Africa Once Again

I wish I could have posted my thoughts in real time while I was in Kenya, but it seemed like the internet service in Kenya wouldn't cooperate with me, so I will do the best I can, trying to remember as many of the sights, smells, sounds, and feelings I experienced while we were there on this trip.


Our team was phenomenal. A group of young women from George Fox University, and while I was uncertain about how they would adjust in Africa, and interact with each other, they worked fantastic as a team.


We had a good start with everyone showing up at the airport on time. A lot of goodbyes were said and several fathers told me to be sure and bring their baby girls back in one piece. One father gave me such a stern look I thought he was mad at me (and he probably was...for taking his little girls halfway across the world). We had no delays and no lost luggage so things worked out well on the trip. We did the elephant orphanage and the giraffe center on the front end of the trip and it was a lot of fun having the girls kiss the giraffe so they could send the photos to their families and their boyfriends. We also had a great time at Kazuri Beads, but honestly, the highlight of the whole trip was when we arrived at the Eldoret airport that night and walked into an airport filled with millions of flying termites swarming the airport. We forgot to prep our team on this one, and it is hard to predict when it will happen, but generally once or twice a year, after the heavy rains, the termites will come out of the ground by the millions, and swarm around any source of light. While some of the girls were mesmerized by the bugs, many were freaking out as the bugs flew into their hair and tried to fly into their mouths. Cheryl and I were just smiling and saying "Welcome to Eldoret".


We arrived at the village at about 8PM to a warm meal and promptly went to sleep after our meal. The next morning everyone woke up, and the sights and sounds of Kenya were amazing and exciting to the girls for the first time, and they never grow old for Cheryl and I. I looked across the veranda and saw one of the best views of Mt. Elgon that I have ever seen in my time here. It is not a Cascade Mountain filled with snow like we have so much of in the Northwest, but it is an extremely large and gradually sloped mountain of over 14,000 feet at the peak.


We also woke up to the sounds of a beautiful pair of horned bills with bright red beaks that greeted us in the morning. In fact, they showed up almost every morning we were there and often perched right outside of our living room on the veranda railing. Apparently, it is a type of horned bill in Kenya that is endangered, but this pair have chosen to spend most of their time at our village. Perhaps they will nest and have a family their at some point as well.


Well, I have to go now, but I will post more later.


Mungu Akubariki (God bless you),


Matt and Cheryl Tallman