FARMING

So the main reason I came here was to help out with the farm.
Not just like working the fields (as I DO have a lot of muscle) but
more along the lines of planning ahead, organizing, deciding if any
new crops should be introduced, seeing any problems, contacting help
from other sources, etc. So I’ve been meeting with Victor as well as
Ben both of whom are in charge of the farmland out here. Victor has
recently been assigned as the farm manager and Ben has been around for
a while but is more involved in landscaping (Yes- landscaping is a
thing in Africa).
I still feel a little confused as to what I should be doing
because every idea I throw out there has been encouraged but then I
have to follow through with completing it, which has its difficulties.
So far Victor and I have mapped out most of the land according to what
is currently being grown there and what type of area it is- (irrigated
or dryland or orchard). I’ve also contacted KARI- the Kenya Ag
Research Institute about some questions we have. I know our main
purpose here is for the children but I feel much more comfortable
working with the farm so its actually a challenge for me to be with
the kids so much because I feel like I want to just go in my room by
myself and work on these projects. But I do love the children here!
They are smart and kind and always want to be around us (except on
days they are allowed to watch TV in which our place is empty).
Yesterday Ben showed me how to graft Mango and Avocado trees.
Incase you don’t know--- we basically cut off a branch from a mature
fruit producing tree and then attach it to a seedling- baby plant.
This helps the seedling to grow and produce fruit much faster than it
normally would. Ben does all this with a simple razor blade and
scraps of plastic. When I first met Ben I was a little afraid of him
thinking he was one of those rough guys that doesn’t talk much and is
just angry that other people don’t work hard enough so I was prepared
to either work really hard or just avoid him altogether. Then I
realized he is nothing of the sort. He has lots to say and is very
kind. The kids here call him “Benjie”. If he ever speaks Swahili to
anyone while I’m around he’ll explain what he said like “I just told
him to go get us some plastic bags” (you may not think this is that
great but you would if you lived around constant swahili noise). To explain some of these difficulties—today I was suppose to meet
with Victor to show him how to map out the orchard as I had already
mapped everything else myself. I had hand written where all the trees
were and we were going to spend the morning writing it in an excel
file. This is really simple for me (and probably most US students)
since we always have to work with excel. They told me Victor is
computer literate and I could already tell he was smart and educated
but I think being computer literate in Africa may mean something else.
One of the main classes taught here is “Computer” but I think it
should be called “Come view how crappy computers were in the 1990’s”.
MITS does well with what it is given but these computers are
FRUSTRATING!! I brought my own Mac here but we can’t use it as it has
difficulty connecting to the printer and they do everything on windows
anyways so we don’t want to change things up. Unless ofcourse someone
out there would like to donate 20 new Macs to MITS then I’m sure they
would be onboard. Ok I’m rambling so long story short- we didn’t get
even half way done today. It also doesn’t help that I’m by no means
the “teaching” type and would much rather just do it myself but this
all a learning experience!

10.25.10

Birthday Celebration!

Saturday—10.23.10

Post from Jessica and Laquita....
Today, Fiona took us out on the town for a day off. She was our
mother hen for the morning as we followed her like little chickens
through the streets. She’d ward off the comments from men who wanted
to know if they could have one (Laquita or I), look over her shoulder
to make sure her chicks were still close behind, and spread her wings
(arms) around us when she wanted to pull us in close. It made me
laugh a lot, as I couldn’t stop picturing us all as chickens in my
mind!

