Working Hard

Wow….was my last post really on the 3rd of April?!?! Well I said it was going to be a busy month and it proved to be nothing less than that. We worked and worked and had the greatest time! I just hope I don’t leave anything out.....

At the beginning of April Matt and I headed out for our first youth seminar in Nakuru, a town about 2 hours from Nairobi. The drive alone was an adventure as we drove past the beautiful rift valley and caught glimpses of wild zebra, giraffes, wildebeest, gazelle, and baboons (which sit along the roadside waiting for food to be thrown out car windows). When we arrived we were greeted with African leis (otherwise known as Christmas tinsel) and witnessed the scouts’ official march and solute. We were very impressed!

Once we got settled and had our “tea” we were able to begin teaching classes. Matt and I tackled various subjects including Salvation Army soldiership and purity. There were over 300 youth in attendance. The highlight of the weekend was the open air meeting Saturday night. Led by the flag and the scouts, we marched all around town. We caught everyone’s attention and children from the street followed us, trying to keep up while the music from the band echoed in the air. We finally stopped and a crowd gathered to hear testimonies, songs, and the Word of God preached by the TYS. A law enforcement officer also spoke on the importance of peace within Kenya, knowing that much of the post election violence took place in this area. It was our first hands on experience with the youth and we enjoyed every second! Especially seeing the children’s faces light up when they touched our skin or asked us how we were in English, only to run away laughing! It’s impossible not to love!

Oh no this post is going to be long, I can tell already but bear with me……

After our long week of preparation and successful weekend, Matt and I decided we would take a day off to rest and celebrate our 2 year anniversary. Man it doesn’t seem like that long ago he was in my classroom with roses asking me to marry him! We arranged to stay outside Nairobi at a lodge near Lake Naivasha. And it turned out to be quite a getaway to remember. We arrived at a beautiful lodge surrounded with giraffe and monkeys. But before we settled in we went to the National park Hell’s Gate. As it began to pour rain we drove around all kinds of wildlife, both dead and alive and saw that the circle of life was definitely at work here. When we got back to the lodge, we called for an escort to dinner because past 6 pm it was unsafe to walk alone because of the hippos that come up to graze on the grounds at night. Things like that still amaze me… and scare me at the same time! The next day we caught a boat to Crescent Island, a preserved sanctuary of wildlife where you can wander freely around herds of mammals. It was quite a sight to watch Matt chase zebras for a few hours! Trips like these are once in a lifetime and we are so thankful we are able to experience them.

The following week we met with our delegates who plan to attend the World Youth Convention in Sweden with hopes of successfully helping them apply for passports. We knew nothing about the passport process in Kenya prior to this meeting but are now pretty familiar with it, including the need to factor in the slight chance the power at the passport office might go out and everyone would have to come back another day, whether or not you traveled 3 hours to get there. Because that is exactly what happened to us :) But God is good and within the next week all 20 delegates have applied and been accepted for passports!

Work did not stop there though. The following weekend (Easter weekend) we had Corps Cadet retreat where 50 youth, ages 13-25, gathered for fellowship and training. Good Friday was spent giving lessons on the events leading up to Jesus’ death and watching the “Passion of the Christ” while the next couple of days focused on lessons from the Corps Cadet curriculum. Although the lessons went great and the best part was being able to get to know some of the youth personally. We introduced them to some new games and were able to see their personalities come alive, even the leaders. They love “simon says”! We also had the best Kenyan food yet. The cook even made fish sticks and french fries to make us feel at home! We ate so much food I felt I wouldn’t have to eat again for the next week.

There is still so much more but I will let you digest these events and fill you in on the rest of our busy month soon. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers as you read the updates. And a special shout out to Rose Linda and the Chickies. I miss you guys!

I leave you with a brief look into African folklore……

Legend has it that the hippos were the last animal created and God used all the leftovers parts to create them. That is why they are so fat and ugly. Knowing this, the hippo asked god if he can live under the water so no one would see how ugly he was. But God said “no” because he would eat all the fish in the sea. The hippo asked again if he can live under water, this time promising that he wouldn’t eat any fish rather he would come up at night to graze on the grass. Again God’s answer was “no”. The hippo pleaded with god and he finally gave in saying that the hippo could live under water and come up at night to graze on grass only if he left all his dung on the land so that he could check and make sure he wasn’t eating fish!

