I woke up early again on 12/18/2024 to attempt to take a great sunrise picture. It was cloudy again, and this was the best I could do shortly after sunrise:

Thirty minutes later, I was able to capture this:

The plan for the day was to visit the very small village of Oda, which is where Karen’s husband (Patterson) was born and raised (and he still owns a home there).

It was a 2 hour drive to get there and we had to pass through several checkpoints, where we were had to show our passports and answer various questions.

The village is very small and mostly consists of small dwellings built from mud or unfinished cinderblock.

Patterson built this house, which does stick out a little bit:

We took a short hike from his home to the Tana River, which contains a small mango orchard. It had been 40 years since I’ve eaten a ripe mango directly from the tree, but it tasted exactly as I remembered.

We ate lunch at his house, and then did a tour of the village.

In case we didn’t already feel sufficiently privileged, this was our dinner when we returned to the Hemingways Matamu: