Surviving and Thriving with New Rhythms in Life this Season

Tailor-made matching outfits

Some things are changing in life as of late, which is making this blog more and more difficult to write. I think it may be a huge new time commitment that I have, namely, choreographing the musical for David's high school. I mentioned in the last entry that they are doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the musical--somewhat different from the book or the movies. David is in it, which is great; he is Mr Salt, Veruka's father and has a very funny song in Act 1. 

I was actually excited about being offered the opportunity to be the choreographer for the show. Rebecca had told the choir teacher at the school the year before that I had been a dancer and choreographer, and they asked me to help out a bit last year with the student choreographers for High School Musical. I had a blast, and this year they really needed someone who could commit to doing it. With some trepidation about the amount of time it would take, I got permission from my supervisors to take time off from 4 to 530 Mon-Thurs to work at the school on the musical. 

It was not until I committed that I realised how many full dances are in the production. There are, at last count, 12! That is quite a big time commitment to choreograph that much movement. In addition, there is a very amusing, but challenging necessity to create dances of many different genres, ex, Augustus Gloop is introduced with a polka, Veruka, a ballet en pointe, Violet, a hip hop routine, and Mike is kind of thrashy with some TikTok worked in. Charley and Grandpa Joe's music is reminiscent of Mary Poppins Step in Time chimney sweeps. The opening piece, set to Sammy Davis Jrs. Candy Man has an old Broadway, Chorus Line kind of feel, and the end of Act One, Willy Wonka at the factory entrance for the whole cast, I have used a combination of tango with Bollywood accents. Wonka does a lot of hat and cane work as well throughout. 

Don't even get me started on Act 2, but there are some returns to themes like a Nutcracker Suite for squirrels and Veruka, and a stamping dance for Mike TV entitled Vidiots. There are many I did not mention, but each one is a project unto itself. At this point, I am finished with most of the pieces, but it has consumed a great deal of my time. (I would say about 3 hours of prep time for every hour of rehearsal I have with the group(s).

Needless to say, combined with my job, which I usually need to continue for another hour or so on my return home, I feel like I don't have a lot of time or mental energy for writing or even reflecting on anything from the past days, forget weeks. 

Last day old office

I am sorry I don't have any photos or videos to show of the work so far, but taking photos of high school students is a sensitive matter, so you have to imagine what these rehearsals look like. The performance is in April.

Other things have made the month more than just normally stressful at work. Because of the musical, I have made sure I don't have to do any work-related travel in or out of the country. That has not stopped visitors from coming to see us, though. We have had visitors and conferences in town for at least 3 of the last 4 weeks. I am happy that we have program coordinators who can be on the ground for these visits, but there is still a fair amount of admin and logistics support that Rebecca and I have to provide. 

We had two groups overlap in mid-February, one was a consultant who was doing a program evaluation of our maternal and child health projects using the care-group approach. MCC had received a large grant for this work, and there was interest from HQ to see the impact of the program in countries in Africa where MCC implemented it. (It was implemented in Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.) It is continuing in Kenya. The approach has been adapted and innovated in different ways in these different contexts. Kenya has been doing caregroups in urban informal settlements (slums), and in the past phase, we have added a livelihoods component (savings groups) to improve nutrition outcomes by giving women access to savings to start small businesses. 

While I only went with the consultant to the field on the first day, we had to do a lot of advance work, including getting survey instruments translated, hiring a research assistant and interpreter, and arranging for all transport to and from the field. I was very happy Judith, our health programs coordinator, was there to help.

At the same time, we had a person from HQ in Canada come with some MCC Uganda food security program staff to visit a project we have in Turkana involving an irrigation scheme and climate-smart agriculture. They want to implement a similar project and came out to see our work. Turkana is difficult to access and usually involves a flight to a town called Lodwar. I had arranged a flight with a travel agent, but it was cancelled at the last minute. The team had to drive to Turkana from Nairobi, which is very far, and requires crossing a regional border where there is ethnic conflict that can result in carjackings. Charles, our FS program officer, drove them up to Turkana and coordinated with our local partner to be sure they could safely cross the border and get to and from their destination. 