For more animal pictures go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=250648&id=576435507&l=e90df95ce7

The Calm Before the Storm

April has arrived, and like i said before it is going to be a very busy month. but we have taken full advantage of our downtime the last couple of weeks to have some fun! And nothing says more fun than a package from home and St Patricks Day.

It can be very lonely being half way around the world - even when you are surrounded with people. but it is amazing how quickly a little love from a mom can change that! We had been waiting for weeks for a st patricks day package my mom had sent to matt and i. but mail here is sporadic and receiving it is not always a guarantee. we joked as we came into work on the 17th of the odds of it arriving that day, never expecting that it actually would. but it did! And we were able to enjoy the box with the whole office- whom im pretty sure thought we were crazy. No one had a clue about what the holiday was about. And we spent the whole day explaining to everyone why exactly we were wearing ridiculous green hats. i dont think i ever enjoyed st patricks day more!

The following saturday was one of our friend's birthday. To celebrate we went to the animal orphanage in Nairobi. i wasnt exactly excited about going to see animals in cages (pretty much your average zoo) but after hearing rumors of a slight chance to pet a cheetah i was definitely intrigued. however it all depended on your guide. And it must have been our lucky day because we got Stephen. although im pretty sure he could have gotten fired, he found a way (with enough money there is always a way) to get us in that cage. we were a little nervous at first but the cheetah was just a big kitty purring the whole time. of course when luck is going your way, you dont want to push it. so we took a few pictures and got out of there!

Now kenyans have these wonderful morsals they eat called mandazi. basically its a fried donut, and matt and i love them! but when offered some i cant exactly take as many as i could really eat so i had been dying to make them myself. Then i could eat as many as i wanted and even put my own little twist on them, cinnamon twist to be exact. so last sunday i gathered all the ingredients needed and the best mandazi teacher in order to get to work. it was so much fun! what you have to realize though is that kenyans think americans dont know how to cook. they think we only eat "ready meals" or go out. so my teacher felt it necessary to explain each step and how to use each tool (as if ive never seen a rolling pin) she even had to take over kneading the dough for me. but it was all worth it. im pretty sure we made the best mandazis i had ever tasted!


Finally matt and i have joined a local softball team. there are four teams in the league, so its not big but its so much fun. last saturday we had a double header against the US embassy and japan. We felt a little bit like traitors but we won and thats what matters right!?! im horrible at batting, and i play catcher so i cause the least damage on the field but matt makes up for what i cant do. Although i will say- i did have a good number of RBIs :)
We travel tomorrow at 5:45am to Nakuru for our first youth seminar. Matt and i are giving classes on what it means to be a member of the salvation army, discipleship, purity, and being a witness. keep us in your prayers!

Mandanzi recipe

2 c self raising flour

1/2 c sugar

1 egg

1/2 c milk

3 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp cinnamon

mix dry ingredients

cut in butter

add milk and egg

kneed together

let stand for at least 1 hour

roll out dough

cut in desired shapes

deep fry in oil

mmm mmm good!

A Look into our African Lives

This past weekend we celebrated our two month anniversary of entering Kenya. Wow! we feel like locals... kind of :) one thing for sure is we have been here long enough to settle into a nice routine. i know many of you have wondered what exactly we do here so i thought this blog could fill everyone in on what a day/week looks like for us.

