Superman Digital Movement

Army Ants!

2007-10-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

I know I havent been faithful to blog, and this video is a couple of months old, but I had to post it for the people who havent already seen it.

A Long Awaited Video

2007-06-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

Most of the people who read this blog most likely will have already seen this video. Skyler and I made it in Arusha, just for fun. It is a music video to Weird Ale's song "Constipated" starring me. Everybody who sees it says i should put it on youtube, so i did and am now putting it on my blog. Hope you have a lot of laughs!

By the way, if you would like to find this video on youtube just search for "constipated music video (chase Russell)"

Missing Home

2007-06-22T19:34:00.001-07:00

What an answere to prayer it is to be able to call Arusha my HOME! I have realized what a comforting home that place is to me as i find myself longing to be back there, espiecally after hearing what a great (or adventurous) time the Bordens have had landing there.

I'm just so excited about LIFE right now! what a blessing that is! Just seeing the way that God is establishing all these things makes my heart so happy, and it makes me all bubbly inside.

However, i dont want to make our time in the states sound unbearable. We've had some crazy, awesome, and touching times with some great people. Besides friends, i was really blessed by my extended family. After spending a week with them at a family reunion in Washington, I wasmoved at what a unique and special family i have. Thankyou family!

Well, to rap it up, we just have a couple more weeks of American adventure and then...ARUSHA!

A Battle to Survive in Africa

2007-06-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

Check this video out.

It's a bit long but keep watching. It's spectacular.
I cant believe that the bufallo calf is still alive in the end. Also, note that the buffalo that throws one lioness and hits the other is the same one. i think it is the calfs mother.

Update

2007-06-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

This is just an update for any one who wants to know how we're doing. As i said in my last blog, we've been to some cool places where we really felt the presence of God. Since then we have gone to an awesome church called Reality Carpinteria twice. First my dad shared at the youth group on Wednesday and then also at the "Night for the Nations" on Thursday. Both times were great. on thursday night we had a great time praying for the HIV crisis across Africa. My dad did an AWESOME job speaking at both places and the wonderful people at Reality were really touched and appreciative. I love Reality. The name of their church says it all: they create such a real environment and are living in so much more reality than the people around them. Thankyou Reality Carpinteria!

Another update: If you read Skyler's blog you will have read that he got a new guitar!! We've been waiting for the right one for a good price and it finally came. I dont know the exact model number but it's a Taylor (I think it's a 310CE). It's Beautiful! Thank you Lord!

Also...I'd just like to say that so far on this trip, i have had great chances to learn more about worshiping with the djemb. At almost every church we've been to, I've been asked to play the djembe! It's been fun. I love how naturally all this exposure to music comes. I learn so much more every time.

Lastly: I GOT A HAIR CUT! Finally. Long hair was getting annoying. So...it's gone! my hairs pretty short but not buzzed. I love it! Now i can dry it with onesweep of a towel, spend way less time taking care of it, play sports without it bugging me, and most importantly, I get to call Leighton and Skyler "mop-heads" and "hippies!"

(sorry that i dont have pictures, we're just less organized while we're on furlough so it's not as easy).

...sorry...

2007-05-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of a apolagetic blog. I know there are so many things that i should be blogging about but i just dont have time. I just want to tell you that although the stress and attitude of the USA is definately evident and starting to kinda wear me down, the pockets of Jesus loving people here are so on FIRE! I'm learning so much more about the Holy Spirity and seeing him move a lot. The church of christ is always strongest in persecution. So we are busy, but enjoying God's love here.

i cant wait to get back to Arusha

What a Magical Place!

2007-04-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

The last two Saturdays, I've had the privilege and pleasure of going to Arusha National Park. This park, which is located on Mount Meru, is covered in lush, thick forests. I love it so much! I love the dappled sunlight piercing through the layered canopy of forest. I love the carpet of clovers and moss under the cool shadows of mossy trees. I love all the bushbuck and duikers that you can see scampering quietly and delicately through their carpeted home under the knurled trees, with their rich red coats sometimes speckled with beautiful white spots. The best word to describe this untouched forest is MAGICAL. The fresh air, the cool temperature, the trickling sound of a pure stream, the dappled sunlight on the forest floor, the padded footsteps of a forest animal, and the louder but still peaceful sound of a waterfall all contribute to the magical reality of this forest. The mad rush to see all the animals you can that you find in other national parks fades away in the Arusha National Park, forcing you to enjoy the extravagance of raw nature.

