Bush Mad Lad

"Tanzania Beautiful" 2009 Calendar

2008-11-12T21:37:00.005+03:00

This year’s calendar is a selection of some of my all-time favorites from my three years in Tanzania. Launching into college in 2009, I know I will also cherish this calendar as a memory book –a reflection of my years in Tanzania. I hope that through these reflections you can have a peek into Tanzania’s beauty, and catch a glimpse of my passion for photography. All the profits from this calendar go directly to my college savings. Thank you for your contribution, and enjoy Tanzania Beautiful.

The calendars are $15 in the US or 15,000 Tz Shillings if you live in Tanzania. They are 10x8 inches and make great Christmas presents! If you are interested in buying one (or a few) either leave a comment or email me at srussell91@earthlink.net for details.

A couple reminders: “S Russell Photos” is not on the calendars; I just do that so no one can steal my pics. And just so you know, the calendar format starts the week on Sunday and ends on Saturday.

Calendar.2

2008-11-12T21:35:00.002+03:00

Calendar.3

2008-11-12T21:33:00.001+03:00

Calendar.4

2008-11-12T21:15:00.004+03:00

SAT: done!

2008-05-11T20:42:00.004+03:00

That's right: I have taken my SAT test and I am done!

It feels so good to have it behind me! It's taken so much pressure of me. I've been studying and studying for it for the last couple months, and now: AAHHH...

...I don't have to think about it

(unless I decide to take it again in Oct/Nov)

But, let's not think about that now....

Motorcycle Pics

2008-03-26T11:55:00.008+03:00

I Poem That I Like

2008-03-18T21:40:00.004+03:00

I told the Sun that I was glad,
I'm sure I don't know why;
Somehow the pleasant way he had
Of shining in the sky,
Just put a notion in my head
That wouldn't it be fun
If, walking on the hill, I said
"I'm happy" to the Sun.

-John Drinkwater

Motocross Mayhem

2008-03-11T16:57:00.000+03:00

Ten motorcycle tires each just an inch from the elastic rope.

Ten riders watch as the 30-second board is flipped to the 5-second board.

The combined high-pitch wail of ten machines as their riders wait…

Wait…

The elastic rope is gone.

The drag race to the first corner is mayhem.

The race is on…

This weekend, I had the privilege of experiencing this first-hand. I must say: it is addicting. It gives you such an adrenaline rush. It’s so intense. It requires so much focus. It demands so much will power.

Motocross weekend contained four classes: Kiddies, 250cc, Open Class, and Old Farts (age 40+). There were three heats per class. One heat is 3 laps around the 3.8k track (full of burms, jumps, ditches, whoops and even a lake). I was in the 250cc class with nine other riders.

1st Heat:
I only went down once (hehe). Was passed by about 5 or 6 riders, but regained my position and finished 2nd!

2nd Heat:
As I was getting ready to ride to the starting line, I realized that the keys for my motorcycle were gone. Either I had dropped them somewhere or someone had stolen them out of the ignition. Hot-wiring the motorcycle took a while so I started a lap behind. I finished last but still got points for finishing.

3rd Heat:
Somehow, early in the first lap, I got into first place. (I can’t even remember where I passed the guy who was in first-haha). The whole rest of the race, I could hear that determined rider right on my tail, trying to catch up to me and pass me. It scared me to death!!! Somehow, I kept my lead. I FINISHED FIRST!!!

I was so stoked! I got 2nd overall. I got a medal and a certificate.

I can’t wait for the next race (sometime in May)

Zanzibar Pics

2008-02-12T18:18:00.000+03:00

Kili Trip

2008-02-12T18:13:00.000+03:00

Our Kili trip was so awesome! It was hard…very hard; but so rewarding.

We took the Marangu Route (6 days). The first couple days weren’t very hard climbs. The guides made us go really slowly, but it was nice because we could enjoy the scenery. The first day’s entire hike was through lush rainforest: so gorgeous! We saw some Blue Monkeys and a Duiker. I heard a lot of birds, but saw hardly any. They liked hiding. But there’s just something so magical about the rainforest. I love it so much. It makes me want to crawl way back into the thick of it and sit down in all the ferns. It makes me want to find a comfortable place and wait to see what little critters will find me. I like seeing the little birds hopping closer and closer in curiosity toward the newcomer of the forest. …anyway, we weren’t going THAT slow. We had to keep walking.

We reached the first huts, Mandara Huts (elev. 8,888 ft), at 4 o’clock. There were quite a few A-frame buildings for hikers and one bigger one that acted as the dinning room. Our group of 15 stayed in the long narrow room directly above the dinning room. It was kinda cozey cuz we could all have a fun time talking as a group and we didn’t have to split up into different cabins, …but, it was a bit noisy having the dinning room below us (we could see the people eating below us through little cracks in the floor). It was at these Huts that we celebrated New Years. Well…we didn’t do a whole lot of celebrating, but some German hikers sure had a good time. As we were trying to fall asleep we could hear them singing songs with a ukulele (someone actually brought a ukulele up the mountain), and I even felt the cork of a Champaign bottle hit the roof just under me☺.

The second day’s hike was through beautiful Mooreland. I loved the pastel-ly colors (“saturated non-punchy colors” as someone said), the clumpy grasses, the scraggly, wind-bent trees with moss and lichen draping off them. It was really beautiful.

We spent the next two nights at Horombo Huts (elev. 12,340 ft). We spent the extra night so that we could acclimate by taking a hike up to the saddle and returning to the same huts that day. We hike to Zebra Rocks. Not far from here was where we had our first really good view of Kibo. We could see the peak all the way to the base. It was pretty impressive, a bit intimidating, but to me mostly a challenge. I was excited to conquer it!

