Falls, Mountains, Hippos, and Hell's Gate

We have exactly one month until I am on a plane, headed for the U.S. Crazy, right? Anyway, since I haven't posted in a bit, let me fill you in on what's happened the past two weekends.

In short, I have been immersed in challenges, God's creation, and friends for two straight weekends. And I loved it.

Easter weekend

Good Friday wasn't anything too special, other than we started the day with devotions and prayer as we do many other mornings here. Kyle and Leah both have The Book of Common Prayer, and the second week or so of being in Kenya we began to meet every morning to read that day's entry and pray. They have special entries for Holy Week, so we read the Good Friday entry that morning. For me, it was a great beginning for a Good Friday – appropriately somber and calling attention to what it was we remember that day in particular. I found a really interesting quote in that entry:

“Do you see how the devil is defeated by the very weapons of his prior victory? The devil had vanquished Adam by means of a tree. Christ vanquished the devil by means of the tree of the Cross. The tree sent Adam to hell. The tree of the Cross brought him back from there. The tree revealed Adam in his weakness, laying prostrate naked and low. The tree of the Cross manifested to all the world the victorious Christ, naked and nailed high. Adam's death sentence passed on to all who came after him. Christ's death gave life to all his children.” -John Chrysostom

Saturday many of us got into the bus with other international students and headed to Thika, where we spent the afternoon at Fourteen Falls. Called Fourteen Falls due to the fourteen waterfalls that cascade down several meters, it is a beautiful place. Most of the group slipped out of their shoes, rolled up their pants, and slipped and slid across the top of the falls, making it across to the other side. Three people from the United States group even joined in jumping off the top of one of the falls into the pool below. 

Easter Sunday some of us started the trek to Lukenya Community Church, which is about halfway to the pool. Not far into the walk, a car pulled up next to us, an elderly white couple in the front seats. If I remember correctly from the early encounter I had with the woman, she and her husband are some of the original staff members that began the Athi River campus. If I'm wrong, then either way they have been staff members at DU for a very long time. Anyway, they pulled up beside the four of us who were walking and asked where we were headed. Being headed the same way, they offered us a ride and we gratefully accepted. I include this story to indicate a general hospitable nature that is prevalent in Kenya, with most people you encounter.

Lukenya Community Church was just what I needed that morning. As mentioned before, I was anxious about being away from my SGCRC family for Easter, Easter being so special to me. When we got to the small tent where the services are held, the keyboardist was playing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” as a prelude. Once worship started, we sang my favorite Easter hymns such as “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” “Low in the Grave Christ Lay,” “He Lives,” and “In Christ Alone.” The sermon was well-done as well – a usual Easter-type sermon – but it was the worship that made me really glad to have attended this church on this particular morning.

Monday dawned and we were preparing to climb our own mountain, Mt. Longonot. I knew it was going to be steep and long. What I didn't know was exactly how long it would get. Or how fulfilling it would be to accomplish that feat.

The walk up wasn't terrible. Sure, it was tiring, steep, and I was breathing heavily but Kaitlan and I tried to just keep going. We gave ourselves pep talks and made goals for ourselves and made it to the top in good time. It was the next hike that proved to be tougher.

After pictures, a rest, and lunch, we decided to take the walk around the crater. Here was where the unexpected adventure began. A short time into our hike we met an Asian-American family who asked us how long until they reached the starting point where we'd just come from. The young girl in the family told us we shouldn't take the hike. Her mom smiled wryly and just said “shh, tell them the positives.” We kept going regardless.

Around the crater is 7.2 kilometers. If Max did the math correctly, 24.5 football fields can fit inside of the crater. For some reason, we thought this hike wouldn't be too difficult – it's just walking around. We were incorrect. The hike included climbing up steep hills, scrambling up the rocks themselves, sliding down slippery paths, and just a lot of walking. When we reached the very highest summit of the whole mountain, we were at 2780 kilometers. That's 9,120,735 feet. We were higher than some airplanes. Getting up there involved pushing ourselves up some big hills, enduring pesky gnats that swarmed our heads, and climbing up some rocks like a ladder. We thought that was halfway. Not exactly.

