Off to Greece...

We're at the airport now in Nairobi about to fly to Greece.
I'm gonna try to upload one or two pics from our safari...

hyenas...not laughing;(
zebras drinking


sleeping lionElephants!

the Male Lion!!

Family's Here!!

Diana, Debby, Mom and Dad have arrived safely! I was SOOO excited they were coming I think I made myself sick and ended up even having to go to the hospital to get my blood tested and some meds (they gave me and L a free hat and mug too!). So Laquita went to the airport to greet/identify them while I waited in bed. It worked out great though because when you're as sick as that all you really want is your mommy and that's exactly what I got.

Me and Debby with our papaya under the papaya tree

Walking behind the shops (Diana took all the pics but she's here too)

Momma with little Hollye-- who we just found out has Malaria:(

This is one of 42 pictures we had to take because all the girls kept wanting more with mom and dad who they kept saying were their mom and dad.

And tomorrow morning we are off to Safari for three days! Debby made us matching Austrian crystal visors for the occasion. Pictures to follow soon...

The Nile

Sorry its been so long since I've written. We've been busy at the farm and didn't have power for a while.

So last weekend we took a trip to Uganda to raft the Nile with nine other Americans that are all working in Nairobi for one reason or another. We had a girl's raft and a boy's raft. These pics highlight one of the rapids the girl's raft went down. The guide steered the boat right for a whirlpool and then abandoned everyone to fend for themselves.

This was a special event because they're building a dam now and no one will be able to go down these rapids anymore. So for this reason they had a large number of visitors this day to go down the rapids for the last time. All in all there were 81 people rafting besides the guides. So 80 people went down the rapids like this, usually getting knocked out at the bigger rapids. 1 person got scared and had to ride down the whole thing in the safety boat. Guess which boat I was in?....

Actually, the safety boat was the best one to ride in because I got to sit with two middle-aged women (who I think were the wives of the owners) and watch from a safe distance while everyone else nearly drowned. I usually like water but for some reason while we were "training" in the boats I started hyperventilating and was determined to jump out of the boat, swim to the shore, and spend the next 5 hours sitting in my rapid-free hostel breathing in air and not water.

So despite that bit the trip was really fun and we had a pretty decent bus ride with only a few hours of delays, no throw-up on us, and no accidental sightings of nudity (this is in reference to a story I may not have shared before; no intentional sightings either while we're mentioning it).

Now mom, dad and my two aunts are coming to visit in less than a week and then we'll all go home!!!

Random pictures...

Happy Valentine's Day! (And Happy Birthday Leah) We had a party here but I only caught the tail end of it since I spent most of the day in Eastleigh. One of the new girls, Evalyne, wrote me a Valentine when I got back. Some

of the new kids here still don't know anything about reading/writing so they just decorated pieces of paper with random letters that looked familiar to them.

Larry being cute...

Some of the kids helped Irene with the landscaping in our compound

Laquita is back from her two-week trip to Thailand. She visited other missionaries there and had a great time. We picked her up today with a welcome back poster signed by the kids (spelling her name the way they spelled it when MITS first picked her up from the airport).

Good News

Thanks a lot to everyone that donated for the Bible fund. We've reached our goal and now every student here has a Bible of their own.

Every Sunday Joel asks the congregation to hold up their Bibles to show that they remembered to bring them. This is followed by our students trying to pass off song books as Bibles or looking around for other's to take. Now when he asks all of the kids holler and raise their new black Bibles proudly in the air! (Some of them read them too)

So thanks again for your support.

the Burial

********Warning!! Please don’t read this next post if you are in the least bit sensitive as it is sad and a little disturbing********


Sometimes I cry here. It doesn’t happen a lot and its usually do to the fact that I’m a girl and if you give us six months we’re bound to cry at least once. Living far from home and seeing things around here that you can do nothing to help with makes it a little worse. Today a lot of us were crying.

Today we had the funeral for baby Francis.
They aren’t sure why he died but I think it could have been because the hospital he was born in wasn’t that great and didn’t take all the right precautions. He was alive for about two days and then when Mary woke up in the morning he wasn’t breathing.

Some of the older kids and most of the staff left today to bury him. They said not everyone could go since it was just the small bus so I immediately thought I'd stay behind since I didn’t think I could handle it. Irene convinced me otherwise and I’m still not sure if I made the right decision but tonight made me thankful that I went.

We had decided we would leave at 7 AM from Kamulu and be back home by about noon. Its funny that I still think things will actually work out as planned here. We didn’t leave until about 8:30. When we arrived at Eastleigh we had a flat tire that delayed us another two or three hours. From there we drove to the city morgue to pick up the baby and bring him with us to the cemetery. We had the tiny casket with us in the bus. The morgue is what took us so long and I really don’t want to get into the details but I geel like its necessary to understand this country and the corruption that people face here. After arriving at the morgue they arranged for us to park our large bus on the side where people come to pick up the deceased. There were a few other families there, which were slowly getting their loved ones delivered to them through this large door. Every so often you could hear women wailing in grief.

