Ben's Travel Blog

Wedding Photos

2011-12-21T22:19:00.001-05:00

Prague

2011-05-20T03:51:00.001-04:00

The overnight train was an interesting experience. I was able to sleep
some, but not much. We were clearly the boring folks on the train.
There were some parties going on in our car. There were also some
college students to a project for school taking photos of folks on the
night train. I am still convinced it was a scam, I just haven't been
able to figure out their angle yet. No one woke up missing a kidney or
anything, so I guess in general we were okay.

Public transportation in general is always a new and interesting
experience for me. I really like my car, but it is also nice to be in
a place that has options for getting around by bus/train/tram etc.
Obviously it is different here where countries and distances are so
much smaller than in the US, but it is still interesting to see the
commitment to public transportation that clearly does not exist in the
US. To see how they figure out ways of merging small streets and
trolley systems in historic cities where you can't just knock down
buildings to make room sort of removes a lot of the justifications we
use in the US to not add systems in the US. I guess adding these
things in the US doesn't help I guess if we wouldn't use them.

Yesterday and today is visiting the partner church in the Czech
Republic, the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren. Prague is a
beautiful city, sadly we have very little time to explore. Still we
had a little time yesterday, and some time today to see some of the
city. Mostly we have been participating in their annual Synod Meeting,
which is equivalent to our General Assembly. It is interesting to
participate in a meeting like this when you don't have the context of
local needs and politics. I get lost trying to follow PCUSA politics,
so this is a challenge at the least. It is fun to see how different
churches organize themselves and manage their decisions. Lots of
similarities and differences. Interesting things happen, wherever you
are, when you put a bunch of church people in a room together for a
long period of time to make decisions.

In general it has been interesting to see the deep history that exists
in these churches in this part of the world. The Reformation is sort
of an academic thing for those of us in the US, but for these
churches, it is a part of their history and identity. They struggled,
were oppressed and fought to form as churches. It seems particularly
true still in these countries where these churches are still minority
churches to the Catholic Church. Secondarily there is the issue of
Communism and how these churches were impacted during this time and
then after the fact as they try to create and reclaim a past identity.
For some it seems to have provided an opportunity to reinvent and work
to be relevant. Others have struggled since two generations of people
grew up in a culture opposed to attending and participating in a
church community. Here in the Czech Republic they say they are the
most secularized country in Europe so they are particularly challenged
in drawing folks in to Christian community.

Tomorrow we hop on the train to Berlin to visit a couple of mission
workers there and to see their ministry.

--
Sent from my mobile device

First Leg Complete

2011-05-18T17:52:00.001-04:00

Well I haven't written much, but I am never sure if anyone is reading,
so if no one has checked the site, no harm I guess.

We have finished the first part of our trip. Well technically, the
second I guess, but summarizing like it is only the first leg makes me
feel like less of a slacker. It was a long trip, first the flight,
then the train. Ukraine was good. We spent like 36 hours there. The
one full day was busy. We visited a church where Presbyterian Women
had helped install a water system, met with the Bishop of the Reformed
church and talked about "official" business. Then we visited a
preschool for Roma kids and the neighboring village, then another Roma
community where a PCUSA mission worker may help start a preschool,
then a high school, them more meetings. Really good, really
interesting, really complicated. This is a complex part of the world.
Lots of history, both old and new, that makes for a complicated world.
Yet another setting where borders were made that create challenges.
Although we were in the Ukrainian the people identify as Hungarian.
However, Hungary picked the wrong side during the first world war, so
parts of the area where Hungarian is spoke is split between Hungary,
Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia. For our local church partner, that
means what was once one church was split. They try and remain
connected, but are all separate legal entities now in different
countries, all with different challenges to face.

After spending time in Ukraine we headed to Budapesh. We were there
for what seems like an even shorter amount of time. We arrived
yesterday afternoon, checked in to our hotel, and spent the afternoon
meeting with representatives of the Reformed Church of Hungary. Today,
we had more meetings learning about more of their ministries. One that
was interesting was their Disaster response. They sent a medical
response team to Haiti within 36 hours of the earthquake. Now it can
be argued what is the best way to respond in crisis, but still it was
impressive to hear about.

We even had a little tourist time. Not much, just an hour or two to
walk around the castle district. Enough to make me feel like I at
least saw the city. No souvenirs though. We are moving around too
much. Going to have to wait to our last stop I think.

Tonight we are on a train to Prague. My first time in a sleeper car on
a night train. I told some folks it feels like a random mix of the
Hogwarts train and the Night Bus from Harry Potter. Can't really
sleep, so I am writing this. Tomorrow we will be in Prague, then off
to Berlin on Saturday morning. Leave Monday morning for the U.S. Its
a real whirlwind.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Made It

2011-05-15T15:34:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note if people are reading the blog to you let you know
that we arrived safely and are now in the Ukraine, just over the
Hungarian border. Had no problems with flights, just a lot of travel.
First flights, then a bus, then a train then a van. Really all we
needed was John Candy and the complete would have been complete.
Already met some interesting folks, and tomorrow looks like a hugely
busy day because we are in this area for such a short time. I will do
my best to do updates, but I have run into a bit of a challenge, I
forgot both my camera, and my phone charger. Others can take pictures,
and maybe I can borrow someone else's charger a bit, so things will
work out. The one positive is I brought my laptop, so I can use it for
emails and such when I have access to wifi.
Ben

--
Sent from my mobile device

Short Start

2011-05-14T17:55:00.001-04:00

On the plane to Frankfurt, leaving from Dulles, in Washington DC. The
one thing that stands out so far, is that the airport is nothing like
it appears in Die Hard 2. I am pretty disappointed. Yippee Kai Yay
indeed.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Not a very good Blogger

2010-05-04T21:31:00.001-04:00

I haven't been very good about blogging for this trip. Maybe I am
getting a little bit over traveling, or maybe I am just lazy. Really
it is probably that most of this trip has been either traveling, or
participating with the retreat. Not really interesting material.
Don't get me wrong, this has been a great trip. I think back about my
first mission personnel retreat in 2007 and compare it to now and I
feel so different. I am more comfortable in my work, and instead of
knowing almost no one at the retreat I came here this time knowing
almost everyone.
Brazil is very different. Largely if it wasn't for the fact that
everyone is speaking strangely, I could just as easily be in the US.
Well maybe not really, but it seems very close. Or maybe I am just
becoming more adaptable. Brazil is great though. It is early fall
here, so the climate has been very mild. Our hotel isn't fancy, but it
provides for all of our needs and is very comfortable. As I mentioned,
I know most of the mission personnel, so it feels more like a reunion
for me. All in all, a very good trip.
It has been interesting also to learn more about folks work in South
America and the Caribbean. we have people in Peru, Brazil, Argentina,
Colombia, Bolivia, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Some of these
folks have been working with the PCUSA for over 30 years, and others
for less than a year. Really a good, diverse group.
I am taking some pictures, so I hope to post some when I get back.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Portuguese is not Spanish

2010-05-01T21:45:00.001-04:00

So I do not speak Spanish. Basically all I learned to say is what I
picked up from Sesame Street. But people say Portuguese is similar to
Spanish. So I figured I would be able to at least say hello, goodbye,
thank you, etc. So far, it isn't that easy. Sure it looks similar,
but it doesn't sound similar to me.

