My 200th Blog Entry

I'm back home from Nairobi. It's good to be home, to eat home-cooked food, to be surrounded by the sounds of nature, to breathe fresh air, to see the kids--and my chameleon. I know, it probably would make more sense to have a far more cuddly pet, but Elliot does a great job of keeping me company. And he eats all the flies around here... Some of the Rotich boys took care of him while I was away.

Driving home, I passed a large herd of zebras. They were quietly grazing beside the highway*. I love seeing zebras and baboons on the side of the road. It makes me feel like I really do live in the heart of Africa. Friends I made in Nairobi were telling me how where they've been living till recently, there are hyenas around their house at night... Now that is freaky! Hyenas are one of my least favorite animals. They're even lower on the list for me than snakes! Back to the zebras: I do want to clarify one thing. Despite what you might believe because of seeing Racing Stripes, zebras have never been domesticated. They're wild. They move away when you approach them. And they have a very mean kick. Mean enough to kill a lion. Just in case you were wondering.

I got a lot of work done in Nairobi but am still not caught up. It was good to get away, though.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to Mt. Elgon. It's a 3-hour drive to the mountain, Kenya's second highest after Mt. Kenya. The village where we're going has a tremendous problem with alcoholism. Even babies are addicted to alcohol since their mothers give it to them to make them sleep... We'll be going to visit Nellie, a 23-year-old believer who takes care of 5 children, all orphaned by AIDS. With some of my Kenyan colleagues from our Kenya Anti-Alcohol ministry, we are planning on doing a major outreach event in Nellie's village soon. It just cannot happen right now due to the excessive rain this time of year.

It's good to be home indeed.

* Highway is a very relative term over here. Long stretches of the road between Eldoret and Nairobi is gravel. Only the last 20 km or so into the city has four lanes. The rest of the way has only 2 lanes and many potholes. The EU is sponsoring the repaving of the worst stretch of the road. Today, a 5-km stretch of the new road was open to traffic. It was pure joy to drive on the new road!