Couple’s Conference

What a great several days.

We traveled to Nairobi on Sept. 1st.

We arrived in really good time. The road there is now really good until just outside Nairobi. We thought we could find our way to the mission home but after about a half hour of wandering around we had to make a phone call to get some directions.

We spent all the next day meeting with people about the YSA program and attending their activities. We met with Prince O. for some training. He is really a fire ball. We then went to their planing meeting and watched how they train and brainstorm about the program and how to make it work better.

Then we attended their activity. They played several games and had some relay races.
Then we went to KFC (can you believe it? KFC in Africa) to eat with Elder & Sister Byrd.

Up early the next day to head for Lake Nakuru Park. We stopped to overlook a valley 

We arrived at the park about 10:00 - milled around and talked for a bit. Watched the baboons wandering through the parking lot 

and then entered the park on our way to the Lake Nakuru Lodge. On the way we saw Colobus monkeys, water buffalo, rhino, zebra and all kinds of deer. 

Then at the lodge we registered and went to freshen up at our room.
Note the broom.

Then lunch and out for a drive through the park. We saw all kinds of animals. Then someone called on the phone and said they had spotted lion. We dashed over to see them. What a site. I think there were 3 males and 6 females. There were also some cubs but we could never get a good look at them. It started raining but we decided to stay and watch for a while. Then they all started moving out into the open field. We realized they had spotted some water buffalo and were on the hunt. We were able to watch them chase and kill a water buffalo. 

Watch it here if you want:

http://gallery.mac.com/richryd#101210

That is something I had never dreamed I would see. 

The next day was Sunday. We had church with the sacrament. All were assigned to pick their favorite hymn and talk about it. So each couple would talk about theirs and then we would sing it. What a spiritual meeting. We picked Hesabu Baraka Zako (Count Your Many Blessings). Elder R. lead it. We didn’t sing it in Swahili but it was still very moving. Then we had lunch and out for another drive through the park. 

We went back to see what was left of the buffalo that was killed and there was nothing but bones.

Amazing how it had been completely stripped in just over night.

Then back to the lodge for our evening meeting. Again a great meeting. We had some instructions on PEF and the upcoming “Train the Trainer” program for the Elders. Then we watched one of the African DVD presentations. 

Then we went down to have the entertainment people sing to us. They do that expecting a tip. We sang to them “I Am a Child of God” and they really liked it.

Monday: Up early and checked out. Then tried to go around to the other side of the lake but the spot where a unit got stuck and we almost did was jammed up with two more stuck vehicles so we decided to go around the other way (the way we came in). Then we went past the gate and saw some different country. 

Then headed for Nairobi. 

Sept. 6, 2011

We had planned to go home today but just too many irons in the fire. We followed Tuttles to the mission home. Spent time with Pres. Jadmire training on the MLS system, then met with Pres. Usi about some things for the branch (tables, chairs, white boards, a generator, maybe a copier). Not sure any of that will happen. Then we went shopping some more. Back to the office to pickup the computer system for the branch. 

Up early the next day to go to the mission home with Nevins. Spent time talking with the Neffs about all the stuff they are doing with HIV people, blind and deaf people and training on the YSA program along with some PEF training. They really have some neat programs going.

As soon as our toner that we had Victor get for us showed up we took off for home.

We thought we were doing great to get through the traffic and out of town until we realized we were 2.5 hours down the wrong road. We had gone toward Mombasa. We decided to cut through to the highway to Arusha. We had a really good road for about 60 km then it turned into a bad dirt road. We realized we were going out through the desert to Amboseli Park. 

So we decided the only way to get home was to go through Amboseli and out the other side. We paid $25 to get into the park and asked one of the guides how to get out the other side. He said it would take about 40 minutes and to just go straight ahead. We started down the road and came on an elephant herd, 

then the road came to a T. We decided to try the road to the right. Not sure they should be called roads. Anyway after seeing wildebeests, ostrich and giraffe 

we got to the other gate. Then the road got better (if you can call dirt, pot holes, washboard and washouts better). We drove as fast as we dared (about 80 km/h) and almost lost it several times. After about 3.5 hours we came to the border town of Namanga. We made it through the border (by the grace of a good agent there that knew Pres. & Sister Taylor (the previous mission pres.) and let us go without our required declaration papers that we were supposed to have filled out going in). We then headed for Arusha. We got close to town about 6:00 PM. On the way in a “piki piki” driver pulled from the side of the road right in front of us. Elder R. swerved as best he could but we still hit him. Tore off the left front of our truck 

and sent the “piki piki” sliding across the road. 

Elder R. jumped out to see if he was still alive and amazingly he did not even have any broken bones. We loaded him into the truck to take him to the hospital. A driver behind us saw the whole thing and came with us to the hospital. We thought we should go to the Lutheran Hospital in town but they said no we needed to go to another one. We found out it is the old original Lutheran hospital. After wandering around back through the terrible roads they have here and saying, “are you sure there is a hospital out here?”, we found it. They checked him over and we left for the police station. We later found out he was okay. We filled out all the police reports and went through the crazy system. The police station was back off the road and there was no power that night so everything was done by lantern light. They wanted to keep the truck. We said, “NO WAY!”. We came back the next day with John M. a good member and attorney from Dar who just happened to be in town, and worked out all the details. We feel we have had more than our share of accidents. We plan on going for the rest of our mission without any more!!!

By the way, if you ever want to see an enlargement of a photo just click on it.