The end...

This has definitely been long awaited and I’m sure most of you can understand that since I have been home I have just been busy. Well let me be honest, business isn’t the whole part of the problem, I knew writing this would be a challenge and have been well, avoiding it. I think since it has been over a week if I wait much longer my readers will be gone and disappointed that I never finished, so let me finish.

Finals were interesting. What you do is write…and write and write and write. You answer anywhere from 3-5 multi-part questions by writing. So I will see how I did in a while, probably not until February – that is Kenya you know. Some exams were fair and some I hadn’t even heard of what was being asked but there isn’t really anything I can do about that now.

The last week I stayed on campus nearly the whole time. I spent a lot of time with friends. Raija and I had a few sleepovers, I spent time talking with Adams and just hanging out. I climbed to “the rocks” with a group of people so as not to start any relationship rumors (because that is what happens). I hiked to some other rocks outside of campus with my friend Octavian, had an awesome meal of cookies at Alice Matthew’s cookie party and tried to enjoy myself the best I could.

On Thursday, Raija accompanied me to Nairobi at 5:30 in the morning. We began our day at Gi Kom Ba, the biggest market in Nairobi. There were clothes EVERYWHERE; they even had shoes, towels, drapes, hats, and toys. It was the biggest “rummage sale” I have ever seen. When we were shopping for shoes the number of people was countless and you got pushed around and it was just crazy! The deal here is, almost everyone – especially in the morning – was shopping for massive amounts of items at a really cheap price to sell in other markets for a profit. I bought some tops and shorts for 20, 30, 40, or 65 cents. It was very cheap!

Life had been very good until Friday at 5 o’clock came…and everyone began to leave. It was this realization that some of these people are your best friends in the world and the chances of you ever seeing them again are slim. I mean I promised them I would be back in 2-6 years but if cell phone numbers change or contacts get lost it may be hard to find them. It is all about accepting what you have though. I am so grateful for everyone I met on this trip and I wouldn’t change that for the world. You learn a lot in making relationships. I remember being hesitant, not even long ago about making relationships you have to lose because once the two people are separated, what is left? But relationships are so much more than what is left physically. The memories you make in life, most of the good ones, and most of those that will ever stand out are the ones with people you are close to.

Being back for more than a week now and sharing my experiences with others I touch on all of the things I did, everything that was exciting and everything that was different than home. Than I am asked if I will go back and yes of course I will go back but what I’m not sure if people realize is my real reason for going back. It is all in the relationships – the country is beautiful but the people who became my friends and welcomed me there are the reasons I want to go back. When telling someone about the trip it is difficult to explain those relationships, they just sort of blossom out of something and eventually become strong. I have friends who may not exactly be my “Alaina” but for the amount of time I spent there we definitely made a strong bond.

I was so nervous going that I would have a hard time making friends, and it did take a while. The last night in Kenya when I had a “sleep over” with Raija we talked about how making friends is difficult and how deciding how much time to spend with a person is even more difficult. We both had feelings the first weeks we started hanging out about how much time can I spend with this person – does she think it’s weird if I always want to go for meals with her? Does she want to spend so much time with me? You waste a lot of time being bored worrying you are spending too much time with a person who actually wants to spend just as much time with you. I think looking at a lot of my friendships – especially those that developed in the last couple weeks I wasted a lot of time in the beginning not spending time with them.

I can prove to you in a very simple way how it was these relationships that made the trip worthwhile. Friday when everyone left I began to get teary eyed, it didn’t escalade to full blown tears because Raija and I began our girls night together. The next morning Monica, Lora, and Raija all left about 9 o’clock. Monica and Lora said good bye and loaded the bus. I stood waiting for Raija because she had run back to her room to grab something. As I stood there alone realizing hey my best friend is leaving and I don’t know when I will see her again I definitely began to cry. As soon as she got on the bus I walked back to my room – the back way. I had other friends loading those busses but I couldn’t stay to say goodbye because I couldn’t stop crying. My roommate, an RA, was the last good friend to go. There was a special bus for them at 11. She was the last one to load because she was writing me a goodbye note so we ran down to the bus and quick said goodbye as she hopped on. I walked back with someone which helped hold the tears in but once I was alone I got that bad feeling.

I spent about 8 more hours at school that day. I was still in Kenya and still had the beauty of the country but it just no longer felt right. I had a few friends still hanging around the school, but no one I was really close with. I spent about 45 minutes talking with one of the security guards, and a lot of time on my own just messing around on my computer. I had lunch with some guys and ended up with a Kenyan scarf because Map just said I had to have to have one.

On my way back to the room before supper I ran into Eric. Eric was a student in my Intro to Counseling class and was the first student picked to come for exchange. He wasn’t able to afford the plane ticket and won’t be able to come. We had never really talked before but on the walk back to the dorm he began to tell me his life’s story and we stopped and sat for a good hour or more as he talked. I have never heard something so amazing and the ways God has worked in his life are just unimaginable. I wish I had the permission to share with all of you but just know that if you have faith you can overcome anything.

We had a quick supper and I headed to the dorm to wait for the van that was to take me to the airport. Eric accompanied me and brought with him his friend Joseph. My other friend Peter Mathew also came with. We talked and shared some stories on the ride and it was great to have them with and not ride alone. When I got to the airport it was a quick goodbye because the driver needed to get out of there and you couldn’t walk into the airport without a boarding pass.

Well I got on the plane and in about one day I was home. If you ask anyone who came to pick me up from the airport if I was excited to be home they will tell you “no.” My face and actions weren’t exactly the overwhelming excitement you expect from someone who you have been waiting months to see – and they have been waiting months to see you as well. It was hard. I don’t really know how else to explain it, I was excited to see them but at the same time I have left a lot behind.

The transition back home has been difficult. I enjoy every minute of my life here and with these people but the “excitement” factor is relatively low compared to what I have just experienced. Just the other day I started really acting like myself again and I believe I truly annoyed my mom and Jordan. I think however that is a good thing. Just talking with someone today gave me the notion to actually think about being back and I came up with something to this extent – there are things you have to wait for – but in the waiting live life the way it comes. I think from here on out this is what I will try. I want to go back so badly and I know it will happen someday but instead of sitting here waiting for that to come; I am just going to play out life the way God hands it to me. All should go well.

As for this blog, I think I will leave it at that. You don’t need to be checking any longer to see what I have to say. Maybe one day I will begin a new one about some other exciting adventure but for a while life will simply be humdrum.

Thank you for keeping track of me and reading my experiences. There is so much more I could say and there are so many experiences I have left out but I know your reading time and my writing time are limited. Just so you know I am open to specific questions, and I like those because they are easy to answer. There are some tough questions too but I am open to those as well because they get me to really think and even realize new things myself. And if you want to see pictures just ask because I have many and am more than happy to show them!

So anyways, nice time!

mombasa...uganda...& more!

sand art!

who knew that a mombasa fisherman who likes to give people tours of the ocean when the tide is out could be such a lovely photographer!?here we go over the waterfall! (i'm the one w/ the yellow helmet in the middle)
I can sure hold on!

yay for rapids!!
woo hoo!!
So I didn't exactly jump off the right way...it's not supposed to look like that...

So I’m taking a quick break from my studying to give you all a (hopefully) quick update. There is no way I can tell you all of the amazing things I have been doing but here is a slight glimpse…

The weekend of November 20^th I went to Mombasa for roughly two days. I was allowed to bring one friend from Daystar for free and this was one of the most difficult yet easy decisions ever. My best girl friend around here Raija just went there about a month ago so I thought maybe I should bring someone who didn’t get the opportunity…but if I really wanted to have fun I needed to pick someone I was comfortable with…so Raija came with me! We went snorkeling, walked up and down the beach, rode a camel, visited fort Jesus, ate delicious food – every meal, had our own hotel room, swam in the ocean, went for a tide out safari, were “harassed” by beach boys and took 500+ pictures! It was quite the weekend, and was one of the most fun things I had done thus far. I’d love to give more details but like I said…in a hurry!

The next weekend I went to Uganda with Alyssa, yes Alyssa I’m sure you know who she is by now, a girl from WA. We stayed with a group called Empower a Child just outside of Kampala. We went to a children’s home with them and a juvenile home for a Christmas party. Another day we met with “Captain James” who is a pastor and runs some orphanages and churches. We visited one of the orphanages which is probably the worst conditions I have seen thus far, one meal a day, many kids in one room, no mosquito nets. They did some presentations and were really excited to see us though; I even taught them how to sing “Father Abraham.”