Fiona on left, Terry (who did my hair) on right

Fiona is definitely one of my favorite people thus far. We rode the
ma-ta-tus (crazy taxis) into town to meet Ireene so we could go to
Masai market. After our last experience, you may wonder what we were
thinking, but this market was much more our style. They sold jewelry,
fabric and crafty African things. Laquita always brought the price
down to something decent but never to a true Kenyan’s price (often 30x
smaller than the original price they tried to give me). Thus, we
didn’t buy much for ourselves. We just showed Ireene what we liked
and then she went and relayed our wants to Fiona who haggled for us
without having us muzungus around to jack up the prices. Sadly
though, the message got jumbled during this relay so we ended up with
some rather random purchases. Fiona went through them with us back at
MITS tonight though. At first, we pretended to love everything, but
then she said she’d go back for us to get the things she’d missed
today. It was then that we decided she should know important things
like the fact that while I do like bright colors, I don’t just want a
bright rainbow hanging from my neck. She seemed to follow our
comments well and was actually somewhat relieved to find out we didn’t
like certain purchases since she herself hated them. Ireene had
apparently misunderstood exactly which things we wanted and told Fiona
to buy some not-so-pretty jewelry. None of us are really sure where
she got such ideas from especially since she herself has such good
taste, but they didn’t spend much on behalf of us so no biggie.
Lunch at 3pm consisted of fries and a coke. This is only worth
mentioning because I thought it was odd that the restaurant was
decorated with U.S. state license’s plates. It also reminds me though
that my original plan of no cokes or chocolate is not going to happen!
Africans also have easy access to these treats here. The only
difference is that cokes mainly come in glass bottles and the
chocolate is Cadbury instead of Hershey. In fact, it seems pretty
standard for muzungus to keep coke on hand for visitors to consume.
Thus, Jess and I will also probably always have at least a liter
chilled and ready to serve during our time here.
Our trip home was much faster than our trip into town. This is
partly because of the matatu we took. All the taxi vans here are
known for their driving, but you never know just how crazy they will
be. On the way home, there was a long line of traffic, so our driver
decided to go to the other side of the road and drive on the
sidewalk-ish area in order to make our way to the front of the line.
Picture yourself driving towards oncoming traffic and then swerving at
the last minute onto a curb like area full of people, all while never
slowing down. I think it may be a bad sign that this used to scare
me, but now, it’s just normal. In fact, I actually greatly
appreciated it, as I wasn’t looking forward to sitting in the hot van
for an hour or so without moving. Don’t worry though; I’m safe!
Remember, I wouldn’t tell you if I was really scared. hehe ;-) I
asked Fiona today, as we were crossing the street, what happened
if/when a matatu hit someone. She told me it depended on who it was.
If it was her, well, it might not be so bad for them; it would just
depend on how hard her dad fought in court. If it were Jess or I
though, that was a HUGE, and I emphasize HUGE, deal! Muzungus safety
is of upmost importance since Africans don’t want to deal with a
lawsuit from America or bother with Obama (a few of the less educated
people seem to think we all know him personally). Hakuna matta!

Friday—10.22.10

Guest Post By Laquita....
Happy birthday to our friend Hilary who is serving abroad in Thailand!!

GIG ‘EM!!! That is my message for today! I love the number of Aggie
shirts wandering around this place on a daily basis. They are a few
other colleges represented amongst the children (ACU, Iowa, and some
college in California), but everyday I am reminded of home as I see a
staff member or student trotting up to me for a hug and representing
the maroon and white! MITS is all about bleeding maroon, and I’ve
also met a fair number of Aggies fans around town, which is surprising
to me since I didn’t expect people to even know what Texas A&M was. I
guess they do wear our clothes though and also hear/watch our music,
news, movies, etc… The reason I am bringing this up now though is
because we discussed potential MITS visitors to come next year in the
staff meeting this morning. Each visitor must be approved before they
can volunteer for MITS. It was weird to think that a year or so ago
they sat around discussing whether two girls named Laquita and Jessica
could come and if they had anything to offer the program here (Except
they still have our names wrong on the schedule for this year- my last
name is Anderson and Jessica is written as “April Cooper”; It also
says we are leaving Jan 1 so hopefully they wont mind that we’re
staying a few months after that).
Anyways, there are quite a few groups wanting to come, and while
they were all approved in the end, they approved people in order of
importance. Asking whom they must accept, a long-time visiting couple
was the first group to be mentioned since they already purchased their
tickets for March, but next up was the Aggies For Christ in May/June
(by the way, I decided I’ll probably just come back to America with
this group). The staff agreed that AFC must be allowed to come since
they are Aggies and have partnered with and helped MITS out so much
over the years. WHOOP!! I love it! Aggies are viewed and treated
with great respect here, and I am proud to be associated with such an
awesome group of people. The Coulstons even commented, “Just like an
Aggie!” to me upon their arrival in Kenya when they called to check on
me and I told them I was fine and wouldn’t be needing anything special
from them or the American store where they were currently shopping.
Never fear my fellow Ags, Jess and I will continue to do our best to
uphold and strengthen this already strong reputation.

