Overload Going into the Holiday Season

As we reach mid-month, the pressure to write something for the first half of the month mounts. I keep on using the excuse about busyness. I am becoming more and more deluded into believing that the busyness is simply seasonal, or temporary, and I keep on being proved wrong:  every month since our return in August seems to be more full and even more hectic than the month before. So the best we can offer for the past several weeks is a topical list of things that have happened, in roughly chronological order.  (BTW, we are sharing this blog, so I am writing in block type and Rebecca in italics.)

Dallas and returning to Nairobi- When I last updated this blog, I was in the US, in Baltimore, helping my parents move out of their retirement community. I was able to help get them moved out, and we spent the two days at my in-laws' house (Dave and Jean Sack) while completing the final removal of furniture before the three of us (my parents and I) headed off to Dallas on Southwest Airlines. (The furniture went in a moving van.) We are not from Dallas or any part of Texas, and while I have been there briefly at different times in my life, I was not sure what to expect. My brother Jonathan and his wife Emma actually have a huge house in Dallas in a very nice neighborhood, walking distance from some really nice restaurants and shopping. It felt surprisingly like Portland, Oregon. Very quaint. He has a huge suite available in his house where my parents could pretty much set up their large room in the same way they had arranged their apartment at the retirement community. I think it will bring my mom comfort to have many of the same things surrounding them. 

We had a great 4 days together, and I enjoyed taking walks with my brother Jonathan around a nearby lake and visiting some local restaurants. They also have a small pool in their backyard, where I did risk taking a dip a couple of times despite the fact that it was mid-November (but not freezing in Texas). 

I was able to spend about 4 days there before returning to Nairobi. Despite taking the time out from work, I felt very much at peace about the trip and what was accomplished. I also feel it was a very wise, proactive choice on the part of my dad to see the benefit of moving to this setting, as they will be needing more assistance at some point in the future. 

Team Retreat-  I had one day back at the office to recover from jet lag before we launched into a big team event at MCC. Every year, we plan an annual team retreat to build team cohesion, etc. This is a large group event with our nine professional staff (counting Rebecca and me), as well as 6 volunteers. In addition, we invite all staff to bring their immediate families (spouses and children), totaling about 25 in all. 

This year, we decided to go to Amboseli Game Park as we had gone to the coast the year before. We left from our office on a Friday morning at around 6:30 am on a chartered Coaster bus. It is about a 5-hour trip down to Amboseli, which is in South Eastern Kenya near the Tanzania border. The perk of this location is that Mt. Kilimanjaro is visible just over the border and looms picturesquely in the background of southern views of the game park. We arrived around lunchtime the first day. The hotel was nice with a pool and 'luxury tent' accommodations, which basically means the rooms are partly tents and give an 'on safari' feel. 

We got checked in, had lunch, and played some team-building games in the afternoon. Before dinner, we also did some folk dancing. It was actually a lot of fun with everyone participating. (I introduced a new line dance to Copperhead Road). We had a good time trying to do a complicated figure in a 'cotillion' dance, where you constantly rotate through figures with different couples going in opposite circles. As we finished, Mt. Kilimanjaro burst from the clouds in full view as the sun set over the savannah, we got some great photos at a lookout point in the hotel compound. 

The next day, we took two game drives, with the first early in the morning and the second in the late afternoon toward sunset. Those are the best times for seeing the game. The 25 of us were put into three safari vehicles, and we spent several hours in the morning and the evening enjoying the views. I think the most abundant animals there were elephants. But we saw from at least a distance everything else but rhinos and leopards. The evening drive was particularly picturesque, ending with the sun setting next to  Kilimanjaro behind a small lake with a flamboyance of flamingoes posing in the foreground.

We returned to the hotel for dinner, and that evening we had another team event involving making s'mores around a campfire, singing songs with guitar and banjo, and then a special 'awards ceremony' in which everyone was honored with some kind of special award. (Examples include: Eagle Eye, Sparkplug, Good Shepherd, Silent Hero, Troubleshooting Titan, etc.) Each recipient received a signed certificate from Rebecca and me. There was appreciation for both the humor and the sincerity. The next day, we had a devotional after breakfast, then headed back to Nairobi and got home by that evening (Sunday). 

