Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for February, 2009

A lion cub enjoys an afternoon snack in Nakuru National Park, Kenya.

Buffalo in Swahili is nyati.

Rain

Can I get a lift?

A heron takes off at Lake Nakuru, Kenya.

… now, you gotta get yourself out of it.

I hate that saying. Don’t know if I’m not supposed to say ‘hate’, but there you have it.  The phrase has a certain philosophy in it that is isolating, prideful and all-around self-reliant.  When you belong to God, how’s that working out for y’all’s relationship?  Nuts, I say.
What brought this up is a usb modem we bought Friday for cutting down our internet cost. The modem was crazy expensive (in relative terms) and is made in a certain billion-people republic. It has proven disastrous in getting it to work with Windows Vista. I spent many-a-hour Saturday troubleshooting that stupid thing, all to no avail. Both companies’ (ISP and modem manufacturer) support stink so I figured, “I got myself into this, now I gotta get myself out of it. I’ll search high and low for the solution and FIND IT!!!”
It hit me at the end of the day that I have an underlying belief that if I get myself into some sort of mess, I am not permitted to ask for help, especially not from God. Pretty whacked out, huh? Having the Creator of the Universe love and care for you above and beyond your shortcomings and yet still puffing your chest out with your bull-headedness thinking it’s totally up to you to solve whatever problem there is?

Sense can slip my grip quite often.

Caught a glimpse of this fella/fellette out in the middle of nowhere. The only time we’ve seen one outside a national park.

Beef and fries

I recently bought a bicycle to ride to work for a couple of reasons: health and save on diesel. One bad thing is that a ride home for lunch is long and sweaty so eating at work is a must. I have yet to get into a routine of packing my lunch to take with me so I’ve been able to enjoy a new Tanzanian favorite of mine… grilled beef tips and french fries. What you see in the picture (came wrapped in newspaper) is about 12 tips and one (of my big) handful of fries. The cost was Tsh. 1,700/- or about $1.20.

Price and taste, can’t beat it. Pray for my health.

We stopped for a quick lunch.