I must go now as the girls are ready for Jess and I to read to them.
I’m glad she’s here now; I never realized just how hard it is to read
aloud. Now, we can switch off when we get tired. I also never
realized how many words I skip over when I read to myself. I’ve read
the book (Francine River’s Unveiled: Tamar from her lineage of grace
series) before, and I didn’t remember it being a hard read. However,
Jess and I both keep running into unfamiliar words as we share the
story with them. They keep asking us to read, so I guess they like
it.

Thursday—10.21.10

Another Guest Post From Laquita....
I am very grateful that there is no scale in sight to weigh myself, as
I am pretty sure I gained ten pounds today. Thankfully, this ten
pounds is easy to lose though—although I use the term easy somewhat
loosely. Jessica and I spent the majority of our day today getting
our hair done. Jess was able to find some fake hair that matched hers
pretty well, so it just looks like she had a serious hair-growth spurt
and decided to go for a Jamaica look. For anyone who may have ever
wondered what I look like with long, black braided hair died maroon at
the tips, you will have to wonder no more. Well, maybe a little
longer till I can send a picture, but the task is complete at least
(Just Kidding! I’ve already accomplished this!!!). :) We are both
sporting our African hairdos, and we are told that they can last us up
to three months. That means I could possibly get by with only two
other hairstyles the whole time I am here. Jessica and I are both
fans of this idea and considering what kind of looks we’d get if we
continued our African dos in America upon our return.

Bad news though, I think I may truly be gaining ten pounds by the time
I leave. This dang food has stretched my stomach, and now, I can
easily eat all the heavy food they give me and then some. Not cool.
Africa was supposed to have the added bonus of a forced diet. Oopsy!

Jessica and I were both able to meet with our main contacts here today
amidst getting our hair done. Jessica met with Victor, the farm
manager to discuss what needs to be done for the future of the farm.
Her meeting went well along with mine so we now both have more
concrete things to do here. (I’ll write more about this later—Jess)

This morning in the staff meeting the main topic of conversation was
the lawsuit over MITS land that was stolen to build a school. The
lawsuit has been going on for three years, and the opposing party has
a member of parliament and an attorney general lawyer on their side.
Everyone involved is to assemble before the judge in November again;
hopefully, a conclusion will be reached then. I have no doubt that
God could easily put an end to this matter now, but the question is
whether He will see fit to reinstate the land to MITS or not. It is
rightfully MITS land, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. The same
situation of MITS land being stolen is occurring with 40 acres of what
used to be worthless land that has now increased in value and in the
eyes of developers. The paperwork clearly grants the purchased land
to MITS, but paperwork seems to speak little here. Power speaks
louder. We all know though that the Lord speaks the loudest. While
MITS has the true Power on their side, I ask you to pray that the
staff will accept the outcome of the court case, whatever it may be,
as the Lord’s will for whatever unknown reason He may have.

Guest Post from Laquita

Patience…I don’t know which one of you is praying for patience for me,
but I kindly ask you to stop as God keeps giving me ample
opportunities to grow in this area. :) I’m only joking…well, half
joking at least, but both Jess and I agree we have room for growth in
patience as we face the laid-back culture here and of course, the
Internet.

Speaking of the Internet, Jess and I would like to officially declare
the lack of Internet access to be the reason for Africa’s ignorance in
some matters. We both rely so much on the Internet to discover new
information and stay up on world matters. Its speed has now limited
us both to only using it for email and having to pull from our
knowledge alone on certain matters. It’s hard to compile lesson plans
here like I do in the US since I am somewhat limited to the books
around me and the know how I already possess. If the poor here could
google things as easily as the poor in America can, we are convinced
things would be much different here (maybe not in the way we are
thinking, but things would be bound to be different in some way).

