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Ammon:

Woke up and had to eat quickly cuz we had to leave to the Giraffe Centre. We got there, and they gave us a bowl and we got to feed the giraffes. Then we went to the elephant orphanage and on the way there we saw some baboons on the side of the road. I got to pet a baby elephant 2 times and then we left. We went to the bead factory and there were women hand-making beads. We left and went back to the hotel.

Pictures from the 13th 

LaReita:

That pretty much sums it up. While doing the brief tour prior to getting to feed the Giraffes, the guide allowed us to hold some bones, including the skull of a warthog. She pointed out the hole for the brain, about the size of a quarter. Warthogs are called “Pumba” in Swahili, just like in the Lion King movie. She then expounded how forgetful they are with their small brains. Pumba will start running from a predator, but after 5-10 seconds, will turn around and start running towards their predator!

Here’s the political joke she shared – Kenyans call their current President “Pumba” (along with other names), because he has forgotten all the promises he made to get elected. Whenever we got a new driver I mentioned this. The driver would loudly laugh because I knew something about the people’s dislike of their leader.

Sheldrick Trust Elephant Orphanage was a delight. They only open for 1 hour once a day, so you have to get there early to get a good viewing spot. To see God’s creatures so lovingly cared for was touching. The Elephant Orphanage was founded by a British-heritage, Kenyan-born husband/wife duo. I got the book Daphne Sheldrick wrote about her life living in colonial Kenya. I’m half-way through reading it and it is fascinating!

“Boda Strong” is a glass bead factory where glass beads are fired from the mud of Mt. Kenya. I especially loved seeing women being employed (instead of hawking on the street), including one woman with her Downs Syndrome son, both working on creating bead products. There is still the stigma that special needs children are ‘cursed’ and often will be abandoned on the streets (best case scenario). Worst case scenario is they will kill the child. Fortunately, the stigma is slowly changing.

In the photos for today, there is a short video of the Down’s Syndrome son dancing as the ladies are singing. So sweet, especially considering how his life could be drastically different.

Ammon:

Adults talk too much. Prove me wrong. Went to 4 meetings / places. B O R I N G. but the day went fast. Weird how it can be boring and fast. Had yummy FRESH hotel food.

Pictures from the 12th  – today

LaReita:

(Yes, the hotel restaurant is quite good! Pleasantly surprised.)

George scheduled for us to meet many FMF locations, and other CBO’s (Community Based Organizations) that we have, or might, partner with.

1^st stop – a husband/wife duo with the Beautifier Cyber Cafe (with 2 computers) who open it up on Saturdays for children to come take turns learning how to type. It’s in a slum area of Dandora and kids getting addicted to drugs is a big issue. They are wanting to create a soccer team so the boys have something productive to do.

We passed by the G I A N T trash heap on the way to our next destination. Yes, people were on it, scavenging for things they can possibly sell to buy food for the day.

2^nd stop – Happy Destiny School in the slums of Dandora. The principal of the school has 52 kids who all come for free, and the teachers volunteer so the kids have a chance at life. Also met other community leaders (physical therapist, husband/wife pastor duo, 2 women’s empowerment coaches, and an acting coach), all who have been called to the work of lifting where they stand. It really is quite inspiring how in the most desperate of circumstances there are still people who strive to do good and help others.

3^rd stop – Pighevco (Pig, horticulture, vegetable cooperative) a CBO for the past 10 years doing sustainable farming practices. They also partner with churches to teach/mentor others in farming/gardening. Everything they grow, they sell in the local markets. Farm to table! Kenya government granted them 10 acres in the Nairobi quarry, and they are farming 6 acres thus far. The challenge is water supply/source. The quarry has plenty of rainwater at the bottom, but getting a portable pump to the other 4 acres is their next step.

While we were talking, a trash-devil came through. Ya know, dust-devils? This was a plastic bag trash-devil. Crazy. Dave wished we had videoed it, but was worried they might be offended. I don’t think they would have. It’s just a fact of life for them. 

4^th stop – Met with a group/co-op of 16 pastors in another slum area. They have an extraordinary vision of how to transform their respective communities with sustainable development. I provided them some training on LifeStory (how to create your vision, and use complete faith and trust it will come to pass).

We were to meet with someone else, but once it is 5pm, it is wise to start heading back to the safety of the hotel. The current Kenyan leadership is doing things that is causing the people to demonstrate, and there have been some unfortunate events the past 2 years. The current president is called Pumba (the Wart-hog from Lion King movie. You’ll learn more about this when you read Day 3 below.

Went back to the hotel. Met a couple from Poland with their 6-7 year old daughter. Ammon had fun playing in the pool for 4 hours after a long day of meetings.