The next day we hiked to Kibo Huts (elev. 15,400). I was starting to feel the altitude. When we were at the Huts, it was pretty bad. I was getting head aches, and feeling week and tired. Sleeping was almost impossible. We went to bed just after dinner and got up at 11 that night to do the final summit. When I was woken up I felt really bad. I seriously didn’t know if I’d be able to go on. I was so so so weak. It was hard just to walk out the door, down the hall and to the kitchen. I knew I needed to drink a lot of water, but I didn’t have any, cuz our guides were still filling up our bottles. Instead I drank two cups of tea and one cup of hot water. I started feeling better almost immediately.

We headed off at 11:35. We marched in single file behind our guide, Photo (such a nice guy!). I was excited at first, but that soon wore off.

The next eight hours was like hell! The higher we got, the worse it got. Altitude’s grip got stronger and stronger as we ventured further and further into her domain. She made it hard for me to breath. She weakened my legs, and drained all my strength. She put extra weights on my eyelids so that I had to fight just to keep them open. She made me dizzy and gave me headaches. Another of our mighty foes was the cold. She was brutal! She nipped at any exposed skin. She froze the camel-back hoses. She froze shut our water bottles, and put ice chunks in the water. She sprinkled frost on our backpacks. She froze the sweat on our brows. She forced our bodies to use the little energy we had to keep our bodies warm and functioning.

Reality faded …and faded. Everything became a dream. Nothing was real. Some of us had been dragged farther from reality than others. David and Ryan had it pretty bad. At times, David said he would reach for a rock to lean against, but it wouldn’t be there. It would be over here to the right of where he placed his hand. A lot of us were throwing up. We were all exhausted beyond belief. Like I said, it was a battle just to keep your eyelids open to see where you were walking. At times I would glance at the path in front of me, let my eyelids drop and take up to five steps before opening my eyes again to see where I was going. Even with my eyes open it was hard to walk straight. At times, I would sway back and forth; sometimes almost tipping down the slope. Luckily we had good (very good) assistant guides. There were 14 of us climbers, 1 guide, and 6 assistant guides. That meant that for every two climbers there was a guide. Whenever anyone looked like they were going to tip over, or fall down, or just too tired to carry on, they’d be right there to help you.

We reached Gilman’s Point (18,638 ft) just before sunrise. That is where we came over the rim and could see the hilly crater before us, as well as the jagged rim curving around to our left. I had expected a good rest once we got there, but we didn’t stay there long at all. We had to keep moving. We still had another hour or so of hiking around the rim to get to Uhuru Peak (19,340 ft), the rooftop of Africa, the highest point in Africa!

Although the incline of the rim was minimal, this last leg of the climb was the most torturous! I felt absolutely miserable. I literally felt like I was drunk. I couldn’t walk straight. I distinctly remember one time when I started leaning one way and couldn’t catch myself until I was three feet from where I was. I would take 10 tiny steps and then lean on my trekking pole in exhaustion. My body was yelling at me to stop and go to sleep. The slope just rose gently higher and higher. The peak was always over the next little rise. It was here, on this last 100 yds. to the peak that I threw up for the first and only time. It took so much energy to get it out, but I felt better afterward (NOT that I felt good. I felt better –just a little better- than I had before I threw up, but I still felt horrible).

Honestly, Uhuru Peak was anticlimactic. It was just on top of a little rise. (Gilman’s Point was the most climactic for me). But we were there. We made it. And there was the sign:

Congradulations:
You are now at Uhuru Peak, Tanzania 5898m. AMSL
Africa’s Highest Point
World’s Highest Free-standing Mountain
One of the world’s largest volcanoes
Welcome

I didn’t feel like staying up there very long. I really didn’t feel like taking any pictures, though I took my camera all the way up there. Out of obligation I took it out and took a few pics (I just took it out of its bag, stood in one place, swiveled around, and snapped about 4 shots. I know… not very photographer-like).

The view from the top was pretty incredible! It wasn’t crystal clear weather, but it was still really clear. We could see Mt. Meru, the Pare Mts., and a couple lakes. We could also see an impressive glacier wall just a little bit down from the peak. If I wanted to spend the energy, I could have walked down and touched it, but I was too miserable!

As soon as we started heading down, I started feeling better. The lower we got, the better we all felt. But it was still a long 3-hr. hike back down to Kibo Huts. Once we got there, we had lunch, a very short nap and then hiked another 3 hours back to Horombo Huts. Having only had 5 hours of sleep in the last 39 hours, we all slept VERY well that night at Horombo Huts.

God blessed us with amazing weather the whole trip! We didn’t get rained on the entire trip…except for the last hour of the very last day (just before the gate).

So…there’s a “short” account of our Kili Trip!

[I've been having trouble getting pics uploades because of our slow internet. If i can, i'll get some kili pics up soon]

Zanzibar

2008-01-21T09:52:00.000+03:00

I've been trying to get this post up for ages. I really wanted to upload the pics with it but our internet has been too slow. So here's the post (if i can, i'll put the pics up latter).

We're back from an extremely relaxing time in Zanzibar. It was so good for us to just get away and just be alone as a family.

Here are a few pics to show you a few of my favorite aspects of the trip

1. Absolutely gorgeous sunsets over the Indian Ocean (a rare privilege for us in East Africa) with dhows and canoes drifting by adding to the picturesque moment

2. The ancient architecture and ornate doors that give Stonetown such a mystical feel

3. Playing pool and beach volleyball together

4. Swimming out to the dhows to jump off them

5. Going spear fishing for the first time and catching a total of fifteen (small) fish between four of us.

6. Stunning aqua marine (warm) water and fishing nets and canoes that decorate the bleached white sand

7. Family

8. Oh yeah, and this tortoise we found on the drive back (who looks pretty stylish in shades)

Zanzibar, Here we Come

2007-11-29T20:31:00.000+03:00

We're heading for the stunning beaches of Zanzibar! Yahoo!!!

