Hello

Sept 17, 2010 – Vicki is off, making her way back to the US.  It seems hard to believe that we greeted her 2 weeks ago today.  Time flew by, but we packed it with a lot of items.

I’ve posted some of her pictures in our album, check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/MaiersInAfrica 

Vicki’s picture album tells a pretty good story of her time here.  But like she said, pictures do not capture everything.

For those of you who don’t check the pictures regularly, I’ve posted a number of them in the last couple weeks.  Soon I’ll be working on the ones fm Joyce’s camera and the safari.  We got it back yesterday during a one day visit to Kisumu.

The instigating reason for the trip was that Vicki needed to get to Kisumu to catch her morning flight to Nairobi.  Joe had a few things to get done so he drove and a few other came along to accomplish a few tasks.  Any time Joe goes to Kisumu people find out and always have a few other items for you to do or want to come along.

Yesterday we had a treat, or multiple treats.  Café Latte that was delic, great ice cream, and wonderful tacos, with cheese and real taco shells!  Thanks to Joe for the tacos?  The little cheese that was left Joyce was saving for her morning toast, but Brinkley (cat) found it during the middle of the night an polished it off.  That’s the biggest waste of any food we’ve had so far. 

Tonight is pizza cooked in a brick oven.

Here are some road stories.  On our way to the Masai Mara we passed a matatu with everyone just standing outside it.  As we passed I found out why – broken down and in the process of being repaired.  Not surprising with how bad the roads were washboarded.  Soon we came upon another in the same situation and I thought I’m going to count these to see how many broken down transports we pass.  But this one was not broken down – a lady had gone into labor and had just delivered her baby on the side of the road.  Someone was helping clean her up while another was holding the baby wrapped in a konga.

Also saw the immediate aftermath of a dog getting hit on the road.  It was the truck (semi type) ahead of us.  First I noticed the kids gasping and scattering on the side of the road, then the blooded dog still spinning from the impact with bits of flesh and blood flying around.  Then, shortly, an overturned semi with it’s container exploded into pieces.  I think this was also fairly recent as a lot of the cargo was still sitting where the truck landed in the ditch.

I think that we have little planned for the weekend – yeah.  Maybe we can sleep past 7 tomorrow morning.  Of course it would be easier if we don’t go to bed before 10 tonight.

Reported from Mbita,

Paul