Monday morning was all work and no play, with a meeting scheduled with one of our partners' boards followed by an all-day professional day with staff to review protocol for completing all project items on our database. It made the retreat seem like a distant memory by the time we finished that day. We also worked all day Tuesday and crammed to get things done so that Rebecca and I could have the rest of the week off because this was American Thanksgiving week, and we were expecting some special visitors. 

Arrival of Rebecca's parents- And those special visitors, Dave and Jean Sack, arrived close to 11 pm. My dad had visited us briefly last year, soon after we arrived, as part of work travel in Africa, but we had not found a good moment for my mom to come. Finally, this seemed like a time when we could share a number of special events with them and also take a few days off. 

Of course, they needed time to rest on their first day. It was pretty nice for Paul and I to rest too! On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we took them on a drive out to Limuru Country Club, in the neighborhood of tea fields. Paul and David treated my dad to 9 holes of golf, and he seemed to really enjoy himself being in the fresh air a playing a game he hadn't played for a while. Meanwhile, I took my mom on a meandering walk around the perimeter of the golf course. We spotted quite a few beautiful birds, including several species of sunbirds and a fish eagle. The landscaping at Limuru CC is picturesque and very refreshing with cool breezes and warm sun. 

By the time we were done with walking and golf, we were hungry for lunch at the nearby Brackenhurst Retreat center. We were glad to introduce them to the place, since we've often visited there and described it in our blog. We had enough time to take naps and have a quick dinner before Paul and I headed off for our final choir rehearsal of the season. 

During their visit, my mom also got involved with training some public health colleagues in using digital databases of peer-reviewed journals. She and my dad also joined our work team for lunch one day. And I was able to take my mom on a nice, long walk through Karura forest one morning. We enjoyed seeing a dikdik, some Sykes monkeys, and even a troupe of Colubus monkeys. We did most of the same walk later with my dad. 

My dad left halfway through their visit to go and take care of some work with colleagues in Zambia. But he was here long enough to help us begin Advent preparations, setting up the Christmas tree and enjoying part of an Advent story each night. 

Thanksgiving-The American holiday of Thanksgiving is not officially anything more than a normal Thursday in Kenya, so it wasn't a great day to celebrate. (Thankfully, David's school is on the American system, and he got 2 days off). Instead, we invited a group of friends to celebrate with us on Friday evening at the end of the working week. This particular group was families we had known when we all worked in Burundi at the same time. Two families actually attend the same church here, so we get to see them more often. It's a very special and rare thing in expat life to have friends with whom you have any shared history.

Some of them were able to get to our place in the daylight, and we enjoyed time with the kids playing outside and with adults chatting in the evening outdoors. Our family provided a roast turkey (Yes, we found a pretty good frozen one in the supermarket; my mom had also carried a frozen turkey breast in her hand carry to make sure we had enough high-quality meat). We also made bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, and Bunny's cranberry jello "salad." Other family members brought mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, salad, and even a "tofurkey" for the vegetarians! We had delicious pies for dessert. And the conversation was absolutely delightful from beginning to end. My parents reflected afterwards that they hadn't been to such a fun party in a very long time. 

Choir Concert- Rebecca and I have always been involved in some kind of church or community choir situation since we were married (and even before). We joined a community choir based in a German School, directed by a very talented Kenyan musician. The choir, thanks to the director, is made up of many of his students, other professional musicians, as well as a number of us amateurs. We all share a love of singing, and he creates the most eclectic repertoire I have ever experienced, including classical, contemporary, African, sacred, and secular music. Our Christmas repertoire included songs in about 10 different languages. We finally gave a performance shortly after Rebecca's parents arrived. Our director likes to have our choir perform in very informal settings, and we did our concert at a big German Christmas fair outdoors. It was a bit of a challenge, but well appreciated by the audience that gathered around. Last week, as the season is over, we had a big choir Christmas party and enjoyed singing many of our favorites again. I really appreciate this community, and it is a group of people we would probably not have met elsewhere. Many are in the UN, or are diplomats, as well as some top Kenyan vocal musicians. 

