child at heart

6/25/2008 – Day 1

I’m sitting here in the Chicago airport waiting for us to board the plane to go to London. So far I’ve enjoyed getting to know all the other people on this trip, and I love talking to Mrs. Mirinda. Its still crazy for me to think that this trip is actually here and there is no turning back! It has started! It’s just weird for me to think that its less than 1 day until I’m sitting in Kenya! :)

I’ve already called mom twice, as soon as I hit both airports I let her know we were here and were safe. She seems to be doing better, she didn’t sound like she had been crying recently – which she did when I called from Atlanta.

The holding area we are in is packed with all kinds of people. American people going on a vacation, British people going home, and a vast majority of people who look like they are on some kind of business to around the world. Right now Clay and Dr. Trull are in a conversation, Emily and I are journaling, Corinne is reading the diary of Anne Frank and Lacee and Mrs. Mirinda are talking. There is so many different things going on. Next to Emily sits an Indian woman who was reading and reciting a Hindu prayer. She is complete with the custom robe, head dot, gold jewelry, and dark complexion. She is so incredibly beautiful and was really nice to us.

I love the airports for this reason; we are such a diverse culture. I am in love with these differences and I think I’m going to love this mission work.

P.S. – David Lawrence, today I watched p.s. I love you on one of my flights… yeah, that pretty much describes us to a T.

6/26/08 – Day 2

All through last night and into this morning we flew until we arrived in London around 7a this morning (which is about 1p at home), even though it was dark on the plane I had an incredibly hard time sleeping. When we finally got into the airport we all kind of lounged around. I sent an email home, and got some food before joining Clay and Corinne in a nap on the seats. We looked like the biggest hobo’s – but hey sleep was finally calling my name so I took it!

Right now we are on the flight to Nairobi. I slept most of the 9 hour flight, but these last 3 hours are kicking my butt. I’m either exhausted or wide awake and my body is most definitely tired of sitting for so long. Corinne and I took a break and walked over to one of the windows to see what we were over – all desert, the Sudan to be exact. Even so, it was beautiful! I know you see tons of pictures but it is just not the same until you see it with your own two eyes. I believe our plans for the rest of the day are as follows:

– Land (9pmish)

– Baggage Claim

– Customs/ Immigration

– Visa purchase

– Go to our bed & breakfast for the night (11pmish)

– And my favorite – crash for the night

It’s kind of weird to think that in 2 hours I will be standing in Kenya! Oh ma gosh, it’s so… monumental? Unbelievable? Or most definitely a God thing!!

As I sit here looking at everyone around me I see our group, I hear people speaking French to one another, there are many Indian people headed to their home, and even more Africans that are about to be back home. It’s such a wonderful change compared to what I see at home – white, white, white, black, black, black etc. Just the same people over and over. No one caring for each other or willing to change their views of other cultures.

Corinne just pointed out to me on our electronic map that we are about to pass over the Nile River – if only we could see out of the window! I’m sure its an amazing view.

It’s a good thing we are not trying to impress anyone here because we look super rough. But hey that’s part of the package right? That’s enough for now – we’ve hit some turbulence.

After our meal we just had we filled out of: Republic of Kenya/Application form for a visa and our Republic of Kenya/entry declaration form. AKA this is real. We have hit that point of no return. We are about to step foot on Kenyan soil.

Okay so we are in Kenya sitting in our B&B room. When we got into the airport we first got our visa for our stay, then we went to pick up our luggage. I was pretty sure mine was lost, but finally I found my suitcase. YAY! I also exchanged some US dollars for some Kenyan shillings. Check this out – $140 = 8,610 shillings, OH MY! The drivers who picked us up were pretty much amazing. We drove for about 20 or 25 minutes, the whole time getting some narration about everything we were passing. It was a beautiful place, even at night! The stars are pretty much in your face out here, they are amazing!

I think we go into Meru for the first time tomorrow.

6/27/08 – Day 3

This morning has already started off amazing. We woke up to the most beautiful view out of our glass doors. The sun was half way up leaving a colorful hue rise over the humongous variety of trees in our backyard. There are trees that are also in the states as well as some I’ve never even imagined. Our group climbed up into a tree for a nice photo-op, and Emily and I had some nice conversation while we were up there.

