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| Sunrise at Turtle Bay |
I think is the first unscheduled Saturday I have had since we arrived in Kenya. It a good day to reflect back on a socially-packed month. Actually everyone (except Rebecca) is currently gone for a while. Fletcher, our nephew, left first a couple weeks ago to return to Rhodes College in Memphis, Oren left the following week to return to William and Mary, and David just left early this morning for a school activities week trip in the Mt. Kenya region. So Rebecca and I are actually alone today, a much needed respite from the constant activities of December and January.
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| David and Fletcher at the beach |
Backtracking to where the last entry ended, we had just finished our Christmas and New Years programs, Fletcher our nephew had arrived for a visit, and we had planned a trip to the coast (Watamu) for a week as a highlight of our holiday break. We booked reservations at Turtle Bay Beach Resort, a place that can really bring a slew of memories over most of our lives in East Africa: we have stayed at TBBC 5 times now. I traced the first visit back to 2009 when Oren was about 4 years old with Rebecca's parents (
Here is the link to that blog) and we had another week there with my in-laws Paul and Gwendolyn and their kids in 2013. At least two occasions were MCC Rep. regional meetings, but the rest were vacations. True, Rebecca and I are biased toward some places in Zanzibar, but this is an economical alternative since we live here in Kenya now.
We flew from Nairobi to Malindi, a town close to Watamu and took a short drive to the resort. Turtle Bay is an ecology-conscious, beautiful resort with a number of pools, and many spaces to sit, either by the beach, pool, or in various gardens filled with flowers and birds around the property. The air smells pleasantly of the frangipani growing everywhere, along with coconut palms, bougainvillea, flame trees, and jacaranda. All meals and beverages are part of the package, so it is a great place to relax and not have to worry about chores, or work responsibilities.
Since we had 5 days there, we planned at least one activity for each day (besides just lying around). There are a number of things to do there: various water sports (windsurfing, kiteboarding), ocean fishing, stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking, sunset cruises, and a number of attractions like snake museums and historic sites in town. We planned 4 different ones the time we were there.
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| Oren snorkeling |
Snorkeling is one of our favorite things to do, and we booked a boat to take us out to the coral reef in the national park just off the coast from where we are staying. Rebecca and I had some trepidation about this because the past two times we had gone snorkeling, we had noticed a marked decrease in the number of fish and live coral, and we were worried that it had become worse from climate change. In addition Fletcher did not have snorkeling experience and was a bit unsure about how well he would do.
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| Our Fish ID book is no help: What is this? |
I took Fletcher for a couple lessons in the pool, and the next afternoon we all went out. We were thrilled to find the weather and tide were perfect for very clear water and perfect light. Lo and behold, the fish were back! It occurred to us that the last times we had come were in the month of October, when the water was warm and the seagrass was overrunning the beach; the lack of fish was probably seasonal. We saw some of our favorite things like lion fish, butterfly and angel fish. I took my GoPro camera and was able to make some nice underwater videos. Some stills are here. We all had a great time, even Fletcher had no problem as the water was quite calm and snorkeling was really easy that day. He just motored around with a lifejacket and couldn't believe how cool and easy it was. No jellyfish stings was also a bonus, right Paul Sack?!
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| Rebecca in the water |
We also noticed that the season had also washed away all the dead seaweed that sometimes gathers on the beach at Turtle Bay. The beaches were really clean and we could even snorkel right off the beach to some reefs right off the hotel. Rebecca and I saw a number of black tipped reef sharks right near the shore. (They are small--about a meter in length). Walking on the beach was really nice despite the occasional hawker trying to sell us something.
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| Paul on Mida Creek |
The following day we planned a stand up paddleboard excursion up a large 'creek' (more of a river) that feeds into the ocean. There are extensive mangrove forests and channels to explore. The kids greeted the excursion with mixed feelings. I admit, I love to stand up paddleboard, and I am very interested in seeing mangrove restoration, so it was a trip that sounded cool to me. Everyone did participate though except David who actually got sick with something the night before. It ended up being quite magical overall. As the sun set we explored the shore from our paddle boards (since there was little surf in the creek, it was not too hard to stay up.) We paddled into a number of small channels and eventually came to a small island where we watched the sunset. We then paddled back to the place we put in the water. I am happy to say, we were all able to stand up and paddle before the end of the trip. I don't the kids would be quick to do it again, but I really liked it.
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Releasing a common bulbul
after ringing |
The next day, Rebecca took advantage of an opportunity a friend from the Renew conference let us know about. She works at a Christian conservation research center called
A Rocha Kenya. Every Thursday morning, they do Bird-ringing, open to the community and any guests who want to learn. Here is her account of the day, which began at around 7am. (a bit early for the teens and I who did not go.)
When I asked if we could visit her work at A Rocha, my friend Anna said, "Yes, come round for the bird-ringing on Thursday morning!" I jumped in a tuk-tuk to travel another 2 km down the coast and joined a gathering of 10 others who were participating that morning. The A Rocha staff set up a series of nets along pathways through the compound, placed so as to catch a variety of bird species. The birds are trapped as they fly through and then gently released. We then carried the birds back to the office veranda in soft bags to learn more about the individuals we had caught. Qualified staff and volunteers actually were the ones putting rings on the legs of birds and assessing their maturity, taking various measures of weight and length. The rest of us watched and learned. I know something about birds after almost 30 years of being interested in them, but I was stunned by how much more technical knowledge you need to really understand each species and the signs of their individual qualities. I now class myself as an enthusiast!
