Movies from Nairobi

Here are some movies of our adventures in Nairobi. We visited the Giraffe House where Jennie and Christian both got to kiss Daisy the giraffe. Our kids warmed up gradually to feeding and petting the giraffe. We were able to hold a giraffe femur bone - it was unbelievably heavy. It gave me a new respect for these very tall and strong animals. Giraffes have long purple sticky tongues that secrete an antiseptic which helps them eat the sharp, hard spikes off of the Acacia Trees - which is their main diet.

Next we visited the Elephant Orphanage. This orphanage collects elephants from around Africa whose mothers have died, or have been killed by poachers. The elephants are taught to forage and develop as naturally as possible, while being cared for by the workers. The workers try to do what the mothers would do: keep them warm at night, spray water on them so they can get nice and muddy (which prevents them from being sunburned, and keeps insects from burrowing into their skin). It was so fun to see the different groups of elephants they brought out to us. This is the under-one-year-old group. They are raised in the orphanage for a few years until they are independent enough to be released into the wild at about 3-4 years of age.

Bomas of Kenya (which means villages of Kenya) is a cultural venue where you can see traditional music and dancing from the many ethnic groups. There are also examples of different types of villages found throughout Kenya. This dance and song is popular among the Masai people. The men jump as high as they can and in real life they wear shoes made of used tires. In Tanzania, we were able to visit a Masai village and we'll post more movies of our experience there.

We thought the variety of huts was quite amazing. This mud hut is considered one of the best kinds. It is made of sticks with a mixture of mud and manure smeared on top. It is the job of the women to re-apply this whenever the all-season weatherproofing wears off.

Musings of my mind...

This morning I was sprinkling a hefty amount of cinnamon on the oatmeal when I realized it was ground red pepper - ooooh! One shake of this is enough to season a whole pot of soup! Luckily I was able to remove the top layer and start over. Whoops!

If it's too easy, it probably is. I went to two "Apple stores" today looking for a bi-lingual firewire so that we can download things from our backup drive to our new computer. Try that in Vietnamese, or in my case with techy terms, cherades or sign language. Yeah, it looked right, but now that I am home, it's not the correct cord. Back to the store we go... On the flip side, I finally returned a flash drive that I bought last fall. I've been hesitant to go back to the store because it's a little shop on computer street. They were good to me and swapped out the flash drives. The one I had was faulty - and I just thought it was our old computer. Now I wish I would have done this earlier.

I love exploring the streets of Hanoi. It seems that there is so much to discover on one little side street. Often I think I need to just get lost and explore some hidden spots. I discovered a couple new streets today and made mental notes of things available on said streets. Hanoi has shop after shop selling the same or slightly different thing all on the same street.

Hooray for good hairdressers! This is a shout out to Minh who used to cut my hair at another salon. It's a long story, but I got my haircut right before we went to Africa and it was a traumatic experience. The salon wanted to keep my business, so they called in someone special to cut my hair and promised that it would be great. 3 hours later and a buzz cut in the back (literally), I demanded to get the phone number for Minh, who no longer worked for them. This turned out to be a blessing because he is opening his own shop close to my house. My buzz cut in the back has grown out a bit and I am sooooo looking forward to a nice haircut next week after his shop opens. Let's just say that the haircut was so bad that my housekeeper told me: "It's okay, you can wear a hat." And Christian pulled me aside at the end of the day and thanked me for being such a good sport about it...and he tried to comfort me by commenting that at least the "bald spot" was centered in the back of my head. Thanks! Don't even ask, there aren't any pics.

One more musing, the day before we left on our trip, I was in the Embassy medical unit picking up some antibiotics to take on our trip 'just in case.' I stopped in to see the doctor and asked him if he had a minute to listen to my lungs. After a minute of careful listening, he declared that I had full-blown pneumonia! I got a shot of Rocefin on my buttock (which hurt for about 3 weeks) and antibiotics and a breathing treatment to open up my lungs. I was in shock, as was Christian when I told him. Crazy! I had pneumonia last year when we were in Laos. I'm glad I got this treated before the trip instead of afterward. I'll have to be on alert next fall/winter.