I cannot even describe what I feel right now. The peace and calmness I long to feel like this at home. To the left of me is a little garden, it is tended to so beautifully. The guest hut in the backyard looks like something out of a movie. As I sit here I hear a dull murmur of their city sounds. It’s nothing like at home. Nairobi, the city that holds over 4 million people sounds like the farm. You know people live around you, but its nothing like Birmingham. Some one in one of the little houses behind us is doing a little work. You can hear the beat of a hammer and occasionally a murmur from whoever is using it. You may hear a car every once and a while but not on an every minute basis.

The sounds I hear are simple, I hear a dog barking in protest next door, about 6 different birds chirping or squawking to one another and an occasional frog croak. This is the kind of place I’ve always dreamed of. (The Mennonite Guest House)

This am we had breakfast as a group, which was made by the people here at the MGH. We are all killing time and enjoying our surroundings until Dr. Trull gets back with transportation to Meru town. Then the journey really begins, until them I’m going to read my book, enjoy my surroundings, and listen to the rooster crowing from next door.

Psalms 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

We are all pilled into a 14 passenger van waiting to take the 6 hour trek to Meru town. This is going to be amazing.

We are finally to our Blue Towers hotel, and it’s better than I thought it was going to be.

We drove for a little while and stopped at the treetop restaurant where we actually ate lunch in a tree, it was like a scene out of Hook where the kids were all playing in the tree. The view was amazing. We saw monkeys in the trees around us, the trout we ended up eating, and countless geese, goats and sheep all around us. It was a breathtaking experience. We were pretty much just chillin in the middle of the forest. After lunch we drove for a couple hours until we came to the equator. We all stood on East and West Kenya at the same time. It really was a cool feeling. While we were there we spent 40 minutes or so in the mini-market. What a cultural experience!

We bargained like no one’s business. I got some things for a fair price and I over paid on some things. It was kind of overwhelming to be honest. There was a string of 30 shops all linked together. They were nothing more than a wood box with a tin roof. Each shop had about 2 workers in it trying to get you to buy everything under the sun. It was crazy! They would grab you by some part of you arm and just pull you along to show you everything they had. “I will give you a good price” they would say, or “just a little something would make my day.” So you finally pick something and then you haggle for the price, its actually quite funny to me. After everyone was ready to go we piled back into the bus and drove for another 2 hours or so. We passed Mt. Kenya, which took forever to finally pass by the way. But we drove past muddy villages, green plains littered with the occasional tree, or livestock covered hills, and then areas covered with so many vibrant colors.

There were hundreds of shades of green and flowers of passion, reds, purples, pinks, oranges, whites and yellows – they were all amazing. It was like God threw paint on a side of a mountain and it crafted that wonderful masterpiece. I can understand why Michele Hough fell in love.

We have about 1.5 hours until supper so we are just chillin. I’m sitting in bed right now just resting and the diversity of sounds is amazing. The Muslim owner of the hotel is having one of his daily prayer times, and has the chants playing over the loudspeaker for everyone to hear. The bar next door has started the Friday night party already at only 6p. There is the steady sounds of whooping and hollering of some African techno music going on. It’s just so different here, and I love it.

6/28/08 – Day 4

I awoke this morning at 5:30a (which is 9:30p our time). I proceeded to lie in bed until now, 6:38a until I made myself get up to go to the restroom and to start writing for today. I will probably go get a shower, get ready and got to breakfast after I write for a bit.

I was awoken to the mosque prayer being played over the outside loudspeaker. It went on for about 5 minutes so it seemed, but I’m sure at 5:30a everything seems to loud and long. It was a very unique sounding prayer. The man’s voice sounds very monotonous. He would occasionally spike a little energy in the sound of the prayer – but not much. The bar next door has already started their techno music, it’ been on for about a half hour already! They for real hold to the motto “its 5 o’clock somewhere”.

Lacee, Corinne and Clay did a really good job at including Emily and I last night. After supper we all piled into our room onto Emily’s bed and made string friendship bracelets to give to the Meru children we are going to meet. We had so much fun talking and hanging out, I don’t know the last time I laughed that much. Plus the sight of Clay sitting on a bed with 4 girls playing with string was a bit laugh provoking.