The most fun and exciting thing I have done in Africa so far came while we were in Uganda…I haven’t actually told many people yet because I wanted it to be a surprise and I doubt any of you will believe me but I have pictures to prove it. So here it is….Bungee Jumping and White Water Rafting on THE NILE! Bungee jumping wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be, I really wasn’t even scared until the realization that I would have to jump off the edge with my feet wrapped together and free fall hit me…but it took awhile for it to hit me which was good! The white water rafting was my absolute favorite; we did some class 5 rapids and everything in between. I thought I was going to be so scared, and I was afraid of falling out of the boat but it was truly amazing! The most amazing part was the scenery. The Nile is so green and there are birds everywhere and it is just beautiful! If you can ever make it you really should go.

The last thing I have done recently is attend a Kenyan wedding; I only saw about ½ the service and had to leave before the reception so I can’t tell you too much about the difference, but there really were some. The way the parents give the kids away and then they sign the marriage certificate on the altar. It was interesting but the strangest thing to me was the photographer! He took pictures, went had them printed, and then was selling them during the reception! I missed half the wedding because Adams, the friend who took me and his cousins had to go buy gifts so we ran to the supermarket. They don’t care if you are in and out of the ceremony or if you go up while vows are being said to take pictures! It was very different…

Now I’m in the process of intense studying for my exams. I took two this morning and they went ok but there were some things I wasn’t sure about…you basically answer three questions or three multi-part questions – all written – and there is your exam! But this is KENYA!

I am getting so excited to come home and see everyone but honestly I wish I could go home for Christmas then come right back. I am so happy and content here that I don’t really even want to leave anymore. Mom- don’t get me wrong I want to see everyone and miss everyone so much…but there is just something about this place that I am learning to love. My friends here are amazing and leaving them is going to be just as hard as leaving home was – maybe even more so because who knows when I will see them again. Soon life will be back to normal and I am going to miss Kenya so much!

Mfangano

I have just come back from one of my favorite experiences so far. This past weekend I was blessed to stay with a family on Mfangano Island located in the eastern part of Lake Victoria.

A friend of ours at Daystar, James, lives there and arranged an amazing trip for us even though he couldn’t come with. He gave us detailed travel instructions and made sure we were always in contact with him or one of his family members. Despite getting stuck in African traveling, our 8 hour bus ride turned into 10, bargaining for a taxi took a while, and missing an early boat only to wait more than 3 hours for the next which took over 3 hours to arrive (usually a 2 hour ride) caused us to reach Mfangano at about 4:30 in the afternoon.

James and his father started an orphan and widow school on the island and the first thing we did was go there, the kids had memorized some poems which they wanted to share with us. We met with the widows and took picture of the children. We had brought with us a soccer ball as a gift, we were told it would be nice to bring two however we couldn’t fit two in our bags. The next day we found out why, the kids were wondering if it was for the boys or girls to play with.

We headed to the home and were served the typical Kenyan tea and bread, of course it was insisted that we eat and drink a lot. This filled us up pretty good and we got settled into our room, one of the son’s huts on the compound. We were all exhausted but had to stay up for supper. In the mean time we were allowed to take a shower…imagine a fence made out of fallen branches and leaves…we had a bucket of water, an empty bucket and the great outdoors to shower. That was quite the experience, but it was actually really refreshing and sort of cool. The family we stayed with were of the Luo tribe so they taught us a few Luo words and their home was set up like the traditional Luo village. The weekend went by without running water or electricity – we did however have oil lamps.

On Saturday we walked around the island. Most people would say hello and we heard many “Mzungo! Mzungo!” or “Mzungo! How are you!?” from the children around the island. Mzungo basically means white person and I’ve heard it a lot mixed in with Swahili and then you know that people are talking about you! We went to the Island museum which was sort of boring and then to a friend of James’, Gilbert, home for lunch. The food we were served was A LOT. The people on this Island clearly aren’t very rich but when it comes to guests and visitors the meals are often extravagant. We had chapatti, ugali, chicken, beef, cabbage salad, and soda. This may not sound extravagant to you but truly it is when you consider the amount of each food they have and the amount they insist you eat it really was.

We headed to the lake for swimming with Jane, James’ girlfriend and Maureen, Gilbert’s daughter. The Lake Victoria beach was like…the olden days. I don’t know if that is the right explanation or not, and clearly it’s not the olden days because it still exists but the idea was uncommon to us. As we put our swimming suits on…just in the “bush” all of the ladies and girls began to stare at laugh at us. Swimming suits aren’t completely foreign to them but considered unnecessary. This was an all girls beach, except young boys, and the mothers were doing laundry in their underwear and everyone swimming wore simply underpants or nothing. Needless to say it was a “topless” sort of beach but not in the way you would imagine one in Europe. I guess I’ve never been to one of those either but it was certainly a new way of swimming. We were the only white people there, and there were only a few more around the island. All of the children wanted to swim and play with us. I taught everyone how to play “motor boat, motor boat” and they sort of got the hang of it. On “go so fast” all of the children “ran out of gas.” We didn’t swim for long because Jane was ready to go but it was fun while it lasted.

We headed back to Gilbert’s for tea, we were also served bread, biscuits, and even boiled eggs. When it was time to go we certainly didn’t leave full. Meeting this family was interesting, when we arrived we were greeted and told to sit down for lunch. A prayer was said, we ate, and then we left for swimming, came back had more greetings, had tea, and then when we were finished there were proper introductions and we introduced ourselves. We never had much of a conversation but still felt very welcomed.

We took motorbikes back to the family’s home. This was so scary! Imagine going 90 km per hour on a dirt road that had random speed bumps! A few times I was flying up off my seat and I wanted to tell the driver to slow down so badly but I didn’t!

At night we spent time talking with the ladies of the family, eating again, and heading to bed! Over the weekend we found out that the family was polygamist and keeping track of the brothers, sisters, and mothers was a bit of a challenge. All of the children we ran across wanted photo after photo taken and many people just wanted to give us their greetings. From the home we could see the lake and at night it was covered with lights from all of the fishermen. The life we lived this weekend was different than ever before. It was sad when we had to say goodbye Sunday morning to go back to school.

We made the trip back and ran into a small problem in Mbita. This is the city we boated to from the Island. We were catching a taxi back to Homa Bay (where the bus station is) and it was having some problems – it needed to be jumpstarted and they didn’t even have jumper cables to do so. We were sitting in the back seat and just saying, “this is Africa”. We were getting fed up with the fact it wouldn’t start and Monica got out and in a matter of seconds had tripped and fallen to the ground. About the same moment the car started and the driver was like let’s go let’s go! Monica already had a messed up ankle and this just made it worse. She got back into the car and with the three of us in the backseat and her leg elevated the driver tried to shove another person back there. They make money by having 7 or 8 passengers in a 4 passenger vehicle. Eventually we got to Homa Bay but it was a painful ride for her.

We spent a few hours in Homa Bay, Alyssa and I walking around while Monica sat in the bus station. Eventually our bus left. We travelled over night and ended up stopping roughly every 15-30 minutes for the first couple of hours to pick up and drop off people who live in the area along the way. At one point I looked out the window and saw a bunch of fluorescent looking gowns, I put my glasses on and noticed these women were dressed like nuns in white, orange, and blue outfits. It was ridiculous how long the ride took and we arrived in Nairobi at 6:30. We were told the bus would be there between 4 and 5, we barely caught the 7 o’clock bus back to campus, but we made it!

The weekend was truly amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better trip overall. I was so happy to see something different than the westernized areas of Kenya. I wish I had time to go back, the family hopes that we can someday and I hope it happens.

I cannot think of a good title...

