panoramic shots

You want it, we got it:


This is the view from the front lawn of where I'm staying.


This is my Dad outside where we were staying for the week he was here.


This is an action shot of my dad teaching business, most likely.


The valley below, rain in the distance.


A tea farm between Nairobi and Kijabe, makes me wonder how my tea plant is doing in the Ohio winter, which is quickly becoming spring!

Latest photos of Orion

This photo was taken at the Alan G. Files Observatory at Kijabe, in Kenya.

Okay, wait, if we were one of Europe's greatest leaders, and we were stranded in Nairobi for one day, where would we go?

This weekend I had no plans, and was thinking about laying around all day, but instead, I caught a ride to Village Market in Nairobi. It's a big, super nice mall on the nice side of town, and here's how my day went:

I caught a ride into town from the people I'm staying with, the Janders, who are great, gracious people. I got to the mall a little early, so I stopped off at a cafe for breakfast and some reading.

And then I walked around village market. It's beautiful, and there's a waterfall flowing through the center of it. (the following panoramic shots are dedicated to my brother Ryan and my friend Carl, who can't get enough of it)

But I could only walk around the mall so long before I got bored. Luckily, the mall also has a water park!!

The water park has pretty much no rules, I only saw one sign that said "no standing up on the slides". It was great. You could go down the sides backwards or forwards or spinning around on your back the whole way. I also ran into another family from a sister hospital of Kijabe (the one I'm working at) so I had some friends to race down slides with. (Sure, my "friends" were a 5 year old and his 7 year old brother, but deep down, everyone riding on a waterslide is between 5 and 7 at heart.)

After about 4 hours of watersliding, I went back to the food court to get something to eat. I ordered some Thai bean curd. It was delicious, and it was spicy. One of the best things about Africa is that when you say you want something spicy, you actually get it spicy.

This is me tearing up, maybe a little too spicy.


And in case you were wondering, yes, those are topiary animals in the background.

What a day.

Eating in Kenya

This blog post is dedicated to my sister Lesley, who was intently wondering what I'm eating here in Africa.

Today I went to the cafeteria (where I usually go for lunch), and ordered my usual: chapati, vegetables, and coke. (Chapati is like flat fried bread, and the vegetables are mainly cabbage and carrots) Well, the vegies weren't ready yet, so I changed my order to chips and samosa (chips are fries, samosa's are meat filled fried things, think triangular hot pocket).

I sat at a table with some Kenyan guys, who were eating a more traditional meal, Matumbo and Ugali. (Matumbo is cow stomach stew, ugali is a thick pile of corn starch and water). I don't usually go for that. Also, I don't usually just eat chips for lunch, oh well.

The cafeteria has a local family of cats that go around the outside seating, trying to get food, there are probably 4 of them. Also, birds are known to swoop in and steal a fry from an unsuspecting luncher, it's hilarious, these birds know no fear.

Also, just so you guys don't get left out, after my first lunch, I went up and ordered the usual (again)! Vegetables with a little beef stew (with potato!) and a chapati rolled up with a fork through it. The total for all the food I got was around 150 Kenya Shillings, which is a little over 2 dollars. which isn't bad for what would normally be 2 meals! (I'm feeling very stuffed after eating it all).

I've also become friends with the kitchen staff while I'm here, and they let me walk through the kitchen and I took this panorama! The kitchen staff is great, they're looking at me like I'm crazy in this picture though.