Thank you Texas! You have thoroughly engrained it in my head that
Littering is unlAWFUL!!! Jess and I always hold onto our trash no
matter how small it may be, but everyone else just throws it out the
window or to his/her side, no matter where he/she are. In fact, today
was the first day I’ve ever even seen a trash can out in public!
Although, I must admit that some of my trash has ended up helping to
fill the streets of Nairobi. The Kenyans here like to take my trash
from me and chunk it out since they know I will hold onto it until I
can throw it away properly in my trashcan at MITS. I guess it all
ends up in piles getting burned anyway since that’s all they do with
my collected trash at MITS, but I just can’t make myself drop even a
small wrapper.

This week I discovered that there is no differentiation between love
and like in Swahili. They are both represented by the word penda.
This is VERY weird to me since it would sound as if I had the same
appreciation for sweet peas that I do for God. I also feel as though
it could be very confusing if you are in a dating relationship; you’d
never know when you were getting more serious because the guy would
still like/love you. Oh well! I’m not up for rewriting Swahili, so
it’ll do for me! People can just decide for themselves what they
think I mean…

Ugali

FOOD
this is Ugali and Kale/Spinach. They eat a lot of this around here.
Ugali is mashed up white corn with no real flavor so its not bad
except that they usually give you three times this amount. They've
learned to give me about a third of the portion they give everyone
else. I'm trying not to be rude but there's only so much of that you
can really handle. By the time i leave i should be able to eat the
whole serving! And I may be a little fatter when i come back too.

Wednesday 10/20 Heroes’ Day

Today is a holiday in Africa that used to be in celebration of a
president but now has just been changed to a celebration of Kenyan
heroes. Most of the staff were gone today so the students played
games all day and then we had a feast of hotdogs, popcorn, peanuts,
and “Nice” crackers for dessert. These are cookies with the word
“Nice” stamped on them and the kids go crazy over them. L and I have
come to the conclusion that we could win the hearts of most of the
students here through the two-dollar bag of African candy we have in
our cabinet. In one of these picture me and L are trying to "roast"
our legs because NONE of the girls here have hair on their legs and
they said its because they stand close to the fire every day. We
thought we should test this theory out.

P.S. I was able to add a picture to the post about Laquita so scroll on down to see

10/18 & 10/19

10/18- Monday

The Streets (sorry no pics- its difficult on the street)

Monday is the day we go to the Eastleigh Center in Nairobi and walk the streets with Larry. Larry is an American missionary who’s lived in Kenya now for 25 years (both of his boys were born and raised here). I was expecting someone who’s done street ministry in a third world country for so long to be a little off his rocker but this man is certainly not- very friendly, personable, and wonderful at explaining everything that is going on around you without attracting attention. We walked through the streets close by the center stopping here and there at different “bases” (areas that street people call home). People around the streets know Larry and call him by name. So this is how a base visit usually goes…

1. greet/gather

----Everyone will shake your hand or fist pump, most asked my name- if they comprehend you are from the states the first thing they say is “Obama!”.

2. introductions

-----Larry or whoever is speaking will usually introduce the new person- me- then go on to ask why they haven’t seen them at church? etc. invite them again to come as they are.

3. message

----The group knows which bases can handle what so sometimes there was no preaching if most of the people were too high to listen or would just be running around- this is good because I was half expecting one of those scenarios of a person calling out “Doom! Repent!” in the middle of the street while everyone just passes by. The person speaking gave stories from the Bible and simple messages. Some of the people do come to the church service held at the Eastleigh center and are familiar with everyone but they still choose to live on the streets. Some are clean but don’t want to leave the streets or the business they have there.



Details….

Today there were 6 of us in this group- Larry, me , Laquita, and 3 male staff members-Ken, Byron, and Moses. Everything is spoken in swahili and translated for me and L. We visited 5 bases out of about 20 that they visit weekly. Sometimes they will ask the visitor to share something in the message or pray. I prayed at the first base and apparently talked too fast for it to be translated but no one seemed to mind… and I did so well they didn’t ask me to speak for the rest of the time! jk- It was just a little different today but apparently me and L are usually more involved in the speaking- though I didn’t mind just observing for today.