Wow, life has been streaming by at a pretty quick pace here, but I still have those days where it seems to take forever! I have had CATs (continuous assessment tests) to study for, papers, and group projects to do, life has been busy!
The weekend after Mt. Kenya wasn’t the most exciting in my life. I decided to take out my hair and that took HOURS, I watched two movies and it still wasn’t completely out! I feel now too that I am going bald; I lost so much hair in the process! I spent some time working on something I don’t really even remember what!
On Sunday I experienced some more of Nairobi. I went to town with a friend of mine, Dereje. He is from Ethiopia and an upperclassman I can’t remember what year. We made it to the David Sheldrick Wildlife trust after enduring a long walk because we got off at the wrong matatu stop! They are only open from 11-12 but we made it just in time. The workers there brought out all of the elephants they have there in small groups and we were able to see them being fed. It wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped but it was sort of cool and I got a few good photos. This was the first time I had seen so many white people since I have been here! It was definitely a tourist attraction!
On Monday I went on a field trip to ABC community development center. We learned about the farming techniques they show people and some of the other opportunities they have to promote development. It really didn’t catch my attention, the field is definitely a good one to have in existence but isn’t really my taste at all! After the field trip the bus driver took us to a “magic spot” not very far away. It is this spot on the road where gravity doesn’t seem to exist. You get there and the driver puts the bus in neutral and it climbs up hill without any help! We got out of the bus and some guys around poured water. The road wasn’t completely level and the water seemed to creep uphill versus down. A boy also rode a bike and said it was harder for him to pedal downhill than uphill. I am definitely a skeptic, the road really didn’t have much of an incline but it was a little freaky!
The week went on and I did some intense studying for my CAT on Thursday. The first one she had given required some direct memorization and I knew I needed to study hard to do well! I feel like it went ok but I’m not sure.
Being stuck around school has caused me to really want to be at home. I received some mail but it has been quite the hassle to get it, checking the mail room than the student development office and continually being asked to come back later…I’m hoping this afternoon it will be in my hands! I did however get some school newspapers from Bethel which was nice to see!
I always have these awesome ideas of what to write in my blog, to make it interesting and not just a summary of what I have been doing…then I don’t get the chance to write and when I do I forgot all of these great ideas…so sadly it becomes pretty boring! Hopefully one day it will be so random you won’t know what hit you! But it will be good!
Missing Halloween was a bummer, I love dressing up and didn’t get the chance to this year! I suppose it wouldn’t have been all that much fun anyways with friends scattered away at college! Instead of Halloween we had a “Fun Day.” A school organized activity at a place in Nairobi called Rock City. They had games like tug of war and other funny things, the place had a few rides and a swimming pool. We had fun for a few hours and then as things tend to do it got boring. I finally hung out with some of my friends in a different setting than school, chatting in the library or in a classroom.
Monica and I stayed the night with Jan and ordered pizza! I asked for extra tomato sauce and when it came it was four packets of peptang…peptang is pretty much WATERED down ketchup. It was truly a Kenyan thing to receive!
On Sunday we did some shopping and went to a place called Toy Market. I had been there before with Alyssa. It is basically a huge wooden structure…but be careful how you interpret that. Think of setting up all the random logs and boards you can find to set up tables and make an elevation in order to put plastic bags and other things to cover it to avoid rain…It was a pretty big market with a ton of second hand clothes. You walk on the dirt ground and in places it has become muddy. Bargaining for clothes is quite the adventure. Monica needed to buy new jeans and she went through about 7 pairs, trying to find ones that fit. Understanding sizes is weird because it all depends on where they are from! There were about three guys looking through their stock for ones that would suit her needs! When she finally found a couple she liked they told her 3600 for both! That is more than $40! She tried to do some bargaining but they wouldn’t accept her price. I tried the same with a top from these guys and they didn’t either, we left knowing that if they really wanted us to buy them they would show up again. A few stalls later some guy asked Monica how much she would buy these jeans for, he had the same pair she had tried on somewhere else! These guys all share their stock to help get business or something. She tried them on to make sure they were the same ones and attempted buying them again. I tried on a pair of jeans that I liked and he told me they cost 1200 shillings, roughly 15 dollars. We tried to buy both pairs for 1200, but they wouldn’t accept that offer. Knowing the real price is difficult because it is hard to buy cheap when you are white! We were trying to them buy them at 1400 but Monica did some math wrong and said 1600 for both, I said I wouldn’t pay more than 700 so eventually after a heated debate the guys sold us the two at 1500. I therefore paid under $10 for a pair of Diesel jeans in pretty good shape! I looked at it as a success and later we were told that we got really good prices, although some Kenyans can get some for 500, 700 is a decent price.
After Toy we went to Watoto Wetu, the first children’s home we had ever visited. It was great to be back most of the kids recognized us right away and came straight for our hair! One girl put a few small tight braids in my hair and I haven’t had the patience to take them out yet so they are floating near the base of my neck! The kids “cooked us food” and taught us a Kenyan child game. It reminded me of London Bridge is falling down, but instead of “shaking her up with sticks and stones” they would ask, “would you like a princess or a queen?” After you chose you went behind one of the two kids making the bridge. After everyone had been through and chosen a side they would sing a different song and then have a tug of war, the two in the middle holding hands and everyone else wrapping their arms around the person in front of them. It seemed so dangerous! When they would get pulled apart the kids would pretty much fly because they were so small!
We had to leave pretty early this time because we couldn’t go until 2 and had to be back to campus before 5 to catch the bus back here! At the end the little kids sang songs for us again and did this presentation they had learned. It was so cute! The older kids walked us all the way to the stage (bus stop) which was a fairly long distance! We said goodbye and told them we didn’t know if we would make it back again or not before we headed home. Telling the house mother it was time to leave was a slight challenge because she didn’t speak English, but the older kids helped with translation!
The matutu ride back to Jan’s (to pick up our stuff) was interesting…we were told that it cost 30 shillings each and we had just paid 20 on the way there. I asked a lady sitting next to me how much it cost and she agreed that it was 30, at the end it was clear we had been ripped off by the conductor. Some people will do anything for a little extra pocket money!
We had to walk fast in order to catch the bus and Monica was walking on a sprained, possibly fractured ankle all weekend. All this walking was not a good thing! Plus we were carrying all of her groceries but we got the last couple spots on the bus and made it back to campus!
Life has been good, it hasn’t been quite as touristy as I would like but what I have experienced thus far is truly unique and life changing. I could not be happier with my choice to come to Kenya; however, I am beginning to be ready to be home if it didn’t mean leaving some of my great friends here! But now I know there is never one place in this world I can live to be with everyone who means a lot to me, at least there is facebook!

Mt. Kenya!

I can honestly say that God works in some amazing ways. My trip to Mt. Kenya could not have been so amazing without his power.

We were supposed to leave on Thursday, we woke up and boarded the 5:30 a.m. bus to the Nairobi campus and got there before 6:30. We weren’t going to actually leave there until 10 o’clock so we had some breakfast and went to Chapel. Time kept ticking by and we found out that a signature was missing for the money we needed to buy food and that Y-G (Mr. Waiganjo, our leader for the trip) had to go back to Athi River to get it. By the time all was said and done the banks were closed and there was no way to actually get the money. We were told to head back to Athi River and board the 5:30 am bus again on Friday. We spent nearly 12 hours on that campus, doing nothing, having missed class in Athi River only to find it was pointless. I was upset, I called Jan, (a friend in Nairobi) and asked to stay with her. She said that would be fine so I stayed the night there and didn’t have to wake up so early the next day! She served me tacos, muffins, bacon and eggs. I was so thankful I didn’t have to ride that bus again!

Friday morning we were supposed to leave about 9 or 10, we didn’t leave until sometime after noon. This time our van was late. We went to Tuskys (Super Target) and bought all of our food for the trip. Then we drove to Mt. Kenya, we were all HUNGRY. We stopped at a Chicken Inn hours away and got some fries and sausage to fill our stomachs.

After it had become dark we arrived into the Mt. Kenya National Park gate and soon realized that our van was not going to be able to take us to our base camp. It had rained and there was one hill too steep and muddy for the van to get up. This is what happened; we stopped the van and quickly unloaded everything. It was dark, and beginning to rain. We strapped everything to our bags and were carrying some others and got prepared to walk 5 km this way. Thankfully a truck that was headed to our base camp came by just minutes later and took all of our things for us. This still meant hiking for us, but after our things had been unloaded it came back and picked us up. We rode standing holding onto freezing metal bars with our bare hands through the cold wind and rain. This was just the beginning of our amazing adventure.

At the base camp we were given a room with bunk beds and didn’t have to set up our tents, which we were very thankful for. We began to prepare our supper, ugali and beef stew, but soon the porters took over. I had to eat a lot for dinner, it was not very easy to do but I understand the importance of eating a lot when you will be doing a lot of hiking.

