Wednesday, November 4, 2009

3 Years Already!!

At the end of this month, a big day is coming up for us - our 3rd anniversary! It's hard to believe, but we've already been married for almost 3 years! How do missionaries in Africa celebrate their anniversary? Go to the local restaurant and order a special cut of bush meat? Spend the afternoon canoeing on a river inhabited by crocodiles and snakes? Admire an amazing sunset while having a contest to see who can get the most bug bites in a span of 15 minutes?

These all sound great, but Eric would have been no match for Wendy's sweet blood in the bug bite contest, so we decided instead to go to the beach. Two beaches, in fact. One beach on the west coast of Africa, and the other on the east coast. I'm hoping that Jesus comes back before next November, because I think going to heaven will be the only thing that could top this year's anniversary trip!

We started off our celebration at Pointe Denis, a beautiful spot just off the coast of Libreville. We stayed one night at a nice hotel. It was the middle of the week, so we were the only guests at the hotel (and I think on the whole beach!!). When we opened the door to our hotel, a beautiful flower bouquet was awaiting the beautiful bride. The hotel had everything! A nice restaurant with a candlelight dinner, air conditioning in the room (which worked once they turned on the electricity - it had been turned off since we were at the beach and were the only guests), and even a friendly dog that would accompany you during your walks on the beach. Talk about service!

As an added bonus to the west-coast portion of our trip, we spent a few days in Libreville, and enjoyed some great food and good conversation with our fellow missionaries - the Straws, the Brokopps, and Sangoye. I don't remember the name of the Italian restaurant we ate at, but the ice cream was out of this world!!

Then we headed to the airport for part 2 of our celebration - a trip to Kenya! Our first stop was Nairobi, where we had the chance to get together with a few other Samaritan's Purse folks and see some wild animals. We went to a giraffe park, where you could actually feed the giraffes! (Ok, so these were probably a little tamer than the average giraffe.) The tounge is actually much longer than it appears here. Some people even fed them with their mouths - that was a little more adventure than the Hofmans were looking for! So, we just stuck to feeding them by hand.










Then, the next morning, we went on a half-day safari at the Nairobi game park. Here, we saw animals that actually were wild, and these included zebras, wildebeests, water buffalo, a leopard (or at least a white lump in the distance that the driver said was a leopard), more giraffes, ostriches, monkeys, and more! If I were to list them all, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but we saw A LOT of animals. But our personal favorite was one that we actually managed to capture - it was called an "Irene", and she was quite wild!

Then we headed to Malindi, Kenya - a beautiful town on the eastern coast of Africa for the real reason for our trip - a Samaritan's Purse leaders conference. It was a 4-day retreat, and we enjoyed wonderful speakers, worship times, fellowship with other missionaries, and of course, great food! We are so thankful for the support that Samaritan's Purse has given us during our time overseas so far!

We had initially planned to go back to Gabon the day after the conference, but because of a flight change, we were forced to stay an additional 3 days at the resort in Malindi. What a burden!! But, being good missionaries, we were flexible and dealt with the delay with a positive attitude. :)

We used the additional time there to continue celebrating our anniversary. We laid by the beach, went snorkeling, jumped in the waves, went kayaking, swam at the pool, ate pizza in our room while watching movies, and once again enjoyed the air conditioning. It's amazing how good it feels to sleep in air conditioning after not having it for a while! Oh, and I can't forget Wendy's favorite part - we rode a camel!! Wendy seemed quite comfortable on the camel, but Eric rode one like he was a king! Or maybe he's just very weird! :) But I guess we already knew that.















And we leave you with a final shot - a view from our hotel room in Kenya. Ah, what a wonderful way to celebrate such a wonderful marriage.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your anniversary. It looks like you had a wonderful time. Thank you for all your updates. I enjoy reading your blog. Keep up all your great work.
Jean

Eric and Wendy Hofman said...

Thanks, Jean! Wendy