Into "Out of Africa" Territory...

We are trying to make the most of our time here in Africa, so we planned a long weekend to go visit Gary's cousin in Nairobi, Kenya.  It was an amazing trip and memorable trip with each day packed full of opportunities and surprises. 

Thursday morning we took the two hour drive into Kigali and spent the day there before our flight.  First stop, the Kigali Memorial Centre, which is the largest genocide memorial site and museum in the country.  Here we were able to go through an excellent exhibit that told the history of the genocide with a variety of media.  Very, very sad, as you might imagine...around 1 million people killed in a 100 day period in 1994.  Many more people displaced as refugees and many also dying of disease in refugee camps.  The placards Gary photographed only hint at the depth of sorrow that survivors endured. 

This is also the final burial site of the remains of 250,000 people who died in the Kigali area.  The cement crypts below are some of the mass graves that were built on this site to bury and memorialize the dead.

After a very solemn time at the memorial, we headed out for lunch.  The kids have been missing burgers and hot dogs because beef is hard to come by here and is not a staple in the Rwandan diet.  We heard that a Canadian had opened a restaurant with a great "real" burger on the menu!  We actually had a great meal at Mr. Chips (chips is the British term for french fries), but it gives a whole new meaning to a restaurant being just "a hole in the wall"...

Finally we were off to the airport and on our way to Nairobi, just about an hour flight away.  It is an interesting city for sure!  The driving is absolutely crazy there.  It is dry and dusty now during the dry season but turns into a red muddy mess when the rainy season arrives.  I didn't know that the United Nations only has main offices here and in New York.  Because it has a large international population, it is also more metropolitan in some ways, having a few western type malls and restaurants available.  However, this city also has some of the largest slums in all of Africa.

Our family really did enjoy some great times and the "finer things" while there...great meals, shopping, haircuts, pedicures...but our primary reason for going there was to spend time with Gary's cousin, Jerrod Carpenter and his wife, Amanda.  They are an incredible young couple (both from south Texas) who have been serving the needy in Kenya for about 2 years now.  The time with them was such a blessing and an encouragement to us! They generously took all seven of us in...going from a small household of 2 to 9 overnight.

Bethany loved getting to know her second cousin, Jerrod, who went to college at Texas Lutheran on a basketball scholarship.  He is a 6' 8" (without his cowboy boots!) basketball player turned coach, mentor and teacher.  His love for the Lord is contagious and he works with many of the local coaches to help disciple them and encourage them to use their coaching influence to mentor the kids they work with...mentoring is a new concept for most of these Kenyan coaches.

Jerrod and Amanda are working with the First Love orphan home in Nairobi as well as Morning Star orphan home.  They also partner with friends at at Blue Sky, who have a ministry through sports in the city (sort of like FCA).  While we were there they hosted 15 of the older boys from Morning Star at the climbing wall center that is operated by Blue Sky.  It is one of the only climbing wall facilities in all of Africa thanks to the generous partnership of the Cathey family (Chick-fil-a)...so eat more chicken!  We are all wishing they would consider opening a Chick-fil-a near us...we are missing it.

These boys had a fantastic time for their first time ever to go climbing!  It is a real treat for them anytime they get to go on special outings like this and they were amazing climbers with no fear.   Our kids had a great time also and I had a ball watching them all wear themselves out on this fun evening.

On Sunday, Gary and I were able to visit the Morning Star home to meet the other children and see the facilities.  It is one of the few homes available to orphans who are HIV+.  We arrived to find out that their pump for the well has been broken, so the kids were filling the water tank with big barrels and buckets of water from the back of a pickup (which had probably come from a local river).  The facilities here are very meager, but the kids are loved and very basic needs are met and they work hard to make sure they are all in school.  You can see that the kids love the visits from Jerrod and Amanda!

The precious little girl who is sitting on my lap just latched onto me from the minute we walked in!  She just jumped into my arms and  made herself at home.  She and her older brother were both taken in a couple years ago.  She was 2 years old at the time and only about 12 pounds.  Now she is 4 and still weighs only twenty-something pounds.  She is light as a feather, but appears healthy otherwise and she just beams.  Her older brother is quite small also...very likely from being severely malnourished for their early years.

