MITS students

Christmas was wonderful. The Conways even gave us each a stocking with presents inside- an Ethiopian coffee kettle, a decorative gourd, zebra pen, candle, and lots of American sweets. Probably my favorite was the poptarts! We stayed a few extra nights at the Conways because it just felt too good to leave. Now we are relaxing around the compound, watching a soccer tournament played by locals and MITS, and making bracelets with the girls. Not much is going on so I though I’d share some details about a few of the students here (I'll repeat this every once in a while)...


JACKSON
After being beaten and abused by his step-father Jackson ran to the streets at age ten and lived there for five years. He collected scrap metal and joined a base but would be beaten by the older boys. At one point he was hit by a taxi driver who took him to the hospital but he ended up back at the streets before coming to Made in the Streets.
“I love MITS so much. It has been like a mother and father to me, taking care of me and the others. I even like working in the shamba (farm) for two hours because I believe I will own my own cattle someday and plant my food. I am being taught basics in English, math, Bible, and computer. In just a few months I have been able to learn so many things, like speaking in English. I am going to be the one to share in chapel next week. I know stories from the Bible, even the family tree of Jesus from David.
God has done marvelous things in my life and I thank him so much. He had a purpose in my life. I know that because even after I got involved in the road accident I am still alive and well. I can’t believe my dream came true – I wanted to live at MITS and that is where I am. I will pray so much to completely forgive my step-dad for the pain he caused my life; I think I already have forgiven him. I love my mum so much; she could never watch anyone beating me without defending me. I pray that I will succeed in life so that I can take her out from the slum life in Mathare. In the slum, there is always a fight between tribes, or houses being torched now and then.
I am interested in learning more about computers. My advice to my fellow students is to work hard and help their families in the future.”
After being baptized in 2008 Jackson asked to be called “Jackson” as Abdi was his Muslim name. His sponsor have provided enough for him to go to college once leaving MITS and study computers further.



ALEX (standing) and JANE
Alex’ father abandoned him and his mother when he was young and his mother has had children with many different fathers. He ran to the streets and sold and smoked marajuana, stole, collected scrap metal, and lived in a base (place where group of street people sleep every night).
“I enjoy living here and I have learned more about God. Now I know God is real. My favorite subject is math. I love everything about this ministry. I would like to become a doctor in the future but I also have a strong interest in being a mechanic. I would like to help others just like Made In The Streets has helped me. I thank God for he has done marvelous things for me that I never even imagined. I am now a different person and I am looking forward to becoming a better one.”
(Alex was baptized on 26 Feb 2010)
Jane was the newest student and arrived just as I did which I think connected us. She is so servant like and will follow me around and help me do my laundry or always coming running up to me and ask to help me carry anything that I’m holding (even if its just a pair of shoes). She also just likes to sit in our room but always hurries out if she feels she’s bothering us. Another thing I love about Jane is how willing she is to speak to us or explain something even though she is still learning English herself.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

We had a Christmas' Eve party for the girls last night. We considered playing "nasty christmas" and giving them gifts to then fight over but we thought that might be providing to much ammunition for something bad to occur. We had kool-aid red punch, christmas cookies, and styrofoam chips again that i'm starting to like. Here they are showing off the gifts they each got (we didn't get all of them panties even though this video makes it look that way). Now the four of us are headed to the Conways to spend the rest of the holiday with them. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

((ok I’m having trouble downloading the video but will try again later))

Pictures from the Coast

Waiting at the train station- Me, Laquita, Cecily, and Dusty


Pirate's Beach- Mombasa


Sigmond was perfectly content like this even with all that sand in his eyes.



one of the locals playing in the water next to us



at the campsite with Sara- our newest student


lots of big Camels everywhere. we didn't ride them. they looked too tired and sad. plus it was the touristy thing to do and we aren't tourist! (but if no one was watching i'd probably ride one)


