4-26-2014 A very short night and a very nice day

Between a little after 1am and 6am I got probably 3 hours of pretty sound sleep.  I was able to finally post to this blog by connecting my phone to my laptop and copying a Word file to the phone, after which I copied and pasted the necessary text into the blog.  While my laptop has never been able to connect to the web here, my phone has had no problem.  Go figure.  I’m hoping the upgraded Internet service they were working on at Rosa Mystica the last time we were there is in place when we transfer to there tomorrow.  If it is better there, I hope to be able to post a few pictures prior to our return.  As usual, I expect to have about 300 of our best pictures out on the blog within a week or two of the trip for you and the team members to enjoy.  I breakfasted at 6:30 with the group that was heading out to the local Nairobi National Game Park and then 6 of us from the Redeemer team joined 7 others in 2 vans and headed for Lake Naivasha at 8:30 or so.  We stopped at the scenic overlook at the Great Rift Valley and the new members of the teams seemed to really like it.  We had to stop once on the way to the lake when a herd of wild zebras decided to cross the road.  I’m hoping a few of the snapshots of that mayhem are good enough to post here.  The safari this time was heavy on lots of incredible birds in flight and in trees, nests, etc. pictures as well as some great encounters with hippos.  During our 2 hour boat ride, we saw several sets of African Fish Eagles (which are very similar to our bald eagles) and were blessed when one came down from the tree tops to snatch a fish from the water that one of our guides had enticed him with.  First the guide whistles to get the bird of prey’s attention and waves the fish in a large arcing motion to fix the eagle’s eyes on the prize.  Then, with any luck, we get an opportunity to take some nice shots.  Only one out of three succumbed to the temptation.  They were either not hungry and/or other boats had gotten there before us.  We were not able to get out and walk around on the island with the animals.  Recent rains had drastically raised the lake levels and the lush green new vegetation hid the land animals from view pretty well.  We only saw a few water bucks and gazelles.  We had a nice lunch at the lodge on the lake under the trees on what was a gorgeous morning/early afternoon.  Following lunch, we headed back to the city and saw many large herds of sheep, goats and cattle that were not in view earlier in the day.  We were also rewarded by a pretty large colony of baboons gathered along side of the road and we stopped to take their portraits.  We got back to our lodgings at round 3 and I went to get some rest while others went to the Nakumatt a block away to shop or did other things.  Evening worship was to be at 5pm, but the children’s choir from the church in Kibera went to the wrong convent and then proceeded to get stuck in traffic.  Worship didn’t start til well after 6pm with the singing of several hyms and a powerful sermon on the Great Commissionby John Maina, the head of the Lutheran Hour Missions in Kenya.  He touched both first time mission trip members and old-timers alike as he explained why we do what we do and under what authority.  The choir finally arrived and sang, dinner was very late and I was back to my room around 8:30pm. 
If you see this Saturday afternoon in Texas, I have succeeded in transferring the text once again to the cell phone and invoking the process described above.  Sometimes, blogging can be hard work, particularly at the end of a long day when you’re fighting jet lag.  If you see it Sunday, you’ll know I had to wait until Sunday late in the afternoon here n Kenya to post it from Rosa Mystic after church, lunch and shopping for our supplies for the week.  Blessings everybody!