New Chapter in Our Lives - Horses!

The beginning of August marked the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. Our first horse boarder (my coworker and friend Miranda) showed up with a Palomino named Boogie. He's a big horse standing at 16.2 hands high. We had to quickly finish up our fence the day before and the day he showed up, but we got it done.

Chris bonding with Boogie. He's a very friendly horse, but we wanted to make sure that he is comfortable with us and we are comfortable with him.

After only 19 days of having a horse, Boogie melted our hearts enough where we were considering having a horse of our own. When Boogie managed to get out of our fence (after a deer knocked our temporary fence down) and run to see the horses down the road, we were given the opportunity to buy a horse of our own. After much pondering, Dos came to our house last Monday.

We shortly renamed her Painted Lady, or Lady for short. She's a Paint horse and these 2 pictures show both sides of her markings. She's 5 & 1/2 years old and 14 hands high. She was broke by the Amish to ride in a saddle or to have her pull a buggy or cart. Although, she hasn't been rode in about 2 years, so we aren't sure exactly what she will do.

On Friday, we went on our first ride with Lady. Miranda rode her while I rode Boogie.

 

She did wonderfully and only had a slight moment of spazing which Miranda managed to stay on during. After our ride...

 

 

I tried my hand at setting her in all her tac and adjusting a new cinch and chest strap I just got on Saturday, and as long as she was in full gear, I decided to give her a ride around the front pasture. That didn't go so well... As soon as I got on she decided to run and make a few circles. Needless to say, I didn't stay on. So, Miranda is going to show me how to lunge her and work out her energy before a ride.

 

 

"Let me out" she says!

Kenya - Kisumu

Friday cont... We traveled by private car to Kisumu with Sarah Hope and Callie (the ones who live in the mission in Amagoro), who had a ride going there anyway. Made the ride half as short. They drive on the left side of the road in Kenya. And in this picture, you can see as we are going through a town, all the people and shacks selling goods set up on the side of the road.

We passed over the equator once again into the southern hemisphere.

Once in Kisumu we checked into our hotel, the Duke if Breeze, and started meeting up with Ali's fellow Peace Corps volunteers - Alyssa, Emily, and Sajeena. We hung out on the rooftop bar for awhile before getting ready to go out for the night. All 8 of us squeezed into a tuk tuk, a motorcycle type contraption with 3 wheels and generally seating 4. Front: Sajeena & Alyssa. Back: Callie, Sarah Hope, me, Amy, Emily, and Ali.

This proved to be a bad idea, because when we were taking pictures of us all squeezed in, the front door opened around a corner and Alyssa (the one in the front on the right) fell out the side and we ran over her ankle. It was really scary, but thankfully she was okay. She was a tropper and insisted we still go out, so we made our way to the Laughing Buddha for supper. We kinda all shared each others meals because it was all so good. After that we made our way to a club called Signature. We danced the night away, most of the songs were Kenyan songs. It was packed. And hot. But a lot of fun. We met a guy named David, who actually dated a former Peace Corps volunteer that Ali knew. Small world. We had a lot of fun dancing with him and went back to the hotel around 1:30am. As we left, a lot of people kept yelling out mazungu at us, which means white person in Swahili. No shit people, glad you can see.

*We didn't get any pictures after the one above, as Amy's camera took a little tumble along with Alyssa. Sajeena was a miracle worker and fixed it in 2 days.

Saturday: We once again got up early because no body could sleep in. All of us went to breakfast together and then split up. Alyssa went to go get her foot x-rayed and nothing was broken. (Yay!) Ali, Amy, and I went to the impala sanctuary. They have impalas and zebras free range here, and other animals reside in cages.

Here is the view from the back of an tuk tuk. Our driver was pimpin' poppin' his collar.

A cute view of us 3 (the proper number) in the back of the tuk tuk.

First we saw 4 hippos in the water, popping up and down and making some noise. There were NO fences of any kind between us on land and the hippos in the water. Hippos are the most aggressive, number one killer of humans, in Kenya. We were very excited to get this close and treaded very lightly as to not attract too much attention to ourselves. That is Lake Victoria behind us. :)

We walked up to where the predatory animals are in cages and a guy asked if we wanted to pet a cheetah. Heck yes! We walked in the cheetah cage with 2 cheetah's. So Amy and I petted a cheetah. It was crazy awesome!

It rolled over and playfully batted at me, which scared the crap out of me, but I also think it was purring.

Here's Amy's pic!

Afterwards, we strolled down the pathway and saw free range impalas. They had a ton running around the place, and rightfully so since the whole place in named after them.

Then stumbled upon free range zebras and we were so close, it was awesome!

After that we went back to the Buddha for some delicious milkshakes. The three of us joined up with the rest of group and hit up the masaii market. A successful day of shopping. We searched for a specific place Alyssa had heard of to eat, but couldn't find it. Eventually stumbled upon another good place to eat though. Back to the room for showers and a little rest. Then, up to the roof top bar for sine good convo and for some drinks and a light supper. DJ Ned played a bunch of music. I had brought some little Debbie cakes and candles along, so we celebrated Amy's birthday! (just a night early)

A bunch of us then decided to go out again, even though we hadn't planned on it. Out to another club dominated by more Kenyan music. Emily danced with everyone and they loved her. A lot of people took pictures of us (which felt really weird), because apparently white people at this club are a rarity.


Easter Sunday also happened to be Amy's birthday. One she won't soon forget I'm sure. We all slept in, which was amazing, since none of us have been able to yet. All of us went to get breakfast, with the exception of Alyssa who had already gone back to her site. We then went in search if an ATM (which aren't hard to find, but once that accept Mastercard have to be hunted down). Sajeena had a failed date with a guy's cousin who she met at the club. It was really awkward, as she was kinda tricked into the date, but she took it in stride. When we got back, 5 of us decided to go to a resort with a pool called kiboku bay. Kiboku = hippo in kiswahili

It was a nice atmosphere and just nice to hang poolside for awhile and enjoy a drink or two. It had a wonderful view of Lake Victoria as well.

