Student camp in Africa?

A shot of the Great Rift Valley as we traveled to camp

 
We were blessed to be able to attend a student camp for some special people in Africa.  They are students, just like your students, in most ways, but they live on a different continent.  They are well-traveled, most of them know a second language, and they love getting together with their friends.

They see the other students at this camp maybe once or twice a year, not every day at school, so it's a special time to re-connect and just hang out.

Some other special people that were there were some volunteers from America who came to lead the camp.  Can you imagine packing up the day after Christmas, to get on a plane the 27th of December to fly across the ocean, without your family, and plan to give all you have (including New Year's Eve) to serve some people you've never met?

True Servants!

This camp took place in the "notorious" Naivasha, Kenya, where my backpack was stolen.

I don't want to knock on Lake Naivasha.  It is beautiful, but this picturesque view is not where I was when I was robbed.

A partial view of the country club/camp - never been to a student camp quite like this before :)

It was so cold, and my kids were under-dressed.   (Of course you couldn't tell during the day when the sun was out....barefoot as usual.)

That is why we went to the used clothes market in town where the car was broken into.


Anyway, enough of that.



We stayed in a cabin,

A view of our cabin tucked away in the woods

 

and every day, a wildebeest, my kids named Norman, would just eat grass and lay in the shade outside of our door.



One of the Massai that worked there offered to take Caleb for a closer look...















There was also a camel on the premises you could ride for a few shillings.  My kids named him Billy.  I had some great video of them on Billy as he rose up to his feet and knelt down on his knees, but that was in the camera that is now "missing."  (By the way, Doug, thanks for sharing your pictures...they surely make the blog a lot more interesting than just looking at my writing.)

Caleb and Karis just enjoyed the "getting up" part.

They look a little nervous about the "going down" part.

Caleb got to stay on for ride #2.

 

Walking away from a fun ride!

 

But the most exciting animals that hung out near the cabins (only at night) were hippos.

Kylie and Doug would stay up late every night for late worship, while I took the younger two to bed.  One night, Doug and Kylie couldn't get to our cabin because two hippos were grazing near the sidewalk in front of our cabin.

They waited and waited and finally had to call one of the night guards to come "do what they do."

The guard had a flashlight that also has a "noisemaker" on it.  When he turned it on, there was a clicking noise that came from it, and the hippos slowly moved away from the cabin so they could come inside.

New Year's Eve was spent worshiping right up until midnight.  It was a GREAT way to bring in the New Year...at the feet of Jesus.

At midnight, about half the students jumped in the pool, fully clothed to celebrate the New Year.  Have I mentioned how cold it was?

See?  They are just like the students you know.