Blogs from Central Province , Kenya, Africa - page 5

We rose in the early morn yet again and as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes I realizied the air was thinner and the air was colder. I relaizied that we were getting closer and closer to the top of the mountain. We left the noisy Med. Station with high hopes of getting to the top of Mt.Kenya. We walked through more dense forest like scenery and we did this for several hours or more. We saw manymany types of animals like Water buffalos, monkeys, and we some more elephant tracks. The forest of Mt.Kenya was beautiful, so many plants and trees, all so full of life. Everything was beautiful, even the view of the actual mountain was pretty nice too. When we came across the swamp area that was tricky to get through ... read more

Today was the beginning of what would soon become a long journey. One that would take us miles across a mountain until we reached its frost bitten peak. We went to the entrance of Mt.Kenya and stood there and paid off the entrance fees for each challenger. We all stood there and were introduced to our mountain guides: Charles, Isac, and Robert. We all loaded up our supplies and got into the jeeps and entered the mountain. We drove across the gentle valleys and it was like looking at an evergreen heaven. The plain was vast and we drove until we reached the forest. We were driving through an open orange paved pathway and we were driven to the half way mark to the Med.Station. We were dropped off and we began the rest of the ... read more

I was feeling better today, just drained. The ladies made pancakes for us, which were more like flat mandazi, but very good. We headed out for church even in enough time to get there before it started. Well, sort of. We were told it starts at 9:30, but not really worth going to until 10:30, which is when we arrived. There was some singing, some speaking, some kids doing things, and all sorts of stuff going on. All of the speaking was said in both Swahili (or maybe Kikuyu) and English, but very quickly, so sometimes I missed it. It was very loud, too. Sometimes the drummer or keyboard player would get bored and just play a few bars. Then we, the guests from Canada, were invited up. Apparently here, nobody distinguishes between the US and ... read more

When everyone got up today, I still was having pain. Sarah and I know it as the exploding intestines. Yesterday was a little better, but only because I didn’t eat much. This morning, I only had 3 scoops of peanut butter for breakfast- just enough to take my pills and not really eat anything. I headed into the workshop, where people were busy sanding the new tables and chairs. I opted to walk down to the school to see what the others were doing. When I got to the school, one of the teachers told me that Spencer, Robertta, Chelsea and Sarah went to the forest to get firewood very far away. I was exhausted just from the walk to the school, so I found my way into the staff room to chat with my new ... read more

We got up early, excited to work. Last night, it got pretty cold, but we were nice and bundled in lots of blankets. The walk into town is about 20 minutes. We stopped to meet the woodworker making furniture for the school, and then went to meet the pastor, Pastor John. He took us to the high school where we will be working for the next few days. We met with the principal and he showed us around the school and told us about their needs. It’s a pretty cool setup, with lots of farmland and some cows so they can sustain themselves. Unfortunately, the materials for our project haven’t arrived yet, so there wasn’t much we could do. Sarah and I walked towards the next town, which is apparently 6 km away. We didn’t make ... read more