kenya

A few weeks ago, my Mom calls first thing one morning to just check in...but with more of an agenda so I would find out.  About 10 minutes into our chatting, she says, "I have a proposal."  She proceeds to lay out her well-thought-of plan of how she wants to send me over to see Bek, Troy, & the girls as a birthday surprise for Bekah; she'll take off of work to care for our kids while Jim is at work, for them to spend the night when needed, she would do anything I needed for the kids and Jim.  My first response was 'no'; I cannot possibly leave my family, especially our kids.  She asked me to consider it: I said I would but really didn't think I would actually call her back with, "I'm going.  Let's book a ticket before I chicken out!"  Between those two phone calls, I talked with Jim and he said with no hesitation that I should go, that this maybe my only chance to get over there.  Sooooo....

I looked at my calendar and found a date that would work.  But before I made any concrete plans, I needed to make sure that the dates would work for the Sammons...and somehow do this without Bek finding out or getting suspicious.  So, I called Troy but Bek immediately got suspicious...maybe because Troy would shoo her out of the room every time she came in...or maybe it was also because I called on her phone (I didn't have Troy's cell number!).  After that mess of a phone call and many texts afterward, I was able to finally purchase my tickets.  Whew!  But that's just the beginning!

In the following couple of weeks, I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000,000 texts were exchanged between me and Troy, trying to plan this surprise visit to Kenya...a few of which arrived on his phone in the middle of the night, making Bek suspicious again of something...not necessarily of me coming over but of who and why would Troy be getting texts from at 3 in the morning!?!? YIKES!  There was the planning on Mike & Liz's side as well; picking me up from the airport, me crashing at their place, and then the transportation to Nakuru the day after my arrival.

The whole time of planning, I really tried to veer Bekah from any suspicious thought of me coming over by really playing up our annual family trip to Mercer Island to visit Mom & Dad Z. and then "all of the work to get the kids ready for school" (really, it's not much work at all!) the week following our trip up north.  I think I really had her fooled but to ensure she knew I was in Washington, I took a lot pictures of us there and texted them to her! =)

We arrived in Seattle on a Saturday and that following Wednesday morning I was on a plane with a final destination of Nairobi, Kenya! AHH!!!

On the way over I stopped in Chicago for 1 hour (which I won't do again--lets say I was faster than a speeding bullet in O'Hara Airport trying to make my connecting flight!), then visited Amsterdam's airport where they thought it would be genius to funnel three flights into one--absolute chaos!--and finally arrived at NBO (Nairobi's main airport) at 7:30 in the evening.  After an hour in the Visa line, an hour of waiting for luggage and an hour in the 'report-your-lost-luggage' line I finally met up with Uncle Mike and Lily and made our way to the car, less one bag. =(
We did finally get the lost bag, days later.

Scary.  THE one word that describes driving in Kenya.  From the airport to Mike & Liz's home, I got to experience the near-death and 'red lights are only a suggestion' way of driving...something I've heard about a zillion times but it's not really until you experience it that you can really understand how crazy the driving really is over there.  Although, once over there for awhile, I became accustomed to the daily, hourly 'almost impacts' and thought nothing of it...sort of.



I learned a phrase from Uncle Mike and Aunt Liz that I will use throughout this post--TIA (This Is Africa)--you'll start to understand as you read on. =)



I spent Thursday night with Mike & Liz and their two darling girls, my cousins, Abby-girl & Lily-bug.  Lily, the outgoing, talk-your-ear-off, Julia's look-a-like twin and Abby, Miss Reserved, stiff-when-hugged (but I really do like it!), horse lovin', yummy girl...LOVE those two!  I had a great night (morning), up at 3:30am, visit with Uncle Mike at 4:30am, and off-to-school morning with Abby.  Lily is homeschooled this year so after the rest of the crew was off Lily, Liz, & I took off in the taxi for Nakuru, Troy & Bek's town.

On the way there, I got a bit quezy...from  1. being tired  2. being nervous to see Bek  3. most of all, the d-r-i-v-i-n-g!  Really.  I wanted to look ahead because...well, isn't that what you do when you get car sick?--look at the road ahead of you?...but mostly that's what was making me sick--the continuous stream of cars coming head-on or maybe the insane pedistrians in the middle of the freeway hopping over the concrete lane dividers to run to the other side (Why did the Kenyan cross the road -freeway-?) or maybe, just maybe, it was the swerving back and forth dodging other cars or motor bikes or random animal or person or matatu (mini-vans filled with 15+ people-some of which are hanging out the sides!).  ...Well, 2.5 hours later, we made it to the Sammons' pad, safe and unscathed. =)  TIA