Ammon:

We had to get up at 3AM to get to the airport for early check in for our 7AM flight to Kenya. The flight was VERY warm and packed. We were picked up by Fred and George (last name not Weasley) and they took us’ to see one of moms friends who runs Days For Girls for Kenya. Then went to the local mall to get groceries and came to our hotel (that had a kitchenette). Went to the hotel pool and the water was warm.

LaReita:

I was annoyed with the Kenya Airways counter agent (and myself) regarding the baggage. Lesson learned: if flying internationally, with multiple airlines, check ALL their rules regarding checked and carry-on luggage. Our carry-ons were weighed at the gate, and they told us they were too heavy to be carried on, so we were charged. The counter agent (when we first checked-in) did weigh our carry-ons and said, “don’t add anything else to them.” Vague. Ok. Now we found out why. I suppose airlines are more concerned with making money than customer service.

When we arrived in Kenya, I put on my momma bear voice and haggled with the border customs agent about the 2 suitcases of books we brought for our Literacy Centers. They wanted me to pay a tax on them, but they finally let me pass through without paying the tax. Dave said he enjoyed the show.

We went outside the airport and it felt … not humid! I had no idea it would be pleasant weather like this! George Ouma, our Literacy Director for Africa (&Kenya) met us and took us to our first stop. We drove about an hour in Nairobi to meet with Christine, who has been running Kenya’s Days For Girls (menstruation education and providing reusable pads). She and I met in 2017 when Becky Rogers (and family) moved to Ghana. Christine had come in 2017 to provide Becky support. Christine has an incredible story, has changed many people’s lives, and continues to do so again back in her home village.

We drove towards our hotel. Stopped at a mall in Westlands, Nairobi (more upscale-ish) at a grocery store. Got groceries for the 4 days we would be at our CySuites Apartment Hotel (with kitchenette).

Rooms were great for an African-based business! Reviews online were mixed, but I think it was because Europeans and Americans don’t quite understand what to expect when in Africa. 🙂  

Pictures from Sept 11

Ammon:

We went to the Museum Of The Future but mom didn’t plan ahead and the next tickets would be during our desert safari. Instead we killed time getting lost inside the worlds largest mall. Took a taxi back to our hotel and got picked up for our desert safari. We did a fourwheeler ride and I was thinking “Hot Rod Mama!” 🙂 (the story about G-Gma Leavitt peeling out in the Wiley army jeep in front of the high schoolers.) Our driver had a Land Rover and we did some fun sand drifting. Took us to the desert camp where we rode camels, and I rode a horse. I ride horses all of the time, so I tried to get the horse to run instead of walking, but the horse would not go to a trot! (jog) We went inside the theater and there were stage shows and a buffet, and I made friends with 5 cats!

LaReita:

Yeah, I didn’t plan well for the Museum of the Future. That’s ok, we’ll be living it soon.

Dubai Mall was indeed very large. All shops were occupied with businesses, but not many customers. We asked our taxi driver about that. He gave a good perspective that a world-chain needs to keep up appearances and have a shop in “the world’s largest mall” even if it isn’t profitable. Additionally, the Emirati are not giving discounts for the tenants of Dubai Mall because they know businesses will pay for the marketing and recognition in their mall.

Four wheeling in the Dubai sand with Ammon was fun. I didn’t get the fancy scarf thingy, but I probably should have. My face was HOT and SANDY. Dave volunteered to stay behind for that activity. He took the shift for the desert camel ride with Ammon. Ammon was more excited to be able to ride the horse (extra cost of course).

The funniest part of the day for me was when we entered the tent compound for the shows, a skinny cat immediately came up to Dave and started meowing and rubbing on his leg. It wasn’t me or Ammon the cat initially approached. It was Dave – the feeder of the cats back home. He brought the vibe with him.

Our tour was mid-week, so there weren’t many people in the audience for the stage shows and there was a lack of enthusiastic applause for the performers. Felt kind bad for them: belly dancers, traditional men’s dancing, fire throwing, etc. Food was meh.

I took great delight in watching Dave and Ammon interact with the animals! 🙂

Pictures from Sept 10th

Ammon:

I had a 2 hours of sleep on the plane BUT I was able to lie down the seat!!! We landed at 8AM and had a driver take us all around Dubai because we had to wait to check in until 3PM. We went to see the Burj Khalifa, went inside Dubai Mall (largest in the world), took a nap while driving in between places. Also went to a beach and tried to make a sandcastle. Went to the traditional spice market, and finally went to our hotel.

LaReita:

Seeing the tourist sites of Dubai was interesting. It’s similar to … NYC, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Ammon said, “I like Alaska better. I don’t like the concrete jungle.”

We saw/drove by:

Dubai Frame, Burj Al Arab (7 star hotel), Palm Jumelrah (palm shaped island), Burj Khalifa (was the tallest building in the world), Zabeel Palace (Royal family), Jumelrah Mosque, Museum of the Future.