Jackton had been driving the bus and was giving me a few updates of what was going on. He said how the morgue used to be very corrupt under the old presidency and how people would steal clothing or jewelry from the bodies or would hide the bodies and expect a bribe before releasing them. Its nice that people think the government is changing and putting a stop to corruption but after today I don’t think that’s the truth. We arrived before noon and had to wait until 3 pm- when they close- after frantically debating and asking and searching for the baby before he was suddenly “found” and given to us. Part of the reason we thought it was taking so long was because they have so many babies that die then sometimes they get mixed up. So for a while we were under the impression that Francis was given to another family. Jackton, who’s always very chipper and enthusiastic, had to go an identify the body while they were “searching” for him. (Note that this is not necessary- they do have tags and id’s they use but pretend to have lost them). When Jackton came back, with no success, he looked very disturbed and didn’t say much for the next few hours. Finally a guy that worked somewhere in the back came by and gave us a tip as to who knew where the body was. He was too scared to lead us to the person so he just showed us the door and then quickly disappeared. Susan, one of the MITS staff, is from the Kikuyu tribe and talked with the man since he was also Kikuyu. He lead her along with Mary and Mama George (works with the girls at Eastleigh) through a back room that had bodies in it so they could again try to identify the baby. These were not bodies that were placed nicely on tables with sheets over them like we see in the movies. They saw everything. Some were in fridges and others were simply lying on the floor. Some still had their clothes on and others had the cuts and stitches from the processes that go on in the morgue. Susan is only 19 years old and Mary is 16 and just lost her child.

After identifying Francis, they put the clothes we brought on him and placed him the casket. We then drove another thirty minutes to the cemetery. The service was very nice and all in Swahili. Everyone took turns shoveling dirt onto the grave. I finally realized as we were leaving that there were onlty two people with us that I didn’t recognize. It was Mary’s mother and sister. Both of them stood a good distance from Mary and I didn’t see either give her a hug or hold her hand during the whole process (Perhaps they did when I wasn’t watching though). After everything was done Mary then came home with us to Kamulu where she wants to stay.

All of this probably could have been much quicker and less painful if we had just given the first guy at the morgue a bribe. But because we don’t contribute to paying bribes some of our members had to go through the disturbing process that the workers (who are all on drugs) put people through just for some extra cash.

There were times when I kept saying to myself- ‘why am I here?’. Everyone’s speaking Swahili, I don’t know what’s going on, its super hot and we haven’t eaten all day, I can’t contribute to the funeral at all, I feel like I’m taking up space in the nice front seat while others are standing on the bus, everyone keeps asking me if I’m doing okay and apologizing for the wait that they all have to endure too. Then later tonight Susan came over because she was too scared to sleep after what she saw today. After we talked for a long while she said before leaving “It’s so nice of you to go through all of that today and come to the burial. Not many people would wait with us like that. It means a lot.”

And then I wanted to cry for the fifth time today.

We had a Baby Boy!!

Mary W had her baby yesterday morning! She was complaining of pain on saturday but we all told her it wasn't time yet because the doctors had said she wasn't due until March. It wasn't until monday morning when she looked a little weak that they decided to take her to the hospital and about an hour later she gave birth!! All of us we're so surprised because we've seen people in labor and she definitely did not look the part. Apparently the doctors were wrong because she really was due about this time.

Today we went and visited her at the hospital and a

re moving her and the baby to Eastleigh where she will stay for the next three months. Baby Francis (named after Mbuvi- the director here) weighed 2 kg and was so bundled up in blankets you could barely see his tiny face. (I took a picture of mother Mary but it was too blurry to post).

Everyone is happy and healthy!

Just to give you an idea of the hospital we went to here's a hand written chart in the waiting room showing the prices for services- (1000 shillings is about 12 dollars).

Baby Elliette is finally here!!

My sister Haley had her third child- Elliette KAY at 5:52AM on January 23. She weighs 8 pounds (most of it is from her head and cheeks). I think I should probably fly home real quick and hold her.

As of late...

We are now back in the swing of things with school started. Many of the students have started attachments or will be looking for places to live soon. It always takes longer than planned to get anything done here (in Africa). For example, we took three of the catering students for interviews at a Café but then realized that two of them did not have their official IDs yet. In Kenya you cannot get a job without an ID and you can’t apply for your ID until you have turned 18 and even then the process can take a few months or longer. We also haven’t heard back from the interviews but L has helped them fill out other applications so please pray that those will work out for them.

