Amboseli

Last weekend the five Kistlers went to Amboseli National Park, best known for its views of elephants in front of Mount Kilimanjaro.  Our time was great.  The road was surprisingly good, the best we've driven on in Kenya.  After a quick 3.5 hour drive, we were at the gate.  Unfortunately we were at the wrong gate, but the guard let us in anyway to pay elsewhere.  Our housing was basic, owned by the Kenya Wildlife Service, with power only 5 hours a day.  Yet, it was a peaceful place with plenty of room and a view of Mt. Kilimanjaro from the porch.

While we did not see a large variety of animals, we saw more elephants in three days than in the rest of our lives combined.  Seeing herds of 30-40-even 60 elephants became normal and even a bit ho-hum.  Multiple times, we stopped our car and just let the elephants walk around us.  Regularly, they came within 5-10 meters of us, and we held our breaths.  Elephants are so big, truly majestic.  They move with a grace of their own, and were free to play, eat and journey as they pleased.  Watching them was a true gift.

On the morning of the second day, we were also blessed by a parting of the clouds over Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Most days, the peak of the mountain is never visible, hid behind a veil of heavy cloud.  That morning however, the veil was torn until the entire mountain came to view.  We stopped and watched, enjoyed the majesty of God's creation there in front of us.   It was a blessed weekend and we praise God for it. Here are some of our favorite pictures....

A Kistler Visit

During the past two weeks, Matt's dad came to help us transition to Najile and to see his new granddaughters.  The visit was a great help to us and the girls.  Just hours after he arrived, he was driving to Najile with Matt to clean our house top to bottom.  Matt had to come back in the evening, so dad was left in Najile to fend off the dust and hyenas.  The next day, we arrived with the girls to a clean house. 
Over the next days, he was a constant set of extra hands and patience as we helped the girls adjust to Najile.  Having him to hold one (or both) girls was a great way for us to get the house organized or take some time off.  At night he was a great encourager, helping us stick to our plans and persevere when the crying didn't end.
Now dad is back home, and the girls are doing well.  They're sleeping through the night and generally adjusted to Najile-life.  Dad's time with us was a great blessing and we say to him, "karibu"-welcome any time you want to come back.

Visitors

Since the move back to Najile, we've had lots of visitors. Everyone wants to see not just one, but two mazungu babies! In the past when we've had visitors I've struggled to be friendly, often feeling like people just came to look at us and our house like animals in a zoo. But now I'm a proud mama happy to share my joy with anyone who comes. Plus, most people respect that babies are a lot of work, so they linger only for a short time, just wanting to say their hellos and see the girls for a bit. The cutest part is the kids. We have groups of kids come by on a regular basis after school is out, just wanting to see the girls. Many kids used to show very little if any respect to us: not following directions, hanging around, shouting at us; but now most of them are very polite, greeting us quietly, sweetly playing with the girls and then going on their way. If the girls are sleeping, the kids that visit don't try to argue or stay around, they go play somewhere else.

I've also found it interesting that no one wants to see Matt. Since I'm the mom, which here is acknowledged as the person in charge of the home and therefore the babies, if Matt answers the door, they just ask for me! This has given Matt the unique opportunity to take pictures of the throngs that have come to say hello, like the pictures we've posted here.

Maasai Americans

Now that we're back in Najile, we've been thronged by visitors. One of the common comments is that our babies are Maasai. Yesterday, we had our US Embassy appointment to finalize the girls' status as Americans. We hope that our girls will grow up appreciating their heritage as some of the first Maasai Americans.

Onesies for Two continued

Some of the onesies had matches, but the matches were different sizes... Now that the girls are big enough, we made sure to snap a few pics of the girls in the matching outfits before the smaller one no longer fit!

Onesies for Two

During our visit home for Christmas, a bunch of friends decorated onesies for our girls. We have gotten a great deal of use from them, but the girls have now grown enough that they have graduated from their newborn and preemie clothes (note: at the age of 2 months)! We've chosen a few for your enjoyment.

Mine

On Mother's Day, five Maasai boys, all under the age of 9, went to herd their families' cattle. Near their home, they found a strange piece of metal laying in the ground and began to play with it. The toy was unexploded ordinance from the nearby Kenya Army firing range. Their lives were ended quickly and brutally. It was likely left by a soldier walking through the area, too tired to carry the round any more. There were no signs, and no fences. Other rounds were later found in the area, including one brought home by a child. Explosions like this had killed cattle and maimed Maasai in the past, but never at this scale. The army and police tried to whisk away the boys and the evidence, but locals quickly called the media and took pictures to ensure the story of this negligence was not overlooked.
This tragedy struck our community hard. Our friends at MIDI were effected directly, one staff was the aunt of one of the boys, another was a neighbor and at the scene minutes after the explosion. The government has promised to compensate the families and the community, but what use is money when your only child is gone?
Unfortunately, this story is all too common around the world. even worse than personal laziness, armies use weapons such as landmines and cluster bombs that leave a legacy of death wherever they are used. Uninhabitable communities lay deserted, the footprint of war plunged into the loose soil for a child to find. Annually, thousands of civilians are killed by these weapons, not counting those maimed for life.
It is time to make life a priority instead of death, working to eliminate cluster munitions and landmines despite their being "cost-effective" dealers of death. If you want to respond to this incident, learn about the international bans on landmines and cluster munitions, neither of which have been signed by the US. Our country claims to lead the world in human rights and freedom. Isn't it time we lead in ending the cruel and inhumane practice of laying mines? http://www.icbl.org/

A Tribute to Moms

As we begin our journey of parenthood we want to take a minute to say "thank you" to our moms, official and unofficial, for all that they've done for us. They've guided us, protected us, and passed on a generational blessing of faith that has been foundational for us and will surely have a powerful effect on our daughters. As this is our first mother's day as parents, we pray a special blessing over children that they might be blessed by their parents and given the gift of faith. We hope that this blessing lies richly over our twin girls and were happy to worship together today at church, celebrating God and His gift to us, mothers.

Bike-A-Thon

Yesterday, the four of us took a trip to Lari, in the highlands of Kenya to see the conclusion of a week-long bike-trip sponsored by MCC and Lari Memorial Peace Museum. The event included some of our Maasai friends as well as friends from MCC Alberta. The idea was to bike from Kisumu (on lake Victoria) to Lari, creating awareness about HIV/AIDS and talking about the need to build peace in different communities.
For us, the event was a way to get out of the house and try out our baby-handling skills. The girls did fine for the first hour or so, but soon got hungry and frustrated by the wind. Since we were about 2200+ meters (that's 7200+ ft) up it was actually cold (not just Kenyan cold) and windy. So, we retreated to the refuge of our car which was toasty warm with the windows rolled up. Of course, the problem with 4 white people, including 2 white babies, sitting in a car is that within minutes a crowd of children will inevitably come to stare. We had to make good use of our windshield wipers to keep the kids off the car and when we eventually pulled out nearly ran over 3 old women who seemed to think it unimportant to move out the way of cars.
All in all, it was a nice outing. On the way home, we got visit a view point of the Rift Valley, this one even higher than the one we normally stop along. The day was crisp like late autumn at home and was a day to celebrate peace with our Kenyan friends.
Check out the blog of the bike-a-thon here:
http://cycleforlife-buildpeace-stopaids.blogspot.com/