From Heathrow and on

Here are Silas and Popie in Cambridge.


Popie here wanting to reflect more on our time in England. We are in Heathrow terminal #3 at the moment, awaiting our Virgin Atlantic flight to NAIROBI— can’t believe it, can’t wait….

Here are some of the highlights:
We have managed our 3 large suitcases ,plus carry on bags, quite well on all the public transport we have taken.(something my beloved husband was very anxious about) Thankfully there are now baggage wheels (when we went to Kenya in the late 70’s there was no such thing, and we have vivid memories of wearily lugging almost 4 years of life from place to place.) Wheels on baggage is something we all take for granted these days….The London tube has ”lifts” so we were spared from a lot of extra lifting from platform to platform…Anyway, we have survived quite well, and my new knees are amazing—(except when I have to go through security and the alarm goes off, but I am used to that!) We have walked and walked and walked!


Seeing Silas was wonderful. He looks great and seems so adjusted to living in U.K.He certainly knows his way around Cambridge, and it was so delightful to walk for hours peeking into the gates of the various colleges, seeing the stunning green lawns which accented the grand architecture, and taking in the fact that our son has this incredible privilege to be there. He graciously allowed his parental unit to share floor space in his huge room, which from our vantage point, worked out great. We bought him a mattress, which he will be able to use with some of his upcoming spring guests. His rowing is going well and he seems to have secured his seat on the “blue” boat, as the stroke, but has been having a lot of back pain, which is troubling. He has a great physical therapist, but since this back thing keeps nagging, he will be seeing a specialist soon. Hopefully it will get figured out sooner than later..

We attended a campus Baptist church on Sunday with one of Si’s fellow rowers, and were able to see a Cambridge student get baptized (dunked) in the baptistery of the church—something I hadn’t seen since I was girl in my family’s First Baptist church of Tuscaloosa, Alabama days. The sermon was on the parable of the banquet in (Luke 14) and the service was very welcoming. It was good to be there.

The food in U.K. these days provides an incredible array of ethnic diversity. You can get just about everything, and I have read somewhere that curry in now the national food. Last night Silas took us to an Algerian restaurant which was outstanding. We did go to one pub which was traditional Br. Food.

Seeing and staying with our friend, Coreen, from our Stanford days of yesteryear was such a treat.. She is THE HEAD of the American School in London (approx 1300 plus students) so she is quite the big shot. She has a lovely home nearby which we stayed in the first night, and we plan to spend more time with her when we come for the boat race in late March. We also saw our friend, Chris, who founded an organization which focuses on human rights and business. We are so proud of these friends.

Cambridge apparently is the bicycle mecca of England. We saw a lot of oldtime looking bikes with baskets on the front, just like the one I ride to work! We only saw one person with a helmet, the whole time there, but police were nailing those who didn’t have lights on in the dark.…

CONSIDERABLY LATER, FROM TIM We are in Kenya, having a wonderful time with old friends, enjoying the marvelous skies and the warm, dry weather. We spent much of our first full day traveling around in matatus (small buses), getting telephones (without which one cannot survive in Kenya) and an internet connection (done through the cell phone networks) and immunizations and malaria meds. Getting reacquainted with Nairobi and gathering materials for survival, essentially. The traffic and the pollution are wearing, but it’s a great place and we do love our friends. More later.

Popie found these nestling sheepdogs in the train station at Cambridge absolutely fascinating, and insisted I share them with you.













Silas with his Dad, Tim the hobbit.

This is our welcome party at the Nairobi airport, 8:00 a.m. Note Wachira and his phone, always busy.

Silas with his Dad, Tim the hobbit.hhh