wednesday. september 24 2oo8

oh right...pictures... here's the WNS girls bball team for this year: here's the new staff for this year: ::: :::

thursday. october 30 2oo8

PART III on the last webisode, the gang was found basking poolside in the warmth of the mombasa sun. seeing as how the ocean sits yards away from the pool, we next decided to walk the beach. one of the first things you'll notice along mombasa's beaches is the number of shops set up to sell to tourists. you'll find anything from fruit stands with coconuts and pineapples to wooden carvings of animals to oil paintings of masai. here are a few canvases laid out in front of our hotel. i'll admit that i anticipated seeing little crabs scurrying across the beach or even random lizards stuck on trees, but i had no idea that you could find camels walking along the coast of the indian ocean. don't those things usually live in the desert? more on camels later... as we were walking along the beach, i couldn't resist lying on the sand to take pictures like this. i often wondered what the locals thought of the totally stereotypical asian tourist walking around with his big camera. sometimes they would approach me and offer to take a picture of me, but as many of you know there's always a price involved. after a long, hardworking day of sitting by the pool and walking a good stretch of the beach, we decided to duck into a small restaurant along the coast. all that stress can really build up an appetite. for some strange reason, i seem to always find myself eating really good pizza when i'm facing the indian ocean. then again, this is only the second time i've eaten near the indian ocean. but i still find it weird that pizza and oceanside somehow go together. one fungi-ham pizza please! =] after eating lunch, we tiresomely headed back to our hotel with the beating sun, blue sky, and crashing waves torturing us. oh what a missionary life we live. one day i will tell the kids of how...back in good ol' 2008 we used to enjoy nature. but what's that dad? can we find it on the internet? can i download it? oops, i went off in my own little world. oh yea, here's my opportunity to introduce some of the staff at WNS. what better way than to present to you their backs. if you're ever walking behind one of them one day, you can call out to them and ask, "hey did you used to work at WNS?" L to R (front): jonathan, amy, joel, kate L to R (back): becca, jen, brentan (actually he's with rosslyn. we'll shoot him later.) after you've chilled out in a pool, walked a beach, eaten a sufficient meal, what can you possibly do next? well duh...rinse and repeat! some of us hopped back into the pool. some of us laid out poolside enjoying the sun. some of us chased colorful lizards around the pool. afterwards we showered and headed out to dinner. what a life, right? yea someone's gotta do it. oh wait, before we headed off to dinner, some of us engaged in a few rounds of texas hold 'em. but what could be used as currency to encourage motivation? jonathan had a box of oreos. they're round like poker chips. we like to obtain them. let's do it! actually it went by kinda quick b/c we ended up eating our money while waiting for each other to make decisions =P after getting all cleaned up, we walked to a nearby indian restaurant. there's honestly no telling what kind of food you'll eat near the ocean. you'd think it'd be seafood, but hey we're poor. oh how i kid. no but really send some dinero please. it'd be much appreciated. they don't even have root beer here!!! how does one survive? there was one setback in this dinner plan however. it took foreeeeeeeeever for the food to come out. 900pm came around, and the food still didn't arrive. but when it finally did, it was worth it in my opinion. i've been doing this thing with indian places that i've always done with italian restaurants. for italian, i like trying lasagna every time i go to a new place. for indian, i like trying the butter chicken. it was soooooooooooo good! it may look small, but there was alot of chicken in there. i was stuffed by the end of it all. it was a great 24 hours. it may have started out rough; but when you can sit by the beach eating dinner and catching a full moon staring right back at you, you're reminded that God is an amazing artist. this trip was very much needed for all of us. getting outta the city and school life for just a couple of days was very much worth it. till next time, eat your veggies and pray with faith... ::: :::

friday. october 24 2oo8

PART II i don't think any of you could've guessed that we ended up staying at a place nicer and somehow cheaper than the place that lost our reservation. the manager from bamburi ended up being a pretty nice guy. he called up a neighboring hotel called wason holiday resort. we ended up getting a place with a living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms. each bedroom had 3 beds in it. it was perfect in my opinion for a big group. ah stupid me...i can't believe i never took a picture of the bedrooms. oh well. from our balcony, you can see the nice, big pool and see the beach at the same time. it probably doesn't seem like a big deal to alot of people, but it was intriguing to me. here's the view from the balcony looking in and the living room area... i like the spiral steps leading up to the front door of the room. it's kinda weird b/c it looks like the back of a building, but at the same time it's the front. so i guess the balcony is considered the back? i dunno... and of course what beach resort would go without colorful vegetation? and what photographer would walk by them every day and not take a picture? hmm i just realized that i haven't told much story about how the day was going. well let's just say we were all relieved and happy to find a place where we could settle down. i passed out on the couch once we got there. soon after, we all jumped into the pool. it had that perfect temperature we're all too familiar with. you know that warm water feeling after you pee in the pool? oh don't act like you don't know. you're smiling right now b/c you know EXACTLY what i'm talking about AND you like it! till next time, party on garth!!! ::: :::

wednesday. october 22 2oo8

school has been going well. our 1st quarter just ended. the girls bball team currently has an 8-1 record. i love my aftan. by now, you either have an image of the girls bball team engraved in your mind or you're convinced that i'll never get around to making a new post. here's to all of you who hold on to the hope that the posts will one day change, or you have a serious addiction. we had a 3-day weekend this past weekend which went from saturday to monday. so why not take advantage of it and go outta town? being so close to the coast, a few of us teachers decided to head out to mombasa. it was about $15 one-way for a 7-8hr bus ride. i like ocean. i like sun. let's do it! because of all the pictures i want to show, we're gonna have to split this into separate posts. PART I after arriving in town at 6:30am, we immediately got a cab to take us to the bamburi beach resort. i was immediately impressed by the coastal view from poolside. so i immediately took out my camera and began taking pictures. here are some immediate outcomes: here is the eating/bar area between the pool and beach. we sat here for a couple hours b/c there was a mix up with our reservation. basically, they never got our reservation, so we had to wait for the manager to show up at 10am to figure things out. it was a warm, humid morning by the beach. people were busy raking up seaweed and setting up shops to sell to tourists later in the day. after a long bus ride, we were tired and restless at the same time. some people decided to head out to grab breakfast. with 8 people in a group, it's not easy to make one giant decision altogether. some people wanted to save money and go out looking for a $1 meal. personally, i just wanted to relax and eat where i was. eating breakfast while overlooking the beach seemed alot more appealing to me. amy also decided to join me for some eggs, toast, and a drink...umm yea =] hmm should i continue blasting you with an array of pictures? nah i think 11 pictures is enough for today. however you should be wondering what happens to a group of 8 people when a reservation to a hotel is lost. we should get a poll going. what do you think happens next? report back and stay tuned for the next episode of....alright that's cheesy. i'll shuttup now. check back on friday! ::: :::