephants!!! I got some great pictures, and it was a LONG day. So long in fact, that we spent the night at the field office (we didn't get back till 10:30 pm)

The following day (Saturday) we went out for breakfast and spontaneously decided to go to the theater to see Avatar. I'm SO glad we did that, the movie was fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. It satisfied me entirely, it had everything I like in movies and pushed all my buttons for awesomeness. After the movie I took it easy and prepped for the coming week. This week, new students are moving in, and returning students are moving in on Wednesday.

On Sunday the Crawfords took me out for lunch for my "birthday". It was great, they also gave me some cheese that has been passed around, which I am very excited about. I miss cheese.

These are links to pictures I posted on Picasa from the Giraffe Center, Elephant Orphanage, and our trip to Amboseli. Enjoy!

Giraffes and Baby Elephants!

Amboseli National Game Park