half over

i've been so blessed to be able to do some amazing things on my weekends and get to see different parts of kenya. this weekend i went hiking the ngong hills with about 15 others. it was quite the experience. 7 hills to hike, then sit for lunch and hike back. so, 7 hours, 20kms, and 14 hills (and to a prairie gal, the hills=mountains). it was so rough but so amazing (i feel like that's the theme of my time here...) the view from the tops of the hills were absolutely incredible. i can't even explain. i would post some pics (although they would do no justice) but this computer wont let me. i'll try tomorrow. it was breathtaking. some hills were so steep, some were bare, some like a forest, one like a little jungle, some had goats and cows grazing. so awesome. we tried to stick together as a group but everyone has a different pace so we just met at the tops of the hill. i didn't mind spending the time alone, enjoying the awesome beauty, praising god. only 11 of us continued to the 7th hill and back. 4 others stayed behind. after an amazing journey we were relaxing at the final hill, waiting for the last few hikers to get there when reality came crashing down. a jeep pulled up with some park rangers. they got out and sternly told us that we shouldn't be out without a guide (hadn't we seen the signs??) because 4 people had just been attacked a few hills over... we asked a few more questions and came to realize it was the 4 from our group who had stayed behind. we were so caught up in the beauty of our surroundings and the peacefulness of it all that we let our guards down and forgot where we were. as amazing as it is, we are still in africa. a very dangerous place. nairobi is not called nairobbery for nothing. theft is a constant concern. the terrorist threats for eastern africa are real. the car jacking and murder just outside some volunteer's house are not to be taken lightly. this place is beautiful but it's dangerous. in a panic we hurried down the hill into town, paranoid of everyone we passed, feeling a lot of fear and worry. we got to the police station and met up with our friends. they had been robbed at knife point of everything on them - ipods, cameras, money, passports, visas, even their shoes. the girls were groped a bit, but the police told them they were incredibly lucky to not have been raped. we were all in shock that something like this actually happened. i immediately felt extremely homesick. homesick for the safety of canada. i've come to feel like africa is home and gotten very comfortable here. this definitely shook me up a lot.
no more taking risks here that's for sure.