Monday through friday we travel to Karen for work at the salvation army territorial headquarters for kenya east. matt and i work in the youth deptment there. we each have our own desk, right next to each other! most of our time is spent developing and preparing lessons for upcoming youth seminars (or retreats). but we also correct and imput corps cadet lessons (a discipleship training curriculum), grade assignments from training school (the local salvation army seminary school), and find ways to support the field youth officers. just last week we also proposed a new program for young adults (ages 18-28). our boss seemed to like the idea and we hope to kick off the first meeting may 9th. we are super excited to see how it goes!

while desk work isnt always the most fun, we love the relationships we have formed by coming to work every day. a 45 min carpooled trip gives us a chance to get to know one another better. we share stories of growing up, listen/sing to popular music, laugh at the craziness of the traffic, and sometimes just sleep. Roadside corn is often a special treat on the way home! its so tasty (although one time i did witness the corn fall in the dirt, and then be picked up and place on the grill for buying.... i guess dirt dont hurt right?)

weekends are usually just a good time to relax. Matt and i go running every saturday to a local restaurant and share probably the best breakfast ever! we do our shopping then and pick up a few pirated movies from the video store. on most sundays we attend the corps (church) on our compound, which is one of the few that is translated :) other sundays we get to travel and visit other salvation army sites. the services are always full of dancing, singing, and the holy spirit. it an experience you would not forget. We are enjoying the free time while we can because in april we begin the seminars, and those take the whole weekend.

one of the best highlights of the week is our visits to the kabete childrens home. every thursday night matt and i go to the far side of the compound and for an hour we sing songs, play games, and share a mini bible truth. there are about 60 kids from age 4 to 16. its so much fun. we introduced them to "simon says" and they thought it was hilarious. they also love "steal the bacon" although towards the end no one follows the rules- yet nobody seems to mind. its pretty much our favorite time of the week!

April begins a crazy busy month, which we are super stoked about. it will be our first real test of putting our work into practice. so keep us in your prayers and look forward to lots of blogged events :) for now ill leave you with some swahili and a few african norms.

swahili

habari (ha-bar-ee) : how are you?

kwaheri (kwa-hayr-ee): good bye

mzungu (m-zoon-goo): white man

tuombe (t00-ohm-bay): lets pray

norms (that sound familiar but arent)

*seeing cows (in the middle of the sreet)

*getting pull over (so you can bring the policeman to his next stop)

*purchasing a coffee table (on the side of the road)

*surfing the internet (while there is no water in your house)

*standing for the national anthem (before seeing a movie in the theater)

The Work Begins

yes that is matt and i... all in white and officially african salvation army soldiers! the dark blue just wasnt going to cut it out here, so we were sent to a tailor to have custom made uniforms for us. now we just have to figure out how to keep them clean!

we have been here just over a month and are beginning to not only get a feel for kenyan life but also our job. it was difficult at first to make the adjustment from teaching and being with youth all day long to sitting at a computer and helping with paperwork. but good things come to those who wait right? and being patient is a good skill to have when comng into a new culture and environment because there is so much to learn. however our observations have turned into action in the last two weeks.




as many of you know, the salvation army is sending youth from all over the world to sweden for a convention in 2010. and although i will be too old to go myself (unfortunately i am no longer considered youth) we are responsible for preparing the 20 delegates from kenya east to attend. So right away we planned a meeting to begin the paperwork. now... i have no idea how to go about getting passports or birth certificates. in fact i dont even understand how their name structure works (they dont go by their surnames eg brittney michelle downs is known just as brittney michelle). but we were so excited to get to meet some of the youth and just begin building some relationships. they were all very quite but after some ice breaker games we were able to see some great personalities! we cant wait to see how they will benefit from this unique opportunity.

one of our favorite places to visit in kenya is joytown. joytown is the school for kids with disabilities in thika. and it's difficult not to love going there. our first trip there we were only able to see the primary campus but this trip took us to the secondary (or high school) campus. The school was having a challenge weekend (similar to a youth retreat) and we were invited to speak on sunday. the services never cease to amaze me. while matt and i's tag team message seemed to have went well, just seeing the smiles and spirits of these young people (a couple of them lead worship and bible readings, and there were at least 5 different groups of kids who came up to present a song or skit) speaks more words than we ever could. And they continue to uplift us long after we have left.



