Tait, Jordan, Ty and Kyle speak . . .

Tait says “hi” to all her friends and family in Calgary. We are having lots of fun here and I am making lots of new friends at school. I am happy with our house because it is big and we all have our own room. Tait found school to be a bit “nerve-racking” at first, but by the second day it was great. The new Head Master of the school, from the UK, also has 4 children - twins that are Tait’s age. The schoolwork is interesting and basically the same as Canadian. The hardest part is the type of handwriting they want me to do. I am in 2 clubs after school, Brownies and Tae-Kwan-Do.It is so hot here that von weekends we go swimming many times a day. We have been busy on most weekends going to hotel swimming pools, a day trip, or swimming in the ocean.Tait says the food is “okay” but not as good as Canadian. She eats fish (Kingfish) and spaghetti. I miss you all very much and hope to hear your voices soon!

Kyle: We have a pool in our backyard that we use everyday. Our neighbors are also from Canada (they have a son, Sam, that is the same age as Kyle). Kyle plays with Sam football (soccer for us Canadians), gameboy and Yu-gi-o cards. Kyle says that school was “scary” the first day but feels better because “ I have made a few friends.” He finds the work a little harder but is doing well. For recess and the lunch break we play soccer (football for the UK and Africans), but it is really HOT! The food is “Yucky” as hardly anything tastes like Canadian food. Do his basic food group at the moment is cereal, mange, pineapple, and ice cream. Last night he had toast with cream cheese, jam with relish (crushed pickles) – so who has the weird eating habits… There are lost of different hotels that we are able to use and swim, dive, and even water slides. Kyle is playing in the tennis club after school and loves playing 'king of the courts.' A big “HI”, I miss my Canadian friends and family. We will see you in July to visit.

Jordan says that the first night was very ‘scary’ as it was very dark and dirty. He laughed at his father the first night as he was trying to kill a lizard in Tait’s room with a plunger. Sorry, no pictures available, just the memories. We are pretty much use to them now. I really wanted to go scuba diving when in Africa. So I enrolled in a course and just recently completed my last dive and received my certification. I was able to see a shark, sea turtle, starfish, and many more fish like the ones on Finding Nemo. He can not wait to go on his next dive.The first day of school I met a student from Germany that showed me around. I have met a few friends and play football often. I have recently introduced a few students to floor hockey – Canadian style, some have never played hockey before.

We have a uniform at school that I really don’t like because it is hot and scratchy. Jordan finds the work in some subjects harder and some about the same. For PE we are placed in houses and my house is green team and is the champion of basketball. I think the school is pretty big because it looks like a university campus with lots of columns. He is involved in 2 clubs after school, basketball and football training, which are lso the junior school teams. The coach is also the PE teacher.

We have used many types of transportation. The Matutu (public van transportation) – but they are all over the roads and are very crazy drivers. It reminds Brenda and Scott of New York taxi drivers, but 50 times worse. Boda Boda (bike taxis) you sit on the back of the bike on a cushion. They are especially fun over the bumps. We have recently bought a car – a 1995 Toyota sedan (stationwagon). Dad is getting use to driving and we are enjoying watching him turn into a Matutu driver. A really funny story is that we were swimmingat the Whitesands Hotel and some monkeys came and stole our wine gums from our bag.They were up in a tree pulling the wine gums apart - sorry no photos. Jambo (hello) Calgary,Alberta, Canada.

Ty likes to swim in the pool in the backyard. The other day he swam 10 lengths. “I can swim holding my breath for a long time.’ He goes to 2 schools – the nursery (kinder garden) in the morning and then his mother or father pick him up at lunch so he can go into1st grade in the afternoon. “I like to be at school with my family”, but he is finding it a long day. He is doing lots of practice with his letters and numbers.

Ty thinks the food is ‘good’ and eats mostly pizza and ice cream and mango, mango, mango! Hello everyone back in Calgary.

Safari Canadian Style

We went on a 3-day safari to Tsavo East and West National Park. It was a lot of driving with long days. The children were excellent and very excited to see the different animals. We were able to observe many types of animals very close to the vehicle. The first animal we saw, noticed by Kyle, were elephants. We stayed at lodges, which had swimming pools that were relatively near the dugout where animals would come.

On evening during our dinner, again looking over the dugout, they placed mutton (goat) on a wooden structure that a spotted leopard came to eat. The dinning area became electric; we were all very excited to see the leopard so close. A couple from the UK stated this was their 3^rd trip into Tsavo West and had not seen the leopard. Ty, Tait, and Kyle’s favorite animal was the spotted leopard. Jordan was most interested in the lion and the lion pack.

On the last day we also stopped at Mzima Springs, which is a big habitat of the hippopotamus. Ty thought it was really “cool” to see so many big animals in the water.

The McLeans needed a few days to recover from the safari excursion.

Dhow Trip to South Coast

We had a few weeks before we were to start at the school so we decided to do some excursions to see some of the sights of Eastern Kenya. We took a day trip to the south coast called the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park ( Shimoni-Wasini area). That is where we took a dhow (boat) to the marine park and saw dolphins swimming very close to the dhow. The children were very excited to see them in their nature environment. Brenda and Jordan spent almost 2 hours snorkeling in the ocean while the others went in and out of the boat to snorkel. We were able to see starfish, octopus, and many kinds of fish. Jordan said that this was his best day of his life. We stopped for lunch at a ocean restaurant and had seafood. It was a crab appetizer, followed by Talipa fish. Even Ty and Scott tried the crab. Brenda was very excited about the meal and being free on the ocean. It was a very sunny day and we had a great ocean adventure.

In the village of Shimoni we went into caves that hundreds of years ago were for the slaves and severe punishment. It showed the enormous difference between the wealthy and the slaves at that time. There were many bats in the caves that scared us Canadians!

Our Accomodation (flat)

The drive from the airport to our accommodation was very interesting as we had mixed curiosity and a concern because we did not know where we were going to live. It was hard to prepare the children as we did not know either. All we were informed is that we were walking distance to the beach (ocean). From the airport, at 11:30pm, we went through Mombasa old town over the only daraja (bridge) to Nyali. It was a real eye opener as we saw much poverty and the smells were unpleasant and unusual for Canadians. Jordan said that he did not feel too safe, but was glad we were staying together as a family. The roads were minimal to adequate with many potholes in viewing them to Canadian standards. The last 500 metres were terrible. We drove up to a gated secure house. We had arrived! Karibu (welcome) to Africa.

Upon arriving we were pleasantly surprised with a large 2 story- 4 bedroom house very near the ocean (2minute walk). The master bedroom actually looks over the ocean. In the morning after a decent sleep we went for a swim in the pool and then the Indian Ocean. There is a nice garden area with many trees and flowers that holds the pool.

The children were very excited about diving in the ocean. The initial reaction was delight to disgust as it is salty water, not fresh, but only for a brief time until they got use to it. A really sunny day in Africa for the McLeans.

Brenda actually thinks there are other breath taking sunsets/sunrises other than in Northern Saskatchewan.