We are in Africa

Of course there is so much to say about being in Africa. I thought I would start with some of Corban's statements:


When he saw a Muslim woman who was dressed in a full bui bui sitting out of the top of a Safari vehicle, "Mom, is that superman?" I said, "you think you saw superman?" And he said, "Yes, with the cape and the mask."

"Mom, when you are in Babu and Shosho's (grandpa and grandma's) swimming pool you have privacy when you pee!"

"I see a gecko! It's on the wall! It's moving! I saw one catch a bug!" (or some variation of gecko excitement every day several times. Gecko's and lizards are his favorite thing about being in Africa.
In the same vein, "And then there was one lizard that was an aggressive lizard!"

To Mukonyo, our long time family friend, "Mukonyo, why are you black?"

There is much more, but I can't think of them for now. Here's a list of some things we have done:

1. Visited our old school, Rosslyn Academy. We stayed in some of the house staffing and were hosted by our very good friend and former teacher Kathy Beck. It was wonderful walking the grounds, seeing the things that weren't there when I was (a gymn, swimming pool, new library), and catching up with Kathy. I was particularly struck by how beautiful it is on campus. I remember it being beautiful---but the brightness of the flowers, greenness of the lush and plentiful vegetation, crispness of the air, and backdrop of songbirds was freshly amazing to me.

2. In Nairobi, we also went out for some delicious Indian food. On the way there my dad's side mirror got stolen while we were slowed down in a roundabout. A guy just ran up, yanked it off, and ran away with it. The next day he had to replace the mirror with safety clips added so they can't get pulled off.

3. The girls and grandkids flew to Malindi while the guys traveled in the car. We enjoyed the flight and saw Mt. Kilimanjaro out the window. Then we arrived in Malindi, stepping off the plane into the thick, salt air of the Kenyan coast. We drove along beach-lined streets and then through the town of Malindi to arrive at my parent's beautiful apartment complex. We have been living in luxury here with our own three bedroom apartment we are sharing with the Browns complete with our own bathroom, king sized bed, and gorgeous swimming pool.

4. Much of our time has been spent visiting as a family, walks down to the beach, swimming in the pool, and generally having lazy family vacation time. We have also been working alongside mom and dad with the daily grind of making life work in a third world country----EVERTHING takes longer in Africa. Because this is a coastal climate, nothing keeps long. So we have been busy getting groceries almost every day (whatever produce we need for supper that night or fruits for the next breakfast . . . .not to mention there are ten of us here so we have been averaging three cartons of milk and three loaves of bread a day!!! So we have endless trips to the store). Then all vegetables have to be washed and sterilized before they can be used. I haven't even started on the laundry. There is not enough electricity to support drying all your clothes so they have to line dry. But if you leave them out over night there are microscopic worms that will lay eggs in your clothes. So then you have to dry them for ten minutes in a dryer so the eggs get killed. It is a good reminder that it really is a sacrifice for people to chose to live in this kind of climate and culture in order to do mission work (at least for the women who are doing all the
planning, shopping, and cooking :-))! So just daily life takes up much of our time and often the rest is filled up with beach activities with the kids.

5. We have visited mom and dad's office, met their staff, and met all the teenage moms they work with. One morning we got to visit all the different schools the girls have chosen (tailoring school (21 teenage moms), bread baking/small business school (34 teenage moms), hairdressing school (6 teenage moms), and high school (2 teenage moms). All of these girls chose their own track of what they wanted to do to try and develop and income generating skill. It was wonderful to have all the girls show us with pride what they are learning and making (the tailoring girls especially would each bring us the piece they were working on and be so proud when we exclaimed how beautiful things were!)

6. Bryan got to participate in a famine relief project where he helped distribute food to a poorer district surrounding Kalifi, Kenya a nearby coastal town. He spent the day loading the truck, weighing the food, handing it out to the people, and checking ledgers to make sure it was done fairly. What struck him most that day was when one of teh bags had holes in it he saw the people go back and scour the ground for every last bean that had fallen out. A visual picture of absolutely everything counting. When is the last time we had to scour through dirt to pick up a kernel of food? This is so far from our experience . . . .

7. We have done an overnight safari to Tsavo where we saw a great amount of game---zebra, lion, girraffe, cheetah, elephant, crocodile, antelopes of all kinds, and much more. It was beautiful and exciting for the kids. I should do a separate post on this because we had an amazing crocodile experience and some good pictures to share.

8. We have enjoyed a traditional Kenyan church service complete with dancing and singing, "choirs," and women praying. Go God!

9. Of course we have eaten lots of Kenyan food. We have hit a local Kenyan restaurant that has great chapatis, githiri, sukumawiki, matoke, and other various dishes a couple of times. We have found delicious samosa and mandazi places and drunk Fanta Blackcurrant, Fanta Orange, Bitter Lemon, Stoney Tangawizi, and just plain Coke (which is SO MUCH BETTER than American coke).

So many tastes of childhood and smells of home. It is strange to be here because it has been so long my Swahili is terrible and I feel like such an outsider. At the same time so much rings familiar and feels just like home.

That is some of the high lights. Tomorrow Jami and Zach get here and then we will begin filling our time up with more official "survey" business. We have been evaluating cost of living, housing options, work needs, and such already, but will be more actively involved in the survey process once Jami arrives. So we'll see how things turn out. Meanwhile we have really enjoyed being with our family, being on the Kenyan coast getting lots of swim and sand time, and our lovely apartment.