At "The Beach" hostel


the mangrove at "the Beach"


our Seafood Platter with squid and octupus


Inside our cabin on the train ride home- Dusty and Laquita

Home Sweet Home

We spent the past week at Mombasa and Malindi- on the coast of Kenya. The entire staff and all the students go to Mombasa right before Christmas as part of the end of school year celebration. It was fun but a little tiring and very very HOT! After arriving back at Kamulu, I slept eleven straight hours and would have slept more if I was allowed to because I don't think I every really slept on this vacation due to the heat.
Cecily, Dusty, Laquita, and I took the old train from Nairobi to Mombasa. This used to be the top notch classy way to travel but I don't think it quite fits that description any more. We did however get to watch some of the movie "Ghost of Darkness" on Dusty's computer while riding the railway that this movie is based off of (Its the one with Val Kilmer where the Lions eat everyone). The train takes about fourteen hours but its nice since you can look out your window as you pass villages with huts and little naked children running out to wave to all the passengers. If it wasn't so dark we probably could have seen a lion but all I saw was a baboon in the far distance for a few seconds before disappearing.
We camped for three days with the MITS staff. I think living in Africa is already like camping so you can just imagine what actual "camping" is like out here. Then we spent one day in Malindi- north of Mombasa and spent the next two nights at a hostel called the Beach where I'm pretty sure you can get all the free marijuana you want. But the owner is friendly and the rooms were pretty cheap so we didn't complain. We also got to eat squid, octupus, and fresh lobster which we're pretty sure you order first and then they swim out and catch it for you.
I don't have any pictures but our professional Cecily took a lot so I will add them ASAP!...

The Wedding

It’s finally here. Since I first arrived in October I kept hearing about this wedding that was coming up. Joel, a long time staff member married Tyra a sister to one of the staff members here. They did a lot of American traditions and it was a very beautiful ceremony and reception here at MITS. A few pics that captured the day….

(Joel and Tyra)




(Some of the Staff girls)





(Ken- our favorite driver here at MITS; always willing to take us anywhere)

JINJA!!

We took a two-hour bus ride to the nearest city, Jinja. It’s known for its crafts and for being at the source of the Nile. The conductor on the bus was extremely nice to us. He told us when we had reached our stop and found us motorcycles or pikis to drop us on the market street. We enjoyed a day full of American food (including chocolate milkshakes) and art.

Pikis were our mode of transportation out to the resort we were told to stay the night in. My piki always seemed to make its way to the front of the group whether I knew where we were going or not, but we always reached our destination safe and sound. I quite enjoyed the open air hitting my face, but I think I may have been the only one since we used a car to make it back into town the next day. (That was Laquita talking because my nurse mother would NEVER approve of me riding on the back of a motorcycle in ANY country. Thus her constant voice in my head and visions of mangled bodies during the whole ride lead me to book the car for getting back into town.)

The resort was extremely peaceful and relaxing. Located on the Nile, it’s used by missionaries from across the world.

We swang in hammocks and listened to the rushing water in the distance.

Fiona spent most of the time reading Pride and Prejudice to me from the Kindle- eventhough it will read outloud we I still prefer her nice British accent that she’s been perfecting over the past few days.
Now all three of us can say that we have touched the Nile! We only dipped our feet in though due to numerous stories of the Bilharzia worms that make their home in the Nile. They apparently make their way into your body via toenails and private areas, living and growing in your body until discovered. Eww.

Lulwanda Children’s Home

These past two days we’ve gone to work with Natalie at the Children’s home. Yesterday was a 6 year anniversary celebration and we had a big feast and the children performed a song and dance. Today we just helped the kids write sponsor letters and played with them as they are done with all their final exams.


The girls love to show us their beds and how they each have different ways of making them or decorating them with pillows and dolls.
Here’s laundry drying in the sun. I love all the pink sheets.

By the last day I was a little tired so I may have fallen asleep and then awoke to the kids taking pictures of all of us with my camera.


Also the gate outside Natalie’s house was painted by a Ugandan via direct translation. It is a warning to stay out, and it reads, “Beware of hot dogs!” :-)


For the most part, the way home was rather bumpy and uneventful. We sat behind two Canadians who were assumed to be our parents. At the border, we searched for a bathroom, but all three of us decided we’d rather pee our pants than enter such a stall. Yes, we are in a third world country, but I have never laid my eyes, or my nose for that matter, on such a toilet. Thus, we returned to our seats to wait for the rest of our fellow passengers.
After arriving in Nairobi at 6AM we eventually made our way back to Kamulu from Eastleigh via our favorite designated driver- Ken.
On the way home, we passed a huge gathering of people with lots of police present. As our curiosity arouse, the radio announced that a police officer had been killed by a grenade at that location. Later Larry told us how it was three police men killed and there’s been no reason given for the attack yet. After this announcement another came on the radio of a man who had just married his 100th wife. ONE HUNDREDTH!

