Yes...we are STILL alive!! Sorry it has been so long since our last post. The internet here is pretty finicky and doesn't seem to want to stay on very long each day...if at all. So I will try to cram the last three days in here.
On Tuesday we went to In-Step, the baby orphanage. An American couple runs it, and they house over 100 children, mostly under the age of 5. We had to take a Matatu (like a big van) to get there, and even though it technically only held 14 people, we managed to fit in 18! It was a tight squeeze to say the least! When we got there, the children were so excited to see us pulling up, it was really cute. We first took a tour, which I will post pictures of later, and then we met the kids. In no time we were swarmed by masses of kids just begging to be picked up, to hold our hands, or just climb all over us as if we were jungle gyms. At one point I looked over at AJ and saw he had about 4 or 5 two-to-three year olds all over him. One was playing with his hat, another with his sunglasses, another with his waterbottle, and yet another with his washcloth he had in his pocket that was given to him on our flight here. It was pretty funny! I originally wasn't planning on going because I didn't want to get the children sick, but after talking to Faith, she thought it would be ok - and I could just try to keep my distance (especially from the babies) as much as possible. So when I got there, I thought - "no problem!"....without realizing how these kids don't really give you an opportunity to step away or keep your distance because they are literally ALL over you! I tried to breathe/cough away from them, and I didn't pick up or really go near any babies, so I'm just praying that God protects their little bodies from any colds/viruses that we could have passed.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from In Step:
The amount of laundry that has to be done each day is unbelievable!
Each child has something of AJ's! Lol
Mini Stevie Wonder!!
This is the meal room,...which is huge-mongous!
I don't know why, but this is one of my favorite pictures. AJ actually took this photo and he really captured exactly how this child was feeling at that moment,...perfectly.
On Wednesday AJ and I were planning on doing some home deliveries with one of the TI staff. Basically what they do is bring food and money for supplies or essential needs to some of the families that live in this area. Unfortunately, aside from my cold, cough, and laryngitis, I managed to get a few tummy issues on top of it all and ended up nauseous in bed for the next few hours (probably due to all the meds I've had to take lately), missing the home deliveries. AJ did go though and took some pictures of the families and homes he saw. I then spent the rest of the afternoon just talking with some of the Neema and Shimo girls while they did their work for the afternoon.
AJ took these on his home delivery
The boy on the top left hand side has Jiggers - you can see it in his leg and foot. Jiggers are essentially a type of flea that burrows in your skin leaving egg sacks that need to be removed. It can cause a lot of pain and infection. (In extremely impoverished conditions, this often happens to those that cannot afford shoes or do not wear them).
Today I got to learn how to cook African style! Well,....sort of anyway! I more or less got to chop tomatoes, and watch Joanne and Janet really work the African Kitchen outside next to the house! Stones and a fire pit are all they needed. =) Joanne and Janet are two older women that work with the younger girls, cooking for them everyday; and let me tell you, they are a riot!!! Joanne just loves when I take her picture and it's hilarious to see all the different and funny poses she does just to get me to snap her. She's 58 years old and she was climbing in a tree, hanging from the branches like a monkey, swinging high on a swing...she was just too funny!
Here are some pictures from our time in the African Kitchen (me and Steph):
I had fun taking a few photographs of Steph after I was done cutting my tomatoes!
58 year old Monkey. =)
Joanne tying the headscarf around Steph's head - making her a 'respectable mother' just by the way it is tied in Kenyan culture.
Love that smile!
On guard!
Later this afternoon, AJ and I got to see the slums here in Kitale. They aren't as bad as in Nairobi,...but the poverty is still unbelievable here. Our tour guides were Andrew and Jonathan (two other guys that live here on the compound for the next two months) and they definitely took us down some 'back-ways' that left us pretty dirty!! Everybody is so nice here. Most all the people that we passed in the slums would say Hibati or Missori (Swahili for Hi, and I am fine - almost like when we say 'what's up' or 'how are you'). Some of the little kids would run up to us and hold our hands when we were walking down the main road. There was one point that we had to send them back because some of these kids looked to be under 3 years old...without any supervision. It's not like home where you can barely let your kids out of your sight. Here, children are all over the place, and often there aren't any parents around watching them. At one point when we were walking, a little boy ran right up to me and put his arms up for me to pick him up. When I did, he just clung right to me and buried his face into my neck - I loved it. Showing these kids any kind of attention, affection and love, it really blesses me more than them. They crave it so badly, and I love to be able to hold them, talk to them, or play with them - even if only for a short time.
As we were walking through, 4 white people, you really get stared at. And I don't mean a little bit...A LOT. You can't help but feel a little like a celebrity the way these kids run up to you, and the way that everyone seems to say hello or wave. It can make you a little self conscious, but still such a different experience.