Anyway, the first bit of time here in Brazil as been really good.
Yesterday was a long day. Over 24 hours of travel time. But we got
here without any problems. We were greeted my two of the PCUSA mission
personnel who are in Vitoria. Then we checked to our hotel and then
hurried off to meet people from the partner church. It was a good
meeting, where we were welcomed warmly and heard about the training
center that we were visiting. I must say though jet lag and a new
language don't always go well together. Thankfully there was some
translation happening, but all in all it was mostly all over my head.

Today was very busy as well. We started early with visiting the eight
churches in the area of Vitoria. It was great, and we saw not only the
diversity of the city, but also the churches. From very small, to very
large. And to be honest, I am starting to get used to the idea of
hoping in and out of vans and having my picture taken at churches. It
really is cool to see both the similarities and differences between
churches in different parts of the world.

Tomorrow we depart for the retreat. So back to the airport, and then a
bus ride. I really have no idea what the place is like where we are
going, so it should be interesting.

Oh, and one fun note. Dad had a pin pall from Brazil when we were
kids. We always got these awesome chocolates. I think I found them, so
I bought a box. Now I just have to decide if I eat them all or share
them.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Home

2009-11-24T21:13:00.001-05:00

I am back home, safe and sound. It was a long day of travel. We went to the airport at 7 on Monday evening (2 p.m. Eastern) and landed in Louisville at 6:40 p.m. Glad to be home and I hope to sleep well tonight. I will try and post some photos soon.

Part 2 - Wrapping up Ghana

2009-11-24T01:00:00.000-05:00

As I was saying during my last post, Saturday was our tourist day. After lunch at the hotel we set out to tour one of the former slave castles. The castle/fort had a long history, and I believe was one of the oldest structures built by Europeans in this region of africa. It was originally built by the Portuguese, then it was taken by the Dutch, and it was lastly occupied by the British. It was a truly sobering experience to hear the stories and see the setting from one of histories darkest marks. I don't always believe in ghosts of the past, but there was a very tangible feeling of the sadness and horror that took place in this castle. And as a further challenge of the horrors of the past there was the ever present reminder of the role that the church played in the justification of the slave trade. In the center of the castle was a Portuguese church, and on another floor there was a room that had served as a protestant chapel. So clearly there were people of faith who lived and worked in this castle, yet it appears their faiths never challenged them to see the cruelty that they were carrying out on other people. I haven't been to the Holocaust Museum, but I suspect that it would be a similarly heart wrenching experience.

On Sunday we were to worship at a local Presbyterian Church. This one was a little different than the typical Presbyterian Church of Ghana because it was made up of folks from the northern region of Ghana. However, because the church was located somewhere out of the way, our plans were to go to another neighborhood church were we would meet up with someone from the church who would guide us to the church. What this meant though was that because we showed up at the first church right before their service, they wanted us to come into the service for a quick introduction. So after about 30 minutes of prayer in Twi, we were introduced and departed for the service we planned on attending. We were a little late, entering into the service at about the same time we left the other service. Or, that's my guess because we prayed the Lord's prayer close to before we left the first service and we prayed it at the second service shortly before we arrived.

This weeks worship was similarly more lively than I am used to. I tried to take a video of one of the traditional dances that they did at different times and I will try and post it when I get back. It was a challenge though to attend worship when you hardly understand anything that is said, or sung. We have a refuge family that our church is helping as they re settle. I understand first hand how strange and awkward it must be for them to try and worship in a culture that is so different than what they are accustomed to. The service was also considerably longer than I am used to. Part of that was because the sermon, which was in English, had to be translated twice. When it was all said and done the worship service was over 3 hours long.

After church we decided to go to a local craft market. It was sort of the typical arts market experience, where you are sometimes swarmed by people trying to get your attention to buy from them. As is typical, we had to negotiate our price for the purchases as well. I did end up with a few nice things, but I was totally exhausted by the time we were finished.

We ended the day by having dinner with some of the leaders of the PCG. They took us to have Chinese. As has been typical of this trip, I ate way more than I needed.

Monday was our last day in Ghana and was split equally between visiting a seminary and wrapping up our meetings. Both were good, but I had reached the point where I was ready to depart for home. We started the day very early, so that we could pack and be checked out. However, my flight wasn't set to depart until after 10, so it was a long day of anticipating my departure.

I will try and summarize my experiences from this trip a little later, but all in all it was a very good trip. I had an amazing opportunity to meet people in Nigeria and Ghana, as well as get to know some folks who are a part of some incredible work with church partners and the PCUSA. At the same time, I am ready to go home.

Wrapping Up My Time in Ghana

2009-11-23T17:33:00.000-05:00

Well, today is my last day in Ghana and probably the last time I will be on the continent of Africa. It has been a very good trip. I have seen a lot and traveled through a lot of city and country side of both Ghana and Nigeria. I have met a lot of wonderful people and seen both wonderful and heart breaking things. At the same time I feel ready to return home. I find that I probably don't have as adventurous spirit as some, so after being away from a couple of weeks I am ready to be heading home.

On Friday we spent most of the day continuing some of the meetings that we had started earlier in the week. They were good opportunities for conversation and planning for the future.

Saturday was our "tourist" day. We left pretty early to head out of Accra and visit the Cape Coast, which was south and west of Accra. Traffic was fairly bad, so it took us a lot longer to get out of town than we had planned. After we got out of town we still had a couple of hours of driving before we arrived at our destination. I enjoyed the scenery, but we spent a lot of time in vans over the past couple of weeks. After we arrived we stopped at a resort hotel for lunch. It was on the coast, and we had a great view of the ocean.

To be continued. My plane home is taking off so I will continue when we land.

What is your Mission

2009-11-19T16:40:00.001-05:00

We have spent the last couple of days moving around Ghana. Mostly we
have been in and around Accra, the capitol city of Ghana, but
Wednesday and Thursday we moved out of the city and have been
traveling around a little more.

We were the last of our group to arrive in Ghana on Sunday night. The
three of us from Louisville (Mike, Doug and Ben), plus the one
Regional Liaison (RL) for West Africa who we traveled with in Nigeria
(Josh), as well as the RL from Central Africa (Jeff) (Congo, Cameroon
and EQ) who we met up with on Saturday met up with the other three of
our group. These three include the RL for the Horn of Africa (Michael)
(Sudan and Ethiopia), the RL for East and Central Africa (Nancy)
(Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi) and the RL from Southern Africa
(South Africa, Madacascar, Zimbabwee, Lestheo, among others). We had a
fairly low key evening of getting a bite at a fairly eclectic
restaurant that seems to be pretty popular with ex pats, but which
serves soft serve ice cream, which many of us were in the mood for.

Monday was spent mostly visiting with church leadership from the
Presbyterian Church of Ghana, one of the two partner churches that the
Presbyterian Church USA most closely interacts with. After starting
the morning with a little shopping we, we met with the PCG's
Moderator, Clerk, and other denominational directors. We heard about
their various ministries and how we might continue to partner with
them. We then departed the General Assembly (national) Office and
headed over to meet with the Women's organization. Somewhere along the
line a decision was made that we wanted traditional Ghanian food, so
plans were changed to find a restaurant. Eating has been a bit of a
struggle for me off and on this trip. In addition to my stomach, and
bowels (that's for you Foley family) needing to readjust, I find it
very hard to have an appetite when it is hot and you have been
bouncing around in a van. I was saved by the fact that plantains where
on the menu. I have vowed to learn how to make them when I get back. I
love me some plantains.