Here are the quick details of who went. I was asked to bring one friend, so I brought my roommate, Gladwell. Another of my roommates, Janet, decided she wanted to come with, so she did. Y-G, was asked to take us because he is very familiar with the mountain and he asked two boys, Rudy and Kefa, from the group he heads here to come with. We hired 3 porters to carry our food, utensils, gas, tents, and sleeping bags. They also pitched and took down our tents and cooked all of our food for us. We each carried a pack with our clothes and personal items. I also carried a couple sleeping mats, and we carried our food for lunch.

On Saturday we hiked about 12 km from the base camp to Solo. On Sunday we hiked about 19 km from Solo to Majors. On Monday we hiked roughly 20 km to Lenana, towards the peak, and back. On Tuesday we hiked a whopping 31 km from Majors to base camp.

There are so many things I could say about the trip, but mainly it was just amazing. The scenery was beautiful. At first I was like wow, the forest looks a lot like home…just a bunch of trees, but once you get far enough on the trail there are things you have never seen before. Plants that look like they come from a Dr. Seuss book and things that are not possible to see at home. The views were amazing.

The people I went with made the journey amazing as well. Janet kept making us laugh with her shoes falling apart, and her whining noises because her feet kept hurting. The guys were all funny in their own way and Gladwell just had this excited attitude and was laughing (according to Y-G because of Mt. sickness) the whole time. Even though sometimes they forgot to talk in English I had an amazing time with all of them and am happy to say that I have a much better relationship with my roommates now.

The weather was….COLD. At times we walked through freezing rain in the cold wind. Other times we walked through clouds which is nothing like I’d imagined as a child. I knew it wasn’t going to be that fluffy or marshmallow experience but it was truly far from it. It is basically like walking through a dense fog with a constant mist, not what you’d hope for. Sometimes the sun would shine and we were still cold because of the air. At night and in the mornings when we weren’t walking it was truly freezing. Sleeping made us forget the cold but it would rain through the night. When we would arrive at camp we would quickly get in the tents and put dry clothes on, then we would stay in there until supper. It was hard to stay awake and warm until then and no one wanted to get out of the tent to go get the food. I’ll leave the going to the bathroom in this weather up to your imagination.

Here is where God comes in. If we had left on Thursday, like we were supposed to, we would have had rain walking up towards the peak meaning – it wouldn’t have been so easy to see and we would have been much colder and wet, making it harder to climb. On Tuesday night, had it rained, we would have had to walk 11 km to meet the van because it would not have been able to drive through the mud. Tuesday night it did not rain at all. Everything really worked out and it could only be because of him.

We didn’t make it to the peak. We were at a resting point and Y-G was asking everyone how they felt. Janet’s feet were paining, Gladwell had a bad headache, I had a slight headache and stomachache, Rudy was ok, and Kefa had stayed back. He told me that he thought that point should be our peak. I was truly upset, I wanted so badly to make it to the top. My body however was relieved, I was getting so tired, and breathing was getting difficult. I had gotten a cold since I’d been there which wasn’t helping. We made it about 15,000 ft high and were on Lenana. I am hoping one day to come back and finish the rest of the distance. I am going to abstain from calling the trip a failure, because so much good came out of it. There is so much natural beauty to be seen, and even looking at the best of my pictures cannot prove to you how beautiful it was.

Mt. Kenya has been my favorite experience so far. It was definitely a challenge at times I felt like I would get frost bite and that another step would be my last. But I made it through and had the time of my life. I cannot wait to go back, but next time I will be prepared.

The much awaited post...simply because it has been so long!

Wow, I feel like my life here just didn't have time to stop and settle down. I have had things going almost constantly! Right now I have decided to take the night off from work and catch up on a few things, laundry, Bethel things, photos, and now my blog!

To save all of my lovely readers’ time I will do my best to keep this short!

Two weekends ago I had plans to visit Kibera (the biggest Kenya, possibly African slum), have game night at the Matthews, ladies night, swim, and see some animals somewhere in Nairobi. Plans changed as they always do. I wasn't able to go to Kibera because the person who was going to accompany us had something going on with the kids from the slum. Game night, ladies night, and swimming happened, but on Sunday things changed.

Quick explanation, ladies night was a "talk show" about rejection, and then a movie, Night at the Museum 2. It was supposed to be a big slumber party with all of the ladies on campus, especially those involved in Dalafe (Daystar Ladies Fellowship). After the talk about rejection and everyone realized there weren't any refreshments, most people left! I stayed for almost the whole movie, but I kept falling asleep and the mosquitoes were bad so I ended up leaving too.

On Sunday I went into town with Alyssa, Nelson, and Godlove. (Nelson is from Ohio, but was born in Rwanda, Godlove is from Cameroon, they are both first year male students here). We did just a little walking around town and made our way to Kahawa West, where I was the weekend before. We went back to the disabled children's school to play with the kids again. This time we stayed longer. At first, the girl who clung to me the previous week clung to Alyssa because she walked in first. Once she noticed me, she struggled her way over and didn't let me go the whole time I was there. I was so happy she remembered me, but at the same time I feel awful that I may never see her again, knowing her memory is pretty good. The time spent there was good; I tried teaching some of the kids songs like "Baby Shark" and "Head, shoulders knees and toes." They loved trying to mimic the actions and make noises with me! Even though I had fun, it is sad to see the lives some children have to live, the conditions there are not great but I know they are worse at home.

After the home we went for food at Pizza/Creamy/Chicken Inn. They are all separate fast food places right next to each other, basically a food court! I had some breadsticks that were AMAZING, and an ice cream sundae! We got on the bus and headed back to campus.

The week went by pretty fast, I did the usual classes, school work, aerobics, and sleeping! When it came time for the weekend I was hoping to make major plans, but found out I needed to buy a few things for my Mt. Kenya trip. I stayed in school Friday and worked on my paper (that was due today, but I was 1 of 3 who turned it in and everyone else was given an extension of 2 weeks!). On Saturday I went into Nairobi with my roommate, Gladwell. She took me to her Aunt's home for a little while and then we headed to the City Centre to do some shopping. The funniest thing about the day was trying to buy warm sweatpants. We found a man on the street selling them, asked the price, and went on. She assumed that someone further down would have the same items at a cheaper price. This was a line of people selling off the street or from small hole-in-the wall shops. We didn’t find any and on our way back, the man was gone. Almost everyone selling off the street had disappeared, in a matter of twenty minutes! The police had come, and you could tell!

On Sunday I went back into Nairobi for church and to visit a different children's home. It didn't really end up being worth it. The church was Nairobi Pentecostal Church, Valley Road. Like the one I went to earlier, but a different location. I just cannot get myself used to that type of service! The children's home was a bit of a failure too, we arrived at lunch time so the children were eating. Afterwards they did the dishes, and then had to do laundry. By the time they would be done with laundry they had choir practice. I only got to play with a couple kids for a matter of minutes. It was nice to see the facilities and the way it was set up but I really just wanted to hang out with the children! The home has about 170 kids and 9 houses. Each house looks like a regular home with a kitchen, sitting room, and bedrooms. Each one also has a house mother who looks after the children. It was really neat that they organized that many kids that way, rather than a big dining hall and bunk houses. The children were all pretty well-behaved as well!

Sorry it has been so long since the last update! I have been doing really well for the most part and am starting to feel very comfortable here. Going to my dorm room is like going home for me and I feel like I have a few good friends who will look out for me! I have begun to plan out the rest of my time here, hoping I can go everywhere I want to before I must leave. It doesn't look like I have enough time to do so though! Time has flown and I will be flying home sooner than I know!

On Thursday morning I am leaving for Mt. Kenya. I will be there until Tuesday or Wednesday. We are hoping to Peak Pt. Lenana. This is the 3rd highest peak in the National Park, and the highest that doesn't involve rock climbing. I am still worried that we may not make it due to little training. I have another roommate coming with who hasn't done anything, and says she won't. I don't know how to talk to her so she will realize how important it is. I know that if she is the reason we don't make it she will feel bad herself, I am thinking I would rather not be able to make it and know I tried to get in shape than not be able to because I didn't put in the effort. Gladwell has been running with me as much as possible but her schedule is very busy! I am very happy that she is making the effort though! I look forward to telling you about the trip after I get back. I cannot wait to go and hope that even with all of the physical strains I will have a good time! At least I know I will be seeing something beautiful!

Anyways, as they say here in Kenya, nice time!

