It seemed I barely got back from Nairobi when we were already preparing to go to Ngurunit for Easter. My good friends Janice, husband Walter and daughter Clara had finally been able to fit a trip to Ngurunit into their full schedules. They met us in Maralal and we drove up to Ngurunit together on March 21st. It was quite the experience for them as the road to Ngurunit is quite difficult and long. I so enjoyed showing them my home. And Janice was able to meet the basket-weaving women that she has been so instrumental in encouraging in the development of their skills for reaching a wider market. Janice and Walter are avid bird watchers and they opened my eyes to the joys and potential of birding in Ngurunit. They found a lot of very unique birds in the area that I can work into a promotion of the women’s visitor camp. One more project for my ‘spare’ time! Walter took the ultimate challenge of Ngurunit and climbed Mt. Poi. He left very early with a guide and my field assistant Samwel. We expected them back in late afternoon. By 6:00 p.m. there was no sign of them so I decided to drive to the bottom of the mountain to meet them when they got down and save them a walk at the end of 5 miles. That was a good decision because they arrived at the base just after dark exhausted. They had a great time but Mt. Poi is very high and on the way down, they had to fight the bush. He told me it was amazing and made the whole Ngurunit trip one of the best of his life. I certainly do respect him for doing it. I look at Mt. Poi every evening and every morning and many times in between. I sometimes wonder what it is like on top but I know the climb is incredibly hard and I don’t think I really will ever make the attempt. Though I do have a policy of never say never. When I say never to anything, it is just that I usually end up finding myself doing. Anyway, in terms of knowing what it is like on top, Walter gave me some amazing pictures so at the moment I think I will be content with those.

As Janice and family were preparing to leave just before the Easter weekend, more friends started arriving. Sue and Colin, our faithful camper friends from Nairobi, who visit in Ngurunit every three months or so for one of their bush adventures with various other companions, arrived with their sister Pat from Australia. They got to meet Janice and Walter just as they were leaving. They live just around the corner from each other in Nairobi but had never had the chance to meet before despite the fact that I have talked to each of them about the others very often on my visits to them. We joked on how they all drove two days into the bush in order to be introduced, as that was more fun than 5 minutes down a good road.

Good Friday, my friend Tine and her baby son Ilhan arrived by airplane with her parents who were visiting Kenya from their home in Belgium. That night as I was preparing a goat roast for the visitors and we were all sitting out under the full moon in the incredibly beautiful landscape, a car load of Swedish people showed up about 8:00 p.m. I know Daniel from last year and he was visiting Kenya with his family and had come to stay at the camp. As it was dark and they had not arranged for food, we added more food into the cooking pots, told them to go get settled into camp and then come back to eat. The more the merrier! We had a great time that night and on through the Easter weekend.

One of the best parts of having my Belgium visitors was taking time out of almost every day to drive up to the water slides and pools. The rains hadn’t come yet and Ngurunit was so hot, all the Easter chocolate was melting in the shade. We were melting too. Reuben spent most of his time sleeping under a tree and the only time it was cool enough to really do anything was about 6 in the morning. It was even hot at night. So the water became our refuge during the hottest part of the day and boy did we have fun. We found a perfect pool for the kids to start learning to swim. It had a sandy bottom that started about ankle deep and got gradually deeper till I could just touch with my toes. On the deep end was a natural rock slide that the stream came down and made slippery. I am determined to teach my kids to swim this school break and they are already making good progress. Tine was a great help on showing them all the right moves. She even had 5 month old Ilhan swimming. He loved it. The ‘big’ boys and girls also got very brave about jumping off a big rock positioned perfectly over the pool with different heights to jump from, depending on their courage. I take all the cousins and friends along also meaning a little troupe of 7 or 8 kids to keep track of. I spend all my time counting heads and panic for a moment if I am missing one. So far they have always added up to the right number.

Everyone else left by Easter Monday, except for Tine and family. I have been thoroughly enjoying their company all week. They stayed in our guesthouse on the edge of our plot and Naiboku loved to go over and play with the baby. Tine and I took morning walks and talked into the late night. The airplane came to pick them up this morning and I am already missing my neighbors. One other excitement during this last week was having some Kenyan friends of Reuben and I come from Marsabit for a night. We roasted a goat at the camp and told stories into the late hours. All in all it has been a very fun and social last few weeks. I enjoy that from time to time. It was a very stimulating international mix of people that passed through Ngurunit this Easter holiday. Now we are preparing to head to Maralal for a couple days and then on to Nairobi as a family. We plan about a week there to give the kids some fun in the big city as well as Reuben and I attending a Rotary training meeting on April 10th. It will be our first real contact with the Rotary world in Kenya beyond our own club activities and visitors. I think I am caught up on life now for a bit. Very long entry for a very busy but wonderful month. I am sure April will be just as wonderful as after Nairobi we will be back in Ngurunit for the rest of the month until school opens the beginning of May. I will be bringing my friend Maria with me. She is from Sweden and coming to do her Master’s research in Ngurunit. She visited Ngurunit last year when she was living a few months in Kenya and she fell in love with the place. So now she is coming back. I am so excited. We will meet her in Nairobi. I can’t wait!!