Our Honeymoon!!!

Ok, everybody here thinks it is our Honeymoon.  Now this is because we booked the Honeymoon suite at the Mnarani Resort because it was $20 more per night and alot better.  Much Much better view.  Now everybody we talk to are all excited and giddy for us.  The newlyweds.  At first we tried to correct em, but it is just easy to smile and go about our day.  Not everybody gets two honeymoons!!!!  So we are now the Honeymoon couple at Serena Zanzibar Hotel.  This place is much nicer.  Cleaner really.  The last place had flies or something that was biting us.  Not sure what that was.  Nice place though.  Pool and Tusker is great.  Anyway, we have internet now so Maybe you'll get a little blogging right here at the end.  

Nungwi

We are now at the northern most part of Zanzibar. This is our third day and we have just been lazy. So lazy, we are almost bored. Not quite for me, most definitely for Kim. We all know how much she likes to sit around doing nothing :D It is very beautiful here. We are staying at a place call Mnarani Resort. It is swahili for lighthouse, due to the fact there is a lighthouse right next to us. Today, we woke up late, ate pizza, and walked to the natural aquarium, where they house and take care of sea turtles. I got the pleasure of holding one, Kim was afraid she would drop it. They have them as old as 25 and they live to be over 100. Our next plan is to hop in the pool and immediately order a Tusker (named after the elephant that killed one of its founders).

We have 3 more full days here, then Sunday we go back to Stone Town. After that, we stay until the 21st when we fly back to Nairobi. And then the following day we head back towards ya'll. Not too long now.

We have realized there is internet at the hotel. We didn't know that, and walked about 30 minutes yesterday to pay for it. Its free here. Oh well. At least you can hear from us more now. No Skype though. Too slow and not wireless.

Zanzibar

We have been in Stone Town, Zanzibar for a few days now.  We are staying at a hotel called Tembo Hotel.  Its pretty nice.  I had a good swim yesterday.  It is sweltering here.  Woooo.  After the cool weather of Limuru, this is HOT.  It rained this morning, so it cooled it off for a few hours.  Hot again now.  

Tommorrow we go to our beach resort ( http://www.lighthousezanzibar.com/ ).  It looks beautiful and we got the Honeymoon Suite.  We figured it was close enough to our anniversary and our actual anniversary we will be in Honduras, in seperate rooms, soooo........  

Anyway, I am gonna upload a short video of zanzibar, and hopefully we will have internet where we are going, but no promises....

Diesel

I realized I forgot to tell the diesel story.  But let me go back a little first....

Where we stayed in the Masai Mara, the Sekenani Tent Lodge, we were the only ones there.  21 tents, just the two of us.  Which made things a little strange because we had an entire staff of a resort and only us to attend to.  And apparently no one was coming for awhile after, cause three of the staff members asked for rides back home to their families.  Two to Narok and 1 to Nairobi. They were all nice people. 

Narok is where the fun started....... We pulled in for fuel and let the 2 guys off to go home.  I told the gas station attendent (its full service in Kenya) unleaded, and went in to get an Orange Fanta. This is where it gets fun.  The attendent, filled our truck up with yep, you guessed it, diesel.

When I get back, we were lucky enough for the other attendent to notice and them inform us of the mistake.  So we push the truck into their service bay (lucky they had one).  It was the old school kind where you walk underneath the car.  Apparently this happens frequently around here, cause their gas tanks are like our oil pans.  They have "Gas Plug" that can be unscrewed to let the gas out.  So this takes about 20 minutes to get the shield off and undo the plug.  Well we had a half tank of gas already when it happened, and they don't waste anything.  So we spent 30 minutes looking for things to put the gasoline out of the car into.  2 liter bottles, buckets, 2 gas cans, another bucket, etc etc.  