Tid Bits About the Week

Not much has happened since the weekend. I have gone to class and worked on some assignments…THANKFULLY! I find it hard to get myself to do class work because I would much rather talk with people from home or organize all of my photos or hang out with friends!

I spent one night, I believe it was Sunday watching a movie with my girl friends which was fun, another night I hung out with some of my guy friends and watched a new episode of family guy which was also fun and made me feel at home! Apart from that and talking with people from home I have been actually reading, gathering information, writing papers, or sitting in class.

I had received an e-mail saying that I should begin jogging and exercising before I climb Mt. Kenya…which is coming up in two weeks! I have been doing this but my roommate who is going to climb with me hasn’t. I had been thinking about asking her if she would start exercising because it would be difficult and then the e-mail came which thankfully made it much less awkward for me to ask! When I told her what she said she said she would begin and we went jogging together this morning! Hopefully we maintain the exercise, I am leaving early tomorrow morning so won’t be going but I am hoping she gets the motivation to do something! Gladwell, my roommate, told me that she hasn’t exercised since primary school! That is up to grade 8 here but still was very shocking because it doesn’t look like she hasn’t! I am hoping all goes well climbing the mountain with only two weeks of preparation; it should be fun even if we don’t make the top though!

One of the greatest things this week was receiving a birthday card from home. My dad’s side of the family (almost) all signed it and my aunt Nancy sent it over. It was great to know that they were thinking of me and to see it! I showed my roommate and asked her if they make cards like that here because it was a hand stamped and put together card. She said not really but she loved it and thought it was so cute!

Well, I am going to be getting back to my homework now. I hope life is going great for everyone!

Just wait and it will be provided!

Sometimes God knows exactly what you should do when you have no idea. It took me a while to realize this but I believe that is what happened this weekend, all though I am still not 100% sure he wanted me to do everything I did this weekend…

Here is the story; I was invited to go with some friends to Naivasha, a city about 3 hours away and visit Hells Gate, a national park. I really wanted to go but they were going to go clubbing at night. I didn’t feel completely comfortable doing this and I also felt like the people going were pretty good friends and I would be an odd one out. The problem was I had nothing to do for the weekend and I really wanted to get off campus! Friday morning God blessed me with Grace. I was eating breakfast and a girl I had never met before invited me to come with her for a sleepover weekend for a group called Jahazzi. They are a group that devotes time to helping children in the community that organized themselves.

The problem with going with Grace was that I would have to leave in about three hours. I had a paper to finish and print, I needed to shower, and I would have to pack. I made the decision quickly that if this was offered to me and I was searching for plans so it was what I needed to do.

I am going to try to type the rest of this quickly because there are so many things I need to be doing…like writing papers…

I hopped on the bus with Grace and we went to her home in Kahawa West, about 20-30 minutes from Nairobi. Friday evening we went to her church for a “concert.” It seemed as though it were performed by members of the youth group and the audience was the other members. I was amazed by how many youth were there and we participating and having fun. It reminded me of church at home only maximized! I wish that many people would attend the youth things at my home church. One unique thing about youth groups here is that they are most commonly for high school and college age people; the youth goes up much higher than it does at home!

Saturday morning we got ready and went to a school for the mentally disabled, we were shown around and only spent a few minutes with the kids. We met with the manager of the place and he explained all the details about the school. It is a spectacular story but really very sad. Most of the children are from the slums and their parents don’t want them because of their disabilities. The school charges tuition and the student’s board on a three months on one month off system. While the students progress in school, going home just takes them so far back is almost not even worth it. The school would like to be year round but just cannot afford it.

It smelt so bad there at times it was hard to breathe in through my nose, a lot of them cannot use the bathroom or are not able to understand they need to. It was amazing playing for a few minutes with the kids though some of them were so lively even with their disabilities. A few of the girls you could just tell they wanted attention! One girl was dancing with me and we were clapping. I told her I had to leave and walked away, we didn’t leave right away and she made her way over to me which was very difficult for her. One of her physical disabilities was that her feet were curved inward (or outward I don’t remember) I think I must have been brought to her because I was born with feet like that. I was amazed she made it all the way to me and she wanted to dance some more. She sat on a couch and told me to sit next to her and she laid her head on me. When I really had to leave she began to scream and cry. She didn’t want to leave me.

After the home we went to Village Market, which is basically a mall, one of the nicest in Nairobi. I tried sushi. It was nasty. I think it’s the whole rice thing…I couldn’t try the fish one because I don’t like fish to begin with and since everyone else does I didn’t want to waste it you know…but anyways that’s checked off of my list of things to do before I die.

And now here comes the “I am still not 100% sure he wanted me to do everything I did this weekend…” part. One of the girls with us (two more were hanging out so there were a total of 5) had just lost her grandma. So in order for her to have fun, Grace decided we should go out. One of her guy friends and his friend were driving us around so they took us to a club. I was frankly a little upset, the whole reason I didn’t go to Hell’s Gate was because I didn’t want to end up at a club and now I did. Anyways it wasn’t really bad at all, most of us drank soda or other nonalcoholic drinks and we did a little bit of dancing. It was good going as a group of girls though because I didn’t have to worry so much about dancing with people I didn’t know! Plus the music here was half American “club music” and half Kenyan semi-“club music” I don’t really know how to describe it. The feel of the club was very mellow.

I think that even though I didn’t want to go it ended up ok because I handled myself well and didn’t do anything I would regret. There was one very funny part of the evening though. On the dance floor a large portion of the people formed a circle and people took those dancing in the middle. Now I am not one to go in the middle and dance in front of everybody, ask anyone who has seen me at a high school dance, but I ended up there. An older guy grabbed both of my hands and tried to pull me into dance, I said no and tried to let go but he got me in the middle. We did a stupid little put your hands up and dance side to side standing two feet away from each other dance and I got out! It was so embarrassing!!

The next day we unfortunately missed church because we were out too late. It did stink because I really wanted to go to Grace’s church, it’s a Baptist church and Friday night had been fun. We made pancakes for breakfast…pancakes here are a little bit more like crepes at home. They cook them with…who guessed it? Lots of oil! They were very good though. Grace also made homemade syrup which was quite delicious!

The day was spent relaxing watching Tom and Jerry and then we hopped some matatus grabbed fries to go and got on the bus and back to school!

The weekend was overall enjoyable and I am hoping to begin spending my weekends doing a little more touristy stuff. It is nice to just sit back and hang out with the people but there are also things I’d love to see while I am here. Hopefully I can make that happen soon!

The Great Masai Mara

The great Rift Valley
My home for a couple of nights!
One of my favorite photos from the Masai Village
Part of the hut, it isn't much bigger than the picture shows.
During the welcome dance, he was the beat leader.
This lion was on the prowl soon after this photo, you can tell she was sniffing something.

At the Tanzania/Kenya border!

Rough beginnings can make the whole rough. I was worried this might happen to my weekend trip to Masai Mara (The best national game park in all of Africa). Thursday night it took a while for me to get ready for bed; I got in after 10 and had to finish packing my things. When I was all ready to hop into bed and catch some rest my roommates came in. One was washing the floor, another cooking dinner (yes after 11!). They were all LOUD. Talking to each other and singing songs. To make things worse my roommate left the light on which made me think she would be back in the room soon so I politely left it on for her but she didn’t come back in soon. Plus she left the door open which maximized the sound. After lying in bed trying to fall asleep I turned the light off and tried shutting the door, without actually getting out of bed. The noise was still too much and I could not take it so I got my iPod, turned it up loud which I hate doing, and eventually fell asleep. It had to be after midnight if not one o’clock by the time I was sleeping.

My alarm went off at 4:45…too early to wake up but I had to! The bus left at 5:30…but actually leaves early so I had to get down there quickly! Skipping over the boring stuff we (Monica, Alyssa A., Julia, and I) got the Nairobi campus, had breakfast and loaded an Aramati Safari van! I was excited we had a private driver and car for the whole weekend. We left shortly after 7:30 and drove through the Rift Valley and many Masai villages. The Rift valley is beautiful, even with the drought. I cannot even explain how far you can see! My favorite part was seeing the farms along the edge of a hill and the green acacia trees. We got to Flamingo Camp about 1:30 in the afternoon, were given our tents, and had lunch. Lunch was gross! I can officially say that I have tried sheep…mmmm?

