Thursday 9 June 2011

We are in Amsterdam awaiting the connection to Atlanta at 1045 then through customs, TSA and onto Birmingham.  It has been easy flying so far except for the number of hours that we were in the aircraft, 7.5 hours from Nairobi and 8.25 hours from Amsterdam to Atlanta.  We had chicken on the aircraft that was actually better than any we had in Kenya, now that is just not right.

I had a window seat on the A330 airbus and was able to get a few shots around the Amsterdam area but clouds soon prevented me from taking many other shots.  Once we reached Canada the clouds were broken but very hazy so I just looked and did not shoot any pictures.

The music was great, Aerosmith, and I listen to many kinds of music during the flight.  I did get some work done on the flight and talked with my beautiful wife Nancy when we were not asleep.

We made it to Atlanta about on time and the process of getting through Passport Control and Customs was the easiest that I have experience in the past 4 years.  They processed us in a hurry and we were off for the next and final flight to Birmingham.

We left Atlanta late due to a hold on West bound flights but we got to Birmingham about 10 minutes late which was not bad.  All the luggage showed up and some was in bad condition but we will see what it looks like when we get home.

TSA had opened a couple of my bags and the one with the laptop in it they broke the door off the cd/dvd recorder so you can no longer open the drive.  I contacted TSA and have filed a claim against them for the damages to the computer.  The tea in the case and the computer was probably why they looked in the case to start with.  This piece of luggage must have been handled by the largest gorilla around.

Anna our daughter picked us up and it was really nice to see here and listen to to what has happened over the past month while she stayed at our house.  We are off for home and a great, you got it, large glass of ice tea and a great homemade hamburger.

Hope you enjoyed our travels this year and any comments are always welcome.  I will be posting the pictures on Picasa Web and I will put a note here when I do.

Thanks

Harold and Nancy Deason

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Today is the day that we travel back to Birmingham and home.  I was up at 0520 and out taking pictures of the station waiting on the dining hall to open so that I could get that first cup of tea.  The tea was especially good this morning because they had made mixed tea rather than just plain hot water, tea bags, milk and sugar.  The breakfast was served at 0730 and it was okay.  The breakfast meal is usually the best meal and for the last several days we have chosen to do those two meals somewhere else.

The flowers are in full bloom and as I walk around the station it amazes me that I am still finding new flowers that I had overlooked on previous days.

Around 1200 little David, a child of Norwegian missionary, came by where we were have lunch and said Hello but that is about all we can understand.  He disappeared and came back with his football wanting me to play again with him.  We went and played in the large yard and finally several other station children came so I left the football to the young.  David’s family is on the way back to Norway after serving in Tanzania.

Jim and I caught the matatu and went to the bank and Nakumatt and picked up samosas for lunch.  The samosas are little meat pies and they are very good.  We got another ride on the matatu and headed back to the station.

It has been basically a boring day just waiting for the ride to the airport at 1600.  It has been interesting however to see if the bags can be packed and not exceed the 23 kilos weight limit.  We will see when we get to the airport how much the bags actually weigh.

We stopped at the First Book and Sherlock Den and a great hamburger and Coke light on the way to the Jumo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.  We reached the airport and got all the bags through the scanner and I did have one bag that was 5 kilos overweight so I removed some items and put them in Jim and Mary’s bags.  I will recover them when we get to Birmingham on Thursday.

The airport was full of people as usual and there was a mission team from Atlanta and one from Dothan that we had discussion with.  The one from Dothan is a medical team that works in the Narok area with the local indigenous people.

The flight was in a Boeing 747-400 and it was full of passengers and it was a good flight and arrived in Amsterdam at 0525 Thursday morning.

We are here in terminal E waiting on the next leg to Atlanta, GA which leaves at 1055.

More later.  

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Got a late start today by sleeping in until 0700 this morning then over to the dining hall for breakfast and a cup of hot tea. It is always nice to get there early and have some silent time just to think and prepare for the day.  Jennifer was cooking so I talked with her and had time to check my email before the breakfast was served and the other guest came in to eat.  Today will be the last day to really go out and get things that we want to purchase to carry home for friends and family so we will go and hitch a ride on a matatu or walk to the market that is 2-3 kilometers from the guest house.  I have not ridden the public matatu since I have been here but there will not be any problem.  The matatu is usually a 14 passenger van that will pick up passengers anytime and drop you off anywhere.  The problem is that you are packed in like sardines into this van and you have to hold anything you have in your lap or attach it to the roof luggage rack.  We will look for a less full matatu today as there will be 4 of us and whatever we purchase.

The Spanish omelets were good and the peanut butter and red plum jelly was really good.  They have some of the best breads that you have ever had.  The bread can be seen being delivered on the back of bicycles as they go through neighborhoods selling bread to individuals and small stores.

Today also is the day we identify what we will be getting rid of before we start packing for the trip home.  There are always items that we bring that we leave here by giving it to the local children or families.  I had purchased a grass slasher that will just fit into my larger luggage and with the operating notebooks from Living Waters the weight will be increasing rapidly.  We will be allowed 50 pounds per bag when we get to the airport and we have not purchased the Dorman’s coffee yet.

