Almost three months! How have these months flown by so fast since I last sat down to write about Life.  The end of July my daughter and I made it to the USA!  Once again, we traveled with a cat! This time with my son and daughter-in-law’s cat Flamingo (known as Flammy or Mingo by those who love him).  International flight travel with a cat was definitely interesting.  Much easier than I had expected. 
My daughter and I had him in a really cool travel bag with us in the cabin under the seat on both of our flights between Kenya and USA.  He was amazingly calm about the whole travel thing.  He did not like being carried in the bag.  That was the only

time he’d meow.  Once we put him down somewhere, he would settle and usually curl up and go to sleep.  Flamingo was a street cat in Nairobi that showed up on my daughter-in-law’s doorstep about 3 years ago.  We think he is somewhere between 5 and 8 years old.  He was ill and looked very rough when he started showing up looking for food.  One day he was let into the house and there he stayed.  Nursed back to health and pampered with love, he is such an amazing cat.  Now he has moved from Kenya to USA!  He might even get his own Instagram page.  Rags to riches in the cat world! Haha. 

Home again, home again.  Now I am back in Kenya.  Landed in Nairobi late on the 5^th October.  Hit the ground running.  Dentist on the 6^th.    Errands and catch up for PEAR Work, Rotary Club business and buying beads for the Basket weaving group over the next few days.  

Yesterday, jumped on the MAF bush plane to Korr and took the easy way home.  1 ½ hour flight instead of 9 hour drive.  Got picked up in Korr and still had an hour drive to Ngurunit.  Was funny flying up because we flew right by Ngurunit and I got some cool pictures from above.  Then 4 minutes from there to the desert airstrip.  That 4 minutes in a plane took 1 hour to drive back to home!! 

The drought in Kenya is not letting up.  Things are getting really tough for everyone – people, livestock, wildlife.  In Ngurunit the Rotary handpump well we constructed in 2019 is basically the only clean water source for community at the moment.  It is serving people and livestock.  The other government built solar pumped well seems to not be working.  Wiring issue or something.   Waiting to have that fixed can be forever!  Pasture is also getting scarce.  Our goats have just returned home from the outside grazing camp they’ve been at for months.  We can care better for them at home with supplements and such.  Praying the October rains come as hoped from next week.  If not….it will become dire indeed. 

It is good to be home again after so long in Wisconsin.  I enjoyed the sunset and moonrise last night.  The birds sung all night it was so bright.  Years ago, when my mom visited, she was amazed at the brightness of the full moon here.  She had always heard the saying “being able to read by the light of the moon” but thought it just a random idiom, not a real description.  She got a book and brought it outside one brightly lit moonlight night and was so pleased to actually be able to read by the light of the moon!  That is a treasured memory I have of her enthusiasm and adventure. 

This morning I sat with the dogs and the goats as the morning unfolded.  Such peace.  The goats are so funny.  The kids roam around like little gangs looking for trouble to get into.  They will jump on any object they find.  My goat Ruma came by to say hi and beg for the banana peels.  Her latest girl kid is growing so fast.  Only 6 months old and bigger than most of the other local does years older than her. 

Today is mostly rest day.  Then I have to jump back into the hustle and bustle of community work.  There is a big basket order underway.  I want to renovate a couple of the group houses for a planned cybercafe.  PEAR admin work has piled up.  More Rotary plans to carry out.  Amazing how busy we can make ourselves.  For today, I will sit and gaze at the beauty of this place.  Pray for rain.  Pet my dogs.  Listen to the birds singing all around.  Life is good.  Breathe. Be. Peace to you all.