Eastern pale Chanting Goshawk
Golden Pipit... it wasn't flying when the shutter started down!
African Gray Hornbill
Yellow Billed Stork
Vulturine Guinea Fowl
Yellow Necked Spurfowl. The following birds I don't know. So you get bonus points if you can identify them! Kera did identify them... so here they are.
Laughing dove
Hildebrant's Starling
The goal was to go and carol at the park and then cook the chickens. We also went to visit Fred in the hospital. And the missionaries bought a large box of cookies.. called biscuits here. We bagged them into about 40 bags of 7 cookies... er biscuits each. Here we are singing in Kenyatta Park. There were tons of people making merry at Christmas there. And the missionaries abandoned us to mobs of children when we handed out the biscuits.
We handed out invitations to come to church along with a map of how to get there. People know places, but not necessarily street names. So we are in Milimani area. You go past Kilimani shopping center... you know where that is? Yes. Then past the Xavarian School-- you know that? Yes. Then turn at the Robinson Security place and then we are at the first culdesac. See the X? That is where we are. Will you come to church this Sunday? 
I scheduled dinner at 5pm, but we didn't get home until closer to 4. In went the chickens. The missionaries relaxed and watched "Passage from Zarahemla" and then a storm blew in and the power went off... and back on... and off... and on. And so the chickens took three hours to roast. But the missionaries from the USA didn't mind. They were ecstatic to be on the phone to their families. The power went out completely about 7pm and we ate by candlelight. Tom and I were sad. No power. No Internet. No calling families. But we had visited with Mom, Rebecca, and Adam on Christmas eve.
It rained all night and into the next day. We had 4 baptisms scheduled. Three arrived, and we used the new baptismal font out behind the church. Then after the services were all over, the 4th candidate and his wife arrived. Rain had gotten into their house and cleaning up had slowed them. And his grandmother had died at their tribal home, but they told the family they could not come until after he had been baptized. So the missionaries and Morris and Tom and I gathered and had another baptismal service. And another baptism.
Elder Fox babies his truck. He has it washed regularly. He drives it carefully and slows over speed bumps. I suppose this is Africa. You go along doing well, and then, through no fault of your own, something smacks you down. It was a sad day for Tom.
These are the kind of roads we traveled on... mostly. Sometimes they got narrower with thorn bushes on either side. Our traveling companion drove for the first time with the steering wheel on the right side. She didn't succeed in scraping Tom off, before she figured out how to guide for left hand drive.
You see, the best way to see the animals is up high. So three of us sat on the window edge and the 4th drove.
We saw a wide range of antelope. I think this is an impala.
Here we have impala and a Lesser Kudu-- with the striped body.
These are the smallest of the antelope-- Kirks Dik Diks. Very cute.
We only saw the giraffes at a distance.
At the river was this amazing Hippo and her baby... but we only saw the baby's nose.
These ostriches were enormous!
This baboon and baby were way cute. He about slipped off and climbed back on again.
This is a termite hill the baboons are sitting on... or next to.
This was our first view of an elephant. We were so excited! a big red mound above the brush. as the day progressed we saw lots of droppings and foot prints and eventually more elephants. Apparently there are over 15,000 elephants in Tsavo Parks.
I've been told there are red and gray elephants. I thought maybe the red ones had just rolled more in the red clay dirt..JPG)
It was an amazing and exhausting day. The weather was overcast so the heat was not as intense as it could have been. Two weeks ago, I understand the land was barren and brown. Then the rains came. Things green up quickly! 
Monday we left for “Man Eater Camp.” We stopped along the way to buy wood carvings. This resort is along the Tsavo River where Col Patterson was hired to build a bridge for the railway in the 1880’s. Two man-eating lions were decimating the work crew and he had to dispatch them. Thus the name.
This is me and a woodcarver/seller. Notice the arm and the invitation to purchase some elephant book ends... which we did. Here are pictures of the camp.
The resort was lovely. Tents, but with bathrooms, tile showers, and huge canopied beds. We had meals in an open air pavilion, lounged around the pool. (I didn’t bring a suit, so I just hung my feet into the water.)