After lunch we met with the women and were greeted with a Ghanian
tradition that we had seen already, and have now experienced several
times. Immediately after arriving, one is given water and a chance to
sit. It is a traditional sign of welcome. After everyone drinks,
introductions come next. I have gotten used to introducing myself and
describing what I do over the last couple of weeks. After the
introductions the question will come, "what is your mission." No
beating around the bush. Why are you here and what do you want. I
really quite like it. I have sat in way too many meetings when it
doesn't seem like anyone knows why you are there. Afterwards we
stopped and picked up some groceries for the next few days.
Experiencing supermarkets in other countries is always interesting. So
much is exactly the same, and so much is completely different.

Tuesday was spent at the guest house in meetings. It wasn't the most
exciting way of spending time, but it was nice to spend time getting
to know one another and I particularly liked the fact that we didn't
spend much time in the van.

Wednesday we were back in the van. We departed Accra to visit a
graduate school outside of town and then to travel east to the Volta
region of the country to the town of Ho, where the other partner
church (Evangelical Presbyterian Church) is headquartered. The
graduate school (Akrofi-Christaller Institute) was pretty interesting
and is training Theologians from all over Africa. Its campus is the
original mission of one of the early German mission sending agencies.
The Germans were kicked out after WW1, which is when the Church of
Scotland moved in, and the Presbyterians got involved.

After a late lunch we continued on our way to Ho. For some reason we
made a detour to visit a bead making factory. I tried to send a few
pictures, so hopefully that worked. Later we stopped at a little
street market to buy a couple of snacks for dinner and were swarmed by
street vendors. We bought some bananas, bread, and smoked prawns,
little freshwater shrimp, that you eat whole, head, legs and shell. I
had one. It was really too much work for what you got out of it. We
were running a little behind, which meant the last hour and a half of
our drive was after dark. Not a major problem, but I am glad I wasn't
driving. Not only is it a dark, narrow road, but people are walking
along the sides and you really can't see them. We got to the EPC
compound though without any problems and got checked in to their
hotel.

Today (Thursday) was another busy day. We spent the morning visiting
with EPC leadership and visiting a few of their ministries in and
around Ho. We got off to a little bit of a late start after lunch, it
really is a trend with us, so we were running behind to our next stop
that was back in Accra. We arrived at the Interfaith Dialog Center of
the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, about an hour behind schedule. But
we arrived and had a chance to learn more about their work with
churches and their interactions with Muslims in Ghana. Afterwards we
made another stop at our favorite restaurant for ice cream. Pretty
soon they are going to know us on a first name basis there.

We are back now at our guest house. I am pretty tired, but the travels
have been very good. I am sorry that I haven't been able to post any
pictures of note. At this point I suspect I will just post most of
them after I get back next week. Tomorrow is another meeting day and
then Saturday is our tourist day. We are going to the beach to visit a
castle that had been used as a slave fort I think.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Kiln

2009-11-18T12:39:00.000-05:00

Here is the kiln that the use. It gets up to 1250 degrees. They use wood for the fire.

Short Pit stop

2009-11-18T12:36:00.000-05:00

On our way to Ho we stopped and a little compound that makes beads. Here we are learning how to make beads.

Last Day In Nigeria

2009-11-15T17:40:00.001-05:00

Today is our last day in Nigeria. Much of Friday and Saturday were
spent in a van. As I mentioned in an earlier post we spent a couple of
hours in a "slow down." We arrived very late to the graduation at the
seminary, but we were able to get there at the very end, which was
nice. The graduation was in a little field near the campus. It was a
pretty small school, one of the two seminaries of the church. I felt a
little bad because or arrival was an obvious distraction from the
ceremony as they stopped and introduced each of us. After we had lunch
with some of the Synod's and Seminary staffs we loaded back up and
headed to a town where we would spend the night. Before too much time
passes I need to write down all of the town names that we visited. We
moved around so much that I often didn't know where we were.

On Saturday we departed early for a commissioning of a new church
building that had been built by a family and donated to the church.
Once again we were late due to problems on the road. First a stretch
of the road was flooded, which meant that we needed to pick up a local
person to help us navigate a local dirt road, where we had to pay a
couple of people a "fee" to let us pass. Then we ran into another stop
because there was a cement truck broken down blocking the road, which
led to another small detour and fee. Once we arrived at the church we
sat for 5 minutes, were introduced and each spoke briefly and then
headed out to get to the town with the airport, which was a couple of
hours away. All in all I think we spent between 6 and 7 hours in the
van. We had a nice lunch at an elder from the church's home in the
city with the airport, and then we departed for Lagos, where we met
another colleague who will be joining us in Ghana.

Today we spent time at two worship services in Lagos. The first
service we attended in its entirety, at Yaba Presbyterian church. The
service lasted for about 3 hours. It was very lively, but a little
awkward as we were sitting at the front of the church. Once again,
during the service we were asked to introduce ourselves and greet the
church. I am not super comfortable doing that, since I haven't done
anything like that before, but I am getting more accustomed to it.
One thing that I enjoyed was how lively both the prayer and singing
was during worship. Presbyterians in Nigeria are not the frozen
chosen, that is for sure. Also, the entire congregation danced its way
through the aisles on their way to give their tithe. It was truly
joyful giving. After a quick, but very good lunch provided at and by
the church, we stopped at the liaison officer's church, who has been
helping us get around Lagos. We were once again ushered to the front
of the church to be welcomed and give a greeting. After the service we
were swarmed by the congregation to shake hands and be told " you are
welcome." I shook so many hands I felt like a politician. I guess
there are many pastors who shake that many hands on any given Sunday,
but that isn't me.

We spent our last bit of time driving around Lagos. It was a very
interesting town. There are very run down and dirty sections, where
you won't see a blade of grass. And then there are other very well
developed sections. It is a very large town, I heard from anywhere
between 14 and 17 million.

As we sat in the airport I spent a little bit of time looking up the
city names of towns I visited. Maybe I will try and do a map key or
something later with town names.

I am in Ghana now to begin the second phase of the trip. Monday is
meeting with folks from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and Tuesday
will be mostly meeting with the 5 Regional Liaisons.

--
Sent from my mobile device

One more thing

2009-11-13T06:33:00.001-05:00

I forgot to mention this earlier. I apologize in advance for any
grammatical or spelling errors. I am writing from my Blackberry, and
although I can spell check, I haven't always remembered. I might try
and go back and edit later when I am at a computer, but I doubt it. I
do thank you for reading though, even in the midst of the errors.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Leaving Calabar

2009-11-13T06:27:00.001-05:00

Well today we are departing from the city of Calabar, which as I
believe I mentioned earlier, is one of the centers of the Presbyterian
Church of Nigeria. The church here was started initially by Scottish
missionaries in the 1840s. When I get a chance to upload pictures from
my camera I will be able to share some of the pictures that I took
from the original church that was built in 1850 by a missionary from
Jamaca.
We spent much of Wendsday and Thursday traveling through two of the
synods in this area visiting some of the churches here. Some were in
rural areas, some in cities, and one in the "largest villiage in west
Africa." I am not exactly sure what makes it the largest villiage,
other than it does not have a local government, so it is still run by
a chief. Or, at least that is what I was able to pick up.