Everything has been busy, busy, busy. Always something to be done. Always somewhere to go. It's time for a breather. Time for a break from the chaos we make of life. (Why do we make everything so complicated, anyway?)

I'm looking forward to a week of nothing planned.

Tanzi

2007-09-30T16:47:00.001+03:00

You've been a great dog Tanzi!

She passed away on Thursday this week (26th). We've been sad, but she left us four gorgeous, healthy puppies to comfort us! They've been keeping us busy, as we have to bottle feed them every three hours or so; but its all worth it to hold their minute bodies as they squeel and squirm for more milk.

I've been catching myself singing this song lately. I don't know where it's from but the one line I keep repeating is:
"Life, oh life, life is a miracle."

Watanzania 2008 Calendar.1

2007-09-24T22:32:00.000+03:00

“Watanzania” (the people of Tanzania) is a 2008 calendar that I designed as a means to show others my pictures and to raise money for college. I included the faces of various ethnic groups in Tanzania: Maasai, Bantu, and coastal-Swahili people. These people are stunning and offer me plenty of opportunities for excellent pictures.

Calendars are$20 (US) or if you live in Tanzania 20,000 Tz Shillings. If you are interested in buying one (or a few) either leave a comment or email me at srussell91@earthlink.net for details.

I want to thank you in advance for you contribution to my passion for photography and helping me go to college. Please enjoy this calendar of beautiful Watanzania faces in 2008.

A couple reminders: “S Russell Photos” is not on the calendars, I just do that so no one can steal my pics. Some people are picky about what the first day of the week is on this calendar: it starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday.

Watanzania 2008 Calendar.2

2007-09-24T22:27:00.000+03:00

Watanzania 2008 Calendar.3

2007-09-24T22:23:00.001+03:00

Watanzania 2008 Calendar.4

2007-09-24T21:33:00.000+03:00

New Record!

2007-09-15T10:06:00.000+03:00

We've seen people JUMP it.

We've even seen people jump it WITH a bike.

But we've never seen anyone jump it ON a bike.

...that is until September 12, 2007.
Congradulations Matt! ...for jumping the gorge a meter and a half across and 20 meters down!

Nyota (a)

2007-09-12T21:16:00.000+03:00

Nyota Ndogo (Small Stars) is the soccer team that I play on here in Arusha. They practice in a slum called Unga Limited on a field that no American would call a “field”. It is all dirt except for a trash dump in one corner, and a marsh in another. Broken glass, pieces of trash, cows and goats are frequently found across the rutted field. But the soccer team, simply sees it as open place to play the one game they love.

I am the only white person who plays on the team. Chase and Colin regularly practice with the team as well, making three white boys amongst many dark colored Tanzanians. Regardless of the color difference, my teammates are some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. They treat me as one of them. Which means that they don’t give me extra attention just because I’m a white guy. But that’s how I like it; I hate when they over-favor wazungu (white people).

When you get to know each one of them, they change from being blank faces to intricate characters. Each one of them has a unique personality. Some of the guys are jokesters; others are quite; some are strong leaders; others are eager followers.

The team bought a small shack, which has now become the “kuku club” as I call it. The team is raising chickens (kuku) as a way to pay for club fees (transport to games/cleats/uniforms ect.).

The “kuku club”: You walk into a skinny hall about 3 feet across. There are two doors on your left: one is where the chickens are kept (which actually connects to another room that has more chickens) and the other is a small room with a couple of beds. There is always at least one person somewhere in the “kuku club” to watch and guard the chickens. They even have night shifts. The person guarding (usually a player on the team) is usually resting and listening to the radio in the room with the beds.

But now for the “club” part.

First, I have to mention that every one in the soccer community of Unga watches and reads about Premiership games, European leagues and the teams and players of European football. Everyone has a team that they are devoted to. If someone asks you what your team is, you can’t say that you don’t have a team. And you can’t say that you kind of like a certain team and you aren’t really faithful to them all the time. You have to be an avid fan of your team. Like I said, everyone has their team: some love Arsenal, others are devoted to Manchester Unt. ect. Some are more loyal to their team as others. I’ve even heard of some of my teammates who won’t eat any food for a considerable amount of time after their team looses a big game.

Their eyes are always watching the European leagues. Their actions are always according to how the European players play. If someone looks or plays like a European player, they even give him that player’s name as a nick-name. (Occasionally I’m called Crouch-my height- or Van Nisel Roi-my hair).

Their dreams (almost EVERY single one of them) is to play soccer in Europe. They curiously watch everything their heroes do, and mimic everything.

They see the players in a European soccer game run onto the field out of their locker rooms; so they figure “we’ve got to have a locker room.” And that is exactly what the “kuku club” has become.

Before every game, the whole team crams into and lines up along each side of the 3-foot-wide hall. We all get dressed for the game, and the coach gives us a little prep-talk about the game. Then we all run out onto the field in a straight line. Everything is done exactly the same as in Pro-soccer.

When we get onto the field, we start warming up. We do a bunch of really fun warm up exercises. I’m pretty sure a few of them are mimics of Pro-soccer warm up drills, but the really fun ones I’m sure are their own inventions.

It doesn’t take long to notice that Africans are very rhythmic. EVERYTHING is done to a beat. I think it is so ingrained in them that it becomes subconscious. The coach tells us to run around the field 5 times. Before we get around the field once, EVERYONE is jogging at the exact same rate: all their cleats stomping on the hard ground simultaneously. It’s so cool.

