Finally an update!

I will add pictures soon. Here is just a little update. Thanks Vonessa and Amy for your encouragement to update. Hopefully we can be more consistant now that we have realiable internet service.

I don’t even know where to begin. It has been a little over a month since we have had a chance to update our blog. Our last update was of our time in Machakos. Since then we have been in Kijabe for about 2 weeks and then we traveled to Cheptebo for 2 weeks and we finally arrived back in Kijabe late on Friday, August 22nd. The first 2 weeks in Kijabe were spent in partly in language learning classes and the remaining time in a home stay with a Kenyan family. The language course was called LAMP which stands for Language Acquisition Made Practical. It was a good course and it taught us how to learn a language. Baxter, Philip and I participated in the course. Most every day we went down to the dukas (small shops) to meet people and practice some words we had learned. We were assigned a language helper who would practice a few phases with us and then we would head off to the dukas. The emphasis of the course is developing relationships which in turn will allow you to learn the language more easily. If you know Kiswahili please don’t judge the spelling of the following phase. One phase that we were learning was “Ninga penda, kunzi funda Kiswahili” which means “I would love to learn Kiswahili”. I kept saying “Ninga punda” instead of “Ninga penda”. Finally my language helper said “Don’t say that again!” I was saying “I would donkey”. Punda and penda are so close but mean entirely different things. The emphasis of the course is developing relationships which in turn will allow you to learn the language more easily. We have a long way to go but we are enjoying it!

Our home stay was spent with two wonderful families, the Maretes and the Mahotas. Most of our time was with the Maretes. We had meals with them and visited each day in order to become more familiar with the culture here. We learned so much from them and really enjoyed their hospitality. The food was wonderful and Mrs. Marete showed me how to make several Kenyan dishes. I am anxious to share them with everyone when we get back or for those who make a visit here! One Saturday, the Maretes drove me into Nairobi to take me to the various markets and to get my hair done. I was very happy to have someone show me around. The market was amazing with the many fruits and vegetables to choose from. The people there want you to buy there produce so they give you samples. This means that they take a knife (washed when?) and just chop off a piece of the produce (washed when?) for you to sample. I didn’t refuse because that would have been rude. I told Philip when I got home that I was sure to catch some kind of bug because I didn’t go through the sanitation process before I ate. I never got sick at all! We all enjoyed the many items that I was able to purchase and bring home.

While we were in Kijabe, the kids were able to visit RVA and get to know the campus. The playground is awesome. There are so many neat things that are not found on any playgrounds we have been to before. There is a zip line coming out of a large tree, a really cool two person swing pole and a huge merry-go-round that is often spoken of with reference to a broken arm or leg! The kids can hardly believe how much fun it is.

On Friday, August 8th we left for Cheptebo for another home stay. It was about 120 miles and took about 5 or 6 hours to get there. The roads are quite bumpy in places but the drive was beautiful and the adventure of traveling across Kenya was amazing! We crossed the Equator and stopped to get some pictures and buy some souvenirs. Cheptebo is an agriculture development center for A.I.C. (African Inland Church). It is a very valuable resource in the arid Kerio valley. We were hosted by Sally and Joseph. They have a one year old boy Immanuel that they adopted about 2 months ago. They are a beautiful family and were very gracious to us. The first Saturday we went to an engagement party for Walter, the pastor at the church and Sally, the office manager of the center. We drove down a dirt road for a little while and then turned off onto another dirt road that I would not have believed was passable. Luckily we were following a small truck and we knew if it made it so could we. We came upon a clearing and then the truck parked under a tree and said “We walk from here”. The phase “It’s not far” has an entirely different meaning in Kenya! We crossed two creeks and then came upon another clearing where the festivities were. We were fed and treated as special guests getting to sit inside and being served sodas. Some of the older women were asking us questions about how engagements happen in our country. They were shocked to know that we don’t have an engagement process like they do. One of the most important things that are settled in the engagement negotiation process besides the dowry is determining whether the bride and groom are related or not. The women wondered how we knew we weren’t related if we didn’t have a big meeting with elders from both sides of the family!

The remainder of our time in Cheptebo was spent visiting with people and sharing God’s love any way that we could. God provided many people for us to meet and form relationships with. As many of you already know Luke came down with Malaria the first week we were there. He had to have contracted it before we arrived at Cheptebo because of the incubation period. He was quite sick for a couple of days but he ended up recovering quite well and there should be no lasting side effects. Baxter got a stomach bug the day after Luke started feeling better. By Tuesday, August 19th, we were all sick with stomach ailments. We felt like God really wanted us to be in Cheptebo or the devil wouldn’t be working so hard to make us miserable. Sally and Joseph and everyone who worked at the center came to the house we were staying in and prayed and sang and then prayed some more. We were so in awe of the level of faith that these people have. By the last day of our stay at Cheptebo we were feeling much better and felt like we learned so much from our time there.

On Friday, August 22nd, Joan and Michael came to escort us back to Kijabe. On the way back to Kijabe, we stopped at Lake Bogoria. There is a resort (relevant) there were the kids could swim and we could all eat some more familiar food like chips (French fries). It was quite nice and we enjoyed seeing all of the monkeys!

Since our arrival back in Kijabe, we have been setting up the house we are to live in. It is starting to feel like home! We have made 3 trips into Nairobi to get things for the house. We are so thankful to God for giving us a safe trip into town and back each time. The first trip in, we left Nairobi when it was dark. It is dangerous enough driving on the road between Kijabe and Nairobi in the daylight and is really discouraged when it is dark. We had to make it home because we had left Baxter in Kijabe with a friend because he was sick. I know I will not be able to convey the terror we felt during the drive. It was virtually impossible to see the road because there was a terrible glare from the oncoming cars. You couldn’t see the side of the road either because there are no lights and no bright white stripe to guide you. We were so thankful when we got to the Kijabe turnoff because we felt like we were almost home and there would be very little traffic if any. We have since been told that the Kijabe road is actually the most dangerous part because of carjackings after dark. We thank God for keeping us safe and not letting us know that information until we made it home safely! It is very expensive to set up a home from scratch but we think we are close to being finished buying necessities. We are excited to have a place to call home and would love to have friends come visit!