Oct 27, 2012 - Pokot Famine Feed

We did an interesting trip last weekend up to the Pokot region for a "famine feed". It was a 4am start in a large truck with 9 - 90kg sacks of unga (maize flour) plus 9 large sacks of cabbages. We took four of the older boys to do the negotiating and translating as this is the region where the parents, grandparents and siblings of most of the children at IHF center come from. We had breakfast at Marigat two hours into our journey, then continued for another two hours off the road on bumpy tracks that connect the villages. There has been...

Oct 16, 2012 - IHF, Kenya No. 1

We flew from Istanbul, overnighted in Dubai, then on to Nairobi next day. Nairobi hasn't changed from what we remember from five years ago. It is teeming with people, cars, buses, matatus (14 seater vans). There was a traffic jam getting from the airport into town to the matatu station. Then the matatu had to stop at the police station, and we all had to get out to be security checked. It was night by the time we arrived at IHF (International Humanity Foundation) Center in Nakuru, a four hour drive from Nairobi. We were greeted by so many...

Mar 12, 2012 - Day 54 to 55 - Nakuru...East Africa Mission Orphanage

Driving through Nakuru, a town about two and a half hours drive north west of Nairobi, I began the task of navigating to the East Africa Mission Orphanage, based on some sketchy directions given to us by mum and dad's tour guide. My folks had booked onto a 14 day Kenya/Tanzania Gecko tour with three other couples they regularly go on 4WD jaunts across oz with. Stopping to ask various people by the side of the road it was clear no one had heard of the East Africa Mission Orphanage (EAMO). I googled EAMO on the iPad, found a local phone...

Sep 8, 2011 - Nakuru Park Safari and more EAMO

Lake Nakuru Game Drive Photos We didn’t pack up to move campsites this morning, we’d be returning for another night at EAMO but would be heading off for the day on a game drive while the all the kiddies were in school. Today we were headed to Nakuru National Park for a half day game drive. As we waited for Kevin to handle the paperwork and the rangers to confirm the number of people on the truck we were amused by the baboons that were climbing all over a bus full of school children also waiting in the parking lot. Remember at...

Sep 7, 2011 - Nakuru: East Africa Mission Orphanage

Crater Lake Walk Photos We woke up this morning in our campsite in Lake Naivasha. We had some delays on the road coming to this camp so the optional excursions were to happen this morning instead. There was supposed to be two options: a walk to Crater Lake (walking safari) or a bike ride in Hell's Gate National park (apparently to see a location used in the Tomb Raider movies? I haven’t seen them so don’t know anything about it). Because of the time limit we now had the bike was no longer an option so nine of us went on the walk to...

Nov 17, 2009 - The results are in!

Today was the day to look at the test results from all the water samples that were set up on Monday. Students anxiously met us at the door to the lab and were very excited about the techniques they had learned the day before to see the results (and so were we!) We are delighted to say that this workshop was a total success and the students and faculty were impressed with the simplicity of the Coliert tubes and the Petrifilm. All the students had followed our incubation instructions and were proud to tell others that they had become human...

Nov 16, 2009 - The Joy of Teaching

Hello, this is Dale. After months of preparation and planning with Dr. Metcalf, today was the day we had been waiting for. We were excited as we made our way across campus to the Biological Sciences building, passing spectacular plantings which included red poinsettias the size of large shrubs. We must have been an unusual site in our dresses and backpacks, the only 2 white faces in the crowd of approximately 8,000 students and faculty at Egerton University. Our goal was to deliver the information about water testing and solar...

Nov 15, 2009 - Final day at Nakuru and on to Egerton University

It was a 5:45 AM wake up for call for us in order to get a game drive in before breakfast and then checkout at 10. We have been enjoying our guide, the beautiful sights from our lodge, plus the exceptional pink flamingos, pelicans, and colobus monkeys that look like they are wearing someone else’s fur coat with a long tail. Today’s game drive was short but we got to experience an extraordinary sight that took our breath away. We had just finished viewing some sleepy lions and once our eyes returned to the road, we noticed approximately 14...

Nov 14, 2009 - Nakuru National Park- second day

We managed to pull ourselves out of bed early on Saturday in order to have a dawn game drive with our new driver, Nyali. We hated to leave Ben and Chege behind but found out that Nyali is as wonderful as our previous to guides. Everyone we have met in Kenya has been extremely polite, thoughtful, PLUS extremely knowledgeable about every flying creature, indigenous plant life, the “big five” (rhino, lion, Cape buffalo, leopard, and of course the elephant) and the rich culture and history of Kenya. As we started down the dusty path, we were...

Nov 13, 2009 - Friday the 13th in Kenya

Jambo, Dale here. Today we met Nyali, our new driver and guide for the next part of our adventure. Sawa (okay), within a few minutes we had driven out of the crowded city of Nairobi and were climbing the hills overlooking the beautiful Rift Valley. We saw small but well-maintained farms. The land was green and fertile. We saw no farm machines. People were using hoes, scythes and mules to do the work, growing maize, beans, potatoes, coffee and tea. Now instead of the skinny cows in the poor villages between Tsavo and Nairobi, we saw a...

Mar 10, 2009 - Nakuru

Another fairly short drive today, to Nakuru. Along the way we saw more zebra and gazelle, including one zebra roadkill, and one near miss for a gazelle that leapt over a small car in a single bound...nearly... It must've clipped the side of the car and it ended up looking like it had hopped its last hop, but it got up and took off again, much to our surprise! We stopped in the town where I was surprised when the hawkers, on finding out I was a Kiwi, said 'Kia Kaha' and 'Tena que'! The campground was pretty good, and we had it to ourselves...

Jan 4, 2009 - Out of Africa... in Nakuru preserve

January 4 We were awoken by tea and hot chocolates which was pleasant compared to the freezing cold air. We had NO cold water!!! Ironic isn’t it, there is never enough hot water and here the water was so burning and they ran out of cold water! Right before it was time to go to breakfast we finally got cold water so we showered but of course we were still late. Breakfast was very good, we had mixed fruit plates, eggs, potatoes, waffles (which are actually pancakes but they call crepes pancakes so they call pancakes waffles), juice, and hot...