badbye . . .

there's nothing good about bye's, you know?

And I've had to say a lot of goodbye's over the past few months. Brings to mind the sweet words of my dad as he drove me away from Charlotte, bawling, last June, "But Erica, with every goodbye comes a new hello!" Sweet, but not all that comforting at the moment.

Mom, Dad and Elyse left last Tuesday, after the first day of school. They had such a great visit, and I loved having them here in my world! Of course, no family trip is complete without it's share of Anderson Drama. This year's came in the form of the "Kijabe Virus." I got it first and spent some quality time on the couch, achy, with upset stomach and such. The next day we all 5 moved into my tiny "cottage" for the last three days of Anderson together time, and Mom caught the virus, too. Fortunately, though it hits with great force, it leaves quickly, and within 24 hours we were through with ice chips, Gatorade, and pathetic moaning. Thanks to the three well ones for putting up with us!

Ryan spent his last days here filming away. He got some quality footage of my classroom - someday soon it'll be up on the blog. You can also look forward to a tour of RVA and a bit of Kijabe . . . we took a trip to the dukas with Anna and baby Hope. Today Ryan went to an IDP camp and filmed an outdoor church service that some of the local elders hosted for a tent-village of people who have been unable to return to their homes since the post-election violence . . . a year ago. I stayed here to teach my new Sunday School class of 12 freshmen girls - I'm sure you'll be hearing about that soon. :)

He left this evening, and, call me a bad sister, I stayed here and sent him in a taxi. As much as I love him, I was not up for what would be my 6th airport trip in a month. So I stood by the hedge and waved my final goodbye.

At least I can sit and console myself with wonderful photos from vacation, such as these:

Family dinner, jammed around the table in my house. I hope you can see how thrilled both Dad and Ryan look in this picture. We call this the Last Supper, because after Mom slaved away making this fantastic Thai chicken dinner, she fell ill . . .

Reunion - Mom and some friends from our days in Abu Dhabi. Who knew they'd see each other again in Nairobi? It had been about 13 years!

Ryan posing by the upper room above my house. Mom kept talking about Swiss Family Robinson. It's a ROOM, it just has a weird outside entrance.

Back at it - teaching Bible on the first day of 2nd term. I was happy to see those little faces again!

One last family picture, taken by the hazy overlook on the way to the airport. On good days you can see an amazing view of the Rift Valley. I'm not sure if you can see the fear in their faces - the floor was a bit rickety . . .

The View From Elyse

The Anderson family piled into a van this morning to climb Longonot, a dormant volcano about 20 minutes away. We were privileged to drive on the newly "paved" road down into the valley.

Apprehension building as I see Longonot from a distance...

After getting to the base, we began trudging through the ash that covered the ground. The upward hike took about 2 hours, and, according to my dad, we climbed around 120 stories. We were all pretty beat the time we got to the top, even with the rests we took during the hike.

Family picture showing us covered with dirt (apparently I won the dirtiest award - I'll let you judge though.)

We stopped to take this picture; balancing my camera on a tree kind of posed a problem, resulting in a tumble to the ground, forever ending its life. There was an option to walk all the way around the rim, but since it would take another 2 hours we decided not to. The way down was fun, composed mainly of running down and the occasional wipe out (which may have contributed to me being the dirtiest). Now that I'm showered and I don't look like Pigpen - complete with the cloud of dust following me - and have finally caught my breath (I blame the altitude), I can say it was a fun experience. But- I am definitely glad we vetoed the Mount Kenya climb!

Kitengela

For the past few months I'd been anxious to visit the glass factory out in Kitengela, so when my family showed up, it was the perfect excuse to make the trek out there. We went on their second day in Kenya and is was an appropriately long, dusty trip over a bumpy dirt road and we got lost several times on the way. BUT totally worth it to arrive in this fanciful world of glass and pottery. I'm not sure I got all the history correct, but I think the place was started by a German woman and they use recycled materials to create awesome stuff.

hmm, where to?
barrels of bottles

glass blowing

bead making
happy birthday, mom!

I bought a set of glasses as well, meaning I can FINALLY return most of my RVA kitchen rental! Someday when my family leaves and I'm bored and lonely, twiddling my thumbs, I take a picture so you can see how well my recycled-glass stemware matches my zed-made dishes. (happy erica.)

After our dusty adventuring, we met with old friends in Karen for dinner before heading back to Kijabs. . . and took this fantastic family picture.

So if you ever want to go to Kitengela, give me a call. I'd go again . . . and again!