When we came back from the slums, we had dinner; refried beans, white rice, plantains (which are green bananas that taste like potatoes), and cooked cabbage. Most of these foods are staples here in Kenya, and foods that I am quickly getting sick of! It's crazy how people can eat the same food day after day and be ok with it. Makes me feel so spoiled for liking or wanting variety in my diet. I welcomed my blueberry pop-tarts that I brought along for such an occasion as this, and relished in the sugary sweetness of the icing! Yum!
I'm not going to lie,...I'm definitely feeling homesick. I think just feeling sick by itself...and not having my own bed, or AJ to take care of me...just makes it a challenge. It can be a little discouraging at times, but I'm really trying to hang in there. Also, like AJ was saying - the pace here is so much slower than home. It's quite an adjustment when you come from such a fast paced society. I love the people though, the opportunities I have had (even when sick), and the way that these people are encroaching on my heart - especially the kids. BUT I can't wait to get home, sleep in my own bed, cuddle with AJ on the couch, take a hot shower, and chow down on a 3 Musketeers Bar!! Miss you all, and will try and post again in the next day or two before we head out on Sunday to make the trek home. Please pray that God takes this cough away from me - it's making sleeping difficult!!
I am not the "blogging" type but I will try for the sake of everyone that is curious about how our trip is going from my perspective. I am really glad to have this opportunity to see such a different culture first hand because seeing it on television or reading about it just doesn't do it justice. Everyone in our group is incredibly nice and so are all of the Kenyan people that I have met. This Transformed International group with whom we are staying is really doing good things for the people who live in this clearly troubled country. Corruption and extreme poverty seem to be major issues, among many others. I was surprised to hear how corrupt the government is and to actually see it for myself. It is really cool to see how people have absolutely nothing but yet they are some of the happiest and most generous people that I have ever met. The Kenyan men that I have been working with in the construction of a school work amazingly hard for something like $2.50 a day and are happy to be working at all. Most things are a lot cheaper here than they are in the US, so $2.50 can actually feed a family for a day. Gasoline is actually more expensive at a bit under 5$ a gallon. I was surprised to hear about how many missionaries there are here in the country, and how some are actually doing harm without realizing it. Orphaned children roam the streets sniffing glue to get high while white visitors give them money to eat. They take the money and eat well with it, but then they refuse to stay in any of the many shelters/schools available to them because they can actually eat better from handouts. Apparently the police are very corrupt and steal money from the hard working citizens constantly. I am learning a lot about construction from helping to build the school which is pretty cool to me. I am also learning patience because it seems like everything here moves at about one quarter of the pace that I am used to. Also I think that I have gotten about 5 hours of sleep total since we have been here and I even stayed up all the night before we left so that I would sleep on the painfully long 31 hours of travel that we endured to get here, but no such luck. Needless to say, I have had a lot of time to work on my severely lacking virtue of patience. I am enjoying playing games with our group on the beautiful compound in which we are staying. I am also enjoying playing with the young children that we have been introduced to who each have heartbreaking life stories. It is really cool to bring them hope by just being here and spending time with them. I am sleeping outside in one of three small wood huts with the rest of the guys while the girls sleep inside the main house. I think that not being next to Tina at night is really hindering my ability to sleep, so I just lay there and think for most of the nights so far. I can't even sleep after chewing up a couple of Benadryl, which is weird. I am not looking forward to the long trip back nor the unnecessary stresses and materialism that is waiting for us in the US. I am happy to be helping out how I can here in Kenya and I hope this will be a great experience to look back on. I have a greater understanding of how people can truly live with the absolute minimum and still be extremely happy. The electricity and internet goes out constantly which is not cool but apparently it is normal for Kenya. I have had to learn how to use a hole in the ground outside for a bathroom which has been interesting to say the least. Thank you very much once again to everyone who has aided in allowing for us to take this once in a lifetime trip. I hope this was a good blog. Go Phillies.
I have no voice. I went from having a cold, to a possible sinus infection, to laryngitis...and am not taking antibiotics. I'm not going to lie, this really sucks. I think what is most upsetting is that tomorrow we are supposed to go to In-Step, the baby orphanage, and I may not be able to go if I'm not feeling better tomorrow...and it's not looking good. Faith has lost her voice, and is on day 3 of that; I'm only on day 1. So please pray that God miraculously heals me overnight so I can spend time with these precious babies tomorrow. I will have another opportunity on Friday, so that gives me some hope, but at the same time - I know my body and sometimes my sicknesses last awhile.