We returned to our own hotel and (once showered, which is an experiance itself in Kenya) we headed out to supper at the Green Garden. Delish food, but our fave was this appetizer of fried matoke (platains) with a peanut dipping sauce.

Then we went to the Laughing Buddha once again. This time we went to smoke some shesha in a hookah. We choose strawberry and mint for our flavors. It was so smooth.

Kenya has a surprisingly big Indian population and influences of the culture can be seen around.

When done, we retired back to the hotel while Emily and Sajeena went out to Signature once again. I am just not that young anymore. 1 night out on the town is tiring, 2 exhausting, and 3 just out of the question.

Welcome to Kenya!

This is the first of a series of posts following me and my friend Amy to Kenya to visit her sister, Ali, in the Peace Corps there until this upcoming December. I am using a majority of my online travel journal to write these blog posts. We left on our adventure on March 31st from Minneapolis.

Well, after two 8 hour flights and 8 time zones, we got to Nairobi and then passport control took forever. We finally got through, and then through baggage claim and saw Ali! The two of them and their reunion (18 months apart I think?) made me cry too. Got a taxi and made it to our hotel, one the peace corps uses. Not fancy, but safe and has running water. We then went to the bar next door for our first Kenyan beer - Tusker, since we apparently weren't tired enough yet (or trying to adjust to the time zone). Pretty good and a nice atmosphere in a thatched roof thing. We went back to our room to go to bed and an Indian bar next door blared Indian music long into the night. Had to break out the earplugs, but that didn't even work too well. Amy and I had our first experience sleeping under mosquito nets. Amy had seen a mosquito flying around earlier and yelled out 'Malaria!' It was too funny.

We woke up in Kenya, but I don't think any of us three slept very well, although Amy and I should have been exhausted. Had breakfast at the hotel. Papaya is gross here. Unsweetened and tastes like crap. My scrambled eggs and the sausage was good though. The pineapple juice was wonderful. Then off to the local mall to exchange some money. And buy a smoothie. Then we bought our tickets for the bus ride tomorrow...which ended up being a long and tedious task, everything moves slow in Kenya. We then set up a taxi to take us around for a half day.

First, we went to the elephant orphanage. So freakin cute! We got to watch them feed for only 500 shillings. There was a four month old there who was just adorable. And one whose mother had been poached and them he was attacked by hyenas and lost most of his trail. While we were there, a thunderstorm rolled in and unleashed holy hell on us. Amy and I clamored for shelter under the eaves of a nearby house. The lady who owned it was so nice and actually let us inside to get out of the rain. The house was gorgeous with preserved cedar trees used as beams and incorporated into the cement walls. She also had gorgeous dark wood furniture, some 100 years old. We finally decided we should go and find Ali, even though it was still raining quite hard out. She apparently had been hiding out in a stable. The path down to the elephants had turned into a red mud river by the time we tried to run back, which of course slowed us down and soaked our feet and shoes. We ran into some local rooms and under some more eves as we made our way back to the parking lot. Luckily the cab and Ali were waiting for us a little father into the property. We were still soaked and I was thankful I had left my sweater in the car and that I had invested in a waterproof purse for my camera.

This is the 4 month old baby.

Next up, a trip to the giraffe sanctuary. The rain had subsided by the time we got there. There was a big elevated platform there so the giraffes were at eye level with us. We got to feed them carrots and 'treats'. One giraffe named Arlene was very friendly and loved the carrots. We each held a piece of carrots in our mouth and she 'kissed' us to get the piece of carrot. It was so fun! And we got some awesome pics. We did that for awhile and then checked out the gift shop. Bought a few things. Our taxi driver brought us to a little shop on the side of the road for souvenirs, but they weren't willing to haggle enough, so we left empty handed.

Kisses from Arlene!

This is one of my favorite pictures! Would you believe this is after Amy had already had a couple of giraffe kisses from her?

We got back to the hotel and were starving and tired. We decided to eat first at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It had more 'americanized' food. We met Ali's fellow peace corps volunteer Cindy here. After eating we went back to the hotel room for a much needed nap. We had decided to go to an Ethiopian restaurant for supper. We walked there, probably for 15 to 20 minutes. It was pretty good, nothing like I had ever eaten before. Hard to explain, but the bread was in rolls (really, they actually unrolled) that we tore bits off of and then used it to dip or pick up different kinds of dip and other toppings.

Amy had brought Flat Stanley along with us for a local kindergarden teacher, so you may see him show up in a few pictures

We cabbed it back to the hotel since it was dark out. Back at the hotel room we packed a bit, showered, and just did some more catching up. Bedtime brought more Indian music.

The next day (our 3rd) started out pretty interesting as Ali accidentally turned off her alarm and then we had 5 minutes to get ready before the taxi came for us... it was 6am. Then, we got to the bus station and they pushed back our departure time by 1 hour. When we finally got going, we traveled to Ali's village, Amagoro, close to the Uganda boarder. We took the Easy Coach and it took 9.5 hours. Crazy! The first bit was okay, we drove by the Rift Valley, I journaled, and read and finished the book The Hunger Games. The last part of the journey got very long and very bumpy. Once there, we hired bikes called boda bodas to haul our luggage to Ali's house. She made us a wonderful meal of rice and veggies. We sat and ate it out her back door enjoying the view and watching her neighbors chickens. By then, we were so tired and with full stomachs that we were all ready for bed - at 7:30!