We are back!

and it is the beginning of rainy season. it is actually raining sideways today. it has taken us a long time to get back to the blog..but we have great pictures to share of our adventure to Lake Turkana...so stay tuned.....

in the meantime here are some fun pictures from the animal sanctuary.
warthogs or as someone once called them 'remote control pigs'



.....and we went to go visit my mothers adopted rhino child, maxwell, on family day.

we are both working very hard. i have learned to drive in crazy nairobi and i now drive myself to the museum everyday! brandons work is going well. it seems he puts out a new fire everyday.

ok. dinner time here and we have to don our pacific northwest parkas and head home before dark.

At the Museum

Well it finally happened! I am at the museum and things are fine....there are a lot of researchers there and it is nice to meet many people I have heard a lot about. So far I am learning the teeth skull. of African mammals....for example a table of a primate and a zebra


Hmmmmm........(I think this says a lot about both Kenya and the museum)

Our same friends with the 4x4 (Barbara and Kevin) are big mountain bikers -that's how they met actually! Every year there is a famous race on Mt. Kenya where people bike from 10,000 to 4,000 feet. They of course love this kind of thing! Barbara actually won last year....they needed someone to drive their car from the start to the finish. So Brandon and I happily volunteered. I actually got to drive as well. So we were off and about with these powerful cars off roading and seeing a lot of wildlife. I wish we had more pictures...but we were busy riding.

Camping the first night at 10,000 feet was very very cold. But it felt refreshing..they even had a campfire going. We had to get up very early the next morning so Kevin and Barb could prepare!


This is the car I got to drive...on the wrong side of the road and everything. I have decided that I would like to have this car. Brandon says I am getting spoiled by driving such a nice car!



We saw a lot of animals: zebra, giraffes and some impala (the horns are just at the top of the photo)



The race ended at a beautiful campsite with food and a bar and live music. I think I look like where's waldo in this picture.



Kevin did well in the race. He placed 3rd....but Barb was not so lucky. She feel really hard (twice) on her hip.....she is still recovering and as you can see needs help walking!

Lake Magadi

Lake Magadi is a soda lake in southern Kenya in the Rift Valley. We went camping there with some friend (who have a 4x4!). It is a pretty desolate place-it is where they filmed many scenes from The Constant Gardener.

There was no one around but as soon as we set up camp Maasi showed up from all over. They just stood around staring at us...


The wind was pretty fierce and protecting the tent was tough...


But was had a beautiful sunset!

Mombasa by Train!

We headed down to the Indian Ocean with our friend Kasia on the famous Nairobi-Mombassa train. It was not as nice as we imagined....we were very very late and the train broke down 10Km outside Mombassa....but hey the experience was priceless....but we flew back.

Here are Kasia and I waiting for the train. It was two hours late leaving the station. The explaination was that it had to be watered. There must have been a translation problem....



The train itself is actually nice, a little run down, but still pleasant. The lights only work when the train is moving so while we were stopped or delayed we were in the dark!



There are a lot of people who live on the tracks-illegally. Technically the railroad owns the land so there is always a threat of the homes being razed in the middle of the night. Most of the kids just aks for money. These kids were just playing...



A nice view out the train and another train that was not so lucky!



But we did finally make it....and the beach was beautiful. White sand and blue water....



But it was hot...steamy and hot....not good for my Scottish blood. I could never cool down and was bright red...many people wanted to know if I was ok. Next time I will insist on air conditioning.

Mombasa has been a key trading post for the past 500 years. In the 1500's the Portuguese built Fort Jesus...


We we are on the back of a tuk-tuk which is basically a taxi-trike!

Our life these days.....

Here is a picture of where I spend my days.....at this desk.....
The wonderful natural history museum is being difficult....welcome to Kenya everyone keeps telling me. I do have the permit, but apparently the permit granting people shouldn't have given it to me with my paying for affiliation. No one knows how this could have happened....at any rate I am working on that and it looks like it will cost some money....welcome to Kenya.

Working from home is, of course, not the worst thing but motivation can be tricky! But I can work on papers and such...no internet which is a real bummer.

But it is even worse for Brandon. His office is a comedy of errors. He is doing an amazing job of juggling all his projects...but the internet doesn't always work and the tech guy can't be found. OR the building is locked, in the middle of the day, and no one can get in-or out!

Plus everything, no matter how simple seems to take weeks....welcome to Kenya!

It is not all bad...I am taking Swahili at the Anglican Church which is quite a trip! I take private lessons three days a week which is very useful but they do like to teach things like Jesus loves you in Swahili (Jesus anakupenda-if you are curious). It seems that most of the clientele are missionaries. But it is right near the house and I can walk and they serve very yummy tea at 10:30.

Work issues aside we are managing to get around. The traffic is out of control..we can't figure out quite why the police just look at the traffic more than directing per se. Sometimes we get out to the main street and that's it....no movement. This would all be fine expect that it is not safe to walk at night....so it takes special planning. So that is it...that is our life these days....

Sensitive Topics

Brandon and I were invited to join a band of rastifarians on a trip north-we said yes immediately!!

However it turns out that the are a band of concerned citizens who are activists for the repatriated tribes. This is a very sad story...and a very sad visit. This group has been forced to live in these terrible huts for 12 years!

This is a sensitive situation and so aren't using pictures with people from the groups and so such....but it was an amazing experience. Kenya is an amazing, sad and beautiful country.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

We had a very quiet New Year. Everybody we knew was out of town and you can't really go out at night so...we spend the night on our back porch. There was a concert in the park down the street so we did get to hear live music.

This picture is a little bright...but hey it is tough to take pictures of yourselves in dim light.