Fri, February 13th - Tarangire Nat'nl Park

Peter, the kids, Suzanne & I (Tammy enjoyed a day to herself at home!) left early in the morning to get to the park early so we could have a good chance at spotting animals. It was a great time of many firsts for me which is amazing as I grew up going to game parks:
1) seeing a Leopard
2) seeing the Leopards kill up in the tree
3) Baboon in a Palm tree (see if you can find him below )
4) baby elephants nap'n within a circle of adults
5) 2 impala males fighting for a llooonngg time
6) seeing Sianna & Leighton 'driving' :-)

To the right is a rare picture of a Leopard!
Its kill hanging in a tree in the pic to the left

Nap time for the young ones. It's hard to see, but the baby elephants are laying down as the older ones have surrounded them like a protective wall.

Baobob that we had our picnic lunch under. It provided a nice cool place to refresh ourselves!

Thurs, February 12th - Shopping & English Club

This day we were able to do some 'tourist' shopping. To the left you see Suzanne downing some more of the yummy fresh 'squeezed' mango juice towards the end of the day. Tastes so good!!!

Here are a few pictures of the most unique item I found. It's a great example of African ingenuity. I just might have a little prize for any one that can let me know what it is.

CLOSE UP OF THE TOP

(it's upside down!)

AERIAL SHOT

(about the length of an adult hand)

MUG SHOT (again upside down you'll need to use your imagination)

This day we also had the opportunity to go be a part of the English Club that meets on Thursday afternoons. Unfortunately we did not get pictures of Suzanne reading "The Giving Tree" to 20+ boys in a small, full to capacity room. It was a great dip into one of the 'branches' that Wild Hope is investing in.

Wed, February 11th - Trip To Wild Hope Land

Here's my nephew Leighton drinking Chai and reading Asterix & Obelix on Wild Hope land. You can see the lovely view they'll have when this place gets up & running.

Above is a little clip of the Wild Hope land and the guard choosing Suzanne as Peter's sister not me :-).

Tues, February 10th - Suzanne's 50th

The night ended with Suzanne watching a powerpoint of birthday congrats from those that were far far away ....

Everyone dressed in blue for the birthday supper at the end of the day ... but many other events happened before that ...




Tammy & Sianna prepared a birthday dance to the song 'Shining Star'. Here is Tammy explaining it before they got down to it.







Two games of Cities & Knights -- Suzanne won both!!

..singing on the 'shoilet' (toilet & shower in the same location ... true multitasking!)

Breakfast in bed!!!!

6 Year Anniversay Working at WBT!!!

Today was a day of celebration!
6 years -- to the day -- I've been working at Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Wow -- I can't believe it.
I've learned so much.
(If my laptop didn't crash last night I would put in a picture of me way back then, but instead you get a lovely pic of a trifle Suzanne made back in August last year --enjoy!)

Sunday & Monday, Feb 8th & 9th - Traveling

....I'll be putting up 'day by day' posts from Suzanne & my trip to Tanzania (maybe with some non-trip blogs interspersed so stay awake :-) ... here's the next one ---

Travel days. Left London Sunday night and got into Tanzania (TZ) Monday afternoon. Enroute I discovered that there is an airline for Missionary Kids (MK). See picture.

Made the mistake of telling the customs official that I had 'gifts' so he opened my bag and wanted to know how much the gifts were worth. Fortunately the bags that I had only had cloths and items that others had purchased so I could honestly say that I didn't know the price. He was real interested in the Stanley Thermos and gave us a hard time about bringing in food (corn tortillas) informing us that we need to pre-approve that with the department of agriculture. Suzanne, who had not had her bags opened, came over for moral support and kept asking him where we should go to get this approval, etc. He eventually let us go with no charges or penalties. It was good to see the Russells as we got out of there!

Rested a bit, settled in and started to get acclimated to TZ life.

Londontown...Londontown

We woke up on this Saturday in London, happy to see the sun shining. Had a bit of breakfast and then off to the British Museum - one of the best in the world. Here's Joy on platform getting ready to get on the tube downtown.

On the tube, we saw this ad...very interesting.
After getting off, we headed to the museum - here's the interior courtyard.