Above all the spectacular places in the forest, the Miao waterfall is my favorite place to be. The small trickling waterfall falls into a stream that turns left right in front of a perfect lawn of grass. This allows you to sit right in front of the waterfall without sitting in the stream. This perfect grass creates clearing in thick forest. Once you have reclined on the grass for a while, soaking in the beauty of your surrounding, you sit up and dip your feet into the very cold but crystal clear stream. After wading around a little, you have the picnic that was packed for you. You eat in silence still awed by the beauty God chose to put in nature. After awhile you decide to take a little walk with your guide (well, your supposed to have a guide :). You are overjoyed to find another trickling waterfall like the first. As you continue on, you find yet another waterfall! This one falls over an overhanging cliff and flows into another stream. You find a spot to sit down. You notice speechlessly how the sunlight is piercing through the thick canopy and lighting up the smooth rocks and churning water. By this time you’re just bubbling inside and running over with joy. You can’t soak it all in at once. Its too much, to saturated! You suddenly burst out singing because the waterfall is loud enough to drown out your voice. As you hike back to the first waterfall, pack up the picnic and drive away in the car to enjoy the forest more your are so aware to the REALITY of God's nature. Its real! Out of the fake man-made devices and feelings of the city you find the beautiful reality of nature.

Here are some photos, but no matter how skilled the photographer or writer is, pictures or words cant describe the wonders of nature. So go see it for yourself!

(The pictures of the bee-eaters are not in the forest, but they are in a part of ANP)

A Blessed Time

2007-03-28T11:01:00.001-07:00

About a month ago, Glenn and Candy Ornee and the Morgan family came out to Arusha for a short visit from Reality Carpinteria. What a blessing they were! (Thankyou so much guys for just coming out and enjoying great times with us. It was such a refreshing blessing). The previous blog was about one of the adventures we shared with them. We also did some ministry in Massai land and went to the Ngorongoro Crater on a short safari. So i just wanted to share some photos of the animals and also some pics of our time in Massai land.

In Massai land (the same trip as the previous blog) we had an awesome time. Just seeing the Massai, attending church with them, praying over them, and watching there wide eyes and big smiles as we let them swarm over the piki pikis was a blessing and a joy to all of us. But the most spectacular part was watching there eagerness as they waited in life for something they always dreamed of...their very own books! I love africas hunger for schooling and knowledge. They respect knowledge and tools that are given to them to obtain more of it. We miss that so much in the States.

The Ngorongoro Crater...I love that place! Its the perfect game park for a day trip. You can see it all in a day and the game in it is pretty consentrated. The vast Crater floor has plains, forest, rivers, and a large lake. But I think my favorite part of the Crater is the buffalos. I've never seen bigger bull buffalo than i've seen in the Crater. Any buffalo is an animal that you should definately respect. They have one of the most acute senses of the big five, they will never stop coming for you (I've read stories of buffalo continuing to charge after they have been hit by several big bullets that hit the heart and literally tore it into shreds), and, worst of all, they have a really really bad attitude. However, a big lone bull buffalo is a whole different story. He's beyond having a bad attitude: he hates the world, he's beyond dangerous: he's black death that waits in shadows for some unaware human to walk by who he can bestow his rage upon. I have a healthy respect and awe for the raw power and the attitude of never stopping and never backing down that a big bull buffalo posseses and does not fail to exemplify on one to many occasions. Oh, i love just watching them lumbering across the plains like they rule the world and will take down anything that doesnt agree to that. I love there huge thick bosses, long curved horns, and massive mud-caked body that literally contains tons of muscle. They are so majestic and...well i guess i've said enough about buffalo. We saw a lot of other animals that day to. we saw tons of lions and 5 rhinos! it was a really succesful safari.

A Real Adventure

2007-03-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

(This story is a couple of months old, because I have not been able to access my blogger acount for a couple months).

The other day, we went out to Massai land on the piki pikis. This was the first time we had gone on a safari with piki pikis. On the way there the three dads rode, and the rest of the families went in the car. It was like 200 kilometers to the place where we were going.
While we were there, me and sky decided to hike up onto this really cool hilltop where I had been before. On the top of this hill it isn’t covered in bush, but in that really cool terrain of golden meadows and patches of dark green and lush forests. The other cool thing is that it was kind of a new thing for me and sky to get to go alone in a place like this since there were buffalo up there. My dad said that the Massai couldn't believe that he let us go up there alone.

Once you get to the top, you come to kind of a flat valley between three higher hilltops. So we were walking along up there, making quite a bit of noise, when Skyler said, “what’s that?” It was a hartebeest, coming right out of the forest and he hadn’t seen us yet! Hartebeests are like wildebeests but they're all tan and gold. This was a big lone bull so he was really big and muscular. We quickly got down in the long grass to see what would happen. To make a long story short, Skyler and me stocked him all over the place, but he had really good senses. The closest we got was about 50 yards. Oh! But it filled my heart just to be up there in the fresh air! Sucking in nature, with hearts pounding as we scan for buffalo, and crawling through long grass for hundreds of yards trying to get close to a wild bull hartebeest. No tourist vehicles, not tame animals, just Skyler, nature, and me.

