On Tuesday after Jake’s Greek Final, me, Jake, Asante, and our friends Christi, David, and Christine all hoped in Christi’s car and headed to Amboselli, which is a game park right on the Kenya/Tanzania border. A 3-4 hour trip turned into 6 hours on the way down there. An petroleum truck had gone off the road at one point, so we had to wait while a big crane pulled it out, stopping the traffic for about an hour or hour and a half. Then, the roads were just bad, so we drove slower than someone who always drives in Kenya would.
We got to the park about an hour before check-in for our campsite, so we had to book it to the actual campsite. We got there with 8 minutes to spare, which meant we ended up putting up our tent in the dark, but 2 Masaii guys helped us, which was very kind of them. We made a fire, ate some pb&j sandwiches, talked awhile, and then went to bed.
This was one of the craziest times of the trip for me, lol. Because I’m 21 weeks pregnant, tent/floor sleeping isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. I woke up A LOT and had a ton of trouble falling asleep. So I got to hear all the nighttime sounds, which FREAKED me out. At one point I heard a warthog and I somehow convinced myself it was going to come rush the tent, lol. Silly what your mind will do in the middle of the night. We all woke up safe and sound (and with no mosquito bites!) around 6:00a and headed on a morning game drive.
We headed up Observation Hill that overlooked much of the park and the swampy areas, looking for wild animals. It was great to see the sun rising, eating oranges and banana bread, seeing wild animals grazing around, with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. Some of our highlights from the morning included seeing over 100 elephants, tons of other animals like zebras, giraffes, wildebeasts, warthogs, baboons, gazelle, and ostriches, and finding a zebra carcass (which the boys decided would be a good addition to our trunk, which smelt horrible).
After a few hours of going around the park in the car, we went to Amboselli Lodge (which is really nice), went back to the campground to pack up the tent, and then headed back to Nairobi around noon. Again, what was supposed to be a 3-4 hour trip ended up about 6-7 hours! We took a wrong turn somewhere, and ended up on the opposite side of Nairobi, which put us going through the city during rush hour. Yikes!
It was so fun to see all of that and get out of the city for awhile. I realized that once we got out, it looked more like my expectation of Africa- acacia trees, animals in the wild, 4-foot-high ant hills (okay, so I didn’t expect to see those in Africa).
Anyway, it was a fun adventure and the camping part pushed my comfort zone for sure, just being 4 ½ months pregnant and bringing a one-year-old was sure to be a challenge, and it was, but well worth it.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Asante's First Birthday
Can you believe that Asante is a one-year-old already?! This year has flown by. I still have his picture of when he was first born on my laptop… I can’t believe how much he’s grown, and how his personality reveals itself more and more everyday.
For this birthday, I was sadly gone from 7a-6p, but when I got home, we ate a quick dinner and then had a few other American families over (and their kids) for some cake and opening of cards/gifts. It was a good time of celebration, and Asante LOVED having 6 other kids and 2 babies to celebrate with him. Before everyone came he was being really cranky and I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a good party, but as soon as people started showing up, he turned into all smiles and began to ham it up. Sigh. How did we raise such an extrovert?! I think it’s all you college students’ fault ☺.
Anyway, he loved it. At first he daintly picked at his cake, nicely putting it in his mouth. Then, he got a little more brave and dug in a little more. Then, maybe realizing that we had no limits on him, dug his face into it! By the end, he had it all over his ENTIRE body, as well as jake’s clothes (on whose lap he was sitting). It was great. And like his momma, he made sure to eat all the icing, but not the cake.
The kids were really sweet. They made him cards and one family even brought him a gift! One of the girls even gave him a puppet show. I had thought about doing a big birthday party, but since asante is just one, and I didn’t have a lot of time to put things together, I knew I couldn’t do the “NEGST birthday”… which consists off ALL the kids (about 60 or 70, I think), coming to your house with their own plate and cup, and you serve everyone snacks and juice and stuff. Whew! That would have been too overwhelming for me at this point.
In addition to birthday celebrations, Asante has been really improving on his walking! He took his first steps 2 weeks ago on Jake’s birthday, and now he’s walking around like crazy. He still crawls, and he still falls, but he pretty much always tries to walk first. I’m proud of him! It’s crazy that although almost every human being goes through this, a parent can be so proud ☺.
Leadership Summit
I am SO thankful for getting the opportunity to attend Global Leadership Summit 2008 here in Nairobi. This was my first big adventure out on my own away from our area, so that was exciting too. I decided to take a taxi each way, just so I wouldn’t get lost and I’d be on time. We have this guy named Karanja that has been our sole taxi driver while we’ve been here, so I asked him to take me back and forth these past 2 days. This is cool in itself because I think he’s the only non-christian that I’ve met in Nairobi. So its’ been good to get a different perspective on life here in Nairobi, as well as being able to build a relationship with him.
Anyway, it was good experience..basically the same speakers that ya’ll had who went in the U.S. in August… the cool thing was that bill hybels was here in person! He did a good job of speaking in a way that Africans could connect to—using different words and ways of explaining things than he would have in the states. Surprisingly bill was a bit more revealing on his political leanings (probably thinking that the government cannot change the world, only the local church can, be he’s definitely excited that barak won the election).