Wednesday was spent mostly visiting historic congegations, although we
finished the day meeting with individuals from the Women's Guild. They
share with us some of the work that they are doing, and where they
need support and prayer. As it is everywhere, the women here really
are the heart of the church. On Thursday we traveled farther out of
the city and visited churches in another Synod. While there we visited
a church with a healing house that blends prayer and medical healing
practices. We also visited a former leper colony that now treats
mostly TB patients. At this clinic we saw what is happening all over
in churches and institutions around the world. This hospital was
originally founded by missionaries and probably received major support
through them for years. However, as the churches pull out, and have
less resources, there has been no way to maintain what once was.
Sometimes that means letting go, and doing things differently, and
sometimes that means trying to hold on to what once was.
One interesting glimpse into life here has been that we got stuck in a
traffic jam that went for miles and ended up with a two lane road
filled with cars three to four across. (As I write this we are stuck
in the same traffic jam, now going the opposite direction.) It is a
very interedting glimpse into a different way of life. Like with any
traffic jam, people lose their tempers. There are also people who cut
in line, drive around when they shouldn't, and make a generally bad
situaition worse. On the otherside of it there was an interesting
since of communityas we got out and walked. We greeted strangers and
had opportunities to make purchases from vendors who are taking
advantage of a literally captive audience. It is also frustrating
because the cause of the traffic jam was that a truck driver chose to
not pay the required fee for driving on a road. So the penalty was
that the authorities used nails to stop the truck, which caused an
accident at a junction at a major intersection. The problem was made
worse by the reality that it doesn't seem that the local police are
doing much to try and take charge of the situation. Still, people find
a way to manage and find ways to make due, even in the midst of a less
than ideal situation.

We started the morning, after checking out of our hotel, touring an
area that was originally a departure place for the West African slave
trade. It was a fairky heavy experience, but also very enlightening.
It was very interesting to see how the history was told from this
side. Some of the history was the same, but some of it was very
different. It was also very hard at times to see American's held in
this light, even if it is true.

Unfortunately the traffic jam means that it is taking us much longer
to get where we are going today. Which means we are not going to be
able to do everything that we had planned, which included going to the
graduation of a local seminary. On a positive note, it ha given me a
chance to write this blog post, wchich is a welcome distraction from
the crazy driving that is going on around me. Let's just say it is
very good that I don't easily get car sick.

Well I think that is all for now.

--
Sent from my mobile device

First Day in Nigeria

2009-11-11T03:49:00.001-05:00

Well, after spending about 12 hours in Ghana we hoped on a plane from
Accra to Lagos, Nigeria. I was a little tense as we only had a ticket
to Lagos and we weren't sure who we would meet at the airport or what
we would need to do for a ticket to our final destination in Calabar,
which is in the south east and the main center of the Presbyterian
Church of Nigeria. All of my worries were for naught. We were greated
by three individuals from the church who had tickets for us to
Calabar, helped us find lunch (I had a meat pie, beef, potatoes -
maybe yam I don't know, and a few other veggies), helped us convert
some money and brought us to the domestic airport.
From Lagos we flew to Calabar, where we were greeted by another group
from the PCN. The Church is present in Lagos, but the majority of the
church is in this part of the country. We were greeted by about four
people in the airport building, and another 10 or so outside. So we
shook hands with our new friends and were brought by a bus to the
hotel where we are staying. We had lunch ( remember we already ate 3
or so hours earlier in Lagos) and were formally introduced to
everyone. The group included pastors of churches, leaders of the
Synod, including the women's guild, and leaders of the national
church. After we concluded our meal we headed out to one of their
secondary schools, where their Moderator has his office. We met with
him and a few others and then toured their grounds, which included the
churches printing press, a local parish, as well as the school.

All in all it was a very good day, but a lot of moving around. The
meeting and visiting with church partners is new to me, so that was an
interesting experience. I liked it, but it uses a whole different type
of energy than I am used to. I took some pictures, and will try and
post at some point, but maybe not until I get back. I might try and
take a couple of pictures from my phone and post them that way.

The hotel where we are staying is comfortable, and I slept well last
night. I think we will be here for at least one more night, but maybe
more.

Well I need to run, our ride is here.

--
Sent from my mobile device

A Little explanation

2009-11-09T07:43:00.001-05:00

I guess I probably have never really explained to many what this trip
was all about. There are actually two different parts to this trip.
First, I am traveling to Nigeria, through Ghana. I will be traveling
with two other staff from Louisville and one mission co-worker who is
serving in Ghana. We will be visiting the Presbyterian Church of
Nigeria, learning about their work, and visiting some of their
institutions. It is going to be a pretty whirlwind trip. We get there
Tuesday and leave Sunday.
The last half of the trip will be in Ghana and we will be joined by
four more PCUSA mission workers who serve as Regional Liaisons
throughout Africa. We will spend some of this week visiting the two
Presbyterian Churches in Ghana. We will also be doing some training
and planning with these five mission personnel.
So far so good on the trip. Didn't sleep much, but hopefully that will
mean I will sleep tonight.

--
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Been a While

2009-11-08T21:33:00.001-05:00

I have clearly spent too much time flying in and out of Louisville. As
is usually the cas, transatlantic planes are large, and usually full.
I have become so accustomed to the little three or four seat planes
that I barely know what to do in a plane with eight seats in a row. I
am sure I will adapt though.
Its a night flight, so I hope I sleep some. Previous experience would
say it is unlikely, especially if there is a good movie on. I feel
like it is my personal obligation to watch in flight movies. I am
convinced that these captive audiences are sometimes the only people
who see some of these movies.
Well that's it for now. See ya on the other side.
Ben

--
Sent from my mobile device

Test Photo

2009-11-07T11:44:00.000-05:00

This was taken today with a few visiting friends. I wanted to see how photos emailed from my phone would work

Finally, Costa Rica

2008-12-24T12:07:00.012-05:00

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to post these last pictures. Enough time has passed that I doubt anyone sees them, but what the heck.

These pictures are from the last part of my trip in Costa Rica. Most of the trip was spent in, or around, San Jose. I visited PCUSA mission personnel who live and work in the area, and had one day of getting out a little and seeing some Costa Rican country side.

We spent the first two nights in the dorm of the Latin American Biblical University (UBL) http://www.ubila.net/. It is a small, but pretty incredible school. They have sites in different countries in Central and South America. Much of this artwork was created by different student projects. Unfortunately, enough time has gone by since I heard what each was, I can no longer remember. The wood sculpture of the woman was to commemerate an event/fundraiser that the university put on with the goal of raising awareness and support for women in ministry.

So while we were there I had the chance to visit with the mission personnel and learn about the the classes they were teaching. I also had a chance to meet with some of the leaders of the school and hear about the work that is happening there.

Later on Thursday we were brought around to a couple of the churches of the Presbyterian Church of Costa Rica. It is a relatively small denomination there and has not been around for too long. They receive a number of groups from churches in the U.S.

On Friday we spent a little bit of time driving around the country outside of San Jose. Unfortunately it was pretty fogging, so the pictures aren't great.

While we were driving back we happened across a little town. We walked around the church and went inside. We discovered later that there used to be a Catholic seminary on the grounds as well, but it has since closed.

I am not entirely sure, but I think this is what poinsettia plants look like in their natural, none Christmas environment.

On our drive back I also got to see a lot of coffee. It was growing on the hillsides, and even up to the ditches next to the roads. I had heard about the process for growing and harvesting coffee, but until one actually sees the hillsides where the coffee is grown, and how labor intensive it has to be to harvest the beans by hand, it is hard to understand really how cheap coffee is. The hillsides are steep and hard to get to. The beans are all picked by hand and carried back down the mountains to be put in trucks where they are hauled away to be processed. It was interesting to hear about how Starbucks has supported certain towns as the economy has declined to insure that their coffee supply would not be interrupted. In a couple of the pictures, you can see the larger trees that provide shade to the coffee plants. Other pictures show a field that is being prepared for new coffee plants. Coffee plants will grow for a couple of years, but eventually need to be replaced with new plants.

