Spectacular Safari

 Journal Entries from Kenya...

7/30/25

We had the most amazing morning on safari.  We got up at 5:15 to gather for tea/coffee at 6 and head out to the Kitenden Conservancy.  Our car was the Novaks, Luceros, and us, with a driver and Benjamin (host/owner of our lodge), who was funny and share lots of cool info on the animals.  Before we began, he encouraged us to enjoy our free African "massage", meaning the bumpy safari ride.  As we left the lodge, we saw a gorgeous view of Mt Kilimanjaro, which is called the "shy mountain", as it is rare that it shows itself.  We had decided the night before to go to the conservancy over the Amboseli National Park because it would be much less touristy and we could go off road to get close to the animals- and boy, did we!  We started off seeing a few giraffes, gazelles, and zebras after a freezing ride in the open air jeep. Then we started seeing elephants.  Throughout the morning, we stopped many times- maybe 4-5- to sit and observe them up close, adjusting our vehicle periodically to get the best shot and get closer, which they mostly let us do.  Benjamin showed us one elephant named Holly.  He said he loves this one and she's so calm as she leads her group.  We loved when we saw an elephant families with a baby or two.  The first and tiniest one we saw was very protected by its family and they trumpeted at us when we got too close.  We were absolutely blown away by this opportunity to be super close to them in the wild.  We loved our picnic breakfast of lemon pancakes and potatoes with other vegetables, bananas, and honey.  The weather warmed up and it was such a beautiful day.  We also saw some ostriches and tiny, beautiful, bright blue birds called superb starlings.  We came back to the lodge for lunch, which was some African-tasting spaghetti, fried potato wedges, delicious greens, fruit salad, chicken legs, and mixed vegetables, plus smoothie-like juice.  After lunch we played Dutch Blitz with almost everyone, which was really fun.  We loaded up for afternoon safari about 4 pm- just our truck because we learned the other one needed a repair.  We got close to Amboseli and pulled over into a clearing overlooking a valley where we could spot lots of animals.  They said to get out and then the driver left us with Benjamin and another guy who had met us close by and was a warden.  We had no idea what was going on and why our driver left and wondered if we should be nervous for our safety.  The warden carried a stick, which we first thought was for protection but he said it was for his level of leadership.  We stayed there quite awhile looking for animals and wondering what the plan was, as it was getting darker and we had hoped to see lions (from our vehicle).  Finally the others arrived and we had snacks and drinks.  We spotted a large group of giraffes nearby.  When we had done some initial picture taking as a group and the giraffes had moved a little off, I noticed Benjamin, Shelby, and Liz walking towards them and they motioned me and Matt over.  They had gotten even closer to the giraffes and eventually the whole team joined us and we were able to quietly walk alongside them as the sun set behind them, which was such a cool experience.  We finished the day with another delicious dinner and enjoyed sharing stories and conversation with our teammates before bed.  

Nairobi and Kimana!!

Journal Entries from Kenya.... 