So now I start to think we are getting scammed.  I pulled in for gas, and now they have emptied my tank and are gonna want to fill it back up for me, at my cost.  Well, that's just not gonna happen.  So I ask the main attendent to let me know what they plan to do about the half tank of gas I had.  She says she doesn't know, so she'll ask her manager.  Her manager isn't there, so they have to call the owner in Nairobi.  After all is done, another 30 minutes go by and they finally have the fuel out and the truck back together.  Then we actually got our half a tank back. I think the attendent who put the diesel in paid, but at least we know it wasn't a scam.  (I actually let him put in about a quarter tank once I found out he had to pay).  

Anyway, lesson learned.  If you are ever getting gas from a full service station, WATCH WHAT THEY ACTUALLY PUT IN YOUR TRUCK.

So lets start with the drive over... The thing about Kenya is one minute there is a road and the next you are riding through ruts and such.  It took us about 4 and half hours to get there.  Once there we went to check in and the manager was very impressed that we had found the place.  It seems because the roads are so bad that most people do not drive in, they fly in like the smart people we aren't :)..  Anyway we check in and they take us to our room which is actually a tent, a very nice tent with a bathroom and everything.  The video below shows the whole thing it was wonderful.  I am so glad we stayed the whole three nights.  The food was amazing.  It was so good that Steven ate things like carrot soup, spinach soup, and cucumber soup.  If you can't tell, we really liked the soup.  We spent monday in the park and we got to see a lot of animals but they were mostly from a good distance off so we didn't get a whole lot of footage on the iFlip so you will all just have to wait until we get home to see the hippos and the leopard, and the herd of elephants..  But I did get some good close ups of some elephants.

Sorry, the elephant video won't upload for some reason.  Better luck next time.

Lake Nakuru

I'm not sure if ya'll know this but Will is back home now.  He had a meeting he had to attend to so he flew back home on Saturday.  Before he went back, we took a trip to Lake Nakuru.  The two main things Lake Nakuru is knows for is the thousands and Flamingos and the great Rhino population (both black and white rhinos).  

So we left Friday for Lake Nakuru with me driving.  Will doesn't like to drive and I really do.  So on the way there I got pulled over by the Kenyan Police.  Now, they don't have cars, they just have this metal spike strips they put in the road to slow you down and then they choose randomly who they are going to pull over.  Being 4 Mazungus (White Europeans) in a Nice Toyota, we were prime candidates for the ole shakedown.  According to the Policeman, I was doing 111 in a 100 zone.  For the mothers out there, that is Kilometers per Hr, not Miles.  I asked him how he knew how fast I was going when they were sitting still at the road block.  He said he had a radar gun just up the road.  Knowing good and well, they don't have a radar gun up the road.  My ticket, was written on a nice piece of torn paper from a notebook.  It just said 111 Red Pajero (which is our type of car).  So, I just stood there telling him No.  I wasn't paying him.  No, I wasn't speeding.  No, I'm not paying you. Until after about 10 minutes his superior just said to let me leave.   So I took my license back.  And left.

The first of a couple of videos on this blog is gonna be the flamingos.  Not the greatest video ever, we have some with the good video camera that won't upload.  Anyway, hopefully this video gets across the flamingo after flamingo after flamingo filled lake.....

This next video is a little montage.  It starts with Will and his "friend" Kim (I don't think they have defined their relationship just yet, but we like her).  Moves on to to a very touristy Masai dance they do for the guests at the Lodge.  And last but not least, Kim's first driving experience, punctuated by Will's dirty mouth.

One last video for you.  Just a nice close up (they are hard to get with the iFlip camera we use to record these lovely videos) of an Impala, the lake from the "Out of Africa" viewpoint, and some Rhinos having an afternoon nap.

That's it for me.  Kim is going to do a blog about our days in the Masai Mara (which is the Kenyan side of the Serengeti)......

Kitchen Roof Video

I am just gonna post a little video of Me and Will working on the roof.  Kim was only there one day so we don't have a picture of the finished product but I thought ya'll would be interested to see what a kitchen looks like in Africa......