Man, I know, without a doubt, that being in nature and interacting with it and all its tricks like that is part of who I am. That is where I find peace and satisfactory joy, not sitting at home, typing this blog, and worrying about all the projects I am behind in for school.

Anyway, the homeward journey was another adventure. Skyler and me got to ride on the pikis for a while and that's where the fun began. The first part was rocky, so that was hard in itself...but then the rain came. Puddles started to form with rocks buried under them. It was hard to stay on the bike going through some of them, but I was ok. The cold of my soaked clothes was getting to me when I herd the first astounding crack of lightning (there had already been thunder and lightning but, when the lightning is so close that the sound of thunder is at the same time as the crack of lighting it gives a sound that is unearthly!). The first time that happened, I felt it in my bones, and my helmet shook. I was immediately thinking about what my reaction would be if I heard another one of those. I thought I might drop the bike out of shock if it happened again. Everything sounded deathly quiet compared to that strike, as I clutched to the handlebars in anxiousness and held on for dear life. I can’t describe how small and helpless that lightning crack made me feel: so cold, with nowhere to hide, totally exposed to nature with no defense. I love that raw power of nature that God created, which tends to put wimpy little humans into their place, haha!

And then the hail! The hail was soooooooo painful, it was coming down really hard and it stung like crazy. I mean, on a piki even the rain can hurt, but these were huge drops of hail. We soon had to pull off the road and get under some small bushes. Then the car came behind us, and we told them how we couldn't ride because of the hail, but by that time the hail was pretty much gone (the storm was still raging though). My dad explained that it was best to ride it out, and that there were some river beads he wanted to get across before they flooded to high. My mom said, "Oh! Get chase in hear!" because we were all shivering like crazy!!!!! But I said, "No! I wanna ride!" Even though I was really shook up I wanted to keep riding for the adventure, and I new that I would regret it later if I didn't. So we climbed back on and continued into the unceasing rain.

We soon found the flowing spots that my dad wasn't so sure about but we went through them without too much trouble. The scariest parts for me was going through puddles that had jumbles of rocks in them, throwing you all over the place, and then going up the steep rocky road on the other side. And oh the cold! The experience would have been a ton more fun to experience at that moment if it wasn't for the bighting cold that made your hands hurt when you weren’t even doing anything with them (just having them attached to your body hurt)! But of course the cold makes the story much more macho and exciting. Besides it was part of the experience that made it so raw! But man, we went through some crazy puddles and rain-soaked sand. One of the puddles was a little over waist deep but you couldn't tell that it was that deep from looking at it. So when you went in, you and the bike just plunged into the depths (or so it seemed) of this puddle and water was actually shooting over our heads as we road through!!!! I eventually dumped the piki in a big puddle and it was time to let someone else have a ride, and time for me to heat up in the car.

While we were out there having a cold blast, my dad was inside telling my frightened mom, "Thos are boys becoming MEN, Tammy!"

What a weekend! Out in the bush is where I would choose to be any day, whether stalking elusive hartebeests on gorgeous hilltops, or reeling at the shock of the raw power of lightning.

Praise the Lord for his nature!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-26T07:57:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas everybody!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you had a really good time with friends and family. I had a great Christmas. Christmas is one thing that I REALLY miss about America. The spirit of it is really lacking here in Africa, compared to the US. But its still a great time of year.

For our vacation we went to the coast of Tanzania. It was really fun. We went to a place called Peponi, which is in between Tanga and Pangani. Peponi isn't quite as nice as some other places we like to stay on the coast, but it was fun. There were no waves, but the water was very shallow which made it unusualy warm. So even though we couldn't play in the waves the water was fun to lay in, it felt like soaking in a giant bath tub. We spent a lot of our time on a dhow going to a reef for snorkeling and also doing some fishing, although we didn't catch anything (maybe the fact that there was a cyclone warning that day, affected our chances of being successful). Also on the dhow, we got to go out to a sand island. It was amazing; just a spit of sand in the middle of ocean, with nothing on it at all, besides some crabs and birds. Zero vegetation.

The snorkeling was great (my favorite part of the trip). There wasn't quite as many numbers of fish as some other places we've gone, but I think it was one of the most varied amount of species that I have seen. I wish we had an underwater camera. The highlights were a zebra eel, tons of lion fish, and this one fish, I forget what its called, but it was about 3 Ft long, looked poisonous and scary, and it was laying flat on the ocean floor.