Our tent faced the Tsavo River and in the evening we could look out and see monkeys, a monitor lizard, and some baboons. Large lizards visited the reception area. It was wonderful to rest and relax and visit with the other couples. Some are from Mombasa and even Dar El Salam, Tanzinea… even farther from the Mission headquarters than we are. We had a gift exchange and Tom was SO happy with his giraffe!
I heard the primary children singing, “Search, Ponder, and Pray” and they were so sweet, I asked if I could videotape them singing it. The tune varied some from the hymn book, but considering they have no piano, no CD player—just rote learning, they were great! If I can blog it I will. I’ve been wanting you to hear their lovely accents.
These are the words to the song, so you can understand what you hear. I thought I uploaded the first verse. but you actually hear the second one;
Verse one:
I love to read the Holy Scriptures, ‘cause every time I do
I feel the spirit start to grow within my heart, a testimony that it’s true.
Verse two:
So carefully I'll read the scriptures, each day my whole life through.
I'll come to understand, I'll heed the Lord's Commands, and live as he would have me do.
Chorus:
Search, Ponder, and Pray are the things that I must do.
The spirit will guide, and deep inside, I’ll know the scriptures are true."
When Christ came to the Americas and taught the people there, there was an amazing feeling: “And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any men, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.” (Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 17:17)
I began to understand this statement better today. The meetings at Mitini were just so spiritual that there are no words available to communicate the powerful experience. Mitini Branch has only been in existence for 7 months. 
We wound up hills and onto dirt paths to get to the chapel which is a rented school. There is no running water. There is no electricity. No piano. No visual aids. People walk for miles to get there, and yet they were seated and waiting for the service to begin 15 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start. Hundreds crowded into the tiny room. We were knee-to-chair. Small children sat two to a seat. Except for a few babies crying, all 293 people were reverent. Below is a picture of the church. They use both buildings.
We met with the Branch President first, and his prayer brought tears to my eyes. I felt like God was standing there listening to his faith filled petition. He said his goal was to baptize 200 people this year, but he had not met that goal. They were 16 short. They had 13 people baptized the day before and so Sacrament was spent mostly confirming them Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint and conferring the Holy Ghost on them and giving them priesthood blessings. That, plus passing the sacrament, plus a brief comment by “Our guests Elder and Sister Fox” and opening and closing songs and prayers were the meeting. I just spoke briefly on the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments of God. They are blessed in all ways, both spiritually and temporally. This is a photo of the branch President, his wife, some of their children, and a grandchild (the reluctant one in the picture is the granddaughter.)
The Investigators class was taught by a young man preparing to go on a mission. There were nearly 20 people in a 10x10 room. The branch has no full time missionaries. All these people were taught by these young men below, and a sister who just recieved her mission call to the USA.
The Relief Society was a combination of English and the native language—so I didn’t understand much of it, but Christine, one of the newly baptized members translated some. I’d asked her if she would tell me her story and after church I write it down. She’s a widow and her neighbor Elizabeth had introduced her to the church. She and her children had found faith and peace in the church. She had 4 living children. The grandmother was raising the oldest. She lived mostly off the food raised on her Chamba. I asked how she got money for other things—like clothing or sugar. She said, “Like tithing money?” Yes. “I have to contract out.” What do you do? “I dig in other Chambas for 10 to 50 bob a day. And then I have to budget carefully.” That’s 13-65 cents a day! Below, I'm standing with Elizabeth and Christine.
