Counting down to departure

What a contrast! Last Friday night we drove home from a visit to Janna and Barb in Asheville NC and (for a short stretch around South Bend) encountered some of the worst white-out road conditions of our lives--visibility about 3 feet in the driving snow, no sign of plowing, no tracks to follow, the only way to know you are on the road is seeing a reflector now and then through the swirling blizzard. Weekend temperatures kissed O F (-18 C). This Friday (assuming we check off the hundred more to-do items on our list by then) we depart for five months' residence in Nairobi, right on the equator but at an elevation where days are warm and nights pleasantly cool all year round. David will be a Fulbright Scholar/Teacher at Daystar University there, teaching a philosophy class and assisting with curriculum development, while Susan volunteers her time with nonprofit and church organizations on legal reform and community-based economic development. For January, we'll have 13 Calvin College students with us, visiting rural sites where the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee works in partnership with local initiatives in education, health, housing and microfinance. Our second visit to Kenya together (we were there for just two weeks in 2001; David made a very brief planning stop there in November); David's first Fulbright; our first extended time in East Africa; a wonderfully welcoming community and a lovely apartment at Daystar's main campus (at Valley Road and Ngong Road in central Nairobi)--we're excited! Stay tuned for updates and photos later. --David