Kenya! Uganda! Rwanda!

After leaving the girls to the girl stuff, Brett and I went on a Safari!!!....Ok, well, maybe not a safari. It turns out that even in Africa they have caged animals. The Impala above and the Vervet Monkeys below were in a park in Kisumu, Kenya. They were quite friendly. They also had a lion, a hyena, an ostrich, some baboons, and a few other token animals caged up for city folk to gawk at. Not my idea of a nice place...

Brett and I departed the Impala Park and headed straight to El Doret, Kenya to meet up with the Gafners. Keith Gafner has been in El Doret since 1989 and has been doing agriculture development for most of his time there. We picked his brain for a few days and enjoyed time with his wife Grace and his two daughters. Below is a picture of some Rosemary that is growing outside a window of their house. It is huge!

Upon departing El Doret we hi-tailed it to Jinja, Uganda, the source of the Nile. The girls joined is the next day and the fun wouldn't stop! We stayed with Bobby and Candice Garner, and learned about the work in Jinja. They are on a team that is the second wave of missionaries to work with the Church of Christ there. Much of the work is focused on The Source Cafe and its many resources. The Source is a coffee shop with a library, internet cafe, and gift shop attached. It is absolutely amazing and is a great resource for the people of Jinja. Also Bobby is involved with a reforestation project called The Mvule Project. They are assisting villages in planting Mvule trees using a grant system in which the village receives donations based upon their contribution to the work. It really is an amazing work! Check out there website at the link above.

No trip to Jinja would be complete without a trip to the source of the Nile! We spent time at Bujugati Falls just downstream from the beginning of the river. Also we visited a village nearby where Bobby is using some land to design some agriculture techniques that might help people nearby use the land better. The boy below lives in the village nearby. Playing with tires is so fun!!

One of Bobby's goats.

Brett and I at the falls.

We took a boat ride to the source and got to experience the water wildlife. We saw all kinds of birds, some monkeys, and a monitor lizard or two. 

To the left of us is the Nile River, to the right is Lake Victoria!

At the end of the ride, I took a second to photograph a flower we saw a good bit in Jinja. 

Then low and behold I found a Chameleon in the grass. He was getting a little riled up when I snapped this photo. You can tell by the red stripes on his back. And all this time I thought chameleons lived only on television!

We left Jinja and journeyed on to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. For some strange reason I seem to have no digital memory of that city. Just picture cars, cars and more cars and you get the idea. We left Kampala after a few days and arrived in Mbarara, a town that would be our resting between Kampala and Kigali, Rwanda. There we stayed with the Glisson family. It turnes out that Scott Glisson was friends with Duane Dixon, my good friend, when they were at Freed together. We had fun with there many kids, and got up early the next day to leave for Kigali. 

There is more to Kigali than just birds, but I guess as our journey came to a close, photography lost ground to sleep and driving. Sorry moms! Holly found this African Crane wandering around the pool where we spent our last day in Kigali.

It was two and a half weeks around Lake Victoria, but after a twelve hour drive yesterday, we arrived safely back in Mwanza. We will be leaving Saturday to trek to Iringa and begin language school! Keep us in your prayers as you are in ours.

Carson