Musical Auditions- It is interesting that despite the number of things we are involved in, Rebecca and I still find even more new activities to take on every year. Last year, because of being told I had a previous career as a dancer/choreographer, the director of the musical at David's school asked me to help with the auditions. This year, with a dearth of student choreographers, she asked me to be the choreographer for the musical this year, which is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is a musical from around 2013 based on the well-known story. As part of that, I spent about 4 days after school (and work) going to David's school to run dance auditions and help select the cast. David was in the musical last year and auditioned this year, and I am happy to say he was cast (as Verucca Salt's father) It is a good role in this musical. I feel both excitement and trepidation about taking this on. My dance career ended about 16 years ago, and I have done some teaching at different times since then, but not any big choreographic undertakings. Nonetheless, I am excited about it and look forward to starting rehearsals in January after Christmas. 

Carols by Candelight and other musical offerings- I need to say a word about the flow of life in Kenya, and the particular oddities of Nairobi. The Kenyan school year starts in January and ends by mid-November. By early December, Nairobians are already thinking about taking their long summer holidays and heading upcountry to visit relatives for the festive season. By December 10, all government services are basically shut down. And therefore, any church that wants high participation in an Advent/Christmas event needs to plan it for the first weekend of December.  It seems very odd to us, who are used to the big Christmas carol events happening right around Christmas Eve, but that's just the reality here. 

So, by early November, we were deep in preparation for our church's Carols by Candlelight service on December 6. I offered to lead the musical portion of the service and decided to see if there might be half a dozen people who would help lead traditional carols. When I made an announcement, I was stunned to find that 35 people came to sign up! We only had time to rehearse for two hours before the day -- not really enough time, but we had to make do. I was so grateful that David was willing to be part of the effort, along with Paul and my mother, who made it to one of our rehearsals. A few different youth came to participate too, playing violin and guitar. 

On the Saturday of the Carols service, most of us had a morning to rest and prepare (granted, I was trying to finish preparing a sermon for the next day). Paul, by contrast, was running non-stop. He left early in the morning to participate in the prison ministry. He was leading the worship band the next day, and so he had a rehearsal. Next, he met us at another Saturday Christmas Market.  David's honors choir was singing and providing caroling at the event, and so we had a chance to hear them together with my mom. We did some quick Christmas shopping, listened to the choir, and then my mom and I scooted off to the church to do a sound check for the Carols service. 

It was a lot of moving parts to keep together, between leading 10 carols, assisting with the music for the children's nativity, and trying to manage the student musicians helping. But in the end, it was a very joyful evening. The volunteer Carol choir sang beautifully and added rich harmony to the congregational singing. David sang a solo very beautifully on "What Child is This? / Helpless and Hungry." My mom and I gave our best shot at all the Willcocks descants. The children's nativity play was absolutely adorable. There was a real baby in the manger, who then actually got older (replaced by an older baby for the wise men). Best of all, one of our church elders brought three of his real live sheep! It was hysterical. I'm so glad we put a big effort into the occasion, and it was truly a delight to help make it happen. 

And then the next morning, Paul had to get up early to lead the music, and I was preaching on Gabriel's visit to the Virgin Mary, telling her she was going to have a child who would change her life. I've preached on that passage before, and I had really prayed that God would give me a fresh message. He was faithful to help me find new hidden treasures in a well-worn passage. 

In the evening, after a nap, my mom and I went to our small group bible study and had a good chance to sample various Christmas treats, learn about various European Advent traditions, and then pray for each other. Sadly, Paul missed it because he was already on the road...

Trip to Siaya- The carols by candlelight weekend honestly felt insane because, as stated above, Saturday I rehearsed for leading music at church in the morning, went to David's choir concert in the afternoon, sung in the carols by Candlelight in the evening, then led music at church the next morning, and as soon as church was over, I had to take a nine hour drive to Siaya, which is a region in Western Kenya where I was going to do a 3 day field visit. I was accompanied by Judith, our health and education coordinator, who was going for monitoring and to do a project management training. She also brought with her her one-year-old daughter and a nanny to take care of her. Because of all the activity of the weekend, we also hired a driver to drive the MCC Land Cruiser so I could get some rest during the trip. I think I was somewhat comatose from the exhaustion of the past two days and was in a kind of stupor most of the trip. It seemed to pass quickly, even though we arrived in Bondo, a town in Siaya, about 10pm that night. 

