Dana’s Avenue

On the main road in Tanzania (yes, the ONE main road) there is a game park.  Here are some pictures of our trip through there on the way back from conference.

Park Entrance:

Warning sign:

Gazelle, Impala, Antelope, thingamajigery thing (all those kind of animals look the same to me):

Buffalo:

Elephant:

That little gray spot to the right of the tusked beast is a baby.  Awwww…

Giraffe:

Worthogs:

Zebra:

Zebra and Giraffe:

Okay, the rest of the pictures from the conference trip were taken in Tanzania.  They aren’t in chronological order.  I thought I’d start with a few pictures highlighting what you see in Tanzania versus America.

These are a couple goats tied up by their owners at a rest stop:

A little pit stop we had to make:

A bit of a heavy load:

And another one:

A heavy load of a different kind:

Public Bus (read it…the whole thing…):

Vendors visiting a public bus and a banana truck:

Everyone gathered in the meeting room on the last day after the kids’ program:

The child care team from Ireland getting thanked and presented with gifts:

The pastor from Ireland getting presented with gifts as well.  (I’ve mentioned a woman from Australia who is a nurse.  I ask her for medical advice.  She’s the woman pictured.  She’s also the wife of the branch’s director.)

Here’s what I’m thinking.  You want to see pictures of our trips when we take them.  I don’t want to put a ton of pictures all on one post.  That seems overwhelming.  But now I have about a week of posts that are a few pictures each.  Is that a bit boring?  I’m trying to determine the best way to handle this on future trips.  Idealy we’d post pictures as we’re experiencing things but that’s a touch hard with the internet not being a “sure thing” everywhere we go.  So give me an idea of how you feel about the picture posts.  Interesting or no?  I think my most interesting pictures haven’t been posted yet so I’m considering doing one picture post per week or something to that effect.  Thoughts?

This is the view from the guest house we stayed at in Morogoro.  This was the morning of day 2 on the trip home.

And that finishes the pictures I took with my point and shoot camera.  The rest are on our Nikon.  So we’ll back up and have a few pictures from conference (very few) then we’ll return to day 2 of our journey.  That’s the day I took a lot of pictures from the back seat of the car where I traveled incognito.

Here is that wonderful dirt road that awaits you when you cross the border from Kenya to Tanzania.  Trust me.  It isn’t a smooth as it looks.

Just a view out the window:

The pics from now on were taken on our trip back to Mbeya from Kenya.  These were taken in Mombasa, Kenya.

This guy hopped out of his vehicle to bum a cigarette from the guy next to him.

This is a version of what I’m talking about when I say people walk around with boards of things for sale:

This is the ferry we missed.  We took this while waiting for the one on the other side to get across to us:

This is how I thought it went.  You nurse your child which greatly reduces your chance at getting pregnant.  At some point (usually after the child has begun solids and you’re not nursing as often) your periods resume letting you know that you are able to get pregnant again. 

But oh no.  That’s not how it works.  A friend of ours announced at conference that she is pregnant.  Her son is 6 months old and she is 2 months pregnant.  She is still nursing her child and never resumed her periods.  She went to the doctor on a totally unrelated issue and they had to know if she was pregnant before doing a certain test and that’s when she found out.  So they’re kind of guessing on how far along she is I believe.

Anyhoo.  So that’s something to note.  I read in my nursing book yesterday that you can become fertile again before menstruation cycles beginning.  That doesn’t seem logical does it?  But it’s good to know.

I’m so excited for my friend.  They’re extremely happy to be pregnant which is very good.  I’d be happy too.  Timing-wise it’d be great if my next one comes during furlough.  Convenient, convenient.  But I didn’t think I’d be blessed with one child and don’t take it for granted.  I do pray for more children at anytime the Lord sees fit.  Even if it’s now.  It’s not now.  I’m just saying if it was I’d be fine with that.  I’m a baby expert now you know.  (Right, right…)  And if I never have the pleasure of getting pregnant again that’s by the Lord’s plan too and I would be okay with that.  For Asher’s sake I hope he gets to be a big brother to at least one sibling - but - I trust the Lord’s plan above my own. 

Our Ferry Ride:

Somewhere in Malindi or Watamu outside of the resort…

We stayed at Turtle Bay in Kenya for conference.  You can google that for more info.  Yes.  They have a website.  No they don’t have reliable internet for guests.  Whatever.