New office visit from ADs

You might wonder what Rebecca and were doing to keep us so busy at the office while all this was going on. Well, we were moving from our office in Westlands, Nairobi, to a new place in Ridgeways, Nairobi (mercifully closer to our current house). MCC and Mennonites have a long history in Westlands, it was where the old Mennonite Guest House was, and our office was next to that location. We were told last year that the property was going to be sold, so when the lease was up for renewal, we looked for a new place and found a house with reasonable rent in Ridgeways. 

Moving an office is a daunting task, and it was made more difficult when we realised we would not be able to bring our guards with us since the new house already had a guard service. This was also true of our housekeeper, who was eligible to retire and could not have kept up with the work of the new place. 

New office living room

The process of letting our support staff go is elaborate according to labour law, and we had to visit the labour office several times to drop off documentation of redundancy and have numerous meetings with our staff to support them in finding another opportunity. It was a challenging, sad, but necessary process. On our last day at the office, we had a party for them and gave them some gifts and speeches of appreciation. I am also happy to say that MCC does far more than the minimum required by labour law as far as severance compensation. 

We officially moved into our new office on Feb. 5th. It took a huge moving truck, 2 trips, and a very long day to complete the work. Rebecca and I stayed at the new office until nearly 9pm that night. Since then, we have been doing a lot of work to equip the place, as it is bigger than our old office, and we even have some space for guest bedrooms when our volunteers visit us. 

International Day at Rosslyn

All of these things involve a lot of logistics, and Rebecca and I have been very busy getting settled while also hosting guests, and this is also the season of interviewing new volunteers for next summer's cohort. Needless to say, it has been stressful. 

On the home front, we were also hosting our friends Erwin and Angelika, who came to Nairobi from Tanzania for health issues and spent about 10 days with us during treatment. Erwin got quite sick while here and spent several days in the hospital as well. I am happy to say that at this writing, they are back in Arusha and doing better. 

I will mention several highlights in the month, one of which was my Birthday. We had a big blow-out last year for 65, so we were pretty subdued this year and just celebrated with the neighbours. I think with the musical and everything else going on, it was too much to do more than that. 

David's school had an international day, which was fun despite the onset of the rainy season. There were contributions from about 40 countries represented at the school. Our family contributed a line dance for the USA to the music of Footloose. It was very well received. 

There was really too much happening to get it all here, but I will close with something that has been nurturing, which is Rebecca and my participation in a 6-week marriage course at our church. As part of it, we are supposed to go on a date as a couple every week. That has been a lot of fun. We do have a planned vacation for a week in March, so hopefully it will be a less stressful month.

Birthday

Erwin and Angelika

David's youth group bowling outing

Renewal, Routine, and a Visit to Arusha

The midpoint of January has come and gone. The holiday season, which ended just over a week ago, seems a distant memory. We sent Oren packing back to Goshen on January 4th. We had a really good time with him, and honestly, it was hard to say goodbye. 

Our last week of holiday after Christmas was particularly meaningful because we continued in a ritual that we have been participating in since at least 2019. "Renew' is a spiritual retreat that has been meeting for over 40 years. It spans 5 days between Christmas and New Year's. It has historically been attended by missionaries and Christian development workers from all over East and Central Africa. Since COVID, it has diminished significantly in attendance, and sadly, 2 years ago, we lost our beloved Brackenhurst venue, where it had always been held, amid tea plantations and lush gardens. We started meeting at a new location outside of Nairobi, which has nice facilities but is not nearly as picturesque. 

Nonetheless, we had about 40 adults and children who came this year. The programming usually includes inspiring teaching, fellowship, music, games, sports, and recreation to rejuvenate all ages. It ends on Jan 1 after we have a kind of vigil on New Year's Eve with a vesper service and then a bonfire. 