Christmas Celebrating

Just had to get some pictures of Christmas up before December finished and January began! We had a great Christmas Eve, passing out hampers and then baking all day. That evening we went to a big bash at the Richs' house - 200 of my favorite Kijabe friends in attendance, a live nativity, and a chance for my family to meet everybody around. So fun.

That night we did our traditional Christmas cookies and wassail and opened one present each - always pajamas!!

Mommy and Me! Soooooo happy!

This year the girls were in almost-matching snowflake pj's. Love it.

Christmas morning! I woke up Ryan who woke up Mom and Dad and Elyse with the video camera in their face. Love it- my dream of Anderson Family Christmas DVD is being realized! We sat around and opened presents in our pj's all morning. Here's Ryan sporting his new sheepskin hat:


We went to the Richs' for Christmas dinner. Here are the sibs trekking down to lower station with our baskets of food in tow . . . it was so hot!


The Rich's are a great family and I was so happy to spend the day with them. Their college kids are back visiting so the whole family was there, including baby Hope, who is one of the abandoned babies from months back. They have been fostering her for the past few months and she's easily the most popular baby around these parts. The Rich family has really taken me in over the past month as I waited for my family to arrive, taking me along on trips to town, watching Planet Earth at night, making cookies with Anna . . . so it was great to have my family over there with them for Christmas day! My friends Matt (who is practically part of the Rich family), Anita, and Dexter were over as well. Isn't it just so great to be surrounded by family and friends at the holidays? That is one of the best feelings in the world.

Baby Hope was the star of the show for quite a while as she slept through Christmas present opening in the morning and had to open her gifts after lunch. Is she not the CUTEST thing you've ever seen?

After our fantastic lunch we laid around and chatted and watched a movie . . . and ate pie . . . and after calling some family in the States, all the kids got together and played floor hockey, which thrilled my Canadian Anita.

So, it was a different Christmas - hot, in Kenya - but still so familiar and fantastic and fun.

mommy's entry on nile adventures

When I got ready to post on our fantastic adventure of rafting the Nile, I spotted an email my mom had sent to her friends. I found it . . . hilarious. I guess I've gotten a bit used to some of the ins and outs of African life and would never have thought to mention the details that made this trip so special. So, pull up a chair, get out your reading glasses, and enjoy:

Our departure from Kijabe Kenya for Jinja, Uganda was Dec. 27^th. We waited at the bus stop atop a mountain for just short of 3 hours until our “deluxe” bus arrived. No explanation as to why it was late---after all, this is Africa. Our journey took over 10 hours on roads that were often dirt, partially paved, or riddled with enormous holes that our driver vainly attempted to avoid. The bus swayed from side to side. Our stops were in small towns where we had to rush to use the squat pots (holes in the ground that hundreds of people used). We carried our own toilet paper and held our breath. The bus was very hot by afternoon and we asked to open the small windows at the top of our seats. It was stifling and the small of body odor was intense. We just kept drinking water . By late afternoon I had cockroaches crawling on the windows beside me. We arrived in Jinja around 9:30 pm and were met by several men on small motorcycles who wanted to take us to our final destination. We declined their offer of a ride (imagine that!) and waited for a “taxi”. We finally arrived at our lodging which was a whopping $25 a night for all 5 of us including breakfast. Scott and I had the “honeymoon suite” loft atop the two beds for the kids. The shower and toilet were “open air” with no roof so that was also interesting. We got there past the dinner time so we went to bed without dinner. None of us complained. We were just glad to have a bed to sleep in.

(May I please interject? My favorite part: "None of us complained." He he he.)

Early the next morning we set off for the rafting company. We rode in the back of an old truck to our destination. We were outfitted in our life jackets, helmets and given breakfast. Our raft included our family, a lawyer from London, a psychiatrist from Ireland, and our South African guide named Jane who had been doing this job for 7 years in Uganda. We were given plenty of instruction and had to practice various steps of rescue and safety. She told us some very sobering details about this recreation and you can imagine how the anxiety level rose as I contemplated what we had gotten ourselves into. I prayed constantly throughout the day.