The warm up drills that they come up with…you really have to see them. We all line up and one person leads an exercise that is so complex and rhythmic that it’s basically a groovy dance move. We do that exercise for a while until someone leads another even more complex one. Everyone loves the fancy drills and children line up just to watch the team warm up. People are always saying “tupe nyingine” (give us another one). So another person leads a routine of clamping, stomping, jumping, head-bobbing, fake kicking or a variety of other favorites to a complex beat and everyone else follows along until another one is brought up.

When we are called to the center of the field by the ref, we all line up facing one sideline (one team on one side of the field, the other team on the other side of the field). The ref goes behind each player who lifts each foot for the ref to check. I don’t really know what the ref is looking for, and I don’t know if the ref does either. I know in the states, the refs look for metal studs; but here, few people have any cleats left on their shoes at all (they’re just warn down too much). I’ve never seen a ref make any objection to anyone’s cleats. I think they do it, just because they’ve seen it done over seas.

Next, the refs stand in the middle of the two teams in the very center of the field, and the center ref blows his whistle. Everyone knows what to do: we raise our hands and wave to the “crowd” (most often a group of 5-11 year olds), and then turn around and wave to “the other side of the stadium” (most often no one stands on that side of the field). But who cares, they do it in the big leagues.

These are just a couple of the things that I have noticed that they mimic. If I notice a few more, I’ll keep you posted.

Good Day!

2007-09-10T18:46:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was a big day!

It started out when I helped Nadine lead worship at Vineyard. It was so refreshing! There was something about it, I can’t say exactly what, but it was like a breath of fresh air. It wasn’t that we played perfectly. We did practice before hand and that made everything go really smoothly; but we still had a few glitches. But that didn’t matter. What matter was that we were worshipping. At least I was. (Maybe nobody else enjoyed it, but I sure did☺).

Before the service, I asked God not to disappoint me. (Honestly, I’ve been feeling a bit disappointed lately as I have left recent church services). I wanted to feel His presence. I wanted God to show up.

He did!

After church, our family went out to eat, and then I walked from there to Unga Limited. The rest of the family went back home, as I headed for the soccer field for the big game! Our team, Nyota Ndogo (Little Stars) had reached the finals in a local tournament. It was the day of the final.

As I was walking down the dirt road, I came across one the Nyota “scouts”. I call them “scouts”. They are everywhere. There’s a whole network of them. You see my soccer team, Nyota Ndogo, practices on a soccer field in a slum area, and all (at least most) of them live very close to the field. During any kind of team event, big or small, you’ll come across a “scout” on nearly every corner. They have this network all figured out. The scouts can be players, assistant coaches, or any of the hundreds of kids that are avid fans of the soccer team. These “scouts” are very useful. If you need to know the score of a game that is currently playing, if you need to call a dala dala (local transport bus) to take the team to a game, if you need to find one of the players, just send a “scout”. I assume that they pass the information from one “scout” to another, so they only have to run to the next corner or so; thought sometimes, if it’s important business, the “scout” will go all the way and back himself. It’s a pretty fascinating system.

So…as I was saying, I came across one of these “scouts”. Apparently, his job was to take me to Franki’s house. It was a big game, so the team met in a bigger room then the cramped kuku club house (I’ll have to tell you about that in another blog) to get dressed and get ready for the game. I hopped on the back of the “scout’s” bike and we road off. Every one was amazed to see an mzungu (white person) riding on the back of a bicycle. Every 10 seconds I would hear some funny comment about the white person on the bicycle.

We won the game 3-0! But to me, that wasn’t the highlight: the highlight was the celebration. If you weren’t there, you have NO IDEA what it was like. But, I’ll do my best to describe it for those who didn’t have the opportunity to witness it first hand.

First of all, you have to realize that practically the whole local soccer community is watching the game. 80% of this community is children. You have hundreds of fanatical 5-11 year olds enthusiastically watching the game. You also have some of the “scouts” who have been told by the coach to run around the field waving a Nyota flag to get the crowd hyped up. When we scored the third goal, the little kids couldn’t hold back their excitement: they all rushed onto the field celebrating with the goal-scorer! We couldn’t get the game started again until all the children had been shooed off, which took a couple minutes.

When the final whistle was blown, everything changed to celebration, dancing, mobbing, and chanting. It was crazy! If it had been just a couple minutes of that level of celebration, I would have been impressed; but this continued for 30 minutes!
One of my teammates took the flag and ran to each corner of the field with 50 little kids right at his heels.
Other teammates circled up and started singing little chants as different people took their turn dancing in the middle. If you heard your name, you had to dance in the middle. Of course they wanted to see the mzungu dance. They called my name, and I did a little jig until someone else’s name was called.
Other teammates grabbed our coach and hoisted him in the air.
Groups of teammates would pose for a picture from the cameraman.
The little kids were running and circling around all the players that they looked up to and admired. They were especially flocking to the trophy-bearer. I got to witness a very humorous sight when the trophy was being passed from one player to another. In the chaos of everything the cup unscrewed from the base (it wasn’t the highest quality trophy). But no one let that get in the way of the celebration. One person grabbed the cup and triumphantly ran off with it, as did the person still holding the base. Eventually the base-bearer went running toward the cup-bearer to screw the two back together. The whole atmosphere was thick with joy and jubilee for 30 minutes! It was so fun.

We didn’t leave the field till after dark. I needed to get back home because I was helping to lead the EnGedi worship night. For those of you who don’t know me too well, let me just say: I love to worship! Some people might think that it must have been hard to get back from such a huge day and lead worship; but for me it was so relaxing. I felt so comforted as I led the worship that night.

I got ready for bed. Dad said: “Wow! Big day for you Skyler: worship, soccer, worship.”

It sure was a big day: a good day!

NEW GUITAR!!!

2007-06-01T08:18:00.001+03:00

I got a new guitar today!!! I've already fallen in love with it! I've already worshiped with it at Reality Carpenteria! I've already emailed friends about it!