The next day, we went and met two members of our partner project team, Maureen and Winnie, who debriefed us on the current status of the project. This is a maternal and child health project based in providing mothers with support through pregnancy, delivery, and the first 2 years of life through peer-based care groups. It is a very effective way to deliver good health information to them. These groups also have a livelihood component, so women save together as well and then use the savings for small loans, paid back with interest, so they can start small businesses. There is no capital infusion from MCC or the partner, and it is highly successful. 

On each of the three days I was there, we did some training of project staff in the morning, then field visits to care groups in different villages every afternoon. The villages are along the shore of Lake Victoria and are quite picturesque, usually with large nets spread on the beaches covered with 'omena', a small anchovy-like fish, drying in the sun. Women can usually find work here, and these can be very transient communities. Among the most powerful testimonies we heard were of women with young children who said that before the savings groups were established, the only way they could eat and feed their children was through 'sex for fish'. But now that they have some access to money, they can buy omena, then take it to nearby towns and sell at a profit. They have food security and can contribute back to the group with interest, which allows for even bigger loans in the future. 

I was very impressed by the success of this project in this community, but I was glad to be able to head back to Nairobi on the fourth day. Of course, I got back just in time to jump back into work with many things waiting in my inbox to attend to. 

Grandparent Departure and Oren's Arrival

While Paul was in Siaya, I held down the fort with my parents for two more days. My dad only got back late at night on Monday and had one day to rest and turn around. Thankfully, I took a little time with both of them for a walk in the forest before they needed to close their suitcases and go. It was sad to see them leave as I drove them to the airport on Tuesday evening-- we'd enjoyed a really good time together, and I hope there might be another future occasion. 

On Wednesday, I went to school after work to enjoy another really nice festive occasion -- the traditional carol sing and choir concert. The event also includes some funny elements, including an audience participation rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. They also have a Christmas best-dressed contest every year, and this year, David was actually motivated to make an effort. Last summer, he had requested that I find him a pink suit -- and believe it or not, I managed to find a decent, affordable hot pink suit on Amazon. He decided that this was the occasion to bring it out in public, accessorizing with a string of Christmas lights and a reindeer antler headband. He definitely pulled off an epic fashion statement and actually won the prize for the high school category.

Following on the heels of the grandparents' departure
was Oren's arrival. He will be here with us over the Christmas break, so you will hear more about him in the next installment.  

That covers the last 3 weeks or so. Next week we are climbing Mt. Kenya, so stayed tuned...

Dragon sculpture David made

Summitting Setima and An Unexpected Journey

Long trips always feel like an ideal time to do a blog entry. Currently, I am travelling alone with a 7-hour layover in Paris (Charles de Gaulle airport). I am en route to Dulles, where I will be met by my in-laws, who will take me to Baltimore. This is normally only a trip that we do in the summer, and the reason I am going during this season is to help my parents make a significant move. After over 60 years in Maryland (I am not counting the dozen or more years they spent overseas), they have decided to move to Dallas, where my brother Jonathan lives and has a 'grandparent suite' available in his house. They are making a proactive decision, as nonagenarians, to move in with family as they will begin to need more assistance with things like shopping, driving, etc. 

My role will be to help with the final end of the move, although most of the packing has already been done, and movers are scheduled for pick up this week. I am also organizing a farewell event at their church for friends and colleagues (from Hopkins) to have a chance to say goodbye. I will then fly with them to Dallas to help them settle in. (Hopefully, we won't have any travel disruption between Baltimore and Dallas next week due to flight cancellations.) I will leave from Dallas to return to Nairobi a few days after I drop them off. I have not seen my brother's place in Dallas as he only moved there this summer. 

That is the view ahead, as I wait here in the airport. I do want to give an update on the past few weeks since our big October events (hosting the East Africa Rep meetings and learning tour). Since that time, there is, mercifully, not too much to report on the work front. We have been able to have some time in the office to catch up on reporting, grant disbursements, etc. We also regularly manage small issues that come up with our volunteers, such as re-housing one of them whose homestay was not working well. Of much bigger concern was the shocking election violence after the Tanzanian elections!