CIRCUMCISION TIME

On the way back to Natalie’s house, we rolled down the windows to dry ourselves off from all the sweat (even though you don’t always feel hot, you constantly sweat here) and to hear the drums of a large group passing by on foot. The group was apparently the beginning of a circumcision celebration. The young men here are circumcised at age thirteen. In Kenya, the boys can usually just have this taken care of in a hospital, but in Uganda, the pressure is still on the boy to become a man via a rusty knife and no painkillers. If the boy flinches, he is made to wear a skirt for a week. His face is painted white and he dances/runs with his supporters out to the place of choice for the circumcision event. The procedure is said to be demonic with witch doctors and what not. None of the missionaries here could tell me more than that since they are warned/forbidden to attend the ceremonies due to the drugs, drinking, and dancing that usually end up leading to the raping of several women present. Fiona said some tribes in Kenya will circumcise the females too. Before the week ended we saw quite a few of these marches as people are now trying to get all the boys in before the end of the year. Even as I’m typing this I still can’t believe things like this still go on in 2010.

Market and Lulwanda (Guest post by Laquita)

So much for sleeping in…we all woke up before 8am. This gave us a chance to go into town bright and early though. The marketplace is similar to Nairobi in terms of its set up. It’s much less crowded though, and there’s more space to move around between the booths. For the record, I am not a fan, nor will I ever be a fan, of the smell of warm raw meat. After finishing up some errands, we went to the coffee shop for lunch. Things are so much cheaper here, and we are big fans! Plus, the conversion rate is easy to calculate here. 2000 Ugandan shillings is one dollar; whereas, 78 Kenyan shillings is one dollar. I don’t think I’ve actually mentioned prices in Africa except for maybe the first week when I thought things were cheap. I have since discovered that is not the case. Certain things are cheap, but most things in Kenya cost the same as they do in the states if not more. Here, in Uganda, you can buy a necklace for a dollar, which is not very cheap compared to Thailand and what not, but that’s much better than the five dollars they ask for in Nairobi.

After lunch, we were joined by a British girl named Tiffany. She and Natalie are good friends, but she’s never gotten to see Natalie’s work since she is always working herself as a coordinator for a large program here in Mbale. Thus, we all rode with Natalie out to see Luwanda Children’s Home (she is the program coordinator there). http://www.natalierolfe.blogspot.com/

There are ninety kids in the orphanage, which also just opened as an official school this past year for other nearby children. It was so spacious, and the children were incredibly sweet.


Each one of us was holding two small hands within minutes of our arrival as the girls toured us around their place.


When we were finished touring, we played Capture the Flag (one of my favorite games by far), and it was a blast!

Our day at the children’s home was completed with some ice-cold water (purified of course) and one of Uganda’s famous bananas.

DISMUS’ THANKSGIVINGDAY (by Laquita and Jess)

At Natalie’s church there was a special event for the day that was supposed to start at 2pm. We arrived at 2:40pm, so we could be sure it would have already started. We were still the first to arrive. It began around 4pm, and it was a celebration of thanksgiving. A man named Dismus called the celebration to share his story. Last year, his throat and head were slit open, -SLIT OPEN!- and he was left for dead by thieves outside the gate to his house. His wife found him and there is no reason why he should be alive today. It’s his second chance at life, as he puts it, and from what we were told, he is truly a changed man who now burns with passion for Christ. After testimonies were given, a man preached a short message. And by preached I mean YELLED! But it was so continuous his yelling started to become soothing as we all kept nudging each other to fight off the sleep.

From the church, we headed over to Dismus’ house for a continued celebration. They had a D.J., a tent, and chairs, but we all just sat in the chairs facing forward. Once dinner arrived, we went through the line and had our plates piled with meat (a very rare treat in Nairobi). It was the most meat we’ve eaten thus far. I was slightly worried at first since I haven’t really enjoyed meat in Africa due to its bubble gum texture, but the food wasn’t bad. We had fish, goat, chicken, pork, potatoes and cassava. I like to support vegetables but cassava is gross even if you salt it and put butter on it. I’d lump it in the same category as lutefisk.

