Bless Them as They Go!

This morning, bright and early, the family set off on a 10 day trip with a team of visitors. There are 15 of them all together and we've been pretty flat-out in prep for their time. It's been really good and really such a pleasure to host this group of students.

Now I'm looking around as the dust of their departure settles and making a 180 degree turn toward a whole different task. Much as I would have loved to join them on this trip, I am writing toward a deadline of the end of August and I can't actually afford the time.

They will have an amazing adventure, I am certain. They will see and experience and learn and grow so much. May it be beautiful; a lasting blessing in their lives.

Heather, above, blew me a kiss as they pulled out of the drive.

I'll be missing them so much!

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!)

Images On The Way... (A Little Photo Journal from Tanzania)

As promised, a few photos from our recent trip to the northern highlands of Tanzania... Click on any photo that you would like to see larger.

Early on the 22nd we came across 5 elephants in open land outside of the game parks. They were moving along slowly, probably heading to Lake Manyara. Seeing them was a good birthday gift for Byron. They had big tusks :-) This one didn't want his photo taken.


We stopped and bought yellow and red bananas. I later regretted not buying a hat for Trevor!


We sat on the rim of the famous Ngorongoro Crater and toasted Byron's 48th with cold sodas before driving on to Loliondo.


We spent one night at Andre's camp in Loita (and heard elephants trumpeting as they passed close to us in the night.) Thanks for the neat tent, Masons!


I always cry when we get to Loita. The kids grew up playing in this stream. Wouldn't you cry?


I took my morning bath in this shallow pool below Andre's camp. There are hot springs that feed this stream and the water wasn't cold at all.


This is our Maasai Mum, Ngoto Milai. She has been close to our family for 17 years.


I took this photo for Carly Jane. Car, this is the same tree we ate our breakfast under in July. You made us look up and close one eye so that our vision went two dimensional and we talked about how cool God is to make this lace.


Sometimes the kids ride on the roof for a while. A 360 degree view of Africa is a fine thing.


The mountain had just puffed out a cloud of smoke but I missed it. The light grey color down the right side is new lava flow since we camped here last summer.

Heather's List

What a good day out!

We left the house at 5:45am and got home at 7:30pm. The big African sky above us was in constant shifting patterns as the clouds thickened and abated, thickened and abated throughout the day. The world below was draped in rich hues of greens and golds. The birds that traveled between flashed with colors too wild and iridescent to emulate.


This family was very happy to duck out of home school and office work to accommodate Bill and Tina's hope to visit the game park :-)

(Portrait of self by Heather)

So, here is Heather's list of animals that we saw:

1. Impala
2. Reed Buck
3. Water Buck
4. Elephant
5. Buffalo
6. Wildebeest
7. Silver Backed Jackal
8. Serval Cat
9. Vervet Monkey
10. Baboon
11. Dickdick
12. Kongoni
13. Mongoose (4 different kinds)
14. Tortoise
15. Giraffe
16. Zebra
17. Ostrich
18. Warthog
19. Bush Buck
20. Hyrax
21. Eland

(Mama and Baby taken by Heather)