Our wonderful host Dita, has offered to take us on a couple of day trips while we are in Kenya. We are so grateful, as getting around Kenya is pretty difficult without a car, (and we wouldn’t even consider driving here as visitors. Much too dangerous.)
Our first day trip was to a small village called Eburu, high upon a hillside of the beautiful Lake Naivasha, about 90 minutes from Kijabe. In 2003, Dan and Dita founded a feeding program here, where there is extreme poverty and lack of food resulting from poor soil and drought conditions . While there is still much work to be done, in just 2 years with the Poenaru’s ministry actions, the state of malnutrition has been drastically reduced. The Poenaru’s have also recently initiated a similar program in the village of Dbibi where we will pray for similar success.
A few weeks back, we had thought we would spend a few days here in Eburu, but due to our “toe jiggers” have decided to make this a day trip as it would be difficult to continue with the daily treatments required to rid us of our parasites. We came to see the newly opened medical clinic and the temporary missionary housing. In the waiting area, we see and chat with a few people while the doctor/dentist Mary pulls out a patients tooth. Among the sad little group of patients waiting for the doctor is a mother with two twins about 2 months old. One twin is about 15 lbs, and the other is the tiniest baby I have ever seen outside an incubator, at maybe 3 to 4 pounds. Doctor Mary tells me that this baby is simply not thriving, and without the proper tools and resources it is just a bleak situation. Mom looks so sad, and for the millionth time in Africa, my heartaches. God love Mary and her husband Pastor Jenga and the Poenarus who give of themselves regularly to feed and love the poor.
Lil guy wanders over during Sunday Service in Eburu
We are especially thrilled to be able to join in Sunday worship with the community. After a rough ride down a billy goat trail of a road, we arrive at a large tin dry shed/church from which glorious music is wailing! The service is fantastic. It is incredible how these quiet people, especially the woman and children who barely speak above a whisper, throw themselves into worship, bellowing out their songs and uninhibited dancing for the Father. The message is predominently spoken in Kiswahili, but we got it anyway. As I have said many times, “They love the Lord in Africa”.
Of course all curious eyes are on us, and many of the community came to greet us afterwards, and the kids engaged the boys in some fun antics. We were then invited back to the medical clinic, and temporary housing site for visiting volunteers. The site was built to encourage and accommodate the volunteers and missionaries to come work in this area. Similar to Yorkview issues in Uganda, there isn’t anywhere safe/clean for visitors to stay near the work-site or village, and the drive is a daunting 2-3 hours from Nairobi. So this community lead by a wise pastor, have taken it upon themselves to build housing in the form of mud huts that are VERY nice and comfortable. Although there are only few amenities (ie. fresh water, electricity, long drop toilets, ) they are secure, and very suitable for short tem missions. We have stayed in much more rustic on our journey and had a wonderful time. In the largest of the mud huts, there is the common room where we finished our visit after enjoying lunch with the elders of the church. A wonderful day.
The following day was Brendan’s birthday, and we had planned a mini safari to Lake Nakuru. We had hired a safari van, and realized in the eleventh hour that it was silly to be in a 9 person van, with a bunch of paid-for empty seats, so we invited a couple of Poenaru friends to join us. They are a small family of a mom and three daughters,who are close to Dita’s heart, living just minutes away from the hospital in quite frankly a shack. While daughter Irene 18, had to go to work at the hospital, and her still young Mom who is suffering from HIV wasn’t feeling up to it, we were thrilled that Tabitha 21,and her young sister Joy 6, were able to join us. Their family story like many others in this country is very sad, and we were so happy to be able to share this day of relaxing and fun with them.
The excitement started far before we arrived at the park. On the highway, we whipped past a HUGE snake on the road, and begged our driver to turn around so we can check it out. Once there we found a python about 10 feet long, and 7 inches in diameter, and with a head the size of my flat hand. With only one imperfection being that of a tire mark across it’s body about halfway down, it must have been run over just minutes ago as it was still in otherwise perfect condition, looking fresh as a daisy. Our driver was so frightened he wouldn’t even get out to investigate. We took lots of snaps which unfortunately we lost during a memory card mishap…DARN! But oh well there were many more animals to be seen.
We are awestruck as we see the lake from a distance and witness this world famous location of the greatest bird spectacle on earth – myriads of fuchsia pink flamingos creating a solid pink ring around the lakes edge. They number often more than a million maybe two. We had no idea as to what to expect but had a great day off roading and looking for animals in their natural habitat. The park covers an area of almost 190km squared, so you could spend days travelling through it. During our travels we see so many animals including:
- Baboons hundreds!
- Zebra thousands!
- Gazelle, thousands!
- Warthogs, tons!
- Cape Buffalo, thousands!
And dozens of Langurs (monkey), Rothschild giraffe, White rhino, and finally, when we were just about to go home, we finally saw a pride of lions.
They had just killed a buffalo, but for whatever reason weren’t interested in eating, and were shading under a tree. We were thrilled to see how much our Kenyan guests were enjoying themselves, surprised to hear that of all the animals we saw, they had only ever seen the gazelle, baboons and zebras which are plentiful around Kijabe.
And the day just got better, when we arrived home, Dita surprised Brendan with a homemade chocolate birthday cake! A GREAT way to celebrate a 14th birthday.
Another incredible day trip was made with Dita two days later to Hell’s Gate National Park. This is one of the few game reserves where visitors can explore by foot and walk amongst the elands, zebras and hartebeest able to go for a great hike through a beautiful gorge, apparently used in one of the Raiders of the lost Ark movies. While driving in we saw many baboons, zebra, giraffe, but in addition spot the colobus monkey and ostrich! Very cool!
Despite it’s name Hell’s Gate is a beautiful place, famous for its natural hot geysers as an eagle and vulture breeding grounds. You can see the steam rising from the ground everywhere, and in some places there are small pools of water that are so hot the masai people boil eggs in it. The Masai people continue to inhabit this area and one of the local boys, Jacob, ends up “finding” us on our hike and kindly guides us around for a few hours. He was a lovely kid, who spoke english fairly well, and we enjoyed hearing bits about Masai life as we walked. Brendan and Aaron were mostly interested (envious) of the way he just casually wore his weapons…the machete and ringu (heavy small wooden club).
Jacob took us through the gorge and an amazing view point, which we enjoyed until the rains came, when we headed back to the vehicle, but not before being thoroughly soaked by the African rain, which unfortunately for them didn’t last long. On the way home we stopped at Lake Naivasha for a change to dry clothes and a drink.
We just can’t ever get enough of the wildlife here in Africa, and are really excited to hear that what we are seeing is just a warm up compared to what awaits us in the famous Masai Mara safari next week!
