A pair of Ians

Hannah Bean from Denbigh church in Virginia took this picture while several of us were visiting the children's home in Kitale, Kenya back in July. Her caption: "big Ian and baby Ian. Baby Ian was named after big Ian." Big Ian (that's me) is part of the mission team in Mbale, Uganda that helps with administration of the children's home. It's quite common in this part of Africa for babies to be named in honor of someone who is respected by the family or care-givers. At the children's home there are also a little Shawn and a little Linda, besides others, most likely, named for various ones of our missionary colleagues.

Our daughter Emily stopped by the computer a few minutes ago and saw this picture. Her immediate observation was, "You're holding a black baby and that guy's holding a white baby!"

Asher napping

Asher asleep Sept 08
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Asher usually takes his nap in his bed, but this time round he evidently started snoozing while in the living room, probably while watching something on TV with a sibling or two.

Lake Mburo National Park

A couple of weekends ago Nathanael and I sandwiched an overnight visit to Lake Mburo National Park between an orthodontist appointment in Kampala and a national fellowship meeting in Mbarara. It was our first time in the park and we saw scads of nifty animals and birds. Here are a few pictures:













































Buffalo...up close!















Burchell's zebra















Topi (hartebeest family)















Impala male (females lack horns) -- you typically find a group of a male with several females and young, or a group of males that haven't managed to gather their own individual harems.















Warthog, mama and young















One of the neat things about Lake Mburo is that the absence of elephants and lions makes it reasonably safe to go looking for animals on foot, as long as you have an armed game scout along to guide and protect if necessary (those buffalo behind us probably wouldn't attack unless provoked, but it was comforting to have the scout and his AK-47 along with us in case of any problem -- and to take this picture).