At four o’clock we loaded in the van and went for our first Safari! I didn’t expect the game park to be so big but once we got in you could tell that there were so many different places you could go just inside! A main road goes into the Mara of each of 5 gates and quickly splits into many other roads so you go almost anywhere. The first animals we saw were cows…yes, cows, some of the Masai people, who cherish their animals as they are a huge source of food and income, live inside of the Mara. The first non-domestic animals we saw were wildebeests. These are pretty ugly creatures; they look so old with their beard. The first sighting was cool…but then we saw so many throughout the next couple of days that you realize they are pretty plain compared to the other animals you might see. Throughout our ride we came across Thomson gazelles, zebras, giraffes, elephants, impalas, illads, buffalo, vultures, lions, and a leopard! We were only out for a couple of hours but near the end it started to rain. The rain is good and everyone thanked God for it because of the drought and its need but I was so worried that we would get rained out the rest of the weekend and have a hard time seeing anything really interesting…and a hard time taking photos!

When we got back to camp we had tea and supper which was a huge step up from lunch! We stayed in the “Dinning Hall” until 10 because it was pouring and no one wanted to walk out in the rain. When Monica and I went back to our tent there was a Masai man sitting on our porch. They look a little bit scary and it was dark and he was sitting there with a flashlight. Since our tent didn’t have a light attached to the outside we figured he was just waiting for us to make sure we could find it. He began talking to us and showed us the lion’s claw necklace he had and we tried to quickly get inside, he didn’t speak very much English. He walked away but the rest of the night I could hear him outside. I was so scared because none of the other workers were Masai people and there are many who live around so I didn’t know if he was a guard or just a random guy. Eventually I found out he was a guard and felt a little better. The beds were something else…a really soft mattress on top of a planked frame with a lumpy pillow. I was tired though so I slept pretty well.

Breakfast was at seven the next morning and we headed out about eight. We did a day safari this time! To add on to the animals you already know that I saw, I also saw jackals, cheetahs, a secretary bird; teal crested Laura, waterbucks, a black headed heron, baboons, hippos, a crocodile, monkeys, birds, and a lizard. The safari wasn’t really as exciting as I had hoped until about lunch time. Right before we had our picnic lunch we stopped at the Tanzanian border! I can officially or unofficially say that I have been there! At our picnic we ate right next to a family of monkeys, some people were feeding them which isn’t good but it was so cute to see! Shortly after lunch was the best part of the day. We ran across two lions eventually you could tell that the lioness was hungry and in search of food. We watched it prowl a zebra but unfortunately lost it over a hill and didn’t see the outcome. It was so cool to watch though!

Someone asked me to remember the smells and sounds of the Safari to accompany the photos. I am going to do my best while it is fresh in my mind! The Mara itself smelt normal…like most of Africa, a bit dusty and naturey, I am not sure how else to describe it. There were areas that smelt of death, and some that smelt like, dare I say it, poop. I can recall the Zebra’s neighing in a sort of donkey/horse way and tried to capture it on video. The hippos made a really interesting noise that there is no way for me to describe something mixed with the water blowing of a whale. I don’t think I actually heard a lion roar or much of a noise from any of the other animals.

Right after the safari we went to the Masai village. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. The people came and did a welcome dance for us where they made these crazy bodily noises and jumped and hopped around. Near the end they pulled Alyssa in and made her participate in their jumping contest. They eventually hopped all around us and stuck us in the middle until we jumped with them. One of the men showed us around the village, the cattle shade/shed, where we walked on cow dung and saw children having something similar to a snowball fight…, a house, and how they make fire using friction. The houses are so small; there were twenty of them in the village that was centralized on the cattle shade. The first room in a house is for small cows and the second room is the kitchen, the bedrooms have half walls with the kitchen. The entire kitchen is is a short fire stove with about a foot and a half on either side and then you hit the walls of the parents’ bed and the children’s bed. Quite a simplistic home, there was a small, less than a square foot window, and fairly low ceilings. At the end of the village tour they brought us to their market where each of the twenty families had a stand and were trying to sell us everything! This is something I think everyone should experience one day, they are like persistent beggars except they have something to offer in return. The funniest thing was a man offered for me to choose something in exchange for my watch, he said, “masai like watches.” I told him that I did too.

After the village tour the man showed us the school that had been built. There are still many Masai children who don’t go to school but this is a great starting point for them. They are all taught English, mathematics, Christianity, and a few other things. The rooms aren’t very big and have a lot of students in a class, but it is a start anyways.

We headed back to camp where we had some relaxation time before dinner. Dinner was very good again and I tried French onion soup…and liked it… During dinner Sylvia, who came with us, asked us if it would be okay if we skipped the morning safari because her dad had gone into the hospital and she wanted to leave early to go see him. We all agreed that it would be the right thing to do to skip it, but none of us really wanted to. After eating we played cards with two Japanese guys who were both traveling on their own around the world and happened to be in the same safari group. We taught them how to play a Kemps and spoons, they were hilarious! Then to bed!

I woke up at 5:45 and got ready. We had to have all of our things ready and be to breakfast by 6:15. At breakfast we heard good news! Sylvia decided that since we were eating breakfast early we could still go on the morning ride and get out earlier than the other plans allowed. The other plans included having early morning tea, going for the ride, and coming back for breakfast at 9. We were all very excited and we headed out camp before 7.

I am so happy we got to go because we saw one of the highlights of my trip this morning! First we saw a few dead wildebeests and knew that something had been on the prowl overnight. Next we saw two lions feasting on a cow! I wish we could have seen the attack but this was cool enough. One lion was just finishing when we arrived and he dragged the rest of the cow to his brother who chewed on it for a while. Once the cow had been moved a group of vultures swarmed to the area and began eating the flesh that was left behind. During the process a jackal came in and stole some of the flesh the vultures were eating, it was quite a sight! The rest of the morning was fairly similar to the other days.

We went through a different gate to exit and were bombarded with Masai women trying to sell us jewelry through the window of the van. We used the bathrooms here and I got my first experience with a hole in the ground…well these were actually like a toilet bowl in the ground. It was quite interesting… On the way back we stopped at the rift valley viewpoint and used their bathrooms which were really a hole in the ground. I think everyone needs to try these someday as well…it’s like going outside but actually having to have it go in a certain place! Thank goodness I only had to pee!

Anyways the weekend was good, very good. I enjoyed the safari but cannot see how a person would take their entire vacation just to do that, I don’t recommend it at the price! If you are ever in the area, or are taking a trip in Africa it would be an added bonus! Or if your heart is set on doing a safari make sure to couple it with other traditional African things. It was amazing, but not as amazing as I expected.

Onto the weekend

My weekends begin on Friday because I do not have class! This time I stayed on campus, but instead of studying all day as I should have a played some games! After lunch Alyssa and I played scrabble with my friend George, a Kenyan 1^st year, second semester student, and his friend Richard. It was a pretty intense game, Alyssa and I battled it out good. You could tell we both really wanted to win! At the end of the game I ran out of letters first and got the extra points but lost to her by 1 point! It was pretty close, but the boys were still quite far below us! I figured that maybe if we played it in Kiswahili they would have done better…haha!

For dinner I went to the Matthews with the other Americans and a couple Kenyan guys. We had a vegetable soup and I actually ate and really enjoyed it! I know…it is weird! Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and more! We had soda bread to go along with it and it was delicious! I love going there! Alice, Mrs. Matthews, let me choose dessert since it had just been my birthday. After deliberation I decided I would try pineapple upside down cake! It was a semi-disaster! It tasted amazing but it pretty much exploded all over the oven. We all played Taboo that evening and I’m pretty sure my team ended up winning!

Ok, I will try to get to the good stuff, I suppose you don’t want the details of my every day but would just like to hear about the whole Kenyan experience!

On Saturday I went to a Children’s home. It was a house run by two “mamas” with about 15 children between the ages 3 and 15. Monica, Lora, and I spent a few hours playing with the kids, and letting them do our hair! Kenyans seem to love American hair! The kids were all very smart and got along so well together. The home belongs to the church and you can tell that the kids are in love with Christ. My favorite part of the day was when the girls decided they would sing us a song. They began with one and then pretty quickly all of the kids stopped what they were doing and joined in. Within minutes everyone was singing and dancing, the three year old even knew the words and sang along! The singing went on for at least 20 if not 30 minutes, all of the songs were from church. The older girls had to leave for some type of church meeting and Lawrence, a boy about 10 led the rest of us in prayer. There were about 10 kids left and they all listened to him, sat down, folded their hands, bowed their heads, and prayed. Everyone had a turn to pray what they wanted to pray and he would even translate into English if they wanted to pray in Kiswahili. Most of the little ones prayers consisted of, we pray for --, we pray for --, we pray for --, and so on until everyone had been named. The children were amazing and the Mamas fed us lunch and told us they hoped we would come again. I would love to go back soon, I cannot imagine meeting better behaved kids anywhere else!

