Sunday night I returned from my eighth trip to Kenya, Africa. Hard to believe that my first trip was exactly twenty years ago. At the time, I thought I was too old to go on such a trip, and I certainly never imagined that I would return. Yet, there I was continuing to book those plane reservations, talk someone into going with me, and make plans for while we were there.
As usual, it will take me a few more days to finish processing this trip, properly journaling, and sorting through over one thousand pictures. Regarding the pictures, it doesn’t help that five us went on this trip and we are all sharing photos – as if I needed to weed through more of them.
So, I won’t try to tally all the pictures from all those trips, but here are the rest of the numbers.
Total number of different people I’ve gone to Kenya with: 20. The only reason that number is so high is that the first time I went it was with a mission team of 15 of us. So thankful I had nothing to do with the logistics of planning that group. Most trips it was just me, Val, Nick, or my friend Denise, and a few scattered friends in between.
The five of us from this trip: Me, Nick, Jessica, Denise, and Jackie
Total amount of time I’ve spent in Kenya: 103 days, give or take. Most trips were for two weeks, one a little longer, one a little shorter. And with 24 hours plus in travel there and back, it’s hard to count the days, especially when we arrive and leave usually sometime around midnight.
Total number of modes of transportation taken to get there or while there: Ten. Car, plane, train, city bus, matatu, boat, ferry, tuk-tuk, motorbike, safari van. I think that’s all, I may have forgotten some.
Rides in the safari vans are always ridiculous; they call the jarring and bumping received on the ride a Maasai massage. But I’m going with the boat ride on Lake Naivasha as the most interesting transportation on this trip.
Number of times I’ve been on safari: Five. Only twice prior to this trip, where we were able to go on safari three times. Which also increased the number of game parks I’ve been to from one (Maasai Mara) up to three (adding Amboseli and Nairobi).
.JPG) |
| Amboseli had the most birds. |
Number
of various places I have slept: Thirteen. Three different volunteer houses, five
different safari camp lodgings, one private residence, one hostel, one Airbnb,
two different tent camps. I think that’s right, but not for sure. Sometimes I didn’t
know where I would wake up.
.jpg) |
| The chalet at Riverine safari camp outside of Amboseli Game Park might be my favorite from this trip. |
Anything else? For numbers, this was one of the more expensive trips. First because we booked our flights shortly after the US went to war with Iran. And second, because we did three game drives.
Oh, and I should include the number of days of volunteer work. That’s always a tough one. Every trip is different. On this one, we were on the ground, in the trenches, actually laboring for free, one full day and two half days. But there were also the hours here and there, where maybe we weren’t working but were still contributing. I don’t think this should be a number to obsess about. The littlest thing we do, anywhere on this planet, could be God’s work, and those moments can never be accurately added.
.JPG) |
| The calm before the storm at the school we worked at. Once the kids were released for recess this quiet courtyard was no longer so quiet. |
 |
| There is a great story I'll share later on about the bottled water plant, but here we are marking labels for the bottles. |
 |
| Trying not to be overwhelmed by all the filled bottles that needed to be labeled and packaged. |
