So wow, I'm really NOT good at keeping up with this blogging thing...but for those of you who I will not see in times that are soon (ha, that's a good sentence), I will keep blogging so you can know how the rest of my trip went!
However, today I will post about today and tomorrow's travel. I will be leaving Nairobi at 10:30 p.m. to arrive in Amsterdam at 5:30 a.m. From there I will be traveling to Portland, OR, leaving at 10:00 a.m. and arriving at 11:20 a.m. ONLY AN HOUR AND A HALF FLIGHT!?! Yeah, no...10 hour flight actually...blegh. In Portland I have a four hour layover, where I will spend my time calling you people that I love so much :), and watching The Last Airbender (thank you Kyle :)! My last flight will leave Portland at 3:25 p.m. and arrive in Boise at 5:40 p.m., where I will, at long last see the wonderful faces of my family!
I am excited about being home, but I will dearly miss these people who I have lived with for 6 weeks now. I have learned a lot from them and will love them dearly for as long as I live (I know that sounds corny, but it's true)!
Now, for those of you who I will see soon, I can't wait!! We have a lot to talk about on both ends I'm sure, and I'm so excited!
Please be praying that this trip will be completely uneventful and that God continues to work in mind and heart as I process through everything I have learned while here.
I love you all so dearly!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
March 18-19
Friday was a dumb day again...well for me... I had a fever, chills, and the rest of the stuff you don't want to hear about. The team, other than Heather who was also sick and therefore stayed home with me, had there last day at the Karen worksite. They then went to the second showing of Kyle's show, where as because I still had a fever, I wasn't allowed to go :(. But, I hear it went very well and everyone loved it! (Especially Kyle, cause it was over finally :).
Saturday we went out to Karen church again, but this time we had a little friendly competition with Bible Quizzing. Heather and Brad, a married couple from the team, have been quizzing since they were in high school and brought over some sensor seats for the Free Methodist quizzers here in Kenya. We started off with a devotion by Brad. He told part of his testimony and how bible quizzing helped change his life (it's a cool story, ask me some time and I'll tell you what I remember!). We then announced the book that they were all supposed to have studied beforehand, but since quite a few of them haven't (it was Joshua 1-5) we took a half hour to study it before we started the quizzing. I had never witnessed quizzing before and it was quite fun! I can tell you right now that I wouldn't be good at it, but it's fun to watch :).
Then we had lunch and stopped home for a while before going to dinner at Java. Java is a real nice restaurant that reminds me, style wise, of noodles and company. The food though was a plethora of different foods like mexican, subs, soups, salads, fish, etc. It would've been a better experience if I wanted to actually eat, but it was still fun! Kyle and I sat next to Larry the whole time and we just talked about our futures, talents, and chinese people (ahahahaha...oh man, Larry!). After dinner, Kyle and I had a Harry Potter night!!!!! It was exactly what I needed!
So that was that week. Good times!
I love love love you all so much!
Saturday we went out to Karen church again, but this time we had a little friendly competition with Bible Quizzing. Heather and Brad, a married couple from the team, have been quizzing since they were in high school and brought over some sensor seats for the Free Methodist quizzers here in Kenya. We started off with a devotion by Brad. He told part of his testimony and how bible quizzing helped change his life (it's a cool story, ask me some time and I'll tell you what I remember!). We then announced the book that they were all supposed to have studied beforehand, but since quite a few of them haven't (it was Joshua 1-5) we took a half hour to study it before we started the quizzing. I had never witnessed quizzing before and it was quite fun! I can tell you right now that I wouldn't be good at it, but it's fun to watch :).
Then we had lunch and stopped home for a while before going to dinner at Java. Java is a real nice restaurant that reminds me, style wise, of noodles and company. The food though was a plethora of different foods like mexican, subs, soups, salads, fish, etc. It would've been a better experience if I wanted to actually eat, but it was still fun! Kyle and I sat next to Larry the whole time and we just talked about our futures, talents, and chinese people (ahahahaha...oh man, Larry!). After dinner, Kyle and I had a Harry Potter night!!!!! It was exactly what I needed!
So that was that week. Good times!