I've been wanting a really nice plug-in guitar since a couple months before we left for the states (about February-ish). Originally, I had wanted to get one as soon as we landed here in the states, so that I wouldn't have to suffer being guitarless. My uncle Michael let me borrow is baby Taylor guitar. Because I had a guitar to play, I wasn't pressured to buy one, so I kept putting it off. Now that I look back, I'm glad that I did. This guitar that I just got sells for $1500 not encluding taxes (taxes would make it $1620). I got it for $1250: almost $400 cheaper.

Praise God!!!

He provides.

Getting the guitar would have made my day in its self, but God decided to add a cherry on top.

Last night I met Dominic. He's the worship leader at Reality Carpenteria. After simply meeting me and hearing that I was planning on getting a guitar he offered to take me the following day to Guitar Center. (How nice is that?!!!!) He's such a cool guy. We got to talk a little while we were driving there and on the way back.

...So I was trying to lead into the cherry on top...

Oh yeah...so just hours after buying the guitar, I got to help Dominic lead worship!!! It was such a rad worship time. I really felt that it flowed so easily, so gracefully. The songs were so joyous and heart felt. I think part of the joy I found in the worship was that feeling that you have when you have a brand new guitar under your arm, and when you strum it, it sounds clean and warm. I love that feeling. I am loving it more. I've already played it a lot since the worship time (that was only 3 hours ago) and I'm loving it more every time I play it.

Lord, I pray that you will use that bright, crisp sound that echoes out of my new guitar for your glory. I have just received it, but already I offer it up to you, Lord. May your name be glorified.

Sorry...

2007-05-15T23:23:00.000+03:00

I just realized something (that most of you already know) about myself:

I'm really bad at keeping up this blog!

haha

So for those of you who check this blog everyday hoping to find a new post, only to find that same post that's been up for a couple weeks: sorry. I'm just not good at it. I'm not saying i'm going to stop blogging: no way. Just don't expect a nex post every day.

While I'm here, I might as well say that I'm having a great time here in the states!!! It's so good to see friends/family. The big bummer, though, is that all our time is limited and our schedule is so so SO busy. I'd love to spend more time with my friends but it seems like were always doing something else. I guess that's just how furloughs are.

Here We Come

2007-04-23T15:44:00.000+03:00

We’re leaving for the states in 4 days.

Wow! just 4 days. So much to do, it can’t be 4 days…. but it is.

But why am I surprised: it’s like this every time we go on a big trip. I should be used to it: I guess I am a little, but not all the way. I don’t think it’s possible to get used to it 100%.

I’m excited. Very excited. It’s going to be fun getting back to see friends and family.

I’ve really been praying lately that I’ll be able to communicate with others my experiences here in Africa. I can see how it might be a challenge because it can be so easy to say your doing one thing when you’re actually doing another. It’s so easy to put on a face that’s not yours; especially when you’re in a place that very few people have been to. As a result of their limited knowledge, they’ll believe almost anything you tell them, and our habit is to tell them what they want to hear. I want to be real. I want to tell people what I do here in Africa, and what I like to do.

Yeah, I have fun here. I get to ride motorcycles. I get to go to gorgeous places. I get to hang out with really cool friends. I get to play soccer.

And yeah, sometimes things are hard. Sometimes it’s awkward. But, honestly, not as much as many people think. You get used to it. I’ve gotten so used to it that it is more home than the states are.

It’s still going to be really good to get back the states.

I’m looking forward to:

surfing

playing guitar with my Uncle Michael and Trevor Borden (and hopefully buying another guitar)

hanging out with good friends

family reunion

fishing…..

Easter @ the Coast

2007-04-18T08:48:00.001+03:00

This Easter, our family went to the coast. We, well at least I, had an incredible time! If you’ve ever been to the coast here in east Africa, you’ll know that it’s pretty hard not to have a fun time. But this was more than just a fun time: it was a learning time, a moving ahead time. That’s what made it so exciting for me.

The reason we were going to the coast for Easter was not originally for a holiday, rather my parents were teaching at a CMF retreat. (We just tacked on a holiday at the end: how can you be at the coast and not relax–u know?) It ended up that CMF couldn’t find any one to lead worship for the retreat, so they asked Chase and I.

I love leading worship. It’s a gift God has given me that I am just now starting to grow into. I knew that God had opened that door for Chase and I to lead worship at just the right time. It was a big step, yes, but God never expects you to take a step you can’t make.

After the first evening session of worship, I was so hyped. I get that way every once in a while, when there’s a slight opening in the clouds and I can see just a little ways ahead. When I can see a couple more of God’s footprints in the sand ahead of me, I get so excited. I just think, WOW: God you love me so much and you have a call that is especially for ME. You have a plan just for me: for my own life.

The next sessions all went really well. But I realized that performing never really worked out to be the best way to lead worship. Performing is self-centered, not God-centered. Worship is God-centered. Before every session I handed everything over to God. He’s given me the talent and he deserves the praise and glory. The best way to lead worship is to worship not to perform. If you just worship than the music comes freely and from the heart. When I worship, others around me are freer, and almost obligated to really worship themselves.

On Easter morning Pam, Delia, my mom, Chase and I got up before sunrise. We went out onto a deck that overlooks the Indian Ocean. We worshiped. We really worshiped. I didn’t have songs planned out before hand and if I were performing I really wouldn’t have done well; but we were worshiping, not performing. We sat on the edge of the deck and watched the sun come up over the clouds. The whole ocean was purple, red and orange and the sky was shimmering with warm colors. It was so glorious. At that moment I think all of us knew: “He has risen indeed!”

We went swimming in the warm water, made a sand castle, and Pam taught me a new song (“Scandalous Night”: inspiring lyrics). It was such a joyous morning. I love God’s grandeur. It’s contagious.

