May Recap: Curses and Blessings (and a bit of Ebola)

I generally try hard not to be political in this forum. Not because I don't have political opinions, but because this family blog goes out to a very diverse group. And while I won't repost or share in larger political opinions, it is worth noting that American foreign policy under this administration has notably harmed us in the past year, and it cannot be ignored. 

I did mention last year that the complete dismantling of USAID had immediate effects as we watched many American families depart quite unexpectedly, leaving halfway through school years. Our maternal and child health projects felt some impact as the government health sector in Kenya had to adjust to losses of support, particularly with ARTs for pregnant women with HIV and even stockouts of childhood vaccinations. Now we are dealing with an Ebola outbreak in the region with a notable absence of CDC surveillance and response. I fear that the outbreak has probably spread well beyond the communities affected in DRC, but surveillance and response have been very slow, with stockouts of basic things like testing kits. Sadly, the Ebola surveillance program was dismantled and not replaced with the dismantling of USAID. The impact on MCC has been the upending of our volunteer program, which has been scrambling to find ways to get people back to final orientations while dealing with new travel restrictions from countries fearing travel from this region to theirs. Even the US is putting limits on us. If we have been in Uganda (right next door) in the past 3 months, Rebecca and I would have to fly to only to one of 3 airports in the US for screening. Rebecca and a number of our international staff were planning to travel to Uganda, but have since cancelled those plans. I even worry that by the time we do travel back to the US at the end of June, these travel restrictions may apply to Kenya as well. 

Our program has been harmed as well in the incredibly restrictive visa policy that has made it impossible for us to send one-year volunteers, students, or even senior staff to the US for meetings because every person applying is assumed to be trying to illegally immigrate. I cannot tell you the number of visa rejections we have had for people who would never immigrate---a retired professional with grandchildren and a wife, our senior program manager--a woman-- with a young family, countless volunteers, board members, and pretty much every student who hopes to go to the US for study here. These people are rejected at interviews before a question is even answered. There is clearly an unstated policy (as we have heard) to reject all temporary visas for study or work conferences. We have completely shut down our volunteer exchange program for Kenyans to visit the US, which is disappointing.

And now... the war with Iran. The war has created significant fuel shortages here, nearly doubling the price of diesel and gas. This has caused public transit and Uber to raise fares, and probably encouraged some hoarding because gas prices are controlled by the government. The result has been riots and general strikes that have forced our staff and us on several days in the past few weeks to work from home, as angry Matatu conductors and taxi drivers set many fires to tires on highways and buses and trucks parked across roads, making passage on any major arteries impossible. There are currently negotiations with the government. for some relief, but until the Strait of Hormuz is open, this will not be resolved fully. The other impact that we have not yet felt but is quite ominous is the fertilizer shortage, which may cause significant food insecurity in the region. We will not know until next harvest.

So that is the way current US foreign policy is impacting us living in Kenya. Full Stop.

I don't mean to imply by the above challenges that we spend our days in idle fretting (or doom scrolling on our phones). In fact, this month has been quite busy, and I will try to recount some of the highlights here:

In April, I was asked by our pastor's wife if I might be willing to take him up Mt Longonot for his Birthday at the beginning of May. They are Canadian, and he is turning 60. She did not feel up to it because of her health, but knew he wanted to try it. Longonot is a volcanic crater in the rift valley near Nairobi. I agreed to do so and arranged a van and talked to other men at the church about going along. We had about 8 in all who agreed to join for the day trip up and back to the crater's edge. The hike is not long by distance but VERY steep, and it starts at about 5000 feet and goes to about 10,000, so it is quite grueling. Typically, it takes 1 to 2.5 hours to ascend, depending on one's capacity and acclimatization to the height. There is an option to add 7 more kilometers to hike around the rim, which is also a bit treacherous and steep in places, so we did not plan to include that in our trip. 

We set off on a Saturday morning and arrived at the base around 10am. It is a park, so we paid the entrance fee, and the 8 of us set out. I am happy to say we all made it, but it was hard on the knees and hips of the pastor. He did enjoy the challenge, though, and there were many hands to help each other along. I had prepared ham and cheese sandwiches and other snacks for everyone, so we had a nice picnic on top before making the treacherous descent (walking sticks are a must as there are a lot of slippery slopes). Coming down takes about 30 to 45 minutes, much faster than ascending. 