Nicaragua

2008-11-24T09:06:00.019-05:00

Well, I thought I would post pictures from the first part of my trip. These are all from my time in Nicaragua. I have lots of pictures of meetings and presentations as well, which is actually what I spent most of my time doing. I say this just so folks don't see these pictures and think that this is all that we did while in Nicaragua.

This is Lake Apoyo, which is the lake that the resort that we were staying at was on. It is a volcanic crater and the lake is approximately 900 feet deep. I never actually had a chance to swim in it, but I understand that it was quite nice. It gets deep very quickly though. The rainy season in Nicaragua was just ending, and I guess that had a lot of rain this year. I will show pictures later of another lake the show just how much rain they have gotten. More info about where I stayed at http://www.noromevillas.com/.

This is the path that I followed up to my room. It was a pretty steep climb, which reminded me every day how completely out of shape I am.

This was the view from my front door.
This is the building where I and two others stayed. We each had our own room and there was a little shared kitchen that was shared by the three rooms.

These are a couple of critters that I shared my room with. The bottom one is a scorpion. Sorry that they are a little blurry. I obviously wasn't interested in getting too close to the scorpion. I was told tat it wouldn't kill me if I was stung, just numb me out and hurt a lot. I have no idea what the other bugs were, but they didn't look too friendly either.

More wildlife from the area. These are howler monkeys that were in the trees above where we were staying. I only saw them once or twice, but you could always here them.

We visited an active volcano. There were several volcanoes in the area, this was the only active one though. We did this as an evening tour. At one point, they let you hang over the ledge, holding on to a pole, and you can see the red glow. It is no bubbling magma like Lord of the Rings, but it was impressive.

We took a boat ride around Lake Nicaragua. It is a pretty huge lake, with lots of little islets in the middle of it. As you can see from some of the photos, some people have houses on them. The water level was several feet above normal though, and as you can see, some of the houses are flooding. The picture at the top is of some of the other folks on my boat.

Just so I can make a couple of appearances on my blog. This bottom picture is of me and Lis, who is a co-worker in Louisville. This is near the restaurant that we ate at on Lake Nicaragua.

Four of us took a horse ride around Granada. The pictures from that are below. This is myself and Susie, she is a mission personnel serving in Mexico.

Here are a couple of pictures from the horse ride around Granada. Folks said that it was a fairly typical colonial town. It was pretty interesting, with lots of museums and what not. We only had like an hour in the town though, so I didn't get to explore much.

The photo at the top of this section is of the horse carriage. I believe the horses names were Dog and Bird or something. Maybe Dog and Cow, or Cat and Cow. Anyway, they were animal names.

Right as we were leaving they were having some sort of service in front of one of the churches. They were firing off cannons, which were obviously loud. I don't think that there were actual cannon balls or anything being shot. I don't think that we were under attack or anything, but I might have been mistaken.

Tomorrow I will try and post some of the photos from Costa Rica.

Home Safe, Not Sure About Sound

2008-11-22T20:00:00.002-05:00

Well I got home a little bit ago. So this if will be my first post that has the assistance of spelling check.

Generally speaking, there were no problems with any of the flights. Got through the airport fine in Costa Rica and our flight left on time. The only problem was the on board movie was Journey to the Center of the Earth staring Brendan Fraser. I think that the only reason anyone will see this film is because they are locked in planes around the world being forced by Delta to either watch this film, or focus on the annoying passengers who are sitting behind them kicking them in the back.

We did miss our connecting flight in Atlanta, but sadly, I can only blame myself. We were having dinner and not paying attention to time, and didn't get to the gate in time. Thankfully, there was another flight an hour later, so I got home at 6:45 instead of 5:30. Annoying, but not problem in the end I guess. My only complaint is that Atlanta isn't a great airport to run around in, way to spread out.

Anyway, I will try and do a couple of posts of pictures now that I am home and have computer access again. Maybe tomorrow, but for sure by early next week.

Homeward Bound

2008-11-22T07:34:00.001-05:00

Well my trip to Central America is approaching its end. I have one
more night in Costa Rica. Our flight leaves at 9 a.m. and I get back
to Louisville at about 5:30. That is pretty nice.

Today was another fairly busy day, but it was abscent of meetings,
which was a welcome change. The morning was spent exploring the
country side about an hour outside of San Jose. We drove on the Pan
American rode for a while, which was interesting. On can take this
highway from mexico to Panama.

While driving around I had the chance to see what a less urban Costa
Rica looks like. This was a direct contrast to where I had been the
night before, sitting in the middle of a Ramada conference room after
driving through what looked like a very heavily ex-pat area. What I
was doing in the Ramada is a pretty randim story that includes the
Rotary Club and a Scotch tasting. Johnny Walker blue is pretty good,
but I still prefer Kentucky Bourbon.

Oh yeah, back to the drive through the country. I got to see the steap
Costa Rican hillsides where very good coffee is grown. I knew in
theory what to expect with coffee farms, but until one sees the steap
hills that these farmers must work to hand pick each individual bean,
let's just say that for what you get for the amount of labor that goes
into it, coffee is cheap.

Afterwards Stan and I took a bus from San Jose to a town closer to the
airport were some friends of Stan live. Staying with them makes the
trip to the airport in the morning much, much easier. We explored a
little of the town and I had a chance to buy some last minute gifts,
as well as a few packages of coffee. We later had dinner at a
restaraunt with an amazing few of the Central Valley of Costa Rica.

I finished the day trying to use a computer that was set up in Spanish
to checkin for my flight. I never could figure out how to change it to
English, and rather than just guessing answers to the yes and know
questions, I decided that it would be best to just wait until the
morning.

In less than 24 hours I will be leaving the summer/spring weather I
have been in the past week and going to what will surely feel like
winter. At least I hope it isn't snowing. Oh well, I miss my wife, so
seeing Skye is surely better than freezing my butt off.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Costa Rica

2008-11-20T17:02:00.001-05:00

We landed with no problems yesterday. Although, because of rush hour
traffic, the drive to where we were staying actually took more time
than the flight. Air travel really is a strange and unnatural
activity. A couple who were at the retreat and live here actually
drove back and beat us here.

Today has been a busy day. We spent some time with our mission
personnel who live and work here in San Jose. The university where
they work is pretty remarkable. We are actually staying in their dorm
I took some picures of art work that was done by various classes and I
look forward to eventually posting it. I think I might get internet
access at the university tonight. If I do, I might try and post a
couple of pictures. I know this has been a pretty text heavy blog so
far so I should try and change that. At the very least, I have next
week off, so I will spend some time posting pictures.

This afternoon we have been running around San Jose. We have someone
who is currently working part time here who is going to be appointed
as a mission worker in January. He brought us by a Presbyterian Church
of Costa Rica Church as well as the national office. The church is
small and young compared to some. I believe there are like 24
churches. Tomorrow we are going to get out of town a bit and see some
of the country side.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Leaving Nicaragua

2008-11-19T16:26:00.001-05:00

Sorry that I missed a couple of days of blogging. I had very limited
access to cell phone coverage and ended up usually just going to my
room at night instead of going the opposite direction to do a post.

The last couple of days have been very busy. On Sunday, after worship
we took a day trip to Lake Nicaragua and the city of Granada. I have
decided that my Central American geography is mostly based on the old
computer game Pirates. Steve, Pat and Alex should all remember that
one. Anyway, I think Granada was one of the cities you attacked in
that. It was a little different in reality. No sword fighting block
figures.