These saints have such faith and simple obedience to what they know to be true. My prayer is that the great faith and obedience of these saints will bring down the blessings of the Lord who owns all the earth and the wealth therein. Saturday there was to be some baptisms at 9am. However the baptismal candidates were slow to show—along with most of the supporters. They were just getting started at 10:45 as we left to drive to Nairobi. First we had to get money from the ATM machine and get gas. Alas, the ATM kept flashing “waiting, waiting” and not giving us money and not giving Tom his card back. Three minutes. Five minutes. Ten minutes. We pressed cancel. We pressed clear… nothing. I went to another machine and got money, but we didn’t want to leave without our ATM card. The guard was very helpful. She let us know it was out of order and had eaten another person’s card. Eventually it spit it out and she kept it for him. We were going to be gone 5 days. No way did we want to leave an unattended ATM card around. We decided to go to the bank and do as Elder Elam suggested: “Go in acting like a wet hen!” Or else it would be unlikely we’d ever see the card again. As we were getting directions to the bank, we were also realizing that it was 11:15 by now. An hour drive to the bank and back plus 6.5 hours to Nairobi would put us there after dark. Ugh! About that time the machine said: Out of order. Then it said: Unauthorized Card! And spit our card out! We gave thanks for our miracle.
The Scriptures say about missionaries: “And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” (D&C 84:88)
This was the first of several times Angels were round about us. Traffic out of Kisumu was heavy. Many Kenyans were going “up country” or to their traditional homes for Christmas. So passing on the two lane roads was more difficult. However, we were run off onto the shoulder of the road by a truck taking his share out of the middle. On a slow spot on the road, oncoming traffic was playing ultimate chicken with a matatu passing a truck passing a truck. So they were three across, taking up the whole road. However this time the shoulder was too steep, and Elder Fox claimed his lane. We ended up both stopped, head to head. The Matatu had to wait until the truck moved past and slide back into traffic, and we continued on our way. Then, we moved to pass a truck only to suddenly see a blue car approaching. Even though we slammed on the brakes, the truck was SO slow, we could not move behind him in time. Fortunately, the blue car had enough room with the paved shoulder and went around us. And lastly, we actually had a passing lane and were using it to pass a logging truck when it decided to move into our lane to pass a slower truck. We were forced into the oncoming traffic lane. We were blessed that there were no oncoming cars at that time and were able to complete our passing. On the plus side, a “diversion” that had been 10Km long, was completed and we made good time there. Well, until the end where it wasn’t quite finished.
Adding to that problem was a truck changing a tire in the left lane. As traffic was diverted around him, we came head to head with a line of trucks waiting to pass him, too. And at this spot, note the road is only one lane wide! Traffic was at a standstill. I love this truck! Tom checked out the embankment. We can do that, he said. So we careened down the side, road onto the gravel track until we passed the problem, and climbed back up onto the road. Dozens of Matatus followed our lead.
This is a new kind of "hitch-hiker' They just hold on the the back of a truck and get pulled along-- usually unbeknownst to the driver.
And finally, we did make good time. We got to Nairobi in less than 6 hours! We felt blessed and truly felt the guardian angels round about us.
We spend the night with Elder and Sister Blake. They came to Kenya only a few weeks before we did. They are assigned to the Kulinga Hills area and we decided to see more of south and west Kenya and go with them to Church on Sunday. So we got up and out the door by 6:30 am. We drove toward Mombasa and then turned off on a smaller paved road. We went up into the mountains where all the Chambas (farms) are terraced. It was a beautiful drive. Along the way we saw giraffes, Thompson’s Gazelles, camels, and zebras.
We saw Masaai men guarding their cattle. Elder Blake had no problem off-roading on the diversions, and up the dirt treks. It’s amazing what a truck can do. We had a fantastic time visiting up and back about how their branch was doing, how they were teaching English Classes and piano lessons, and investigator discussions and how the members were teaching in between times they could visit. Blakes have 4 branches (churches) they are responsible to support. They are amazing!
Oops, no, not there. How about here? Or over there? We finally got it on a mostly level spot, near water, with the drain pointing down hill. The rest of the furnishings were equally time consuming, just less heavy. Here is the truck that brought 25o chairs, podium, desks, black boards, etc.
Alas, all the chairs were dusty and needed to be washed.
Then carried up two flights of steps.
It took until 6pm to get it all done. The missionaries and some members pitched in. In the middle of it, some members came for piano lessons. And some of them I just said, "Here are the pages. Practice this."