So this whole time I’ve been here I haven’t really felt the shock factor that I thought I would, until we turned the corner to head towards the first base. This alley way was about 10 feet wide and as we walked I never saw the ground. Everything is just covered in piles and piles of trash. The smell is quite strong but pretty much the whole side of this town smells like this so you’d get use to it until you walked by a dead animal or something of that sort. There are flies everywhere. People slept under make shift tents from plastic scraps. I’ve seen pictures of these places so that wasn’t really as shocking as what we did next- shake their hands. They are used to this and will reach out their hand or fist pump, expecting you to do the same. I know this sounds very simple but it wasn’t until then I realized how disgusted I really was with the whole situation. Maybe I do feel entitled to ignore these people. I would give them my money, listen to them, pray for them, but I just didn’t want to touch them. Of course I did do it but only because Larry was right next to me doing the same. One man had a boil the size of a golf ball on his chin. My instinct was to look away immediately but Larry made sure he knew how to get to the center to get it taken care of (they do this sort of thing a lot). Another man gave me a fist pump and then immediately lifted up his jeans to show his scabbing cuts on his legs and wanted me to know that he was sick. Larry is used to this and would respond in a normal way while I just wanted to back away and hide behind him.

Some may think its pointless to reach out to these people. Most seemed too high to ever understand what we were saying, some are too set in their street life to ever want to change. But I think there is progress being made. I know it’s my first time here and my opinion may change but Larry and the others are very realistic in their approach. This is where they find the children that our eventually brought out to Kamulu and I could never imagine these children being like what I saw today.

Almost all of the street people have glue bottles that they sniff throughout the day to get through the hunger pains. Others have a stronger substance that they sniff through a rag. Some of our group members would take away their bottles if they could. I wouldn’t dare do this because they go CRAZY and will fall on the ground in a fit or follow us the rest of our way begging for it back. Larry himself doesn’t like when they take the glue away from them. He wants to find someone who is familiar with withdrawal steps to help get these people clean so we’re not just saying “stop doing drugs and be clean” with no real follow through.

Safety…

Larry would never go out to these streets at night or alone. All of the men with our group are VERY protective of me and Laquita and I never found myself without one of them right next to me at all times. However, I never felt threatened by any of the people we visited either because there is somewhat of a trust among the ministry and the bases.



Tuesday 10/19 Shopping Day

You know when you’re little and going to a theme park is the best thing in the world, and then when you get to be a parent and you realize it’s the worst thing in the world? That’s kind of how shopping day is.

The kids and even most of the staff love shopping day. Its once a month and each kid is given an allowance to spend on whatever their heart desires. We went to the market in Nairobi. I’ve been to markets like these before but this one was HUGE and very CROWDED. I thought it was our job to watch all the kids but most of them were more worried about me and L. Darlene laughed when we asked if we should go get more money before leaving. She said to never have more than 500 shillings on us (about 6 dollars). Other than that we couldn’t bring anything else or it would definitely get stolen.

In the end we could have had no money because honestly I was too scared to buy anything- except a slice of pineapple for 10 shillings. L and I just awkwardly followed around two of the staff members who were kind enough to let us follow them while they haggled for clothes and supplies for the newest student here- Jane. Most of the kids ran off the bus as soon as we got there and I didn’t see them until we got back. We were constantly being shouted at “Mazungu” (white person) and tapped on the shoulder and asked what we liked. Also if you ever wonder where the stuff that doesn’t get sold at Goodwill goes- we found it all here. I’m not trying to make a joke- I really did see “Good will 2.99” tags on some of the stuff. Apparently big crates get shipped in and sold for 350 shillings (about 40$) and vendors purchase them w/o knowing what’s inside and then have to sell it even if its just a crate full of plastic shopping bags.

Something interesting we ate was slices of sugar cane. I felt a little embarassed when I asked “What are they doing over there with that bamboo?”. Fiona bought us some. L and I were overjoyed having eaten nothing all day until we bit into it. Apparently you bite off pieces of the inside stalk, suck the juices, then spit out the rest. I managed to have two small bites, and L could never actually bite through hers. The rest we gave to the kids who ate it like pros.

Laquita!

-In case you didn’t know, Laquita is my teammate. She grew up in Burnet, TX majored in drama at A&M and is named after her aunt (It’s a Cherokee name). We both go to church together in CS. She’s been here a month now- mostly by herself. VERY BRAVE. Even the Coulstons weren’t here yet. I’m SO thankful for her or else I surely would be hungry, locked out of our place, or have burnt down our kitchen. What I like most about Laquita is how opposite we are. We figured this out before coming here through our “strengths finders” test. Laquita is super clean, organized, good at planning ahead, take charge, focused…while I am not. Today we were cleaning up when she came up to me holding a nail file she had lent me and asked “Did you mean to put this in the cabinet with our food?” …welcome to living with me.

