Pictures From Mt Elgon National Preserve near Kitale, Kenya

 So far this is our favorite Kenya animal, Dick was looking out over the valley with his binoculars and sure enough spotted these giraffes about a mile away in the acacia trees.  We jumped in the truck to get a closer view.  E/S Beecher, were with us and with Dick doing his magic, he called them in closer to us - they were quite curious who was making all the "barking" noises.  It was thrilling to say the least!   There were 3 adults and one teenager-type, beautiful patterned skin.  If you look close in the picture below you will see one in the bushes right behind us - we were only 20 yards from all five.  During our visit to Mt Elgon we saw (12) collubus(sp) monkeys, (30) waterbuck, 15 common blue monkeys and some type of pronghorn and lots of baboons.  Of course we love animals - on our return to Nairobi we also saw small herds of zeebra, several pronghorns in the Nukuru area.  The most memorable experiences we had we seeing the very  modest LDS buildings that the branches are held in and visiting the possible springs and well sites where the local villages go 3-4 times a day to fill up their gerry cans of water.  The majority of the mud homes with grass roofs have no electricity, refridgeration, no plumbing.   

 We visited 4 branches, 2 district hospitals that will be used for neo-natal training of nurses/drs/mid-wives and several well sites that LDS Charities have completed + we were able to see the "famous" collapased latrines that will be one of our first projects.  The school has 1,500 students and only one working latrine.  The students are required to be at school for nine hours six days per week.  Unbelievable .... they have no electricity and just benches and tables, the well isn't working and so they have to bring bottled water from home.  After we were out amoug the rural villages - we really had our "eye's" opened to the living conditions and yet the kids seem so happy - it tears at one's heart.  We feel this was a life-changing type of experience.  It is so hard to put into perspective the lifestyle we all are so fortunate and blessed to have - its hard to explain unless you experience the stark differences as we have this week.



The Branch in Nitiri - See our truck!!!

Its getting late so I better close this post, our mission is
starting to change drastically - no more are we just the new kids on the block, its time to get to work and start our own projects.  The workload is very demanding, because the needs are so great.  We do have to work within a budget, manage several types of projects, 1. clean water, 2. food and nutrition, 3. wheelchairs, 4. neo-natal training, 5. Area initiatives projects that we can pick, plus finish up some ongoing projects that were left from other couples.  But it all good - because I promised Dick I wouldn't complain too much. 





Dick with Pres. Odero at a spring in Busia

Yes, we are homesick and miss all of you....we are working hard to become good servants and try to make good decisions as we develop the humanitarian projects.  There are two things we haven't told you about and that's the roads/driving issues and the amount of corruption/fraud/deception issues we face as we try to implement the projects - I'll let Elder Tuttle talk on the next blog.   Bye for now.