It was a good day, and we were back in Nairobi by late afternoon. I was glad that I did not overestimate his ability, and it was a complete success. In the following week, we celebrated his actual Birthday with a party at a mutual friend's house. I really appreciate the diversity of our church, which was really evident at the event, even with a small group of friends. 

The following week, we had another special event for a coworker. Our Office Administrator, Sarah, has been on maternity leave for the past 3 months. We have not had a chance to see her since she gave birth, and in Kenya, it is not considered good etiquette to visit a new mother until 3 months have passed. We hit that mark, so we planned as an entire team (9 office staff and 6 volunteers) to go and visit her at her house. This was an adventure in itself because Sarah is Maasai and her family home is out in a village in the Rift Valley. We drove together in two Land Cruisers for about an hour out of Nairobi. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and turned into a fenced compound where we came upon a traditional house, but behind it was a large 2-story, very modern house. (This belonged to her uncle.) We were welcomed by her clan, some wearing Shukas, and sat together for lunch in the big house. Sarah normally lives in Nairobi, so it was quite interesting to see her at her family home in this traditional setting where she spent her maternity leave. She was very happy to see us, and we all took a chance to hold the baby. We also had a nice traditional lunch. 

We spent part of the day there, then rushed back in the afternoon for a number of work meetings, but we all felt like the visit was very worthwhile, and I cannot even say how much we have missed her presence in the office with our current workload.

Since our entire team was in town, Rebecca and I also took the opportunity to invite our volunteers to come have dinner at our house. It is very convenient now that our office has 3 bedrooms and is about 3 blocks from our house. It is easy to host them when they are in town. It was a great visit, especially since we will be leaving on our summer break before we see them all again. It was interesting that they wanted to know about my dance career, and we ended up watching some of my old dances on YouTube. 

May is also a month when there are many end-of-school events. Ever since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and as a member of the Honors Choir as well, David has made a lot of friends in the drama and music program. (He was also in volleyball.) Many of his friends were seniors, so he was not only involved in school programs, but was also invited to several graduation parties. 

Among the events we attended were the choir concert for the school, which included songs by the Honor's choir, the end-of-year Chapel, and David went to graduation as well as a choir singer. He also had several volleyball games as the season ended in May. I should not fail to mention the award ceremony at the end of the year, where David received two awards, one for Pottery and the second for Chemistry. 

He also went to two parties for his senior friends. It is good to see him developing a social group. He has even been playing Dungeons and Dragons with a group of friends. I think it takes about 2 years to really get integrated into a school community. Even for Rebecca and me as parents, the volunteer work with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many social connections for Rebecca, have really brought us all closer to the school community. It is worth putting in the time to build these relationships at this crucial time in David's life.

The other community Rebecca and I really enjoy is our community choir. It is called the German Community Choir because it meets at the German School in Nairobi, but it is not a German-language choir. In fact, it is one of the most diverse groups I have ever been part of. People from all over the world, and many talented, trained Kenyans, are part of the group. It is really great to be part of a group that sounds really together. 

We have been working for the past 3 months on a concert of folk songs from all over the world. The repertoire was very challenging, and I think only 3 of the 20 songs were in English. I cannot list all the languages off hand, but there was German, Swahili, Shona, Zulu, Kikuyu, Luo, and Spanish, to name a few. 

We performed a concert this past weekend, and I thought we sounded great. Among the highlights for me was a chance to play the banjo to the song Shenandoah, which we did as an American folk song. Probably the best-sounding song is Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin. Such a great Swahili song--The Lord's Prayer, but with power and rhythm. 

I do not want to mislead any readers, with all of these social events, into believing that we are not immersed in work on an hourly basis. The fact is, we were completely overwhelmed with a number of processes happening simultaneously. The big one was the recruitment and hiring of a new volunteer coordinator. Our old coordinator moved to the Peace Program Officer position so we have been in a process for a month. We had about 70 applicants that we screened and narrowed down to 10 that we interviewed on Zoom, then brought in 4 for a final interview. The process was arduous, but we finally made a decision, and the offer was accepted. We expect to start orienting her on June 8th. 

At the same time that was happening, we were also having our annual audit. That meant we had 3 auditors sitting in our conference room for a week, and sending us many queries the whole time. In addition, we have been following the process of our not-for-profit status renewal as well as registration as an INGO under the new public benefit authority. In short, we have been swamped in many administrative and bureaucratic processes.