7/28/25

Today has been a great day in Kenya.  We had a very late night last night.  Our flight landed just before midnight (Kenya time on Sunday, after having left our house at 11 am on Saturday- 6pm Kenya time), but then we had to go through customs and our supply suitcases had been flagged, so we had to wait awhile for Liz, Malcolm, and Matt N to negotiate a tax for all our extra supplies.  We waited with Lance Ferguson and a few drivers and it was sweet to watch a group of very young kids reunite with each other with squeals and hugs.  Then we piled into the vans to head to the Apple Tree apartments.  The Pettigrews are staying in one place, the Ferguson family in another, and the rest of us in another.  It's very nice, with 4 rooms and 4 bathrooms.  We finally went to bed about 2:45am and it was a little hard to fall asleep, but then I slept soundly until we had to get up.  We went to the Pettigrew apartment this morning and looked out their balcony at a family of rhinos (the apartments are right by Kenya National Park), then had a short time of prayer and headed to the giraffe center.  Our drive today was Joseph and he is very fun.  He is a Christian and likes singing praise songs- some English, some not.  He also tried to teach us a song that is very happy and says Hakuna Matata (later found the title- Jambo Bwana).  We kept singing this song as best we could for days afterward.  We had the twins and Ita Ferguson with us, who have become instant best friends and got very loud and silly.  I sat by Tiffany and enjoyed getting to know her.  We got to feed giraffes little pellets at the center and they would have eaten them nonstop all day I think.  We saw some lines of kids on a field trip, sorted by age and walking quietly with their hands behind their backs.  Somewhere on the ride, we saw a bunch of baboons on the side of the road.  We were surprised to find that things are so English in Nairobi- driving on the left side of the road (though the driving habits reminds me of China), all the billboards, menus, etc in English, and all the English-speaking people.  We ate lunch at a very nice restaurant called Tin Roof Cafe where they had the most delicious samosas and I also got a ginger turmeric hot drink called dawa that was good.  There were shops all around and we enjoyed looking and buying a few things.  Then we went to the Maasai market where everyone greeted us and said, "Karibu, sister", "You come in my shop", "I will show you everything", "Not much money", "Show me what you like", etc.  It was a bit overwhelming because there were so many and most had about the same stuff.  We were really tired on the ride back to the apartment.  We had pizza at the Pettigrews and went back to shower, repack, and sleep- though Matt and I ended up waking up for awhile in the night.  I was up from 12-4am, not yet adjusted to the time change.  

7/29/25

We had to get up at 5:15, quickly dress and pack our bags to load into the vans for the train station.  Many of us didn't sleep well and it was dark and chilly, so kind of a quiet ride.  Our vehicle got there first- me, Matt, Connor, Noah, Leo, and Ezra.  We had to go through a pat down security check (boys on the left, girls on the right) and while going through my bag, the lady found my TruBar and asked if it was chocolate.  I told her no, it's peanut butter and jelly flavor and she said, "I try?" so I gave her one.  Then we took our bags from security and had to put the in a line on a platform under this tin shed, while we stood against the wall and waited for dogs to sniff them.  It felt a little like a scene from a book.  Then we went in to the station and waited for our group.  We had yet another security checkpoint and then sat down to wait for the train.  Matt got some coffee for him and a dawa for me.  I enjoyed chatting with Selah while we waited.  We had a bit of a crisis, as we couldn't find one of our supply bags for camp and had no idea where it was left, as the bags were all mixed up between us, with us all taking whatever bag was in front of us.  Tiffany and Lance were trying ot call people and figure it out, but we had to go ahead and get on the train without it.  On the train were lots of school children and a big group of teens from Manchester doing mission work all over Kenya.  We rode along looking for wildlife and saw farm animals, babooms, ostriches, and gazelles.  It was a short 1 1/2 hr trip to Emali and the stop was only about 3 minutes so we had to grab all our stuff and be ready to get off quickly.  Then we met Paul, Tipaai, and one other driver and piled into Land Cruisers to ge tot Kimana.  We had Shelby and Liz in front of us and the twins and Ita behind us, who were very funny, talking about lions mating, singing together, and acting out pretend games.  At one point later in the day, Kelly told them she was asking for a report card form us for their behavior and they were much more subdued after that.  On our ride, we saw more wildlife like zebras out our window.  We stopped in a dusty field area and Tiffany set out a lunch of crackers, chips, cheese, and digs, and we feasted.  We also were so happy to hear that the missing bag was discovered back at the apartment.  We got lots of sand burrs in our clothes, threw rocks at a target in the field, had a "bush wee" as Shelby calls it, and loaded back up to go to the market.  In Kimana there is a market every Tuesday.  We first went to the goat and cattle market.  It was full of clusters of people with their goats and cows huddled (and roped) together, looking at us as we wove our way through.  We looked at a few things like Maasai clubs outside the animal area and then headed to the huge produce and clothing market.  Kate, Tiffany, and Kelly went by motorcycle taxi.  We spent the next hour or two wandering the market, which was very crowded and chaotic, with people called out "Mzungu" (white person) to us or coming up and trying to sell stuff to us.  We looked at the huge piles of "tire shoes" that the Maasai men often wear.  One lady came up to me and asked if I speak French, then asked if I follow the word of the Lord in Deuteronomy where he says a woman isn't to wear a man's clothes (I had on pants).  She also asked Kelly this and Lance told her she should also be following "no wearing mixed fabrics" if she's going to to all the law literally.  Everything moved slowly and we were often waiting on negotiations or who knows what.  Matt bought Maasai swords for the boys and I bought a shuka (the blanket that Maasai people wear).  A little boy came up to me and said, "Give me chocolate".  We got back to the vehicle and said goodbye to the Fergusons, who were going back to Shili Shili, and we went to the Kili Springs safari lodge, where we were greeted with juice and shown our beautiful room/hut.  We got a little settled and went out to have a snack and sit around a big table to talk while the gibbons climbed around in the trees behind us.  Such a magical place and far above our expectations.  We went to dinner ourside at a big table under a sprawling tree and first played UNO Flip with the Pettigrews, Shelby, and Novaks, which was fun.  Then we had a delicious dinner, served by Benjamin and 2 of his 13 sons, cooked by their mom: vegetables, beef in sauce, butternut squash soup, chapati with guacamole.  We did our calisthenics and went to bed.  

