final day

I am on my last full day here in Africa. I just wanted to say that I wish I could of put more on the blog. I feel like I did not get much accomplished. It was really a trying year for internet. I will be putting all my video together in the following months. I look forward to putting this video together in a way that can open eyes to the Mathare Valley. I had such a great time here once again. The children look so much better this year. There are also a lot more kids running around then the previous year. So, the school continues to grow. I do hope those of you reading will have the opportunity to come across the video I will put together. It can help to fill many of the gaps that were left out on the blog. I appreciate those who tried to keep up.

Beach days at Kilifi

I wanted to put up a few pictures to give those of you reading what the beach was like. The view was spectacular. I wish I could of taken more pictures. The truth is, I was sick nearly the entire stay at the beach. I woke up the first morning with a sinus issue. It was a little more than a sinus issue. The sheets at the hotel smelled like mildew. I stayed up all night. I just could not get the smell past my senses. I have asthma. One of the issues with my asthma is that I have a real issue with mold and mildew. It kills me. It closes up my lungs. This time thou, it destroyed me. I nearly felt like I just wanted to die. That second picture of my porch. You know, the one with the chairs and the little bed with pillows. That is where I spent all my time. I had almost become one with that bed. If it had a mosquito net, I would of slept there all night. It was far more comfortable and better smelling than my bed. Not many places in Africa use dryers. Typically you hang your clothes out to dry. Well, it was raining so much. So nothing really seemed to dry very well. My roomie, Jim, paid to have his laundry done. He got his clothes back wet. So, I am guessing the sheets were put back on the beds in the same manner.

The showers were interesting. Well, not if you really love salt water. If you love salt water, than move to the coast of Africa. You can take all your showers in the sodium chloride filled water. There is nothing like a little itch after a nice long, hot shower.

O boy! Do the showers come out of no where on the coast. I was sleeping on my favored bed on the porch. I woke up to what I thought was a tornado coming. I was thinking to myself, "what in the hell do I do." Sorry for the "hell" word, but that is what I thought at the time. I really thought there was a tornado coming. It sounded like a tornado, but looked more like a hurricane. I thought to myself. This is just like back home in Florida. You know, the year that all the hurricanes blew through. It was like a jet turbine engine was opened up. All the palm trees started to sway over, leaves were flying, and Aaron started crying. Maybe not crying, but panic was more like it. I trully did not know what was going on. Than all the sudden, a massive rain storm burst onto the scene. I have never seen anything like it. I had to check the undies to see if they needed a change. I knew I was in the clear, when the rain started. I was suppose to take a kayak out with a few others. I was feeling so bad, that I had to skip out. Come to find out, I did not miss much. Other than, paddling my heart out to get about 10 feet from shore. Oh, and getting soaking wet trying to make that 10 feet. Jim and Lee Ray had no luck in the kayak. From what Jim tells me. You were pushed backwards more every stroke you tried to make. So, turns out, I was doing alright on my porch.

All aboard!

Ah! The life onboard an African train. We left Nairobi for Mombosa on a cross country train trip. I was pretty excited! Until this trip, I had never been on a train. Now, I have been on two trains. I first rode a train from Lynchburg to Washington D.C. just before flying to Africa. I must admit thou, the African train ride is a little differant. So, we all hop on board. Everyone gets into their room There was two to a room. The train was not really luxurious or anything. I can not say that I was really expecting it to be thou. The first thing on everyone's agenda was dinner.

Patrick had set the group up on the first dinner slot. So, the bell rings. Most of us are very hungry at this point. Needless to say, there was not a lot of time waisted moving from car to car. We arrive in the dinning car. Everything looked top notch. The menu looked really nice. I was thinking to myself, " this is going to be great." We had three choices of meals. There never seems to be chicken on the menu at the guest house. Naturally, I go for the chicken. Bad choice! I hardly could cut any meat off that chicken. It was awful. To top it all off, the light were going on and off. At first only the first four tables had light to begin with. You guessed it, none of us were one of those four tables. So we went from no light. Than we had a little light. Than we went to lights flickering on and off. It was almost like you were riding on a haunted train. By the end of the meal, the staff tied little lights to the ceilings to provide some light to everyone. Not much good it did any of us. Our meal was all but over.

