This is a picture of some of the boys and me at our after school program by the monastary.

Matt Kellen: Kudu Rescuer

There I was climbing atop a Mountain in the mid-morning in the Karoo. (The Karoo is the bush of South Africa near Cradock in the Eastern Cape, not unlike the rolling hills of Montana or South Dakota with the exception of the wild life: zebra, kudu, springbuk, waterbufallo and the like.) As I scrambled up a rock outcrop, I noticed what looked like a deer leg raised at an awkward angle, then chaos ensued. A female kudu jumped to life straining against the barbed wire fence its back leg was caught in. Shane, a survival expert who was on our trip stradled the fence and hugged the kudu forelegs while I held fast to the free back leg to avoid a thrashing of its hoof. Our first plan was to push the kudu back towards the fence to then free the tangled hind leg. Thinking quickly another plan formed. I shouted to another hiker to pull my gerber multi tool from the top of my pack. With quick surgical precision, I proceeded to cut the barbed wire from around the now exhausted Kudu hind leg. Holding both hind legs, both Shane and I let go of the Kudu at the same time giving her plenty of room to get up. With limping back leg, the Kudu scrambled down the rocky cleft to safety. Just another day in the life of Matt Kellen Kudu Rescuer.

I make it sound intense and a little over dramatic, but hey it was pretty cool to hug a Kudu (not unlike a large mule deer with funky horns. My friend Kim would not be impressed. She hates deer.

Matt Kellen

Word of the week

Molweni,

This is how you say hello when addressing a group of people in xhosa. I have just registered for a class at the local college for learning the xhosa language. I have already started using classroom words like work, and finish, and thank you. So good.

Summit of Mt. Adams

This is an overly pretentious picture, but I thought it looked pretty cool. I climbed Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Hellen's and Mt. Hood in May and June. The mountains were not super technical, but definitely grinding and enduring. They were great introductions to the mountaineering experience.

To look at more photos of my adventures in "My Photo Album", look in the right hand column for a link to connect you to more photos.

Dinner In Manhattan

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Originally uploaded by matt_special_k

This was on one of our evenings in Manhattan eating in an authentic Spanish restaurant just off Time Square.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The Day to Day.

Praise God on this glorious day in this concrete jungle in New York. Life is in the habits, routines and grind of our lives. Oswald Chambers in "My Utmost for His Highest" speaks of how the disciplines of our lives help to carry us through between the moments when we feel closest to God. I am by no means comfortable in saying I am overtly disciplined, but will continue to make effort to pursue God's will in the small actions. The scripture Chambers spoke from was from the first chapter of 2nd Peter a bold chapter encouraging Christians to follow Christ in all ways.

Matt Kellen