The dhow was so fun to be on, and the crew were really nice (and buff! haha! Their is this one guy named Ali, and he was insanely muscular!) Well it was really fun watching them sale the dhow. It was also fun climbing all over the dhow and hanging of the side and so forth. Since we spent 11 hours on the dhow, me and Skyler would feel that the room we were in was wobbling even up to a couple days after being back.

Another fun part of the trip was seeing some ruins of an ancient mosque. Now, I'm never really that interested in things like ruins. They're cool, just for the fact that they've been around for awhile, but I'm not very fascinated with them. The cool thing about these ruins was that they were from the 14 century and were made from coral, sand, and limestone (that was before cement). Skyler got some really cool photos of them.

So we had a good get-away before x-mas. Hope Everybody out there had a good time too!

I've Been Tagged!

2006-12-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

Dang it! I hate these things, but I'll do it. Pam Mckerring has "tagged" me, so now i have to write five things that I think people dont know about me, and then "tag" some others. So... five things, in my LOOOOONG life, that people don't know about me...

Well, first of all, I'd like to say that I AM allowed to use an oven, despite common belief. I know it sounds shocking, and dangerous, but its true.

Secondly, I love animals and nature as one of my deep passions, and I think that that has a lot to do with what I'll be doing as I grow up here in Africa.

I own an iPod video. I know that's not so exciting, but I thought that might be something that little people know, since I'm not flashing it around everywhere.

I cant do any kind of loud whistling, and it really bugs me!!! People have tried to show me every "easy" tongue and finger formation in the book, but it doesn't work for me.

I dread like nothing else, wearing closed toed shoes, especially since we've been here in Tanzania, and when we grew up in Kenya. They drive me nuts!! I guess the fact that the pairs of shoes I have are way too small, affects my dread of putting them on.

Braces?!

2006-11-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

I have finally come to the point where I can’t deny the obvious any longer. I need braces. We knew that since I was a kid, but we always kind of put it off. The other day we went to see an orthodontist and he made clear to us what was going on.First we'll have to go to Nairobi to get this special x-ray to see what’s going on with my wisdom teeth. If I have them, I will have to get them pulled. As far as the braces themselves go, it’s disappointing. When we grew up in Kenya our family got fluoride on our teeth from the water. We never thought that was a big deal, as it just gives you some yellow lines on your teeth. Little did we know that that fluoride might make me look a whole lot weirder when I get braces. This is the reason: the normal braces, called bonds, might not stick to my teeth enough because of the fluoride. If they don’t hold I will have to replace the bonds with bands. Bands are like big silver bands that cover most of the tooth (making it look a lot weirder) and, although they are stronger and therefore work faster, they are more uncomfortable and take longer to get used to. So, I’m pretty much dreading the time when I will have to really face the braces themselves. I’m hoping that we can postpone the timing a little so that I wont have them when we go to America. Anyway, pray for some kind of a miraculous movement in my mouth so that I wont have to get these dreaded braces:)! And if I do, pray that the bonds will hold so I don’t have to get bands.

Remember

2006-11-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

For a long time, I felt like I was striving and striving for a place of peace and joy (a fruitful, abundant season) in my walk with God. I was trying to be more and more intimate with Him, learn more about Him, and enjoy the fruitfulness of that. But it seemed like, although I was after the right things, I was never as happy or satisfied as I hoped I would be. Also, it was almost like I was trying to convince myself that I was happy and satisfied and had a great relationship with God, when I wasn’t really sure that I did…does that make sense? Anyway, that way of thinking is no longer a reality.

Just the other day, I was hit with the fact of how satisfied and happy I was with my circumstances and myself. I felt an uncontrollable joy with where I was, and an irrepressible thankful praise to God and who He had become to me. Things that kept me down before, like no friends my age, adjustment to Arusha, worrying of circumstances, etc., had simply vanished before my eyes. It was one of those answers to prayer God does that can easily escape you if you forget to look back and remember your prayers, and see how God has answered them. So right now, I am in an abundant season that I have been waiting for for a long time.

I think this new season has to do mostly with the mind and where you place your thoughts. Lately, I’ve been learning the importance of your mental choices. In my case, it was worrying. I found that there is always something you can worry about if you chose to pursue it. On the other hand, there is always something you can rejoice about and give thanks to God for.

So I just wanted to remind everyone to look back and remember what you prayed for to see how God is working in your life. Secondly I wanted to remind you to control your thoughts and choices, setting them to a goal of a positive attitude.