I’ve been writing lesson plans with Ben and Victor these past two weeks. I feel a lot more for Laquita who has been doing this all year with the other staff. Ben (who does landscaping and livestock) is very experienced with taking care of the animals so he mostly just talks the whole time while I type and organize everything into bullet points and a good timeline. The process with Victor is a little different and I feel like I have to take about two days off after every time we meet.

We are still waiting on more results from KARI and have more visits planned in the next months to test the well water used in the irrigation and get prices on piping.

I thought it was a good idea to measure out the lengths of the irrigation pipes using yarn since I didn’t have a tape measure- this lead to me spending half a day untangling a massive knot then giving up and starting again the next day.

When I first came here we wrote out a plan to rotate the crops that are grown every season. I felt really good about this but soon realized that not everything is completely understood or carried out here. However, Victor has done a lot of prep to begin the new season next month so hopefully it will go as planned.

We have MANGOES!!!! Its always been a problem around here that the students will pick the fruit from the trees way way WAY too early and we end up with no produce at harvest time. But we’ve disciplined them enough (with a lot of mentions of it by Charles at chapel) and now have mangoes for everyone to eat! Also if you are thinking yuck- mangoes- just know that I don’t think you’ve ever had a real mango. Here they taste good.

This friday some of the girls and I worked on beading. We have some special beads that were donated through a friend of Hollye in the hopes of making things to sell for the ministry.

And now I’m just waiting to hear news of the arrival of my latest niece- Elliette! She should be coming any day now and I will spare you the graphic details that my sister kindly reports to me (because I like knowing all that stuff).

Some things about living in here….

1.Kenyans drive on the other side of the road. Maybe everyone else in the world knows this but I didn’t. When I first arrived after 20+ hours of travel and they opened their ‘passenger’s side’ door for me to get in all I could think was “You want me to drive?”

2.Mosquitoes -- much bigger and faster here. I’ve only killed one since I’ve been here.

3.No one here drinks water like Americans do. They make fun of us for carrying our water bottles around everywhere. They’ll have two scolding hot cups of tea with lots of sugar and be satisfied for the day.

4.PDA is super discouraged. Irene told us she’s never even seen her parents hug, let alone kiss.

5.The landscape Besides the banana and mango trees, this place reminds me of Lampasas, TX.

6.Electricity Before turning anything on that’s plugged in (like a microwave, oven, toaster) you have to flip a switch to turn on the electricity for that socket. We've only gotten shocked a few times.

7.If there’s no Swahili word for an English word- its usually made up by adding “y” to the end. For example, cake- “cakey”, blouse- “blousy”, candy- “sweety”.

8.They refer to “Made In The Streets” as “Made-y”.

9.If you look nice they will say you look “smart”.

10.The “white diet” Meals here usually consist of one or two large portions of a starch—potato, rice, ugali (cornmeal), or chipati (tortilla), and if you’re lucky you’ll have a little piece of gummy meat or chopped cabbage. I really like the ugali and cabbage now.

11.Kenyans are very servant-like, almost in a literal sense and especially towards white people (because we are the visitors though- not because we are white).

12.Most Africans are very much here and now people. They don’t seem to plan far ahead or save up. If a Kenyan were to come upon a lot of money they wouldn’t think of putting it in savings or making a budget because if you don’t spend it then you share it with all your friends and family.

13.Not everyone in Africa has AIDS. The students are tested before coming to MITS to make sure they are not HIV positive which may seem harsh but it’s too dangerous for this type of organization.

14.Kenya is a peaceful nation. Besides the 2007 post election violence, Kenya is generally a peaceful country surrounded by war torn ones. A lot of refugees from other countries come to live here.

Update…

I haven’t really written a lot about what’s been going on here so here’s a quick update.

1- Cecily and Dusty have gone back to the States :(

2- School has started back up again with some new hires- one being Fiona!!

3- We are about to get a load of new students.

4- To make room we are trying to find jobs/internships for the 18 year olds, therefore L and I have been helping the kids to write their resumes and give them practice interview questions. (Mostly Fiona and L have been doing this- I’m not too patient and usually just end up writing everything for them)

5- Victor, the farm manager, and I are planning another trip to KARI this week to get more soil tests and questions answered

6- I stepped on a huge thorn that went all the way through my Chacos and foot. Little Jane was with me and after both struggling we finally got it out and hobbled back to my room where she nursed me. She also though this was a good time to paint my toes for distraction- hence the blue stripes. This pic was taken a few days later so its not as swollen but its the right one.