I love love love you all so much!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
March 15-17
So Tuesday and Wednesday we had pretty much the same workload. More hauling block to the top of the building, more wheelbarrowing (word? well it should be cause we did a lot of it), however, this time we mostly hauled rocks to cover the dirt that we hauled before...like we never did it at all...oh joy! (FYI; all this negativism is sarcasm...we really did have a lot of fun doing it!) We also spent a lot of time pounding down all the dirt we hauled which was quite fun...we just wet it, walked all over it, and had some dangerous tools to gracefully lift up and drop down. Ha, gracefully...that's an over statement! I only hit my head once with the heavy metal (haha, heavy metal) pounder...but that's all it took to give me quite the headache and goose egg right on my forehead! Beautiful! However, Deb, one of the team members, took this perfect opportunity to use my head for melting the frozen water bottles so we could all have cold water. I'm so glad my injury was useful for everyone :)! It was kind of my tendency to get hit in the head with metal things this week...giant metal crowbar, metal pounder thing, metal rake (thank you vickie!)...eventually, instead of checking to see if I was alright, they went right into the laughing (hahaha, it really wasn't that bad, I'm just being dramatic!).
Thursday was a garden day :). Our (the ladies) job was to weed, trim, mow, rake, etc. I found that I was indeed a decent bush groomer/trimmer person. (Kratz, more than once, I thought and mentioned how I wished I was Edward Scissorhands!) After lunch Vick and I had to leave for errands and cleaning ourselves up....because....we had Kyle's play to go to!!!!! KYLE, it was sooooo goooooood! They did the musical comedy murders of 1940, or something of that fashion (I can't remember the exact title and I'm too lazy to look it up right now). Funnily enough, Sault High Alumni Theatre actually did this play one summer, so I have seen it, but because it was a christian high school, there were enough differences that it was still really fun to watch!
Welp that was the majority of our week. It was so fun hanging out with the team and getting to know them while we killed ourselves hauling heavy, 50 lbs. blocks :)!
Keep praying for me, for as I'm catching up with my blogs, I am still doing stuff over here. This week we are teaching again at Kawangware. I will tell you more when I catch up on the blog, but be praying for me. For wisdom, strength, peace, love, and really all of the fruits of the spirit.
I love you all so very dearly, and I can't wait to see some of you in a week!
Thursday was a garden day :). Our (the ladies) job was to weed, trim, mow, rake, etc. I found that I was indeed a decent bush groomer/trimmer person. (Kratz, more than once, I thought and mentioned how I wished I was Edward Scissorhands!) After lunch Vick and I had to leave for errands and cleaning ourselves up....because....we had Kyle's play to go to!!!!! KYLE, it was sooooo goooooood! They did the musical comedy murders of 1940, or something of that fashion (I can't remember the exact title and I'm too lazy to look it up right now). Funnily enough, Sault High Alumni Theatre actually did this play one summer, so I have seen it, but because it was a christian high school, there were enough differences that it was still really fun to watch!
Welp that was the majority of our week. It was so fun hanging out with the team and getting to know them while we killed ourselves hauling heavy, 50 lbs. blocks :)!
Keep praying for me, for as I'm catching up with my blogs, I am still doing stuff over here. This week we are teaching again at Kawangware. I will tell you more when I catch up on the blog, but be praying for me. For wisdom, strength, peace, love, and really all of the fruits of the spirit.
I love you all so very dearly, and I can't wait to see some of you in a week!
March 14th
So Monday was our first day at the worksite with the team. The site was located at the Karen church and our job was to build a second story onto the already existing children's building for more classrooms/offices and such.
Man was this first day a doozy! Our first task was to bring brick upon brick up to the top floor so they could start building the walls up. And by brick I mean huge solid stones...you can see some pics of them that I'm tagged in on my FB page. I was on the ground team which means I walked across the yard, picked one up, walked back across the yard, and then lift it up to the people on the platform, who would then lift them up to the people on the second floor. A few times my arm just died mid-lift...and then I would start laughing, so I still couldn't lift it up. It was quite the situation.
So our next task was breaking ground with a pick or giant hoe, shoveling that into a wheelbarrow, wheeling that across the yard, over the hill, and behind the church (hmm...sounds like a song). There they are preparing to wet it down, flatten it out and cover it with rock so as to make a sort of patio where there was a kind of dip before.