While i miss being on the field all the time, working at the headquarters does have its benefits! This past week, we were able to attend the DYO (divisional youth officers) conference. this not only gave us a chance to meet the leaders around the territory but it also enlightened us on how youth programs work and how we, the staff at thq, can help support our workers. The theme was "moving forward" and the leaders were given information and encouragement by several speakers... including me! matt spoke on disciplship and its role in our spiritual life and i gave some points on how to prepare our youth to persevere in their walk with christ. i even got to show pictures of some of our youth back home who are persevering. yes, i am so proud of them! the conference ended with matt and i setting up email accounts for all the leaders. our first step in moving forward :)



its been a busy couple of weeks... but a huge blessing. we are so excited to be working with the salvation army here and hope that we can continue to be used by God to further the ministry in kenya.

An Update Long Past Due

i knew these blog posts would be few and far between. but i write with many blessings and stories. God is truely at work through the Salvation Army in kenya and it has been amazing to see it in action.


Today marks 4 weeks since arriving in Nairobi. i cant believe its been that long! we have become such locals it feels like home and makes the time go by fast. and it helps that we are very busy in our work now. although at the moment is mostly preparation for what we will soon be doing around east kenya, weve had a few opportunities to venture outside the city into rural kenya. the difference is amazing! while the city is very familiar to us, the villages just outside are quite foreign. very little trees, dry ground, and huts. We walked down a dried out river in the village of kithituni, and watched women far up the river digging for traces of water. its hard to grasp how they manage with so little.... while im waiting for my stimulus money from obama!


Last thursday i visited thika again (the same town where the disability schools are found). This time i went to meet a group of ladies know as "women of faith". these woman (local sex workers) are the first members of a ministry recently started in kenya to keep women off the street and teach them practical skills to support themselves in a different way. It started with just 25 women and has grown to over 60 and is continuing to grow across the country with groups starting in many cities. These women are making beads, knitting and have even started a farm to raise crops for funding. i was told their faces have changed since first starting. instead of hanging heads, i saw huge smiles and women excitedly singing praises to God. oh and did i mention the dancing.... there is always dancing!



on saturday we visited the elephant orphange. This is a big tourist spot. although super crowded, we were allowed to get up close and personal with baby elephants who were rescued in the wild, abandoned by their mothers. One even had part of its ear removed by villagers :( At 3 years of age, the elephants are released into the wild again but with policemen on guard for nearby poachers. we also got to see a baby rhino who was born prematurely, and a few wild baboons who had hopes of stealing some food.

and sunday we were in for another surprising salvation army service. we attended the Nairobi central corps with over 3000 members. talk about a church being alive and well. before the service, we attended the open air meeting in town. we paraded with the soldiers and band to a bus stop (or what would constitute in kenya as one) where we stood and sang and listened to a preacher speak to the hundreds of people that passed by. Then we marched back, waving flags, singing, and stopping traffic! at that point, you can only be proud to be a part of such a wonderful organization.

africa is great but nothing takes the place of friends and family at home. we miss you all very much and pray for you daily. Especially our corps family who suffered a recent loss. May God comfort you and surround you with his love and peace.

For more pictures go to the following address:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=216478&id=576435507&l=75c82

getting to know kenya

wow not even a week has gone by and i feel that i have so much to share. this is when i usually stop journaling (blogging) but i will not give up yet.... and having a desk job definitely helps :)

on thursday we got to leave the desk and venture out to Thika. here is where the salvation army has a few schools that we were priviledged to see. our first stop was "joytown" a school for handicapped children both high school and elementary. you arent even there two minutes before you understand why the name is so fitting. not only do the children here have so much joy, their huge smiles bring great joy to everyone around them. we stopped by the nursery class where they stopped writing the number 1 and 2 to sing us a few songs in swahili. we then visited the special unit to find them watching "mr bean." they had glowing faces however it was a place that was in much need of help. our prayers are with the house mothers who take care of them all day and night. we also peaked our heads into a couple classrooms. although teachers in kenya are on strike, students still sat reading (or pretending to read as most kids do) their texts books. while we were there we were blessed with two songs from the choir where they are taught that "disabilities aren not inabilities"

we then headed down the street to the salvation army school for the blind also an elementary and high school (or secondary as it is called here). we were given a tour of the entire grounds by the chaplins. The library was most impressive where we saw some braille books and were even given a lesson and how braille typewriters work. in one classroom the student read to matt. it is amazing how they do that!

