Hi all! It has been 1 week since I left for Kenya, and I am still alive!
Today was a nice day. After three days of Orientation meetings, today was the first day I was able to wake up and not have to be anywhere specific. After sleeping in till 8, I made myself a nice hot cup of Kona coffee, and enjoyed a quiet time of prayer and scripture reading. Today I chose to meditate on Philippians 4. It was a helpful reminder to rejoice always and to present my prayer requests to God, knowing that His peace transcends all my understanding. I must admit, it has been quite a struggle of patience, dealing with an ATM card that doesn’t work, a bag that is missing, and as of this evening, an oven that no longer works! 🙂 I’m kinda waiting for the frogs to start jumping around and the gnats to swarm in…
Just as I finished my quiet time and did breakfast dishes (all by hand–there are no dish washers here due to the fact that it would create a serious water shortage), a dear new friend knocked on my door. Her name is Emily Maingi, and she is the Kenyan lady I have chosen to hire as my cleaning and cooking house helper. She is a dear woman with two daughters– Mary and Rose– and is simply thrilled that I have chosen to hire her. She is going to use the money to keep her daughters in school…what a privilege it is for me to help her! She is also a Christian, which is such a blessing. We have already connected on a spiritual level and have shared two conversations now that have truly encouraged my soul. Her faith is so simple and strong…it provokes me to new heights of trusting in the Lord. And so, on Tuesdays, Wednesday mornings, and Fridays, Emily will join me in the kitchen and house, and ultimately, help make my ministry to the girls possible. I am looking forward to learning Kenyan recipes from her, and she is excited for me to teach her some American dishes as well.
After we had our contractual discussion of the two week trial that will be in place, I then had Faith stop in. That is the one thing that is so cool at RVA…we are truly neighbors…everybody is constantly visiting each other. Faith Unruh is my hostess and just stopped to “check in” and see how I was doing.
Before I knew it, I then had two Kenyan maintainence guys over to fix my shower head in my bathroom 🙂 They chatted with me, and after hearing that I was “only” staying for 1 year, promptly told me that “God is a provider, and I think you should stay for 10 years!” 🙂 Well, we’ll see about that, I said.
I then spent what was left of the morning doing some Dorm Mom prep with Kylie, the lady who heads up Dorm Parenting, (going through a lot of paperwork and organizing of schedules, dorm handouts, etc.), and grabbed a handful of trail mix before meeting up with Kim Saum, a Texan lady who works in “Titche.”
Titche is the name for all of the elementary school-aged kids and the elementary ed building. Kim graciously agreed to accompany me down to the Dukas…we both had some fabric/curtains that needed mending/sewing, and stopped at the local Sewing store to get those made up. For only 200 KSH (less than $2), I am having my kitchen curtains made! Can you believe that? Crazy. We then stopped by the Veggie Ladies to get our local produce for the weekend. For about $10-12 dollars, I got a huge avacado, two cucumbers, a big zucchini, a butternut squash, bag of fresh peas, head of cilantro, garlic, two mangos, a large bunch of broccoli, 5 little bananas, 3 large onions, a bag of fresh beans (similar to kidney) and a huge bag of fresh carrots.
Mom and Nora, you won’t believe the size of this fresh avacado…it’s unbelievable! It was so fun to get to know Kim as well. Kim’s husband got his Masters in a Communications-type major for international Christian missions, and now works in the IT and Communications department for a local Christian organization in the city of Nairobi. He and I have already chatted about journalism, videography, photography, etc., and all that goes on in the world of Intercultural communications.
After I got home from the Dukas, I went over to Kitchen Rental to pick up some items for my house, and then brought those home to wash. While I was over at Kitchen Rental, I bumped into my friends-Amanda, Cassie and Jenny- and we chatted for a while, too.
The rest of the late afternoon/evening was spent starting a FIRE. I never realized the art of starting a fire, but I successfully started my first one! You have to use two big logs on the bottom, lots of “koonie” (kindling) in a criss-cross pattern on top of the two big logs, another big couple of logs on top of the koonie, and then crumpled paper in the bottom space in between your base logs. You then START the fire by lighting the paper and gently blowing on it to get the flames going. The paper then catches and transfers over to the koonie and pretty soon, catches the big logs! Voila! 🙂 I was very excited.
Well, it’s getting late and I am wiped out. Tomorrow is a big day as well. I am going into Nairobi with Karen and Jenny and another lady to do major grocery shopping and a quick visit to the Nursery. Karen and I have simultaneously agreed that we are going to have FUN so that I can get my mind off of all the crazy mess-up things that have happened this week! We are still waiting to hear about my bag. Please continue to pray that it comes.
Also, I am so sorry I haven’t posted pictures. WordPress is giving me some trouble and I am trying to figure out a way to upload pictures that have first been compressed, so it doesn’t take so long to upload each one! Any tips would be extremely appreciated!!
Much love to all.