Hello everyone.... We had no trouble getting our flights to DC and then on to Buenos Aires...where it is warm (around 80 this afternoon) and mostly sunny...We had first class to DC... and then the extended coach seats to BA...got some sleep even.. We are staying in a residence hotel, right in Recoleta....a high end area of the city. Bill is enjoying the view of the pool and bikinis....We took a nap and a shower and have just stepped out for the first time...architecture is amazing wherever you look! There is a Dora Bahrenburg here in the phone book...relation? Anyone know? [View Full Entry]

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After more than 30 hours of travel, we returned to the Pacific Northwest via Amsterdam. The Nairobi airport is not the best place to wait for three hours...but we made it through without resorting to buying more souvenirs...We arrived in Amsterdam at 5:30 am after an 8 hour flight. It was a gloomy, cold day in the Netherlands so we decided to stay in the airport for our seven plus hour layover....we rented a shower room which was wonderful (15 euros for 45 minutes) (well worth it especially if you share the time as we did). We also shopped (I bought [View Full Entry]

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Vicki and I arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon, thanks to the driver and van provided by the school. Mary, a teacher and our across-the-hall neighbor, came along to deal with text books for the school. We first went back to to the Sarit Center (http://www.saritcentre.com/about_us.htm), the shopping mall where we had bought supplies when we arrived in Nairobi, so that Mary could go to the Textbook Center, and I bought a small rolling pin and round board for making chapatis at home. Then we were dropped off at our hotel (the beautiful Fairview), where we checked and then met two [View Full Entry]

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We leave for Nairobi today...it is another beautiful day here: sunny, warm, but with a bit of morning coolness in the fresh mountain air... I could see Mt Kenya as I ran this morning, and the farms and field were bright with dew. On the way back, I came across a group of young teens by the road....they called out to me and I went over. After the usual greetings of good morning, and handshakes, the brave one made several jokes at my expense, and then asked for 10 shillings...I showed, to more laughter, that I had nothing on me and [View Full Entry]

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Vicki and I were treated to a night at Mountain Lodge, on the flanks of Mt Kenya, as a thank you from the school to Vicki for all her hard work here. We were driven up to the Lodge by an employee of the school on Saturday afternoon. We drove on a beautifully paved road, after we turned off at the village of Chaka. I t is well paved since the president has a vacation home on the road! It was strange to have no potholes to bump over on the whole trip. Mountain Lodge is about a 30 minute drive [View Full Entry]

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When I knew I had a chance to come to Kenya, I was excited to see an African country (I don't count Morroco as truly African)...and of course to experience close up the mythological animals of my childhood: lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras. I was eager to learn a new culture and language. What I didn't expect was to feel such a strong attraction to the country itself, one that was evident the instant I arrived in the Highlands...It is really hard to describe what attractas me so much to this part of the world....there is the physical beauty of the hills, [View Full Entry]

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Today I walked with giraffes! Hartley offered to take me to Aberdare Country Club (we had cancelled a previous visit due the mud on the road) this morning for breakfast and a game walk. The club is open to the public for a fee, and there is an additional charge for the guide. It is situated on a high hill overlooking the area where Vicki and I stayed last weekend. It is fenced and there are wild herds of zebra, giraffe, antelope, and warthogs. The grounds are beautiful, as are the buildings. We ate breakfast outside and were the only guests. [View Full Entry]

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Vicki and I were told of a guest house, out in the Aberdare area, reasonably priced, and we decided to go for Friday night. The daughter of the owner goes to the lower school so we got a ride out after school with Petra, the owner, her daughter Tessa, and other guests who had been in town. We picked up the other guests at the home of a Scottish woman who lives close to the school, in a beautiful house on a back lane. We had tea there, and then traveled to the ranch where the guest houses are located, first [View Full Entry]

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There is something interesting and sometimes hard about living in place where you are the "different" one. I cannot be anonymous or "invisible" once outside my room. Whether I'm out running on the road at 7:00 am or walking to the little stands down the road to buy vegetables, or in town shopping, I am not just me, going along with my life, but someone noticebly different....someone that makes others "take note". This morning I ran down to the river, about two miles along a beautiful curving road that follows the edge of the valley. I was a little later than [View Full Entry]

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I have been back at Mt Kenya Academy since Friday afternoon. I spent the night in Nairobi after returning from safari. The hotel where I stayed was minimal, but clean and quiet. However the restaurant was like something out of Starwars, only with Earthlings. There were all kinds of deals going down between people from all over! Much business of all kinds... a younger European woman and an older European man were both speaking English with different accents and talking about problems all over Africa and work being done. A white man was leaving with an African woman and his arm [View Full Entry]

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