Camping at Mt. Longonot

To bring this closer to the present, term 2 was pretty difficult and not so enjoyable. I took 20 credit hours, remained secretary the first half of term (then ran for 2nd year rep, a much easier position), kept working in the IT, and started getting more involved at church. I did have some pretty good classes: Contemporary Theology, Greek 5, Systematic Theology 2, Hebrew 2, and African Traditional Religion. Contemporary was great. After a lengthy struggle, the term finally finished, and we had a two week break. Now last year I was the only student here under the age of 26. Søren and I would often try to get a third person to play games with us, and I don't believe we were ever successful last year. But this year is a different story, and there are now five of us who are 25 or younger, and we often do things together. Since Søren is leaving us soon, one of us had an idea: what if we had a camping trip to say goodbye? I'm still kind of surpirsed it worked out, but it did, and 8 of us went camping for 3 days at the base of Longonot, near Naivasha. Our group was composed of Søren and Charlotte (Denmark), Anson (India), BG and Dama (Kenya), and then Kelly, Aaron and myself (US). Aside from Søren, Charlotte, and me, they are all first year students. It was pretty awesome.

Anson, Kelly and I really tried to climb down into the crater, but didn't make it and had to turn back. It was really rough going, but Anson and I are committed to making it down there. It reminded me a lot of reading The Lost World (Doyle), a great book by the way.
We passed some baton of leadership or something like that.

Slaughtering and Roasting a Sheep, part I

Esayas slaughtered it and skinned it the Ethiopian traditional way, and explained the significance of all the various parts. Parts of the fat, like on the rump, are really good and used for special purposes. Sleep are slaughtered for special occasions, like a wedding or the story of the prodigal son.
It took hours to get it all ready and then to roast it, but it was quite good. We ate just about everything, except the lungs and the head. Some people even eat the head, they prepare it in some special way. They said the tongue was good, but we didn’t bother to cook it. I don’t know exactly what I ate, but I’m pretty sure I ate part of the heart, kidneys, intestine, and some of its four stomachs.
Edwin (pictured above) made a stew out the intestines, and it was really good, much softer than the rest of it, which can be kind of hard to chew.
Overall,it was quite an experience, and I thought a lot about all the biblical images concerning sheep, like Jesus being killing as a sheep, and how we are like sheep going astray. We had devotions Sunday morning, which was Palm Sunday, and Dennis pointed out how the sheep was brought into our camp with great triumph, and we were all excited, taking pictures with it, and then led it away and killed it. Just like how Jesus entered Jerusalem and then was killed a week later.

Slaughtering and Roasting a Sheep, part II

##The title should provide some guidance, but some pictures may be disturbing for some viewers.##

Yes, I do realize I am starting with part II, and I didn't plan to break things up this much, but the internet is refusing to allow me to load more pictures. So we'll start with the second part of the process.
We ate just about everything, except the lungs and the head. Some people even eat the head, they prepare it in some special way. They said the tongue was good, but we didn’t bother to cook it. I don’t know exactly what I ate, but I’m pretty sure I ate part of the heart, kidneys, intestine, and some of its four stomachs. It was all really good.
That is some of its four stomachs, roasting away.
Philip was a chef extraordinaire. He spent hours over the coals tending the meat! Edwin also made a stew out the intestines, and it was really good, much softer than the rest of it, which can be kind of hard to chew.
The remnants of our dearly departed (and tasty) friend.

Next time: part I... (and theological application)

Buying a Sheep

One afternoon while we were there, Edwin suggested that we climb this small "mountain" to go swimming, so we did.
On the way back, we passed a shepherd herding a little flock along the road. Edwin had already mentioned that you could buy a sheep for 1000 shillings (about $13). That seemed a great deal, so we asked the guy about buying one. He demanded 3000, which did not seem as great of a deal. We actually decided against it, and started walking back, but then changed our minds as Philip saw I was disappointed and said I had to have a story to tell back home. Edwin ran after him and we finally got a sheep for 2000.



I dragged it back to our camp, and it was somewhat stubborn, as I had heard about sheep.


Along the way back to the camp, we came across more animals. Philip was enjoying himself...

When we entered our camp, the paparazzi descended, and we all took our pictures with the sheep. Ok, the library is closing so I must leave. You'll have to check back to see what happens next...

Camping In Naivasha

Camping in Naivasha was a blast. I was worried about rain, but the weather was beautiful the entire time. I joined a small group retreat from Nairobi Chapel, of while I have never participated in the group before, I did know most of the members. It was a rather diverse group: Philip (The Gambia), Dennis (Uganda), David Fugoyo (Sudan), Edwin (Kenya), and Esayas and his family (Ethiopia). There were some other Kenyan ladies as well who are not NEGST students.


This was the road from our campsite to the lake. It was about a half hour walk, and we could see an outline at the end, which did not move the entire time. We couldn't figure out if it was alive, but it was, and turned out to be some zebras enjoying the shade.

The lake was really dry, as you can see.

We found what we believed to be hippo tracks.

This was our central cooking and fellowship area. We camped in four tents, but I figured you'd probably seen a tent before so I didn't bother to upload a picture. Next post: slaughtering and roasting a sheep...

Off on Vacation...

So I hope the rains will hold off for just another few days, but I will be camping at Naivasha for the weekend, so I'm looking forward to that. Naivasha is on the Rift Valley, and I've heard its beautiful. I'm going with an ecclesia group from Nairobi Chapel, and we'll be there until mid Sunday, and then we'll be going to stay at Kinyua's house (another student here, a former leader of the singles group), not far from Nakuru. On Monday night I'll take the overnight bus from Nairobi to Mwanza, which goes through Nakuru. The whole ride is about 11 hours, and I'm cutting off 2 by picking it up in Nakuru, but that's still a bit of time! Then I'll be in Mwanza until Easter, and then we'll come back Monday. There's a professor here who lived there for many years before coming to NEGST, and he's going back with his family for a visit, and I'm staying with them. I imagine I'll have some updates when I return...