Stolen Power

Today you will get many blogs from the past few days.   Starting with the fact that somebody stole the power lines outside Will's house.  So no internet, no power, no nothing.  So the next few blogs should catch everyone up to date on what has been happening with us. 

Making Plans

Today is our plan day.  We know we are going to Nakuru tommorrow and coming home Saturday. We know we want to go to the Masai Mara Sunday and stay till probably tuesday, maybe Wednesday.  After that.................  So we are gonna start working on plans after lunch.  They are pretty much wide open.  Just have decide what we are in the mood for.  I'll keep editing this post as we start to figure it out.

Building the Kitchen

What started out as just putting a roof on the kitchen, has become much more.  We started with taking apart the old flat roof and had to even up the back walls so that we could put back on our rafters.  The main purpose for this was to allow smoke to leave the kitchen.  As it was to begin with, the ladies cooking just had to stay in a kitchen that was too hot and too smokey.  While we are putting up the rafters, they start taking down the outside tin which is the walls.  Then they start taking down the support structure of the wall.  All while we are standing on them.   Anyway, we got the rafters up and were going to do the tin today, but when we got there Patrick and David (the two African guys that Will works with) had already started.  And since it was really only enough space and work for two, we have decided to go to a High School Rugby game and then get dinner.  The Kitchen will get completed today, just not by us.  Oh well.  

We have planned to go to Lake Nakuru this Friday with Will and his new woman Kim.  Yes, another Kim.  So we should have some more to write after that happens.  Oh, and one word of warning............. Once we start traveling around more, there will be fewer posts due to less chances to have internet access.  But that won't be until Sunday.   

Attack of the Giant Flying Termites

Ok so here is the story...... Last night Steven and Will left to drive Joe ( Will's roomate) to the airport. I decided to stay at the house and watch some tv. Well its pouring rain outside and I am watching Supernatural which was kinda spooky. I had the inside den lights on as well as the tv. So here I am watching tv and I start to hear this buzzing noise, of course I think its the tv. So I ignore it for about ten minutes and then i realize its much louder. So I mute the tv and the buzzing is still there. I look up and there are about 40 HUGE FLYING TERMITES. I mean they are about the size of a normal persons hand and they are flying above my head. So I start looking around trying to find out where they are coming in the house. I find this window that has the smallest crank and these things are fighting their way in because they are atracted to the light. I tried to get to close but i couldn't so I start running around turning off lights and evacuate to our room where I shut the door with no intention of opening it until the boys have come home to fix the bug problem. Well, come to find out, this is a normal thing around here when it rains, though no one thought to tell me about it. So when Will's other roomate Adrian gets home and I come running out of the room saying "Don't turn on the lights the bugs are invading," he thinks I am a nut. Anyway all is well that ends well and now I know to turn off the lights when it rains at night.

Kim's First Safari

Yesterday was Kim's first Safari. We were gonna rent a car, did actually, but when we got to the Rental Car place, there was no car. So we tried elsewhere but to no avail. So Will graciously let us use their's. We went to Nairobi National Park. Just a small game park near the airport of all places, but they do have Giraffe, Wildebeast, Warthog (Pumba's to Kim) and many other animals. It was nice driving on the left side of the road again. I forget how much I like driving in countries with only a few rules if any. We will be borrowing Will's car for the remainder of the trip after he heads home. So that will be a big money saver. I'll let Kim describe the Safari better since it is her first........


Well its alot like mud bogging, except you get to see really cool animals :) One minute you are driving along, the next you have a family of zebras hanging out right by the side of the road. I was most excited to see the girraffs since that is all i have been talking about for the last week. The family of Pumba's was really cute, we tried to get a picture of them running away with their tails in the air but they were a little to fast. We didn't get to see any lions but the baby baboons made up for it they were really cute. We had a wonderful time and steven tells me that the reserve we went on is one of the smallest so i am really looking forward to some of the bigger ones.

