Hello
Well, let me tell you about our latest cool adventure. Yes, I know many think that most of our life is an adventure. But for us, what many think is unusual and different has become normal. Candlelight, kerosene lanterns, no public utilities are normal. Having people come to the door to sell meat, bread, fruits and more is normal. Buying three month’s supplies at a time is normal.
So what is an adventure for us? Well, let me tell you. Ever since Perry took John fishing in the game park we have wanted to go back and spend a weekend camping, canoeing and fishing. So this year just after Christmas we did just that. We went to the game park north of Kamakwie.
We slept in tents, cooked on a campfire, and just had fun.
One day we went canoeing down the river hoping to see monkeys, birds, and maybe a hippopotamus. Yes, there have been reports of hippos in the river that goes through the game park. That and a small herd of elephants have been sighted. Perry was not too interested in finding elephants. He said they can be pretty unpredictable.
I was not sure hippo sighting would be much better, but we decided to go anyway. It would be a fun activity and sure enough, we saw birds and monkeys, but after an hour and a half no sign of any hippos. Perry decided we should go up the river just a little more until we reached a rock sticking out of the water. Guess what? The rock turned out to be a sunbathing hippo. Perry told us to move the canoes to the opposite bank and sit very quietly from a very safe distance. We watched for a while, and then it disappeared into the water. We waited for what seemed a very long time and then once Perry felt it was safe; we headed in the opposite direction. Which, fortunately, was the direction back to our camp.
After that, we decided that hiking might be a safer activity. But, with three noisy kids, we didn’t see many animals. We mainly saw ant hills and driver ants on the move. You have to be careful around them. They will sneak up on you and a bunch will crawl up on you and then on cue all of them will bite you at the same time. Fortunately, only Perry has had that experience and only once while helping the student brush the farm for planting. He said it was pretty wild. The only way to get rid of them is strip down and pull them off one by one. Afterwards he said everyone started laughing, including him. I can just see him now jumping up and down trying to find the ants to pull them off.
We stayed a couple days and then headed home. It was a great time and we hope we can go again. Oh, and we did catch a few fish to enjoy. So all in all it was a great adventure.
Now we are home and getting ready for the next work team, which is coming to finish the new library building and maybe help pour the floor for the next dorm. And life has returned to our normal.
Thanks for letting me share a little of our life.
Nancy