July 17, 2011

Well things sometimes don't work out as expected. Who would have thought my USTA team would have made it to playoffs? Had my team not been grieved on three separate occasions, yes we would have definitely made it to playoffs as we were in first place. But losing three players due to grievances and losing all those lines of win, it was doubtful. So today my team traveled to Auburn to play Round One of playoffs. We just squeaked in as the fourth place contenders. No one wanted to play. It just stunk not to have Christy, Sue or Michelle on our team. I guess we were pouting.

So Regan, Debbie, Nancy, Leslie, April, Paula, Candace and I drove up to Auburn. No one else was available. Amazing, 8 players required and only 8 players were available.

We won. We won 3 lines and lost 2 lines. Actually we might have even won 4 lines but April and I had heard we had won 3 lines and sorta gave up. That is very uncharacteristic of us to display such poor sportsmanship. We were just tired of all the drama with the grievances. I feel bad about our lack of enthusiasm. The team as a whole just wanted to be done with USTA and put this horrible season behind us. Now we had another week to play.

It is appropriate that I arrive back in the United States of America in time to celebrate the Fourth of July.

July 03, 2011 Fair Oaks,California

Well, back home and it is Independence Day! While it is good to be back home, I was not quite ready to return. Like my mission trip to Mexico, I felt there were things left undone and I wanted to complete the task. Foremost, I want to get the candlemaking machine at Ngong WEEP repaired. I also want to order and deliver the 100 chairs we paid for and get them to Namuncha. And deliver more water and supplies to Ol Donyo Nyokie.

I had a miserable flight from Heathrow to San Francisco. I could not sleep as there was a lot to think about!!!

Michael was there to pick me and Dave up - minus Dave's luggage which was lost. We got back to Sacramento where it was over 100 degrees. I'm going to sleep well tonight!

July 03, 2011
London,England

I woke up to a door slamming. As I opened my eyes, I realized the sun was pouring in on my face. If this was Kenya, it would be 8am. I looked at my phone and saw it was 5:45am. Well, now I am up. I packed up my stuff while Melissa slept. I went downstairs and spoke with the concierge about a tour. He said at 6:15 I could catch a 2 hour cab drive. I could not get out of the cab but I could be driven around London for $125. Deal - sold!

My driver was from India but recently moved to England from Germany. He wants to return to Germany after his three sons finished school in England. He drove me around some of the sites I had walked past a few hours earlier. The timing was great - it was Sunday and early so sometimes we were the only ones on the street. He was able to stop in front of sites and I could roll down the window and take photos. We went past Buckingham Palace, 10 Downey Street, Scotland Yard, Westminster Abbey to name a few sites. We even drove over the Tower Bridge. It was sad how quickly two hour past.

I arrived back at the Sheraton by 9:30 to meet John and Dave in the foyer. We were supposed to meet at 9:30-9:45 for breakfast as a team before departing for Heathrow at 11am. They were amazed that I was functional on 2 hours of sleep. Everyone just assumed I would be unconscious on the flight back home. What a magnificent 18 hours in London!!

July 02, 2011
London, England

We arrived in London around 5:30pm. By the time we figured out how to take the shuttle to the Sheraton and get checked in, it was 8pm. We spent 15 minutes in the room getting organized and then proceeded back to Heathrow and catch the Underground. Once on the train, I began to relax even though we were all standing - the trains were packed. I just watched the London scenery pass by. Then I felt Abbey lean on me with a glazed look. We hadn't eaten in 8 hours and she was looking faint. I dug out a granola bar for her. We got off at the Piccadilly exit and decided to eat dinner at the closest restaurant. We climb the stairs out of the train station and what restaurant is right there? Pizza Hut!!!! Now I never imagined my first meal in London to be Pizza Hut, and I would be dishonest to say I was enthusiastic. I had to order ice for my Diet Coke and then realized their pizza menu was very foreign to me. I ordered a nan pizza with feta, basil, tomatoes and onions. This pizza was amazing!!!

Next it's time to power walk London! Scott, Richelle and I wanted to see as much as possible. Setting our camera to "night view", we walked down Regent Street towards the Thames River. Here is my first night photo! I was quite impressed with this Sony camera.This is St. James Church on Regent Street. The streets here, despite the stores being closed, are bustling with traffic. People are walking and window shopping. It's a nice feeling.

The weather was perfect for walking - about 65 degrees and calm.What was surprising was the number of homeless people sleeping in the doorsways of exclusive boutiques. They didn't seem to be wearing threadbare clothing but were in sleeping bags, etc.

Buckingham Palace is like the White House - smaller than envisioned. It has great ironwork and is surprisingly close to the street. We spent a lot of time there walking around the gardens, the statuary on the grounds and parks. It was just a perfect evening! Seeing everything by nightlight had an amazingly calming yet inspiring effect. I think we all noticed more as we were paying more attention to details.













Big Ben is a littler smaller than envisioned as well, but just as majestic. I love the stone and brick on these buildings. The Eye is pretty cool at night, but something tells me it may be a little unsightly during the day. The neon lights are very soothing and such a contrast with the bridge lights. Once at the bridge, Dave, Torie and Abbey decided to take a cab back to the hotel. John, Scott, Richelle, Melissa and I still had energy and decided to walk along the Thames River to the Tower Bridge.
First stop, the nut vendor. He was selling freshly baked honey covered mixed nuts at the stairs down to the Eye. Walking along the Thames eating pecans and macadamias - a great combination. There is lively nightlife along the Thames. Cute restaurants and even a skateboard park. We must have crossed a half dozen bridges before reaching the Tower Bridge. It was 3am in the morning! We shot tons of frames of the lit bridge, caught a cab back to the hotel. We were back in our rooms by 3:30. I showered, jumped in bed and was asleep by 3:45.

