Africa Part II

Breakfast time at Camp Madison! Robert made yummy fried scones called mandazi Friday morning.

Shanna and Haley each took different times washing a piece of two of their own clothing. 

More eye exam time!

Lunch time and more chapati! 

It was fun interacting with the older girls.  In high school they are called Form 1 (Freshman), Form 2, Form 3, on to Form 4. 

Some of the younger boys really liked hanging out with Elden which was really sweet. 

Elden staged a crime scene with the water bottle dudes. 

Simosa is very similar to an egg roll.  Really yummy!

Night games with the girls in their classrooms!

Some more eye exams and cows getting in the laundry! Saturday most of the volunteers were gone to a medical camp in a village about an hour away. We found out later that there was equipment Lee could have used to do eye exams in that village, but we found out after the fact. We hung out as well and tried to get some exams done for the staff too.  

Beautiful evening. 

Sunday morning Patrick picked us up to drive us to the Bomet Branch about an hour away. That morning while I was getting ready I used my hair dryer in the dining room and blew a fuse. Ooops! Thankfully they got it figured out. 

We looked up the Bomet Branch online and just hoped that it was in the right place and the church times were correct.  On the way there we saw the coolest site....zebras in the wild!!!  WOW!  It was SO COOL! One of my favorite things I saw in Kenya!

Wow, seeing a herd of zebras in real life was surreal.  Very Dr. Suess-ish! 

School-goers heading to church.  The Nasaruni girls were at church about 8am singing songs. It was fun hearing them across the camp. 

We found it!  I felt bad that Patrick missed this day with his family, but grateful we had a ride to church. 

Termite mounds.

The baptismal font!

It was fun meeting the Elders! One was from Zimbabwe, next to Lee.  The Elder next to Elden was from Australia, though grew up mainly in New Zealand. We told them it was Cal's birthday that day and he was serving a mission in the Philippines.  After Sunday school they led a big group song of happy birthday for Cal. It was really sweet.  I recorded it and sent it to them.  Everyone was excited to meet us and get a picture.  It was quite a large branch. I'd say over 80 people. 

This was the Elder's Quorum president. 

He wrote a note to me. 

We met a guy from England named Jack, currently living in London. He was in Kenya for two weeks riding around the countryside. Lee helped him a little bit with his bike.   

After church the Relief Society president showed me some key chains the sisters had made.  It was time to leave--Patrick was waiting for us--and it caught me off guard when she asked if I would buy some right then. I think too it also was a tricky thing for me to have a better response because just the day before at Nasaruni, the volunteer group talked about going shopping on Sunday.  It was funny because they didn't even have that on the schedule when we arrive.  Go back and look at the schedule haha if you want.  But Tracy was really thrown off that we said we weren't going to go shopping on Sunday.  She almost seemed put off. Anyway, looking back I wish I would have just given her some money and let her keep the key chains.  I felt bad not helping but was caught with the whole not buying stuff on Sunday. 

On the way back we saw Jack!  We also saw people selling live chickens on the side of the road. 

Double banana!

We had home church and also relaxed. 

Later that afternoon Haley helped getting height and weight for the girl's medical exams. 

Yummy soup!  The big rolls there are called "scones". 

More night time with the girls.  The girls like touching our hair and one girl braided Haley's a little. 

More games!

We played a lot of Skip-bo. Don joined in on a round. 

One afternoon Elden and I read some books to the kids. 

Haley helped with a mending/sewing class. We were pretty much done with eye exams so Monday was fairly relaxing. 

In the dining room there were always drinks out and crackers.  I would get hot chocolate after dinner, or even after lunch too.  It was Cadbury hot cocoa so one would think it would be amazing.  It was pretty tasty if made with hot milk.  Tasted weird with hot water.  Usually hot milk would be available at the drink/snack table. 

Tomorrow is the safari in Maasai Mara!  Oh and the showers and toilets were pretty rough...but we had hot water!  The toilets were pit toilets, but in a concrete building with the showers.  You had to turn on the heater too to the water.  And make sure you turn the water on first, then the heat. Or you'd get shocked.  Turn the heat off, then the water. There was a single sink outside of the building with a little mirror. There were showers and toilets for guys, then a separate side for gals.