The roads there in Kenya are mostly...let's see...what would be the word...uncomfortable, challenging, agonizing, galling, pothole-filled, boulder(not pebble...or even small stone)-littered, pain-in-my-rear (literally), pain-on-the-top-of-my-head (from hitting the roof), ...'ya get the picture?  The road/freeway from Nairobi to Nakuru is actually pretty nice, mostly smooth sailing.  But once you're off of the freeway in any direction, you're lucky if you see a 10 yard stretch of decent paving without potholes or random chunks of antique, torn-up pavement or big rocks.  The road before the road to Troy & Bek's peels off from the freeway and is nice, not many potholes or boulders or pieces of torn-up pavement.  The road that peels off of that road that takes you to Troy and Bek's is nice, not many potholes or boulders or pieces of torn-up pavement...until the pavement just stops.  No joke.  It's like the pavement-laying-truck just...ran out of materials so they packed up and went home.  Hilarious.  So you're driving down this smooth road, through this very nice neighborhood and all of a sudden you fly off onto this dirt road that not only has potholes the size of a Ford 250 truck's tire but also chunks of pavement and big rocks scattered over the road and then there are trenches about 4-5 feet deep on both sides of the road that scream, "I'll swallow you up if you dare take me on!"  And all the while, the very nice neighborhood continues.  TIA

Once we arrived at the gate of their property, Douglas, their grounds keeper, met us there and opened the pedestrian door to let us through so Bek wouldn't hear the whole gate opening to let our taxi through.  --Troy had informed Douglas of the surprise so he didn't ask Bek's permission to let us in (didn't want to ruin it!)

Moving on, here are a few pics of the surprise. =)

THE FOLLOWING DAY...
...Troy, Bekah & Dakota (she was one of the flowers girls) had a wedding to attend that they were a part of.  Troy left early that morning to capture the first of the day's events (he was the photographer) and shortly after, Bekah was packing to leave.  As she was leaving, Troy phones and says not to come yet, that things were off to a slow start...something we would find out to be the first of a few phone calls.  11:30 rolls around and Bek and Dakota are finally out the door. TIA

WHILE WE WERE WAITING...

Bekah had this dress custom made by a gal at ROHI.

It was gorgeous but she was...beautiful.

There is no other word for her other than HAM.

Maybe CLOWN.

But HAM, for sure.

TYPICAL KENYA:

MALI SABA:

Bek & I were able to steal away for a night, thanks to Mom ($$$) and Troy (babysitter) and enjoy a quite lovely piece of Kenya TIA-(because Kenya is scattered with places like this!) called Mali Saba, a quaint but yet very nice, secluded, private, and quiet tent resort, only 20 minutes from Troy and Bek's house.  It's tucked away on the rim of an inactive volcano (throughout the crater there were plumes of smoke steadily rising--does that qualify it as "inactive" still? -yikes!) and has only 20 bandas (tents).  We had a quiet, uninterrupted, sisters-only time.  Memorable.  Wonderful.  Perfect.

The view from our bed. Yeah, I know. Incredible.

The bathroom behind the bed: straight ahead, the sink, to the left, the shower, to the right, the toilet. Just off to the left of the head of the bed was a second room, seperated by canvas that held 2 twin beds and a crib. Only two tents had the second room, all others had the queen bed and bathroom.

We thought it was a cool word for appetizers: bitings. =)

Chicken wings that were beyond delicious, rum, fresh squeezed orange juice, biscuits, and a cappuccino. YUM.

There were only two bandas that had a balcony (ours was one of them), this is an average banda. Behind this, to the left, is the building that held the dining room and reception area.

HILTON (THE DUMP)

This is a place of terrible poverty.  It is a place where people live.  Even pay rent.  To live in the dump.

I am still processing this particular part of my trip.  There are homes (mud walls with sticks holding it together) with mud, excrement, & garbage for the front lawn.  They raise pigs for income.  But the pigs don't have a fenced off stye they are always confined to...they can roam free through the 'streets' and homes.  Which means they eat whatever is on the streets and defecate there, too.  There are some people there that are trying to, with Troy's instruction and help, improve the pig's quarters but for the most part, it is unorganized and teeming with bacteria and parasites...and this is their home.

Some of the children who live at Hilton.

OUR SAFARI

We left the house around 6:15am for the National Park at Lake Nakuru and arrived at 6:30am-ish.  We were in the park all day long, taking a breather at Lion Hill Resort for lunch and walked in the door around 5:00 that evening.  Incredible experience.

Our first stop was at the Lake for the flamingos and breath-taking sunrise.

Really?

I know, I know.  I couldn't help myself...she so soft and skwooshy and delicious.
Wouldn't you do the same thing?
You know you would.

Our tour guides and apparent drivers.

I really did try to get a shot of their faces...

MAKALIA WATERFALLS

LION HILL RESORT

We stopped here for a couple of hours for lunch and to let the girls run around, to stretch their legs.  Where we are in these pictures is on the outdoor patio that overlooks Lake Nakuru and a lot of the National Park.  The view is spectacular.

I couldn't help it.

HOME SWEET HOME

I came to love Kenya.  I enjoyed getting to know the land and the people.  I loved seeing my sister, brother, and those yummy nieces of mine.  I had an unforgettable time.

I luuuuuved walking through those doors and being home.

My husband and my kids welcomed me dearly with a bouquet of flowers and a giant 'welcome home' sign.  But the best was hugging and kissing on my loved ones that I missed so much.

Thanks Mom and Dad for sending me.

Thanks Jim for supporting my going.

Thanks Troy for all of the planning and your sneakiness.

Thanks Mike and Liz for the transportation and accomodations.

Thanks Bek for your hospitality and graciousness.

Thanks Dakota for your sweet spirit and love...my twin.  =)

Thanks Kate-Kate for making me laugh...consistantly.

Thanks Hopey for your darling smile that brightened my days.