Pikis Again

2006-11-03T01:14:00.000-08:00

Just the other day my love for motorcycles was re-lit. We went to see a families new house and watch them have a practice motorcycle race on a track right outside their house (they're really into piki-pikis). It was a really nice track and house. We weren't racing or anything just watching. The track was cool, but the riders were amazing. They were all getting huge air, especially this one guy named Layne, but was amazed me was these two girls who were racing. They were 8 and 11 year old sisters who had grown up with motorcycles since they were five. What an advantage! I couldn't believe how good they were at their age. They were getting pretty big air and going really fast. Basically just the way that they understood and controlled their little bikes. I can't wait to get better at understanding and maneuvering our bike. Sometimes I also wish I had a smaller bike that I can actually like pik up, move around more, etc. Well, I know I'll get there, just have to keep practicing.

Poor Snow-Bubbles

2006-11-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

Good news: Snow got another mouse, this time she killed it by herself. Bad news: The mouse got her too.

We found the mouse in a cupboard. When I saw that he couldn't get out I decided to let Snow kill it instead of killing it for her. Well, she got it, and we were really proud of her. She was quite proud of herself too. Whenever she has a mouse she does a deep growl if you get anywhere near her. So we took her outside to eat the mouse, as to not get blood in the house. When she came back, she had a bit of a puffy cheek. It got much worse, and when we looked closer we saw s couple of bloody scratches where it looked like she might have been bitten. We're preaty sure that it was the mouse. Anyway, she looked comical! The swelling is down now, but we had a good laugh about it.

The Djembe

2006-10-31T01:28:00.000-08:00

I love music. Sometimes I wish I was more musical, but all I can do is hit things and make rhythm. haha! Well it's fun anyway.The first type of drum I played was a whole drum set. It was pretty fun, and I learned the basics, but it just wasn't coming naturally to me. I'm not saying I gave that up, because I still have the set and do want to practice more, but it wasn't flowing. I dunno if that has to do with the way I was taught or not. But when we bought a djembe from Jesse Borden, I found an instrument that I wanted to practice for fun not because I had to. Jesse taught me the basics and I just went from there. And I never though of playing it as a task but as fun. That's how I like to learn things, naturally. It makes you feel like you had it in you and you were meant to do it. In other words, it's a God-given gift.

So, anyway, I have gotten much much better with out even realizing the drastic change in my play. Now it is sooooooo much a part of me. I play twice every Sunday, once for church and once for a worship meeting. I also play, anytime in the week when asked to or if I just want to. I've found that I've become so used to playing it for worship that it is harder to enter worship without it. Everyone one loves to hear me play and they say it adds a lot to the music, but I don't think anyone loves to hear it as much as I love to play it!

Engedi

2006-10-25T06:00:00.001-07:00

Some people reading my blogs, might wonder about where I live, more specifically than in Arusha, Tanzania. Sometimes i might mention "on the campus" or something like that. Well, this campus that we live on is called the Joshua Foundation or Engedi (after the oasis in the Bible called Engedi). It is a christian leadership training college, and a christian teacher's college for Tanzanians. Although we are officially seperate from the Joshua Foundation, we are closely linked to them spiritually. My dad sometimes teaches at the college and stuff, so we're not iscolated from them. Engedi has been a perfect, God provided, place to land on in Arusha because it has a safe environment, spiritualy and physically, and a great community of people. Engedi has people from New Zealand, Australia, England, American, and Tanzanian; that's not counting the students themselves who are all Tanzanians, but the residents and staff of Engedi.

The campus itself is very beautiful. The founders, Alan and Lynda Stephenson have worked hard for a number of years to make Engedi a colorfull, flowery, and lush place. There is also a river at the bottom of the campus. This river is nice, but, sadly, since it runs through town before it reaches us, it is full of garbage that has been thrown in it. That brings me to another point: Engedi is not actually in Arusha town. We are on the outskirts. It is about 20 minutes from our house to real Arusha town. But we are still in a place that has decent shops preaty near by. So it's not everyday that us kids go into town, though my parents go almost every day.

Engedi has truly been a God given gift to our family. It's an amazing miracle that we are even on the campus when we aren't really part of there same ministry, but that's another story. God has been working so much in our new journey in Tanzania and it's so exciting to look back at what he's done, and to look ahead at what he is doing. Engedi is so much a part of this journey. It is an oasis to come home to after a long day visiting the poor in Arusha.

The Waterfalls

2006-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate being miserably hot with nothing to do about it?! Here in Africa it's probably more of a reality than a lot of other places like the States. The Lake Natron area is on of the hottest most desolate areas I know of. But in this area, you're not without ways to cool off. There is a river called Ngare Sero that comes flowing out through a canyon in the rift valley wall. This beautiful crystal-clear river is natures perfect refreshment for a place like this.

Despite how wonderful it is to find that lovely river to plop your feet into, it gets much better. With a fairly easy thirty to forty-five minute walk up that river, you come to two astounding waterfalls, one a few minutes farther than the first. I mentioned these waterfalls in the last blog about Oldonyo LeNgai. These waterfalls are the perfect solution to restoring and refreshing your mind and reviving your body from the shriveled up and dehydrated feeling it gets from the heat.

