Grandma Bibi

The road to Grandma Bibi's place way out in the sticks.


My shoes after I got there. :-)

With Grandma Bibi

My travel buddy Paul and his Grandma Bibi

A funny forex bureau :-)

pics from Moshi/Marangu

We had fun swimming beneath the falls.


A freshwater crab watching us as we swam. :-)

This is called "mbege", the official "drink" of Tanzanian...otherwise known as very thick, potent banana brew. I'll have to tell you later all the steps it takes to make this stuff! They spend days cultivating the banana, mashing it up, and letting it ferment. And it tastes NOTHING like bananas!

This is Grandma Bibi having a taste. She grew up on this stuff.

I, obviously, did not. This is what I thought of mbege, after drinking a couple sips....there was NO WAY I could finish the whole thing. Gross!

pics from Moshi, TZ

OK, it's not the greatest pic cause of the cloudy haze, but it's Mt. Kilimanjaro! Beautiful!


On the way to Moshi, TZ


Hilarious sign posted at the YMCA in Moshi.

A cool rock lizard we found when hiking down to the falls in Marangu.

A fun waterfall we hiked down to

More Mombasa pics

Monkeys were all over the place on the Oyondi's roof.

The gorgeous Kenyan coast

Peaceful dhow boats off the coast. You can just swim up to them, or find a captain who'll take you sailing for cheap!

"The boat is safest when it is in port, but that is not what boats were built for." Sail away!

The Oyondi grandkids and cousins, Lawrence, Bryan, and Asha

Christmas in Mombasa

Christmas dinner (after the bloody stages)


Christmas dinner roasting

Adding some finishing touches to part of dinner

Mabel, one of the best cooks! :-)

This was the long line we had to stand in every day to fetch water from the nearby borehole. The line of jerrycans stretched forever! If we were lucky, we were out of there in an hour and a half!


More pics are coming!

Pray for Haiti

As you know, a powerful 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti last night, resulting in many damaging aftershocks too. Let's really press in and pray for the people there in this time. Lift them up in a mighty way. In our KICS community, we have 2 families here who have been affected. Ms. Germain is on our School Board, and has not yet heard from any of her extended family members who live in Haiti. Also, Alex, who is in my class, is from Haiti, and his grandfather and other relatives still live there. As of this afternoon, his parents still have yet to be in touch with them. No cellphones are working in Haiti. Please pray for these 2 families and for all those affected. 80% of the population in Haiti is below the poverty line, and the country is still recovering from some devastating floods in 2008. Let's continue to lift up this country this week and beyond.

My sweet brother

I just got to talk to my sweet brother, Ethan! He leaves for deployment in about 8 hours, and we had a wonderful talk! I haven't seen him since May, and we're not sure when I'll see him again, as he'll be deployed for 6 months. I really miss him. You know, it's really NOT hard living here. I have all the comforts I need and things I want as well. But it's just hard NOT being there, at home sometimes. Especially during the holidays, and weddings, and deployments. :-( That's what's hard about living overseas. NOT being there. But I'm so thankful for things like Skype and cell phones that connect way across oceans and even on ships. Keep my sweet brother in your prayers as he deploys today. He'll go to a variety of diffferent places in East Asia, and then we're not sure where else, but maybe he'll end up close to east and northern Africa. Maybe I'll see him sooner than I thought! Who knows! I love you Ethan! Stay safe!