Arusha Rotary Run/Walk/Cycle Event

We had a great day at the Arusha Rotary’s Bike race yesterday.  All five of us volunteered and participated to benefit the Arusha Rotary.  It was a hot day with an early start, but we all had a great time. 

Award Ceremonies

Great showing by Team Coyle:  six medals (Ash did two), 4 hats:  prizes for our 3rd place: Anderson, 2nd place: Tierney and me, and 1st place: Ashlyn and two Throttle the Bottle bottles.  (And I do want to mention that Ash won her whole age group…boys and girls, and then decided to race the next age group up as well where she also would have placed had she been a legal participant.  Great job Ashy!)

It’s getting hot here and a full day in the sun took it’s toll on us, but it was worth it.  What I wouldn’t have given for any sort of delivery dinner last night. 

Our cave of passion fruit really does seem to love the heat though. 

And it seems the end of the dry season power outages have started up.  Almost every day this past week power has been out for at least a few hours.  We’re going on seven hours off right now.  Good times.   Come on rain!

Things we sometimes take for granted

Life can be harder here. I’m not talking about for us although that can be true as well.  There are things that I think many of us take for granted and then every once in a while there is something to remind us of how lucky we are.  Just last week our gardener’s wife lost her baby at full term.  This is heartbreaking and we’ll never know what happened or what, if anything, could have been done.  By the time she realized that something was wrong the baby was already gone.  I know this doesn’t only happen in places like Tanzania, but it does happen much more often here.  Our thoughts have been with Petro and his family all week. 

But on a more uplifting note, Mama Jackie had a water pipe installed at her house just outside her kitchen last week.  For the first time ever she now has running water at her house.  Now she doesn’t have to buy a bucket or two of water every morning that she’d then ration for all her cooking, bathing, and washing for the day.  She is beyond excited and she’s come to work every day since then talking about how she has water every night and every morning.  She is also patiently waiting for electricity to be hooked up.  Her house has been wired and now she is just waiting for the power company to drop the line to her house.  It’s been a year long process so far, but we have our fingers crossed that this last step will happen soon.        

Mama Jackie proudly showing the boys her new water stand

Congratulations Mama Jackie.

Camping with friends

This weekend we went camping in the maasai steppe with our friends, Robin and Thad.  It’s always fun to head out with the long timers who know the best spots and the funnest short-cuts (and who allow car roof-riding). 

We spotted a few lions on the way down (thanks to our eagle-eyed Ashy for spotting the lion in the tree)

Lunch stop included watching the elephant parade. So many little babies.

We went for walks by herds of waterbuck and stopped often to check out the animal tracks.

Tree rubbed smooth by the elephants

Finding this cool fella was a rare treat (Pan-Hinged Terrapin??).  Notice how his head doesn’t pull straight back and instead turns to the side?  I’d never seen that before.

Nighttime included some much needed rain, lions grunting, elephant rumbles, hyenas calling, and pounding hooves (waterbuck?) which then was followed by some great camp-style coffee in the morning.   

Breakfast around the fire

Beautiful fire lily in a landscape of brown. 

Manicures while watching the waterbuck

Do you ever feel like someone just wants to stop in and say hi and let you know that they are there?

The giraffe were curious while we stopped for our tea and hot chocolate break on the way home.

Of course….

Happy kids

Loisaba, Kenya

The kids have two weeks off from school, so we finally were able to head up to Loisaba in Kenya for four nights.  We’ve been hearing so much about it from Matt (not to mention the hours, days, and weeks he’s been spending on this project), so we were very excited to finally be able to see it for ourselves.  It did not disappoint. 

We did an overnight stop in Nairobi because Matt had a meeting about the Loisaba property.  The kids were happy with a few hours of pool time and Anderson was thrilled that there were three channels of soccer at the hotel.  Three!  Can you imagine the luck?!

Equator stop for photo op on the way

It’s the very end of the dry season in this area of Kenya, so the wildlife was pretty dispersed.  We were still able to see most animals and it made for less stressful walks, camel rides, and horseback rides. 

We stayed in the Cottages.  The kids in one and Matt and I in another.  This was a huge milestone for the family that ALL of the kids slept in a different room than Matt and I!

The pair of kudu that came and hung out by the pool were very cool.  And there was a male that came right next to the cottages.  His antlers were above the roof-line.  He was huge!

We went for some nice walks always abiding the ‘always stick by the man with the gun’ rule. 

Lemaiyan aka “Brown” was great and is Anderson’s new best friend.

One night we stayed in the Kiboko Starbeds.  The beds are on wheels and are rolled out onto the porches on nice evenings for unobstructed (minus a mosquito net) views of the stars. The moon was almost full and it felt like someone left the light on.  Between that and the talking hyenas we may not have gotten the best night’s sleep, but it was worth it. (Fun Fact:  Loisaba translates to “Seven stars”)

We went for a camel ride (Matt and Ash walked).  Seeing a hyena on a camel/walk is a different experience than seeing one from a car.

We went horseback riding.  Twice. 

Of course there were sundowners.

And let’s call this a sun-upper: sunrise with coffee on the porch of our cottage.

 

And we cannot forget the fishing.  Highlight of the week for Anderson.

No interest in the zebra walking behind

Two days of line-fishing with no results, so Anderson decided to give up the pole and went for his (and local goat herder’s) bare hands in this glorified mud puddle.  So gross. 

Mudfish/Catfish:  2.5 kgs without it’s head.  At least 7 lbs I’d guess. I made Anderson take a very hot and thorough shower when he got back. 

We did not eat it, but staff at the cottages cleaned it and were preparing to dry it to take home.

On the way home we spent a night at Jambo Mutara Camp which was a bit further south from where we were in the hopes of shortening the drive home.

We had quite the river crossing on the way.  The water came over the bottom of the doors of the car.  Exciting stuff.

Nice view of Mt. Kenya on the way

Then we had the typical road trip car problem (easy change and found easy repair the next day)

One night at the stunning Jambo Mutara camp. Again separate tent for the kids connected via a walkway.

Stealing kisses from my favorite little man.

And the requisite animal pics

Now we’re back in Arusha to regroup before heading to Tarangire this weekend.