Movies from Sweetwaters Kenya

We were trying to figure out how best to break up the blog entries about our trip and we decided to upload the photos to Flikr. We're still working on putting comments/descriptions on the photos, but they have been saved into two folders "Safari" and "Zanzibar." If you aren't able to access them, let us know and we'll send you the link.

In the meantime, here are some movies that capture some of the fun. These movies are from our safari at Sweetwaters with the Zimmer Family. We were in tents situated around a watering hole. Pretty fun to wake up and go to sleep with animals right there. The kids got to take turns poking their heads out the sunroof and driving the car...definite highlights of the trip!

Another highlight at Sweetwaters was the chimp preserve. These are rescued chimps who are relocated inside a protected area. Visitors are allowed to walk along a fence to see the chimps. Many people think they are cute and make great pets, but they grow up very fast and are quite strong and dangerous which leads them to being held captive in chains and small cages. In the preserve they are allowed to roam freely in their natural habitat. Everyone, please meet George, who loves doing tricks.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

It's been ages since we've blogged...partly because our camera got stolen ...and our 7-year old iMac was creaking along with limited memory ...and we had visitors ... and we took a 4-week trip to Africa! But, we're back now with a new camera and a new computer, so we're ready to go. We got the new iMac and we're loving it!!! We'll try to post about the different parts of our trip over the next few days. So here's a teaser:

Goin' on a game drive with the Zimmer Family (yes, that is Xander driving the car).

Sweetwaters, Mt. Kenya - located on the equator!

Sweetwaters Safari Kenya

We got to see 4 white rhinos brought in by DHL trucks - relocated from the Czech Republic.

Pucker up Christian!

Christian is feeding Daisy from his mouth at the Giraffe House in Nairobi, Kenya.

Adorable Elephant Orphanage! Nairobi, Kenya.

Baby elephants are rescued from the wild when their mothers die/or are killed.

Emma standing in front of a traditional Masai mud hut at the Bomas of Kenya.

Railway Museum in Nairobi - little boy's dream come true!

Christmas morning with the Zimmer Family.

They were saints to put up with us visiting them over Christmas.

Zimmer and Marchant children (aka Christmas shepherds and an angel) ready to attend Mass in Nairobi and participate in the live nativity.

We hiked down to the gorge at Hell's Gate.

This is where Angelina Jolie filmed part of Tomb Raider 2.

Flamingos as far as the eye can see at Lake Nakuru, Kenya

Hungry, hungry hippo in Lake Manyara, Tanzania

Lazy lion lounging in a tree (that's his belly hanging down)

Wildebeest migration in the Serengeti / Ngorongoro Crater

Leopard in a tree - our driver had good eyes and we were very lucky to see him!

Serengeti, Tanzania

Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania

One of the many famous carved doors of Zanzibar

Red Colobus Monkey in a tree right above us! In Jozani Forest, Zanzibar.

Getting ready to swim with the dolphins in Zanzibar.

Jennie got to see a bunch of them swim under the boat while she was in the water.

Christian on BBC - Vietnam Cracks Down on Dissidents

I don't know how to upload the BBC's video itself so below is a link. Following the link is a Reuters article on the recent situation. It has been a rough past few months for my job given the government's recent crackdown. I attended 3 trials in four days.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8297861.stm

Nine convictions in Vietnam send signal before congress

Fri Oct 9, 2009 3:48pm IST

By John Ruwitch

Our Stay in Saigon

We spent three weeks in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) while Christian was on assignment covering for a colleague on maternity leave. We stayed at the Indochine service apartments which was right downtown and the perfect location! Here is a pic from the rooftop where we ate dinner overlooking the city.

Saigon was so different from Hanoi and it's a little hard to put my finger on exactly what was different. Here is one realization I had: In Beijing you have to be careful walking on the sidewalk because you don't know which way to dodge when you hear someone winding up to spit a logie (sp?). In Hanoi I usually walk in the street because the sidewalks are full of parked motorbikes which leaves little or no room for people. In Saigon, you have to be very careful walking on the sidewalk because, although the streets are broader to accommodate more traffic, it apparently isn't broad enough and people feel the need to drive their motorbikes on the sidewalk. Watch out pedestrians wherever you are!