Now, the waterfall does not come from the river itself. It trickles into the river from a spring. It comes down a bank, covered in moss and topped with lush palm trees, and gently trickles, from a number of places, into the river. When I say gently trickles, I mean that that's the look it has and the impression it gives. It really is fairly powerful and it stings you to stand under it.

The second waterfall, in my opinion, is much better than the first. The first one only wets your appetite. It has a deeper pool to swim in (though still shallow), more falls, and another waterfall that IS made by the river itself. I love this one because, even though it's smaller. It's a lot more powerful. So you can push yourself towards it as far as possible (not very far) and then let it push you away down the river.
So if you're ever in that area and you're sweating buckets in the shade, check out the waterfalls!

Sometime I would also like to hike to the source of the spring that creates the waterfalls. I know some people who have done it and they all say that it's way better than the waterfalls.

The Mountain of God

2006-10-24T04:02:00.001-07:00

Since I just started this blog thing but there are a lot of cool things that I've done a while ago, I want to share some stuff that I might not have done so recently. This blog is about climbing the mountain called Oldonyo LeNgai.

Oldonyo LeNgai (Massai for Mountain of God) is an amazing mountain. First of all it is an active and very live volcano. Its lava is geologically unique to its kind. It has a mud-like look to it. That has something to do with what the lava is primarily made up of, but I can't fill you in on all those details. All I know is that this volcano is so completely unique and awesome. I've never seen anything like it. Furthermore, LeNgai is very steep. It is practically a forty-five degree angle climb almost the whole way. What amazed me is that this was a mountain you could fall off of!

We (me, my brother, two friends, Dave Doland, who was taking us on the trip) started our climb at around midnight. It is really nice to do a night-climb up this mountain because, if you are fast enough, you can make it to the top before the sun rises, and watch a spectacular sunrise. Also, you get to stop turn off you lights and gaze at the wonderful night sky. Now, the night sky in a place where there are no city lights for miles around is something totally different then seeing a couple tiny stars from the city. The black blanket of the heavens just abounds with trillions of stars, with different colors, sizes, and brightness. With the occasional shooting star, the still sky somehow seems to be teeming with life.

With a little while to go still, we realized that we probably weren't going to make it at the pace we were moving at. So we told the Dave that we would like to go ahead. So we did. Practically running up the last, steepest, hardest part was an adventure in itself. However we did make it to the top before sunrise.

Nothing could have prepared me for the crater on the top. I could have sworn I was on another planet. With crusty lava at your feet, smoke swirling around your ankles from vents in the ground, and pinnacles of lava from previous eruptions, this place didn't look of this world! The sunrise was another breathtaking spectacle to our already speechless selves. Jeremy, our friend who had been up there five times, said that he had never seen it so clear. In the early suns rays, we could see Kilimanjaro, Meru, and a number of other mountains. I remember that the suddenness of all these awesome sights was hard to take in. I felt over saturated. It was weird. With every step, we wanted to take another picture or video just because the next part the crater kept revealing itself to be better than the last. It was truly AWEsome. So we walked around the crater, seeing different views at every point until we got to the highest point, up on the rim. The view, by the way, is something else. First of all, the steepness of LeNgai gives you the feeling that you can actually look DOWN to your sides to see the land below. It's like you're standing on a needlepoint. Secondly, the land that you are looking at isn't quite of this world either. Lake Natron, teaming with flamingoes; the rift valley wall; the simply desolate, wild land; and more mountains all around creates a breathtaking atmosphere.

So after going around the crater and marveling at its features, we ate lunch we headed back down the mountain. This part was by far the hardest part of the whole trip. At an angle like that of LeNgai, walking down the mountain is not an option. You jog or you tumble. And with shoes that were already hurting my toes, I couldn't stand the pounding against the end of the shoes that the steep jog had created. In fact, me and my friend James periodically walked backwards to give our toes a break. It was insane! I was soooooo happy to find the car loaded with sodas at the bottom. So we piled up and headed back to camp to sleep for a couple of hours. In that area, you go to sleep on a bed but wake up floating in a pool of sweat. Its sooooo hot! Well that concludes the LenGai climb. We did, the next day, go to a cool waterfall. This waterfall is very amazing but I'll get into that in another blog.

The Little Stars

2006-10-24T02:35:00.000-07:00

This is a team here in Arusha called Nyota Ndogo, which Skyler is playing on. Nyota Ndogo means little stars, and I don't know why they call themselves that, they're not so small and they're really good. For their age, they're one of the best, if not the best, in Arusha. The picture of them in the jerseys is at a tournament in Arusha. Wild Hope International is like sponsoring this team so we got those jerseys from some guys that donated from America, bought the team cleats and stuff like that. They're really cool guys and really fun to hang out with. The coolest part is how the language barrier is getting smaller and smaller, especially for Skyler since he spends more time with them.