Other things to mention…
When I met a little boy, he knelt at my feet, and I very much wanted to pull him up. He proceeded to do this with the other four people I was speaking with. It is traditional here to bow before your elders. They explained to us how girls will always bow to older women and women will bow to their husbands. The whole time they kept speaking only of “girls” doing this and not children and then they kept referencing a group of boys that were playing soccer until we finally realized that all of these “boys” were actually girls. The girls here don’t wear braids but only wear their hair very short so unless they are wearing skirts or earrings it makes it pretty difficult to tell their gender. I just avoided saying “he/she” for the rest of the week.

The dresscode isn’t nearly as strict here as in Nairobi. Natalie wore a spaghetti strap dress yesterday around town and she didn’t stick out at all. (I finally got to bust out my knee length shorts and give my shins some sunlight- my legs were starting to look like Dad’s)

The toilet paper here is super strong. You have to work to rip it apart. Its also blue but I forget if that’s something I’ve seen before.

GETTING TO UGANDA 11.26.10 (Guest post by Laquita)

Last night, our journey began via matatu around 5:30pm. The matatu that stopped for us was packed, so we climbed back off. However, for some reason, this matatu was insistent that we join them. They put Jessica and I in the front seat with the driver and cleared a seat in the back for Fiona. I felt bad that Fiona got stuck in the back, but the front was very spacious. We seemed to have made the driver’s night as he laughed at all the comments we were receiving. The walk from the bus stop into downtown was basically the same as always. I usually end up in the back of our three-person train. Most people see Jess and try to get her attention, but don’t have time to react till I am next to them. This can be annoying since I receive the arm touches and what not, but it’s also really funny to watch people react to Jessica. One person in particular this night got really excited as his eyes followed Jess. “Mojo muz… (one white…) BILLI MUZUNGU (TWO WHITE PEOPLE)!!!” Sorry, that’s not near as good of a story written down as it was in person. Anyways…

I was really excited to see Nairobi at night; the city has a whole different feel. After dropping off our bags at the bus station, we grabbed some fries at a restaurant and candy for the journey at the supermarket. By the way, the restaurant we ate at is the chain that decorates with license plates, and we found a Texas one! It was right next to the counter though, so we couldn’t take a picture for you (not that you haven’t seen a Texas plate before). Our bus was supposed to leave at 9pm; we boarded at ten when it arrived. Fiona was quite excited that the security guard didn’t really go through her bag. She credited it to her being nice to the lady. I added that it might also have to do with the fact that she was with us, and while it’s not fair, we muzungus never really get searched (this remained true for the rest of the trip). After the aisles where extremely packed with passengers’ luggage and the storage underneath had been loaded, unloaded, and then reloaded with merchandise from Nairobi, we set off. It was midnight. Although Jess had a little boy behind her who kept tracing the outline of her facial features, it didn’t take long for us to all crash.

We pulled in to stop for a bathroom break less than two hours later. I had been really worried that I would need to go to the bathroom during our journey, but it turns out that was an unnecessary thought, as this stop was the first of many stops. We stopped at least every two hours for the bathroom; we stopped to pick-up/drop-off people. We stopped for police searches and customs searches I don’t even know how many times. We stopped to change a tire (this one I was okay with) and for just about everything else you can imagine. The night’s sleep was somewhat rough, but it was good enough for a bus. When we all woke up enough from the sun shining through our windows, it was just before 7am (our scheduled arrival time), and we still hadn’t crossed the border. For breakfast, we ate carrots and apples that we had packed for snacks along with some popcorn we picked up while they changed our tire. (I hope you all enjoyed your leftover Thanksgiving food; I thought of you/it often!) At the border, no one told us anything so we almost ended up smuggling ourselves into Uganda. Thankfully, the nice lady next to us told Fiona we might want to go stamp our passports at the nearby building. We left our bus and over half the passengers that were still aboard (no, I have no idea why they didn’t need to get things stamped too). It then left us, which we didn’t know it would be doing, and we followed it on foot across the border. We paid our dues, found our bus, and headed out again very thankful we were not driving a semi-truck. The line for them to cross the border had to be a least a full day’s wait. Anyways, that’s enough about the trip; just know we didn’t end up arriving until 12:30pm.

(UGANDA)


The country here is SO different from Kenya. Uganda is GREEN!!! I absolutely love it! As we drove, the houses turned from brick into clay/straw. There were little hut villages with naked children playing outside amongst the cows. I wish I could send up all the mental images, but sadly, I only have a few lame pictures taken through my window that wouldn’t open.

