Adventures in Africa

After our team retreat, “my girls” (Becca and Audra) and I had planned to go on a family vacation together. We were set to leave Thursday morning to spend a couple days at Lake Baringo. Late Wednesday night, we decided we were having so much fun with our team at Sunrise Acres that we didn’t want to be away that long. So we changed our plan and decided to go to Lake Baringo just for a day trip on Friday. We all got up early and were set to be off by 7 a.m. Unfortunately, Audra woke up sick, so she was not able to go with us. Still, Becca and I loaded up and drove about 1.5 hours to the lake. When we got there, we decided to go for a boat ride, so we could see some hippos and crocs.

We got in the boat and were having a nice, leisurely ride, when Becca says to me, “Man, if I don’t see any hippos on this trip, I’m gonna… (gasp!)” That gasp was because there we were motoring right up to a family of the large mammals. Needless to say, it was pretty funny and Becca didn’t have to make any more threats about what she might do if we didn’t see any hippos!

Our driver brought the boat pretty close to the animals, then he revved the motor, causing the mama hippo to chase us. Apparently, we were getting a bit too close to her babies! The picture below is the mama hippo as she is surging out of the water trying to get us. I wanted to get a picture of her actually up out of the water, but I was in too much shock and forgot I was supposed to be taking pictures! Plus, Becca was nearly in my lap, so I didn’t get any pics until the hippo started going away from us. We were both a bit scared of that big ole mean mama! In fact, I later said to Becca (as we were clinging to each other just a few feet away from a crocodile) that I thought we both had a healthy fear of God’s creation!

Our guide, Juma, with the beautiful colors of Lake Baringo in the background.

Another fun thing we got to do on our boat ride was feed two fish eagles. We bought 3 fish from some local fishermen and rode out to where the eagles nest. When we arrived, our boat driver positioned the boat properly, whirled the fish around above his head, whistled sharply, and let the fish fly out into the lake. Then the eagle came soaring in to grab his prey. The driver told us to get our cameras in position and when he said 1, 2, 3, click to take a picture. Becca and I did get a few good pictures, but I thought it was more fun to watch the show in real life, rather than through the lens of my camera!

After our two hour boat ride, we had lunch and rested for a bit at “The Thirsty Goat” restaurant. After some discussion about what we should do in the afternoon, we finally decided to just hang out for a bit and then drive back to Sunrise Acres. I even showed some bravery and decided to drive. Most of the vehicles here are manual transmission, plus there are typically lots of people and animals in and on the sides of the roads, and I am not yet very confident driving here. But I took the challenge and drove the 1.5 hours back. It was a bit stressful, but Becca said I did a fine job. She said my driving was fine; it was my anxiousness that made her a little nervous!

It was a wonderful, fun-filled day all around!

After the Come Before Winter ladies’ renewal, we ladies flew back to Nairobi, then drove to Eldama Ravine, Kenya, where we met up with our men and all our kiddos for a three day team retreat at Sunrise Acres. Sunrise Acres is a wonderful place, set in the mountains, where it’s cold in the mornings and evenings. We basically had the whole place to ourselves, and we enjoyed playing, talking, and worshiping together. At any time, one might have found people playing basketball, reading books, playing with kids, digging in the dirt (that would be the kids), swinging on the tire swing (the kids, but us big people, too! :)), cooking, singing and/or playing guitar, doing puzzles, playing volleyball, hiking, talking, laughing, playing cards, napping, journaling, and just enjoying one another’s company (or time to ourselves, for some of us!). At the end of our retreat, we took a team picture (below).

Back row: Ian Shelburne, Josiah Shelburne, Danetta Shelburne holding Asher, Leila Shelburne, Nathanael Shelburne, Linda Tyler, Natalie Tyler, Shawn Tyler (behind Natalie), Stephen Shelburne, Josh Shelburne, Laura Shero, Phillip Shero holding Annalise

Front row: Yours Truly holding Emily Shelburne, Jamie Duncan, Laura Beth Chapman, Audra Moore, Laurie Bates holding Malachi Shero, Jennifer Allen, Heidi Davison, Becca Ramsey holding Israel Shero

Kneeling on ground: Jonathan and Luke Shelburne

We also took a picture of all the singles on our team (since there are so many of us!).

Back row: Laurie, Jamie, Kimberly, Audra, Becca, Heidi

Front row: Laura Beth, Stephen, Josh, Jennifer

Early Sunday morning, March 18, all 11 of the ladies on our team packed up and headed to Kenya for a Come Before Winter ladies’ renewal. We traveled to Nairobi, which took about 12 hours, on Sunday. We stayed in Nairobi that night, then flew to Malindi, on Kenya’s coast, the next day. The retreat started Monday afternoon and went until mid-day Friday.

Sunrise on the Indian Ocean–WOW! How beautiful!

The renewal was a very intense time of focused Bible study. We concentrated on the book of Philippians all week. Our main sessions were filled with detailed study of various passages in Philippians as well as discussion of how those passages applied to each of our lives. On Tuesday morning, we were each given an assignment. We were to study Philippians 3:15-16 and come up with a one sentence meaning of the Scripture as well as a personal application. Then we each had to present our thoughts on Thursday morning. This was great cause for stress for some of us, especially those who had never done such a thing before . I, however, enjoyed the brain exercise , and I especially enjoyed discussing the passage with others at my table. It was a bit stressful, though, because of the limited time—and lack of exegetical resources. I wanted to do word studies!

