I had a great layover in London with Miss B and her adorable kids (where 'adorable' is more of an understatement than a fact):
Next stop, Addis Ababa, where I slept all day, woke up for supper & a bit of visiting, then slept all night. Then we were off to the salon to get ready for the wedding pics - here's the bride, doesn't she look so excited?
Once pretty-ified, we all ('we all' being the entire bridal party) hopped/clambered/crawled into 2 hired taxis for the hour's drive out to Babogaya (sp?). If only they would instate cow-print headrests and bright red curtains into taxis here in Canada:
One of the bestest flowers in the world - frangipani:
A gari (taxi) stop - these taxis are all over the place in Ethiopia:
I suppose you could say this was the stagette - all we did was go out for dinner as a big group of girls, though A and I stopped and picked up some beautiful hair accessories for H to wear for the evening:
After dinner, we went to the Coffee Shop for some jazz music. Too bad we were all so tired that by the time the music started (which was after the power came back on, which was probably around 11 pm), some of us (ahem) could hardly keep our eyes open. Which, being seated in the front of the room, made some of us (ahem) feel rather quite conspicuous and rude, what with some of our (ahem) heads bobbing and some of our (ahem) eyes crossing in an attempt to stay awake:
Here's a shot looking out from the school compound where H lives:
Friday was the day to get the final preps done - here's the church building (they're on the top floor of a commercial building):
A view of the city from one of the windows at the church:
And here we jump 2 days (I don't have any wedding pics, sorry!). After the wedding, I went with H's sister and parents to a hotel in Nazareth, a 2-hr drive from Addis. We stopped to buy a watermelon on the way. This is a rather glamourous picture of myself, if I may say so:
This picture pretty much sums up most of what we did while at the Safari Lodge in Nazareth. Yes, those are my toes:
We couldn't resist asking what this was at the hotel - it was the honeymoon suite, with an observation tower on top:
So we asked if we could take a look, which was no problem. We particularly enjoyed this piece of artwork:
This sums up the rest of the activities while we were at the hotel. Yes, I was drinking coffee. Voilà me, drinking a macchiato (after adding sugar, of course). Cost: approx $0.40 US:
An African Paradise Flycatcher - there were a few of them flying around the hotel. The ladies' tails don't have the long, white feathers.
An African furniture store:
Stopping (again) to buy a watermelon:
In Nairobi, E and I stayed with some good family friends who're still living there. The youngest son in the pic hadn't even been born the last time I was there:
One of the first things we did in Nairobi was visit E & B, friends from my class at boarding school. Which meant I got to pick their brains about the transition from their MK experience to working in a remote area of Africa:
I took E to Nairobi National Park so she could see some African wildlife. Anyone who has been to Kenya knows that this is probably the least exciting park there is, but hey, what could we do... Crested cranes:
Eland (these make really delicious steak!):
Impala:
Kori bustard:
Male ostrich:
Zebra (duh):
Giraffe (duh again):
After the game park, we got to hop on a short flight with AIM AIR. They were doing a check flight with one of their Cessna 206's. We flew out to the strip, where they dropped us off (and even took the extra seats out from the back so we'd have actual chairs to sit on) under an acacia tree and spent the next 1-1.5 hours doing their landing circuits. Here's E looking out from our perch under the tree:
Oh look, there we both are, how nice:
The stick bug that dropped onto E, it was so cute:
N756MS taking off:
A view of Nairobi as we're on the approach. The less-defined area in the middle of the shot is part of Kibera:
The next day I took E to the Animal Orphanage:
And then to the Giraffe Centre (you can't go to Nairobi and not go to the Giraffe Centre...):
That night I got to spend some time with some other really close family friends who happened to be in Nairobi at the time:
The next morning, we headed to the coast - ah, the bliss of Mombasa:
Our feet (yes, the rest of us too) on the beach at high tide:
Looking up from the waterline as the tide is coming in:
The 'private' beach (no kids allowed) at our resort - this is pretty much where we spent most of our time while at the resort:
On the flight down and back we could see Kilimanjaro:
Friday was the day to get the final preps done - here's the church building (they're on the top floor of a commercial building):
A view of the city from one of the windows at the church:
And here we jump 2 days (I don't have any wedding pics, sorry!). After the wedding, I went with H's sister and parents to a hotel in Nazareth, a 2-hr drive from Addis. We stopped to buy a watermelon on the way. This is a rather glamourous picture of myself, if I may say so:
This picture pretty much sums up most of what we did while at the Safari Lodge in Nazareth. Yes, those are my toes:
We couldn't resist asking what this was at the hotel - it was the honeymoon suite, with an observation tower on top:
So we asked if we could take a look, which was no problem. We particularly enjoyed this piece of artwork:
This sums up the rest of the activities while we were at the hotel. Yes, I was drinking coffee. Voilà me, drinking a macchiato (after adding sugar, of course). Cost: approx $0.40 US:
An African Paradise Flycatcher - there were a few of them flying around the hotel. The ladies' tails don't have the long, white feathers.
An African furniture store:
Stopping (again) to buy a watermelon:
In Nairobi, E and I stayed with some good family friends who're still living there. The youngest son in the pic hadn't even been born the last time I was there:
One of the first things we did in Nairobi was visit E & B, friends from my class at boarding school. Which meant I got to pick their brains about the transition from their MK experience to working in a remote area of Africa:
I took E to Nairobi National Park so she could see some African wildlife. Anyone who has been to Kenya knows that this is probably the least exciting park there is, but hey, what could we do... Crested cranes:
Eland (these make really delicious steak!):
Impala:
Kori bustard:
Male ostrich:
Zebra (duh):
Giraffe (duh again):
After the game park, we got to hop on a short flight with AIM AIR. They were doing a check flight with one of their Cessna 206's. We flew out to the strip, where they dropped us off (and even took the extra seats out from the back so we'd have actual chairs to sit on) under an acacia tree and spent the next 1-1.5 hours doing their landing circuits. Here's E looking out from our perch under the tree:
Oh look, there we both are, how nice:
The stick bug that dropped onto E, it was so cute:
N756MS taking off:
A view of Nairobi as we're on the approach. The less-defined area in the middle of the shot is part of Kibera:
The next day I took E to the Animal Orphanage:
And then to the Giraffe Centre (you can't go to Nairobi and not go to the Giraffe Centre...):
That night I got to spend some time with some other really close family friends who happened to be in Nairobi at the time:
The next morning, we headed to the coast - ah, the bliss of Mombasa:
Our feet (yes, the rest of us too) on the beach at high tide:
Looking up from the waterline as the tide is coming in:
The 'private' beach (no kids allowed) at our resort - this is pretty much where we spent most of our time while at the resort:
On the flight down and back we could see Kilimanjaro:
And then, sadly, I came back to Canada. If you want more details about the trip, you'll have to call or email me!
2 comments:
Hooray for the pics and a glimpse into your trip. :) Soooo lovely to share time with you again. Looking forward to how Father directs you in months/years to come. Lots of love and a great, big hug from all of us!
Wow! So, so awesome! Can we please go on a trip to Africa one day? :-)
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