Dynamic Yet Consistent

We are about to start a very busy month here at Cabrini.  We have a Medical Team coming in from Australia next week.  We close out a grant year at the end of September.  All of our major annual programming reports are due in the first couple weeks of October. And, we have a quarterly board meeting along with a strategic planning session scheduled.  On top of all that, we are doing a major database upgrade that includes launching a new system to keep up with all of our recent work in Social Services.  Needless to say, my spare time is going to be limited and my stress level will probably be a bit higher.

In light of the upcoming weeks, I wanted to make sure I spent some intentional time with Beth, Mikayla and Max.  So today, while Beth and Max were at a meeting, Mikayla and I went out into the bush behind our house to do a "Photo Walk." 

 

Mikayla’s ability to actually compose a picture in the viewfinder has only developed in the last couple weeks.  Before that, she would just indiscriminately press the shudder button regardless of what the camera was actually point out.  Considering that, her skills now are pretty impressive.  All of the pictures below came from Mikayla.  Not to shabby at all if you ask me.  I think some of her flower pictures are amazing by anyone’s standard!

 

UPDATE: I made this blog post into a page so I can add more pictures along the way.  Please visit http://kickert.info/blog/pics/ to access the new pictures.

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I wanted to upload a few high resolution photos in case people in the states wanted to get them printed.  You will need to click on the ones you want to get the full size image and then save it and get it printed where ever is easiest.

Let me know if there are others you have seen on facebook that you would like uploaded.

The day started out cold and dreary – unseasonably so for mid-May in Kentucky.  It would have been easy to stay inside and waste the day watching TV and surfing the internet.  But, Mikayla and I had plans and we weren’t going to let the weather affect us.  We decided to go hiking at a small lake in northern Warren County called Shanty Hollow (a popular climbing spot for locals).

Ran into a guy I went to college with and he snapped a few pictures for us.

Our destination was the waterfall.  Mikayla enjoyed it, but had much more fun just throwing rocks in the water.

Many people know about the waterfall, but don’t take the time to follow the creek down where it cuts through the rock and makes a very cool ravine.

We then hiked out along the creek bed, stopping every 100 feet or so for Mikayla to throw more rocks into the water.  Although it was a bit cool and a bit wet, it ended up being a great morning to be out.  Here is a video of Mikayla throwing rocks!

Here is Mikayla’s tough girl look.  She picked some honey-suckles and then wanted to walk the last quarter mile on her own (up until then she had mostly ridden on my  back).

Our last stop was the lake shore… where of course she entertained herself by throwing more rocks.  She also found a hawk feather laying on the trail.

Overall it was a great morning that served as a simple reminder of the joys of getting off your butt and into nature.  I figure we had better enjoy the cold, wet weather, because the next several years won’t have much of it!

I was able to put up a couple blog posts during my quick trip to Swaziland, but because of the lack of reliable internet, I couldn’t upload any media files.  But rather than going back and "spicing up" the previous posts, I figured I would just throw everything into this new post.  So here you go for your multi-sensory enjoyment:

Let’s start with some pictures.  Most of these are pretty low quality because they were taken on either my cell phone or the video camera.

Airplane I flew in on

Dome of the church from the backside of the mission

(blurry) Swazi Sunrise

Posing with Janet, a pharmacy volunteer from Eastern Kentucky and one of the youth from the child care program

 

Two youth from the child care program.  The dresses they are wearing were made by a church in Auburn Kentucky.

 

Several kids who live on the mission.

Mural on the side of one of the child care buildings painted a few months ago by Write on Africa.

  

A look at the agricultural fields on the mission.

A view of "Execution Rock" from a cafe in Mantenga

A little piece of Kentucky in the Ezulwini Valley.

   

I could think of a more appealing name for hair product.

  

A rare rain storm begins to roll in.  Even though it was the "wet" season, it hadn’t rained in over a month before this.

While the rain made things green… it also made things pretty muddy.

A look at the village center several hours after the rain.  It actually dries out really quick.

This is where the priest on the mission lives.  You can see the residual mud from rain storm.

    

We actually had a second storm come through a few hours later, which I happened to get stuck in. 
However, it was worth it to be able to see this rainbow over the mission.

 

Thanks to seatguru.com I was able to score the best seat in economy – extra leg room because of an access panel.

One of the cool experiences I had this week was attending mass at St. Philips church.  It was all in siSwati, and despite a crowd of only about 100 people, the building resonated with the sound of the singing.  Here is a brief audio clip I recorded:

 

You can download the audio only here.

Now let’s get to the videos.  Here is some wildlife I fould on my porch.  Just so you know this is a small one – I just happened to have my camera handy.  Some of these on the mission are twice as large.

 

 

Speaking of our porch, one of the great things about taking this trip was I had the opportunity to stay in the duplex where we will be living in July.  Here is a video of the house to give you a feel for what our living arrangement will be like:

 

Finally, I wanted to end with a short panoramic video from the center of the mission.  You can’t see many of the important buildings (such as the clinic, high school, hostel, offices, etc.) but you do get a feel for the place.

 

 

In preparation for our move to Swaziland, Beth and I have had to get new passports.  My ragged blue book (which survived the washing machine while in Germany) has now been retired.  Gone are my stamps from Frankfurt A.M. and San Jose Costa Rica.

Here is a look at old and new:

No passport photos are ever good.  I think I traded a “really bad” for a “moderately bad” one:

Yesterday I posted a recap of 2009 in pictures. But, as my friend Jason pointed out, it was not just the end of a year, but the end of a decade.  Here are 10 pictures, one from each year, to reflect on the first 10 years of the millennium.

[2000 – Senior Pictures]

[2001 – First year fighting fire]

[2002 – Beth visits Idaho]

[2003 – Engagement photo]

[2004 – Wedding Photo]

[2005 – Trip to DC]

[2006 – Posing at Jackson’s Orchard]

[2007 – Playing disc golf]

[2008 – Pregnancy progression pictures]

[2009 – Mikayla’s 1 week pictures]

…sometimes literally.

By the way… Mikayla’s temperature was normal.

For two months Beth and I have been on a hunt.  We are not trying to track down wild game, or looking on ebay for a rare collector’s edition of barbie… no, we have been trying to capture Mikayla’s “pouty face.”  For all intents and purposes Mikayla is a very content baby, but when she does cry she usually gives a warning first… her pouty face.  Even though it is obvious she is about to get upset, it is too precious to not laugh at.  Unfortunately, every time we have tried to capture it on film, she has either cheered up, or progressed into a full cry.  However, tonight was the night… after many attempts we finally captured it in all its glory.  Here are the fruits of our labors: