I have not been doing a whole lot of interesting stuff lately, mostly school...
I did however, just upload quite a few pictures to Picasa, so if you are inclined (and have fast internet) feel free to browse them. Be warned, there are 339 pictures from my Kenya trip...

Kids

Assorted pictures that I have taken of my niece and nephew in the last few months.

Shadrach helping Tobias and I make a door for the chicken pen.

Priska and Shadrach are true DiGennaros, they climb everything in sight...

Shadrach in Sunday school.

 

We went to a giraffe park and Shadrach spent half an hour carrying handfuls of food to the giraffes.

Priska has figured out that people change their facial expression while they speak, but not exactly the system by which they do it. So she jabbers merrily making the strangest of faces....

This is one of the less bizarre ones.

Shadrach snitched Debbi's sunglasses...

Helping Aram roast coffee beans.

Part 4 Ng'iro Again

I wanted to climb another part of Ng'iro but Stephen did not. I ask my host, Stephen Cowan, who has been working in the area for twenty years, if it would be too dangerous for me to go alone. "Most of the locals went to Sifur for the circumcision ceremony so you shouldn't have to worry about thieves. As long as you don't step on a cobra or a scorpion, you should be fine. Oh, and you might meet a leopard or a cheetah anytime" 

Yeah, I should be fine...

Turns out I did survive. , I decided not to actually climb the mountain because I do not know enough about survival in this environment. "What to do if ..." I was just going for a little walk through the bush in the direction of the mountain. But the peak called, and I could not resist. But my little walk made it so that, instead of hiking up something like a path, I was climbing a nearly vertical slope, beating my way through thorn bushes. But it was fun, except for one acacia tree that tried to remove my arm. 

And (disappointingly) I met not even one cheetah...   

Really tall cliffs. The spire of rock in the center is, I would estimate, over two-hundred feet tall.

Weird looking clouds...

And weird looking tree. The wind off the mountain is so strong and constant that all the trees (except acacia) are permanently bent in the direction of it.

Tuum-Part Three: Mt. Ng'iro

They said it would probably be the steepest mountain I had ever climbed. 
They said that it would be freezing at the top and I would want a coat. I did not believe that, I had done nothing but be fried by the sun for a week, I wouldn't mind a little freezing.
Mt. Ng'iro is the highest point in this part of Kenya, and the base is a ten minute walk from here. It looks like it would be an easy thirty minute scramble to the top, but I know that when it comes to mountains, looks are always deceiving. 

At 643 we set off. Mt. Ng'iro is east of Tuum so there is about an hour and a half between when it gets light and when the sun rises bringing with it unbearable heat. This morning was (comparatively) cool  and cloudy but even so, by the first time we stopped I could wring sweat out of my shirt. I thought my water had leaked. 

There is a band of massive cedars about halfway up the mountain, I have no idea why, but they provided some very welcome shade, (the sun had risen by now) and were a pleasant variation to the acacia trees with their three inch thorns.

After three hours of speed walking up an almost vertical slope, (our guide did not seem to realize that wazungu are mortal and require breaks once in a while) we came over the ridge and entered a different world.
The contrast was amazing. On one side was almost desert, with cactus and sand, on the other, was green. Green trees, green grass, even a small stream. The air was cool, the ground was cool. (I burned my hand on a rock on the other side of the ridge)

We walked beside a creek through a forest of mammoth, moss-draped trees. It reminded me of some forest (I don't remember which) in Lord of the Rings. 

As we continued to increase in altitude the stream disappeared, the verdant  trees gave way to small bushes growing out of the rock. 

When we reached the peak, called Horn of the Buffalo, we could see for many miles, then a cloud came and  we were inside it.

 An icy, refreshing gale roared up out of the valley. My companions were shivering in their coats and huddling in the lee of boulders, I stood on top of the boulders looking over a sea of cloud, watching as bits of cloud were hurled by the wind, up from the valley and into my T-shirt. I could stand on this rock all day...

Bother, my companions are leaving. I guess I had better go as well. Farewell mountain top, I wish I could stay...

Down.
Down hurts. After fifteen minutes my leg muscles are burning and my ankles ache. Only three hours and forty-five minutes more. As we descended the temperature rose, by the time we reached Tuum it was as though we were walking through a solar oven, on broil. 
At 1405 we reached the house, my legs had gotten used to the strain and felt fine but my ankles were in agony. I asked our guide if he was tired. "No, I ready to do it again." And I believed that.

More Pictures

Tuum

A really cool canyon thing.

Tuum-Part Two: Juxtaposition of the Incongruous

A Wii??! What!?! 
Here I am in the African bush, a six hour drive from the nearest town, nothing but sand, acacia trees and a sprinkling of Samburu and their cattle for one hundred and fifty miles, standing on a WiiFit balance board trying to keep my bubble from popping on the sides of the stream. Oh, time to stop, the sun is setting, there will be no power soon...

To Tuum 11-21/22

I am going to Tuum, (a tiny village in the bush sixteen hours north of here) with some people I have met once, to stay for two weeks doing I have no idea what. This should be interesting.


The beginning of my first day in Tuum. 11-23
600: Get up and go to the bathroom. (outhouse)
605: Attempt to leave the bathroom. Discover that the bar on the outside of the door has somehow latched itself. 
605-625: Try every method of opening the door short of breaking it down. (which would have been quite easy)
625: Stephen, my housemate, comes out of the house and I fail to get his attention. 
625-700: More escape attempts.
700: I finally get Stephen's attention. FREEDOM!!! 
705: I am nearly killed by a falling shower bucket. (We hang a bucket from a hook to take a shower)