Overall it was a good day, just extremely tiring and painful!
I lava you all so much
Man was this first day a doozy! Our first task was to bring brick upon brick up to the top floor so they could start building the walls up. And by brick I mean huge solid stones...you can see some pics of them that I'm tagged in on my FB page. I was on the ground team which means I walked across the yard, picked one up, walked back across the yard, and then lift it up to the people on the platform, who would then lift them up to the people on the second floor. A few times my arm just died mid-lift...and then I would start laughing, so I still couldn't lift it up. It was quite the situation.
So our next task was breaking ground with a pick or giant hoe, shoveling that into a wheelbarrow, wheeling that across the yard, over the hill, and behind the church (hmm...sounds like a song). There they are preparing to wet it down, flatten it out and cover it with rock so as to make a sort of patio where there was a kind of dip before.
Overall it was a good day, just extremely tiring and painful!
I lava you all so much
Saturday, March 19, 2011
March 13th
Wow, I'm like a week behind...so, here we go!
So Sunday the team split up to go to two of the different Free Methodist Churches. I was with Kyle, Jill, Alice, Larry, and Deb at the Karen church, and the rest of them went to the church in Kibera. Unfortunately for our part of the group, the taxi didn't come for them until about an hour after the service started, so they weren't able to be part of the music part of the worship service. The sermon was, again, on unity...I think it's a theme for this month or something. The person who did the sermon was a woman named Polly (Polleen, something like that) and she talked about the unity between denominations, churches, and such. She was kind of hard to understand at times, but I got the gist of it.
For lunch we went to Brew Bistro & Lounge. It reminded me of a kind of jazzy club thing. Kind of ritzy, but super cool :)! I had pizza, but it didn't look like pizza when you first looked at it. It was completely covered in "rocket" lettuce and cheese. Underneath that, however, was a regular ole pizza. It tasted real good, it just looked funny :).
The rest of the day was just spent grocery shopping, making dinner for the next night, and relaxing.
So Sunday the team split up to go to two of the different Free Methodist Churches. I was with Kyle, Jill, Alice, Larry, and Deb at the Karen church, and the rest of them went to the church in Kibera. Unfortunately for our part of the group, the taxi didn't come for them until about an hour after the service started, so they weren't able to be part of the music part of the worship service. The sermon was, again, on unity...I think it's a theme for this month or something. The person who did the sermon was a woman named Polly (Polleen, something like that) and she talked about the unity between denominations, churches, and such. She was kind of hard to understand at times, but I got the gist of it.
For lunch we went to Brew Bistro & Lounge. It reminded me of a kind of jazzy club thing. Kind of ritzy, but super cool :)! I had pizza, but it didn't look like pizza when you first looked at it. It was completely covered in "rocket" lettuce and cheese. Underneath that, however, was a regular ole pizza. It tasted real good, it just looked funny :).
The rest of the day was just spent grocery shopping, making dinner for the next night, and relaxing.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
March 12th
So yeah...today (as in Saturday) was SAFARI DAY!!! Woot! Oh man, best day everrrrr! Our guide, Magic--yeah Magic, we rode on the Magic Safari Bus!! Totally wicked!--picked us up around 6:30. It took us about 3 hours to get there, because instead of going to the game park in Nairobi we got a deal to go to the Lake Nakuru National Park, which is in the Rift Valley. We saw water buffalo, waterbuck, warthog, rhino, pelican, zebra, impala, gazelle, flamingos, and......LIONS!!!! Coolest thing everrrrr!
I put pics and stories up on facebook, so you should check it out :)
I LOVE YOU!!!
I put pics and stories up on facebook, so you should check it out :)
I LOVE YOU!!!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
March 11th
Sooooooo...sorry it's been a while. No good reason, I just kept being lazy. So I will just post a lot tonight :).
