Baringo

(if you're just starting reading you might want to skip down a couple posts to get caught up on the last week. or just read it all backwards. thats ok too =))

monday afternoon Colleen adn i headed to Lake Baringo. A VERY fun drive, to a more desertous part of the country.. it got hotter and hotter the closer we got. We stayed in a Banda, next to 25 english 5th graders.. hmmm. =) and when we got there we went for a walk before supper and found 9 crocodiles sunning themselves on the beach we were walking by! soooo cool! and so incredibly scary. colleen is weird and loves dangerous animals =) (i hope you're reading this colleen) and SHE wasnt scared so i tried not to be either, and just did it for the good pictures... they go right into the water when they get scared anyways, so as long as we stayed away from being between them and the water we were ok =). it worked out... and i got some cool pictures. then in the morning, after the darkest night of sleep i think i've ever had (it is soooo dark there, which makes the stars absolutely incredible- like seriously there are about 5  or 6 times the stars that we see in ohio. SOOOO many- but in the banda after we switched out the lights and tucked in the mosquito net it felt like i was blind. there was no adjusting to the darkness for my eyes... i woke up a couple times at night sooo disoriented because there was not even a speck of reflection or anything to get my bearings. it was weird. anyways, so we got up at 6 this morning for our boat ride... got on the boat around 645 and set off with our driver and our guide Joseph. The boat was kinda like an extra long rowboat with a 25 horsepower motor. we saw tons of birds right off the bat, and some little crocs, and some fishermen in really cool little boats and then we started across the lake to the islands. first we passed an island inhabited by one family. A very old man and his wives... i've heard between 5-8, and their 30 or so kids... and then lots of goats and sheep.. so that was the first little island, and then the main island had a little town on it, and we were planning to just go around it, but our motor broke down, so we HAD to stop, so when we 'docked' (on the rocks) we asked if we could walk around a bit so we got a personal tour of the Maasai village there... (Maasai are the kenyan tribe that you'd think of when you think of typical national geographic africa tribe- huge earrings/so huge earLOBES and lots of colorful jewelry and clothes, very dark skin, living a liitle more remote/conservative... something like that- very fun to photograph... against the law to photograph without permission...) it was a fun little side trip though, and they got the motor going again, so we headed back towards the edge and found some hippos... lots of them... talk about stinky. they smell awful! like a bad fart x 1000 =) it wasnt bad till we got downwind... i've never fully understood that word (or pumba's song in the lion king), downwind, till today, smelling that downwind. They are very cool creatures though, and i of course took lots of pictures!

The rest of the week is going to be full of kids! Im going to miss them horribly and im not looking forward to leaving them... as everyone knew would be hard. =( So i have all of tomorrow (wednesday) with them, and then most of thursday, we might actually take some to town and to cason and colleens house for the afternoon.. they love to (and need to) get out of the complex once in awhile, plus i need to go to town to find this guy that has been bugging me to buy cards from him... i kept telling him later, but its now later and i need some! they are really cool, he paints little pictures on them and they would be really neat framed. anyways, so we'll take the kids to town, a few of them, and then we're having a going away party with the youth- so i can say goodbye, and we can take some pictures (we're taking them out to eat =)) so thats thursday, then im with the kids again on friday and then to safari till monday, then nairobi to visit some ohio friends and possibly see an elephant orphanage and some other stuff, then i fly home on wednesday night at 1130... one week from tomorrow. Its been such an adventure, an eyeopening, jawdropping exciting experience and i wouldn't trade it for anything! Im talking like its already over! geez. i have a whole week left! I'm going to focus on that for now and enjoy every minute... probly wont write any more till im home, but i appreciiate so much you following my experience and reading my ramblings and for all the prayers. theres so many here that need your prayers so badly- please remember them and if you could also just pray that my transition home would NOT be heartbreaking that would be great =) I'm so so sooo sad to leave yet looking forward to coming home with a totally different outlook on how i want to live my life... the adjustment could just be a little rough. Hope you've enjoyed all the stories.. there will be many more when i get home! =) happy spring!

~erika

(pictures possibly coming tomorrow... right now i'm off to bed!)