Our trip took a total of 6 hours. We did SEVERAL class 5 rapids. On our second class 5, all but one in our raft went overboard in very fast moving water. Jane had told us that we would tumble and tumble and feel like it was an eternity before we would surface. I will attest to that!!!! There were Ugandans in Kayaks that accompanied our trip to help rescue us. We had to cross our legs around the front of the kayak and hold on to an attached rope until we could get close enough to our raft and get pulled back in. It was so scary. Of course, we gulped in a great deal of water when we tumbled. Nile River water has a unique taste!!! (amoeba flavored) When we managed to successfully go over a rapid without flipping, we would shout and lift our oars to touch in a high five position. It was hilarious. Talk about a bonding experience. You can imagine how exhausted we were by the end of our 30 kilometer trip down the river. Along the way we saw many beautiful birds, people washing and bathing along the banks of the river, and lots of beautiful scenery. The water moves quickly so it was very clean. We drove back dusty roads in our open truck to our original destination to enjoy a wonderful barbeque overlooking the Nile. The only injury occurred when our Irish friend flipped out at the last rapid and was smacked in the nose with his oar. His wound was bandaged and cleaned but we had to depart before we knew if he had actually broken his nose. He was a good sport about it but this was the first day of his holiday and he was spending two more weeks in Uganda. It was hard to tell if he needed stitches, but our guide didn’t recommend going to the local hospital.

Our 10 hour bus ride back the next day got us back to Kijabe by 7:30pm. We were so dirty but all of us agreed that it was worth every minute. I found out afterwards that many of the missionaries who have lived here for years have yet to attempt the rapids due to the danger involved. I am glad I didn’t know that or I am sure I would have backed out.

Things I just have to add: The actual rafting was AMAZING and definitely terrifying. The last rapid was a class 6 that we had to get out and walk around part of, and then we rafted the last part of it, which was a class 5. Mom stayed on the bank and watched us as we all went flying out of the raft and were sucked under and tossed about. In her words, "I will never regret that decision as long as we live."

So, these pictures aren't that exciting, we didn't take our cameras on the river. But here they are:

FREEZING on top of the hill, waiting for the bus for 3 hours.

Mom wrapped in her hoodie and chatting with the kiddos.

siblings by the river as we got ready to go. cheerful, aren't we?

the choo that we paid 10 shillings to use at the border.

as these types of toilets are fairly uncommon, this sign was available to explain how to use it.

and guess what we did!

This is an email that my dad sent my mother last week as we were trying to make plans:

From: Scott Anderson
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 6:18 PM
To: Carol Anderson
Subject: FW: Communication from website - Age restrictions for the Nile Rafting

Carol,

Here is the adventure Erica has cooked up for us all - rafting on class 5 rapids at the head of the Nile! Sounds exciting? Hold on - it gets even better. It includes a 10 hr Kenyan/Ugandan cultural immersion/excursion (2 times) at no additional cost. Others would refer to this as simply a "bus ride" but little do they know that the more adventuresome have mastered Swahili, built diplomatic bridges, solved world hunger and brought entire villages to Christ on such excursions. Somewhat frequent stops are made in route to collect input from local villages with a census conducted of the local sanitization infrastructure, if one exists. Our evening accommodations at the Nile include dormitory style housing for the princely sum of $7/night. Smell the aroma of adventure? Equipped with a little Imodium this trip holds no bounds. We would be accompanied by another RVA family the whole way - doubling our pleasure and providing witnesses to validate our adventure as true to fact.

In short, 10 hr bus ride to Uganda, overnight in dormitory style housing, although I did see tent city as well, rafting all day (awaiting confirmation Elyse will be accepted due to age limit - was done just last week), another night, then return 10 hour trip. Price is inclusive of the "nicer" bus fare, over night accommodations, rafting, and Uganda visa (US dollars no older than year 2000 - got that covered already).

In or out? Sounds like fun and many memories.

Love Scott

So the final decision? You'll just have to wait until the next post to find out!! We've been having such a great time here in Kenya, I'm so thankful for my family's visit! The internet has been worse than normal so blogging been impossible, but I heard it should be better soon. Cross your fingers- more pictures coming your way!

Christmas Hamper Delivery

Christmas Eve morning dawned bright and sunny . . . and warm! RVA Titchies raised money to provide Christmas hampers for families in the area. The local church picked the neediest families and we drove off to the deliver the gifts. My family delivered to 5 widows who were taking care of their grandchildren.

We headed down the bumpy road to Kijabetown, which lies a little lower than RVA at the base of the hills. The area is beautiful, but it was obvious that the village was lacking in rain as shambas (gardens) are dry and the soil dusty.

a shosho (grandmother) carrying up wood and water.

Most of the shoshos that we visited only spoke Kikuyu, not Swahili or English. Henry, who works in the Science department at RVA and lives in the village, was our guide and translated for us. We dropped off the baskets, sang a song, and showed the women how to use the solar flashlights that were included. Then the ladies prayed for us.

(hmm, solar torch?)

The kids were so cute and loved being videotaped by my brother. Ryan got some really great footage - excited to see what he does with it!