From Cairo to Kentucky

There's no better to celebrate New Year's Eve than with a weenie-roast, right? Especially if you made the grill yourself? You've never done that before? Well, Richard and Derek made the grill you see here from an old water heater. And, the first chance we had to test it was New Year's Eve. OK...real meat may have been grilled, but we also had veggie kabobs! YUM! You could have your hot dogs grilled or you could roast them yourself. We bought this clay oven in town and had already roasted marshmallows in it before. Here are Lari and Alexander warming up their dogs. These boys are such posers! Once more, Caleb and Kyle being silly.

The Nairobi National Park also has an animal orphanage, except these animals are not reintroduced into the wild. We'd heard you could go in and pet the cheetahs, so we headed there first. These are three of four cubs they currently have. We were allowed in with them for a short time. They really liked Richard! He could make them purr like kittens! Aren't they beautiful? Our guide told us that they are quite docile, even in the wild. They're not as soft and cuddly as they look, though. Their fur is rough, but one interesting thing is that their spots are raised. Check it out: They have their tales linked!

Even though we didn't venture into any other cages, I really enjoyed seeing the rest of the animals at the orphanage. Here are a few of my favorites: I prefer to see this one through the cage. The ostrich really liked the sunflower seeds our guide kept in his pocket. He's not posing...just grabbing one off the top of the fence. Meet Talek. We stuck around to watch feeding time, and this poor fellow was the last to get fed. He paced back and forth, back and forth. The monkeys are always fun to watch. This one is a Vervet monkey. They would put their hands through the fence and actually take the sunflower seeds right from our guide's hand.

Part of the Nairobi National Park is an elephant orphanage. Currently, they have thirteen elephants under the age of two and a baby rhino. Visitors can come on any day from 11 to 12 in the morning to learn about them and watch them feed. As you can see, a lot of people come to see these guys. During the first half hour, they bring out the youngest elephants--those under one year of age. All of them have been orphaned because of the death of their mothers or have been lost from their herd and brought to the elephant orphanage by park rangers. See the bottle? The milk they are giving is not elephant's milk, but cow's milk, and is actually baby formula. (Our guide said that if anyone in the crowd could milk an elephant, they'd be employed immediately!) These little ones receive care around the clock! They even have a caretaker that sleeps with them.

The older orphans could hold the bottles themselves with their trunks. These guys are actually taken out into the park and introduced to different elephant families in hopes that they will be adopted and taught how to live in the wild. This process can take several years. The big fellas were more rambunctuous. We were warned about one female that seemed to know who in the crowd was afraid of her. Here's one "kicking" around a futbol. At the park, they don't keep animals. Their goal is to reintroduce them back into the wild. However, they do have one rhino which was born blind which cannot be released because he would be killed by the other rhinos if he unwittingly entered into their territory. His name is Maxwell.

When we visit Ngong, we are usually met at the foot of the hills by several Masaai children. Some of them we know by name. (Joseph is the boy sitting down leisurely in front of the group.) They are there to take care of their goats or sell some of the crafts their mothers make, but since we usually go on Sabbath afternoons we never buy any thing from them. They seem to understand, and still really like being with us. On this particular Sabbath, we made the mistake of offering them a ride on our car (roof rack), and all of a sudden, rather than two or three, this huge crowd came running over. I'd never seen so many of them! When we reached the top, I took out some stickers I'd brought for them and gave everyone their own sheet. They loved them! As you can see, they plastered their faces with the colorful smiley face stickers. I asked if I could pose with them for a picture (sometimes the Masaai charge you for pictures), and they agreed. One girl offered to let PJ wea...

We tested our new roof rack by putting all of our "luggage" up there. As you can see, when you travel to the Mara, suitcases are NOT advisable. We pack food and clothes in plastic crates. Some of us stayed in tents which Gametrackers provided for us. They were old canvas tents, big enough for two with twin cots in each. I really like the canvas tents and wish we had our own! Others stayed in cabins. They were quaint and again could fit two people. The camp gave us an extra cabin to use as a kitchen, since all of theirs were taken. It was nicer that way, because we could lock all the food inside the cabin and not have to worry about keeping it in the car. Otherwise, the babboons, which we saw (and heard) many, would get into it. With our kitchen came portable tables, chairs, and a lamp. Very nice! In addition, the campsite had enclosed showers and toilets. The toilets were pit latrines, but they had toilet seats! Our showers! It didn't feel like we were in th...

This Mara trip did not afford us many animals, unfortunately. I knew the bounty of our last trip would be hard to follow. We joke that all the animals were on Christmas vacation, too! Here are a few that weren't: This is the hugest (if that's a word) lioness I've ever seen. And, oncemore, we were that close! When we happened upon this little silver-backed jackal, he was devouring the last of a tasty treat. It seemed a bit strange that he was enjoying it all by himself. The most typical common animal to see on a safari--the zebras. These two were kind enough to show us there better side! Now, this was COOL! We came upon a herd of about twenty to twenty-five elephants! Here's one of the mommies with her baby.

"Do you see what I see?" Ok...so we have seen hippos before, but I really like this picture. This hippo was camera shy. Last time we saw a leopard and this time we saw cheetahs! We caught up with these right as we were about to leave the park. There were three of them, a mother and two cubs, stalking some antelopes. If we hadn't had to high-tail it back to camp, we might of seen our first kill! The tortoise... and the hare. I also saw a crocodile this time, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of him. My point-and-shoot wouldn't zoom that far and I wasn't about to go down to the riverbank for a closeup.

Once a year, the school takes a trip to Mt. Kenya. This year, it'll be the last weekend in February. All those who want to climb Mt. Kenya, must train for it. The training consists of several prep hikes, most nearby. But, the first and the last, or qualifying hike, take place at Mt. Longonot, near Lake Naivasha. Richard has climbed Mt. Kenya five times, so once more will be a breeze. I, however, definitely need to prepare myself. Here's part of the group fresh before our climb. This is the start of our ascent. Mt. Longonot was at one time a volcano that is thought to have erupted in 1860. You can hike from the gate to the crater's rim. We hiked all the way around the crater and back which is about 8-9 km.