    

Buckling Up for the Ride!

 Here we are at the end of July and I'm definitely having a "calm before the storm" feeling.  In a few days, we leave for Kenya.  When we return, we will likely move into our new house that week, move Joshua into his new rental house that weekend, start back to work a week after returning (*to a much different work situation than planned), and move Gray to college that next weekend.  All this while trying to recover from our trip, jet lag, etc.  What could go wrong?  I'm anticipating being at the very end of myself by the end of August!!

But for now, there has been a little calm.  The older kids have been working full time-- Joshua enjoying life as a DOT intern, where some days are fun and some days all you do is clean a couple vehicles; Gray getting lots of hours in the hot sun at his landscaping job; Julia adjusting from working half days at the Sportsplex to half Sportsplex and half nanny job for our former neighbor to now full time nanny.  They are gone a lot and busy with work, plus Joshua has been playing in a few lacrosse leagues and they all try to see their friends.  Allie mostly bums around with us as we do projects at the new house or walk the dog or run errands, but she continues to play with the neighbors' grandkids and take tennis and read a lot.  This week she has loved doing an art camp and had made two friends on day 1 that had her so excited to go back.  

This past week, Allie turned 10 and got to have a week of celebrating.  She had wanted to have a big sleepover birthday party, but since we didn't know which house we would be in, and found out a week before her birthday we wouldn't be in the new one, we ended up settling for having two oldy, but goody friends to spend the night.  She also got a family birthday dinner with the Moores, a lunch out with Nanny and Pa, and a lunch out with Matt.  And will get to celebrate with Mimi and GG next week!

The boys got to have some time off from work earlier this month.  They headed down to Florida with Mimi and GrandGene to take part in cousin Graham's shark fishing expedition he'd gotten as a bday gift.  They had such a good time and can't wait to go back.

Gray followed that trip up with promptly turning around to go to dinner and a movie with a friend that night and getting up the next morning to leave Durham at 7:15 for a week of Young Life Camp.

It's his last time going to camp as a camper, but I could see him being a counselor one day.  He loves camp life so much!  I'm hoping he gets some camp-like experiences at college too.

Those of us not on the Florida trip spent July 4th with the Moores, cooking out, watching Maddox's firework show, then heading to the Bulls stadium (or just outside it!) to watch their fireworks.

