Scenes from the road...

The lower road into the Great Rift Valley can be nerve-wracking, at its best, and downright terrifying, at its worst. The greatest danger is the volume of huge trucks that ply the road, often with poor brakes, suspension systems and an intense propensity to break down. Along the valley, with a drop of thousands of metres to the valley floor below, it can cause heart palpitations to see one of these ancient behemoths on your tail, overloaded and with smoking brakes. On our way out of the valley just before Christmas, we stopped for a minute to give our car a break and an old truck also paused at the same spot. Dozens of litres of water were poured over the engine and, after about 5 minutes, the truck lumbered along. Behind the yellow truck you can see two other trucks passing on the narrow road. Harrowing, indeed.

Development projects are underway!

While in the Rift Valley before Christmas, we stopped in at the IDP camp to meet with the two co-operative groups beginning to make crocheted plastic bags. We've been working with these groups since last spring to get these initiatives off the ground and, on this visit, we picked up several prototype bags. They are all amazing and each bag is unique. We can't wait to order more and then bring back as many as possible this summer to sell to friends back home! It was also a blessing to introduce Rebecca to all of our friends at the Vumilia camp, and to show her the library along the way.

Critters at Carnelly's...

After our Hell's Gate bike and hike adventure, we stayed in a banda at Carnelly's campground for the night, anticipating a long hike up Mount Longonot the following morning. Alas, our hike had to wait for another day because poor Rebecca ended up quite sick throughout the night. Our stay at Carnelly's was further enhanced by droves of mosquitoes (recent rains seem to have had a positive effect on the breeding rates of mosquitoes on the lake) and the appearance of several large, black spiders in the banda once it got dark. We all hunkered in our mosquito nets and hit the trail back to Nairobi after breakfast, vowing to come back to hike Longonot before the holidays end. On the upside, we were treated to some nice bird sightings: some hybrid lovebirds and a lilac-breasted roller were particularly nice.

A visit to Hell's Gate...

On December 23rd, we left Nairobi bright and early and drove to Hell's Gate National Park in the Lake Naivasha area. We rented some dubious bicycles from the park gate and biked 7 km. in to the gorge, spotting zebra and gazelles and waterbuck along the valley floor as we pedalled along. It was a beautiful day, topped off with a 2-hour hike in the gorge, formed about 450 years ago when nearby Mount Longonot exploded and sent volumes of lava down into the Rift Valley. Angelina Jolie spent several days here while filming Tomb Raider 2; the scenery is spectacular and volcanic activity far below the surface still keeps many hot springs active. We encountered several streams of boiling or very hot water on our hike, and we also came upon a sun snake and a green mamba snake in the canyon. Yikes! Hannah stayed in Nairobi with a friend and enjoyed making gingerbread houses while we visited the gorge.

Visiting Margaret's village...

Margaret, our wonderful housekeeper and cook, lives in a small village about 40 minutes from our house in Nairobi (between Karen and Dagoretti). Just before Christmas we visited her house for lunch and walked around the village with members of her family. Her nephew, Daniel, helps run a school program for village children who otherwise would not be able to afford to go to school, and we had a chance to meet dozens of the children and the two teachers. It was a wonderful day, and Margaret's granddaughters loved dancing and playing with our girls.

Rebecca has arrived for Christmas!

We were all counting the hours and minutes until Rebecca's plane touched down in Nairobi on December 18th. What a blessing to have our whole family together for Christmas, especially because this year Rebecca gets to stay in Kenya for almost three weeks!

A wonderful lunch with Douglas and his family...

During our recent visit to the Vumilia IDP camp, we were invited to have lunch at the home of Douglas, the leader of the youth organization at the camp. Douglas has been the point person on the library project for months, and 2 months ago he also became a father. We were treated to a substantial lunch of rice, vegetable stew and lentils, all prepared by Douglas's mother, and it was absolutely delicious. What a blessing to share lunch with such strong and wonderful people.

New projects at the IDP camp: solar lighting & crocheted bags!

At the end of November, Brian and I spent a day down at the IDP camp visiting friends and working on new development projects. Thanks to a generous Freedom Through Learning donor, we were able to buy a solar lighting system for the library, which means people can enjoy reading in the library into the evening. This is an exciting addition to the project. As well, we were able to meet with the two women's cooperatives that have formed to talk about the crocheted plastic bag projects, and about our involvement. The ladies have been very busy and we're hoping to bring many bags home with us this summer. The sale of these bags will begin to offer economic stability and independence for several families, and we are so excited to be part of what is happening. While we visited, rain poured down for the duration of the afternoon, which is quite a rare occurrence for this part of the Rift Valley. Gardens are growing and the area is greener than we have ever seen it before. This is good news for the residents of Vumilia, but torrential rains are causing flooding and disasters in other parts of Kenya.