Huh, I was going to talk about all the fun stuff we did at the coast and try to get you jealous; but compared to all of the
above nothing else sounds like as much fun as it really was. :-)

We swam a lot: I mean a ton. We rode waves in the ocean: had a lot of fun. I did some windsurfing: well I tried. And rode some dolphins: actually, I lied.

Does that compare at all with the worshipping stuff, the stepping into your calling stuff, the glorious Easter morning stuff? …I didn’t think so.

Oh yeah…we all got ear infections. Not fun AT ALL. Chase, Leighton and I had it first and by the time we got back almost everyone who swam in the ocean had gotten it. It’s horribly painful. For two nights I got hardly any sleep at all because I couldn’t even touch my ears without them throbbing. Then one of my ears clogged up completely (couldn’t hear a thing out of it). I think Chase and Leighton had it worse than me though: at one point, Chase had both ears clogged.

But now we are all better. Thank you Jesus.

Happy Easter everybody!!!

I'm Back

2007-03-23T11:54:00.000+03:00

Yahoo!!! I can blog again.

Just to let everyone know, I din't just stop blogging because I got bored of it. We had some technical difficulties with our server her at Joshua Foundation. Jeremy (our tech guy) asked everyone here on base to send him any addresses that we couldn't access (so that he could do his techy stuff and amaze us all). ...well, I forgot to send him the blogger address.

...and kept putting it off.

...until I finally remembered the other day.

Thanks Jeremy!!!

So now I can blog again!!!

Pics.Birds

2006-11-25T22:06:00.000+03:00

Here are some of my favorite bird shots.

Pics.Faces

2006-11-25T21:45:00.000+03:00

I find pics of people are so much more capturing than anything else. I especially love face shots.

Pics.2

2006-11-25T21:31:00.000+03:00

We come across some weird critters here in Africa: check out this caterpillar and his little squiggly tail.

I like this mushroom shot: it's just kinda creepy, isn't it?

Tanzania national rugby team playing Reunion (island off East coast of Africa) here in Arusha.

Pics.1

2006-11-24T22:34:00.000+03:00

I like photography. Part of the reason I started this blog was simply to show people some of my pics. These are some of my favorites these days:

A red flower in our garden.

I stayed up late a couple nights ago taking advantage of the power being out. I used my cell phone as the only light source and put this glass off water on my black pants for a dark background. I was pretty pleased with some of the cool effects I got.

I couldn't believe how some of these pics came out of this little jumping spider! I'm very happy!

Digging for Jesus

2006-11-03T09:01:00.000+03:00

Hebrews 11: I notice all these guys are so different. They are so dedicated to this one idea that they can’t see but that they know is there. They blindly follow him, and obey everything they hear him say. They are a family who knows there is treasure in this one place. They’ve never seen the treasure, or had proof of its existence; yet they dig for it, generation after generation. They dig, and dig for this treasure. Few see any reward, yet they pass the pic on to the next son. They are so sure it is there. They know. They are fully focused on it. It takes their whole mind, their whole life- this treasure. It’s all they can think of. They don’t care about this world. They listen to every whisper He tells them. If he says dig more this way, that’s where they’ll dig. Why? …becauses they know He is the treasure. He is the treasure calling them. They are such a weird family. This blind dedication is so rare, that it’s become weird. This obedience to a Sovereign one no matter what He says, is considered crazy these days. Faith has become something that people laugh at. “Faith is a cat chasing its tail.” “Faith is a wild goose chase.”

Lord, I want to join this club of crazy faith guys. I want follow after you. I want to dedicate my life to digging for you. I know-without a doubt- that you are there. I will keep digging for you, Lord. What an exciting adventure this is going to be. Life is an adventure. I love searching for you Lord. You’re the best treasure that can be searched for. I’m digging for you.

What A Morning!

2006-10-31T09:49:00.000+03:00

What a morning!! You ever had one of those mornings, or days, where it seems that everything-EVERYTHING-goes wrong? Or maybe it’s not that things go wrong, it’s just that they don’t go with routine. We are people of routine, aren’t we? When we are off routine, we feel awkward. I’m sure you’ve had times like this: everyone has. I think they best way to handle them is just to laugh.

I woke up this morning at 7:20: already off routine. On school days, I rarely sleep in to seven: I try to get up around 6:30. I felt all groggy and sleepy. I got up and went down my stairs with my eyes barely open and my bed hair bouncing everywhere. Before I got to the bathroom, our worker said, “Oh good morning Skyler; can you get the soap?” “Ok,” I answered, not even thinking about what he said in my confusion. So I went into the bathroom, quickly matted down my hair, and grabbed the bar of soup. Before I got back to Edwardi, to give him his bar of soap, I stumbled into little Mikael, our next-door neighbor. He greeted me: “Hey Sky, I need a rag. Do you have a rag to clean up something? Oh yeah, did you know that I’m going to Nairobi this morning” “Uh… just hold on Mike” I said, trying to figure out what was going on. “Hey, Sky, come here I gotta show you something,” called Chase from his room.

“AAAHHHHH. What’s going on,” I thought. It seemed like everyone knew that Skyler was awake, and they all bombarded me with requests at the same time. Where they planning this, as I slept in?

Anyway, first things first. I took the bar of soap to Edwardi. What a dork I must have looked like. He said, “No, not that soap. I need the soap for washing the car” “Oh yeah, of course,” I answered, once again not having a clue what he meant. I went back to the bathroom to look under the sink, maybe if I saw the right soap, it would click in my mind (not a chance, that early in the morning).

“Sky! I need a rag. Look, I need to clean that up,” Mike pointed to a big spill of water. He had the empty cup in his hands. At least he was willing to clean it up himself. I just grabbed a towel and tossed it too him.