The big news of this month was Tropical Storm Chantal coming through Orange County and flooding the Eno.  We lost power briefly in Durham and I knew it was raining a lot, but didn't think it was a big deal, even sending Joshua out in it to walk the dog, since he'd neglected to do so earlier in the day when I asked.  We woke the next morning to hear that power was out all over the area and I went to have breakfast with a friend, my former coworker who was back from a year in Mexico, not really knowing the extent of the damage.  Later that morning, I received an email from the director of my school saying that everything was lost due to flooding and the next day I was able to go over and see the shocking state of things myself.

All the books that I'd carefully numbered and put in order in big plastic bins were covered in mud and strewn across the room.  Water had come up to my shoulder height and dumped even heavy furniture over.  All our work over the last 5 years to carefully organize and prepare materials that we need was ruined.  It was such a sharp reminder that I am not in control.  Thankfully, the community has supported our school so well and we are on our way to getting set up for a late and relocated start to the year.  Interestingly, one reason I was strongly considering saying no to Kenya was that I would have to miss the first 1 1/2 weeks of school, which is really tough for new kindergarteners and for the teacher (my new, 1st time teacher).  We now will start after I get back, so I'm so glad I didn't let scheduling keep me from participating in this trip.

Speaking of which, I need to get packing!  My next post will be post-Kenya! I have so many feelings about it, but mostly I'm grateful to go and excited.  I'm going to miss the kids so much and be so exhausted when we get back, but I think it's going to stretch me in a good way and grow my faith a lot and I hope we will be a blessing to those we meet.  

Goodbyes, Graduation, and (really) Great Views

The last month has been a bit of a ride.  4th quarter is always my favorite because we are learning about different continents, which is the most interesting material we teach, and I know the kids so well and everyone's anticipating summer and feeling sentimental and happy.  I loved our class so much this year and it was hard to let them go.  We had a great project share with the kids' "commercials" for their continent, which were so cute, and this year we did a superlative ceremony and talked about each kid in front of their families, which was so sweet.  

The last day came and went, starting with the kids going around and answering the question, "What was your favorite thing about kindergarten", with a few saying it was making the videos, one saying it was staring at a bolt on the wall during quiet time, and the rest adorably saying it was having the best teachers in the whole wide world or getting hugs from us or learning from us.  So, so sweet.  It ended with tons of hugs and just like that, it was the end of kindergarten and, though I'll see most of them in the hall next year, it won't ever be the same.  After the kids left, we had our traditional staff assembly to recap the year, give special thanks/shout outs to each other, and celebrate things.  This year I got a special pin for being there 5 years, along with the folks in the photo above.  Then there were lots more hugs as most of us said goodbye for the summer and I had to say goodbye for much longer to my teacher Jeanine (second from the left above) who has now moved to Florida.  I loved working with Jeanine so much and it was really sad to see her go.  She taught me a lot about how to have good class management and how to go a little easier on myself, and we just had a lot of fun.  I think we could have been even better friends had she stuck around longer, but I haven't had much social time this year and I thought we had many years.  Next month, I'll go back to school for the first two teacher workdays before leaving for Kenya, and I'll have to work on getting to know the new teacher, who is a sub I have worked with a few times.

We had been spending so much time working that we felt like we needed to do some fun things with the kids, so we took almost everyone (Julia wasn't feeling great) to ParTee Shack and had a great time, then took everyone to Outback and Barnes & Noble the next night.  

Allie has made friends with the dogs in the neighborhood and their owners (mostly grandparent types) and over the last couple months has gotten to know some visiting grandkids of neighbors.  She has a great time with June when she comes and even went to a goat farm with her one weekend.  

This was a fun comparison of Joshua and Allie's omelet making abilities.  A few nights we have had to have the kids cook, due to too much going on with meetings, the house, even Joshua having trouble with his truck one night on the way home from Raleigh.

Matt and I had a day of being away from home one Saturday, visiting a church friend in the hospital and going to a sweet vow renewal ceremony of another church couple.  It was a real blessing to hear how God has been their help and hope in their 25 years of marriage.

