Hardly any words, Mostly pictures

I can't seem to get a cohesive paragraph about the spaghetti noodles of thoughts mixed up in my head so I'll post pictures from the last couple weeks of our busy November and start of December. We somehow got the responsibility to put on the team retreat almost single-handedly.  Don't get me wrong, we had some help, but suffice it to say, Doug and my retreat came after everyone else left. The main reason it was so much work was because after all the logistics of planning and getting everyone to the coast of Kenya, the cottages are self-cater so we were in charge of hiring free-lance cooks and coordinating the food for all 26 of us for 3 nights, 2 days. It was worth all the effort to see the joy of everyone to get the chance to come to the coast. Afterwards, we stayed on at the same place we held the retreat for our long awaited week of vacation at Diani Beachalets on the Indian Ocean, just south of Mombasa.

We stayed in the middle cottage- the central door with a window on each side. 

One of my favorite parts of the retreat was at the days end, we had a little vespers with Swahili hymns and choruses. There was even some dancing and drums- something we don't get much of with the Maasai. One of the neighboring cottage kids came and joined and other neighbor vacationers gathered in the dark around us to listen to the music.

It was so fun to watch the kids play their hearts out. They were in heaven.  For so many it was the first time to the coast and first time in the ocean. Even the adults were all in the water together having a good time.

The grandma and grandpa of the team sent all the kids on a camel ride on the beach. This camel had very tired little Wahome in the middle! He must've been wedged in tight- cause he was sound a sleep when they returned.

 

There's nothing like water all around you in contrast to being in our powder dry dusty backyard in the Rift Valley. Delightful.

One day we snorkeled for 4.5 hours- out to the reef with the low tide and back with the incoming tide. There were some great tide pools to explore on the exposed reef, then we mosied back to shore taking in spectacular coral heads and fish.

Colobus Monkeys by our porch