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| Pygmy kingfisher |
Some of the birds we studied that morning were 2 grey backed cameroptera (a tiny little wren-like bird I had never noticed before), a back-bellied starling, a white-browed coucal, two bearded scrub robins, a black-and-white mannikin, a sombre greenbul, a northern brownbul, and an emerald spotted wood-dove. The most astonishing find was a pygmy king-fisher. It is supposed to have migrated to Madagascar by now, but there it was. It was a gorgeous and tiny bird. One of the local volunteers, a teenage friend of the son of the Center director, had a first experience of putting on the tiniest of rings on the bird's leg, under director Colin's watchful eye.
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| Measuring the coucal |
They are collecting data to better understand the distribution and population size of various birds in East Africa. The best bird data is from North America (eBird, etc), but data in Africa is really lacking. Besides ringing birds at their Center on the coast, they also go out and do bird atlassing in the region nearby, to add to a continental database. They hope to track trends among various bird populations.
A Rocha has a guesthouse with simple, affordable rooms and I have heard that they are willing to have guests be involved in their conservation activities. I hope that some other time we could stay there and maybe we can jump in the boat in the morning and help count reef sharks or other marine activities, too.
In other activities, we participated in a big game of water polo one afternoon, built sand castles, swam and played frisbee in the ocean, and had a really great time together.
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| lion fish |
On our last day there Rebecca took one more snorkel excursion right off the beach and saw some more really cool fish including a barracuda. (We would see those quite a bit in Djibouti, but not in Kenya). When we checked out we all went over to the snake park museum which was very cool. It is a research center for indigenous snakes, and also produces antivenom for use when there is a need. Our guide showed us the many venomous snakes in Kenya, including cobras and mambas, boomslangs, puff adders and various vipers. They did a demonstration on how snakes are captured and handled in their facility. David even helped out by catching an agama (large lizard) that had gotten loose in the one of the snake demonstration enclosures (no snake was loose there at that moment!).
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| Snake handling demonstration |
After the visit, we stopped at a nice Swahili restaurant to have some really good fish curry before heading to the airport in the evening for the flight back to Nairobi. It was really great to be able to share this experience with Fletcher.
We returned on a Friday night, and Fletcher was leaving on Sunday. We planned for one more tourist activity, which was a trip through Nairobi game park. It has been quite a number of years since I have been there even though it is now very close to us. I went when my parents lived here in the 1980s. (We were waiting for when we had resident rates, but we are still waiting for that). We wanted to be sure Fletcher had a safari experience as well before departing. We hired a vehicle and driver for the day and left after lunch. It was a good day to drive around and we went right up to sunset and saw many animals. I was surprised by how the rhinos are flourishing in that park, but I think it is for their protection, as the park is well-guarded. There were numerous black and white rhino that we encountered on our trip. Another highlight was a large crocodile sitting on the shore of a waterhole. The only thing we did not see on this trip were big cats, but we did not want for any interesting things to see.
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| Giraffe at Nairobi national park |
The next day we went to church and got Fletcher ready for departure. We dropped him at the airport which was a madhouse of returning tourists and students. Fortunately we could help him navigate to his entrance door, as it is not entirely clear where one enters depending on the carrier. He returned home without incident.
The following week, Rebecca and I were back in the office, but did our best to be home in time to do some things with Oren in his final 5 days. He was returning the following Friday. Fortunately there are some nice things to do, like take walks in the nearby Karura forest. Sophomore year has been tough with some very hard courses he took the previous semester. Getting him mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared to return for a new start was our objective.
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| black rhinos |
Oren did stop by our office and greet our staff, we played bocci ball at home (that I got for Christmas) and on his last night we went out to Fugo Gaucho, a Brazilian restaurant where you are served about 15 kinds of meat (that are brought around by waiters, having been freshly seared); crocodile is the most exotic. Oren loves to try different kinds of meats so it was perfect last supper.
We took Oren to the airport on Friday which was much less crowded. We received photos of him arriving in Dulles 24 hours later, and back with cousins in Baltimore, one of whom who had just returned from Chile over their Christmas break as well. Oren is back at school as I write.
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| Oren visiting office staff |
The weeks of work that followed vacation were fairly frantic as one could expect. There were many things left on various burners to get back to. I am covering for our health coordinator who is on maternity leave so there was a lot of work to do there. We had multiple visitors as well. One notable one was Gulma, from MCC Ethiopia who happened to be in town. It is always good to get news about the MCC Ethiopia team since the departure there stills feels very fresh.
Rebecca and I ended last week finally getting a chance to debrief with a counselor about the transition. It has taken 6 months to even have the time to do so. It was a much needed session, as we look to how to move forward in the new year and plan to be here for a long term assignment. We have returned to our usual rhythms of church, choir, small group etc. We hope these rhythms will sustain us in the weeks and years ahead.
David was off this morning for his activities week which gives us a couple days with no kids in a house. Quite a change from the past month. Will update again in early February.
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| Oren paddle boarding |
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| weavers at Turtle Bay |
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| Swahili restaurant |
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| Fletcher on the beach at low tide |
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grey-backed cameroptera,
maturity assessed by primary feather qualities |
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| Bocce ball |
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| Fletcher on safari |
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| David catching agama |
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| measuring pygmy kingfisher |
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| Dinner at Turtle Bay |
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| Mangroves |
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| Oren back in Baltimore |
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| snorkeling boat |
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| Mangrove channel |
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| Catapila Island |
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| Turtle Bay pools |
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| Fletcher on SUP |
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| Mangroves |
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| David before waterpolo |
Rebecca and I ended last week finally getting a chance to debrief with a counselor about the transition. It has taken 6 months to even have the time to do so. It was a much needed session, as we look to how to move forward in the new year and plan to be here for a long term assignment. We have returned to our usual rhythms of church, choir, small group etc. We hope these rhythms will sustain us in the weeks and years ahead.
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