The Tanzania election violence caught all of us off guard. We have placed two one-year volunteers there (in Arusha), and we had no security concerns because Tanzania is so peaceful and stable. (Thanks to its founding father, Julius Nyerere.) This stability was shattered in the most recent elections, where the ruling CCM party basically shut out, through arrests and imprisonment, all opposition party candidates. The popular backlash after the elections was extensive and chaotic. The response by the government. was to call out the army and black out all communications (internet, phone, etc.) No one knows how many people died in the riots, but estimates are between several hundred and several thousand. This has never happened before in Tanzania, which was an exemplar of different faith and ethnic groups living harmoniously. 

We lost contact with our volunteers for several days. There had been a curfew in the city where they were, and they laid low with their host families for about 4 days before returning to work and regular activities. At this point, the violence has subsided (the govt. is blaming the violence on external countries), but people are shaken and traumatized to see the change in attitude from the government as it has become more authoritarian. 

Sometimes it feels like our job is more about managing crises than supporting partners in their projects. It is economically a tough year, as well as we realize MCC's budgets are flat, and we need to pare down our work and make hard choices about which projects and partners we can support this year. With other big donors like USAID and other bilateral partners also decreasing foreign aid, we can see the crunch people are experiencing. 

Despite this, we have had some really nice family events the past two weeks. One thing we have all enjoyed doing is singing, and Rebecca, David, and I have done some recordings of us doing some bluegrass trios with banjo, guitar, and David's awesome voice. I am also happy to say he is being given some opportunities in his choir to do some special parts for upcoming concerts. Rebecca and I continue to rehearse with our community choir and are looking forward to some Christmas performances.

We do keep in touch regularly with Oren, and we are glad he will be coming to visit at Christmas. I will not see him during this trip since he is at Goshen College, near Chicago, and I will be in Baltimore and Dallas. His reports about college life have made us appreciate the wisdom he had in transferring. He is much happier there and is excelling in his accounting major.

The most significant event of the past two weeks was a camping adventure that Rebecca, David, and I undertook on a recent long weekend. Rebecca had received a recommendation to go to the Aberdares, a mountain range a few hours north of Nairobi. We booked a campsite there and talked to our neighbors, the Ungers, about going up with us to camp and to take a long day hike up Mt. Setima, the 2nd highest peak in Kenya. 

They agreed, and we set out on a midday Sunday after church. Unfortunately, they forgot some documents and had to turn back to get them, so we did not caravan, but proceeded ahead of them. Things went well until we got to the base of the escarpment, where we had to climb (by car) up on a steep, washed-out switchback. We had a 4-wheel Land Cruiser that struggled to make it up, and we realized that the Ungers' car would not make it. We called them and told them they should not try, and they agreed. 

Our family made it up to the campsite by late afternoon. It was far more rustic than we expected, and looked like it had been quickly assembled for our arrival. There was a seat with a bucket under it for a toilet, and a banda (small covered structure with only two pieces of tin roofing on it) where they had built us a fire. We set up our tents and started to make dinner. We found our camp stove was not working, so we had to cook everything on an open fire.

The guards who set up the fire left for the night at 7pm. We asked about wild animals, and they said the buffalo and elephants would not approach our campsite since we had a fire going. (not too much comfort, as we planned to go to bed at some point). But we did pass the night without incident. 

One thing we noticed is that the path into the campsite was deep mud that could only be traversed in 4-wheel drive. The campsite ground was pretty soft and damp as well. 

The next morning, we picked up a ranger/guide (armed for protection from wildlife) and drove to the trailhead of the Setima trail. The round trip was about 20 km. What we did not expect was that the entire trail was like a stream bed; even on the steep parts, it was a flowing stream. We did our best to keep our boots out of the deep parts while walking up, but it took a lot of effort and more looking down than looking around at the scenery. Nonetheless, the scenery was quite beautiful and reminded me of Kilimanjaro, with gigantic lobelia trees growing like some extraterrestrial flora. 

About halfway up the trail, we came to a huge craggy wall called Dragon's Teeth. It was very picturesque and had a great echo. David sang a tune from the dwarves in The Lord of the Rings (Song of Durin) that had quite an eerie sound echoing off the walls of the rock face. 

