MASAI MARA

Sunrise on the beautiful Masai Mara in Kenya.  We went on
a safari with Megan and Taylor last week while they were
visiting.

We flew in a 12 person plane and as we landed on the dirt
road the huge herd of zebra scattered.  It was breathtaking.

Basil - our friendly warhog - would stop into
camp for a visit every now and then.

This was a very interesting stop because the
leopard is solitary and hard to find.  We
watched him go up and down his tree where he
had stashed a water buffalo in the top of the tree
for a weeks worth of dining pleasure.  You can
see a couple of the water buffalo's feet at the
top of the picture.



The Mara River ran right in front of our tent
(with a steep bank between us)
and we watched many hippos playing in the
water and crocodiles sunning on the bank of the river. 
 We learned that more than one hippo is
called a raft of hippos. 



We enjoyed watching this mother lion with her four cubs who
were climbing all over her, each other, and the tree.  Such a
fun find.

I'll bet you didn't know that a group of giraffes
is called a journey of giraffes.



Cheetah - I think it is one of the most beautiful animals



We spent one day visiting a Masai village.  The men danced for
us and then they took us on a tour of their village.



There were 12 homes built around this circular holding pen
where they would keep their herds of cattle and goats at night
to protect them from the leopard, lion, cheetah etc.  This center
area was filled with dung which comes in handy because they
use it to build their homes.  The wall between the homes is built
with prickly tree branches to keep the leopards out.




This is one of the homes built from trees and dung.




Even their tables were built from trees and covered with dung.
The women would make crafts and sell them to the visitors.




The leader of the village sitting in the entry of
his home. 



MEGAN AND TAYLOR'S VISIT



Our daughter, Megan, and her husband, Taylor, were able to
visit us for 3 weeks.  One of the fun things we did was to hand
out these wonderful crochetted yarn flowers which were made
by Laura Nordquist.  These are two of our sister missionaries
sporting their new hair bows.  Thank you Laura!!!!




Can you pick out Megan and Taylor in my english class? 
Hmmm - difficult.  They helped us teach our bi-weekly class
and my students were crazy about them.  Greg teaches the
advanced class down the hall.



Two of my young english students decided to stay after class
and do Megan's hair in corn braids. 

Another thing Megan and Taylor helped us with was working
with the new missionary singing group.  Our president just
recently called 9 missionaries to form a singing group and to
represent our church through music.  Megan and Taylor worked
with them a couple of times each week to help them get started.
We heard them perform and the end result was very impressive.

EASTER



I thought this moth was gorgeous and it was huge - about 3 inches





As I explained in my letter, this is a group of women standing
in line by the Catholic church to worship for Easter.





The same group of women standing in a long, long, slow line.
They are waiting to get into the Catholic church.  They do this on
the Thursday before Easter.

 


Our new mission office




New mission office




Our new mission couple, the Evansons, in front of the new mission
home.  The new mission home is right next to the mission office.



Elder Bahou and Elder Elenge (our AP's) in our new office.



Sister Packer and Sister Moore in the new mission home.




The new mission home kitchen - a work in progress.  It was supposed
to be completed a month ago but this is Africa.



KAKANDA PETITIONS TO BECOME A BRANCH

A few weeks ago in my letter I told you about a small town by
the name of Kakanda that has a small group of people (50) who
have been meeting as a group and they want to become an
official branch of the church.  We went with our president and
his wife to visit this "group" and see if they could qualify to become
a branch.   This is where the meeting was held - the small 2 room home
of one of the people.  They move their meager belongings into the
second room each week for church.  This week it was so crowded
there were people sitting outside for the meeting. 



I took this picture just before the meeting.  Often the kids sit
together, the men sit together, and the women sit with the small
children.  Sometimes we see families sitting together in the
more progressive areas.



So much for that "starving children in Africa"
thought.

Notice the little guy on the right with his camouflage shorts, his
huge vest and his colorful tie.  So many of their clothes come
straight from American thrift stores.  They do a fabulous job of
always looking spotlessly clean when they attend church or go
shopping.  Even their shoes are clean and this is red dirt like in
Moab.

This is the river where the first baptisms took place.

An unexpected baptism - oops.  A couple weeks later we drove by
this same spot and the truck was still there but the cab was
totally submerged.  It looks like this will be its final resting spot for
many years to come.



A typical village.  We passed lots of these little villages on our
3 hour drive to Kakanda.




This is the home where we held the church meeting with the
"group."  First they get official permission to meet as a group
and teach and pass the sacrament and then as they grow they
get permission to become a branch and become part of a district.




Who is this handsome guy and what is he doing
in the bushes?



WOMEN'S CONFERENCE

These pictures were taken last week at women's conference -
Relief Society birthday celebration.  They know how to
celebrate!  Their celebration was 5 hours long.  Each of the
10 wards presented a skit, a dance, and a poem.  Plus they had
a spiritual program and a dinner.  What fun.  See the lady second
from the left?  Remind me to tell you a story about her.  She is
in my english class and I adore her.

Before the meeting started we watched people
braiding each other's hair and sitting around chatting.