Finally, I ended up being pulled into an application process for a really big maternal and child health grant, which could provide funding for 3 of our partners for several years. I spent about 40 hours in the last 10 days with the grants team and local partners writing the proposal and getting all the parts in. It was grueling and came to a bare-knuckled race to get it submitted under the deadline. I worked through 2 weekends and got up early and stayed up late many evenings. But we did succeed in submitting, which felt like a victory in itself. 

I am glad to get this blog done before tomorrow. June starts a completely new chapter with my brother Jonathan and his wife arriving tomorrow, and David heading off to France for a week (school trip). Then later in the month, we head back to the States for home leave. More on that next month. 

April Recap: A Musical Revue

Sadie Hawkins Dance Prep.

The last day of April: I am under the weather-- sick, that is -- although I could add that given the nearly constant rain this month, I could be under a cloud at just about any given moment. 

I really wanted to get one recap out for the month of April and I predicted in my mind that this would be difficult because of how insanely busy this month has felt, but that it would all come to an end this past weekend. While it is true that a big project ended for me, the workload of the past week has not felt like much of a reprieve. 

Veruka Salt and Mr. Salt

The project that had its apotheosis this past weekend was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I have written about this in the past 2 blog posts, because it has been a big part of my life (as well as David's) the past 4 months, from audition in December to performances in April. I was honored to be invited to be the choreographer for the show and accepted; I soon realized that, with 13 dance numbers in it, the commitment was quite big, and I ended up spending 3-4 afternoons a week rehearsing and Saturday mornings preparing material. It was truly a labor of love because I genuinely enjoyed being a choreographer again after more than 15 years away from that profession. 

The show took shape weekly, and thanks to a great set designer, the production was fabulous with over a dozen scene changes, a multi-level stage, and fantastic props and costumes. (I felt the choreography rose to the occasion as well!) The last 10 days, as expected, were the most intense with 6 or more late-night tech and dress rehearsals before opening night last Thursday. In short, the performances were a huge hit and almost sold out every show. David did a fantastic job as Oleg Salt, the father of Verucca Salt, as did the rest of the cast. I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite moment, but the squirrel costumes for Verucca's Nutcracker Sweet (where she meets her demise in the chocolate factory) were quite impressive! I have put up a few photos that I have consent to share, but cannot share many for safeguarding reasons around sharing images of minors on social media. 

Vidiots (Mike TV demise)

There were a total of 4 shows, Thursday and Friday nights, then Saturday matinee and evening. They all went really well. By Sunday, I was pretty wiped out and also had a low-grade virus that I struggled with over the weekend. Not unexpected given the workload. 

While Charlie took up a lot of my mental and emotional energy this month, it was not the only thing that happened. The month began with Holy week and Easter, and Rebecca was charged with organizing an Easter choir. We had several rehearsals with a pick-up group from church and several amateur musicians from the congregation. We did a decent job with about 8 different songs on Easter Sunday morning. It was a blessing to be part of this (as a bass this time). After church, we had a quiet Easter dinner prepared by David with our pastor and his wife. They are Canadian Mennonites, and it is always nice to catch up with them. David prepared a pork pad thai dish as the main course. He is getting very good at preparing food these days. 

The following weekend, we had a visitor. Having someone come from out of town is a typical monthly event in Nairobi, and this time it was Rebecca's dad, who has passed through here several times before. He does work with cholera prevention and treatment, and I think he has been involved in genetic surveillance work based on trials being conducted in the region. He arrived for a conference here in Nairobi right after Easter, and Rebecca was able to enjoy a nice quiet dinner and catch up with him the evening he arrived. After the conference, we spent a weekend with him doing some nice things, including taking a safari in Nairobi game park. That is one of the really nice perks of being a resident here. Going to the game park on the outskirts of town is relatively cheap as far as an entrance fee. We could drive ourselves, but it is better to go in an open-roof safari vehicle, which is what we did. It was a pleasant day, and we saw most things one can see there in the afternoon and evening. (Personal favorite was a family of rhinos with a feisty baby.)

On Sunday, we went to church with him and then out to a restaurant in Karura forest that was really nice. It is always good to catch up with him, and he was able to bring us a stash of chocolate from Aldi's in the US, which is really good and cheaper than what we pay for in Kenya. Dave left on Sunday evening and was off to Zambia before returning to the US later that week. 