The reason we continue to go is that we have very dear friends, the Taylor family, who we have been close to since our time we were living in Arusha. They have 4 kids around the ages of our 2, and they are all very close friends. Their Harry and our Oren have both left for college, so we are feeling in similar places. Mike and I both really enjoy golf, and Katie is one of Rebecca's close friends. We have fellowshipped in a small group and through many challenges in life, so it is always good to be with them. 

Mike was actually the inspirational speaker this time, and we helped Katie with music leading. Harry led the youth devotionals, which Oren and David attended intently. I enjoyed getting to play the banjo for worship, and even led an evening of line and folk dancing that was a lot of fun. Probably the most challenging event was a Trivia Night organized by our Gen Z youth! A lot of us struggled to know the music, celebrities, and even the Bible trivia, which included questions like: "How many judges were in the Bible?" or "How old was Enoch when he died?" Not stuff you know off the top of your head. 

The other interesting part of the event was being joined by our 4 young adult volunteers working in Kenya, who were off for most of Christmas break. They happily agreed to lead the children's programming and did a stellar job! It was really good to be with them as well, because when we were not having sessions, they joined in with games like Capture The Flag, dancing, frisbee, trivia night, etc. On the last day, they were honored for their work, and I think the parents of young children really appreciated them. (Lainie, Esther, Eyasu, and Selam were the 4 who helped out.)

Among the difficult discussions was the future of Renew. It has been dwindling each year, and we barely had a quorum this year to cover all the leadership positions to keep it running. After some deliberation in an informal general meeting, we decided to take a hiatus next year and not try to convene and rethink its viability. It was a hard decision because of how good we have seen it in the past, but we are realizing it just can't be sustained. The big change is one of demographics. Historically, there were large numbers of expatriate missionaries and workers in East Africa who felt a need to have a time of renewal annually. Now, most of the work done by these people is handled aptly by members and leaders of local churches in each country. There really is no need anymore to have foreigners coming for the purpose of evangelical mission work. 

Despite the bleak future for Renew, the event as a whole this year lived up to its name. Our whole family left feeling refreshed, renewed, and satisfied to have reconnected to our deep friendships. I was glad to send Oren back with a new sense of purpose. (Climbing Mt. Kenya was not his idea of inspiration!) But being with his best friend Harry gave him a renewed sense of purpose. 

When we returned to our house on Jan 1st (we did stay at the place even though it was not too far from our house, so we could be part of the evening events), we found the cat and all things in good order. (Our neighbors looked in on Charlie the cat.) We had about 2 days with Oren, but we did go back to work for one day to start to get on top of 2 weeks of email we had not really looked at. We did get one more chance at a walk in Karura forest with Oren, then took him to the airport on Monday night. I felt a bit sorry for him because he was booked on Emirates, which flies to Dubai, then does a 14-hour flight to Chicago direct. I watched his progress on my flight app and told him later that he flew over all of America's enemies. Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Greenland, and Canada! He got back on schedule and made all his train connections in Chicago to get back to South Bend by about 10pm the night before classes restarted. 

For us, there was really no rest from travel as we transitioned from vacation travel to work travel. David had one more week of holiday before his school started, and we needed to visit some partners and our volunteers in Arusha. Our Area Directors also needed to do a Tanzania visit, so we decided to combine all of these into a one-week field visit to Arusha, which started early the next morning after we dropped off Oren. 

I will admit, I have been out of the office on most weeks since mid-October. That did include some personal travel to the US in November, but I won't lie, I am sick of traveling and was looking forward to getting this last trip over with. There were some good elements to it, though: 1) Arusha is our old stomping ground, and we knew we could see some old friends (The Taylors) and visit some places we had not been in a while. 2) Also, our ADs are good friends who have 4 kids younger than David, who think he is awesome. We do enjoy spending time with them, so we had that to look forward to as well. 