We continued on for a very long way. It was actually much further than we expected, and there were many 'false' peeks before you see the real one in the distance. By the time we were about 30 minutes away, we realized we were nearly out of time to walk before the necessary turnaround time. David ran ahead and got to the summit easily, and I followed a bit later behind. During the second part of the hike, the weather was turning, and we knew there would be a risk of afternoon rain in this short rainy season. 

By the time I got to the summit, it was sleeting heavily, and we immediately began descending since the weather up there was getting bad, and we knew we had a 3-hour hike back. Long story short, it rained most of the way back down. Rebecca and David, who had 'waterproof' coats on, were drenched to the bone. I did better in my raincoat, which held up. All of us had completely drenched boots, though, as we threw caution to the wind on the descent and just hustled down the middle of the path. In some places I stepped, the water was over a foot deep and easily went into the tops of my boots. 

The trip down seemed to take forever, and the whole hike was about 10 hours for us total by the time we got back to the car. We drove back in the rain, and it was still raining heavily at our campsite. We could not really go into our tents. Fortunately, the guards started a fire for us, and we were able to sit by it for quite a while and let things dry. We ate dinner and took off wet stuff around the fire. The rain slowed to a drizzle, and Rebecca and I slept in our tent, but David opted to sleep in the Land Cruiser. We slept well, had a good breakfast the next day, which fortunately was not raining, and headed back down late morning. As we expected, the rain from the night before made the trip down even more muddy and treacherous. We did eventually get down the escarpment and made our way back to Nairobi. 

We debriefed with the Ungers a few days later and talked about how difficult the hike was. We concluded it was the adverse weather that made it so bad. Kurtis had ascended in the dry season, and it was nothing like what we described. It was not a bog. (I compared the whole walk to the scene where Atreyu's horse drowns in The Neverending Story--for those who are above Gen Z). 

Other highlights of the week included David's birthday, which, at his request, was celebrated in a subdued way, with a dinner at Bang Bang, our favorite Thai restaurant. On the weekend, he also went bowling with several of his friends from school. So he did have some fun. Among his presents was a new putter, so I am hoping we can go golfing again in the near future. 

Last weekend, I took an overnight on a Men's retreat that was organized by our church. I went for the first time last year so I was not the 'new guy' this time. It is good to get to know men at the church better. The retreat was at Brackenhurst, which is a beautiful facility that our family has been to in the past. A very restful place for a retreat. 

The only other thing worth mentioning was several swim meets that David has been participating in as part of the swim team. So that is the news from Kenya. 

Postscript:

I started this blog en route to Baltimore but have since arrived. One of the things I came here to do was to organize a farewell event for my parents. We did this on Sunday in the afternoon and held it at a large room in their church. I was nervous about whether the word had effectively gotten out to all of their friends, given that I was doing it all by email and relying on spreading the word through word of mouth and cascading through close friends to distant ones. The event went off as well as I had hoped. There were about 70 people, all told, who came and dropped by. We had a little program midway through to give people a chance to talk about knowing them. My parents have been living in Maryland on and off for 60 years, so they know a lot of people. The decision to move to Texas with my brother is prudent, but they will be missed here. 

 

From the coast to informal settlements: Kenya learning tour

Dorcas Muia in her kitchen garden

\We left the ocean beauty of Watamu on Friday morning to board a coaster bus bound inland. Some of our Rep colleagues elected to have their mothers and kids skip this long drive and fly directly to Nairobi. But most of us settled in for what was to be about 10 hours of driving through increasingly arid landscapes heading northwest to the city. Our group included International Program Director Rebecca with her husband Blaine; Area Director Wawa;  regional staff members Milkah (finance), Mercy (HR), David (Peace-building and Advocacy), Kelly (Connecting peoples and Admin); and several fellow reps: Samuel and Winfred (from Uganda, serving in Chad), Semei (from Uganda, serving in South Sudan), Fred and Betty (from Kenya, serving in Uganda) and all three of us Mosleys.

Regional Meetings in Turtle Bay (Part 1)

October is frequently a very busy month for MCC country programs. It is a season when everything should be 'full under sail'. This is particularly true because much of September can be focused on orienting new volunteers, getting them placed, securing legal status for them to work, etc. This can be the main focus of the MCC Reps and administrative staff. By October, one-year volunteers should be in their assignment locations and living with their host families. With that out of the way, we can return to other operational aspects of our program, such as reviewing concept papers for new projects, receiving reports for ongoing work, and managing other administrative aspects of the program.

