Larryland

A fine October day at the pumpkin patch. "Larryland", Larry & Ann Lazarz's farm in Putnam County, Indiana.

Last plane home. Monday evening.

Free Wifi trial offer on our flight.

Monday…

just landed in LA.

Sunday morning. "Gloria".

We arrived back in port in Tahiti last night. We will hang out for the day and then take our overnight flight to LA. In the mean time, here comes another sailing ship into the port. "Gloria" from Columbia. Look closely at the picture. The ship is covered with sailors on the masts, all wearing the colors of the Columbian flag. They are singing a song and there is a small, official-looking delegation to meet them on shore. VERY impressive.

What a difference a day makes!

It's a beautiful Saturday. We had a very fun ATV excursion this morning, visiting a pineapple farm and climbing a "mountain" for spectacular views of the bay and reef. Now we are reading in the shade, poolside on the ship.

Saturday sunrise, Moorea

Yesterday was a rough day at sea. Kyle couldn't read in the cabin and Susan couldn't read much anywhere. Susan napped off and on in the cabin or in a deck chair. Kyle read most of the day in a deck chair. it was better to be on deck with the ship pitching so much. It was very windy but dry so that was the place to be. This morning we are approaching Moorea, an island we visited earlier on the trip. This time we will drop anchor in Opunohu Bay instead of Cook's Bay. We are to go on an ATV excursion today. The sun is coming up and the weather is clearing so we are hoping for a better day today!

"The sea was angry."

Sounds like the opening line of a novel. We were supposed to drop anchor at Huahine this morning (Friday), but the weather was too rough to enter the narrow passage into the bay. Instead we are spending the day "at sea" and are traveling on to our next destination, Moorea. it is very rough going. The dining room is closed. The bar is closed. We and some others have been hanging out behind the bridge watching the ship pitch up and down, watching the wind driven waves, and occaisionally ducking when a downward pitch hits a wave just right, showering us with sea spray. A rough day at sea I'd still far better than being at work!

"Bloody Mary's"

Updating from Bloody Mary's famous bar and restaurant in Bora Bora. The new movie "Couple's Retreat" was filmed on Bora Bora. This restaurant is hosting a private party for cast and crew Saturday night per the owner. Another guest at the bar saw Vince Vaughn at the Tahiti airport last night…

Bora Bora WWII

one of 8 American cannons protecting Bora Bora and the American military in WWII.

Bora Bora

the only way to get this view is from a Land Rover!

Thursday, Bora Bora

We toured Bora Bora in a Land Rover.

Wednesday, sunset

sunset off the bow.

Wednesday late afternoon

View of Taha'a from our ship as we pass by on our way to Bora Bora.

Wednesday late afternoon

Setting sail for Bora Bora. Only a 3 hour sail to get there.

Polynesian dance

our little motu…

we had a nice day on the beautiful little motu!

Wednesday Taha'a

We sailed to the sister island of Raiatea, Taha'a, and will spend the day on a motu (little islet, seen in background of this pic) of Taha'a. There will be a beach BBQ for lunch, followed by a Polynesian show on the beach. We set sail for Bora Bora this evening.

Tropical Bar

Susan enjoying a Mai Tai.

"Tropical Bar"

the open-air bar on ship

Guy and Chyrstal

Fellow passengers - from Belgium.

Tuesday, Raiatea island

Today we went on an excursion where we kayaked up the Faaroa River and visited a jungle with amazing tropical flowers. We then kayaked back down the gentle river. (This photo is not related to the excursion.)

Tuesday AM, Raiatea

Rainbow over the island of Raiatea just after dawn. Raiatea is our destination today.

Monday, Cook's Bay, Moorea

We took the tender to the island. this photo shows our ship, the Star Flyer, with coral in the foreground and a volcanic mountain in the background.

Moorea island

We made it! Long trip!

Layover in LA

beer. football game. fashion magazine. long layover in LA.

the trip begins…

Tough to say "bye" to Kido. At the Indy airport now, on the plane… after slight delay caused by fire alarm and evacuation in the terminal.

Star Clipper cruise

vacation in French Polynesia, starting in Tahiti -- next week!

Kamanda

hanging out with Kenyans visiting Indianapolis from Eldoret.

volunteer pumpkin

growing in our front yard!

Greetings from Germany

Greetings from Germany! We have enjoyed our stopover in Oldenburg, Germany. We are staying in the home of Helga Bernhoft. She was Susan's "Mom" when Susan was an exchange student for a summer in high school. Her "Dad", Hans-Dieter Bernhoft passed away about a year ago. We've also been visiting with Birgit, Susan's exchange "sister". Susan has made regular visits to Germany ever since being an exchange student. For me, this is my third trip to visit the Bernhofts. We also visited with some of my relatives while here. My Cordes ancestors emigrated from this area around 1860. We met many of them during a visit in 2002 and had dinner with some of them again on this trip. "Cordes" is a typical family name in these parts. Notice the heating, plumbing, and electric van that we took a picture of. We came across it in downtown Oldenburg. Tomorrow we head home. We miss the Kenya people and weather and we're sure to miss our German friends and food. We hope you've been enjoying the blog and we look forward to catching up on our return.