We do have some things in common like-

1. We aren’t big fans of cooking but do like sandwiches.

2. We are big fans of others cooking for us.

3. We “love” it when people ask us if we have any boys in our lives

4. We’re both flexible

5. We like adventure

6. We LOVE Africa

7. and we’re not too sure why.

8. We love GOD and we are sure why.

Hi, it's me Haley. Jessica sent several pictures with this post, but they didn't make it through on the email. I'll try to get her to resend them. Also, Jessica said it takes her a really long time to open any email, so if you want to tell her something, save it all up and send one long email per week. She can see the subject line immediately, so if you have something really short to say, just type it in there. We have also had success calling her through skype (about 30cents/min) and we would be happy to pass those instructions along. I am sure that we will eventually find a less expensive method, but for now, 30 cents is well worth it!

10/14 and 10/15

10/14 “No Swahili”

Students here get in trouble for speaking Swahili during school hours, even during lunchtime. One of the teachers makes them wear a wooden sign that says “I’m ashamed I spoke Swahili” if they do it. Laquita and I really really want to learn Swahili so we were kind of discouraged by this but its good if the students are forced to speak English to communicate with us because the only way they will be hired is through speaking English. We’re still learning it here and there because we want to know what people say around us.



10/15- “Today I collapsed”

I know what most of yalls response would be but just so you know- this would’ve happened even if I was in America…

This past summer I had strep throat twice so I’m pretty familiar now with the early signs. My throat felt soar yesterday but after talking to the Texas-Ugandans about all the times they’ve caught something or been sick I thought I was just being a hypochondriac so I didn’t really do anything about it. But last night it got more and more severe so I decided in the morning to start taking my Z-pac (antibiotic which I packed). I still thought I was being a sissy so I just drank as much water as I could manage to swallow and went ahead to the Learning Center. Today is different from other days because the staff all goes to the Eastleigh Center to see the street kids while we stay behind with Darlene and a few staff to watch the Kamulu kids. We are locked out of our dwelling and locked in the Learning Center ALL DAY.

So we were playing Bingo with the kids when I started to feel worse than I could handle so I managed to get Joel to unlock the gate. He wasn’t exactly aware of how sick I was but I just said I needed to rest and had the keys to get inside our place so he left me alone- probably thinking I just needed to get to the restroom (I’ve heard so many horror stories about the LC bathrooms I won’t dare go in there). All I needed to do now was walk the twenty straight yards to the girl’s compound, but that now seemed like FOREVER away. I was halfway there when I started seeing spots and everything was spinning, I called for Joel but it probably came out a whisper as I fell to the ground. When I closed my eyes all I could think was- If I just lay here a while and rest- in the middle of this dirt road in the blazing sun- then I can get enough energy to get to the gate.

When I opened my eyes I saw a local woman come running towards me with a horribly concerned look on her face. She got me up and walked me to the gate asking if I was alright or needed anything. Apparently there was a group of women doing chores not too far away who saw me fall. I actually felt a lot better from that quick 5-second nap and finally managed to get inside my room- after dealing with two very stubborn locks.

Laquita came to check on me soon after and has been nursing me back to health. I feel much better now as I’m writing this- mostly I just needed to rest. Laquita and I have also added a few more things to our pharmacy list- like a thermometer- because it is hard to tell if you have a fever out here or if it’s just hot.