We took two separate vehicles since there were a total of 9 of us. Although we headed out separately, we did meet up at the Namanga border and crossed into Tanzania without a hitch. Our first stop was in a town close to the border called Longido, where our partner TEMBO has a project. TEMBO is a Maasai organization that focuses on helping girls get higher education. They do a lot of sensitization and advocacy around preventing early marriage and FGM. They sponsor girls to succeed in national exams and attend secondary school and University. They have an excellent track record. 

Wawa and Kristen are our ADs, and this was Kristen's first visit to TEMBO. For me, going reminds me of at least a dozen other visits since we lived and worked here from 2017. Longido is dry and dusty, but features a very high volcanic crater that sits behind it. TEMBO has a simple guesthouse where we usually meet. Paulina, the director, and Simon, the accountant, met us, and we had lunch together while they gave us an update on activities. The kids did a good job of amusing themselves.

After lunch, we met several groups of project participants, including community advocates, some of whom had been female circumcisers and traditional midwives themselves, but were now strongly pro-girls' education. There were some male community chiefs as well who were girls' advocates as well. 

We talked to a group of girls as well. They ranged in age from about 9 to 18. Listening to their stories was shocking and inspiring. Hearing that some of the youngest had already been promised in marriage to men, even before puberty, was appalling to our ears, but all of them talked about how TEMBO advocates had stepped in on their behalf. All of them were doing very well in school and wanted to go on to professional careers. When I asked what they wanted to study, half wanted to be doctors and the other half, pilots! (I hear that often. I think seeing planes flying over and imagining where they go must lead many kids in rural settings here to aspire to fly a plane.)

After spending the day until late afternoon there, we drove the next 1.5 hours to Arusha and arrived at dusk. It was a very clear evening, and we could see Mt. Meru, even the edge of the crater, quite clearly. We stopped at ECHO, a partner where our 2 volunteers work, which has a neighboring guesthouse, checked in, then picked up our volunteers and took them out to eat at a restaurant. It was good to see Zoe and Sheila since they were not able to join the other 4 volunteers in Kenya at 'Renew'. 

They had really good reports about their assignments, and we had a good meal together, all 11 of us. We went back to the guesthouse and had a decent night. It was a very simple Norwegian kind of place, but very comfortable. The next morning, we did a tour of the ECHO campus, which is basically a large demonstration farm with many gardens showing different kinds of indigenous plants, as well as ways to improve harvests and food security. There is also a seed bank and technology innovation center made for small-holder farmers. Zoe and Sheila showed us around proudly. We also had an extended visit with their host families to be sure that everything was going right in their homestay situations. I am happy to report they are doing very well on all fronts. 

After our visit to ECHO, we went to a mall for lunch, then next door to a place called Arusha Cultural Heritage Center. This is actually a place I always loved to go. It has a lot high end shops for tourists, but mainly features a huge 5-story art gallery that is shaped like an enormous drum! (Imagine an African Guggenheim). It has some really cool artwork there, and everyone really loved to look at it. (all ages). There is also a cool shop that sells Tanzanite (a gem that is only found in Tanzania). From there, we left our volunteers and went on to our second venue, where we were going to stay a few nights. This was in some luxury tents at the Joshua Foundation, where our family used to live when we were in Arusha. We had many great memories from there, and it is a good place for kids to run around in, too. We had a nice evening and dinner there (at our old dining room table). 

The next day, Rebecca, Wawa, and I spent the day with our partner, KMT (Tanzania Mennonite Church). They had developed a Peace curriculum with a grant from us, and wanted to show us. It is a syllabus to be used in schools, churches, etc. to promote peace and social cohesion. We had a long visit with them, about half the day. They are developing some new livelihood concepts and had a lot of questions for us. We ended after lunch, in the afternoon. 

Kristen took all the kids to a kind of waterpark where David helped entertain them. It seems like the most fun activity was 'bumper boats', seen in the picture. 