Monday in Eldoret, Feb 16

Today was our last full day in Eldoret. Tomorrow afternoon our group leaves Eldoret. By early Wednesday morning we'll be in Amsterdam. Susan and I will take a train to Oldenburg, Germany, while the rest head back to Indianapolis. Susan and I will visit her "exchange family" from her high school days (who she/we have made regular visits to over the years.) We will also visit at least one distant cousin from Kyle's side of the family who also lives in Oldenburg. (Kyle's great-great-grandfather emigrated from the area.)

Today, Kyle worked with the hospital engineering team on repairing the autoclave machines with limited success. Susan assisted Adam with a hand surgery on a child who had two fused fingers from a congenital problem. (One "after" photo included.) Adam performed a procedure where the two fingers are separated and remaining skin is stitched together in a zig-zag pattern along with some grafted skin.

We gave some small gifts to our respective colleagues today. We also gave some toys to the pediatric ward where volunteers help take care of some of the orphaned children.

I've included some "street scenes" in today's photos. These include a cow that is part of a small herd being walked along a rather busy road, presumably to graze somewhere. The walking paths along the roads are very, very dusty, so there are lines of shoeshine people that line certain streets and alleys. Cell phones here are all pre-paid. You can buy minutes at a kiosk. They are seemingly everywhere. On the busy streets, they will be only a few feet apart (as shown in photo.) Out in the countryside, they will be sparse but they'll be around! There is no opportunity to buy movies on DVD in stores, but you can buy pirated ones on the street.

This evening, we all went to one of the anesthetist's home and had a lovely dinner. First we toured their home, then had drinks and an excellent African dinner. It started with roast goat as an appetizer then we had rice with beef stew, fried potatoes, chapatis, spinach and chicken. We felt so honored to be welcomed into their home.

Caleb, Sunday, Feb 15

2nd update for Sunday: Before dinner, we went to the hospital to check on Caleb, the Tanzanian cattle herdsman who had the huge parotid tumor removed on Friday. So far, so good! His facial nerve was sacrificed with the tumor (as expected) so the left side of his face is partially paralyzed. But he looks great from a clinical perspective and his surgery wound appears to be healing well to this point! Hopefully the drain in the incision can be removed tomorrow. He is so happy and thankful to the surgeons. He is so grateful. He thanked all of them many times. This photo shows Adam, Caleb, and Susan.

Lake Baringo & Lake Bogoria, the weekend

Two IU SUV's and two drivers drove us to Lake Baringo on Saturday morning. (First we visited the patient from Thursday's big surgery. So far, so good. We'll check on him again late this (Sunday) afternoon.) To drive took a few hours. These lakes are in the bottom of the Rift Valley. The total elevation change goes from well over 6,000 feet down to 3,200 feet, so the area is much more hot and arid.

When we arrived, we took a boat to the largest island in Lake Baringo. The islands are volcanic. We were spending the night at the "Island Camp", which other than the local villages, is the only thing on the island. The camp consists of tents under their own roofs, with floors, with attached bathrooms. These were similar to those at Masai Mara, but... shall we say... more basic. Lake Baringo is a large freshwater lake and is known for being home to over 200 species of birds (and hippos and crocodiles!) We settled into our tents, had some lunch, and hung out by the pool for a couple hours. It was so hot, the pool was a welcome site! We then went on a guided birdwatching tour. We made our way through the neighboring village on the tour. The most interesting bird that was large enough to get a good picture of was a stork.

Saturday evening we relaxed at the outdoor bar and then had a barbecue dinner outside. One notable thing about all of Kenya, but especially out in the country, is that you can see many more stars than at home. There is much less "light pollution" so they really stand out. We had a rough sleeping night in our tent. It cooled off outside, but not quite enough to make our tent comfortable. The air during the day was always filled with bird songs of all types. At night the birds were quiet and the wind picked up, so the sounds we heard were rustling leaves in the trees and waves gently tapping the rocks at the shore. It was just too hot to get much sleep. I (Kyle) was dozing off and on while Susan was having more trouble sleeping at all. She claimed to hear strange noises outside the tent. I was too tired to care and brushed it off. She sat up in bed to listen for a while, sure that she was hearing something. Morning came and we met up with our group to take a boat tour around the island at 7:00 am. Another neighbor tent heard the same noises. Turns out it was a hippo that was eating some grass or brush or whatever between our tents and the shore (which isn't much distance at all!) Hippos eat at night and then spend the hot days in the water. We enjoy getting close to mother nature, but not that close at night in our sleep!

Our boat tour was very interesting. We saw many different species of birds, the larger ones being types of egrets, cranes, and a type of eagle. The "Fish Eagle" is one that swoops down and plucks a fish out of the water and takes it back to it's tree. Our guide helped facilitate the process by bringing some fish to toss into the water. It was an amazing site. We have quite a few pictures of this activity. We also saw some hippos, but only the tops of their heads sticking out of the water. We did see one crocodile. It was fairly small - maybe 6 feet or so. It scurried off the rocks and into the water before I could get a good picture of it.

After our tour, we had breakfast and boated back to the mainland and then drove to Lake Bogoria, which was less than an hour away. Lake Bogoria is a salt lake and is home to thousands of flamingos. Along the way we saw some Impalas and ostriches, too, but at the lake, just thousands of flamingos.

Both of these lakes are fed by rivers in the rainy seasons (not now) but are also fed by gurgling hot springs. Lake Bogoria has some geysers that shoot up 10 feet or so.

We are now back in Eldoret in the mid-afternoon on Sunday, so it's early morning back home and the day is just starting...