The road less traveled.

Good morning!

On this Saturday morning as I start to write, I am alone in the house.  Ted had an early morning tennis practice after overcoming almost a 50% cut rate to make the tennis team.  Anna is at Junior High Splash Day in Nairobi for the day - sometimes RVA feels like part school and part camp.  

**Several hours later...**  

Emily went to a health fair up at school, where they record each child's height, weight, and vision and have discussions on safety, etc.  Rick is rounding at the hospital - we are splitting the weekend on call, and he took Saturday.  Those activities sound pretty typical for the average American family on a Saturday.  So, what's different?  I hung up a load of laundry on the line while mist from the rain over the crest of the mountain blew down on me.  I had to step over monkey poo several times on the way to and from walking to RVA for the health fair.  I bought grapes from Samuel who came to the door this morning, and then soaked them in a sterilizing solution of sorts.  Our chicken is "broody" (Read:  If history repeats itself in the Gessner coop, that hen will sit on a bunch of eggs, eat half of them, one egg might hatch, and then she won't lay eggs again for 6 months!  Sigh...), so Ted decided to buy 10 fertilized eggs from someone in Kijabe, marked them with a sharpie, and then put them in the nest box where she sits.  I'll let you know in 21 days.  I boiled some bones from a recent goat roast, so Mak can have a gourmet meal of goat-infused dog rice tonight.  Just a few differences from the average suburban activities!

This summer, during my blog hiatus, we were blessed with many visitors.  What an encouragement it was to each member of our family!  A family that we are good friends with from Raleigh came in mid-July, and we traveled with them to the Maasai Mara.  They travel to India every couple of years and told us how they had once gone on a "safari" there.  They traveled many hours to the interior of India and reportedly only saw the hind end of one elephant disappearing into the foliage, so they were thrilled to see the abundant wildlife that Kenya boasts.

***Two days later....***


On another of our jaunts, we drove in 2 cars to a place called Ole Pejeta Conservancy.  We got a kick out of this clever sign positioned before a small bridge.

After spending the day in the conservancy, the afternoon was winding down and we were preparing to leave significantly later than we had planned or hoped.  You know how you plan the time you want to leave (including the buffer), then the time you should leave (to still allow for emergencies), and then the time you must really, really leave - well, we were about 30 minutes after that.  And there was a most impressive thunderstorm raging in the direction we were heading.  Did I mention that we took 2 cars?  That means Rick drove one and I drove one.  So, we headed out to find the turn onto the short cut that we had taken that morning (the green mosque was our landmark).  Yes, the 15-20 miles short cut that seemed a little dicey when the ground was dry now had to be navigated with flowing streams where the cavernous potholes had been that morning...in the light rain and the gathering darkness.  I don't have much experience with 4 wheel drive either, but I certainly got an entire course on the way home.  The photos don't do it justice really, but the guys took a photo of us coming down the road - and those are not superficial little puddles.  It felt a little like a video game while trying to choose the most navigable path before getting my car stuck...except that I couldn't just press "New Game!"

I love this next picture that I stopped to take of the guys' car in the distance.  (They drove a lot faster and, I think, actually aimed for the deepest puddles.  They later said they were only worried about having to pull us out of the mud, if we got stuck!)  This short cut was quite uninhabited and the sunset was phenomenal with the clouds and mist.  Kind of makes me think of Robert Frost's poem about "I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."  It also makes me think about how we can get all caught up in our worries and immediate concerns in life, but if we don't look ahead of us at the goal, then we will miss the beauty of it all.  We will either see the mud and the potholes and discomforts around us, or we will see the stunning beauty of the reward that awaits us at the end of our journey.  Let us not miss the chance to take the road less traveled, and let us certainly not take that path mired down in worry.  But let us each one remember to keep our eyes focused on what God has in store for us "down the road," and that His beauty is all around us if we will just lift our eyes to see.

Love,
Sarah


Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:13-14