Boy, was this a long train ride. If you ever come to Africa. Stay way from the train. You can almost run to your destination quicker. We had a little confussion when we tried to leave the train station in Mombosa. There was a man that wanted to see our tickets receipt. Let's see, we had one woman collect one sheet when we first got on the train. Than an hour later, another woman wanted the other one to give us our meal. So, at this point, we were left to nothing. We had nothing to show the man. So, he was not going to let us leave the train station until we produced a ticket. Lucky for us, there was a staff woman who knew we were all in a big group. She told the man we had a two sheets of paper and that they were both taken from us. So, he finally let us through. than came the next fun part. There was suppose to be two vans waiting for us. There was only one. We were told by the one driver that the other van was on the way. We were there for about 40 minutes. It was starting to drizzle a little. So, Carroll worked out a deal with a taxi to get us to the resort. We later find out when we get to the hotel, that the driver was arrested. The manager had called him to see if he had arrived to pick us up. He was pulled over for talking on the phone. Not that it is an offense here. But he was asked to pay a bribe to drive away. He would not pay the bribe, so he was arrested. The things you have to deal with at times here in Africa. You never know which police or at what time they want you to give them something. I find it rather funny. I had passed this big building in Nairobi that said, " the anti corruption commission." I tell you, they are dropping the ball. Here is an idea. You put me in charge of that commission. I will drive around in my own personal car. I will go loaded with a stun gun. If I get pulled over and I am asked to pay a bribe. I will stun you until you pay me a bribe. Than I will stun you a few more times until you get the picture that there will be consequences for your deceit. I will than use that money I raise to go to schools in need. Sounds like a win, win situation to me.

I put that picture up top on the blog, so everyone can see how they load those cars. We stayed in a overnight car. So, we were not loaded. But the train that left the station before ours was so loaded. I thought I was in India when they were pulling out. The only difference. There was not people standing on top of the car. You can not really see all the people on the inside. I might not be lying when I say there are around a hundred or more people in that one car. I personally like the guy who is sitting out the window. There would be some kind of group back in the states barking at the bit to get some political intervention. But this is Africa. You just got to take things as they go. If you bark to much, you might find yourself swiming with the crocodiles. It would be mighty hard to find evidence.

a few pics of amboseli national park

sorry for the long delay

I am really sorry about the delay. I know I have mentioned the internet situation before. I bought an internet card. I put alot of money on it. Enough money to get me through the rest of my trip. Wouldn't you know it thou, it does not work. I figured out the problem. The money that the girl at the shop added to it, never was added. So, now I have to go back and kick some butt. She was going to send me off without the receipt, but I knew better. Another bad thing is the internet card is only picking up reception in Nairobi. so the safari and the beach trip is a no go for internet. It is just another thing I think we take for granted. I know I like to complain when I am not getting fast connection for my xbox live games. Out here, you just hope you can get dial up connection.

We have been away for 3 days. We made our way down to Amboseli national park in southern Kenya. It was really a beautiful place. It was one of the nicest places I have ever stayed. I still think the Turks and Caicos has it thou, Aunt Shari. The view from your room or the common area was almost second to none. We had a view of mount kiliminjaro. It was so beautiful. We were able to see both peaks: Kibo and Mawenzi. The park was really beautiful. It was different than some of the other parks thou. It did not have a shortage of water. Water runs of the mountain and collects in pools around the park. I was hoping to see some crocodiles, but no luck. so the search must go on. This was the best park for elephants. We saw them all over the place. We got lucky in the last hour. We finally saw some lions. I was just hoping that some of the group would get a chance to see a cat. It was only going to be most of the groups only safari. So, I was hoping for the best. I could not believe how close the elephants would get to the vehicles. They would walk across the road in between vehicles. I thought we were going to have one elephant flip one of our vans. Also, another elephant flip the van I was in. We were within about 10 feet of a big male. he just stood there like a lazy big boy. Than all the sudden, he kicked his ears up and did a step. He was just trying to give us the picture. I was not really wanting to walk back to the camp. An interesting thing, I saw my first hippo out of the water. This park had alot of hippos. All in all, a great trip.

We had some confusion in our train transportation to the beach. So, we will be leaving tomorrow afternoon to Mombosa. I am so looking forward to this trip. I miss the beach. I need to feel like I am back home. Well, just a little. I sure do miss the food thou.

The clinics at the school have been going very well. We currently have two doctors and a nurse working things. It was really a treat, to learn some new things. The kids look great. We had so many issues last year. It was so exhausting. This year the kids look wonderful. It really is owed to the nurse at the school. She was hired just before we arrived last year. So it goes to show that she has been treating the kids throughout the year. I have been selfish and wanting to see some crazy things. But no luck. I had to tell a few kids to get sick, so I have something to look at.

I will put up a few pictures. I will get back to everyone at the end of the week. I will most likely be without internet again till we get back from Mombosa. Hope all is well!

underwear drive

The great debate. Boxers! Or Briefs! We passed out the undies at the school. There was a lot of laughter floating around. No one wanted the boxers. That was until Kim told the guys that all the football players wore boxers. So than they snatched them all up.

hello to everyone

I am going to be a little brief tonight. I do not have much time, as usual. We finally figured out the problem with the internet card. Wayne just needed to add some money to it. So, hopefully things will get back to normal with the posts. Mercy Care has been wonderful. I got a chance to do a lot of filming around the valley. I even got some footage of an area outside the valley. I hope to have plenty of footage to show everyone. I am going to run, but I will purchase an internet card for myself tomorrow afternoon. Than, I will be in business.