the last 2 weeks worth of blog updates

so i typed these over the last 2 weeks, but with no internet, could not post them, but now i do have internet, so yeah, enjoy.

Hello all, I know it's been over a week since I have posted. Internet is not as easy to come by here as it would seem. So anyway I will try to catch you up as much as I can. The orphanage is called Jubilee Children s center and it's in Ruai. We are about 45 min away from downtown Nairobi. The area is not the best of areas. Dirt roads go for miles in all directions, but there is the Ruai Junction about a mile away that has a quikmart and an ATM. The first day I was here, I helped paint the kitchen and then assisted in the burning of a field to clear brush and allow the dirt to be exposed for the rainy season. I have 2 house mates, Bill and Liz, both from Vermont who have been here since October and won't leave till around the time I leave. They have helped me with so much so far and are the only Americans for a while. On Monday I was made the bible teacher for Forms 1-3, which is their high school. It's wonderful being able to teach the bible class and I have a pretty nice schedule. The kids are adorable and I can't get enough of them. After school, I usually help out in the computer lab with Bill or open the Library for Liz if she can't do it. It's been a calm first week, but homesickness kicked in early. I already miss my family and friends and the simple things America offers. But then again, as much as I miss home, I know this is where God wants me, so that's where I'll be. I have made a few trips into town and experienced the area more and more. The local food is very good, I am hooked on a fried dough called Mdazes, and an new all time fav, Chipatti, which to put it simply, African tortillas. Yesterday I made my first trip into downtown Nairobi since I have been here. We walked around a lot and I was able to buy a internet stick, but later today we found out it does not work, so we will soon go back into the city and figure it out. 

It's Tuesday now and still no real internet yet. I have written my first test ever for one of my classes today and will review with them tonight. I am pretty excited, seeing as how they have not done any real bible class since the last teacher was here. I know that people are worried about my lack of communication since I have been here, and there are a few emails I need to respond to (Holly Peters cough cough). It's been 12 days since I landed here, but it seems like a month, though the days go by quick. I ate my first mango in country today, it had to ripen for 2 days which was the 2 longest days ever. It was the best mango I have ever eaten, you would of never known I bought it off the side of a busy street in Nairobi. Since I only have 1 class to teach tomorrow, I am going to get some grilled goat meat and fries at a butcher shop in Junction. On Saturday while in the city, I met a German girl who is working at an orphanage down the way from us, it was a chance meeting. I have slowed my reading down to a few pages a day just so I don't jump to far ahead and have nothing to read by the time I leave. I did get to do my first load of laundry yesterday, this would not be as big of a deal if there was a washing machine here. All it takes is 2 buckets of water, a bar of soap, a clothes line and some time. It's peaceful to do until you get a stubborn stain and then it's the most frustrating time. There really is no smog here, even though there is no such thing as a smog check here and all the cars spit out fumes like no other. One of the sheep here had a baby on Saturday and it's up and running around now. Nothing ceases to amaze me here. 

Since I have been here, there is one thing that seems to irk me. I have adapted to everything else, the shower from a empty sprite bottle, washing clothes with a bar of soap, and even the power outages. There is something else that I can't seem to kick, and that is the urge for meat. As a kid, meat was off limits due to the fact that my family were disciples to vegetarianism. I never really felt the strong urge for meat until I was 15 and severed my ties with vegetarianism. It was at that time that I tried meat. And I have yet to go back. Since then, I have tried my best to make up for lost time and eat every animal that I can. Cow, pig, chicken, etc. I have consumed my fair share so far. But here, meat is expensive for the average person to buy, so meat is rarely ever on the menu, and by rarely, I mean never. The other night though, I overheard my housemates talking about a time they traveled up to Junction and bought a kilo of Goat meat for 500 schillings. Junction is a half hour walk from where we are, and a 40 minute walk to the bank, so everything is within walking distance. Seeing as how 500 schillings is only about $6 back home, I had no reason not to go down there. So for a few days, I waited to ship off and find this meat. We went to Nairobi Saturday, so could not go then, Sunday I preached. Can't go then, Monday and Tuesday I had classes and review with my class. So Wednesday was my day. I taught one class in the morning and then had the day to myself. After class. I strapped on my boots, threw on my backpack with a full canteen in it, and took off. The walk felt like it went on forever, I walked down to the bank, got some money, stopped off at the quikmart, picked up some things, then finally made my way to the butchers shop. What I found is it's not just one shop, but several shops all next door to each other, which means that any white man that gets within 50 yards is bound to bombarded with offers of the best meat in Kenya. To make it easy I picked the first shop on the corner. His grill was laid out for every passing person to see what meat he was grilling, I decided he looked best. I looked for the butcher and couldn't seem to find him, finally without missing a step, he jumps up from a seat and runs to the grill ready to show me what he has. As I look at the grill, full legs of Goat are slowly roasting on an open grill, looking as good as any other meat I had seen on a grill. I asked what kind of meat it was. All he said was “meat”. Meat it is then. He ask if  I would like it off the bone, then without my response, starts chopping away. His wife comes out and says “Mzungu likes meat?”, I nodded and laughed. Several other butchers though will still attempting to get me to buy their meat, holding it in the air offering free samples, but for the sake of my butcher, I had to deny their offers. He wraps the meat up in a nice bag, I pay him and now it's a race against time to get home and eat this meat that has plagued my brain for the last week. When walking home though, I could only focus on all the goats that are tied to post on the side of the road just staring at me, knowing that I have a fallen companion of theirs wrapped nicely in a bag ready to eat. I finally sit down at the table ready to fill my stomach with the meat. As I open the bag like it's a Christmas present. I no sooner start eating, the first bite is all it took for me to be hooked. It had the perfect blend of salt and marinade which only complimented the Goat's already unique flavor. As I eat, it only reminds me of the lamb I eat at home. I finish the small bits of cubed meat, and start in on the bones. As I stare at the wonder of Gods own creation, I can't help but see the intricacy of the bone and tendons. The bone has a golden brownish hue to it, as I soon realize though, I am picking meat from the ankle of the Goat, which would be no problem in America, but let still holds a patch of fur the butcher missed. It did not stop me from eating, but it did make me think, “this is incredibly fresh”, the goat was probably killed that morning, only a few hours before I spotted it's leg sitting on a grill ready to be served. After I clean the bone of every bit of good meat, I head outside and toss the bones to the dogs, Fidel Castro and his girlfriend( we call him Castro because he was castrated only an hour before I arrived). The devour the bones in minutes, and enjoy the meat just as much as I did. I am now proud of the fact that I broke down the barrier of nervous American and made the leap into trying to attempt to see what the life of an average Kenyan is like. Of course, I will never be able to know what the life is like, I am only a spectator, but I got the taste of Kenya contained in that meat, the hard work, the sacrifice and the dedication it takes to make a living. It was the fairest of trades, he put food in my stomach so he could put food on the table.