I just completed a Thank You card to give to John Keen for allowing us to visit his lodge in Namanga for the weekend and hope that I can get it printed somewhere.  I have it on the thumb drive and surely there is some place I can get it printed at the Galleria Shopping Center where we will shop and have lunch.

The students here at the mission station are rehearsing for their play and their singing is just wonderful.  I do not understand it because it is in their Norway language but it really sounds great anyway.

Got to finish breakfast and get ready for the day ahead.

Went to the Nakumatt and got the items that we wanted and had a great lunch at our favorite chicken place in Kenya.  The chicken was grilled and served with really good chips.  The ketchup was not what we are use to but with a little doctoring it was okay.

We got a ride to the store with a cab for 200 Ksh for the four of us in a real nice Toyota car with plenty of room but will be lucky enough to find him when we are ready to return to the guest house.  We shopped and caught a matatu back to the guest house drive for 30 Ksh each and even though it was crowed it was not a bad ride.

Had a chance to wall the grounds of the station and talked with several of the people including Hans who is one of the teachers and he is from Faroe Islands and a citizen of Denmark.  It was very interesting to talk with him and to find out what he does.  The walk around the station also gave me an opportunity to shoot some pictures of some plants that I had never seen before.  I am always amazed at the vast number of different plants that are at the station that I must have overlooked in the past years.

We had pizza and Coke light for dinner and sat outside with the Prices and had good conversation and went over plans for Wednesday.  Chris walked down from his house to check on us and shared pizza with us for dinner.  He returned to his house where he had been painting all day to sleep and be ready to keep the workers busy on Wednesday.  The house is finally coming together and it will be rather nice when he completes it.

It is time for bed and I am not going to delay getting in bed tonight.

More later

Monday 6 June 2011

Monday 6 June 2011

Up early and then over to the dining hall for that first cup of tea and checking my email and updating the blog.  It is a beautiful morning and the flowers are in full bloom and so striking. 

Today we are to go to Chris’s house and do some painting but after the night I had on Sunday night I did not go to the house and so I got a little sleep until lunch.  Nancy and I walked over to the house and it took us 45 minutes to walk and after beating on the front gate we were finally able to get into the yard.  We painted a couple rooms with primer and it had no smell or very good coverage but due to the rough walls we recommended that Chris needs to have the walls better prepared before any more painting is done in the house. 

I have recommended that Chris look at completing each room rather than just doing a little here and then a little there.  If he is to get this guest house ready in his life time he needs to have a plan to complete the 6 year project.

We walked back and were stopped by a lady wanting to exchange money and wanted change for a US $50 bill into either small US bills or Kenyan Shilling.  I did not get involved since it could have been a trap.

We made it back to the guest house and got ready to eat dinner.  We had a rather good dinner and then conversation before going to bed.  Tomorrow we will go shopping for coffee and tea so we can get it packed up and ready for departure on Wednesday back to the US.

More later

Sunday 5 June 2011

Sunday 5 Jun 2011

A beautiful morning in Namanga, Kenya awakens with the monkeys running on the roof of the cabins that we were staying in.  Up early and needing a cup of coffee but the cafe was not open so I just walked the grounds and took some photos especially the fog or cloud cover ridges that were behind the cabins.  The birds were very active and singing their songs and the turtles were doing their things.

The cafe opened and the breakfast was very good and the Spanish omelets were very good.  We had good conservation as the silk monkeys ran all over the cafe roof and looking at the windows.  The monkeys are always looking for something to eat and they really like to steal items.  We planned for a worship service after breakfast and also invited the cafe staff to come if they wanted to.

Silas led the worship service and Jim did the message and we sang a couple songs.  It went well.

We sat around and waited on the host but the word finally came that he was not coming so we had lunch and prepared for the trip to Nairobi.  We plan for another long trip and it should be about four hours of whatever comes up.

We departed and started the trip and it passed by rather fast and the rough sections of the road were ever worst than the trip down.

It was good to get back to the guest house and get a few things done in preparation for departure.  It was dinner time and the dinner was the worst meal we had since we have arrived in Kenya.

More later

Saturday 4 June 2011

Saturday 4 Jun 2011

Up early and by 0615 I was drinking my first cup of coffee and checking my email.  I carried Nancy a good cup of coffee and she was happy.  We are scheduled to depart at 0800 for the trip to Namanga and need to be there by 1230.  We made several side trips and the roads were very bad in some areas and yet some of the highway was great.  You just never know when you are going off the main road and onto the rough cross country dirt road.

We made it to Namanga on time and met with our host John Keen for tea and lunch.  We had good conservation and enjoyed seeing John again.  It was a very good lunch and then we went to cross the international boundary and do some shopping in Tanzania.  It was not much but it was different and always good to see what is available.  We wanted some jewelry and the swams of women were ready to sell you whatever they had and wanted you to take their pictures for 100 Ksh each.  We ended up not buying anything from the vendors but came on back to the facility and walked the grounds.  It is very interesting the varieties of flowers that they have and the plumerias were in several colors and with great fragrance.

There was no Wi-Fi so I just wrote the entry and when I get back to Karen I will put it online.  We sat around and had good conversation and had dinner at 1930.  The goat was a little resilient but the fish was very good.  We sat for the longest at the dinner table talking and drinking mixed tea and finally went to the room and the hot shower felt great.

We will be going back to Karen on Sunday

More later