the fun part is that a year ago i had no idea i'd be living in africa this thanksgiving. life...you just never know! but here it is, turkey day a million miles from home. holidays die hard, i still woke up excited, ready to eat some bird at the hagman's (will it be turkey or guinea fowl??) and reflect on the day that undoubtedly for me has more family memories that all the other holidays combined. it is the de facto american family get together day. i have a flood of memories, primarily from phoinex where my sister Heidi created Camp Schwarzkopf for all us migrating turkey refugees to sleep in a large military tent in her backyard. over a decade of that with a huge not-so-extended family where we were all buds. nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters and moms and dads. all in the rearview at this point in life, but it was really special while it lasted, while she was alive. but now i am here. was hoping for a nice hot shower this cold rainy morning before i headed out for an early american meal, but wasn't meant to be. oh well, you can't have adventure if everything works all the time! i'll have one tomorrow. or sometime soon enough!
THE MARA
so the smart plan is coming together...my trip to elephant pepper safari tent camp in the mara starts saturday morning thru tuesday, then i go to Encounter Mara safari tent camp tuesday thru friday. the encounter mara portion is a trade out...a free stay for a 3-5 minute video for their website. here's their site...
http://encountermara.com/
should be a beautiful time. people fly from all over the world to see the wild game on the masai mara. it is truly a stupendously beautiful place. even during the "green" season (read: rainy) it will be stunning. i'm very excited about spending a week down there. heaven. and hopefully will return with lots of new fodder for the blog. EPCamp will be fun as i get to hang out with calum and soph. my foot is still in recovery mode, so probably won't get to do many walking tours with calum, but at least i'm well enough to go. the x-rays were negative, merely stretched a ligament, and will be fine soon enough. but the mara...ahhhhhhhhh...what a place. i wish all of you could see it someday. i'll do my best to capture it. on my trusty iPhone of course!
KISWAHILI
well, i finished my first 12 lessons of intensive swahili lessons with jacken. close to 300 flash cards i know 90%??? i'm a work in progress, but it's coming. more work and pressure than i imagined, you don't play around with jacken, but the results are coming slowly. not quite robert redford yet in Out of Africa, but getting there. BTW, readers, if you've never seen Out Of Africa, you are required to see it to read this blog. if you haven't seen it for years, see it again! i live close to and drive by the karen blixen house everyday. i can see the ngong hills from my hood, and most of my world (even the town of Karen) is because of her and brought to light in that movie! it IS my experience over here, and truthfully, a large factor in deciding to move here. i know, kinda crazy to move 12,000 miles away due to a movie made twenty six years ago, but if you're a hopeless romantic and you're looking for more adventure in your life, that movie will get you packing. it did for me. and in a sense, i'm living the film everyday. my swa lessons with jacken are at the karen blixen coffee gardens just down the street from her house and plantation. yes, please watch that film again. things will make more sense as to the why and where. (hey, i went to law school after watching The Paper Chase and finally moved to africa after seeing Out of Africa enough times! yes, films do influence our lives! uh oh, it's the season to watch Elf again soon!)
THE WEATHER
so i was in the nakumatt Karen yesterday (local supermarket) and heard christmas carols. seriously? caught me so off guard! the weather here presently is the short rainy season from mid october to mid december. then hot and windy thru mid march, then the long rainy season from march-june. it is WAY wetter than i expected and colder too. being a mile high keeps it cool. it feels so much like Ohau, hawaii to me. sunny, rainy, sunny, rainy, especially like the north shore in winter. it truly is the green season, and i'll be ready for next month to roll around and dry out some. apparently it hasn't been so wet at the coast. since i have no christmas plans, i'm thinking i may drive down to Diani for a night and check out Voi along the way. put my prado to use and drive that 6 hour drive. Voi is roughly have way and good place to stop. besides, i need to do some scouting for when company comes! a bona fide excuse! i don't mind the rain, the color of the wet soil is so red and rich, never gets old. but i won't mind the sun either, even if it does come with a shaharan wind. another new season! new skies to see!
THANKS GIVEN
much to be thankful for this thanksgiving...namely, the best friends in the whole world that are literally all over the world! germany, england, norway, sweden, switzerland, australia, new zealand, canada, america, south africa, kenya, philippines, russia, new york, i am very blessed! and most of you are following my blog and giving much needed encouragement at times. thank you for your feedback! never gets old!
also thankful for the amazing family i have. and extended family. you have all been so supportive! i feel the love! thank you! and a special shout out to "the remnant" and the beautiful send off dinner you gave me. i miss you all!
mostly i'm thankful to God for providing me with such an incredible life! i have been so fortunate to chase my dreams and see the world. and again, have the most amazing people in my life. i stand before you, the luckiest man on the face of the earth. actually, lou gehrig said that, the best thanksgiving speech given on the fourth of july ever: "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth."... "So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for." what a great speech. i did it as a monologue once. watch the real thing on youtube!
WHAT'S AHEAD
not sure what's ahead, but still feel led to be here and so far the big journey has been just that and the experiment is working. very glad to have made the move. and the mara trip coming up will be very nourishing to the soul. can't wait. lots o pics below. at thanksgiving dinner today at the hagman's (thanks eric and tracey) i met a nice dutch women, helene, who had negotiated to buy 10 cows from some masai for a microfinancing group that needed the capital investment to buy some skinny cows and fatten them up. not your everyday conversation at a thanksgiving table. you're average lady euro mzungu who's a banker by trade bartering on the street for cattle. (BTW, the skinny cows go for 140USD and later sell for up to 900USD when they're fat!) and the cows just wander around the streets of nairobi eating grass! crazy! always fun to meet new folks here. so...on to the pics! happy thanksgiving everyone. take it from me, you have a lot to be thankful for!
(sometimes writing captions is tricky with this blog template! argh! terrible success today! can't get the cursor where it needs to be to write a caption!)
below is the karen shopping mall, que pasa bar and bistro, and driving today on the roads in the rain and turkey dinner at the hagman's. and me and gabriel the bank guard and me and zipporrah my bi-weekly cleaning lady. you'll have to connect the dots. but pictures are the best window into my world. this is all primarily around Karen.
here are some stills from encounter mara website. elephant pepper camp pics in the last blog!
the road into karen, wet and wild.
deep red soil when it's wet. the road is an adventure.
que pasa.
me and gabriel. and good man to know for parking at the karen provisional store lot below. when was the last time we were thankful just to have a job???
the default "let's grab a beer and pizza" place. good crowd and close.
inside que pasa!
here's a mutatu...the local taxi vans. they drive like a saharan wind!
looking out of hagman's living room. it stopped raining when we ate!
the hagman's live on a beautiful compound. the grounds are sweeping.
such an intricate flower.
great turkey after all! and all the dressings!
the jib overhead shot.
very tall trees here.
love this folding captain's chair
below is dorman's coffee at the Nakumatt karen, a local's hang.
me and zipporrah!
the talisman bar and lounge area. very cool. had lunch outside here with blue sky film guys. (hey abe, they were looking for you for a shoot!)
love the cool fireplaces here. and the fires everywhere.
this is all from the talisman. very cool bar area (above), open rafters, and such great patios. good brekky place!
more Tamambo. maybe the best tea spot in nairobi, aka the karen blixen coffee garden.
some swahili flash cards! meeting with lorella tomorrow to get more coaching and learn more "shang" from a younger hipper gal than jacken. shang is the swahili slang.
