Gone Fishin

While in Mombasa, the boys did a last minute fishing trip as the "season" was over and most of the boats had already pulled out of the water. Justin called a captain friend of his who had plans of having his boat out of the water but after talking with Justin decided to leave it in for a few more days.
It turns out that the fishing was still really good even though the winds had changed and the fish were supposed to have moved on. A very happy Josh and Justin had a blast catching yellowfin tuna, wahoo, mahi mahi, and black marlin. The boys caught all 4 of these yellowfin tuna at the same time. There was a fifth one on as well but lost it before they could land all 4 of these.

Josh "landed" his first black marlin on the trip. Josh caught another big marlin last year when they went out but the rod ended up breaking in half and then after fighting it with just the reel for a while the line popped. So they were really excited to catch and land this Black Marlin. They tagged and released it so they could catch it again another day.

The mixed bag of whaoo, mahi mahi, tuna and marlin is one of the things Justin says he loves about fishing here. You never know what is on the line until it jumps. After having 5 tuna on at the same time, they got a double of a wahoo and the marlin.

These fish did not get tagged and released. Josh and Justin both LOVE sushi and had been talking about eating it all week long. I think the fishing trip might have been a side adventure to their homemade sushi. Josh was able to find all the stuff to make real sushi with in Mombasa and they (with the help of an sushi app) made some of best tasting sushi we have ever had. Needless to say that the boys got their fill of raw fish and ate almost an entire tuna the first night. Below is a picture of one of their plates.

Back home

Well we made it back to our little island a little over a week and a half ago and I am just now sitting down to blog about it.  Thankfully the trip back was a good one.  We took this little old bus back down to Tanzania, spent the night, then hopped over the next morning on the 12 passenger plane...which felt more like a roller coaster with the thunder storm we went through. 

The girls all did spectacular.  Braelyn slept half the trip which was awesome.  Things were a little different though.  On the big bus, there was plenty of room, few passengers.  Well, on this one they packed it full with standers in the aisle and stopped every 10 minutes to pick someone up or drop someone off.  B had fallen asleep right away on her seat, head in my lap. Culturally here children don't count when it comes to things like seats....especially really little ones.  There were certain murmurings about the selfish white lady who wouldn't hold her baby so someone could sit.  After a while I spoke up (in Swahili) to say we had paid for her seat and that was why I wasn't holding her.  It got real quiet for  while after that.  It is always fun to wait and let people talk in Swahili when they don't think we understand and then when the time is right explain to them in Swahili what is going on.  Personal space is a foreign thing here and locals do not buy children seats when traveling.  5 hours holding a toddler became a clear differing point in our cultures that day!

But we and all our Kenyan goodies made it home, along with a wicked cold bearing ear aches and deep coughs and green yuck.  It's abating thankfully, but you can pray for the lingering coughs to heal soon.  Like today.

What else is new?  We have started a garden.  If it didn't take me over a week to get just these 2 pictures loaded and blogged, I'd promise pictures soon.  I'll do my best.  We've got sweet corn, green beans, bell peppers, carrots, lettuce, broccoli and 2 kinds of watermelon in the ground.  Carrots and melons are the only ones of those grown locally, so we are really hoping some of these work and we can get some more veggie variety!

Oh, I chased down a potential thief.  Yep, me, 30 year old Shannon.  Of course, the thief was a girl of less than 14 years.  And, I'm not really sure she stole anything.   Here's the story:  for background, we've had several things stollen.  Expensive and not, kids take whatever they can get their hands on here whether it be a ball, chair or even a piece of chalk.  Well, Saturday our neighbor kids were over and left the gate open, allowing several non-invited kids to come on in and start playing.  I told them they had not asked to come in and I had not invited them and they needed to leave.  As the oldest passed by me, I glimpsed some of our chalk in her hand, with something sizable wrapped up in her "khanga" (rectangle of fabric used for any- and every-thing here).  I snagged her sleeve to ask what she had in her khanga and she BOLTED.

Something primitive in me snapped and I tore off after her...flops flying off, barefoot and nearly bare headed down the street, skirts flying up above my knees.  I would have caught her, too.  If I hadn't been 30, out of shape and easily winded. To make myself feel better I keep saying that she was a teenage African girl who could most likely out run most.  100 yards down the street I gave up and turned to greet my audience.  HUNDREDS of men ride their bikes home on that street every day all stopped and staring.  I gave a good number of them a nice show.  Not to mention all my neighbors standing out by the road waiting for me to explain what had just happened.  And my 2 year old now running down the street after me.