10/13/10- wednesday “First day”

Jessica has been journaling everyday and will share with us when she has the opportunity. Internet access is extremely difficult and slow, so she will have to just send them along when she can. In case you are wondering how difficult internet access is, here is a picture of Jessica teetering on a 12ft ladder with her laptop in order to get an email to go through. The picture is followed by her account of her first day. - Haley
I think ever since I had to ask for some time extension since I wasn’t done with my thesis that somehow translated as me getting a PhD because when Charles was introducing me he kept going on about my knowledge and how I was probably the most educated person to ever visit MITS. (of course I didn’t argue).
In my opinion, the two best (American) people I know to be out here would be my aunt Debby and my sister Haley-- because Debby knows a ton about gardening and taking good care of plants, while Haley is super full of mommy knowledge and kid nutrition. So y'all come out here, k?
We met with the Coulstons (American couple- Charles and Darlene) to go over exactly what our purpose here would be. This is good because when Laquita first started it wasn’t exactly clear but now we know. Mainly we our using our “education” to form short term and long term goals with the Staff and outline how to achieve these goals. In my case, I will be working closely with the crop manager- Victor and trying to form connections with the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI) and possibly the CIMMYT center- both of which are in Nairobi. We already have a good farm out here, especially due to the irrigation that is set up, but we just want to make sure everything is maintained well and sustainable.
The visitors from Uganda arrived this afternoon. They are all Texans (one Aggie!) aged, 27, 31, and 34 that have lived in Africa for a while mostly working for orphanages. One has been here before so she just brought by her two friends and they are staying until Saturday. MITS is pretty laid back about visitors and very accommodating.
Tonight we played sports and did exercises with all the kids. They are SOOO sweet. I really can’t imagine them living on the streets because they really do all get along pretty well with each other, of course this is just from one day. I just think its nice how they introduce themselves and take care of one another. Some of the girls kept asking me about a wedding and it took me a while to gather that there will be a wedding in December between a staff member and another Kenyan. Darlene keeps a closet in her house full of donated wedding dresses that have been used for these occasions. All the girls wanted to know if I was coming and I just said I didn’t know if I was invited (because I really haven’t met these people they’re talking about) and finally the question got boiled down to if I’d be here in December, so when I said yes they said that of course I would go. So Laquita and I are going to get some true African dresses made for the occasion. The students that have “catering” as a skill are going to work the event by cooking and serving.
When we got back to our apartment some of the toddlers (children of the girls) came over to play while some girls braided each other’s hair. The little ones LOVE the cars William (nephew) donated but they’re not too sure about the squishy dinosaurs and some actually cried because they were afraid of them.

Update

Jessica has arrived in Nairobi and is safe and sound!

I will update more when Jessica is able to get internet access on Thursday!

Update

Jessica made it to the airport in Amsterdam and caught her connecting flight. She is now en route to Nairobi!

In the Air

Jessica's plane has taken off and she is on her way to Nairobi!

This is Haley (Jessica's oldest sister). I will be posting for Jessica when she is restricted by limited internet access.

Please keep the prayers for safe travel going! She won't arrive at Made In The Streets until tomorrow afternoon (our time).

Packing & Family Time

Haley came in town to help me pack.
We feel like such pros now I think we could pack for anyone to anywhere!


We figured a way for Landry and Will to make it on the flight...

My parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, brothers and sister came in town for the weekend!

Lyndsay and Ariel came by with some presents...

And tomorrow I fly out at 3:55pm. My brother in-law (Ryan) defends his dissertation at 2:30pm.
(Say a little prayer for both of us).

Small World

There's a new student in my lab at school who is from Kenya and used to live less than a mile from where I'll be staying. He just started his masters in Plant Breeding and used to work for some non-profit agencies so we're kind of trading places. He said he would cook me a genuine Kenyan meal before I leave! Good, I was worried I wouldn't get enough Kenyan food over there. But I can already tell Kenyans are VERY polite! We discussed the differences between our homelands which basically came down to:
1- Traffic is better in America. 2- Honey is crunchy in Africa.

I dont have a picture for this post but here's
Landry's ponytail

and Mavvy right before bed time...

Leaving Soon!!

Instead of leaving on the Sept 15th I'm now leaving on Oct 11, due to some delays in finishing my masters...which is now done!!!(sorta).

Here's a pic of my unpublished thesis, don't worry i'll make copies so everyone can read it and then we can have a book club discussion when i get back.



Laquita has already been at MITS for two weeks now and we've spoken via skype once. I get the impression this place is much different then we thought....but when she says we'll probably have too much down time she means to say it with disappointment but i'm SOOOOOOO grateful! That sounds like heaven to me.

Also a program from Lubbock ("minifarms") gave us some seed and curriculum to bring so that should keep us busy.