Highlights

I've decided to put together a list of my Top 10 Highlights from my recent trip to Kenya. I was going to do all 10 of them in this post, but then I realized that it would be just too much fun to share in one post. So you'll have to come back later for the rest of the list.

10.  Taylor Haltom says the funniest things. When we arrived at our first campsite, Taylor announced to the bus that we needed to go and "pitch our tents." But it didn't come out quite like that. Let's just say he swapped some of the letters in "pitch" and "tents" which led to the statement "pinch our ---- (you are going to have to use your imagination for that word; this is a family friendly blog)." I don't think I have ever laughed that hard in my life.

9. We worked at a children's home in Thika for several days during the trip. We split up into 3 teams for different projects. We had a painting crew, a construction crew who built a playground for the kids, and a group that did farming (They used machetes to do their work. I'm so glad I wasn't on that team. I definitely would have cut my hand off). Needless to say, I chose to be on the painting crew.We painted a couple of bedrooms and hallways in the dorms because the boys and girls had recently switched sides and you can't have boys living in a pink room! The painting proved to be quite a challenge due to limited supplies and the oil based paint we were using. But the longer we worked, the happier we became. Not because we were so excited to be painting (although we were glad to do that for the kids), but because the rooms were not well ventilated and the fumes from the paint were so strong that we definitely got a little buzz. My team was awesome, and we did a lot of laughing!

8. Every night before we went to bed, several of the girls would make the long trip to the bathroom together. Why did we do this, you may ask? Well, two reasons. One- Going to the bathroom was a bit of a scary ordeal. It was pitch black outside so you needed to wear a headlamp, and we imagined that there were lots of scary things that could bite/eat us that were lurking in the dark (I even encountered one on my way back from the bathroom one night, but more to come on that later). It always made us feel safer to go in a group. Two- You definitely didn't want to have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I made the mistake of not going to the bathroom right before I got in my tent on the first night and I regretted it the whole night. This may not seem like a highlight, but it was actually a fun little routine to gather up a group of girls to bravely walk to the "toilet." We had lots of fun conversations, and there was much laughter.

7. One word. . . Krackles. In case you've never been to Kenya, Krackles are delicious potato chips that they actually make in Kenya. Basically, the only ingredients are potatoes, salt, and vinegar (salt and vinegar was my favorite flavor), so they actually tasted like real potatoes. Right after we arrived in Nairobi, we had our first encounter with Krackles. Then when we were camping, we started craving them. There wasn't any way to get any, so we dreamed and drooled over the thought of tasting those delicious morsels of potatoes. Little did we know that our guides had some Krackles on the bus. When we found that out, we basically sprinted to ask them if we could have some, and they graciously agreed. From that moment on, we stockpiled the Krackles and made sure we were never without them.

The night the guides gave us their Krackles. Note the
expression of joy on my face

6. We had the opportunity to go white water rafting on the Tana River during our trip. Let's just be honest, I was scared to death about this part of the trip. I heard that the rapids were intense, and I was pretty convinced that this was how I was going to die. Thankfully, there were no deaths. And I am happy to say that I had a blast! Our guide, Eric, was awesome. Before we left I told him that if he threw me out of the raft, I would kill him. Well, not really, but he knew I was serious about wanting to stay in the raft.

Yep, that's me in the back with the gray long sleeved shirt and
yellow helmet. That's my "this is awesome" face.

Stay tuned for my top 5 Kenya highlights!

Photo Credits:
1. Cari Gold
2. Katie Clark
3. Amanda Craven