I talked to mom last night; they were on the way to the women’s conference in Atlanta. She seemed really surprised that I was calling, but VERY excited that I did. We didn’t talk for too long but I could tell it made her happy to hear my voice. I talked to dad for a little bit also. He sounded like a 12 year old school boy. I could hear such an excitement and change when we talked. He has already started to miss me. It’s going to be a super long trip for him. But either way it was great to talk to him.

I think our plans for today is to dedicate ourselves to getting the VBS materials and set up, and we may even go see the KTC and do something there.

You know it’s not really even hot here, but I am still thirsty all the time, and drinking bottled water whenever I can get my hands on it. Maybe it’s just a mind thing?! Either way, its 7a and obviously I’m not tired anymore so I might as well hop in the shower.

Emily and I finally got our room changed so we have a shower that works.

We spent about 3 hours after breakfast working on the stuff. We are almost ready for tomorrow.

We ended up going to lunch at the restaurant and met 2 of the Trull’s friends. They taught us some of the language, and taught us a lot about her life and family. Lunch was pretty awesome. We then all loaded up into our 14 passenger van and went to Nakumatt, which is like their 24 hour Walmart, and a chance to use the internet café, I think we are going to hang out in the city a little while longer before we go back to the hotel and practice for tomorrow.

We ended up going back to the hotel and practicing for about 2 hours or so until Catherine and her son Muriti were exhausted and needed to go home, and we all had supper. We went back to our rooms and finished getting ready for our first CBS day! We have made plenty of friendship bracelets and everything is colored and ready to go so now I’m going to bed!

6/29/08 – Day 5

Happy Birthday Lacee!

Plus it’s our first day at CBS and our first church experience in Kenya!

We went to Abongeri, Meru for church as well as for our first CBS with the kids. What a cultural experience that was. Before we went to church we went to pick up Catherine and Muriti – in order to get there we had to go down a HORRIBLE dirt road, about 10 kilometers. I mean ravine’s as big wide as cars and 10ft deep, potholes the size of bathtubs and random speed bumps (those fun natural ones) all over the road. I’m pretty sure we all lost count of how many times Clay and Corinne hit their heads on the top of our van. It really was not that hot outside but we had to keep the windows shut because of the massive amounts of red dirt from off the road. We all began to roast on the inside of that bus. We finally came up to the entrance of Catherine and Muriti’s compound and Mrs. Mirinda went to get them. We hadn’t been parked there 5 minutes when all these children came running up to the van and staring at us, we are rather oddballs here. We cannot go anywhere without having tons of children and older people staring us down. Anyway, the children were precious. Their smiles and laughs just melt my heart.

At the compound Catherine has several cash crops in her own front yard. You can see a mesh of sugar cane crops, banana trees and even coffee beans. Everyone on this trip thinks I have not truly lived because I have never had sugar cane – I guess I am missing out?

We finally got to our little church, and it was little. It’s a stone and concrete building about as big as out college and career SS classroom. It was 2 doors, open holes for windows, dirt floors, a tin roof and a few spare benches and plastic chairs to sit on. Somehow we had over 70 people sitting in there for our church service!

We got there about 30 minutes early so we had plenty of time to mingle with the people already there. That alone was fabulous. The people there are incredibly friendly – and NO sense of personal space. The older women started walking up to us and shaking our hands like crazy. They thanked us from coming from America, blessing them and bringing them good luck. They asked all about home, my family and if I loved God. Every little compliment I gave them was a massive thing.

When church finally started we had a lot of singing and dancing. We worshipped in 4 different languages: English, Kamaroo, Key Swahelli and Coocuru. How amazing is that?? Service started off good. We had about 40 minutes of worship time followed by the 4 elders of the church. They all mentioned blessings for us in their prayers. Most of the songs were about heaven, eternal life, salvation and the power over Satan. We had a couple of songs led by the men of the church. Next we had some testimony time – all the men shared. Their stories were enough to break the hardest man’s heart, and they all loved Jesus so much. We had a couple women from other churches give testimonies and lead songs. Their voices were the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. I was so mesmerized on their love for Christ that I didn’t even notice it was in another language.

Now here comes the weird part. The SS class, women’s class and children all took turns getting up and dancing to a cassette tape. Dr. Trull said they have never used technology before, and normally when they get up to dance they sing a song at the same time.

The pastor and his translator were a HUGE mistake in the words of many different people. Their part of the service was straight Pentecostal. The preacher had nothing prepared, he rambled on and on about nothing in particular, he danced all the time, he would scream at the top of his lungs and he only made reference to one verse of scripture but never taught or expanded on it. The people seemed to like him for his energy but the elders talked to Dr. Trull later and expressed their dislike and embarrassment. [This is what this church needs the most prayer about. The pastor is NOT certified or trained by the KTC that does both of those in a biblical setting. He wants to become a full time pastor for that church – which the elders are fighting, and Dr. Trull knows is a bad idea.]

Throughout the service there were other things. The 7 of us introduced ourselves to the church. Dr. Trull gave a brief devo since the pastor was going to give a message, and we had the Lord’s supper. In doing that we had fresh baked Chipati bread that was torn into pieces and put into a container – real wine that was diluted with water was put into small plastic cups (which were washed at the front of the church and then reused). The church was honored to have us take the communion with them, and I felt the same way.

After the service they fed us lunch there, which was rice and beans mixed, and we mingled with the women as we ate. There were no boundaries. A 27 yr old told me about her life while a woman next to her lifted up her blouse right there and began nursing her son in front of us. We ate for about an hour and then ran the adults out so we could do our VBS.

The men sat together talking to each other and Dr. Trull when we had time. The women washed the dishes as well as cared for the infants during this time. By the way where they sat outside was heaven. There were acres upon acres of mango, banana and coffee trees. So many colors of green below a magnificent blue cloudless sky.

The VBs went wonderful. The kids were so attentive and VERY responsive. They loved our 2 bible stories (Jesus feeds the 5,000 and Jesus calms the storm). They laughed at our drama and their smiles were beautiful. They answered all our bible questions right. Hands would shoot up all around the room before I even finished the question. They loved the activities we did and did a wonderful job making the crafts. For the mini-boat they all made they were all excited to put it in the water and see if it would float. When they colored their basket I was amazed. At home when kids color baskets they do it all in 1 color – Brown. These kids colored each stitch into something different. There were 4 yr olds with patterns on their baskets that our 8yr olds cant make at home. They are so advanced for their type of education that is offered. God is doing some wonderful things in the lives of these children. Praise God for that!

After we left church we got about half way home when Muriti told us about a wonderful waterfall that we were going to pass so Dr. Trull pulled the van over on the side of the road. Us students , Dr. Trull and Muriti got out and walked all the way down the side of the hill through some forest to a wonderful waterfall. It was flowing really nice and made a beautiful pooling point one some rocks at the bottom. We took plenty of pictures. We then went to the very bottom to hang out and then back up to an open cave that was almost at the very top. I mean you could put your hand to your side and touch the waterfall. Lacee slipped and fell into the mud and her whole backside was covered! All girls minus me tore their skirts – I didn’t cause im just cool like that. Muriti mentioned Lacee’s butt and how it was honored in Kenya, and very lightly said it was nice. HAHA.

After we all looked a mess, covered in sweat looking like we just ran a marathon we got back into the bus and headed to Catherine’s compound – on that bumpy road back home our bus took a beating. The window directly next to Lacee was really loose, frame and all. We went over a bump at one point and the WHOLE thing fell our onto the road! Luckily 2 men (who were completely drunk) helped us put it back in. We went about 50 feet down the road and it fell out again. Geez! Muriti was so sweet, he got out, picked it up and set it back in the van for us. On our way back up the road after dropping them off the front of our van sank into a pothole and almost got stuck. So we drive around in a windowless beat up van.

The last stop was at Nakumatt and 2 12 yr. old boys stole our sugar cane out of the broken window. Oh well, maybe I can find some more and try it while we are here.

Never an uneventful day in Kenya! Alabama is going to be so boring now!