All of us but Joshua got to run up to Asheville for the day and meet my cousin Clarke's new twin babies and visit with Aunt Cheryl and Kyung Mi and Jude.  The twins are so adorable and a lot of work!  So glad to get to be a part of their rare visit.

We officially had the last Orange lacrosse event- the end of year awards dinner.  This year there was fishing and barbecue and of course just socializing.  Gray was given the sportsmanship award, which was very nice for him.  

Gray had another last- the last meeting of FCA- combined with a first- the first time he spoke at FCA.  He shared briefly about when Jesus washed the disciples' feet.  I was surprised and proud he was brave enough to do that!

Our family (minus Joshua at work), plus the grands (GrandGene in his Wolfpack gear) headed to Gray's graduation at the Dean Dome on Friday the 13th...almost more than Daddy could handle.  It was pretty short like Joshua's ceremony.  We took a few quick pictures and headed home to finish getting ready for the party.

The graduate!

Cheering crew

We had a triple graduation party for Gray, Peter, and Will, which was so fun.  Gray liked the corn hole tournament we did for Joshua last year and the Mussers graciously agreed to host.  We had a lot of family and friends and great food and some really exciting rounds of corn hole.

Joshua and Alden were runners up and Gray and Will won, after a particularly hard fought semi final game against one of Gray's Younglife leaders and a friend of Will's.  It went back and forth many times before they won!

Hunter and Matt with their 3rd place prizes- puffed corn and corn nuts.

Gray and Will with their 1st place prizes- strawberry banana rings and actual ears of corn.

The day after graduation, we did some work on the house and packed up for our family vacation to Shenandoah National Park. Julia drove several hours of the way there and back and we were so glad it was a smooth ride with hardly any traffic.  (Not pictures, but just below Joshua is Rum!)

The day we arrived, it was cloudy and rainy.  We went through the park on the way to our airbnb and had a picnic lunch at an overlook-- which wasn't much to look at!

Then we did a rainy walk to a waterfall, which we weren't quite sure if we found or if this was just a smaller one on the way to a big one.  It was a looong way back up, though, so we were fine with calling it good enough, except for Gray, who would have gone on a lot further and loved exploring on his own, popping up around the corner on a rock or in a tree when we caught up to him.

After the hike, we drove on and found a few overlooks that had a little more of a view. Then we headed to the airbnb, which was situated between farms and the river.  Rum was thrilled to be able to run around "like a real dog" and Joshua loved being able to fish right out the back yard.  They had a basement with ping pong, pop a shot, corn hole, and nerf guns, and we had fun playing down there too- especially Allie, who would often ask Joshua to go do "basement stuff".

The next morning, we headed to Luray Caverns.  The admission included tickets to a car and carriage museum with really cool vehicles like sleighs, covered wagons, and early cars.  Allie liked the blue car, I made Joshua the "dairy king" take a pic in front of the milk wagon, and Gray found a Bugatti, one of his favorite cars.  

Also at the caverns was a hedge maze that was much harder than it looked.  The kids especially liked this activity.

The actual caverns were HUGE.  Very cool to see and almost like clouds, the way you could imagine the formations as different objects.  My favorite was the "lake", which was so clear that you'd swear there were formations coming up from the ground, but it was only a reflection.

That afternoon, some tried out the part of the river right behind our house.  We dropped off Gray, Julia, and Matt in tubes down the road and Joshua with his fishing stuff and kayak.  Then Allie and I went back to the house to flag them over as they came down the river.  Matt and Gray made it out just fine, but Julia couldn't paddle to the edge because the current was too strong and Matt had to rescue her and help her get out.  It was a little touch and go there for a minute!  Meanwhile, Matt sent me back to alert Joshua not to come down on the kayak and lose his fishing stuff in the current.  I had to get passersby to intercept Joshua a little downriver and send him back, which was difficult for him to do even in the seemingly calm part of the river.  He eventually left his fishing stuff with me and went down in the just the kayak.