The lake was fun, we took a boat tour. When I get home I will post
some picures. The lake is filled with little islands, many of which
have homes on them. The rainy season is just ending though, and it
appears many of the houses were flooded.

We just spent a little bit of time in Granada. Myseld and three other
mission personnel took a short horse ride around town. It was a good
way to see a bit of the town. I also got a little cental american
history. I saw one of the homes of William Walker. He was an American,
funded some by Teddy Roosevelt, who wanted to set up his own kingdom.
He started in Mexico, and eventually ended up in Nicaragua where he
and his mercenaries tried to rule. Good ole American militarism at
work.

Yesterday was our last day of the retreat, so it was mostly meetings.
It is funny, I was just sort of getting the hang of the place and now
we are moving on.

During a presentation yesterday by one of the partners that the church
works with, we were topld that in Managua there were political
demonstrations taking place as a result of a recent local election.
The outcome of which is in dispute. This caused us to end up spending
more of the day at the airport rather than exploring town. I don't
know that there was any danger for us. It was more of an issue of not
wanting to get stuck on a road while a demonstration happened which
might make us miss our flights.

We are getting ready to board our flight to Costa Rica. Three nights
there and then back to Louisville on Saturday.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Ben vs. the Volcano

2008-11-15T20:59:00.001-05:00

We had a group trip today. We spent all morning and half the afternoon
in meetings, but we took a trip for the afternoon. We went to an area
city to visit a market, and then a evening tour of a volcano.

I market was fun, and I helped support the local economy a little.

I am now sort of live blogging since I have cell phone coverage.

The valcano is vey cool. It is a little spooky to watch smoke rising
from the volcano. We got here right before sunset. We starterd hiking
up the mountain while it was still a little light out. It was a steap
climb, with loose gravel paths. We didn't really think much about it
on the climb up. The climb down was a little less fun. It was pretty
much just a do your best to not fall on your butt.

We are now sitting in the bus waiting for something. Not sure what. I
do know that they told us that we had close the windows on the bus a
bit because of the fumes.

So I now know what we stopped for. We hung over the edge of the
volcano so that we could see the glow. Pretty cool. Not Lord of the
Rings cool, but pretty cool. Next stop is the "bat cave." Although I
hear that "bat and Snake cave" is more accurate.

Okay, back from the cave. Lots more walking in the dark. It was good,
but all of the discription was in spanish, so I didn't get much of
what they said. A couple people translated for the couple of
nonspanish speakers. I did find it ironic that I went to visit a cave
in Nicaragu when I have never been to mammoth cave. We did see bats,
which you could see in Kentucky. But we were told that the cave was
used for deciding who to throw in the valcano. I don't know if the
last part was actually said. I might have made it up.

Well we are loading the bus again, so I think we are heading back now.
Which is good. I am ready for supper.

Tomorrow we only have a couple of meetings. It is mostly free time
after morning worship.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Nicaragua

2008-11-14T21:23:00.001-05:00

Well I made it safe and sound last night. It was a little bit late by
the time we got to the hotel, but we got our rooms without any
problems. The only real snag, is that there is no cell phone coverage
and the wireless internet that was promised on the web is nonexistent.
Oh well, it is a little nice to be somewhat disconnected.

The resort is beautiful. It is sort of in a jungle and borders a
crater lake. The lake isn't huge, but it is like 900 feet deep, which
is crazy to me. I will eventually try and take some photos and post
them here. If the wireless doesn't work though, this will just be a
text blog until I get home.

It was a pretty good day. I met lots of folks who I only knew through
email. I also led one of the parts of today's presentation, and it
seemed to go pretty well. I think I am ready to head to my room now
though. Oh yeah, that reminds me. There are scorpians here. I was told
to keep an eye out for them. The good news is they won't kill you.
Just numb out part of your body. Hopefully I will be able to avoid
them.

There are also howler monkies. I didn't hear them last night, but I
guess they kept some people awake.

Tomorrow we are going on a group trip to a volcano. That should be
pretty cool. If only I had some sort of ring of power to cast into it
to be melted. Skye would kill me if I even suggested using my ring.

Lastly, thanks for posting comments. I think that they get sent to me
as an email, so I have been able to read them.

I hope to post again tomorrow.

--
Sent from my mobile device

San Salvador

2008-11-13T15:27:00.001-05:00

Well, we made it through the first leg of the flight. Ran in to a
little bit of a wrinkle though. We arrived in time to make our flight,
but because we had not been able to have our seats assigned by Delta
in Louisville, we were past the checkin 30 minutes before the
departure and we had to watch the plane take off without us. We will
get to Nicaragua eventually, just 5 hours later than planned. I am
glad that Stan, the PCUSA Area Coordinator for Central America and
Mexico is traveling with me. Otherwise, my total lack of Spanish
speaking ability would have been a problem.

It is too bad that the airport is outside od San Salvador. It would
take an hour to get there, so ti just isn't probably worth going in
and out of customs and the airport.

I wonder if sitting in an airport for 5 hours allows me to add El
Salvador to the countries I have visited list. Probably not.

I will post again when I get to the retreat.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2008-11-12T20:57:00.002-05:00

Well I think that I have everything packed and ready to go for the morning. I have an early flight, which isn't a lot of fun. I am pretty excited though about the fact that I will be arriving at my final destination on the same day that I leave. No 20 hours of travel time this trip. I am a little bit nervous about the whole, Spanish speaking country aspect of this trip. But I will usually be with folks who speak Spanish, so that's good.

This will be the first one of these retreats where I am the solo person from my office. The last time my boss was there also, so she was available if I had any questions. I guess that she will still be available by email if I have questions, but still, I have to do all of the presentations and everything on my own.

Well, I need to go so I can get up early in the morning. Next time I write I should be, God willing, in Nicaragua.

Toronto

2008-01-07T21:06:00.001-05:00

I have no idea if anyone will see this blog or not as I guess I only
really update when I travel, and I don't do that too much.

I am currently iin Toronto, Ontario Canada attending one of our
missione personnel orientations. It is a cross cultural experience. I
must say though if I am traveling for cross cultual experience, the
weather was better in Africa, although this flight was much shorter.

I have met some great, interesting people who are from several
denominations in both Canada and the US. The PCUSA folks came two days
late, so we had to get caught up with everyone yesterday. We spent all
of today at the mission center ( or is that centre crazy Canadians and
their british spelling) where the orientation is being held. Tomorrow
we is our interfaith day, we are visiting a hindu temple, a mosque and
Tim Hortons, which I here is sort of its own religion here in Canada.

I will be here until Jan. 15 so I will probably try and post again at
somepoint, if for no other reason than to share the new vocabulary
that I am learning.

Photos from Kenya

2007-11-21T15:41:00.000-05:00

Continuing my travels, I am now in Kansas visiting my family for Thanksgiving. I have some time now so I am going to upload some photos from my trip.

This is Marta and her two children. Marta, and Phyllis pictured below, were the ones who took me all over Nairobi.

This photo was taken at dinner on my last night in Nairobi. One of the Young Adults was not present for the meal as she lives outside of Nairobi. This is the rest of the group, Phyllis, the Young Adult Site coordinator for Kenya, her daughter and me.

This is the one Young Adult not in the earlier photo and Phyllis at the school where Sarah teaches.

This the beach outside of Turtle Bay. It was a real sacrifice to be there.

Some of the fishes I was able to see while snorkeling.

More fish.

Even more fish.

This is one of the two boats that our group went out on. The one that I was on looked basically the same.

This is me snorkeling and, as always, looking good. Watch out for the forehead glare though.