The vice-president of Kenya also made an appearance on the first day of the conference, which was particularly exciting for me, as a westerner who has never met him.
International justice Mission has an office here in Kenya, so one of the guys that actually was rescued from prison by IJM now works here, and I got to meet him! He actually lives near us, and he is a pastor at the Methodist church right down the road (at least that’s what I can gather). For those of you who went, I think he was the guy that Gary Haughn profiled in his talk from Kenya.
The worship through music was also really cool the second day. Everyone was really getting into it—I’ve found that when we sing praises in Swahili, everyone gets super excited and dances around. Some of the guys in front of me, probably in their 30s, were doing the robot and twist and a bunch of 70s dance moves. It was so refreshing and exciting! No matter how old or young, people were dancing, singing praises to God out of a joyful heart. Surprisingly that doesn’t always happen here—it doesn’t always look like that, many times it looks like it would in the U.S., but once you start singing in Swahili, watch out—they come alive!
Anyway, I’m thankful to jake for making some serious time sacrifices (especially this week as the term is coming to a close and everything is compiling paper-wise), and making it possible for me to go.
For those of you who went in the states, was there anything specific that God impressed on you at the summit?
Anyway, it was good experience..basically the same speakers that ya’ll had who went in the U.S. in August… the cool thing was that bill hybels was here in person! He did a good job of speaking in a way that Africans could connect to—using different words and ways of explaining things than he would have in the states. Surprisingly bill was a bit more revealing on his political leanings (probably thinking that the government cannot change the world, only the local church can, be he’s definitely excited that barak won the election).
The vice-president of Kenya also made an appearance on the first day of the conference, which was particularly exciting for me, as a westerner who has never met him.
International justice Mission has an office here in Kenya, so one of the guys that actually was rescued from prison by IJM now works here, and I got to meet him! He actually lives near us, and he is a pastor at the Methodist church right down the road (at least that’s what I can gather). For those of you who went, I think he was the guy that Gary Haughn profiled in his talk from Kenya.
The worship through music was also really cool the second day. Everyone was really getting into it—I’ve found that when we sing praises in Swahili, everyone gets super excited and dances around. Some of the guys in front of me, probably in their 30s, were doing the robot and twist and a bunch of 70s dance moves. It was so refreshing and exciting! No matter how old or young, people were dancing, singing praises to God out of a joyful heart. Surprisingly that doesn’t always happen here—it doesn’t always look like that, many times it looks like it would in the U.S., but once you start singing in Swahili, watch out—they come alive!
Anyway, I’m thankful to jake for making some serious time sacrifices (especially this week as the term is coming to a close and everything is compiling paper-wise), and making it possible for me to go.
For those of you who went in the states, was there anything specific that God impressed on you at the summit?
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Baby Malloy...
Sooooo.... the news that some have been waiting for....
it looks like we'll be introducing Alethia Amani Malloy to the world around April 8th!
We've already gotten some adorable pink and purple outfits from some friend here who have been having girls. Everything from the ultrasound looks great...looks like everything is forming quite nicely. We're really excited!!!
it looks like we'll be introducing Alethia Amani Malloy to the world around April 8th!
We've already gotten some adorable pink and purple outfits from some friend here who have been having girls. Everything from the ultrasound looks great...looks like everything is forming quite nicely. We're really excited!!!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Barak Craze in Kenya
So, I’m sure that back in the states there’s a lot of hype about Barak becoming our next president. And sadly we’re missing out on that, right? (lol) Wrong. Kenya is SUPER excited about the election results.
Wednesday morning (Tuesday night your time), I went to Karen with a friend of mine for her daughter’s 2 month check-up, and the first thing I heard in the doctor’s office was, “Did you hear that we have a kenyan running America?” (a guy who was delivering some stuff said to the receptionist). LOL. Interesting.
Then, at the post office, guys were yelling, “Obama!” everytime a new person walked up. Lots of people had Barak t-shirts on, and the newspaper stands were advertising their papers with, “Learn about Our Son’s victory in America.” Oh dear.
BUT, I shouldn’t complain, because today is a public holiday due to Barak’s victory! The President made the announcement yesterday. No school today (Thursday). Thank you America for the day off of classes. Jake is enjoying this day with some extra study time (and family time, of course).
So, just thought you’d enjoy that little bit of information.
Wednesday morning (Tuesday night your time), I went to Karen with a friend of mine for her daughter’s 2 month check-up, and the first thing I heard in the doctor’s office was, “Did you hear that we have a kenyan running America?” (a guy who was delivering some stuff said to the receptionist). LOL. Interesting.
Then, at the post office, guys were yelling, “Obama!” everytime a new person walked up. Lots of people had Barak t-shirts on, and the newspaper stands were advertising their papers with, “Learn about Our Son’s victory in America.” Oh dear.
BUT, I shouldn’t complain, because today is a public holiday due to Barak’s victory! The President made the announcement yesterday. No school today (Thursday). Thank you America for the day off of classes. Jake is enjoying this day with some extra study time (and family time, of course).
So, just thought you’d enjoy that little bit of information.
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