So there is a lot to catch you up on! AJ was supposed to post yesterday, but of course we lost Internet again. This honestly happens on a daily basis, along with the power outages. In fact, today as I was taking a shower, the power went out mid shower - leaving me all soaped up and conditioner still in my hair in an icy cold shower. Needless to say I ended up just 'drying' the soap off! I don't think I will ever get used to these cold showers. We have electric heaters for them, but really all that does is take it from icy cold to a cold/barely lukewarm temperature water. Yeah, the toilets and showers are what I am most missing while I am here.
Ok, so yesterday: We were all given an option to either go to a Kenyan Church, The Veronica Home again for church, or to stay here at the compound and rest. AJ and I chose to stay here and rest since I wasn't feeling very good and so that we could spend a little time together. In the morning I decided to wash my clothes true African style! Steph and I got out our buckets, little bit of soap, and a scrub-brush and went to town! It was fun! I have to admit though, if I had to do more than one load's worth, ...I probably wouldn't make it very long. It takes some of the people here a half a day to just do a loads worth. So as I'm sure you can gas, I probably did not scrub my clothes as much as I should.
Steph =)
The line she is trying to jump to was covered in Ants!! Yuck!
No one can do laundry true Tupac Ghetto Style like Steph & I! (not to be confused with Aunt Jemima!)
Steph & Penny =)
Becka =)
Around noon we walked 2 miles into town to have lunch at a roof-top restaurant (clearly one of the more luxurious spots to eat...and seemingly safer for us 'muzungo's' (white/European people). I ordered samosa's and fries....the samosas were terrible!! I loved the ones on the bus, but these had some weird aftertaste that just grossed me out. So fries for lunch it was.
Saw this on our way into town. As you can see...truck ran off the road. Not uncommon here.
Walking into town
Steph's Goal: To pet a cow. (I think she managed to forget that we have a gazillion of these in AMERICA!! lol)
AJAYS SHOP HARDWARE. AJ was VERY excited about this (though you could never tell by that facial expression!) Is it bad that I notice the fact that AJAYS SHOP is not grammatically correct? Oh my...
The roof-top restaurant where we sat. I love how I asked everyone to smile, and THIS is the look I get from AJ. Brat!!
...in case you were contemplating eating the bottle...
Whose that good looking milky white couple lacking a good shave and make-up!? It's us! It's us!
Overlooking the town of Kitale
Overlooking the town of Kitale
This samosa was NOT delish...
The restaurant.
So now I'm going to fast-forward a minute. When we were doing devotions today, we went over Luke 10:30-35 on the Good Samaritan. During this we saw that Jesus talked about how the good Samaritan first acknowledged the poor, secondly comforted and showed compassion, and lastly he gave. He didn't give money or handouts first...he first showed interest, acknowledged the man; he treated him like a human. So often we are quick to give handouts, to give money to help...with not much thought about where the money goes - but we are missing the most important first two steps of what Jesus calls us to do. So when we were going over this this morning, I felt convicted...and challenged in my faith. Backtracking now...when we were heading to the restaurant, we stopped at a certain point along the street and saw an elderly man. The man was standing there, clearly the man lived on the street, was very hungry (he was very, very thin), and just held out his hand to us...begging for money without words. And the catcher, I didn't even acknowledge him. I attempted to ignore him, to pretend he wasn't asking, wasn't looking at us...I did the exact opposite of what Jesus wants us to do. So I was challenged with that today. How hard would have been for me to just stop, sit down and ask the man his name. To give him a smile, to ask him if I could pray for him. The people that live on the street here are treated as if they are worthless...they are practically shunned from society (especially the street kids)...it's all so disturbing.
After lunch we walked the 2 miles back home. Somehow with no sunscreen and the hot African sun...I did not get even a slight burn. Yes, me...the fairest skin out of everyone here! As soon as we got home, it took all of my energy to go back out again to visit Daniel's friend, Daniel Juma down the street. Daniel has 7 of his own children, and houses 23 orphans. We all sat in his living room while he told us his story, served us chai tea, and then we proceeded to play with his kids. Now for all of you that know me...you know that animals are my heart!! Of course I love kids...and babies...and people (YES COLLEEN AND AMANDA, MORE THAN ANIMALS!!!) but if I see animals in pain, it breaks my heart. The little kids had caught a baby bird and had tied it's little leg to string and was letting it fly, then pulling it back again. I asked to hold the bird and saw that it's claw had broken off and it was bleeding on my palm. I just wanted to cry out and yell at these kids, to ask them what the heck they were thinking, but I knew I couldn't. Animals here are not the same as they are in America. Where we live they are our pets, our family members. Here, in Kenya, they are not treated that way - they are just animals, some have a purpose, some do not, but they aren't really considered family members in the sense that we are used to. For example the dogs on this compound - 2 of them are guard dogs. They are tied up all day, and let loose during the evenings all night. The other 2 dogs both have mange mites (though I am suspicious that they may all have them). I don't know if they are being treated, but you can tell they are in a lot of pain. No one really pets them or gives them affection because we know it is more painful for them to be pet than we think. Bunnies here are eaten. The chickens here are eaten. In fact, apparently there is a ritual, that may happen while we are here, where some of the team members will slaughter chickens for us to eat for dinner. As I'm sure you can guess, I will be inside if this happens! I have told AJ that he better not do it either! At first I think he wanted to, but then when I saw his reaction to that little birdie yesterday, I knew he would never have the heart to murder an animal.
