From Kapsowar to Nairobi

Well...we have had a fun week and are now in Nairobi for a missionary retreat that Kyle and Vanessa were invited to. Let's see...on Friday, Emily and I walked to the children's home that a couple of the missionaries here help out with. It was about a 30-45 min hike through town, up and down some hills, through some trees, and finally to the tip of one of the mountains. It was beautiful! The home rests near the primary school that the children attend on a large stretch of grassland surrounded by forests. The home has its own shamba (farm) in which the children grow corn and other such fruits and vegetable as well as four cows. There are about thirty children in all, ranging up into the teenage age group. Instead of walking back on the usual route, we decided to take a treck straight down the mountain, along the river, and straight up another mountian. Man were we tired! It was really fun though; we got to spend time with a missionary who has lived in Kapsowar for twelve years and hear her encouraging testimony. We also were grateful for a little work out :) (and what a work out it was!) It's a good thing the weather is so perfect here. Mid-seventies with a slight breeze is such a relief from the blazing Oklahoma weather. On Saturday, we were called in to observe a C-section, and Emily got to scrub in! Not only did she get to watch, but she actually was able to deliver the twin babies on her own :) It was such a fun experience. Everyone was taking bets on what the babies were going to be, and I won with the guess of two little girls. Once they were cleaned up, I got to hold them and help take them down for their examinations. They were little premature girls, so precious and tiny, but were strong and healthy! On Sunday, we all went to church at one of the many local churches in the area. Kenyans love to sing. Before the sermon, people can come up and sing in front of the congregation and guess what.....Emily and I were asked to sing, so we got Mark (the medical student from liverpool) to play the guitar for us. It went well, the people loved it. We also performed our mime/skit that we did while in the valley with the Pokot and the kids really enjoyed it. Later that day, we had a picnic in the backyard and played card games and Settlers all afternoon. Monday morning we packed up the car, said a sad goodbye to everyone, crammed in the car, and made the six our trip to Brackenhurst, a Christian-based resort that is hosting a week of relaxation for all the missionaries in the surrounding areas. Along the way we got to see some monkeys and zebras! We also drove through Iten, a little town that is famous for training olympic runners. We saw many people running those big hills and felt fat :) Hudson and Jude are staying with Kyle's aunt and uncle this week and today, Tuesday, Emily and I watched Isaac so that they could have a nice anniversary together :) Happy Anniversary Kyle and Vanessa!! Tomorrow, we are heading to the Nairobi game reserve which will be super fun to see some African animals and Thursday and Friday will be spent shopping and exploring Nairobi. We leave Friday night around eleven. The time has gone by so fast; it will be sad to leave everyone here. As you can see, we finally got some speedy internet connection and were able to put pictures up, but we will have more from the trip later.