These were some highlights... swimming, playing at the nice new playground 5 min walk away, playing tennis at the presidential palace tennis courts (across the street from our apartment), exploring Ben Thanh market Jennie's favorite shopping place (see pics below), celebrating Emma's REAL birthday, going out to eat at our favorite restaurant, etc.

Emma buying a pair of slippers - medicinal herb shop

Our housekeeper came to Saigon with us. Her parents live there and she hadn't seen them for over a year. Here is a pic of her family (she is in the middle). It was a pleasure to meet her mother and father and be in their home. Brother on left, 2 nieces and sister-in-law in bright pink shirt. She has a wonderful family.

Saigon has a nice zoo. I didn't think it was as depressing as the one here in Hanoi. There were ladies selling carrot sticks, bananas, sugar cane, and other things you could feed to the animals. The kids loved the zoo and we followed a monkey who was being led by a zookeeper around the zoo. Below is a pic of our housekeeper holding the monkey's hand while he sat down for a rest. She said it really had a tight grip!

Emma gets lot of mileage out of her birthday. She celebrated her birthday in California with family, Hanoi with friends (and at school), and she had her real birthday in Saigon. Xander is having birthday envy and keeps saying with bright eyes and a huge smile "Xander birthday today?" I keep telling him that he can have another birthday next year after Christmas and he gets excited like it's happening tomorrow. Cute boy!

Emma got to plan her special day with daddy's help. We first went to the presidential palace which was where the North Vietnamese (Communist) tanks rolled through the front gates and ended the war.

It was interesting to see that they left the palace as it was when it was taken over. There were parts that were decorated all 60's which was fun to see and there was even a movie theater too. Xander's most memorable part of the tour was the camouflaged helicopter on the rooftop that we could see from our apartment across the street.

Down in the basement of the palace were narrow tunnels which led to different situation rooms, map rooms, communication rooms, etc. It was neat to see where the planning took place. There were muliple telephones in every room of the palace, all waiting for that urgent call. Emma's deciding on which one to answer.

In the evening for Emma's birthday we went to see the water puppets. It was a great performance with live music and singing. Emma thought it was pretty cool to go see the puppets for her birthday since we saw the water puppets for my birthday last year when we were in Hue (just north of Da Nang).

On the right you can see the puppet artists who came out to take a bow after the performance. It's pretty amazing to see how they work.

At the end of the day we celebrated with frozen yogurt. It was called Yo Fruz and was so good!

While in Saigon, we also visited a couple Chinese temples. Here are a couple pics. This temple is famous for protecting the seas, which is important when you live next to the ocean.

We're not dead, yet!

Now you know why we don't do Facebook! Sorry for not posting sooner. Here's a brief recap... In May we came back to Hanoi from the States with our ittie bittie Anneliese. Emma took her to school for show and tell. All the kids wanted to hold her, but we settled for touching her feet. Emma was so careful and so responsible answering all the questions during sharing time.

Emma made cupcakes to take to her class for an early birthday celebration. Notice the gap her smile where her 1st tooth fell out!

Emma graduated from Kindergarten and is SOOO excited to go to Grade One. Below is a pic of Emma's end-of-year Performing Arts Concert. Emma did a splendid job being a ladybug in her class performance. At the end all the kindergartners sang a song that made the parents cry. It was a song about children being the hope of the future. It was sweet.

Now for a pic from Emma's birthday party with friends in Hanoi before everyone went to their home countries for the summer. We had a cooking party where the girls decorated their own party hats and each got to wear an apron and take it home. They rolled out their own pizza dough, decorated their pizzas and then got to decorate cupcakes to take home. We played a few games in the middle - Emma's favorite musical chairs and bingo. It was a lot of fun and I think the girls enjoyed themselves.

I realize this has been a very Emma-cetric blog posting, so I'd better put something in about Alexander. This is a movie of him whistling. I love his personality and his whistle!