Mbale is not the city I was expecting but a small town surrounded by mountains. We arrived in the middle of a rally for upcoming elections, so we drove through the crowd of dancing youth to reach our stop. (Apparently, Uganda has had the same president for about 25 years and the youth of Uganda are ready for change.) Natalie was waiting for us at a nearby coffee shop. I love that it’s small enough here the shop owners know her. Granted, she’s been here three-years, but since Nairobi is so huge, I don’t think you’d ever settle in there like she has here. Natalie’s roommate, Emily, was also at the coffee shop. She moved here two years ago after finishing her degree at Harding and is now trying to decide if she’ll stay longer or not. She and Jennifer (the roommate we met in Nairobi who currently is in Kenya and not here) work for a school that ministers to missionary kids. They (and we for the week) live in a house (the teachers’ house) gated in next to the school.

(Here we are in their living room- Laquita, Jess, Fiona, and Natalie)

The coffee shop was kind of their escape for the day. Natalie’s Ugandan friend started it a month ago, and it also usually has power while their house currently didn’t. The power went out last night at their house, and they were having trouble getting someone to come over and look at the problem since the electric company just keeps lumping them with the rest of the neighborhood that lost power a week ago due to people stealing the lines. This is a very funny image to me by the way; I just have a really hard time picturing someone cutting down and rolling up power lines to go sell elsewhere. It happens though, and apparently, it happens a lot.

KARI

Today Victor and I scheduled a visit with KARI- the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute. I’ve emailed and called this place many times with some not so great responses so I already had low expectations for today. We had scheduled to meet at 10AM. Before leaving Victor had gathered some diseased vegetables and soil samples. They scheduled for us to come to a different location than the main head quarters and our directions were a little confusing so we showed up about three hours late-- Although the only person who really seemed concerned with this was me.
I was really surprised with the whole organization. They had buildings for each area- soil testing, pathology, pests, irrigation, etc. Everyone we met with was very helpful and knowledgeable. They all spoke English but every time I tried to ask a question they couldn’t understand my English. Then Victor would say the same thing and maybe add to it in Swahili and they would reply. So after this happened a few times I just let Victor do all the talking while I helplessly listened and nodded along holding my tongue when I occasionally wanted to say something. So props to MITS for understanding us Americans better than these scientists could (although I am a mumbler sometimes).
In the end we were too exhausted to go through everything we wanted to talk about but Victor has since been back to get more soil tests and we are planning on taking another visit in a few weeks. ((The main thing we are happy for is these heavy duty pipes they can install for us to replace the old ones we have that an American brought over a few years back before any such pipes could be found locally. Maybe no one wanted to know this but I warned you w/ the double parenthesis.))

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!

Visitors and Thankfullness

Wednesday—11.24.10 (Guest Post from Laquita)
Matt and Nikki (from Colorado) arrived today. Matt was part of a group that came over to help out at MITS ten years ago when the farm was still a work in progress. He’d been wanting to show Nikki what MITS is like since they got married, so they decided to stop through on their way to Ethiopia. (They are headed there to officially adopt their new nine-month-old son, Kean.) I think it ended up being just as much of a new experience for Matt though since things have developed so much from when he was last here. After I helped teach a drama block class this morning, I showed them around the farm. We ended up running to John Wambu (the maintenance guy here) and he was a character as always. He is half German and thus, considers himself white. He told Matt and Nikki all about how he didn’t understand African Americans and their need to proclaim their color. He’d rather they focus on God and be like Africans who see everyone as the same color. Apparently, he hasn’t caught on to everyone screaming muzungu every time Jess or I walk by.

Instead of watching a movie/reading a story like we have the last two days, the students performed skits this afternoon. I doubt any of them will be professional actors, but they always enjoy themselves and that’s what matters. Oh, and I have found the secret to putting on the funniest skit ever in their eyes. All you have to do is mention two of them being in a relationship or have one of them put their arm around another, and none stop laughter will ensue for the next five minutes. Jess and I just end up laughing at them laughing a lot.