We experienced:

Jumelrah Public Beach (Persian Gulf), Dubai Mall (world’s largest mall), Old Souk spice market, and gold market.

Interesting population stats our Pakistani driver told us:

1.35 million Emirati

10 million immigrants, majority of their population sizes listed highest to lowest:

• Indian (Muslims & Hindu)
• Pakistani (Muslim)
• Bangladesh (Muslim)
• Iranian (Muslim)
• Philippine (Christian)

He pointed out on the other side of the major highway, “See that skyline”? That all began in 2000. Well, with 10 million immigrants (and trafficked persons), of course you can build up a New York style skyline in 25 years.

Ammon and I waded into the warm waters of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. We had to run across the HOT SAND! I hadn’t realized how humid Dubai would be, but duh, it’s surrounded by water.

As we drove between locations (it was a 6 hour tour) all 3 of us would close our eyes and snooze. I did ask our Pakistani driver to get us some Vegetarian Pakistani food before he dropped us off at the hotel.

After the long day I logged into my travel group’s website to give a report to my fellow travelers. Someone posted just 15 minutes prior that Qatar and their airspace was just closed due to bombings. When I was booking flights a month ago from Washington to the other side of the world, one option was flying direct to Qatar in their Q-suites to arrive TODAY, Sept 9th. I almost booked it, but there were some other factors that weren’t lining up. Thankfully my travel angels redirected me to book with Emirates. Every time I travel, I KNOW there are angels surrounding me and my family. It is a palpable feeling of comfort.

Pictures from Sept 9th

Ammon:

Got up, packed up, and got in the van. We got to the airport by 8am and saw a big Lego model of the airport that we were in. We were 2 hours early so we stayed at the lounge. Got in the airplane and started figuring out what all of the buttons do, and it was very cool. There even was a lounge in the back. I watched 3 Iron Man movies, and a Captain Marvel movie. We got in the air and had a good time.

LaReita:

This was our first business class flight (lie-flat seats) that I “bought” on credit card points. One of the rules of this method of travel is “positioning” or “get close enough” to your final destination. I did a ton of research about getting to Kenya from Washington DC, and doing it in a business class so Dave could have a chance to lie down. It is IMPOSSIBLE for him to sleep sitting up. It is a loooong 13 hours to the other side of the world.

Getting from Washington DC to Dubai was a direct flight with Emirates – motto: “fly better”. It really was awesome. It was a double-decker plane and the business class was on the top floor. The flight attendants offered and gave me a pair of PJs and slippers. Yes, I took them and went to change in the spacious ‘washroom’ at the back. I also got to keep the PJs! Even gave a toiletry bag.

As the plane was lumbering down the taxiway getting up to speed to take off, I could FEEL how HEAVY it was. There was even flight cameras that we could watch our flight from different angles (tail camera, underbelly, cockpit dashboard.) The mocktails were fun. The menu and food was excellent. Lobster tail texture is like a giant shrimp. The flight attendants were very attentive. Really quite amazing.

Since our flight was crossing 9 time zones, I knew that we needed to adjust our bodies FAST. I’ve been seeing ads for “FlyKitt” that business executives use so they can be ready when boots hit the ground. My travel group had a few people who tried it and said it worked for them. So I bought the FlyKitt for me and Dave. The pills were giant, and knew that Ammon couldn’t swallow those, so I found comparable chewables. It also had an app of what to take when, and when to put on blue-blocker glasses, and when to sleep. Dave was able to get some sleep though he said, “I was doing it rotisserie chicken style. I kept turning over and over.” The FlyKitt would have worked better if our sleeping hadn’t been interrupted by a fellow passenger’s phone alarm going off nearly every hour, and didn’t turn it off. As a result, we were still a bit tired, but were still functional!

Pictures from Sept 8th

Ammon:

Went to the Arlington Cemetery and watched the guards of the Unknown Soldier Tomb change. Took an Uber to Ford’s Theatre. Did a tour about Abraham Lincoln, and saw the Presidential box where Abe was shot. I thought it was cool how the gun that… let go of Abe’s life is in the basement underneath the theatre. We were all tired so we went back to the hotel. We had this yummy Afghan food and went back to the hotel.

Pictures from the day

LaReita:

We went to the 9am Arlington Ward sacrament meeting. It’s the oldest operating church building east of the Mississippi. A beautifully building fully designed and built by the members in the 1940s before the corporate church took over such functions. Ammon didn’t mention it because he slept nearly the whole time 🙂 The 2 ward members who came to introduce themselves said their ward is a revolving door of Utah lawyers and Department of Defense employees. Just a fact, not a complaint.