The Orphanage

I have learned how to mix movies together!!! So this is just a video of the orphanage Will helps out with. The man who runs it is Patrick. We met him on Friday. We are about to go to the Nairobi National Park so that Kim can see some Giraffe and other animals. So here is the video and maybe tonights entry will have wildlife!!!!!

Early Sunday

It is 6:30 and I am already up. Might be because I couldn't stay awake past 9:30. Jet lag can be rough. Kim is still sleeping so I thought I would give ya'll a little update on what we did yesterday. We went to the Kibara Slums. The are just outside of Nairobi and over 1,000,000 people live in just a few square kilometers. Apparently it was also the set for "The Constant Gardner." I know you see these type things on TV, but until you stand in one it's hard to get the real image. We didn't stay very long because it starts to feel like you are taking a tour of poverty and you don't want the people (at least the adults) to feel like a sideshow. And you can't take many photos because its impolite to take a photo of someone without their permission.



The video is from a school that is in Kibara. It's a primary school, which gets kids up to our equivalent of 8th grade. Right now Will and Joe are working on getting a secondary school started that will take the kids all the way through graduation.

An Evening Like Home

Last night was a very non African evening. We just hung out at the house. Made some pizza. Drank some wine. And played some Ping Pong. We had a good time though. Not sure what is in store for today. Will and Joe (Will's roommate) don't normally have much to do on the weekends. Kim wants a lazy day of watching "How I Met Your Mother" and I am perfectly good with that. Will is making pancakes and chicken sausage for breakfast. His friends (and now ours) are still here from last night.

We are trying to decide what to do for the weekend. There is a park in Nairobi we may go to tommorrow. Kim is desperate to see some animals. And I wouldn't mind myself. Get out and do a little something other than be around the house.

Monday we plan on beginning our construction projects at the LCC and at their day school they have. Assuming we can buy lumber. We stopped at the lumber yard on Friday and they didn't have any wood. Supposedly they will have some on Monday. If not we might not get anything done. The sad thing is the nicest hardware store was in the grocery store. We went to 4 different hardward stores looking for a skill saw and only found 2. The first was $450 bucks so that was a no. The second was $130 from the grocery store so we decided to buy it. I just can't make myself do construction with a handsaw. Spoiled I guess. The three projects we have are to put a new roof on a kitchen, build a chicken coop, and build a rabbit pen. I think we can get them all done.

Ok its my turn now. For those of you who might be confussed, this is Kimmie talking!!!!! This place is really amazing. One moment you are in the slums and the next you are looking through hills and valleys that you only see in the movies. I am loving the food, so far its mostly vegetables. We have had meat with most of our meals although Will tells me they don't usually eat a whole lot of meat. At first I thought Steven would starve but he is being a good sport and eating all his vegetables. This morning everyone one is just kind of laying around talking while Will cooks breakfeast. Hopefully we will get to see some animals soon so I can post some cool videos. I am having so much fun driving Steven crazy with my camera :) I promised my sister I would let Steven film some so I would actually be in the video so I apologize now for future clips starring me :)

Our First Visit to the Orphanage

This post was meant for yesterday, but didn't get done because the blog wouldn't let me upload the video.

We drove to the LCC (Limuru Children's Center) today. Really neat place to see. The Kids are on Holiday this month (Easter Holiday) so there were only 23 of the normal 38 children. The other children have gone to visit with their relatives. Tommorrow we are gonna go back and get to work renovating the kitchen. Right now there is only the stoves (not the same as our idea of stove) and no real way for the smoke to leave the room. Plus the sink is outside and away from the kitchen area. Hopefully we will be able to help.

Blog Migration

Sorry everybody. The other blog just wasn't working right. Videos were hard to upload and there were other issues. So this will be the new blog (assuming all works well). Everyone who was subscribed to the previous blog should be subscribed to this one. If you don't get e-mails soon, please let me know.