Besides acting in Charlie, David Mosley had some other school events he was part of. On the work side, he took his SAT for the first time, but more exciting to him were some dances that he was part of. Rosslyn hosts an Annual Sadie Hawkins Dance. (For those of you who were L'il Abner fans, you may remember that character.) But it was a chance for girls to invite boys to a dance, although, from what David said, almost everyone just attends without a date as one big friend group. David did know a girl in the honors choir who invited him, though. David is quite a character and bought a pink tuxedo over the summer to use on special occasions at school. He wore it for the Christmas concert and then to Sadie Hawkins. I did not see the whole dance, but I did get a picture of him with our next-door neighbors dressed to go. He said it was a good time. 

At the end of the month, there was also a junior-senior banquet with a Great Gatsby theme. David did his best to find some 20's Gatsby clothes, and I got a picture of him and our next-door neighbor, Aaron, right before the banquet, which was hosted at a nearby country club. It seems that David had a really good time there with friends, especially because he has made a community of friends from the swimming team, the musical, and the choir. It was great to hear how much he enjoyed it. 

Rebecca also had a very special week retreat, which was part of a spiritual direction course she is taking. Here is her report: 

Back in January, I took a weeklong silent retreat at Mwangaza Jesuit Center on the outskirts of Nairobi. I learned that the Jesuit mission also offers a two-year course on Spiritual guidance. Intrigued, I thought and prayed about it and decided to apply. It has been years since I did any formal professional development in ministry, and I was inspired by Paul's involvement in life-giving activities at the school. I've felt like I need more balance in my admin-heavy life. And also, I have benefited so much from meeting with a spiritual director over many years. 

So I was admitted to the course, along with a good friend from our local church, Severine. The first residential block fell in mid-April, Monday evening through Saturday morning. I was grateful and delighted to leave behind the tax exemption renewal process and the young adult interviews and enter back into the gorgeous green compound at Mwangaza Jesuit Center. There was still a little time in the early morning and during the lunch break to walk the grounds and look at birds. 

But overall, I was back to school: sessions ran from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm. Severine and I were the only Westerners in a cohort of 32 people, most of whom were Africans with a religious vocation of some kind. Some of the first block of teaching was about Ignatius Loyola himself and how God shaped his life through disability and hardship to enable him to guide others in their spiritual life. During a few of the evenings, we watched a surprisingly engaging film about his life, https://jescom.ph/film-tv/ignacio-de-loyola/  We also had a number of sessions on some of the basics: what is prayer? the Examen prayer. and the basic rules for spiritual discernment. On another full day, a guest lecturer came to teach sessions on African Worldview and Spirituality. What a fascinating deep dive into the inner workings of culture and the invisible structures of life that make up how people see the world. I was struck by the way in which the African spiritual hierarchy is given visible expression in the way government is run here: a single Creator God delegates authority to a variety of divinities, a lot like various government ministries overseeing different areas of life, along with a cascade of regional and local government authorities, chiefs, etc. People seek favors or permissions from local deities, a lot like we were going from one to another government office to get a required letter for the higher tax authority. 

Easter Sunday

We had some fun along the way, too. On one afternoon, we were asked to break up into small groups and create dramas to act out a few of the ways  we see spiritual dynamics at work in people's lives. My group, all of them nuns, had so much fun hamming it up and portraying a scenario where a betrayed woman moves from being suicidal to being willing to live for the sake of her children, with the help of some guidance from a Catholic sister. 

I will have three more week-long sessions over the course of this year. After June, I will be required to start meeting with people who would be willing to share with me so that I can keep growing in my skills of listening together with them for the movement of God in their lives. The training has also deepened my conviction that I need to make sure I take time every day to stop and notice where God is at work; otherwise, there is a risk of turning this one precious life into "an endless chain of very busy but meaningless days." (exhortation received from the Ignatius film). Now back to Paul...

Papa Dave visiting our office

What I have conspicuously left out of all of this is work. April is a rough month in general because it is the beginning of our fiscal year and that means we are receiving about a dozen annual reports for local partners. What made it worse were several other tasks that were piled onto us this year. Particularly, MCC is due this year to renew its not-for-profit status. This is done once every 5 years, and it is a very labor-intensive process, even with the help of an audit form. For us in the office, it requires gathering up tons of documentation on all the projects we have done to date, past audits, all of our transactions in bank statements, all of our project agreements, etc. There is also a massive application form where you are asked to do calculations to estimate every beneficiary in different sectors, as well as the total budget spent in different sectors, all over the past 5 years. 