Time to abide

Mt. Longonot crater rim

The first three weeks after I returned to Kenya kept us on our toes. Three weeks of in-country orientation for our young adults was about as intense for them as for us, with activities of some type every day. It has been a relief to take work and life at a more sustainable pace since mid-September. We had mundane things to catch up on in the office (turning in the monthly financial report, shepherding new project proposals through the next stage of development, meeting with each staff member for a check-in on their work). We have also taken some time out to bring back a bit more work-life balance in the past weeks, so I’ll focus on those things.

Paul had been saying for a couple of weeks that he really needed an outlet for all the pent-up stress of driving in Nairobi, and kept mentioning a deep urge to climb Mt. Longonot. I decided I'd better join in, and so we found a day when we could take the adventure together. We actually climbed to the rim of this dormant crater at one point last September, together with David – I found it incredibly difficult then, probably because I was coming down with COVID or something. Or maybe the pace set by our then-15-year-old was impossible for me to keep up with. I was a bit apprehensive about trying it again, but I still wanted to test my endurance.

Trail to the crater rim

This time, we planned better, getting out of the house before 7 am, armed with 2 L of Ceralyte (oral rehydration solution) and another 2 L of water each. We were very pleased with the ease of registering at the gate and the nice low fee for residents to enter the park. We started walking at 9 am and decided to really take the first hike to the rim slow. It is a very steep ascent – in some places, so steep and eroded that they needed to put in concrete stairs to help people actually make it up without sliding. Those stairs remind me of a famous quote: "My old enemy.... Stairs!" (Po, Kung-Fu Panda) 

Once you get to the crater rim, the view is absolutely breathtaking. Even in the dry season, with a very dusty trail, the crater itself is remarkably green and vibrant, and you can see all around the edge, rising up to the peak about 1/3 of the way around counterclockwise. 

Trail to the top

We decided to get the climbing over with first, and so we hiked that way, getting more and more intimidated by the steep-looking trail ahead of us. It was pretty extreme towards the end, but never actually dangerous or exposed to a cliff. That was quite a relief to me, because I have a pretty bad fear of heights, and we were literally walking on the rim of a crater with extreme drop-offs on either side. But the trail always felt wide enough, and most of the time, vegetation lined the trail, making it impossible to slip and fall.

Looking back at the summit

We made it up to the top of Mt. Longonot right around noon and took a few minutes to take some photos and enjoy the view, but didn’t really want to stop for long. Our hiking poles were essential as we had to negotiate the gravelly trails to descend much of the rest of the way around the crater. It was strange because the rim looked so flat and gentle from afar, but is really quite jagged with lots of ups and downs. Eventually, the trail flattened out for the final third of the circuit and we could just relax and walk and enjoy the views and the different, wonderful plants. I found myself singing (in my head!) all the hymns I know in praise of God’s creation.

easy trail and sailing clouds

“Thou rushing winds that art so strong,

ye clouds that sail in heaven along,

O praise him, Hallelujah!”

We did finally take a bit of a break to enjoy the view before making our descent. I must admit, I was really moving slowly at this point in the hike. It’s not easy to do a steep descent either – those stairs were definitely our best friends getting down the elevation. We eventually got back to our car after 7 hours total and made the slow drive back up the escarpment to home.

stop-motion set

We had left David at home that day because he had actually just started a huge chemistry project. His teacher invited all students to investigate a particular chemical process involved in climate change and explain it using some kind of creative media. He gave them lots of options: short-story, drawings, and comic strip. But David was the first student who ever volunteered to try a stop-motion video. He loves working with clay and sculpting things so it seemed like an excellent media to experience. Paul helped him find a phone app to make the filming easier, and then he spent most of that day designing his set, creating his characters and then doing the opening sequence. We kept getting text messages from him – do we have an easel? Where can I find a picture frame? Any more cardboard? 

Adjusting the facial expressions of photons

He sorted himself out in the end. He's figured out ways to make the filming less time-consuming, and continues to work on this project. But I'm sure he's spent at least 30 hours already. 

We also had a great time preparing and leading worship music that weekend, together with three other Kenyans. I’m so grateful that our family can participate in music together, and it was a very fun set of music on the theme of joining God in his mission to steward and honor creation (hence the hymns in my head).