On our third day, we visited our partner OWSL, a food security partner that has its headquarters and a demonstration farm in Arusha. Our old MCC TZ colleagues, Chrispin and Lucia, work there, and it is always good to see them. We had another thorough visit, hearing the updates on their project, and saw some of their demo. projects. They do fish raising and stingless beekeeping. If you have never tasted stingless bee honey, you are in for a surprise. It is supposed to be extremely healthy and has a kind of tart taste, not like regular bee honey at all. 

When we were done with field visits that day, we went our separate ways from the ADs. They went on to a short family safari adventure, and Rebecca, David, and I went to the Kilimanjaro golf course, where we met the Taylors. Some of us played 9 holes of golf and had a great time. 

The next morning, we headed back to Nairobi and got back around lunch time. I was glad to be home and hope not to travel again for several months. 

One of the reasons I don't want to be out of town much is so I can put in some afternoons to work on choreography for David's school musical. I think I said before that it is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it is a lot of fun to be helping out with. 

Work has been full as always, although Rebecca has been able to take a much-needed 5-day silent retreat, like she did last year, to de-stress and work on finding a sustainable way to keep going as Reps here. 

That should cover a lot of what we have been doing in the past 3 weeks. I will add as a postscript that we are currently hosting our friends Erwin and Angelika from Tanzania, who are here for some medical treatment. We have been enjoying playing music with them as Erwin is a really good guitarist and we used to sing in choir together in our Arusha days. 

Mt. Kenya Adventure and Cozy Christmas

The headlines of the last two weeks are found in the title of the blog; but first we need to catch up on a few other aspects of life. 

Youth group: We hosted our first Nairobi youth group hangout -- something we had the intention of doing ever since we moved to our house in Ridgeways. It was nice to see our space being well used by about 20 teens to play outdoor games, hang out, and then move indoors when it got dark. Mostly, we just provided the space and Lavington Vineyard Church youth pastor Joshua led the program. We had a few adventures with learning about how pizza delivery service works in Nairobi to our house, but overall, things went well. 

Right after the youth left, Paul and I took off for the airport to go pick up Oren. He arrived on a Friday night, and we were able to spend the weekend relaxing and spending time with him. It's been quite a semester of adjustments for him since he transferred to Goshen College in Indiana back in August. This smaller Mennonite liberal arts college has been a much better fit for him, and he quickly found a group of international transfer student friends. He also changed majors, from chemistry to accounting. But there have also been some hard adjustments, and we needed to talk through those with him. We intended to take a walk with him in the nearby Karura forest, but 10 minutes into our walk, we ran into a downpour and had to retreat back to our house to continue talking in the rain.

Paul and I had one more week of critical work to finish before the Christmas holidays, and David had final exams, so we left Oren to sleep off his jet lag on Monday. There were project proposals to review and budgets to finalize and we were working on signing a lease for a new MCC Kenya office space (More on all that later when we can say more officially). On Tuesday, we brought both our young men into the office to join in the MCC staff Christmas party. It was a very fun gathering with nice snacks and games to start out the morning. Paul and I led a round of “the Name Game” which is a favorite we learned from the Taylors. Then we played a very rowdy version of the white elephant gift exchange, with an entirely appropriate amount of stealing and teasing. Finally we feasted on goat and pilau and an enormous Fruit cake, given as a gift by the regional finance officer for our team work as early adopters of the new financial software.

