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.