7- The west-side(?) wall to the girl’s compound crumbled down! and is being repaired by Wambu and his crew (This is the wall we used to lean a ladder against to get internet)

and…

8- Laquita rode a matatu to the nearest town to get some needed groceries (chocolate and butter) and a friendly Kenyan paid for her bus fare! and said how much he appreciated foreigners coming over to volunteer **This is a big deal and couldn’t have come at a better time as we were both getting a little frustrated with the whole “white people are viewed as ATM machines” here.

BIBLES

One of the main goals of teaching the students here is to give them the skills to continue to teach themselves. We only have the students here for a short time (4 years at the most) and while they are welcome to come back and visit, we really want them to be able to take care of themselves and continue to grow spiritually, physically, and emotionally without someone holding their hand the whole way.

Therefore, there is a lot of emphasis on teaching them to read and write. Charles believes (and I agree) that if they master this skill then they are able to obtain any further skills they desire.

They have Bible classes here for the students but most of them still desire to know more as most of their childhood was not full of sunday school classes with felt scenes of Noah’s Ark. During my first few days here Tasha (read more in previous post to know her story) told L and I how she wished she knew more about the Bible. Since then she’s come by our place at night and we’ve been going through the book of Matthew verse by verse. Occasionally other students will join in but it has been very unofficial as we let them decide if they want to come over or not. The only problem here is that most of the students don’t have a Bible of their own and will fight over who gets to hold my or L’s Bible.

SOOO…we thought this would be a good thing to ask you in America to provide for. If you’d like donate money for a child here to have a Bible then you can click on the link “DONATE BIBLES” in the top right for more information about it.

(If you don’t want to donate you can still keep reading this blog and I won’t bother you about it...maybe)

Proverbs 21:26
…the righteous gives and does not hold back.

MITS students...Anastacia, Eric

Anastacia (top) and Erick (bottom)

“Tasha” would always hold my hand when I first got here and never left my side (It was a little weird for me to get use to since I’m not much of a hand holder). She bonded a lot with another Jessica from California that came here so my name is really what connected us.
Tasha had to sell drugs for her aunt on the streets since her father abandoned her and mother fell ill. Eventually she ran from her aunt and just lived on the streets begging and smoking until coming to MITS.
“I enjoy the way people live in Made in the Streets. They live like one family. They eat together at the table during lunch; they work in the farm together, and they go on trips together. I thank the Coulstons for their advice and encouragements they always give us. God has really blessed them because they love us even when we are doing wrong. I know there are many people out there who cannot bear to live with a street kid. May God continue to give them the spirit and desire to stay with us.”
She was baptized on 26 February 2010


Erick’s mother passed away and step mother would beat him so he was passed along from relatives and friends before ending up on the streets.
“Life on the streets was like this. I used to wake up early in the morning to collect scrap metals for sale. I tried using drugs like petrol and bhang. In the evenings, I would buy a packet of milk to drink to make me a bit sober. I used drugs for about a year and somehow decided to quit. I made that decision after I started going to a center named Made In The Streets in Eastleigh.
After attending the Eastleigh boy’s program Erick eventually came out to Kamulu to live and stay.
I am happy; I have this desire to become one of the MITS team members so that I can get the chance to work with the street kids as the MITS team does.”

Its unanimous that Erick is the most adorable student here. Sometime I just stare at him without realizing it.

The Movies

Yesterday we went to the movie theatre with all the kids. Going to the movies isn’t as common here as we found out earlier when it was just the four of us with two other people in the theatre. That wasn’t the case when we brought all of the kids though.
We headed to town before the rest of the group so that I could renew my passport. Then we headed to Village Market (the American part of town) to meet up with the crew. When we got there they had already started the movie and most of the kids and staff had filled up all the rows so a lady was telling us there wasn’t enough room. Dusty, Cecily, and I gladly offered to skip the movie and walk around the stores but before we could argue kids jumped up, shuffled around, and we all had spots to sit in. We watched The Chronicles of Narnia…dawntreader blah blah I forget what all these movies are called and I know people LOVE the books but the last time I saw the Narnia movie my sister and I fell asleep in the theatre. I think I just get lost in all the special effects and would like for them to them to skip to the end of good overcomes evil, Aslan knows all, we love and fear God.
So after falling asleep a few times it started nearing towards the end and there was no way anyone could sleep because there is a LOUD scary dragon fighting sea serpent scene that even terrified me a little and I was wondering if we had decided to bring the little ones along for this movie too. My question was answered as a turned to my left (I was seated at the end of the aisle) and saw little tiny Eric standing at the end of the aisle above me, alone, with tears streaming down his face. I wondered why no one in the aisle picked him up until I saw a white hand reach out for him and pat him saying “uh…its okay there”. Then I realized that no one in the aisle behind me was with MITS so it was no wonder they didn’t want to scare him more by picking him up.
Needless to say Eric and I enjoyed the rest of the movie outside the theatre watching some kids play in the water park near by. It was nice.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!