Steph continues to fulfill her Cow Petting goal
Area of a circle = 2(Pi)r??? Hmm....
Daniel Juma. Man with a HUGE heart.
Poor little birdie on a string... =(
This calf was only 8 days old. So cute...
Duck, ...Duck,....GOOSE!!
Lauren & Me
So let me tell you more about Stella, the little girl I posted about prior to this. I found out more information about Stella and her sister Lina, and while this story is sad - there are so many more that are sadder and more disturbing then theirs. And the saddest part is that it is so common here. It's not like at home. We all have rough backgrounds and difficult things we go through, and some of our pasts are pretty horrible - but these kids? Some of them have been through worse things in there few years of life, then ten of ours combined. It really humbles you. And to see the joy that they have - when our pasts seem to dictate our own joy? What are we missing? We are so overstimulated, so materialistic, commercialized, over-medicated, so in need of Jesus...and yet we are missing some very major points here. Get rid of all that clutter in our brains, break us down to the bare essentials...and maybe, just maybe we can experience the joy of knowing, serving, and loving the Lord that we maybe we could come close to the amount of joy these kids have.
So Lina and Stella were living with their grandmother when Stella was 10, and Lina was 6.. When Daniel (head of TI) found the two girls, Lina was sitting in the front of their home, outside, with her head hung low. When he picked her up, she was like a rag doll. Apparently their grandmother left them 2 weeks prior. Lina had a huge gaping wound on her leg that had been bandaged weeks ago, and the dressing had not been changed in those two weeks. When they removed the bandage they saw that there was actually fungus growing in the wound. They took Lina to the hospital and found that she was HIV positive, but Stella was not (praise God). While they aren't sure what may have given her HIV, it is believed she was probably born with it. So the girls were taken to the Veronica Home 3 years ago to stay. The grandmother came back several times to try and get Stella back as she cooked everything, and cleaned at the home. The grandmother knew she would be able to help out around the house, but thankfully she stayed at the Veronica Home with her sister. Even now they say that she is mature and wise beyond her years. The responsibility she held, cooking and cleaning for her sister and grandmother at just 10 years old - to how many years prior, I dont' know; is just astounding. Ten year olds in our country, some don't even know how to take a shower by themselves, let alone cook any kind of meal that doesn't require a microwave. Now think how difficult it would be to cook in African fashion (much longer, and drawn out than what you may expect. In fact, Ashley, Daniel's wife, spent 9 hours in the kitchen the other day cooking us dinner, 7 of the hours were without electricity.) I could tell that Stella was mature when I met her. I just fell in love with her and her sister. I wish I could just take them home with me.
So I want to try to finish this up - so a quick recap on today's events. I woke up...without a voice. After devotions, the boys and a few girls went to the construction site while the rest of us stayed back here and either learned to cook an African style meal, or helped the girls with the sewing and beading of jewelry. I wasn't able to do much of any of that, and because Faith didn't want me talking - as my voice would be gone for longer, I documented the day in pictures of what everyone was doing. I think I'm up to over a thousand pictures in just these few days!! About early afternoon, after lunch, I took a nap for a few hours. We then had dinner not long after, ...which brings us to now! The electricity and Internet just came back on, so I'm praying that it stays so that I can post this!
It was hard for me to get pix of everyone working on the construction site considering I wasn't there, but when Steph went this day, she took my little camera and took a few. =) THANKS STEPH!!
Here are some pictures from when the Shimo and Neema girls came today:
Lillian
Eileen helping the girls with their beading
Ouch! How these women bend all the way down from the waist just looks SO painful to me!
Some of the necklaces
Faith, our team leader
Lauren, learning how to cook African Style!
Beans beans they're good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you ....!!!
One of the girls accidentally got a needle from the sewing machine into her finger. =(
So please, please pray for my health, and the health of the other team members so that we can all go to In-step tomorrow. Please pray for Ashely, Daniel's wife, as she has malaria right now (she seems to get it a lot I'm hearing), and she is really, really sick right now. Please pray for our whole team, and the girls and children throughout this week.
AJ's post will be up momentarily! Love you all, and miss you! And miss my shower. And miss my bed. And miss my toilet. And miss chocolate!! LOL. But not enough to come home!! xoxo
Here is a quick clip of some of the Shimo girls singing a song, with Penny doing a guest dance performance!