Anyway, My family has been telling me that I should go with Skyler to play with them. I wasn't big enough when I came, but I've done some growing. So yesterday I finally went to the practice. It was great, as I knew it would be. It was weird; I just didn't want to go even though I knew it would be fun. It was a lot easier to say I had bunch of homework and stay home. But I decided to go for it and I'm glad I did. I felt really good about the way I played. So hopefully I'll play with them on a regular basis now.

The Snake Park

2006-10-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went with another family to the snake park right outside of Arusha. I've been there a couple times. It's really cool. They have all kinds of snakes and they also have some birds, crocodiles (adults and babies), and a monitor lizard. My favorite snake was the black mamba. The black mamba is on of the most poisonous, most aggressive, and fastest snakes in the world. You could tell how active it was because instead of lying all curled up in a corner, like the other snakes, the black mamba was going back and forth along the glass. I even got to see the jet black inside of his mouth when he opened it, the trait from which the snake gets its name.

We also got to see the monitor lizard get fed a bunch of eggs. He wasn't a very careful, or clean eater. He had bad eyesight, so it took him awhile to find and egg. Then, once he had found it, he bobbled it into the right position in his mouth, cracked it, and then swallowed it. The funny thing is that most of the time the inside of the egg would plop out the side of the eggs when he cracked it and he would basically just swallow the egg shell. He was also inconsistent on whether or not he swallowed the egg and the shell or just got the insides out.

The crocodiles were also really cool. They look so docile and lazy. But I know that they can move rapidly when they want. At one point, when Skyler and me were watching them, they all became alert and were looking at us. A couple that were on the other side of the cage melted into the water and then their heads popped up on our side of the cage. We think that maybe they mistook Sky and me as some of the staff coming to feed them.

One of the most fun parts of that day was riding the camel. There is a guy right outside the Snake Park who has two camels that you can ride if you pay. Camels are very interesting things to ride. They are the ugliest, grossest, weirdest animals alive. When the camel is getting up and you're on him, he goes up on hind legs first so are hanging forward, almost vertically, clutching tightly onto the handlebars on the seat. Then he comes up on his front legs and your ready to ride. The ride is nice. There is a lot of sway in the walk. When you come back, you have to go through the same vertical hang on the way down. Riding a camel is an experience I highly recommend.

(I know I'm not in the pictures but I really DID ride the camels.)

My Birthday

2006-10-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

So, I turned 14 on October 7th. It was a good birthday. Nice and simple but fun. We ate at this really nice Indian restaurant, ate a bunch of food, and then went to a swimming pool. I celebrated it with a friend named James whose birthday was also in October, his family, my family, and a couple other friends. I also had another celebration with the whole team on our campus called Engedi. From my parents I got two shirts. One was a BigDog shirt and one was a Tusker shirt. I've always wanted a Tusker shirt! Tusker is an African beer. I also got some bracelets from a market in town. So yah, it was a good birthday.

Snow Bubbles

2006-10-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

This is our cat Snow or Bubbles or SnowBubbles. She is the coolest cat! I didn't thinks we would ever have a cat, but this cat is so awesome. She's not afraid of anything. She's about 4 inches off the ground and she chases dogs and attacks people when they're not ready. The problem is that you can't discipline her because if you do she gets super mad and attacks you. HAHA!
Well the other day we finally found a mouse that we knew we had and had been looking for. So after somebody had bashed the mouse and it was still squirming a bit, we brought Snow in and she took care of business. She ate the whole thing in like and hour, and it was almost half as big as she was! Anyway, we were really excited because that really helped her get used to catching mice. Also the next morning she caught 2 huge crickets and ate them both. I love SnowBubbles!

Tanzi

2006-10-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

This is my dog Tanzi (short for Tanzania). I've always wanted a German shepherd and when we came here there was a litter of puppies, of which we took one. She's kind of timid but she's still a German shepherd. They're always active and chasing things. I trained her how to sit, stay, and heel. Sadly, just the other day she killed a chicken, something we thought we had taught her not to do. I think we're going to have to put some hot sauce on a dead chicken so that she wont like it. I don’t know. But we'll do something.