Thursday—11.25.10 (Guest Post from Laquita)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Jessica led chapel this morning and gave a great lesson in honor of Thanksgiving. She talked about how we should be thankful for the gifts God has given us, and she made a really good point that if you really like a gift, you’ll use that gift all the time. Thus, we should all be using our talents to glorify the Lord as a way of giving Him thanks for them. She is now gone for the day to meet with the agricultural department in Kenya. When she returns, Fiona, Jess and I will all head out to Uganda! I am currently supposed to be cooking for the people who are to host us, but the electricity is out so I’m just trying to be patient for now. It’s weird how different the holidays are overseas, but in honor of the holiday, I was thinking this morning of how thankful I also am to have the opportunity to be here. While I may often get frustrated beyond the point of explaining with the culture and/or people I’ve encountered thus far, I do love them all, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to call the staff and children my new friends. For while I may not always feel it in my heart, I can’t imagine how hard it will be to say goodbye to such sweet and precious children of God.

****DONATIONS FOR BIBLES****

Thanks to yall's support we have reached our goal and raised 680! Every student here now has a Bible of their own and they were very excited to receive it. (Pictures to follow soon)

We are buying Swahili-English Bibles for each child to have as their own and take with them when they exit. The Bibles are about $5 dollars each. (Actually $5.25 but I’ll cover the extra quarter). We plan to buy 132 Bibles so that new students (which will arrive here soon!) can also partake in this. So this is a total of $660.

If you’d like to buy Bible(s) for student(s) then:

1. write a check out to: Arlington Heights Church of Christ

2. write in the memo line: "Jessica Cooper- MITS donation"

3. mail the check to:

Arlington Heights Church of Christ

2272 Rand Morgan Road

Corpus Christi, TX 78410

If you have questions you can email me (jessicakaycooper@gmail.com). The check can be written in any amount but according to what you give we would like to write the donors name inside the Bibles so that the student knows who provided this for them. If you’d like for the Bible to be given in honor of someone then email me so that I can make that happen.

THANKS for GIVING!!!

-Jess and Laquita

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

—Proverbs 19:17

Bananas

We think we may have good internet now!! I’ve skyped with Haley, Traci and my family in Corpus so hopefully this will continue to work well. Here's a pic of some boiled bananas that Fiona cooked for us the other night...



And here's what the bananas look like here- they're FAT.


Other than that, this week has been very different as we have been watching the kids while all of the staff is on a retreat. Fiona has helped out a lot and been staying with us here at the visitor’s center. Really its more like we are helping her out because she’s the main one in charge right now. We are leaving thanksgiving night to go to Uganda and visit some missionaries there. We’ll stay for a week and take lots of pictures to I’ll post more after that trip.

“MOCK SCHEDULE”

There’s not always a pattern here but just to give you and idea here’s
how it all went down last week…

Sunday:
9AM-12PM Bible class, Kamulu Church service
3:00-5:00 Afternoon class w/ all students

Monday:
AM: Walk the Streets with Larry
PM: Buy groceries for the week
Chicken Spaghetti dinner w/ Fiona

Tuesday:
AM: Farm w/ kids
PM: Internet attempting time
Study Swahili
Girl’s Bible study

Wednesday:
AM: Meet w/ Victor about crop rotation schedule
PM: Farming
Study Swahili

Thursday:
AM: Farm work w/ kids
PM: Write out Crop Rotation Mapping
Study Swahili
Chalupa & Mango Dinner w/ two of the girls- Maggie and Sara

Friday:
Read, Sing, Games w/ kids while all staff goes to Eastleigh Streets for the day
Study Swahili

Saturday:
“Safari Walk” in Nairobi Nat’l Park with Mother’s and kids

**Every weekday we have chapel at 8AM and Lunch at 1PM cooked by the
students at the Learning Center. We usually wake up around 6:30
because that’s when the kids get up to do their chores… and shout at
each other.

***Based on this schedule you’d probably be surprised to find that I
still know very little Swahili. All the people we talk to and books
we read say things like “Swahili is probably the easiest language to
learn.” I would appreciate it if people would stop saying that
because all we hear is “You’re really dumb.”