By the end, we were on a first-name basis with the guys in our nearby copy shop and we had prepared about 30 bound volumes of documents to be delivered to the Kenya Revenue Authority. We are also required to go all over town to get signatures from different government authorities to affirm that we do indeed exist and are doing the work we say we are. Now we are waiting to see what will be required of us next. 

In addition to that, one of our staff members let us know he will be stepping into early retirement. This has meant we need to do a recruitment process involving rewriting job descriptions, preparing job posts, etc., prior to interviewing next week. April is also a month when we do many performance evaluations and have performance evaluations done on us. In short, we felt overwhelmed on the job, and the fact that Rebecca had to sometimes cover me during rehearsals made it even worse for her.

William Kiptoo retirement party

Now that the musical is over, we are both fully available to tackle the many administrative and managerial tasks that form the bulk of our work at MCC.  I will really miss the excitement of creating dances and watching them realized on stage. It is always worth it to give more of one's time to things that are life-giving. 

I think I will end there until next month.  

Rehearsing opening (Candyman)

Cast Party

March Recap: Work, Play, Rain!

The monsoons have arrived this month. Several nights, heavy rain has caused severe flooding around the country, especially in Nairobi, where illegal building in watersheds and urban sprawl have cut off drainage in parts of downtown. This has resulted in flooded neighborhoods and even loss of life. Several of our partner organizations based in Nairobi have been adversely affected, especially the two partners working in the informal settlements in Nairobi. Victorious Learning Center, a school we support in Mukuru Kwa Reuben, a slum on the North side of town, was flooded, but it was also the high ground in that community, and many fled deeper water and took refuge there from the community on one particularly bad night. Community members huddled freezing in the three classrooms that weren't underwater, lighting fires to keep warm.

VLC is flooded

On the very worst night of the month, Rebecca and I actually went to the ballet. In an effort to nurture a culture of having regular date nights, we wanted to try something new, so we chose to attend a dance school's full-length production of The Sleeping Beauty. We knew we were in trouble about midway en route when the rain was driving. Nonetheless, we did make it 5 minutes before curtain time, then waited another 30 minutes for the rest of the audience to arrive. The ballet was surprisingly well done for a group of students, and very enjoyable as a cultural event. We also couldn't help but notice that the heavy rain continued unabated for the 3 hours of the performance. We got home safely, but then heard the next morning that parts of town were so badly and suddenly flooded that more than thirty pedestrians or drivers abandoning their cars had been swept away by currents and drowned. In other parts of the country, roads and bridges were destroyed, cross-country traffic was badly disrupted, and lives were lost.

Despite the rain, though, this has been a very busy month for us, and the weather has not slowed us down. This is especially true since March is the end of the MCC fiscal year, and there are several administrative tasks as well as meetings that need to take place before we close. Our checklist includes performance evaluations of staff, program annual reports, and submission of all new proposals. We also host an annual all-partner gathering, which happened this week. This is a capacity-building opportunity for partners, combined with networking, relationship-building, and a review of compliance requirements for MCC partners. 

Partner gathering group photo

This year, I felt we planned the Partner Gathering particularly well. With 11 partners as well as some board members, and all MCC staff and volunteers, we had about 46 total participants. We were hosted by a Catholic conference center, which was simple but more than adequate. The meeting went from Monday to Thursday with out-of-town guests staying at the center. The only problem for Rebecca and me not staying there was that in the morning rush hour, it took an hour and a half to arrive, so we had to leave by 6:20 am each day to catch the morning devotional. 

Judith is facilitating a panel discussion

Among the highlights were four panel discussions in which our program coordinators hosted 3 or 4 partners in their sector to talk about their work in: 1) Gender mainstreaming, 2) Livelihoods and savings groups, 3) Conflict analysis, and 4) Safeguarding (child protection). Certain partner organizations have extensive experience in each of these spheres, and it was a really good experience in peer learning as they taught each other. 

MCC Partner Gathering

During breaks and icebreakers, I led us in some dances, including a line dance to 'Footloose' and 'Jerusalemu.' It was quite a popular activity. Other topics over the days included Ethical use of AI, Monitoring and Evaluation, Conflict Sensitivity, and Self Care, led by different speakers. We also had individual meetings with most partners. Our 6 young adult volunteers all participated and had a good chance to reconnect. I can also mention that just before the partner gathering, our MCC team and volunteers took a morning to have in-person team building and to go bowling in preparation for the whole event. (This was a fun and needed reprieve from all the serious preparations we were doing.)