So hello again, it's been another week without an update. We went back into Nairobi last Saturday but they said that all they could do was to call tech support and have it done buy Monday, but now it's Wednesday and still no internet. My housemates headed in again to take care of their own personal things, and said they would stop by and try again. I have been up graded to the 5th grade science teacher, which is a very nice position because the class is the best class here. I gave my 2nd test yesterday in bible for my 2nd bible class, the class average was 82% and the test was pretty tough. Easy to say that I am proud of them. It's been raining the last few days, but only at night. Sunday night the clouds came in and it started to downpour at about midnight. It was up in the 90's though that morning, when I was giving my sermon in church. Last night the rain sounded like heavy wind, but it never stopped. When I woke up this morning, my roommate ran in saying that the 5th grade class room flooded, we both ran down and took pictures. It was about 2 inches of water in the classroom. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever, and within 10 minutes had it cleaned out. The kids are a lot tougher then American kids, tell a bunch of 5th graders in America to clean all the water out of their classroom and they just look at you, tell these kids, and they have it done before class starts. The soil here is killing me though, it soaks up the water like a sponge and then sticks to the bottom of your shoes like nothing else, my shoes are caked with mud and are having to dry out just to get it off. I have adapted well to the shower in a bottle and to hand washing clothes, I am pretty much an expert. Dr. Joe, the owner of the school came back last Thursday from California. The whole area was cleaned before he got here, and school was canceled in the morning. Once and a while, my housemates and I get to eat the extra food from his dinners. Yesterday, someone dropped off 600 bananas here, 200 went to the kids, 40 to my housemates and I, and the rest were taken away for something else. The fruit here is one of my favorite things, the pineapple is the best I have every had, the mango’s are huge, and the bananas are sold in huge bundles. For valentines day, Bill and I bought chocolate bars for a few of the teachers, and seeing as how the chocolate here is so good, they were very happy. Instead of chocolate for us, a bunch of the kids picked the bogon via and gave us both a large amount of flowers. Bill and I also went into junction yesterday after school and bought more Goat meat, which we devoured like Vikings. On Saturday, after dealing with the internet problems, we met up with some friends from bible study and took a very long walk to a park that is home to a lot of monkeys, they grabbed food from us and ran around. I have a lot of pictures.  Everything has been fine here, and I have worked into my groove here. It's hard to believe it's only week 3 here, and that I have 15 more to go. I got to see my first bootleg DVD today, one of the kids got their hands on the expendables, it was in English, but the subtitles were in Swahili.   I promise that the blog will be updated more often as soon as the internet is fixed. As for all my facebook people, don't feel unloved if I don't respond right away, I do see your comments and messages but I don't have tons of time on the modem cause it's used for the school. Happy late 11th anniversary to Phil and Sarah, I wish I could have been there for it, or better yet, you be here for it. You will all know if my internet is good to go if you see this blog post.

Love you all.

p.s sorry Mom for eating all the Frenches onions in the pantry and not telling you.