Zanzibar (or Lucky Us)

Lucky us! We "had to" go to Zanzibar for a few days last week. Dang!

Byron and I had the fun of doing pre-marital counseling with Jeremy Stephenson and Kendra Woods over the last few months so we couldn't really NOT attend their wedding!



The air was so lovely and warm there. Mmmmmmm. Now we're back to the brisk air of Arusha. Sigh.

"Leggy Blondes"

Here they are--the six trekkers as they left yesterday for their 16 day walk across the dessert and into the hills of northern Tanzania and southern Kenya.

From left to right we have: Colin Borden, Chase Russell, Skyler Russell, Trevor Borden, Jonny Pollard and Jesse Borden.

(For those of you who don't know Jonny, he also grew up in Kenya with this group of boys.)

OK, am I nervous that they are off on their own in not-exactly-domesticated country? Yes.
Am I happy for them? Yes.
Will I be relieved when they get home? Yes.
Would I appreciate your prayers for their safety? Yes.
When do we expect them? Around July 5th.

For now, we miss them--our "leggy, leggy, leggy, leggy, leggy, leggy, leggy, leggy blondes."

PS They buzzed their hair for the trek; an initiation ritual that they allowed Jesse to opt out of :-)
PSS The rest of us Bordens and Russells will be away now till next Friday, 27th. Signing off till then...

Boys and Girls (or Sometimes Byron and I Don't Get Each Other)

I have one "nice" lipstick. I have a couple of cheaper lip gloss things, but one nice "real" lipstick in a pretty silver case.

It fell out of my pocket on Sunday and I didn't know it. I spent a lot of time throughout the morning checking my various pockets (in my jeans, in my sweatshirt, in my down vest and through my purse) but I never found it.

As we drove away from the event we were at, I commented on my lost lipstick and something very strange came to light. Byron had found the lipstick but, "because it was closer to the car beside us than to our car," he had assumed it belonged to "some lady" in that other car and he had put in on their windscreen, held down by the wiper blade.

I was shocked and appalled. Could he not recognize a "special" lipstick when he saw one and would it not occur to him to first ask his wife if it was hers?

Apparently not.

Wednesday was a busy morning as our household multi-tasked in a major way. People were running in and out to errands and all manner of things and I needed to dash up to town to get some meat before I then dashed to the shuttle to collect my dear friend, Dana, and her 2 kids who were arriving from California to stay with us.

Byron had been doing some things on the car. I don't know what except that it involved the compressor. He then zipped off on the motorcycle to accomplish some errand, leaving me the car which he knew I needed now to make my run to town.

I ran outside and Trevor closed the hood for me and off I went.

I was standing in the butchery when Byron called. "Where are you? Are you with the car?" I thought the car was with me but I said yes. "And where is the air filter?" he asked.. "It's here on the grass!" he answered himself. Byron wondered, rather loudly, if I knew that an open hood MEANS something.

Apparently not. And he was shocked and appalled.

Now, I'm not saying that all girls know how to recognize a good lipstick or that all boys know what an open hood means. I'm really not. But it did occur to me that we have very few moments of totally not getting each other and these 2 little incidents certainly left the both of us stumped by the other.

BTW, I called Tammy, who was still at Sunday's event, from the car and told her where Byron had left my lipstick and she actually found and retrieved it for me. And the Land Cruiser Engine survived it's spin around town all naked and filter-less.

All is again well.

D-Goodness

Darrelle Good has a lot of great nicknames but the one I like best is the one Jesse uses... "D. Goodness."

Yep, pretty much sums it up.

We've had a really fun few weeks with "Goodness" here.

Darrelle and Trevor left this morning for Nairobi and she'll catch a Tuesday morning flight to London and then on to Denver.

I have to say that everyone felt pretty sad waving her off as Byron drove them up to the shuttle in the ancient and deadly cool Landrover.

We're missing you here, Ms. Goodness :-)

(Photos by Jesse Borden)

Photos from Recent Days...

It was hot on the roof near Natron, but there was a great view.


We got up early to watch the sun rise over the lake.


Then we saluted the sun.


We crossed into Kenya...


And made our camp...


And found our river...


And played in it.


We walked all over...


Discussed bead work...


Held Nalotuesha's baby...


And made new friends :-)

Photos by Jesse Borden--with his Nikon D 70 S.
(Got a Nikon camera... Mama, don't take his Kodachrome away!)

3-1

Euro 2008 is in full swing and it makes our whole family miss those passionate and crazy times on warm summer nights when we would watch the games, be they Euro Cup or World Cup.

We love Africa but we miss the way Europe felt during those days.

Portugal beat the Czech Republic 3-1 tonight.
Well done, little Portugal. Joga Bonito.

Back from Beyond

We returned on Sunday night from a week outside.

I can't possibly tell you how good it was for my soul to be in the remote Loita hills, sleeping in my little tent, making tea over the fire and living under the open sky for days on end.

We visited in many homes and drank gallons of chai and caught up with many Maasai friends. We also hiked the hills, walked in the river, stalked elephants, watched the sun rise and set, bathed in the stream and slept soundly in the brisk night air. We sat around the fire every evening and generally felt overcome by the goodness of Creation and her maker.

Quiet now, Lisa. There is no way to convey the strength and joy and beauty of the week.

A photo log to come soon.

I promise.

( PS The "we" included 6 of us Bordens plus 1 Darrelle Good!)

Photos by Jesse Borden