We anticipated spending the rest of the time in a quiet week plugging away at administrative tasks. However, unplanned adventures always seem to arise. Overnight on Tuesday, one of our short-term volunteers became very ill. Her symptoms were so alarming that we decided it was necessary to call an ambulance and bring her into Nairobi from where she lives 4 hours away. From 2 am, we were on the phone every half hour with the ambulance service we subscribe to, and with our volunteer coordinator. Fortunately, the ill volunteer is placed with a co-volunteer who accompanied her on the ambulance. For the next two days, Paul spent most of the day making sure she was properly admitted to the hospital and treated appropriately, and I tried to keep all the other aspects of work running, also stopping in to visit and pray. We were very glad for other team members who stepped up to help, including another volunteer who is a nurse who actually stayed the night with the patient. We were very relieved that the volunteer’s health condition improved enough for her to be discharged on Friday, just as we were driving out of Nairobi towards a planned adventure…

Since moving to Kenya, Paul has been dreaming of climbing Mt Kenya again, something he did as a young adult in 1980 with his two brothers when his parents lived in Nairobi. Having just gotten his hip replaced in May, and following 6 months of strengthening, he felt like he was in better shape than ever to do it; and I also felt like it is the kind of thing one ought to do in Kenya, and I’m not getting any younger. David was game to try; he’s young and strong and has no trouble hiking at high speed. As for Oren, well, both Paul and I kept chickening out on breaking the news to him that he was going to have to come along with us – but finally we got up the courage to inform him about two weeks before he flew out. Our neighbors helped us greatly with filling out the necessary gear for the trip, and we got a good guide contact from our colleague Wawa: https://hiramsafaris.com/

We picked up David from school after his last exam Friday morning and then headed north to the East side of Mt. Kenya. By the time we got to the Park gate, it was about 3 pm, but our guide Hiram was there waiting for us to sign us in. We drove another 26 km up into the park to Lake Ellis, through eucalyptus plantings, past the bamboo forest and then up into higher altitude forest. The rest of the trekking team met us up at the Lake and prepared a nice campsite for us with a beautiful view across the water up to the cloudy peaks. We walked around the heather shrubbed hills for a bit as the sun was getting low and tried to adjust to the higher altitude at 3450m (11,300 ft). Paul immediately noticed he was not feeling great – that’s what you get for driving directly rather than hiking up, but we didn’t have enough time that day to hike up.

As the night air rapidly cooled, the team invited us to sit in the mess tent and enjoy some fresh popcorn and hot tea and stay warm. They then prepared an amazing supper for us, including soup, fresh fish and guacamole. We didn’t stay up too late – it was better to stay warm in our sleeping bags than try to huddle in the mess tent.

In the morning, we woke up early on a beautiful morning for our first day of trekking. The trail led us around to the other side of Lake Ellis, up a gradual hill and then back down into a gorge, across a bridge and then up a very long ascent to a ridge that seemed to go on forever. As we walked, Guide Hiram told us more about alpine vegetation around us (proteas, heather, giant groundsels and then ostrich plume lobelia as we got higher). He counseled us to walk slowly and take our time to acclimatize. At first, David was racing ahead, but then Hiram talked to him about staying with us and he was very patient after that, especially keeping me company and playing walking games like 20 questions. Paul stuck with Oren, and they listened to a history book together as they walked. Overall, it was a very pleasant walk through beautiful scenery with amazing views back to the lowlands, and though we were huffing and puffing walking uphill, there was nothing too tough about it. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a spot looking down into a magnificent gorge to Lake Michaelson, a spot for trout fishing. We reached our first campsite after about 6 hours, Mintos Camp at 4300m (14,100 ft) and right away enjoyed some tea and popcorn and a little time to lie flat on our backs to recover.

The camp itself was in a hollow of slaty rock, sheltered from the wind and not all that attractive on its own. But just behind it was a beautiful tarn or mountain lake, with gorgeous clear water and spectacular views towards the Delemere peaks. We all took turns exploring the hill and the tarn behind it, enjoying the antics of the fat little rock hyraxes and feeling the exhilaration of the mountain air. Sadly, Oren was not feeling so great, having only recently come in from closer to sea level. We gave him the prescribed medication to help with altitude, but he definitely wasn’t as happy with the whole situation. At night, to take his mind off the cold and discomfort, we played a lot of Spades and reorganized our sleeping arrangements so that he and Paul could keep listening to the history book.  