There we saw things like the Rosetta Stone - which is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing.

Joy doing knuckles bump with a big hand!

After walking around for a couple of hours, we were "museum'd" out and went to eat some fish 'n chips, soup and then finished off with a sticky toffee pudding. Yummm!

Snow in London. Can it be?

Not for 18 years has there been snow like this in London. Last Monday was the worst (or best) depending if you like school or not :-).

Here is a picture of our London hosts, Jay & Judy Smith, back yard.

It started to snow some more as we sat around the table catching up.

Suzanne & I are off to Tanzania to celebrate her 50th!

Will all this fit??????

(it did in 4 suitcases a couple that were a bit overweight, but we didn't have to pay extra -- yeah!)

India Trip, Oct 10th - Last full day on the Mountain

Tomorrow morning at 7 am Judy will be taking Mom and me down to Delhi on the train. Not sure when I'll be able to get back on line so I leave you with a lot of pictures. It's been a good journey!!!

THANKS FOR COMING ALONG!!

India Trip, Oct 9 Queen Marietta's 86th Birthday

Aunt Marietta has entered her 87th year on this earth! The day was filled with people dropping in to wish her a wonderful birthday. She received so many flowers the home here looks like a flower shop. She received gifts from near and far as well. It was a good day though at the end she did state that it was overwhemling.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on her cake

Quilted lap robe from her cousin Jo in California

India Trip, Oct 8 - "Dead Eye Mitchell"

At Wheaton College my mom was given the nickname of 'Dead Eye Mitchell' due to her ability to hit her target with a rifle. Her skills came in handy today as the monkeys became a nuisance. They had stolen a chapati (it's in the monkeys hand in the picture though you can't see it that well) from Biju's kitchen. Biju lives just below the Criders and the monkeys had raided her kitchen for the bread ... though we didn't know this when 'Dead Eye Mitchell' was sent out to take care of business!









Yosef gave her the sling shot he keeps hanging on the back of the kitchen door and she went after the rascally rascals. She's glad she didn't hit any though it did make for a fun moment.

















Here comes the back up .....

India Trip, Oct 7

This day Judy, Mom & I went to Union Church for their service. After that we went to the Four Seasons hotel and had a lovely lunch while a parade went by in the street below us. It was some type of 'eco' parade wanting to get across the importance of trees for our well being. Most spectacular part was at the beginning with bag pipes being played. Never know what you're going to see on this mountain.

After lunch we went looking for material for a Punjabi suit for Mom to wear to a wedding. Found some nice material that is being made, as I type, to fit her to a tee. The picture to the right shows her being measured for that.

We were able to fit all that in and get Mom home in time for a rest before the open house birthday party for the sisters from 4-6 pm. About 30 people came, in shifts, to wish the sisters a happy birthday. There was Chai, Samosas, cake and other things I can't pronounce let alone spell for the guest to enjoy. The guest were made up of people from church and Woodstock School.A good portion of the guests were able to enjoy a 'concert' put on by the sisters. Marietta on the piano & Esther singing with Dana joining them after the first song.

Here's a picture of the fine spread at the party. The sisters held up very well considering their age :-).

This picture was taken when we were talking, via Skype, to Bonnie in Turkey. Not only were we talking to her, but we were also able to see her on the computer screen & she could see us as well. This was a new expereince for me. Way cool!

We also had a chance to talk/see Andy (Criders son) & Sonya (his wife) and their four kids. Makes me want to invest in that 'eyeball' looking camera so I can do that with my family as well.

India Trip, Oct 6 blood pressure check

Biju has learned how to be a nurse to Marietta. One of the things that she does is to check her blood pressure each morning. She has added Mom and me to her 'patient list'. You can see the fun that we've been having with this to the right :-).

Mom continues not to feel 100 percent, but I don't think it's a cold as much as the altitude and the pollen in the air. She is able to rest a lot which is good.

She & Marietta spend a lot of time sitting at the table, outside on the porch and in the living room just talking talking and talking some more. It is great!

Dana & Judy went out on the town this night to celebrate the anniversary of some friends. They had a good time. I was glad that they trusted Mom & me with Marietta's care and were able to have some time together. Usually it is one of them going out at night while the other is with Marietta.