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

Where we live

Here's some pics of where we stay in the Girl's compound....

“One Stop Shop- One Day Sale”

11/6 Fiona has been teaching the skills children a business class in the
afternoons. Their final project was to have a “Business day” in which
they would open their business, sell, and close all in one day. They
passed out many fliers around the area and put up posters to
advertise. Some of the students were discouraged as a few of the
locals said they would never buy from a street kid but the staff has
been very encouraging and the kids were still excited for today.
Unfortunately the rain put a damper on things but we did have a few
visitors and Laquita and I made sure to be active customers for each
skill. If I haven’t explained this before, the older children here
choose a skill out of catering, dress/jewelry making, mechanics,
computer, salon, wood work. They learn their skill at the school and
are able to practice it at these shops that MITS opened a few years
ago. Here’s some pics of the event….
far away view, the shops are in the middle, main highway on
right, we live in a gated area to the far left (that you probably
can’t see).

close up view of some of the shops
another view
computer students did a “Photo for life” where you could take
a photo taken and printed out (I didn’t want to be in it by myself so
the others jumped in) we ate some cakey, samosas, and chai tea from the café. Here
Veronica and Mary are preparing the food.
Fashion show with Jackie, Howa, Njoki, and Cecelia Mechanics did a car wash but the only cars we have are our
toy cars, so we took our hummer mudding
and had the mechanics crew clean it up! Some of them our
eating sugar cane here. then we finished out the day by getting our nails done.
(We also bought some jewelry and clothing items but I didn’t get a
pic.) Also, sorry if these pictures are poor quality but that’s the
only way I can send them through.

11/2 & 11/3

11/2,3- Tuesday and Wednesday
Since the rains have come we’ve been planting some of the seeds I
brought. Here we are “stick planting”. We take a stick, poke it
into the muddy soil, drop one or two seeds in, then use the stick to
cover it up with dirt.

One of the farm workers here, named Ken, has been helping me out a lot
with planting the seed. I was trying to tell him what everything was
to the best of my knowledge (because I don’t know what some of the
stuff is that I brought) but instead I found that it was easier for
him to just look at the seed and then he would know where and how to
plant it. …atleast we’ll find out later if this method works out.

The Little Ones…

I love the little kiddos here. There are six of them and they are
almost as cute as my sisters’ babies. The mothers stay in our area
but in a separate dorm room with eachother. Its impossible for me to
tell which toddlers belong to which girls because the mothers will
always hand their babies off to someone. Of course I LOVE this. My
second day here, I was just sitting on our couch when one of the
mothers realized she needed to leave, came right to me, handed me her
baby, and then walked out. Not to say they don’t take care of their
children, but just that they are very trusting of other women. I know
in the states you sometimes have to wash your hands five times and
show a blood test before holding someone’s baby.
I also love how much the little ones just want to be around us.
Here I was reading while everyone was just hanging out in our room
(this may seem rude but when the girls start speaking Swahili a mile a
minute to eachother me and L decided its ok to do our own thing)- so I
was reading in the corner while Larry decided he should prop himself
up beside me and sit for a while.

Unfortunately we have had a few puddles incidences in our room. I
never thought I’d say this before, but Africa has made me very
thankful for diapers. One of the boys hardly ever has one on and he’s
barely one so you can imagine how that works out.

Birthday Celebration

I realized I may have skipped over the birthday celebration so here’s
how last monday went…
When I woke up Laquita gave me a birthday breakfast of toast with
“25” written in jelly. Then we started out the day by going to the
streets. Today our group had a late start and the first visit went
extra long so we only made it to three bases total. The first base we
visited was the one in the alley way, called “Lilyput”. When we
arrived one of the street men started dusting off this old chair that
they are proud of and was shaking off some blankets to lay on top of
it. We realized that he was doing this for either me or L to sit in.
I got appointed the throne after Laquita exclaimed “It’s her
birthday!!” .

This time around we were each asked to share something. For the
first visit, since they already new it was my birthday, I just talked
about how I have another birthday that is more important and that’s
the day I decided to start following God. At the second base I shared
the verse of “If God is for us, who can be against us” and in the
third one I prayed after L gave a message. This time they translated
it for me. I’ve been learning to speak a lot slower here but it’s
still difficult at times.
We went back to the Eastleigh center and had lunch before heading back
to Kamulu.
That night we had a birthday cake (bought by Laquita!) and some
chips (that no one in America would EVER eat- unless you like the
taste of Styrofoam) and cookies. All the girls came over and shared
in the celebration. The power went out beforehand so we had to light
our propane lantern and by we I mean Laquita did all the work while I
stood a safe distance away. L also bought me a singing candle but
this cake had some rock hard icing so I ended up just holding the
dripping candle while standing in the middle of our room as everyone
sang happy birthday around me. It was great having all the girls
together in our room but I think they were a little confused about the
occasion. They don’t really celebrate birthdays here. Some of the
girls came up to me at different times and shyly whispered in my ear
“Congratulations” followed by a hug. I thought it was sweet.
Thank you everyone back home for all the birthday wishes!

Stockings...

So along with our new hair they gave us some “stockings” which the
girls wrap around their heads at night. We think these are cool and
“Africany” so we want to wear them all the time but apparently that’s
not fashionable here. I think it would be like someone coming to
America and thinking denim overalls were the cool American thing. But
I would still let them wear their overalls so they should let us wear
our stockings.