our last visit was to the "variety village" this is a vocational school where the children who dont get high enough scores to go on to university can go and learn a trait like dress making or wood work. and we got a sneak peek at the bed they were making for matt and i. they did great work!

the weekend was very relaxing and besides the washer freaking out and me burning a whole in my shirt it was quite uneventful.... until sunday. while church the previous sunday was similar to a normal service at home (besides some obvious differences of course) this service was truely african. at 1030 we arrived to worship and saw that the number of people there had dramatically decreased from the sunday before....... then we heard the drums!

and for the next hour person after person, soldier after soldier, corps after corps, marched in waving their flags and singing in bright white uniforms. long live the open air meetings of the Salvation Army!! not only did we see every chair fill up, people young and old alike crowded together standing (some even climbing trees) to hear for the next 4 hours the testimony of god. the best part was the twenty minute dance celebration during a chorus where everyone gather in the middle laughing and singing. amazing!

right after church, not that it could top what we had just experienced, we went to feed giraffes. however 16 foot african wildlife came very close :) we had the chance to visit a nature preserve where 12 giraffes live. here you climb a platform with a handful of food and the giraffe comes to eat it right out of your hand. if your really brave you stick the food between your teeth and it will give you a huge kiss! we werent that brave... yet. maybe next time!

all that in one weekned..... i wonder what next weekend will bring!

speaking the same language

we have arrived safely in Kenya! and actually have been here an entire week. however the internet is not as available as it migth be at home so i apologize for the delayed update.

Although the trip was extensive, there were no delays. all our baggage arrived, we passed customs, and were even met by our dear friend rachel (whom we had met in the states and drove 8 hours to greet us). That itself was an answered prayer.

The people here have been very warm and welcoming. We were dinner guest every night for the first week in order to meet some new people. And despite the fact that we were made to eat way too much, the food was very good and familiar. there goes my philosophy of eating as much food as i could before i left because i wasnt going to eat well here. (even though i do, and probably always will, miss taco bell) Our first meal was at an italian restaurant where we had pizza. A pleasant surprise :)

Our apt. (or flat) is amazing as well. we have a kitchen with a "cooker" and a mini fridge, a nice living room, a bedroom with twin beds (hopefully getting a double soon), and a bathroom (with a washmachine next to the toilet). so all the basics you would have at home with just a little alterations. we have running water on most days, but we have a trash can filled with water for extra supply. We also have electricity.... almost all day. but it usually doesnt go out long enough to spoil our food because the compound where we stay just bought a generator. We plan on getting internet soon and have been waiting for the installation since friday. but kenyan time is different from american time so friday really means whenever they get to it. it is now wednesday and still no one has shown up :)




The first week has been pretty relaxed, mostly getting settled in apt, buying what we need, and playing with the children that live in the home on the compound. We brought a frisbee with us which they enjoyed! Although it made me miss my students back home and our church youth.
We have been doing rosetta stone swahili every night since we have arrived and suprising know a lot..... a lot of words that is. not nearly enough to form sentences yet, besides the usually greetings (habari yako, habari zanu, asante).

The best part for me so far was my experience at church on sunday. it is very easy to feel isolated when going into a totally new country and culture. Especially when you know upfront you are going to be there for a while. Most things are completely foreign, and the things that seem familiar are still a far stretch from what you have at home. And the biggest problem is the language barrier. and while it is fun for me to pick out a word or two that i recognize, i am far from understanding what is being said. yet as i sat and listened to a sermon (translated into english) i instantly felt like i understood and spoke the same language for that breif amount of time. for some ignorant reason i had imagined that their concept and understanding of christianity would be different. but i couldnt have been more wrong. he knew and understood the same God i do. and his message was one i needed to hear. it is true that the bible's message has no language barrier!

More pictures soon to come.... kenyan time :)