Safari Walk

Today we took the mother’s and their children to a zoo like
natural habitat place in Nairobi’s National Park. L and I were
excited not only to spend time with the mother’s but also to finally
see an animal more exotic than a kitten. Most of the mothers here are
very shy around us and don’t come to our room just to hang out like
the other girls. On the other hand, their children come to our room
more than we can handle. So it was nice to finally spend time with
both of them in a place outside of the farm.
We left around 9AM but because we had to make a few pit stops
and because its Nairobi, we didn’t make it to our destination until
12:15pm. Before going inside we had a picnic for on a grassy hill
outside the entrance. We found out later that we may have over estimated the amount of
liquids the little ones could handle. Larry had to relieve himself
three times along the trail and didn’t mind pulling his little pants
down to do so. We just made sure our tour guide didn’t notice and
each walked carefully over his claimed territory.

While we were there we saw Baboons that walked right up to us
along the trail. Some weren’t suppose to be in the area and we were
warned to keep the kids away from them. We also saw a huge rhino,
ostrich, albino zebras (they look like faded, dusty zebras), a leopard
eating lunch, wildebeests, and some beautiful long haired monkeys that
I know Debby would love.

Our tour guide even took us through a secret entrance where only
the staff was allowed so that we could see a male and female sleeping
lion. He kept telling us to come quickly and be quiet but I think
most of us were just confused as we carried these kids through the
jungle, under metal beams, and next to electric fences. It was nice
to see the lions but only lasted a second as he said we had to hurry
back before anyone caught us.
On the way back we picked up our kids that are in the youth group
from a singing, drama, poetry competition. They we’re excited because
they won the overall competition and had a trophy to prove it. Other
than that, the young married couple from Pepperdine just got in

11/9 & 10 Digging

Peter (one of the younger students) and I started planting popcorn
and sorghum in the field next to the girls compound. To plant in the
dryland someone takes a hoe and digs a hole in the ground then takes a
step forward and repeats while walking in a straight line to the end
of the field. Another follows far behind with the seed, dropping it
in the tilled hole and then covering it with more soil. Generally
there’s a crew of people doing this with one of the older guys leading
everyone to make sure they are evenly spaced and straight. If you
were to see how rocky and bumpy the land is before this process you
would understand how confusing this is to a new comer. When I first
went out to help drop the seed I think I slowed the process with my
constant “this hole? is this a hole? where’s the next hole?” while
one of the boys had to keep picking up the seed and showing me where
to put it.
So today it was just me and Peter and no hoe so we either used
our bare hands or small shovels. The soil here is sometimes rock hard
and after a rain it clumps together even more so we weren’t making
much progress in our tiny field. Fortunately for me most of the local
bachelors around here are attracted to white skin so it wasn’t long
before “Stano” came by with a hoe and did all of the manual labor
while we followed behind with the seed.

The next day Laquita and I finished planting the rest on our own
since we didn’t want to take the kids away from their normal duties.
This area of land happens to be right next to one of the main dirt
roads so it gets a lot of foot traffic. We’re used to people staring
or giggling or little ones crying at the sight of us but today was
funny. I got out there first and started tilling when an older man
immediately came up to the fence and just stood there watching. He
said “Welcome” and then asked a question as he pointed to the ground.
His first question was “You know how to dig?” followed by “Where did
you get your training?”. I didn’t know what to say so I just replied,
“Texas…they dig there too.” Then he watched me and L for a bit longer
before telling us that he was leaving now. Another man came by asking
questions all in Swahili. We just tried answering any questions we
thought he might be asking while also using our ten words we know but
in the end he just kept saying “Hello” while looking at his phone. L
wondered if he was looking up English words and I wondered if he was
actually talking to someone on the phone since “Hello” is generally
used for phone greetings. After saying Hello back and forth about 32
times we decided to just keep going about our work until he got tired
of waiting for one of us to miraculously know the other’s language.
Even as he said good-bye it still came out as “Hello”.

11/8

11/8 Monday- Kenyans are Friendly People
While we were driving back from Nairobi we stopped to get
groceries. The boys that go with us will stay in the van and wait for
us while we do our shopping. We usually buy them a drink mostly
because it makes us feel a little better about the fact that they are
sitting in a hot van the whole time waiting. Today Ken was driving.
As we drove through the crowded streets with buses merging into lanes
of traffic a larger bus pulled up next to us and one of the passengers
hung his head out the window and started talking to Ken in Swahili.
After a short conversation, Ken, who had drank about a third of his
Fanta and was resting it on the window frame, passed the drink to the
fellow guy who gladly took it as our vans parted ways. Laquita and I
both knew the answer to this question but we just had to ask “Did you
know that guy?” to which Ken just laughed “No.”

Sites around Nairobi