We spent the evening at Sylvia’s. I think I have mentioned her before, she is the person at Daystar who coordinates all of my activities. We didn’t really do much, just watched tv until dinner, and during dinner. I found it so interesting that we ate on the couches and watched the television as often will happen at home. I asked her about it and she said that was the usual. For dinner she served multiple types of meat, rice, and chapatti! Like all of the other Kenyans she insisted we eat more! We got ice cream and cake for dessert!

Sleeping arrangements were strange, Lora, had to sleep outside in what I believe was the “servants quarters” with someone who I believe was a nanny or house help. She got bombarded with bugs all night and had to share a twin bed! Monica and I shared a full size bed upstairs and had a decent mosquito net to cover us up and slept fairly well!

Breakfast was similar to school breakfast, the main dish being bread, plain old sandwich bread! I find it so weird that they eat this everyday without even toasting it! We also had sausages, bananas, hard-boiled eggs, biscuits, and some more of that cake!

For church we went to House of Grace. I have no idea what denomination it was but it was very interesting…The service began with many praise and worship songs. They had projectors for the words and a huge worship team on the altar. After a lot of singing there were announcements…the weirdest I have ever seen! They played what looked like a segment of the nightly news advertising everything going on at the church and welcoming guests! It lasted well over 5 minutes and I felt weird watching tv during church. The sermon was long, very long, compared to the 12 minutes I am used to! We got out of there about 2 hours after coming in and there wasn’t even communion!

The rest of the day was spent walking around Nairobi. We were dropped in the city center where I saw a restaurant called Taco Club. What was so funny about it was that it had the “bell” logo from taco bell, exactly the same one! Inside looked nothing like a Taco Bell though! We walked from the city center back up towards school and went to a fruit market where they sell decent sized fruit salads for 70 shillings, about 80 cents! That was delicious! We ran errands and made it back to campus to catch the 5 o’clock bus back to campus!

That night I made dinner with my roommates! I taught them how to make tacos, which didn’t turn out as good as home, and they refreshed me on how to make chapatti! We had a little party. I think they sort of enjoyed the tacos, they said they did but I am not really sure! It was a fun night anyways!

The days have been better, the homesickness is fading away but it is definitely around. I am beginning to really enjoy and cherish my time here but am still longing for the familiar faces home brings. Hope all is well with everyone back in Minnesota!

Birthday Party

You have never had a birthday party until you have an African one! No, this isn’t really the case, birthday parties really aren’t very present here. What does happen is you get water dumped on you, or as some say you get bathed! So…I was eating dinner with a few of my friends, 2 American, 1 Canadian, and 3 Kenyan. Lora decided she would splash the rest of her cup of water on me, it wasn’t that much so it wasn’t too big of a problem. Alyssa decided that she could use the rest of my water bottle, which was probably more than half full, to get be drenched. All of these girls began to sing happy birthday really loud. The dining hall was packed and everyone turned to see what was going on and who’s birthday it was. At the end of the song the water got dumped and I was soaked! Before doing anything else I had to change so I went to fill my water bottle (the cafeteria is the only place to get clean water without boiling it, and I wasn’t going to be back there later in the evening). As I began filling my bottle a few guys, who I have never met before, decided to throw their cups of water on me too. Oh the joys of a birthday!

After changing I walked back to meet up with my friends and we went off campus to buy ice cream. I held my arms around Raija and Ann for a while and then pretty much was holding Ann to me because I didn’t want to get more water dumped on me and Raija escaped my grip! I walked off with my arms around Ann and Phyllis. Once everyone was together and I was sure there wasn’t anyone who would dump water on me I let them go. We brought the ice cream back to the PAC, the main court here on campus. We passed the buckets around, each taking a spoonful at a time. One of my friends, Raphael, brought his peanut butter which added to the greatness of the ice cream!

The ice cream was gone and it was about 9 and everyone had things to do so the big party ended. Alyssa took me back to her room to watch Pride and Prejudice. I didn’t have time to finish it because of our 11 o’clock curfew but what I did see was good! Overall it was a good birthday and I am very thankful for the friends I have made here!

Back on Campus and its my Birthday!

Since I have been back the water in my dorm has been touchy. Sometimes it will be working and others it won’t. I have been very tired and have this urge to constantly be on the internet or calling home again. I don’t really understand why because I am getting comfortable with the people here and realizing that a month has already gone by and I don’t even feel like I have done much at all. I know the rest of this time is going to go by so fast and I am ready for it to. I feel like fast is okay when half of you just wants to be home with the people you know and half of you wants to see and explore what this country has to offer. None of me wants to be doing the schoolwork though so sitting in class and studying are the hardest parts of my days.

I have also been really tired since I have been back. One night my roommate was talking with a friend and it took me hours to fall asleep. They weren’t even in the same part of the room!

Since I got back to campus I began running. My friend Raija and I wake up at 615 and get out by 630 to go for about a 15-20 minute run. I am assuming it is probably a mile and a half but I have no idea! We do some work basic stretches and ab-work outs afterwards. I am mainly doing this so that when Mt. Kenya comes I will be able to peak it without completely over exerting my body. The thing about Mt. Kenya is I have to find a friend who isn’t already busy for their Mid-Semester break, who has hiking stuff, likes hiking, and is in shape to peak the mountain. Most girls here aren’t very into sports so I don’t know how fit they are! Most of my friends are already busy or just don’t like hiking/camping.

I have also joined the volleyball team. My arms look like I got beat up. There are so many bruises and they are sore, but it will go away once I am used to playing. There are about 14 girls on the team and I am probably the worst. I try though! It is fun to play with them and get my body moving and have something to do. It does get frustrating sometimes though because they will speak in Swahili to each other and I become clueless to the conversation. I hate this because it is hard to learn and understand the tips that are being given when I cannot comprehend them at all!

Well there is a lot going on here and I have to get back to studying, or maybe take a nap, waking up early is not my favorite thing to do! Plus it’s my birthday so I figure if I want a nap I deserve one right!? Oh and that sucks too…I want to be with my family so badly today…I just now realized that… I know there are people here who are going to make it a good day but some things are just hard. I have already had some friends sing happy birthday to me and a few verbal happy birthdays and it is only 9:30 in the morning! I have been told that I am going to have a fun night tonight! I feel bad about it though because I don’t actually hang out with the people who have sung to me and apparently are going to do something for me tonight very often and I don’t feel they should have to do something for me when I am not that great of a friend. I am also worried that I am going to get water dumped on me because that is the Kenyan tradition. It is funny though because I am sure it will come from an international student not a Kenyan…

I have one last request before I end this post. I have been asked by my school to write a “postcard” about a single experience I have while abroad. It can only be 300 words I believe. I am asking you to let me know if there is one thing in particular that you think a bunch of college kids may actually be interested in hearing about. I will write it differently than in the blog! I still have about a month to do it so if anything really interesting comes up please let me know! Thanks!

Week - weekend and all that went on...it was a lot!

My week consisted of Monday-Wednesday and it wasn’t very exciting at all. I went to class, did some studying, and planned my weekend, or at least tried to. I am not going to bore you with all of those details when there is so much about the weekend I want to share!

Basically, Thursday was Prayer Day here at Daystar. This means that all classes shut down and everyone heads to the amphitheatre to pray. This is what I heard about how it has gone in the past. The electricity gets shut off, the water gets shut off, and security guards come into your room, make sure you are out, and lock the building. You must be there from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon with one break for lunch. Does this sound good to any of you!? I do not mind praying but it sounded a little extreme so I decided to leave for the weekend…

I received a text from the lady “in charge” of me here, asking me to move my plans so that I could attend prayer day. There it went, my conscience got to me, and I knew I would have to stay. It was really hard to stick to that decision when my friends all wanted to go, but didn’t want to go without me. We were going to go to Hell’s gate and since I was one of the main planners they wouldn’t leave me out. As you may know I didn’t stay on campus Thursday.