BigFoot

2006-10-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Rain

2006-10-21T03:20:00.000-07:00

So, it started to rain. I forgot we are coming into a short rainy season and I thought we were entering the dry season, which I love. So we can't jump on the trampoline very much now. And everything’s muddy and cold, so we have to wear our big boots everywhere. But it's also really fun, cuz we get to hang out inside, drinking hot cocoa, and listen to the rain on the roof. It's also very nice to have power. While I'm writing this post I'm listening to the rained drip of the roof outside.
Rain in Africa is totally different than rain anywhere I've been. When it rains it pours. The pounding on the roof while you're dry inside is sooooooooooo cozy! Also, you can smell rain coming here in Africa. There is a sweet fragrance of the coming wash of water. I love that smell because I grew up with it and it reminds me of the awesome wonder of Africa. So these rains are kind of annoying but on the other hand they're awesome!

The Spike-Heeled Lark

2006-10-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

The other day our family, besides mom, went out on some plains about an hour from our house to look for a specific bird that had just been declared it's own species. On becoming its own species, this bird became one of the rarest birds of the world. It is said that there are only about 50 of them! Thanks to God, we ended up seeing three of these rare birds near the beginning of our adventure. It is an amazing bird. Its camouflage blows me away. We have some pictures that reveal this camouflage. If I can figure out how to post pictures on my blogs you can have a look at those pictures.
Since we found the bird so fast, we got to have a little fun. We went cruising across the plains looking for some animals. Surprisingly we say a ton of jackals, 5! We also got to chase some giraffes. The speed that they can reach with their awkward run always amazes me! We chased and Ostrich too. It was a great adventure. It's always great to get out of the city and enjoy some of Africa’s wild life.

Flips

2006-10-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

There is this visitor visiting our campus from New Zealand called Josh, who is doing electricity work around the campus we live on. He's really a cool guy. He's 22 and is in to a bunch of really cool stuff. One of the things he loves to do flips on the trampoline. Now, I know that a bunch of people can do flips on a trampoline, but he does them so sweetly! Haha! He does front flips, back flips, mistys, and all these other things like 360 back flips. It's amazing, and it's something I want to learn. I just started working on my front flip, and it's easy now. But I can't get my body to do a back flip. I'm still working on it, and Josh is showing me how to do it. Man, he makes it look sooooooo easy! Like he does four graceful back flips in a row. And the way he does them, slow and stretched out, it looks fun and peaceful, like he's relaxedly flying. And he says it feels that way too. I want to learn so bad! Skyler is learning all these things too. Josh can also do that thing where you run up a tree or a wall and do a flip. Wow!
What I've learned is how flips aren't as dangerous as some people make them sound. I mean on a trampoline. Like there is one dangerous point on a flip to land on (your head) and it’s really hard to do that. And even if you do land on your neck or head, you probably wont get really heart. Like today, while I was trying to learn the back flip, I hesitated too much, and landed like on my neck/head and was still fine. I just kind of rolled over (I hope mom doesn't read this). So ya, I'm still learning my flips, but its fun. I want to get into cool things like that more. I don't know why, but I've always kind of neglected cool thing like bow hunting, surfing, and other stuff that my family was kind of into and I wish I didn't. So I want to learn stuff like that while I'm still young. Someone once told me that you have to learn everything you want to know by the age of like 20 because at that age you just can't learn any more cool things. So no more neglecting cool hobbies!

Piki-Pikis

2006-10-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

Wow! Man, piki pikis (motorcycles) are awesome! I've always wanted to learn how to ride one, and I new it would be fun, but I had know idea how fun it could and would be. My first experience on riding a kind of motorcycle was in Oregon on a little four-wheeler. Well basically what happened...I hit a mailbox! I couldn't believe it! My first time driving a motorcycle and it ended by me hitting a mailbox, after everyone told me, "Oh, its easy! You'll do fine." The crash (if that's what you would call it) also broke something, I don't remember what, on the bike. Anyway, this first experience didn't really encourage me. I wondered if riding pikis would just be another thing that I decided wasn't my thing. But my desire to ride pikis didn't go away. This move to Tanzania re-umphed it. But after several months of waiting for the right bike to buy, that desire started becoming more of a dream that kept eluding me. However, when we finally got the bike, it was worth every second of the wait. And I had no unusual awkwardness on the bike. In fact, I learned very fast. I've only been out riding it about a dozen times, over a couple of months, and I'm already learning how to jump! I know, I shocked me too, but I can't be half way about it. The most dangerous thing is to be hesitant. If you're hesitant and don't give it enough gas, you'll land on the front wheel; not very comfortable, and not very good for the bike. So I'm still practicing and getting better, but I think I get the basic idea.
My point is, I've become addicted to this gift of a motorcycle God has given me and my brother, and I can't wait to learn more on about it, and also how to do more on it.

Me

2006-10-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hey!
My name is Chase Russell. For anyone who doesn't know me, I live in Arusha, Tanzania (Africa). I'm 14 and our family is part of a mission called Wild Hope International. I’m new to this blog thing, but I think I like it. Now that I’ve created it, all I have to do is tell people about it. Haha!