Well, isn’t he a cute little guy? There were lots and lots of sand crabs on the beach while we were there. Fun!

Thursday was a fun day because we got to hear each other’s thoughts about the passage and gained some insight into one another’s lives as we shared how the Scripture impacted us. After all our hard work through the week, we were rewarded on Thursday evening with a pizza and s’more dinner, followed by a true Texas hoedown. All of the Come Before Winter “staff” is from Texas—most of my team is, as well! So while many of the women felt right at home, I felt a bit out of place and culture-shocked. The hoedown was complete with cowboy hats, bandannas, lots of rowdy music, and thick Texas accents. We danced and laughed and sweat through our clothes (good thing we had those bandannas!), and had a great time.

Our team ladies: (back row–the Texans) Laura Beth, Jamie, Laura, Audra, Becca, Danetta with Asher, Linda; (front row–the non-Texans): Kimberly, Heidi, Jennifer Laurie

I got up early a few mornings to watch the sunrise and run on the beach. Though it was hard to drag myself out of bed before 6 am, my tiredness quickly dissipated when I was rewarded with beautiful scenes like this!

I’m a bit behind, but at least I’m only about a month late in getting these pictures up! I’m actually going to copy a blog Becca posted to Xanga to let you read about my day.

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My roommate, Kimberly (aka mom) had a birthday on March 13th. Audra and I were going to cook her breakfast and dinner and a cake…all of it. Then we kinda decided she might not want us to! So we reverted to letting her get up in the morning (after we decorated the hall and her chair with green toliet paper!) and have her quiet time like normal and then we took her out for her birthday dinner. We went to one of our favorite local places called Nurali’s. We had a great time but as we thought about the great time we had it became quite hilarious.

When we got there the power was on and it was still daylight so we had a beautiful view of town and Mt. Wanale. We ordered and got our starter (appetizer) and began eating. The first thing I found almost broke my tooth and tasted like dirt…so most likely it was rocks. Then Kimberly found something in one of her bites too. She pulled it out of her tooth and it was clear…it was probably glass. Then we got our main dish we ordered and the power went off…of course we continued like nothing had happened because…well.. we are used to eating in the dark. Audra took a bite of my cheese naan (indian food) and asked if there was a different spice in the cheese. I told her I didn’t think so but then began to smell some kind of incense burning. I told her I also smelled it, thinking she was just smelling something really strong that felt like it was in her mouth. She turned and blew on me and sure enough it was coming from her mouth! It smelt like she lit an incense stick and placed it in her mouth!!! It was hilarious. We still don’t know what it was! Then Kimberly found a chicken bone (which is quite normal) and some sort of tendon in her food.

We continued eating, by this time we had candles, and finished dinner and had a wonderful time!! It wasn’t until we got in the truck that we thought it strange that all of that happened and we still had a very pleasant meal and enjoyed it!!

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*me with Audra and Becca at Nurali’s*

Our Nurali’s dinner actually happened the night before my birthday on the 12th. On my actual day, several of us single girls went out for dessert at Oasis of Life Restaurant. There, we ate yummy English pancakes (crepes) with sugar and lemon juice, Scottish pancakes (which were like deep fried pancakes) with apricot jam, fruit salad, and custard. I was really hoping for ice cream, but when we got there, we found out their machine had broken so they sold it. So sorry for us! Still, it was a fun night of talking, laughing, opening gifts, eating, watching geckos eat mosquitoes (and do other things that we won’t mention here :)), and just celebrating another year God had given me.

The girls went in together and bought me a nice tea serving tray. Thanks, everyone! And thank You, Lord, for another great year of life!

Elyse, Israel, Emily, Emma, Annie (me in background)

Anyone want a bear hug from Miss Becca?

Princess Annie, Super Princess Elyse, Super Girl Emily, Race Car Driver Israel, Football (Soccer) Player Emma, Preschool Princess Miss Kimberly, and Super Caleb

Superman Malachi, Super Girl Miss Audra, “I Love Math” Girl Miss Laurie, Mean Coach Miss Becca, Preschool Princess Miss Kimberly

Naseem the Superhero

Phillip was lunch dad for the day and came to school dressed as the “Green Banana.” Very clever! Pictured here with his son, Malachi (Superman)

Sisters: Emma, the old granny, and Annie, the baby

Babies, Babies: Elyse and Caleb

The Old Folks: Emily, Malachi, Israel, Emma

The week before “spring break,” we had spirit week at school.  Each day, we dressed up a certain way to show our school spirit.  Go Mbale Mission School!!!  In the next several blogs, I will post pictures from each of the days.

Tuesday: Crazy Hair Day

Wednesday: Old/Young Day (dress up as an old person or a baby)

Thursday: Superhero Day

Friday: Pajama Day

In my first/second grade language arts class, we read a book about two girls who made a prune glaze cake with Coke as one of the ingredients. The curriculum included a recipe to make the cake, so my two students and I spent a class period putting together some rather interesting ingredients. And the cake was actually quite tasty!