I think I did make the right decision. After running into the lady who sent me the text we talked and I found out that I could attend prayer day at the Nairobi Daystar campus. I felt better about doing that, less extremes and I could still be a part of it and get off campus without changing too many of my plans. I wasn’t happy with myself for changing that decision but once we began praying I was very thankful I did. I don’t know if my experience would have been the same here at Athi River. The leaders led us through a prayer for ourselves and then to one with partners. I am not going to share the personal details but I felt so good after doing this. The partner prayer really helped me, my friend Alyssa prayed out loud for me. I didn’t return the favor because I am still not comfortable doing that (I did prayer for her though). By hearing what she asked help for and hearing what she had to say I feel so much better about my decision to be here. She talked about the courage it took and how difficult the homesickness is and how we want to be ready to let the Lord take over and do everything we can while we are here because it is such a short time and that home will always be home, when I come back nothing will have changed too much. Each word of her prayer helped me to feel so comfortable with my decision and has reduced the homesickness slightly.

After we completed prayers we had tea with some of the staff, did errands, and had lunch at Java. Java has pretty American food and is a nice change for us! We did some shopping at the outdoor stores and I actually bought something! Alyssa and I walked around that part of Nairobi to do other errands and a bit more fun shopping. I ended up with a scarf, two pairs of earrings, and The Proposal, yes the new movie! We met Lindsay at YaYa center which is basically a shopping mall and then took the bus back to her home. We made pizza from scratch and I tried green peppers and pineapple on mine! The sauce was made from fresh tomatoes and avocados. I was very surprised that I actually liked it, but don’t think that means I like it better than the good old pepperoni! Her roommate, Julia, made a salad with a dressing I’m not used to, I didn’t really like it but I did eat it. I also had some chai tea, I was very proud of myself! The night went by fast we watched a couple of movies and slept.

I forgot to mention Wednesday night. We took the bus to campus and got picked up by Jan. She had made tacos for us for dinner! I was so happy! I even tried guacamole, salsa, and cilantro on them! We had banana chocolate chip muffins for dessert and boy were those tasty! Jan drove us to Lindsay’s where we watched a movie and slept.

Anyways Friday morning Alyssa and I walked from Lindsay’s to campus, about a 45 minute walk. We had to leave so she could go to work and were meeting a friend, Karimi, at 11. After we got to campus she wasn’t there so we spent time in the canteen where I ate a mandazi, deep fried dough similar in taste to a donut. We then took some time to write in our journals which was nice because I have actually been finding myself too busy to do so lately.

When Karimi arrived we were invited for tea again! It is always tea, tea, tea around here! I didn’t have anything but afterward we walked to the hospital, our friends had to go, not me, took a Royco bus into town, ate lunch, and took a matatu to Karimi’s home. The Royco bus was fun, it was like a live commercial, the salesman would sell you two packs of Royco (a seasoning like a beef cube but in a packet) for 10 shillings (about 11 cents) instead of paying the usual 20 shillings to ride the bus. We ate lunch at Habesha, an Ethiopian restaurant. I will put up a picture of what I ate because it is hard to explain but somehow I liked it…for a little while and then I didn’t anymore! A matutu is a 14 passenger van that drives around like a city bus, there are tons of the around Nairobi. Getting on it was not cool! The first step in, the first step near it reminded me of going into a club, only louder. We sat in the front right by the speakers and were blasted with music the whole ride; they even have a screen with the music video. All of the songs were hip hop and had very sketchy videos to go along with them!

At Karimi’s we met her dad who was watching sports in the living room, his favorite thing to do. We got settled and met the neighbor kids! I was so excited to see them and say hi. It was also hard to watch them though because they were all about Paeton’s age and it definitely made me miss her pretty badly. We met Karimi’s mom before we left. She told us to call her mom and explained that everyone who is an age mate to your parents can be called mom or dad. This was funny because she is actually in her 60’s and much more like a Grandma to me than my mom! It was really nice to meet her though and see how welcoming she was. We did some grocery shopping before dinner for the next day. Families here typically go shopping everyday for food instead of weekly or bi-weekly like we do at home. When we got back it was almost time for dinner. The cook of the house is the child once they are old enough instead of the parents, but they also have house help who does most of the work, or the work the others don’t. House help here is very common; it is a pretty cheap service and employs many people. Karimi’s family has a live-in house help but apartments may hire someone weekly, or randomly to help clean around the home. The home also had a gate and a guard manning the gate, another job that could easily be cut out but is important for the Kenyan economy.

For dinner we ate boiled chicken, chapatti, pineapple, and some sort of vegetable. I enjoyed all but the vegetable; it was very bitter and really just tasted bad! It was interesting to eat with them because Alyssa and I finished our plate of food and were at a comfortable spot in our stomachs and then told to eat more. There is turn table in the center and her mom would spin the chicken or pineapple in front of us and tell us to have more! We did this a few times to be polite and got our plates away from us as soon as we could handle no more! The family stuck to their one plate of food, but we were expected to eat so much! I am not sure yet if this is cultural or just her mom, Karimi said that her mom is a little more insistent on friends being fed than most woman.

After dinner we helped with dishes and were then asked to have tea. I had hot chocolate and then we went to bed. Her house doesn’t have running water because of the water shortage. Using the toilet was a hassle, we had to fill the tank each time we used it in order to flush it, this was especially a hassle when we had to go in the middle of the night…which did happen because of the drinks at dinner and the tea after!

I am going to attempt to quickly tell you the basics of the rest of the weekend so you have an idea of what I did, and then explain how I felt.

We made plans to go to Hell’s gate, then decided it cost too much so we went to the National Museum and the Giraffe Center with Karimi and her mom. For breakfast we had eggs, sausage, “waffles”, aero roots, ham sandwiches, fries. Her aunt and uncle came over for dinner and we had chicken, chicken soup, French fish, pilou (beef and rice dish), fried potatoes, and pineapple. More tea, with bread and maize, dishes, sleep, up. We drove to church but it wasn’t going on because of a big ceremony downtown for pastors getting ordained and the president was speaking, we decided not to go. Made French toast – no syrup – peanut butter worked though – TV – diamond plaza for ice cream and back to Daystar to catch the bus to Athi River.

The changing of plans really annoyed me. We wanted to go to Hell’s gate and we had called around trying to find a driver at a reasonable price, we hired one but then Karimi’s mom said that her and her aunt would drive us. Admission into the park is about 25 dollars because we didn’t have our student ID’s so we decided we would just wait until we got them to go. This worked out because even though we said we were going to leave at 730 most everyone didn’t even wake up until then. Time cannot be trusted here at all, which is very annoying for me. We were getting ready to go out and do things and it just kept taking longer, people would get stuck into movies and not shower right away and it took forever to leave!

The museum was pretty cool but I felt rushed because her mom dropped us off and said she would come pick us up. It didn’t seem like Karimi was having a good time and since she was our host I didn’t want to make her do anything she really didn’t want to do. We walked this trail by the museum and saw a boy bathing in the river. The river was really dirty and it was sad to see, we had seen another boy bathing earlier in the week.

We went to the giraffe center next and I had a great time. I love giraffes and it was so cool to be so close to them, there were many of them out in the “field” and few actually near the edge. I enjoyed it but again I felt like Karimi wasn’t having very much fun, had I been on my own I would have stayed there much longer.

Meeting her Aunt and Uncle was interesting. Her aunt had me give her a hug and as you may know I don’t really like hugs! Plus it was a Kenyan hug which has that kiss kiss thing near the cheeks, side to side! It is so weird when you don’t quite know how to do this! Her mom did the same when we met her.

The next morning we slept really late and spent the day watching TV. This definitely annoyed me and I believe Alyssa too. We wanted to be out doing things with our time because that is what we were told we would be doing all weekend. It is hard to change plans and get stuck in the lethargic ways of a day but I was also grateful to be off of campus. You do what you have to do when you are the guest.

Before it was time to go back to campus I asked if we could go to Diamond Plaza for dessert because I know Alyssa really wanted to go there and we hadn’t made it yet. It is basically an Indian mall with a huge food court. So we were able to go there quickly before going back!

Wow, it was quite a busy weekend and there is so much more I could say! Basically it was so nice to be off campus and get away from the boring monotony here. Being busy definitely helped me keep my mind off of home, except for when we had some downtime. I am glad I got to see a little more of the city and see how a Kenyan family lives. Sorry for the length of this post! Thanks for keeping yourselves updated on my journey!!