The next day, we had a raft trip booked.  The company was only a few miles away by river, but to get there by car it took 25 minutes or so.  We headed out on a pretty morning and it was so nice to be on the river just taking in the views and mostly being carried along by the water, which they said was really high and fast.  This part of the river doesn't have white water, but we enjoyed pretending the ripples were big rapids and trying to steer into the whitest part.  The most exciting part was when Joshua had pulled out his fishing gear and was reeling in a fish as we were trying to coordinate paddling over some big ripples.  

Our crew was a little split on feelings about this trip.  One was worried about safety and getting us to paddle well and in sync, some were concerned with having the most fun by going through the wildest parts, one just wanted to catch a fish, one just wanted to catch a tan, and some were just along for the ride.  We had a 12 mile section of the river to cover till we would be picked up and thought it was so cool to pass our airbnb at mile 5!  We also enjoyed getting out at mile 8 for a picnic lunch.  Not as cool (but pretty cold), was the downpour that came upon us at the last section.  By the end, we were all ready for a warm shower (though some of us only got a cold one) and some quiet time apart!

We finished the day with dinner out in Luray and a venture back into the park to see sunset from some of the overlooks.  It was pretty, though still a little cloudy.

Our last full day there, we drove to mile 1 of the river and left Julia, Gray, and Matt with tubes to make their way home.  Some kayakers warned them as they got in that it would be tough because the water was so fast and they probably needed paddles, but we hadn't thought to bring them, so they carried on anyway, with Julia pretty nervous and Matt reminding me there was no phone with them or any emergency plan should they get stuck.  Joshua fished a little and then I shuttled him, Allie, a tube, and a kayak to the little dropoff by our house and ran down there to join them.  Allie floated down to the house on my lap, with me paddling the whole time to try to stay near the shore so we wouldn't be swept away.  Joshua fished and eventually came down too.  And we watched and waited for the rest, who were taking too long by my calculations.  But they appeared finally and got out just fine, Julia a little frustrated that she had crawled along keeping to the bank and didn't have much fun.  

This last night there was everyone's favorite.  Between Gray's idea and me making a specific plan of it, we decided to do two hikes with dinner between.  First we did a short, but beautiful, waterfall hike.  Gray again loved running ahead and climbing places off the path that no one else went.  In this pic, he's a little "ant" in the middle of the waterfall, though the other kids did join him later.  After the waterfall hike, we took a picnic to a camp store/picnic area and ate dinner, then looked in the store and picked out a few souvenirs.  Matt bought a big bag of peanut butter M&M's for our dessert to enjoy on the next hike.

Discontent with our sunset views the night before and wanting an actual sunset hike, Gray picked out this "rock scramble" called Bearfence for us to do.  It was another short hike so no one complained about the being tired and it was fun to climb up several series of rocks.  First we thought we found the top and took "falling off mountain pictures" and everything.  But then Gray noticed people across the way and higher up on a rock, so we followed him to an even bigger rock scramble with the most amazing 360 degree views.  We took more pics...and even more pics.  We sat and took it all in.  We chatted and ate M&M's.  It was beautiful and we loved it...though Matt was a little nervous about climbing back down in the dark and didn't want to sit all that time.  We made it down without even needing the flashlights we brought or seeing any snakes or bears, and made the drive back to the aribnb, happy and tired.

It was a great trip, with so much beautiful nature to take in everywhere we went.  As always, the hardest part is coming back to reality- to unpack, clean up, go to the grocery store, and for this trip, we came back to more little things to do on the new house, though we are getting very close to being done!  Not pictured, but after being home a day, I headed to Mars Hill with Gray for his orientation day.  It's a beautiful location and I was happy to get to see where he will be the next 4 years.  Everyone's really friendly and ready to support the students well, so I'm really thankful for that and hope he will love it.  Next up this summer will be our move and then our Kenya trip.  It's going to be eventful!