The month was not all work and no play, which was good because Rebecca and I have been putting in more than 40-hour workweeks, and I am continuing to go to David's school 4 afternoons per week for a couple of hours to help with the musical. (That is going well, by the way). We decided in advance to take a week of leave in the middle of March during David's spring break.

Turtle Bay Pool and Restaurant

There are quite a few options for vacations in the region, with both Kenya and Tanzania being tourist destinations. But since we did Mt. Kenya at Christmas, we decided to go to the coast this time, and for economic reasons chose Kenya, namely the Turtle Bay Beach Resort in Watamu. This is actually our 8th visit there since Oren was 4 years old. We have gone for work as well as vacation trips. We like it because it offers a lot of activities all-inclusive at a reasonable cost. 

Usually, when we are there, our go-to activity is snorkeling, and since we have our own gear, we can just go off the beach in low tide and explore nearby coral. But this time, David and I really wanted to spend a lot of time windsurfing. We have done it there on 2 other occasions and are finally getting good enough to be able to do quite a bit of surfing without falling off. This time, we went out 3 times in the 5 days we were there. The first day was tough as the waves were a bit rough; the second day was better; and by the third day, we were able to stay up pretty much the entire time without falling. That was really fun!! I am thinking of investing in an inflatable windsurf board to use when we are home in the States in the summer. 

Pomacanthus semicirculatus,
semicircled angelfish (our photo)

We did take a boat out one day for snorkeling at the Watamu Marine Park, and spent several hours looking at coral and fish. We are now pretty good at identifying them, thanks to my GoPro, which I can take underwater. I am including a few pictures here in this blog. 

In fact, while Paul and David practiced windsurfing, I (Rebecca) went offshore snorkeling four different times. There is one particular coral rock formation that attracts a wide variety of tropical fish at mid-tide. I was able to photograph at least 20 different colorful species with the GoPro. One of my favorite moments was towards the end of week when I spent a few minutes with a school of four huge barred rubberlips (Plectorhinchus plagiodesmus). I'm used to identifying birds, with a photo or birdbook in front of me. In the water, you can't take the fish book with you, so it has been a learning curve that we have embraced ot try to become more familiar with the fish we are actually seeing. 

Barred Rubberlip (not my photo)

Rebecca and I enjoyed swimming in the pool every morning. We usually did that around 7am, before it most people thought about swimming, and had it to ourselves for laps, which is our favorite way to start the day. One other expedition Rebecca and I did together was to go to the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, a coastal protected area, to do some bird watching. Rebecca's account here... 

I have heard about this forest for a while, as a great place to see some very rare birds that are only found in dry coastal forests. As an enthusiastic but not very skilled birder, I knew we would need a guide to help us see anything interesting. Fortunately, we have a friend named Anna who works with A Rocha Foundation in Watamu (a Christian conservation mission that is just awesome). She connected us with Albert who is very skilled and experienced. We had to wake up super early and leave the hotel before dawn to get the best of the early birds. Our first stop with Albert was the Forest Reserve area--where we were stalking golden-rumped elephant shrews, which are found almost nowhere else in the world but here. After walking as quietly as possible for 30 minutes in dim light through the forest, we finally spotted 4 of them. They are really odd-looking creatures! Apparently, they are more genetically related to elephants than shrews. Albert also pointed out a few interesting birds in that forest, including a Trumpeter Hornbill, Plain-backed Sunbird, and African Wood-Owl.

We then continued on to drive deep into the National Park, which is home to elephants and buffalo as well as birds. That meant that we had to be extra attentive as we picked our way through dense underbrush to follow the calls of a feeding party and spot some birds. It was delightful to follow a pair of Eurasian golden orioles and another pair of Dark-backed Weavers. The Yellow Flycatcher and Red-Tailed Ant Thrush were also new birds to me. Among the rarest birds to see are the Sokoke Scops owl (which we did not see) as well as the Sokoke Pipit (which we did see, thanks to the persistence of our guide). 

Rebecca is an avid birder, and she especially appreciated this outing. I am more of a dilettante; I do like to tag along, but have not started my own 'life list'. (I did like the movie The Big Year, though!)

