Christmas 2016 in Tigoni

The first peek at sunshine in over 2 days came when I got up.. around 12:30 p.m.  I hadn’t meant to sleep in that late. 
First look at Africa in daytime.
We were staying in a house of friends of Cherry and Vance's. A family who works on the property would let us in and out; and a few dogs also were part of the mix.
After taking a much-needed shower, we went over to Brakenhurst, the seminary that Vance ran for many years before retiring: 

The grounds were lush, lovely and trees and flowers were everywhere, with an emphasis on species native to the area.


Vance and the building named in his honor.
On the way to and from the seminary, there were people on the side of the road, walking to wherever they needed to. Cars are terribly expensive, and many people walk - families, groups of kids, friends, lone walkers.  Everyone is out walking and we waved at each other as we went bumpily driving by.

Cherry, with lots of help from Carolyn and Jeff dealing with a stove that did not want to cooperate, had cooked up a delicious bacon wrapped beef fillet (FIL-it, not fill-LAY) for Christmas dinner. Also, I learned that Kenyan bananas are the best and put our yellow Chiquitas to shame.

Words learned today:  Asante (thank you) sana (very)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NYC adventures Day #4 - the a.m. grumpies

Image
The trip was definitely winding down. Despite getting plenty of sleep in an excellent hotel bed, I woke up and was just...done. Done with walking and sightseeing. I had hit my travel wall. My feet weren't particularly sore, nor was any part of me in distress. It was more of a mental state and I was more generally overwhelmed by everything we had taken in but I had not been able to process. Although I was not surprised, the timing wasn't great, because we had to be out of the hotel by late that morning and we would then be out and about until our plane left....in the evening. As I mentioned before and what I know from experience but seem to to have still not learned the lesson, is this: if I don't schedule down time while traveling, there comes a bad day. Not only for me, but for the others with whom I am traveling. However, with such a short time in NYC and so much we definitely wanted to do, it is not clear what I would have changed. But I will firmly say this - I know...
Read more

NYC adventures day #4 - p.m. tennis

Image
Oh, I forgot to talk about Flushing, from a couple of days prior to our last day. When we were touring around Queens eating ourselves silly, we found a bunch of time with no place to go and no room to eat. So, we wandered around the streets taking in the sights and the smells, and we ended up walking over to a park. I have rarely seen a park so ...used. There were soccer games going on - adult soccer games with families all up and down the sidelines. Kids were riding bikes in fountains that had been drained. There were ice cream vendors, grilling was going on, and oh, the music. I couldn't help myself because there was drumming, music, singing and dancing. We had moved over one block and instead of Asian communities, this was definitely Latin. Exactly where, I had no idea. I just wandered into the crowd and enjoyed being a part of it for about 5 minutes, then I noticed my family was wandering far away so I reluctantly caught up with my group but kind of wanted to be adopted b...
Read more

Delightful Denmark - Tivoli Gardens

Image
Last year we took a truly wonderful cruise of the Baltic Sea. It was a work-related trip for me as I was in a hosting role, and happily, Jeff was able travel with me. I have to say Jeff and I both fell in love with Copenhagen. The slightly gritty yet architecturally interesting look of the city fit with what we enjoy, and I think the fact that we got everywhere by bike or on foot made it that much more special. My favorite spot of all was  Tivoli Gardens . Of course, I adore amusement parks so I was already primed to like the place. However, it ended up being much more of a beautiful experience than I expected. We went in the late afternoon of a warm but soon-to-be rainy day, and decided to get a few rides in while we could. At the entrance, I saw a restaurant with a variation of the word I recognized for 'cake', and made a mental note to come back. Captivating The rides ranged from older and quaint to quite modern, and getting a glimpse of Copenhagen from the ta...
Read more