We began the hike at 2:45 and finished just less than 3 hours later. We hadn't realized the bulk of the hike would consist of the walk around the crater – most of us were originally just concerned about the up and down of the initial climb. However, despite the long walk, I was content. A lot of it had to do with the company. None of us are avid hikers, yet we all for the most part stayed upbeat and friendly with one another. There was lots of encouragement and even some laughing. Plus, it was quite an accomplishment. Even looking at the mountain a week later, I just couldn't believe we had climbed all the way up there.

 

View of the summit from across the crater

Inside the crater

View of Mt. Longonot from Lake Naivasha

We came down shortly after finishing the walk around the crater, dirty, tired, but feeling accomplished.

Naivasha

The following weekend we spent a weekend camping near Lake Naivasha. Being a girl who loves camping, I was really excited just to be at a campground. But there was more than just camping that this weekend had in store.

We stayed in tents at Fisherman's Camp. This camp is right on the shores of Lake Naivasha, one of the bigger lakes in Kenya. However, this lake is not like the lakes in Michigan where you can feel free to swim. These are hippo-infested waters, and hippos are one of the most dangerous animals in Kenya. Within a few minutes of arriving, while we were still waiting for our tents to be set up, we spotted our first hippo in the water, right along the shore of the campground's campus. Thankfully, the hippos stay in the water during the day, only venturing out later at night when the electric fence separates them from the sleeping campers. 

 Saturday morning we headed down the road to Hell's Gate National Park. This park was the inspiration for the animator's of Disney's The Lion King when they were creating the scenery for the movie. It's also the only national park in Kenya where you can ride a bike right alongside the many animals that inhabit the park.

Koly and I split off from the other girls that had come in the first wave of people to the park about one kilometer into the bike ride, heading for the tall, craggy rock tower called Fisher's Tower. She and I, and later Tyler and Kyle, were going rock climbing. Not the “fake” rock climbing up a wall like on many campuses or adventure sites in the sites. This was literal rock climbing, finding holds in the cracks of rocks to try to make your way to the top. Intimidating to me, having never done this type of rock climbing before and being a girl who was once mildly afraid of heights (last summer at Grace Adventures broke me out of that fear). But I was determined to make it to the top. Despite some challenges with figuring out certain tricky areas of the rock, I made it to the top and sat looking out over the scenery. Across from me was Mt. Longonot. I had to grin, sitting atop one accomplishment and looking at another.
 After rock climbing, Koly and I hopped on our bikes and headed for The Gorge. This is the place where “the stampede chased Simba,” “Mufasa died” and there's the original “pride rock” (all in quotes because, of course, it was animated). It took us about an hour to bike there, and we rode alongside zebras, giraffes, warthogs, and gazelle (as well as buffalo on the way back). Koly and I decided to take the shorter hike through The Gorge, something no one else in our group decided to do. We also invited a friendly young woman from Switzerland to join us, paid a guide, and headed down, down, down. It took an hour to hike through the ravine, gazing at crazy natural rock formations, feeling the water pouring down from hot springs, and re-creating scenes from The Lion King in our heads while humming tunes. The hike itself, as Koly put it, “isn't for older people.” It involved a lot of jumping, balancing on slippery rocks, leaping over puddles, and we were even bouldering down a wall at one point. By the time we emerged from below, Koly was cleaning the mud off my face and my tennis shoes had puddles inside of them. Then we had to bike the hour back to the gate to leave, and by that time my body was exhausted. Yet given the choice, I would have chosen to do everything I did that day all over again.

Where I went rock climbing!

Sunday we got up close and personal with the hippos on Lake Naivasha. From our campsite, boats offered tours around the lake to see the hippos and the lake. I was fortunate to get in the boat that ended up being the lead boat, so lots of hippo heads sticking out of the water before they would submerge themselves. Our boat even ran over a hippo at one point! We also were fortunate to see two African fish eagles swoop in to eat the fish our boat driver tossed to them. I had never seen these creatures in their natural habitats before this weekend, of course, and I was reminded of just how creative God is.

God has created a masterpiece in creation here in Kenya. The past two weekends have shown me the beauty of nature.

Furthermore, it also showed me a lot about myself. Never again should I believe I shouldn't try something because it's going to be challenging for me. I climbed a mountain and rock-climbed up a tower this weekend. I biked several kilometers and walked for an hour through a gorge all after pushing my body to reach the top of the tower. I can't tell myself I can't do something. I can. I just need to give myself the opportunity to challenge myself. I'll end up feeling proud of myself and very accomplished by the end.