I finally got my contacts in. Good; now I can see! Maybe that’ll make things better.

Nope...

I went back to Edwardi to tell him I couldn’t find the soap he needed. He must have felt sorry for me: He said, “That’s okay, I’ll just wait until Grace gets here to ask her.” I saw the dog dish, and remembered it was my turn to feed our dog Tanzi. I grabbed the dish-not carrying to rinse it out-I was just too out of it. I passed my Mike, who was having a great time sliding on the towel as he was cleaning up the water spill. I opened the frig to take out Tanzi’s meat. Of course, something else had to go wrong: I spilled apple juice, and it went everywhere-in the frig, on the floor, on Tanzi’s meat. I cleaned it up and made Tanzi’s food. Chase came in and said, ”Oh, we don’t feed Tanzi that anymore. We use something else. I guess you didn’t know. It’ll be okay for this time. And…Um.. Edwardi needs you to turn off the car alarm.” I answered, “Ok, can you go get the keys to the car.”

It seemed like everything had to be down by me! I finally got out my first giggle. I was just figuring out how funny this whole morning was turning out to be. Laughing is such good medicine for mornings like this. Chase brought me the car keys. I took out Tanzi’s food and turned off the alarm for Edwardi.

Now that I look back at it, I just find it humorous. That’s what you have to do in times like that.

Laugh-just laugh.

Love Songs

2006-10-31T09:27:00.000+03:00

(Show Your Love- Jars of Clay)
“I’m gunna show you love in every language
I’m gunna speak the words that need no form
I’m gunna give you what you never had before”

Got speaks his love to me in so many languages. In friends, in things I do, like jogging, playing soccer, and playing music. He speaks to me in an unknown language that I can’t comprehend, but I can understand: that I can’t touch, but I can feel. It’s the greatest thing in the world: Your LOVE Lord. It’s so overwhelming. I love it, I love it, I love it!!! It’s kind of like having a great super star, who’s not only right by you, but he actually likes hanging out with you and he considers YOU his best friend. Yeah.. It’s a lot like that…except it’s not just a superstar, its God. Do we even really realize who that is: the CREATOR of the universe, the one who controls all the world and every little thing that happens; the one who dazzles us with his beauty and who created ME. THAT’S the superstar who is by me. When I get close to him, I feel so good. I could just stand next to him forever without him saying a word, but he’s not like that. He loves to talk to me, to tell me that HE…. LOVES…..ME. It’s so incredible.

(Befriended-Matt Redman)
“Befriended by the king above all kings
Surrendered to the friend above all friends.”

It really should be the other way around, shouldn’t it? Think about it… the king above all kinds befriending us? We should surrender to this king above all kings, not be befriended by him. …And surrendering to the best friend in the world? It’s seems all mixed up, but it’s so perfect. I love surrendering to Jesus--my best friend--, and I love that the king of the world befriends me.

(Your Love-Darrel Evans)
“Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, oh intimate”

Friends are Friends

2006-10-24T12:54:00.000+03:00

I'm trying to get better at going to play soccer in Unga Ltd. more often. I've realized lately how much I really enjoy going.

(Sometimes it's a hassel to go cuz if there's no one to take me there or make I have to leave at 3:30 and come back at 7:15 or so. I'm very thankful for public transportation, but it sure takes a long time.)...anyway...

It’s so fun getting to know each one of them, and as I do, I realize: we’re all people. We’re all on this level ground that all human beings are on. I have nothing over them, and they have nothing over me. We’re all people. We all have smiles, we all make jokes, we all love hanging out with each other, and we all yearn to form friendships with each other. They don’t mind an mzungu (white person) on their team, why should I mind making friends with them? They love getting to know me, why shouldn’t I open myself up to them? They are so joyous: every word I say to them is returned by a smile. I huge smile: a loving smile.

Though I never would have said it, or even thought it really, I came into the team with a sense of "I have to share God's love to these people in the way i act...I have to be a good example of God's love...ect." And I got so serious about it that I was defeating the perpose. I just go to play soccer and hang out. When I go, I'm the one who gets blessed the most. I am so blessed by their smiles, by their friendships. They are no different than my best friends that have the same color skin as me. Friends are friends.

...And I love the kids there. The soccer field is like a hang out place for kids of all ages: they come to play around and chase each other, to watch the older kids play soccer, or to play themselves. As I was putting on my cleats on day, a group of six year olds stood a couple feet away daring each other to touch my hair. One brave one, slowly came up behind me, stroked my hair, ran off and giggled with his friends. A couple more got up the courage and soon there were three kids stroking my hair. They kept saying "Ni teleza sana, eh?" (Is so slippery, isn't it?). I was laughing to myself. Kids are so fun.

The next time I came to practice, a mob of little kids ran up to me. The one kid who was the bravest in the "touch his hair" dare kept saying to the other kids "ni mzungu wangu, mzungu wangu" (he's my white-person), as he clung to my arm. They were all jumping on me. It was so awesome.

Oldonyo LenGai

2006-10-21T09:29:00.000+03:00

I wrote this in August, thought I'd post it:

Last Monday morning, Chase, my dad, two friends named Jeremy and James, a visitor named David and myself went on a trip. We were going to some very dry, desert country. The reason was to climb Oldonyo LenGai. Oldonyo LenGai is maasai for the Mountain of God. The reason it is called that is because every once in a while it rumbles and smokes and shoots up ashes and sometimes lava. It is an active volcano. Our mission was to climb it.

We arrived at about 4 o'clock and tried to get some rest. Now it may be hard for you to believe this, but we were going to be leaving the campsite at 11 o'clock that night to start our climb. Why? Well, for a couple reasons: 1: I mentioned that the area is desert country. Very very dry, dusty and hot with little vegetation. We did not want to climb this mountain, with an average slope of 45 degrees, during the heat of the day. 2: We estimated the hike to take 6 hours. We wanted to get to the top for sunrise. Also we heard that if you get to the top at night you can see lava glowing.

