We finally made it to Mombasa, still in one piece, or at least in the same number of pieces as we started with. Sorry we've been out of communication, hard to email from the Masai Mara where we were on safari. Actually they had a business center at the lodge, but the internet rates were outrageous, especially when we've grown accustomed to paying on 1 ksh per minute (less than a penny). It's almost 2am but I'm so thrilled to finally have an internet connection after days of no communication...so I'm still awake trying to resize some photos of our recent adventures to share with you and briefly describe what we've been up to...sorry if I'm not as coherent as i should be,but I figure a foggy blog is better than no blog at all.

On July 17 we finished working with the Kibera JUMPers. What an experience. They are so full of ideas and talent and enthusiasm, at times it was hard to keep up, not only with their energy but also with their high spirits and optimism. Perhaps the most memorable experience for the Kauai JUMPers, apart from the friendships they made, was the walk through Kibera to visit a school for AIDS orphans and witnessing firsthand how challenging it is to live in this slum of almost a million. We brought some soccer balls to the kids at the school and they immediately engaged some of the JUMPers in a game. The ball quickly rolled into an open sewage stream running by their school, but they were unphased and continued to pick it up, toss it, and kick it with their bare feet. Andrew kept right up with them. He later told me he was horrified and wanted to get as far from this sewage as possible, but couldn't let the kids down. The school house was in an aluminum building with no electricity. All the primary grades meet in this room lit only by a little sunlight streaming through two doors at the ends. There they sit on benches in rows and attempt to make out the writing on the small chalk boards in front of them. The class sections are separated by rice sacks from the donated food of NGOs and aid organizations. These sacks are sewn together and hung as a curtain, lending a small sense of formality to each grade level's "classroom." We gave them a donation from JUMP, but it seemed insignificant in comparison to the challenges they face. I told the principal, Mr. Charles, that we would like to stay in touch. I hope someone at home will help me organize a book drive for this school. Something, anything, is better than seeing this school and doing nothing.

We also visited Nyambani, a home in the suburbs of Nairobi for children who are orphaned and also HIV+. It's hard to write about these experiences. The facilies are beautiful, thanks to the tireless work of Father D'Agostino and Mr. Proteus, the manager. We visited a kindergarten room where the children put on a show for us, singing and dancing to songs like "This little heart of mine" and one I wasn't familiar with, something about being happy. We videotaped the whole thing, and I'm sure Eric Talvi, our videographer of the day, will have more than a few minutes of the little girl in the front row who put her own sassy moves to each of these tunes. We were all grinning and applauding, but I think some of our JUMPers were overwhelmed by their emotions as they took in the realization of what these smiling children faced every day...medications, illnesses, and the struggle of fitting into society and living normal lives as children with HIV. After the kindergarten performance, we were led to their cemetery in the back of the buildings...

Thank God for antiretroviral drugs that now keep these children alive. In the beginning, this was a home to care for dying children. Now it's a home to care for children with a future.

Pretty serious stuff. It was good we took a break on July 18-20 and went on safari. After watching Out of Africa too many times to count, I had recently been disappointed by our visit to Karen Blixen's home. And then there had been the dead flamingos on the shore of Lake Nakuru. I wondered if the Masai Mara would turn out to be a disappointment too, overrun with tourists chasing animals in their land rovers, maybe litter spoiling a once pristine landscape, but I'm thrilled to say my fears were unfounded. The masai mara is one of the most beautiful places I've even experienced, and seeing the animals in their natural habitat was indescribable. We saw elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, a leopard, ostriches, and on and on. Some of our JUMPers actually saw the cheetahs catch a gazelle for their evening meal. And we came upon a pride of lions and their cubs in the early morning feasting on a carcass fresh from the previous night's hunt...the fat cubs lolled about and licked their bloody paws and swiped at their moms, not too much different than the human species. But the pictures that you'll soon see will tell the story much better than these words.

We arrived back in Nairobi after a gruelling drive over some of the bumpiest roads I've ever encountered. For our Kauai readers, it was like the road to Mahaluapu times 10, but for five hours. There was motion sickness, a little vomit, and a lot of tired and achy kids. We fell into our beds at the Kenya Comfort hotel, woke up the next morning at 7am and by 9am we were loaded onto the matatus for what we thought would be a 6 hour ride to Mombasa. We arrived a little over 10 hours later, in the dark, at a "charming" bug-infested guesthouse. I woke up in the morning still wearing the same clothes from the night before, I had been too terrified to do anything but dive under the mosquito net and pray to see the morning light. I had dreams that bugs were stinging my neck all night, and I thought for sure I was paralyzed when I awoke. Not long after realizing I was still alive, I glanced over at Allie's bed only to discover the fattest, ugliest centipede I've ever seen in my life, sitting happily on her bed, under her mosquito net, gradually working its way up to her face. I screamed, cried, begged Isabelle next door to come save us and finally did an emergency rescue and pulled Allie from certain death. She opened her sleepy eyes, took a look at the offending beast, and said "come on mom, it's not that bad." Turns out it wasn't. It was actually a harmless millipede, but right then I made up my mind we weren't staying there another night. When I met everyone for breakfast over gelatinous porridge and soggy bread, they all agreed in various levels of hysteria that we had to find a new home. I'll let someone else tell you about where we are now, but the name may give you a slight indication of our improved accommodations: The Castle Royal.