This little guy just adores Amanda (and I think the feeling is mutual!).  Amanda's sister had worked with a group of ladies from her church to make and send gifts for each of these kids for Christmas.  They even sewed some adorable dresses for many of the girls and gave them each hand written notes.  Because all of the kids weren't there for the Christmas celebration, they were handing out the last of the gifts to each child.   They were so excited!  But I did discover another universal truth about kids all over the world...the joy of popping bubble wrap!

Amanda is amazing in her own right! (So awesome that we even forgive her for being an A&M fanatic!) She spends much of her time with the Kenyan employees of CARE for AIDS.  Her administrative and technical skills are a big help as she shows and teaches them how to better organize, upkeep and update their files and paperwork on the computer.  She also goes out to do home visits to check on the AIDS patients that they have enrolled in their ministry.  They need to educated about the disease and need to be taking their meds and getting proper nutrition.  Fortunately people in Kenya can get the needed meds free from the government, but for many people there is still a stigma and also denial, which keeps them from getting the care that they need.  

My little own little "tour guide" went all over their little campus with me...only letting go of me when we went into the boys dorm where she is not allowed.  Here she is showing off the rabbits that they have at the orphanage to sell for income as well as to eat for needed protein.

As much fun as we had with Jerrod and Amanda, we also had the most amazingly fun time seeing a wide variety of wildlife....

In our safari vehicle about to enter Nairobi National Park...a true safari right on the outskirts of Nairobi...

The sun rising over the savanna as we enter the park...

Giraffes! Zebras! Antelope! Water buffalo and more...oh my!

A huge Rhino meanders along and crosses the road right in front of us.  Look at downtown Nairobi just in the distance...crazy, isn't it!?!?

After the game drive we are off the the baby elephant orphanage!  They have 20 orphans of varying ages at the moment.  Baby elephants need their mothers for several years after birth and these have moms who've died from poachers, local farmers, natural causes....or the baby had fallen down a well and required rescue.  These youngsters are fed and sleep at this facility, but during the day they are walked out into the park with their handlers in order to spend part of each day with wild elephant herds in order to make bonds with them. After a period of years, they are released into the wild with herds that have accepted them as part of their family.  They deliberately rotate the handlers that care for these elephants so that they do not bond to any one person.  Elephants have strong family bonds and will not go back into the wild if they have bonded with a human as their "mother". 

Onto the Rothschild Giraffe center...this is the tallest of the 3 varieties of giraffe and were originally brought here by a family because they are somewhat endangered.  Currently there are 9 and we got to interact with one of the youngest ones...so beautiful, gentle and graceful!  The family had them on their own property and the giraffes would lean their heads into the dining room and house to interact with the family.  Now that home (mansion) has been turned into a pricey hotel where the guests can still interact with the giraffes.

(This was in the nicer, British area of town with fancy homes, called "Karen".  This neighborhood is named for Karen Blixen (Out of Africa), whose home is nearby and is still there as a museum.)

We also visited a free city park that many people just call the monkey park.  The monkeys will come right up to you and eat peanuts and corn right from your hand or while sitting on your head.  But we learned the hard way that they will snatch the whole bag of nuts or corn from your hand if you don't watch out...they are pretty sneaky as well as surprisingly aggressive.  This was probably the most bizarre and entertaining experience we've had so far!

P.S....That's Gary, above, with the beard, in case you didn't recognize him!  He decided to grow it out and go native for a while, but he couldn't take it any more and shaved it off when we got back to Rwanda.

Also, I've failed to mention that Jerrod has two great security dogs, Chocolate and Cookie.  They are a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Rottweiler mix...very large and strong dogs with a serious bark!  They are very loyal dogs and help make sure Amanda is safe while she's at home and if she goes out for a jog.  The dogs took us for a walk through the local forest one afternoon.

Thanks to Amanda and Jerrod for an amazing trip to Nairobi!  If you want to see what they are up to, you can go to www.adventureswithjerrodandamanda.blogspot.com 

And for our family and friends from Arkansas, we even saw some close relatives of our favorite mascot while in Kenya....Go HOGS!!! WPS!