July 02, 2011
Nairobi, Kenya
Wow - up before the sun again. We have to say goodbye to the good people at HEART. I have become close with Vickie and Tammy and will miss their insight and sense of humor. Steve - what can I say? There is a mature godly man inside a twenty six year old's body. I have been watching his leadership in awe and his heart is Kenyan despite his returning to UCLA in fall. Katie is another mature godly person inside a young body. She'll be attending Columbia University in fall in the master's program - that indicates her intelligence. However her leadership skills with Freedom for Girls were exemplary. And Britta. A fellow Chicagoan teaching in Denver who spends her summer vacations serving. I will always remember her enthusiastic smile and energy while stomping dung and mud in Kisii!!! I will miss all these people. We shared tears, laughter, smiles and "the looks"!!!! After two weeks, they have made significant impressions on my walk. These three interns will be remaining at HEART for awhile and the next mission team will benefit from their experience and enthusiasm.



Well, Dave and I were in line forever to check-in at the airport. John, Scott, Richelle, Torrie, Abbey and Melissa checked-in within a few minutes. And then we figured out why! Dave and I were commenting that it shouldn't have taken so long to just tag our ba
gs to be put directly on the connecting flight out of London back to San Francisco. The others then looked at their tickets and realized that their luggage was tagged to be picked up in London and then they would have to check-in again to get it to San Francisco. The six of them had to get back in line.

When we get on the Virgin plane, there was a 45 minute delay in taking off. First they had to remove a passenger. We never heard the details. Then we heard an announcement that there would be an additional 15 minute delay because of a luggage issue (our team!). Finally, nearly an hour late, we took off.

My plan was to sleep part of the 7 hours on the plane so I would have energy in London. I hate making plans that don't come together. I tried watching boring movies but discovered they were interesting! I slept perhaps 30 minutes.

July 01, 2011
Maasai Mara, Kenya

Wow - up early at the crack of dawn to take a short safari to see the hippos. There is a lagoon not too far away where the hippos gather in the morning. Wendy decided to do some work on the internet so the Core Four in my matatu were me, John, Britta and Katie. In the other matatu, Richelle, Scott, Steve and Dave. Melissa slept in and Abbey, Tammy and Torey were too sore and stiff.

The hippo lagoon looked shallow until the hippos stood up and moved around. There were probably close to a dozen of them in there and more were walking down the creek to enter the lagoon. These new hippos were watched verry carefully by the others. One large hippo was challenged by three in the lagoon, but was eventually allowed to enter. While we were taking photos, another matatu pulled up. A young man jumped out and came over to me, shoving his iPhone in my face. He kept saying, "Wow - you have to watch this! I can't believe this happened to us!!!" I watched his iPhone as a cheetah jumped up on his matatu and looked inside the vehicle. The cheetah stayed on the windshield for at least 30 seconds! It was so wondrous!

After seeing the hippos, we had only a short amount of time before we had to return to The Fig Tree. We saw ostriches, hyenas, wildebeests.....and then the phone call came in. There were cheetahs on the prowl again. We dashed over to that area to see 7 cheetahs leisurely walking on the road. They didn't appear to be hunting, more like playing. One cheetah kept circling our matatu. And then he suddenly hopped up on our windshield! All I could say was "Hi honey!" and sat down! Then I composed myself and stood up and started shooting film! It was amazing! Closeup, the cheetah looks like a cute house cat!

As safaris go, I've been told we saw more animals than most. And to witness both a kill and a cheetah on our windshield - unheard of! We were blessed! We returned to the camp in time to join the others for a late breakfast. Then we had to pack up and get ready to leave back to Nairobi. We had to leave by 11am so we could arrive back in time to shop at the Maasai Flea Market at Village Market. They close at 6pm.

Our matatu took the lead and we were probably over an hour out from The Fig Tree when we received a call from the other matatu. Andrew had broken down about 20 minutes behind us. We had to turn around and find them. Watching Andrew and Paul try to fix the matatu was nearly comical. We knew we were in trouble when Paul took his pocket knife and cut a 3" thorn off an acacia bush and started carving it. While they worked on this project, some Maasai shepherds approached us. One woman, who was obviously drunk tried to sell us her beaded necklace for 5000 schillings. Then she said we could take her picture for 1000 schillings. She came up to me and asked if I had "babies". I said I had two. She said she had five. Would I like to buy one for 5000 schillings?

Finally Andrew and Paul fashioned a weak rope between the two vehicles. We attempted to pull the other matatu. The rope broke twice. We had traveled about 1/4 mile when we hit the first of three ravines. Of course, as we came out of the ravine, the rope broke leaving the other matatu in the ravine. We decided that we needed to leave one matatu there and call for help. Dave, Britta, Katie, Steve and Andrew stayed back. Scott, Richelle, Torey, Tammy and Abby crammed into our vehicle. We were packed like sardines for the 5 hour drive. We got back to Nairobi around 5pm and had an hour at the market. It was like a large Denio's Market. It closes at dark which is around 6ish. Everyone went shopping and bargained for the best prices. Back at HEART, we had a great last meal there and then began the packing process. It's hard to believe that we have been here in Africa for over 2 weeks.