This is the coastline near where we were staying taken from the boat as we returned.

More coastline from the boat.

This was the view from my balcony. As I mentioned before, it was a hardship for me to stay at this place.

I tried to snap a couple of pictures on my bus ride to the airport in Mombasa so you could see what the Kenyan countryside looked like.

I have no idea if this is a general representation of what the country in this area looks like or just happens to be what the area looks like from the road.

For my family back home. Cows in Kenya. I frequently saw cows, goats and sometimes donkeys walking along the side of the road. Usually someone was herding them or they were tied to a rope that was tied to something.

For some reason, these huge trees just scream Africa to me. I am not sure what kind they are, but they are impressive.

More of these big trees.

And finally, as the baby cheetah's seemed popular from my earlier post, here is one more of them.

Home

2007-11-18T15:28:00.000-05:00

This will be a short post. I made it home. No problems. I am pretty
tired, and now trying to force myself to stay awake until this
evening. I will try and post some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks everyone who has read and commented while I was traveling.

Amesterdam

2007-11-18T01:27:00.001-05:00

I really don't have all that much to say. I just wanted to hit another country on by blog.

I slept some on the flight from Nairobi, which is rare for me. I was a little sad to miss the Fantastic Four sequel, but with therapy I think I will get over it.

One thing is sort of driving me crazy, but really there is nothing I or anyone else can do about it. Its the psychology of lines. First we wait in lines to check our bags. Then we wait in lines to go through security before you can even get to the waiting area for the gate. After that we wait in lines to board the plane. Then we wait in line for the bathroom. Then we wait in line to get off the plane. After that, we wait in line to get our luggage. If we are lucky someone picks you up, otherwise you wait in line for the bus or taxi. All this time one gets to see what kind of person they are . Are they the person who talks to everyone, cuts in line, talks on their cell phones, or as I just discovered I am, type emails to blogs.

Amsterdam threw a new wrinkle into the security mix before boarding to Detroit. They interview you. I am not sure why, I guess they trust bad people to self disclose. The real problem is it is early in the morning. It took me like a minute to remember what an MP3 player is called. I also forgot it and my cell phone used batteries until I was reminded. I guess I thought they ran on kinetic energy or something.

Well I can see the plane door so I should run. Be back in the states soon.

Last Day

2007-11-17T10:49:00.001-05:00

So I was unsucessful in posting pictures. The time I was getting picked up for the airport was moved up by an hour and a half. So the pictures will have to wait until my return I guess.

I was sad to say goodbye to so many new friends. Spending the last week with this group of mission personnel was very enjoyable. It was busy, but I was far less busy than some of the other staff members. I had many great conversations with people doing remarlable things in a variety of countries in east and south Africa. Everything fromk teaching in seminary, to water and well creation, to doctors, to agriculture experts were present. Some of the mission personnel were new to their positions, and others had been serving for decades. On had been a missionary for over 50 years.

I left before the closing worship that will be held later tonight, but I did have a chance to say some goodbyes early. It was a little over two hours by car to get to the airport for a 4d minute flight. By the time I land in Nairobi I am pretty sure driven would have been as fast, but a lot more trouble. I was able to check my bags through to detroit, which is nice so I don't have to go through baggage claim one more time.

I am now sitting in the Mombassa airport watching the Jaime Kennedy Experiment on TV. Before this was on it was Lois and Clark. Thankfully, ther is no sound. Whenever people wonder why people have a strange perception of Americans all one needs to do is watch TV in another country. The absolute worst TV is exported. Really any TV is probably a bad thing to export to the world if you want to know what a people is like. Its just so random watching tv here and seeing the shows that were cancled almost as quickly as they started.

Well I am going to have a long day of flights. I am trying to mentally prepare myself, but I don't know if it will do any good. Not only do I have one more leg of the flight this time, I did't make the Nairobi-Mombassa flight until days after I arrived, it always seems to take longer flying west over the Atlantic. This was a great trip, but I am ready to head home.

I might try and post one more time on this trip from Amesterdam so this can be a three continent Blog.

Jambo

2007-11-16T10:28:00.001-05:00

So today is my last full day in Kenya. I have a domestic and then International flight out of here tomorrow. I am going to try and do my seat assingment tomorrow so since I will be online I might try and post some of my more awesome pictures.

I have awesome pictures because I went snorkeling yesterday with a group of the PC(USA) mission personnel here at the retreat. It was a blast.

We took two boats out. One adult boat and one for kids. Don't get any ideas, the kids boat had smaller life jackets, that is the only difference. All in all I would say there were over twenty of us on the two boats.

We left at 12:30 and came back at 2:30. I spent a lot of time taking pictures, but I still got to swim in the ocean as well. the people one the boat would throw pieces of bread into the water and there would be a swarm of fish. Mostly little striped fish but there were some larger ones as well. You didn't want to be in the middle of these groups when there was bread around as the fish sometimes confuse the swimmer with the food. There was coral below the water several feet as well. I saw several, as I called them, Finding Nemo fish. I also saw a huge eel. I guess it wasn't an electric one because I didn't get shocked.

The water was super comfortable. It was so tranquil to just float face down staring at the world beneath. I donKt swim much, particularly out in the middle of the ocean, so there was a little bit of initial panic. I eventually remembered how to tread water. I also remembered that in salt water we float more so I got comfortable and was fine. It does take getting used to breathing through the snorkle, but I got used to that as well.

As I mentioned earlier I will try and post some pictures tomorrow before I leave. If I don't, well you will have to come back after I get home.

Until next time.

Sights and Sounds

2007-11-14T09:25:00.001-05:00

I have had a request to give a little bit more details about what Kenya is like. I have been sort of reluctant to say too much because I have been here such a short amount of time and I am by no means an expert. I will try and give some more details about the country that I have seen so far.

As I have mentioned before, I spent the first couple of days in Nairobi. It is a large, urban city. I was very happy that I was meeting people there who could help me get around. I think that I would have easily been in multiple accidents if I tried to drive. Nairobi was a British colony, so they drive on the left side of the road and utilize "roundabouts." The roads are also fairly narrow and at times completely full of cars. Its pretty much survival of the fittest and there are these little mini buses flying all over the place so you always have to keep an eye out.

The weather there was pretty nice. It is just south of the equator, but its altitude is fairly high so it was never to hot. It seemed to me that most places do not have air conditioning or heat if that gives you a range of the temperture.

One thing that I discovered while I was in Nairobi is that I was under dressed. Most people were in suits and dresses no matter where you went. I guess I could get by because I was a visitor, but I always felt under dressed in a button shirt and jeans. Dressing well is called "smart" so I guess I was a dumb in my clothing standards.

Because Kenya was a British colony, English is one of the official languages, so communicating has not really been a problem. Everyone speaks a couple of languages. Usually their tribal language, swalili, and English. Probably more if they are in a heavy tourist area where they might need to use another language to help sell things.

On Monday we flew down to Malindi, where the we are having the retreat. Even though it is on the ocean it is still very hot and humid here. I have no idea what the temperture is, probably in the high 80s or 90s. Clear blue skies after the morning clouds burn off.

I guess we are fairly far over to the east in the time zone as the sun comes up pretty early. It sets by 6 or 7 at night.

The country side that I have seen here in the southern part, between Mombassa and Malindi, has some plains and some rolling hills. There are some different kinds of palm trees and sometimes you see those funky trees one always sees in movies in Africa that have branches that create a big canopy of shade.