At some point during the night, it started raining. Later, I heard other trekking groups rising at 2 am to make their summit attempt from Mintos in wet and foggy conditions. When we got up at 6 am, it was actively snowing at Mintos and the whole mountain was shrouded in clouds – I felt very sorry for those poor souls who had been up walking all night. We heard from them later that the climb to the summit had been very icy and slippery and they really couldn't see anything.

Our team had a different plan, and so we waited until the clouds burned off and the tents could dry a bit before we packed our gear and headed up the mountain again. We had to pass through some flat and boggy areas until we reached a steep hillside, where we picked our way up the scree on a switchback path. It was quite a hike uphill for about 45 minutes, but all in all, it was not bad for a two-hour walk of just 2 km. Walking takes a lot longer at high altitude, when we reached our next camp, Simba Col at 4550m (15,000 ft).

The porters had passed us all on the way up there and had just got our mess tent set up when the rain started again. For the next few hours, we just hung out in the mess tent, resting and playing cards and trying not to go out in the wet. We had an early supper and then tried to sleep – it was a bit more challenging because the tent David and I were supposed to use was leaking in the rain, so we relocated the inside of the tent shell into the mess tent. Also, my camping mat did not hold air, so it was a bit cold and hard, and not easy to sleep. Therefore, I mostly lay awake all night, praying that the weather would improve. At about 1 am, I got up to inspect the bushes and was overjoyed to see a clear sky bursting with starlight. There is nothing like mountain stars, undimmed by light pollution, and it was such a relief to know we would not be hiking in wet weather.

We officially got up at 3:30 am to make sure we were warmly dressed and ready with lightened packs. Oren elected to stay in bed while the other 3 of us summitted: he had never been that motivated or interested in climbing this mountain, but he was a good sport about coming along most of the way. At 4:15, we set off with headlamps in the dark, following Hiram step after step, and accompanied by 3 other porters in case of any emergency. Most of the path was just a steep climb over scree that was nicely solid due to the ice holding it together. But in the last 40 minutes, we got to a spot where we needed to use all fours to scramble up some rocks. Our team helped us know where to put each foot and hand to make the ascent safely. Finally, the golden dawn cracked the edge of the sky as we approached the last climb to the summit, holding onto cables and climbing a ladder set into the rock to reach the peak, Lenana Point at 4985m (16350 ft). The early sun lit the higher peak of Nelion (a technical climb) behind us, and we had a stunning view across most of the mountain. We felt incredibly blessed to have a perfect morning after about 30 hours of rain and clouds beforehand. We snapped pictures and were grateful that we had made it, but it was very cold at the summit and so we didn’t spend long before descending.

David ran back down to Simba Col without any trouble; it took me a lot longer to descend on the steep slope that was now melting and loosening. Hiram and another guide were very helpful in giving me a hand when I needed it so that I didn’t slip. Back at the camp, we enjoyed some very delicious porridge and banana fritters and sausages and had a bit of time to rest and catch our breath. But by 9 am we were off again, heading back down the mountain to Lake Ellis where we had left our car.

Having not slept much, and then having summitted and come back down, it felt like a very long downhill walk to me and a few too many kilometers to be fun at the end of the day. I personally much prefer walking uphill; but anyway, the walk down was still beautiful, and the weather remained absolutely perfect for us up on the mountain, even as we could see that we were surrounded by clouds and rain in the lowlands. Oren had decided that there was no point in prolonging this whole hiking business and so he took off much faster than the rest of us so that he could take his shoes off and rest. David kept me company for part of the walk until I gave him a particularly difficult word to guess in 20 questions, and then he decided that Paul would be better company. At that point, I was too tired anyway and needed to concentrate on my footing. But the scarlet-tufted sunbirds at lower elevation were still delightful along with various other wildflowers and the air was still clear and the views of Lake Ellis lovely. And at the end of the day, all of us made it safely without any injury.