Hokay, so today (as in Friday) I met the group for the first time! Their names are Deb, Heather, Brad, Larry, and Alice. They are amazing beautiful people and I'm so blessed to be working with them! For their first day they just wanted to go to the two different Free Methodist schools, Kibera and Kawangware.... just so they could meet the principals, kids, and learn about the history and challenges that the schools have gone through. Vickie and I went to their compound to pick them around 9:15 in order to get to the Kibera school by 10:00. First we went in to the principal's office to greet him and Martin (the chaplain), and talk to him about the background of the school...and have Chai :).
Then we made sure that we greeted all the kids by having a parade (or assembly). They all stood in the play yard while we (the team, the kids already knew Cynthia and I) introduced themselves. They sang us a few songs (mostly the ones we taught them over the weeks), and then they went back to class. But we kept the nursery and the pre-unit class behind because Andrew (the principal) told us that they were the ones who were most likely to not have a sponsor yet. That way they can take the pictures they take to their church and show them around to get those kids sponsored.
There was one little girl, her name is Queen Elizabeth :), and she is a child after my own heart! Both of the weeks we were at Kibera she would make sure she'd come and see me and we would take turns sticking our tongues out at each other and winking! MARVELOUS!!! I'm looking into if she is sponsored or not, cause if she's not....PICK ME! Well, when I get a job. So, we took lots of pictures of her and me, and hopefully we'll be able to find out if she is sponsored or not!!
Then we had a little meet and greet with the teachers and headed out to the cars, then home for a short break, then Kawangware.
At Kawangware we had a lunch of rice, cabbage :(, and stew. Again, we talked to the Principal, or head mistress, about the history and challenges of the school. After lunch, the deputy had put it together that some of the kids would perform a tradition dance for us and then a few would sing a special song. It was kind of weird sitting in front of them while they performed for us, but it was wonderful none the less. I filmed most of it so I will either put it on Facebook, or show it to you when i get home :). It's PHENOMENAL!!
After that we just went to dinner and relaxed with the team.
So...it took me about 10 hours (exaggeration) to right this one, cause Kyle (Vickie's son) keeps distracting me so i will add more about the weekend and the beginning of this week, tomorrow.
I love you all so very dearly!!
Hokay, so today (as in Friday) I met the group for the first time! Their names are Deb, Heather, Brad, Larry, and Alice. They are amazing beautiful people and I'm so blessed to be working with them! For their first day they just wanted to go to the two different Free Methodist schools, Kibera and Kawangware.... just so they could meet the principals, kids, and learn about the history and challenges that the schools have gone through. Vickie and I went to their compound to pick them around 9:15 in order to get to the Kibera school by 10:00. First we went in to the principal's office to greet him and Martin (the chaplain), and talk to him about the background of the school...and have Chai :).
Then we made sure that we greeted all the kids by having a parade (or assembly). They all stood in the play yard while we (the team, the kids already knew Cynthia and I) introduced themselves. They sang us a few songs (mostly the ones we taught them over the weeks), and then they went back to class. But we kept the nursery and the pre-unit class behind because Andrew (the principal) told us that they were the ones who were most likely to not have a sponsor yet. That way they can take the pictures they take to their church and show them around to get those kids sponsored.
There was one little girl, her name is Queen Elizabeth :), and she is a child after my own heart! Both of the weeks we were at Kibera she would make sure she'd come and see me and we would take turns sticking our tongues out at each other and winking! MARVELOUS!!! I'm looking into if she is sponsored or not, cause if she's not....PICK ME! Well, when I get a job. So, we took lots of pictures of her and me, and hopefully we'll be able to find out if she is sponsored or not!!
Then we had a little meet and greet with the teachers and headed out to the cars, then home for a short break, then Kawangware.
At Kawangware we had a lunch of rice, cabbage :(, and stew. Again, we talked to the Principal, or head mistress, about the history and challenges of the school. After lunch, the deputy had put it together that some of the kids would perform a tradition dance for us and then a few would sing a special song. It was kind of weird sitting in front of them while they performed for us, but it was wonderful none the less. I filmed most of it so I will either put it on Facebook, or show it to you when i get home :). It's PHENOMENAL!!
After that we just went to dinner and relaxed with the team.
So...it took me about 10 hours (exaggeration) to right this one, cause Kyle (Vickie's son) keeps distracting me so i will add more about the weekend and the beginning of this week, tomorrow.
I love you all so very dearly!!
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