No wild animals to report, although I am sure at times they are around. One person said to me that ther are the big five here, refering to animals. I am not sure he ever really remembered which they were. These are the ones I remember: lion, cheeta, buffalo and rhino. Of course these could be made up as he was selling would carvings and maybe just wanted me to pick one of them.

Well this is a pretty long post, and since I am typing with my thumbs I think I will end now. A group of us here are going on a glass bottom boat ride tomorrow, so that should be a lot of fun. Of course it is in between meetings, I say that just so people don't think I am on vacation (although I am typing this last bit here from the beach).

Indian Ocean

2007-11-13T08:03:00.000-05:00

So I arrived in Malindi yesterday at the Turtle Bay Resort. Its a real hardship to be here. Check it out at www.turtlebay.co.ke. Basically it is a resort on the southernish coast of Kenya where the mission personnel retreat is taking place. I have't got into the ocean yet, but I hope to soon.

I did have a bit of an adventure getting here yesterday. By the time I checked into my flight they had run out of seats. Because of this I had to fly into Mombassa, which is about two hours south. They said they would then provide ground tranportation for me to the resort. I guess they felt bad about bumping me, so they gave me a seat in first class. It was pretty awesome. I tried to act like sitting in first class was something I do all the time, but I am pretty sure I failed. The seat had six different buttons for things you can do to the chair. Unfortuanetly, the flight was only for 45 minutes so I didn't get to enjoy it very much.

Before the group that I was supposed to fly with from Nairobi to Malindi left several of them were told that there luggage would not fit on the plane and it would be brought to them later. After I got to Mombassa I checked in with Kenya Airways and they told me they were arranging transportation. O waited around for a while and eventually was brought to a van. it turns out I got to ride with everyone's luggage. I guess I got to serve as its guard for the ride.

I got here in time to unpack a little and then we started the program. I have always enjoyed the opportunities to meet our Mission Personnel. I have met individuals working all over southern and eastern Africa. It has been great to actually have the opportunity to get to know people, rather than only corresponding briefly with people through email.

Now is the R&R time for everyone. We have meetings set up during some of this time, but I still hope to have some time to enjoy the beach and the pool. I will try and post some pictures soon.

Moving On

2007-11-11T15:28:00.001-05:00

So tonight is my last night in Nairobi. Tomorrow I head to Turtle Bay near Malindi for the retreat. I have really enjoyed my time here so far. Seeing the work of the Young Adults, the Mission Personnel as well as others has been amazing. I had a great evening tonight with the Young Adults and Phyllis and her daughter and it was a good way of ending my visit here. .

It has also been very eye opening to be in a place so drastically different to what I am accustomed to. Sometimes it seems like a completely different world and sometimes it seems like it is just like home.

For instance in my room I can be watching anyone of a variety of channels showing american movies and tv shows. At the same time I can hear a bird calling out the window that sounds different than anything I have heard before. I have seen areas where people live, that although I knew they existed I never fully understood. Even with the amazing separation here between the poor and wealthy, I have seen some of the biggest, nicest cars available, I have heard of and seen a great joy carried out by many people. They have a faith that I don't believe that I could ever fully understand or experience.

Tomorrow I get to see the Indian ocean. I am really looking forward to that.

Third Day is a Band

2007-11-10T12:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry to my family who clearly did not get my very witty headline. That, or I was too tired to realize that what I thought was witty was actually totally lame.

So today was another pretty busy day. I once again slept through the night, which I am pretty sure means that I am going to have a horrible time of jet lag when I return because it hasn't been bad here. Or, I am a stud world traveler. I think probably the first is going to be the case. That's good news for my wife Skye as she will be the one who gets to drive to Kansas for Thanksgiving as I am passed out in the passenger seat.

So now that I have a little bit more time to write I thought I would share one of the more exciting "photo ops" thus far from my trip. On Friday I visited three more Young Adults here in Kenya. One of them is working at an animal orphanage so we got the "behind the scenes" tour a little bit. The had these super cute baby cheetahs. They offered to let us hold them. I sad no after we saw the handler take a claw in the neck. They were cute cats, but it was clear they didn't want to be held.

To the left is one of them. They were literally

running around at our feet. It was pretty awesome to be able to be this close to the animals. Below you will see another picture of a lion. I have never been at a zoo where you could literally get this close to animals. At one point one of the Lions was stalking one of the staff. I am pretty sure if the Lion would have really wanted to it could have pushed through the mesh fence. It was super cool to be that close to all of these animals.

To give you a better idea, I pretty much didn't zoom in the camera to take this picture. At one point we were looking at buffalo, which I didn't take pictures of because I have seen enough cattle in my day, and we could literally reach over the fence to pet them. We couldn't do that as much with the lions, leopards or Hyenas. I am not saying we couldn't have pet them, I just think it would have taken a little more work. All of this to say, that it was a pretty good trip to the animal orphanage. It's called that because all of these animals have been abandoned and rescued. It was sad to hear how many of them were rescued because people had caught them to either sell or keep as pets.

I haven't really taken many pictures for this trip so far. Sometimes its because we are flying around in a car and I don't think that the pictures will be very good, and at other times its because I am visiting ministries and it just seems to voyeuristic to take pictures. Even without the photos though much of what I have seen and experienced thus far will be locked in my mind forever.

Well I am running out of online time.

Until tomorrow.

3rd Day

2007-11-09T15:24:00.001-05:00

If you are reading this post with interesr in the contemporary Christian band well, stop reading. This post is about my third day in Kenya.

It was a very full day. I am happy to report two things. My blackberry is now working and I got a full night's sleep last night. Thanks to Steve at the PCUSA and tylenol pm.

So between yesterday and today I got to see the placements of all of the PCUSA and ELCA Young Adults placed in Kenya. It was crazy busy, but very good. I have also got to spend a good deal of time with two of the long term mission personnel in Kenya. I got to say meeting in person is so much better than having interaction based solely on email.

All in all it is pretty amazing how much I have seen in the past three days. I am out of energy for tonight though. I think I will have a little more time to write tomorrow so I hope to do a slightly longer post then with some reflections of what I have seen and experienced. .
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Into Africa

2007-11-08T10:54:00.001-05:00

Going to be a short post. My Blackberry isn't working so I will try and post some from Internet cafes. I am running out of minutes now though.

I arrived with no problems. Didn't sleep much on the plane or my first night here. Hoping for real sleep tonight.

First Trip to the Beach

2007-11-05T16:16:00.000-05:00

So this picture was taken at the first day on the beach....

Well, not really. It is actually me and my two brothers from a mandatory family photo shoot a few months back. I thought I would test out to see how posting photos from my Picasa Photo Album works.

First Time Blogger, Long Time Reader

2007-11-05T14:25:00.000-05:00

So, I am not even exactly sure if anyone other than a couple of family members will actually ever read this, but I thought I would try and enter the Internet Age with my very own blog. I will be traveling in Kenya over the next couple of weeks, so while I am doing that I thought that I would try and blog about some of my experiences. I am traveling there to visit some of the Presbyterian Church USA personnel in the area and I am really looking forward to the experience.

I hope to be able to post fairly frequently from the email on my phone. If it works out I should be posting regularly. If it doesn't, well I guess check back some time after November 18 when I come back as I will try and post a summary upon my return.

I probably won't post many pictures initially, unless I find a way to easily upload photos from my Camera. Hopefully I can add pictures later.

So, if you are reading this, thanks for joining me.

First Post

2007-11-02T14:56:00.001-04:00

I am checking to see if I can successfully make a post from my
BlackBerry. If I can I am going to blog my way across Kenya and
possibly other trips in the future.