Daystar University Graduation

Some friends

Christian and I

Don't we look like life long friends!




Today was a much better day. Went to church and then to lunch with some new, good friends. Then went swimming! Sometimes I forget how something so simple as good community makes life a little easier.
Yesterday I went to Daystar University Graduation (the Christian university here). Wow it was very festive and long but a great experience.
After being sick for the 3rd time in 4 weeks I came home feeling very exhausted.
Here is a little excerpt of the feelings I captured yesterday:

My escape today was the hot shower, which I stood under and cried and cried and cried. I cried for myself. I cried for the four year old girl at my school that was raped last year. I cried for the buckets of water I was wasting for my own selfishness. I cried for the army of baby spiders on one side of my room who have decided they will take to biting me at night. I cried for I feel beaten. Overtaken by my circumstance, I am a failure at the game of Global Learning Term. How badly I want to throw in my towel and just fly home. I know sickness exemplifies everything I am just having a moment of dramatics. I know I will probably wake up tomorrow, drink a cup of chai, and probably be fine again. But there is the looming question, what if everything is not fine again?

Well everything was fine again, don't worry too much people. I must constantly remind myself how important it is in life to be stretched and pushed out of our daily comforts. Kenya has been a definite push but I am starting to see the light at the end. I know what I am capable of and I know how to acknowledge my weaknesses. I also know God is here, however he may look.

Love & Hate & Africa

Today Africa and I have been having a kind of tug of war. This love hate relationship, power struggle if you will. There are things here that I hate. The discomfort of traveling down the rough roads filled with potholes. Being called at, looked at, occasionally even pulled at by the hordes around me. Looking at my arm and being constantly reminded, my skin screaming at me, You are different! I hate the poverty here. I hate the insecurity, the not knowing from day to day if your family will be safe when you get home, will they be alive? And I don’t even house those worries in my mind everyday, but I still feel them and I hate it. Nothing is easy here.
Someone asked me today if given the chance would I come back to Kenya to live. I couldn’t even answer because I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell them, I hate this place and never want to come back! But that would be a lie, I don’t hate it here. Africa and I we’re just in a growing stage of our relationship. Where she is beginning to show me the real sides of her, the hard sides, the dark sides.
But she’s beautiful also, it’s hard not to be entranced by her. She has beautiful people. Her sun keeps my face warm and the sky holds more stars than I’ve ever seen before at night. The solidarity and community among her people is enough to keep even the coldest winter at bay. And in a matter of weeks I have found myself among family already.
So why this onslaught of emotions? I think it was seeing today a pastor in a slum and hearing his story. Before he came to Nairobi he lived in the Rift Valley with his family. After the election violence they were forced to evacuate with nothing. For the past 2 years they have been living in a single room with tin walls and enough room for only one large single bed that barely houses their family of five at night. Their world was rocked and shattered. They could do nothing. They were powerless. Their lives destroyed because of corruption. I hear that word a lot and it’s beginning to take a different shape for me. It’s beginning to become the face of poverty here. I hate poverty here.

Malaria or food poisoning ?

The 61 Kids of Mahali!

There is nothing like a little illness to really make you feel homesick!
This last week has been full of much adventure, some wonderful some not so much. I started my work at Mahali Pa Watoto (Place for Children) and it is so amazing! I'm already starting to develop relationships with some of the children; picking up on some of their names and little personalities. (One even grabbed my hand as we walked to the playground, so cute!) I am starting to take inventory of all the children and this week I will begin traveling to their homes and interviewing the parents about basic information that the school needs. Along with that I have been helping the teachers in the classroom, basically what I call playing!
Coloring time.

Unfortunately, Thursday night I started to feel a bit sick. So Friday I stayed home to get some rest. Friday night I spent in the bathroom, ever 2 hours or so I had to throw up! I stopped counting at about 6 times, but it could have been more! Ew! Talk about an awful night. Saturday morning Jules convinced me to go to the hospital, which to be honest sounds more dramatic than it is. Most people here go to the hospital if they're sick instead of a Dr. like in the States.
So we went and I saw a very nice old bloke from Brit who had lived in Nairobi for 27 years. Dr. King did some poking around and decided there were two possibilities: malaria or food....what? I didn't think the two had any of the same symptoms but I guess that's why I'm not a doctor huh? So we had to take some blood and they said they would call me. They did and no malaria, thank you God! Given a little perspective, I was thankful to just have food poisoning haha. So I've been suffering through the last few days, still not eating, but finally getting a little life back!
Moral of this story, being sick really makes you crave the familiar. But in a way it brings you closer to your new surroundings. It's another experience I now know how to handle here and next time I'm throwing up all night I know I probably have food poisoning, not malaria!
Here are more pictures of the kids! Enjoy!
Playground swings.

Right side up or upside down?

Hand painting

poverty & God

Here in Nairobi the poverty is apparent
It is like a slap in the face
that leaves my head spinning
and the sting doesn’t simply disappear
Instead I carry this lingering pain
and in case I should decide to ignore it
I simply need to round the corner
and prepare myself for the next hit of reality
I wonder what the face of God looks like here
I wonder what hope looks like here
I wonder what I look like here
This untouched, pure land
I imagine it, thousands of years ago
The hills, rolling green and scattered with trees
I imagine that's where God might be
Maybe that's where God has always been
Waiting for us to finally see.
-AMB

Reality sets in.

Well the last few days here have been pretty hectic. My Uncle Jeff who works for World Vision has been in town so we went to meet him for dinner. On our way to pick him up our car decided to stop running! Not good. So my dad and I slowly turned for home about the pace of a quick walk. Lol, with a lot of honking and strange looks.
Finally, Sue and Gram (a family friend) came and pulled us the rest of the way home.
This is what AAA looks like in Kenya!



Sunday morning was my first visit to the church. The worship was complete with dancing!
This is my father, Uncle Jeff, and myself at church.


Yesterday we went to visit Nkita who is the woman I will be living with for the next 5 months. Her home is beautiful and she is very sweet. She showed us pictures of when she was young and she knew my father's family. Today I went to see the school I will be working at. The kids are adorable and I am very excited to begin work next week. Also this week I will begin my Swahili lessons! The real test of my will begins this week because my safety net (Dad and Sue) will be heading back to the States tomorrow. No more free rides in nice comfy cars. My main mode of transit will now be matatus, these are vans with three rows of seating. Typically these seat about 13 people but here they have been known to stuff 22 people in them!
Homesickness has officially set in. I didn't expect it this early. (It's only been a week!) But everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is different here. I'm sure once I get busier and get to know more people this will begin to pass. But for now I really would love a night in my bed!

As you can see the roads are a bit treacherous!





atara

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace."