Friday, February 16

We spent part of Friday morning and part of the afternoon with the En-Gedi children.

Our usual routine when spending time with them was to put our aprons on and greet the kids who could communicate. Then, each of us spent a few minutes with the immobile, non-communicative children, talking to and touching them, trying to coax some smiles, giggles, or other responses.

We spent much of the day with the En-Gedi kids. We played with large Lego blocks, sang songs (and made up some new, silly verses), and tickled some toes that peeked out of socks. Some of the older children seemed to be in a silly mood! One untied Karen's apron strings when she turned her back to him.

What a joy it was to hear their belly laughs and listen to them singing praises to our God, each in his or her own special way!

We ate an early breakfast and were on our way back to Kitengela by 8 am. We arrived at En-Gedi around 1:30 pm, grateful to be back.

Following a good, hearty lunch, we carried our bags to our rooms, unpacked, and rested for a while.

After a buffet breakfast on Sunday and Monday mornings, our safari driver, Sammy, picked us up, and we entered Amboseli National Park. We were blessed and excited to see hundreds of African elephants, zebras, pink flamingos, and Thompson’s and Grant’s Gazelles. Small groups of warthogs, monkeys, baboons, ostriches, hippos, and a cheetah were among the other animals we saw.

Mid-morning on Sunday, we stopped at a resort for snacks, refreshments, and cooling down. Brenda carried a small bag of potato chips as we walked from our safari vehicle. Several baboons and monkeys were nearby; some mothers held and carried tiny babies. We watched them for a bit. Suddenly, a monkey came out of nowhere, ran toward Brenda, grabbed her bag of potato chips, and climbed into the trees! Brenda squealed, and every monkey and baboon in the area chased after the monkey and chips! Tree leaves flew, and a lot of chattering followed! It all happened in the blink of an eye! Oh, what we’d give to have captured it on video!

After a quick breakfast, our bags were loaded into a safari vehicle, and Margaret and I headed to the Centrim Amboseli Lodge, a five-hour drive from the Tanzanian border and Amboseli National Park.

As you can imagine, five coffee-drinking women needed a restroom break a few hours down the road. It just so happened that the place we stopped sold African items hand-made by talented local crafters. We shopped, bartered, had refreshments, and were on our way again.

As we neared our resort, Mt. Kilimanjaro became clearer and clearer! We did not know we’d be privileged to see this beautiful, famous mountain, the tallest, stand-alone mountain in Africa!