I’ve uploaded some select photos from my recent trip up to Pokot this week. Click the picture to go to my Flickr site and check ‘em out!

Kumi na tano = 15 in Swahili!

Supporters, Partners, Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Strangers:

It’s official! The 15th of every month shall now be called Kumi Na Tano: Donate To Justin Day! Kumi Na Tano is a friendly blog reminder that I am not on this adventure alone, but I am relying on faithful supporters who can’t be here with me (but still want to vicariously be a part of things with a tiny part of their income each month).

For those of you who have already agreed to support me, get into it by clicking on the DONATE link on the right to deliver your pledge via PayPal. Or, if you would rather send a check, please make them out to World Story Organization and send them to:

World Story Organization
1156 Dakota Court
Bowling Green, OH 43402

Of course, you’ll remember this is a tax-free organization I’m running here!

If you have already sent stuff my way this month, rock on! I appreciate you remembering me! If you have not sent your May support yet, you should do so now! Or soon!

In the meantime, I have just returned from a 5-day escapade to West Pokot, way out in the bush, and have much catching up to do that requires technology. Part of this is uploading many of the hundreds of pictures I took this past week, and you can look forward to those up here soon! See you then, and thanks for your kind support in advance!

Amanda, Sam, and Some Guy

As you can see, I ran into some new friends last night. Sam and Amanda Parks have been in Kenya for about a year now. Amanda teaches at West Nairobi School and Sam works for an organization called World Concern. You can see what they are up to on their Kenya blog (which was an inspiration for this one) here: Living the Adventure.

I had met Sam a couple years ago in Ohio at my church, but never had the chance to get to know him or Amanda since I jetted off to California (in a blaze of glory). It was nice to connect over here, though, and get some perspective on what they’ve been doing and to share what I hope to accomplish with my time here.

In other news, this weekend I am heading up to Eldoret with Harmon and Chris, an engineer. We will spend a few days in the bush, looking at some bridges BtG has built in the past before heading to the Mara with Derek to check out some other bridges. I haven’t been to the Mara since my first ever safari back in ‘99!

After we get back from the Mara I may end up going down to the Galana region with Derek to get my first sight of the bridge project I came to work on! It’ll be so nice to get moving on what I came to do - and to put my cameras to good use!

From the Parker’s backyard

Please make your way to my Flickr site, where I have created a new set of pictures. I’ll keep that set updated with any photos I take here in Kenya.

For now there are a few from around the residence I will be staying at while in Nairobi. Within a couple weeks I will hopefully have made it down to the Galana bridge site (heavy flooding now). I look forward to sharing many more pictures then!

In other news, my sleep is still off! I didn’t sleep a wink last night until 7 am, and was exhausted all day. Then I fell asleep here at 9 pm, only to wake up at 2 am without being able to continue! Hence - you get another blog update!

Special greetings to any of my Pepperdine colleagues who check this out!

Let it be known that my greatest memories of living in Nairobi back in 1999 were the family trips to Nairobi Java House. We lived just down Ngong Road from the original Java House, which has since franchised a bit around the city to more locations.

Lucky me, the Parker’s live just down the road from another Java House, near Village Market and the US Embassy! Today is the first of hopefully many times that I will get to enjoy it. I had a brilliant iced mocha and some grilled sausage & vegetable soup for starters as well as free wireless internet. (I hesitate to type “wifi” as it is as only as fast as a shared dial-up connection).

That being said, I still hope to occasionally have the patience to upload some video for your enjoyment, but be forewarned that the quality of the compression will be compromised. For the techies out there, I usually enjoy putting up 800kbps videos, but in light of the speeds here I will probably be lucky to push 250kbps.

In other news, Derek Roulston was here last night. Some of you may remember that he has been a missionary to the Watta people for the past 10 years, teaching them to farm, build schools, health clinics, and so on. Harmon, Derek, and I discussed what I might be able to capture story-wise, envisioning sharing the transition of the Watta from hunter-gatherers to farmers.

I got really excited when Derek thought we might take the wazee (older members of the community) out to East Tsavo Park (where they used to live before being kicked out) and let them show us around where they came from, how they lived, sharing ancestral stories and such. I’m glad I got my Fostex FR-2LE recorder fixed before I came!

We shall see! In the meantime, I will continue to try to get my sleeping schedule corrected and hopefully buy some clothes! Stay tuned…

At the Parker’s

Hey cool people staying up to date on things! Just a real quick one to let you know I’m here, exhausted, and excited to get going!

I had a 12-hour lay over in London and went in to town to catch Iron Man. I admit to falling asleep a couple times, namely at key plot points. I remember him getting operated on and then I woke up and he was a huge iron monster in the desert. Probably missed something there! But I really enjoyed it. Robert Downey Jr. was perfect for that role.

Then I got on a plane and flew to Kenya! So much to do and to see and to be. But first we gotta ZZZZZZ! The Parkers are very kind to let me do so at their beautiful house.