We ended our trek early the next morning, December 23, with a final thank you speech to the team of 9 porters, cook and guide. And then we drove off to drop Hiram at the park gate and continued our drive back to Nairobi. It wasn’t a very quick drive this time with strange holiday traffic, but we still managed to enjoy the time together in the car, listening to music and catching up on news (Oren had made us all make wagers about what terrible things could have happened in the world while we were off grid – fortunately none of our worst fears were realized).

Back at home, there was unpacking and laundry and we used grocery delivery for the first time ever in Nairobi so that none of us would have to go out again anywhere. We were tired and glad to be home and enjoy the comfort of our beds again.

On Christmas Eve, the kids were very tired and asked to do nothing. Paul and I were happy to go visit our small group families for a Birthday brunch for Steffi. It was wonderful to see them and enjoy a bit of company to celebrate Christmas. But after that, we just stayed home with the young men, playing games and enjoying quiet time together. Our seasonal baking happened all that day – the kids and I made a lot of cinnamon rolls and Paul created his annual gingerbread house and baked in. In the evening, we sat together in the living room and listened to the Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings’ College in Cambridge on the BBC. After dinner, we shared our traditional viewing of “the Polar Express” and then headed for bed.

On Christmas Day, David allowed us to sleep later than ever—7:45 am! Before declaring that it was time to get up and open presents.  Both my parents and Paul had brought back some fun presents from family in the US. But I think David gave the most awesome and creative gifts this year: a handmade kooksa (wooden cup) for Paul, a beautiful cutting board for me (made in woodshop class also), and a real sheepskin rug for Oren. We played more games and then Oren helped to arrange a charcuterie platter for our lunch. We all joined forces to decorate Paul’s gingerbread house as thoroughly as possible with candy. There was time for napping and more games.   Later, we enjoyed a traditional dinner, as I taught Oren how to make Stuffing and candied yams, and we heated up thanksgiving turkey kept in the freezer. We chatted with extended family back in the US at various times. We even made fresh eggnog. It was truly lovely to stay at home and not need to be or do anything else.

On Boxing Day, we were more social – going out for lunch to visit the Ali family, missionary friends from our Ethiopia days. They used to give David a ride to school at Bingham every day but just moved to Kenya last August. Their college-aged kids were also visiting, and it was nice for our kids to hang out with them, playing Catan and basketball and talking. Later in the evening, we invited our neighbors over to share about the Mt. Kenya trip – the parents have both been up the mountain several times. We also enjoyed a ritual breaking of the gingerbread house, with the following liturgy, generated on the spot by AI:

The Rite of Crumbling Walls

Leader: We stand before this frosted fortress, built with spice and held by sugar.

All: It was a labor of art; it is now a feast of joy.

Leader: Do we regret the snapping of the roof?

All: No, for it is crunchy.

Leader: Do we mourn the falling of the gumdrop eaves?

All: No, for they are sweet.

The Invocation of the Snap

All place a hand over the house.

"Gingerbread, you served us well as a centerpiece. Now, fulfill your highest calling: becoming a snack. From ginger you came, and to the belly you shall return."

The Shattering

The youngest or oldest present delivers the first tactical strike to the roof.

Leader: The walls fall!

All: Let us eat!

Saturday was another quiet day – Paul, David and I took some time to prepare music for the Sunday service and we needed to pack for the Renew conference. But again, it was such a relief to just have time to rest and be with the kids.

On Sunday morning, we led music for a shorter prayer service at church. Then we celebrated Ethiopian Christmas a bit early by taking 4 MCC volunteers and Solomon, an MCC colleague from Ethiopia, to enjoy wonderful Habesha cuisine at a local restaurant in the pouring rain. We have many good, shared memories with Solomon and so it was nice to catch up with him before he heads back home this week. And then, we all drove out in a caravan to the Renew Conference north of Nairobi. And we will close out 2025 here at Renew. More news from us next year. 

 

 

click here for a link to a video of our Kenya summit