So we got about an hour and a half sleep that night. We got up at 11, got in the car and drove to the base of the mountain (about an hour from camp).

It was actually very fun climbing in the dark. It was a quarter moon, not too bright, but the stars were dazzling. The Milky Way stretched its arm across the whole sky: glittering, shinning, twinkling as we hiked. You could look up and see the pitch black silhouette of the peek with stars lighting up the sky behind. We would be climbing for a couple hours, I would look up and the peek was still there: it hadn't moved, it hadn't got closer, it still seemed miles away. How long would this take?

Oldonyo LenGai, is a very very difficult climb. I mentioned before that it's average slope is 45 degrees. If you don't believe my look at the picture. Another thing: the path we take up (there is only one path up the whole mountain) is straight up. NO SWITCHBAKES or anything. The reason why is because there are huge gully running down the mountain. At times we had to walk in between two of them with drop offs on both sides. It was a very tiring climb, that just wore you out. Our visitor Dave (who actually paid for all of us to climb: very very nice) said: "if I had known how hard it really was I wouldn't have climbed it."

If the top were not so rewarding, the climb would not be worth it. We had to book it to get to the top by sunrise. ...And OH WHAT A VIEW. The mountain is so steep that you seem to be just standing on a pinpoint. As Chase said: "the mountain doesn't get in the way of any of your view." We were blessed with the most beautiful, clear skies. As the sun rose over the clouds and everything changed from black to blue to pink to red to yellow we could see for miles upon miles. A blanket of orangish yellow clouds was laid out across the landscape, with mountains breaking through it everywhere you looked: Longido, Monduli, Gelai, Meru, and even Kilimanjaro could be seen as bumps on the land. Lake Natron below us reflected the suns glare. The sharp side-lighting of the sun peaking over the horizon accentuated every crevice, valley and gorge of the rift valley escarpment, where upon you could see the stunning shadow of the very mountain we were on top of.

Now, let me describe the mountain itself for a bit. On the top there is a crater where all the lava comes out of. Throughout the crater there are huge spires. They are formed when lava is excreted and it builds up on itself. They just get bigger and bigger. (In some pictures you can see people at the bottom of them for comparison. You won't believe how big they are). You can also see huge holes where lava resides deep down. The lava actually only looks like mud. It is only sometimes in the dark that you can see it glowing (which we didn't). ...And there are lava flows quite frequently. There was a big one that occurred just three weeks before we were there. You could see the cooled lava, and imagine it dripping over the edge of the crater, oozing down the side of the mountain. Another cool thing was the steam. There was steam coming up everywhere: our of the spires, our of the ground, out of rocks. We were pretty cold at the top and we would warm up by putting our hands in front of the warm steam.

The whole thing just seemed out of this world. We seemed to be on the moon or Mars. Everything was so mystical. So elegant. It all pointed to God and His handiwork. It truly is the Mountain of God.

Clouds

2006-10-16T20:50:00.000+03:00

Man! I just marvel at the clouds here in Africa! Today God has put on a glorious display of the many shapes, sizes, formations, and colors of clouds.
I needed to read a couple of chapters of a book for my English today, and I decided to read it up in a tree. So I climbed up my favorite tree and settled down in my favorite crook of that favorite tree, and started to read. It had been raining most of the night before and all of this morning. With the rain came the wind: rushing about trying to keep of with the rain, but always a little early or a little late. The wind was pounding on the tree causing it to bend. It smashed into me, chilling me to the bone.
I finished one chapter of the book, and wanted to move around a bit to kind of warm up. I climbed a bit higher and began to gaze at the landscape. On the horizon, way in the distance, were the flat skinny clouds with little bumps here and there. They stretched themselves flatter and flatter the farther away they went, trying to cover the seemingly endless expanse of the horizon. As I brought my gaze closer to me, the layers of clouds got puffier. I seemed to be lying on a bed with a big, soft comforter, looking across all the rolling hills and valleys in it.
Every once in a while my eyes would find a bright blue patch in the sky. The cleanness of that rain-washed sky was incredible. That “sky”-blue was just so punchy. There was no haze between my and it: so awesome.
As I rolled my head back to get the full dome of the sky in view, I was startled at what I saw: a black cloud. It was ominous: hanging over me so dominant yet so able to avoid my gaze. It spread its wispy arms in a circle trying to get as wide as it could without loosing its sheer bulk. It was this striking difference to all the other clouds that startled me. All the other clouds were delicate. They were decoration: like flowers spread throughout a living room; giving it a homey feel. The big dark cloud was like a huge oak tree right in the middle of a living room. It wasn’t homey, it wasn’t decoration: it was meant to be marveled at.
It was interesting what I saw next: two eagles soaring. Catching every gust of wind. Playing with the weather. Dancing with the clouds. I loved just watching them. I sat there at the top of my favorite tree wishing I could fly like those eagles, soar like those eagles.
Then…SPLAT. A huge raindrop landed on my arm. Uh-oh. More fell. They were huge! They left wet marks all over me, not like little sprinkles that disappear. By the time I was down the tree and heading toward the house, the ground was almost all wet. Rain in Africa: I love it.

And the smell that comes with it…. uh.. well, I won’t even try to put that into words.

I love God and His nature, and all the dazzling shows he showers all around us. Take notice of his marvels. They’re all around you.

(By the way, these aren't pics of today: just some of my favorite cloud pics)

Me

2006-10-10T21:31:00.000+03:00

This is me.

1st Blog

2006-10-10T20:55:00.000+03:00

Yahoo! My first blog. Let's see if i got everything set up right.