16 September 2014

6 days, 4 lads - Hiking Ngong Hills and flying kites over the Great Rift Valley


100 years from now, it won’t matter what my bank account was, 
the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove.
But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.
~ Forest E. Whitcraft


Trying to spot downtown Nairobi's skyline, through the haze

I just met Jack (green shirt) recently. He's a neighbor of mine at my new house (since late March). But I've known Jeremy, Derrick and Jim over 12 years and have watched them grow up. Jeremy (in the striped shirt) was a baby in his mom's arms when I met him!



Hanging out with a flock of grazing sheep


The guys spent six days with me during their August school holiday. We had a wonderful time together!
One of the highlights was hiking up to Ngong Hills with a sack lunch.

We've tried flying kites at Uhuru Park (in downtown Nairobi) numerous times while picnicking.
However, the wind is too light and very unstable... to say nothing of the trees there.


But up on the hills, overlooking the spectacular Great Rift Valley, proved to be a perfect place to fly kites.
In fact, we didn't do as much hiking as I had expected.

For a full two hours, the boys were quite engrossed in the challenge of keeping up their kites.
Of course, there were many interruptions to make repairs, untangle the strings, etc. But that's all part of it.

The valley is over 2,000 feet below where we were.



We all agreed that we must do it again. It was so much fun and you just can't beat that view!

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