I gathered up the bundle she had dropped, found a mango, and tried to face the questions with some amount of grace.  Well, you see, I thought she might have stolen some chalk. Yes, chalk.  Perfectly rational, right?  My comfort came the next day when Sandy asked me, "Do you know how many children I've chased down????"  Oh good.  I'm not the ONLY crazy white lady.

Well, more stories to come later I'm sure.  No new answers on the Adult Ed Center.  I've started a new language program.  We miss you all.  

A week in reverse, and review

Not everything is big-city around here I guess...

This girl is so stinkin' photogenic I have to be careful about photo fairness!

Speaking of photogenic...um...she fell and hurt her bum, you see.

This is Braelyn's classic pout.  Head down, lip out, arms almost crossed.  Where did she learn this?

These are from the Easter Party last weekend.  We got to go up to an old friend's new house at THE new golf course development north of town.  Golf carts, golf grass for the yard, wall of movable glass panes overlooking the Indian Ocean...this place had it all.  Except for our heart's calling that is.  Had to remind ourselves of that a few times =). 

Our best attempts at a family photo were somewhat thwarted by a surprisingly bright though overcast sky.

It did not thwart the egg-hunting though! 

Our return bus trip has been planned, I'll try to take some pics of it this time!  More later...

Winding down the fun

We're on the final countdown of our time off the island. It has been wonderful. We've hit several pools, lots of restaurants, a butterfly park, the movies, AND wandered the aisles of the grocery store in aimless bliss.

We've also spent a fair bit of time doing the doctor rounds, check-ups, stored up complaints, etc. the only catch it that it seems to take about 3 attempted visits for us to get things done!

We're so thankful for this time away from "village life", time with wonderful old friends, re-connecting with people and gearing up for the future. I'll be sending out a newsletter hopefully soon with more details, but please continue to be in prayer for our Much Dreamed of Adult Education Center. As of our departure from the little island nearly 2 weeks ago, things had ground to a discouraging halt. Please pray for God's plan to unfold in His time, and for our patience and wisdom as it does. Thanks!

He is Risen Indeed!

I don't have any new pictures uploaded... but we wanted to wish you all the very best Resurrection Day Tomorrow! Right now I am sitting on an outdoor couch watching a brilliant full moon cast its glow over an inlet of the Indian Ocean. The breeze is strong enough to keep the mosquitoes off but not so strong so as to rip down the clothes-pinned sheet/projector screen that the kids are watching a movie on. We've enjoyed these last days of reconnecting with old friends, reveling in air conditioning and restaurants, and celebrating the lead up to tomorrow with every craft and adventure possible.

This morning we you-tubed some Easter music to dress and braid by...let's celebrate together: Did the grass sing? Did the Earth rejoice to feel you again? Over and over in a never-ending sound, did the earth seem to pound HE IS RISEN? Over and over in a never-ending round HE IS RISEN, HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH!

Amen and AMEN!

(thanks to: "Was it a Morning Like This?" by Sandy Patti...LOVE that song)

Mombasa you say?

We got the opportunity to get off the island for our first real break since last July and we grabbed it!  Hunter even got to fly co-pilot as we hopped over to the mainland...it was awesome.

Unfortunately, an international plane ticket to get up to Mombasa was upwards of $300 per person...versus $8 per person for a bus ride.  Guess what we chose?  Yup, 4 hours of sweaty, dusty CAREENING up north, including an hour suffering through check outs and check ins and customs and literally walking across a dusty quarter mile of no-man's land as we crossed the border on foot.  It felt very...African.

The girls did spectacular under the circumstances and then we plopped on a noisy sidewalk to await our dear old friends Josh and Maggie to pick us up.

And, it's awesome!  There's now an air-conditioned, escalatored mall here!  And restaurants that serve food in a timely manner!  And, it's neither cooked nor cleaned up by ME!  And the 3 boys?  Also awesome.  The 6 kids have been playing so well together, having trouble deciding how to split up when we have to get in cars.

The last TWO evenings we have spent at a pizza/chicken joint that has a bouncy house on the weekends PLUS a nice guy who did amazing face paint and balloon hats and swords.

If we weren't still grossly sweaty and our soda options weren't still limited to Coke, Sprite and Fanta Orange, I might swear we were in America.

That's the big news for this week!  More later!

Lovin' Island Livin'

Here's some old pics from the last few weeks of just a few of the reasons we love it here.

Shrimp the size of lobsters...

Red Snapper that can hardly be held by our two biggest girls...

Oh, and somethings we don't necessarily love so much...like Praying Mantises, always so well camoflauged, hanging out around the yard.

But back to the good stuff...getting those last drops of goodness...yummmmmy.