Home Sweet Cottage

Were you you picturing something like this? =)

Welcome to my home-sweet-home in Kenya!

Here it is from the front! This one is a little misleading because I have more plants on the porch than usual. A lot of those got relocated, but I'm thinking about getting some back!

 One of my pet "ducks". =)

My awesome kitchen, complete with refrigerator, microwave, and gas stove! Love, love, love!!

 This is the bedroom/dining room/kitchen area! The white things hanging over the beds are mosquito nets.

Here's the bathroom. The floor is tiled straight across to the shower area, which makes cleaning pretty easy! Except the drain is not the lowest part of the floor. Oh well, can't have it all!

The view out my kitchen window - pine trees! I love this - it reminds me of my home in Spokane!

The view out the side window - the cottage community clothesline.

Part of our running water system. 

 I have running water, electricity, and internet! Except when I don't... Ha.

 There's a spare bed in my cottage that is vacant right now - come and visit!!

Lake Baringo

 Lake Baringo! Two matatus and a taxi ride later, Mety and I arrived in Baringo.
Our accommodations changed at the last minute, so after our taxi dropped us off about
3 kilometers down a "road" (ha. hahaha. hahahahahaha - NOT a road.) We changed our minds
again and called for a motorbike to take us back to a different hotel.

Cooking catfish

After checking in, we had our new motorbike friend take us into town to buy fish for dinner.
It's quite the experience!

Pick out your fish!

There's a fish market on the side of the road where they sell
smoked or fried fish - Catfish or Tilapia.


We picked a piece of fried Catfish since neither
of us had never tried it. You take your cooked fish to a nearby hotel and they warm it
for you while you wait. We ordered some chapati and about 30 minutes later, dinner was served.
yum! The fish was too much for us to finish, and it only cost 100ksh ($1.20). The hotel charged 90ksh to warm it up with chapati. Now that's vacationing on a budget!

 Good morning Lake Baringo! We woke up to three ostriches strolling around the grounds having breakfast.

I've never gotten this close to a Crown Crane! These birds are all over Kenya, and there are lots of them by the village, so beautiful.

The hotel as two blue tailed monkeys in a cage. Right after I said "sad! that cage is too small!" one of them gave us this look! I think he agrees. Let him out.









This little guy seemed pretty happy swinging around in his cage. But I think he really wanted my camera!

Lake Baringo is a bit flooded right now from the rainy season, so the water is a lot closer to the hotel than it usually is. 

For those of you who are only reading this to find out what we bought the knife for - that was just for cutting up our fresh watermelon! Our first hotel was supposed to have a kitchen, but now we're stuck with two glasses and a bottle of water, which doesn't do much to a watermelon. Made for a great Facebook post though! =)

A Very Great Friend

Earlier this year I was blessed to become friends with Emily Keese. I met her last year when she came on one of the short term teams, but this year she came for a whole three months - she was here for all three medical clinics and we had an absolute blast working together in the pharmacy. We have a very similar sense of humor!

While she was here, Emily gave me one of the greatest gifts I've ever received. As you know, we lost baby Ian and baby Obadiah earlier  this year, shortly before I came back to the US. Before I left I planted flowers at the grave sites, but it was the dry season and when I came back everything had died and the cemetery was overgrown with waist high grass and weeds.  I made plans to go work on it but weeks went by and I just absorbed myself in working with the teams.

Emily heard me mention the cemetery and she went looking for it one Saturday between teams. It's tucked away in an untraveled corner of the village property, overlooking the river. She spent the next week getting up early in the morning slashing grass and digging weeds. The plot was fenced with barbed wire, and she salvaged scrap wood from the dairy and built a gate, then piled a  rock wall all the way around the inside perimeter. Just before she left, the headstones that were ordered in April finally came, and she moved them down also.

I can't really convey how much it meant to me that she put in all the time and effort she did. Once she was finished, the ground was ready for plants and flowers, and the place looks worlds better than it did. I bought more plants in town and then the rainy season continued more than a month past it's usual time - so everything was thoroughly watered and is growing well! 

Emily has an incredible testimony, which she shared at our medical clinics and again when she returned home after Kenya. Watch the video here - http://vimeo.com/49615777

Emily - thank you, thank you, thank you for everything!! You are an amazing person and very great friend! Hurry back to Kenya soon. =)