Arlington Cemetery was bigger than I anticipated. Pictures really can’t capture it all – the scope and the reverence. Saw JFK’s burial site with the eternal flame and 3 JFK quotes carved in stone. Same for RFK’s site as well. While reading and pondering on the quotes I realized that people don’t talk like this anymore. People don’t read like that anymore. I’m one of ‘those people’ and I need to mend my ways and start reading more.

The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was particularly poignant for me now that we are a military family. These guards study and train for 9 months before they are allowed to take a shift. A few months ago the first fully female detachment was assigned to guard the tomb. I found that appropriate since mothers will stay up all night with their hurting, sick child. Why not an all-female guard to watch over their fallen comrades?

There was so much to see and learn at Arlington that we had to skip our planned White House Visitor’s Center, and we went straight to Ford’s Theatre (where Lincoln was assassinated). I hadn’t realized there were multiple conspirators who had planned the same night to also assassinate the Vice President and Secretary of State (Seward – who facilitated the purchase of Alaska).

We were so exhausted by 3:30 we called it a day and went back to the hotel. Did laundry and walked to a local Afghan restaurant. 

Ammon:

We got up and got an Uber (we had no car) to the National Book Festival (at a convention center). Then we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I really liked the WWI air reconnaissance mission photos. We then got a taxi to the Capitol, did a tour, saw statues and big rooms. Saw the original painting of Pochahantas getting baptized.  Took an underground tunnel to the Library of Congress. Took the Metro Rail/train back to our hotel, and walked 5 minutes from the stop to our hotel.

pictures from the day

LaReita:

While creating a 2 day itinerary in DC a couple of weeks ago, I did get some good suggestions from Grok (an A.I.), including the requirement to have (free) tickets for timed entry at nearly all the places we went. Grok did not do well with how to schedule the itinerary according to building proximity and open/close times. That took a human to decipher, “uh, those 2 museums are on opposite sides of the city.”

While on the Library of Congress website getting our timed-entry ticket, it showed other events the LOC hosts, including the 25^th annual National Book Festival happening the very day we were to be in DC! What an incredible line-up of workshops and authors. There were two kid-oriented workshops we picked: illustrations and creating stories. Ammon has started writing his own story based on a video game, and was excited to share it.

The class was led by a Coretta Scott King award-winning author, Kwame Mbalia, and a gal with a nonprofit who teaches inner city kids how to become writers. The workshop was a kid-crowd-sourced story writing workshop. They all shared ideas to start creating a story together. So much fun. Afterwards Ammon asked the gal if she would read his story and offer suggestions. She was so kind and thrilled he brought something and that he ASKED for HELP. Great moment.

The National Air & Space Museum was packed full of information and so good. If you go and really want to experience it all, I would suggest spreading out the information overload by going for 3 days and just 1-2 hours at a time.

The Capitol tour was good. The 15 minute intro video was a power-nap for me and Dave. More walking & stairs and seeing America’s legislative home was impressive. Interesting new additions are the 2 statues per state that now adorn the halls of the Capitol. Utah has Brigham Young (of course), and Dr Martha Hughes Cannon (first female state senator – 1896 – the year Grandma Lucy Hawkes Jeppesen was born AND when Utah became a state. If Dr. Cannon was as fiery as Grandma Jeppesen, I’m sure she made a bang in Congress. I’m channeling dad jokes right now.)

The Library of Congress was beautiful of course. Saw the reproduction and recreation of Thomas Jefferson’s library. Impressive. I’m sure he read all of those books. What would our society be like today if more people read like that?

Ammon:

Started the drive again and stopped to go see a park that was 1600 century theme. I really liked crushing the corn. We started driving AGAIN (can you believe it) we then stopped to sleep for the night.

LaReita:

I wanted to plan a historical educational place to take Ammon in Virginia. Plenty abound! I asked Grok.com “What historical sites in Virginia would an 11 year old boy enjoy?” I got about 6 answers, one of them being a historical place in Chester, VA – Henricus Historical State Park. It’s a full-time village from the early 1600’s that has been recreated with period accuracy. Buildings were built with period tools by history buffs who are also the guides/actors/presenters who get to have this awesome daily 9-5 job. Henricus recreates how the Powhatan people lived (Pochantas’s people) and interacted with the English soldiers of the Virginia Company.

Incredibly (but not surprising), the day we came happened to be Homeschool Day! Live interactive exhibits: grinding corn with rocks, scraping out a tree with shells to make a canoe, experiencing their smokey wigwams/lodges, soldier’s defenses, wood-working, candle-making, etc. We ended up staying here for nearly 3 hours. Ammon wanted to go back to the corn-grinding station in the Powhatan village, but it was closed up – quitting time!

If you are ever near Chester, Virginia with kids (or not) I highly recommend it!

We finished our drive to Washington DC, our hotel near the Dulles airport (IAD) to check-in to our room, drop off our bags, and return the rental car.

Photos on Google