I should also note that we were not the only people on vacation that week. There were quite a few Russian tourists, as there often are on the coast. I always think it a bit odd that our countries are on the opposite sides of several wars, yet we happily vacation in the same venues quite peacefully. But more interesting were friends and acquaintances we ran across there, including another family from Rosslyn who go to our church (and joined us on the snorkeling boat expedition), as well as a family from Ethiopia whose kids attend David and Oren's old school, Bingham Academy. It was intriguing to get an update on the life of the school and other friends there in the mission field. Overall, it affirmed our decision to come to Kenya for the sake of David finishing High School in a better place. The downward trend of the high school seems to be accelerating rapidly there. 

We also met our Area Directors, Wawa and Kristen, and their kids at a nearby Airbnb where they were staying. We spent a rainy morning with them in a very cool Swahili-style house before getting back on a plane to return to Nairobi. We got back just in time for me to prepare and teach Sunday School the next morning. 

It is worth mentioning other visitors we met during the month, as there were several due to some gatherings that were held in Nairobi. MCC convened a meeting of all the volunteer coordinators (CPCs) in Africa and Asia for some capacity building and feedback on the state of the program. It was quite large and held at a convention center near our house. While MCC Kenya was not responsible for it, we did have some involvement in it. Among the activities we assisted with was a visit to one of our projects, where we have placed 2 Ethiopian volunteers, the Victorious Learning Center (mentioned above). While I did not attend, our Education Coordinator took a group of about 60 people to visit the school and see what kind of things volunteers were doing. 

With James and Phoebe from MCC Bangladesh

Rebecca also took some time with two Bangladeshi Volunteer Coordinators who wanted to see some of the placements where a volunteer from Bangladesh had worked in the past, and where one that is coming this year will be assigned. Rebecca took them on field visits to both of these places, and there was a fruitful discussion about next year's assignment. One thing I love about the volunteer program is that we host people from all over the world to come to Kenya. This year, it is the US, Canada, Ecuador, Ethiopia, but we have had Bangladeshis, Cambodians, Indonesians, etc. And we send young Kenyans and Tanzanians to many places in Africa, Asia, and the US as well. (Although, thanks to visa restrictions, the US program is virtually shut down.)

Our family with Wondwesen

One more highlight of the conference was a visit from Wondwesen, one of our colleagues from Ethiopia, who was in attendance. We have such fond memories of our work and our team in Ethiopia; it is always a very meaningful experience to get together with him. We had him over to dinner at our house and had a very good catch-up with him as there is always a lot happening in Ethiopia (good and bad), and it is good to hear it directly from someone there, and not the rumor mill. 

Other things worth mentioning this month include our first choir concert since Christmas. We did an informal performance at the National Museum of Kenya. It was a bit of a challenge to sing outdoors and hear each other, but people who were listening really appreciated it. David's honors choir also did an adjudicated performance with other choirs this month. Rebecca was able to attend and really liked the repertoire, especially the choral arrangement of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" by Bob Dylan.

We had a significant goodbye event this month as well. I have mentioned in the past that we sometimes get together with a group of families that were in Burundi together. Most of us had kids in the Ecole Belge, attended the same international church, and had other connections. Surprisingly, there are about 6 families in total that are in Kenya after leaving Burundi. Most of us now have kids in college who were together in primary school. Stephen (who works for the UN) and Laura, his wife, and their family were a core part of our group. They are leaving for a new assignment in China, so our group got together for a farewell party. It was a really lovely event featuring croquet, wood-fired pizzas made in the backyard, and a really nice time of sharing memories. I will say that living the life of an expatriate means saying a lot of hellos and goodbyes, but what I have also found is that often, goodbyes are not forever, and you find yourselves meeting again in a new place. 

The last miscellaneous event I will mention for this month was the decision by our landlord to put a borehole in our side yard. We were told of this rather suddenly, and one morning we woke up to find a drilling truck in our driveway. The truck, as well as other vehicles, was there for about 5 days and did a massive amount of destruction to our garden, lawn, and driveway. At one point, there were several feet of slurry on our lawn and driveway. I was doubtful it would ever be removed, but they did bring in a crew to do a cleanup and got rid of nearly all of it. Grass will need time to recover, but hopefully the rainy season will help. 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rehearsal

Sleeping Beauty

slurry