One image of abiding

Back in May, I had been asked to lead the teaching at our church women’s retreat at the end of September. I decided at that point to focus on John 15, a passage that talks expressively about discipleship as abiding in Christ. I’d been thinking about it all summer and decided to preach on it back in Baltimore when invited. But the one preparation I hadn’t been able to do much of in August and September was the most important: actually spending some time abiding! I was able to take one comp day each week (for weekend days worked) to really rest. Only when I stopped did I realize how tired I was. I took 3 naps in one day on that first comp day! I enjoyed some good time reading in my hammock and just tried to spend some time not accomplishing much. I had a similar day the following week, with a solid nap in the middle and some good time entering into imaginative prayer. I realize that in our culture, it is an absolute fight to take time to simply abide and enjoy Sabbath. Which is why I’m mentioning it here. And even feeling some unholy shame about publicly saying that I took time off, recognizing that it is a privilege to be able to enjoy a day of rest. I think that's all wrong, but it's hard not to feel like dedication to productivity at all moments is the highest good. 

First warm morning light

Tigoni tea fields

As a result of all that resting, I actually felt extremely peaceful by the time the women’s retreat day came. In fact, I haven’t felt such a profound absence of anxiety for a long time. Paul very kindly offered to drive me up to Brackenhurst in the morning last Friday and we had time to take a walk together through the tea fields, remembering our early experiences with the Renew Conference. Then he drove home, and I was able to check in to a room early and get yet one more 2-hour afternoon nap while it bucketed rain outside.

I was so happy to be in that environment again, with all the flowers and sunbirds, and then to begin connecting with ladies from our church. I don’t know that many people very well, so it was such a good opportunity to go beyond the surface. In the end we had 50 women attend, with about half coming the night before. We had really good dinner conversations around a table and then a very effective ice breaker session that helped me know at least 10 women quite a lot better. It was too cold and rainy for a bonfire, but we were able to gather at an indoor stone fireplace and even make s’mores there.

Morning teaching session

In the morning, I got up early to enjoy the quiet of dawn and then I was ready to help the worship team with guitar accompaniment. The morning sessions went well and I appreciated how responsive people were to the teaching. We had time for group discussion and then an hour of individual reflection: yet another period to head back into the forest and enjoy the quiet and the wildflowers. I also led a more experiential session in the afternoon, trying to help people learn about imaginative prayer and stepping into a Gospel. I sometimes feel that it’s a stretch for people to use their imaginations so actively in seeking to meet with Jesus. But then I remember that the Jesuits have been growing in holiness this way for more than 500 years and I feel much more secure in the discipline.

All ended well for the retreat, and I was able to get a ride back home with another woman who arrived about when we did and enjoyed quite a good, deep conversation during that drive. I was grateful for that too. While I was away, Paul had gotten David organized and dropped him off for his 5-day service and learning school trip, so we had a little taste of the empty nest for a few days.

Men's worship band

While the women were on retreat, it was up to the men to come up with a worship band for Sunday morning. Paul also spent quite a while Saturday night going over banjo parts so he would be able to join Uyi, Shadrack, and David in the morning. They did a lovely job of leading very worshipful music. And Paul also led an extremely athletic children's song with motions later in the service. 

Over the past few weeks, we have also been able to reconnect with several different family friends from different seasons of life. We met up with Aaron and Frieda Jell from our Ethiopia bible study group as they passed through town, enjoying a nice Thai dinner with them. The next weekend, we got together with LeCrecia and her two youngest kids, who were good buddies of David from school and the youth group in Addis – their family actually was the one who very kindly drove David to school almost every day, so they learned to endure his banter along the way. And then the next day, Lena and Patrick, friends from our time in Arusha, came to visit our church and share lunch with us afterwards. They were in town for the normal Kenya errands, and it was so nice to see them after a couple of years. One thing for sure: everyone ends up in Nairobi sooner or later, so it’s a great place to live in order to meet up with all your old friends!

Bonus photos:

LVC women's retreat

Elvis, an MCC IVEPer, visited us at church

Brackenhurst wildflower

waterfall in the tea fields

David's first woodworking project

An evening with the Jells