March maddness and de-hairing

Um wow, crazy last few days, and by crazy i mean fun. i will avoid long chunks of writing and go for bullet points.

-my housemates and i were not able to do a march maddness bracket this year, but we all picked 1 team that would go all the way. i picked Uconn, my roommate picked KU and my last housemate never got around to picking one. well as we checked the bracket, we saw that KU and UCONN were doing really well. last week we found out they would play each other. we made a deal that whoever goes all the way and wins has to buy the other lunch in Nairobi. the original bet was a pineapple, but we upped the anty. so i checked today, and UCONN beat KU 56-55. now they have to beat butler and it will be mine.

-as a end of term gift to my favorite class, standard 5, i allowed them to shave my head. since my beard has grown out, most of the kids have said to shave both my head and face. i refused. but my roommate let his best class shave his, so i got mine done too. the standard 5 kids have never shaved a head before mine, so i have a few cuts on my head. but no worries. they thought it was a great time. pics on FB it you want to see. i am bald now, but have a beard. i look like jeff bridges in iron man.

-schools out. end of term was friday, so now a lot of the kids went back to families or guardians for the month of april . no school for a whole month is very nice. i feel like it's my own summer break or something. but this is my spring break, which i can like. we are planning trips to Nairobi and i have missions press buisness which will boom during that time.

-today is my half way mark. in 2 months i will be on a plane coming home. weird to think. we are supposed to have 3 new housemates from colorado coming in may, which that will be fun too.

-i am pretty sure i sprained my big toe. and i have a huge scar now from helping move heavy bags of building equipment.

well that is all i can think of right now. i will find something cool to write about this week.

score one for dixie.

2 months and endterms

Hey everyone, yesterday was the mark of my 2nd month here, woot woot. the half way mark is not until sunday though. nothing to crazy going on here though. Endterms started for the school though, so today i just sat in classes waiting for kids to get exams done. after this week, we will have vacation till may, sooo kinda excited. i plan on getting missions press stuff done during that time and doing American things in Nairobi. this trip is going by so fast, but I am loving it. i was able to call home yesterday morning which was a nice way to kick off my day. i watched the sun rise which was amazing while talking to my mom and sister.
so since there is not a lot to report on this week, i will make another fun list. this weeks list is called "what i wish i brought with me to Kenya"

i brought a lot of stuff to kenya, but there is even more that i wish i brought.

1. canned food. after eating the same thing everyday for lunch and dinner, you get kind of sick of it. with canned food, i would be able to mix it up a bit with maybe clam chowder, or maybe corned beef hash in a can, or something.

2. more clothes. i put myself into "missions trip mode" when i packed my bag. only so many shirts got to come with me on account of weight and room. i had a vision in my head of having to trek through the jungle carrying the bag to my house. but now that i am here, i kinda wish i had a few more shirts. and maybe another pair of shorts.

3. more 550 cord. i find tons of uses for paracord when i am at home. but here, i can find 10x that. they make good shoelaces, you can use it to hang up a net for sleeping, keep things tied down etc. it's crazy. so more is always good.

4. more zipties. i put before that zipties are the smartest thing you can bring. they still are, but i only had so many. we had a screen that keeps bugs out of our room. well one night, it fell down and we were invaded. i grabbed my zipties and quickly put the screen back on, only to find that i used all of them. rats.

5. headlamp. i destroyed my room before i left looking for my headlamp. i sadly left without it. i felt like andy when he can't find his woody or buzz doll right before he moves away in toy story. and everyday i kick my self more and more for not destroying more. the power goes out a lot, so it would totally come in handy....if i had it.

6. more batteries, i planned on being able to go without a lot of electronics while here, but in reality, my flashlights are my friend, and they need power to live. over kill is under rated.

7. beef jerky. you don't miss it till it's gone, but meat is pricy and hard to find here. jerky though is easy to keep good. i miss the taste of dried beef though. pemmican is where it's at.

8. a bigger mosquito net. the net i have now on my bed is a tight fit. if i move my arm a little bit, i am giving it up to the little buzzing death dealing monsters that wait for little mistakes to find you and attempt to eat you.

9. more books. i brought 3 books: American Buffalo by steven rinella, Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxes, and under the over pass by some guy i forget. again, to save room and weight, i took out a few books. when i got on the plane, i knew i would finish American Buffalo before i landed. 2 hours before i landed in Nairobi, i read the last page. sad day. since then i have read the book now 5 times, it's a good book, but i have to much time on my hands. Bonhoeffer is being read every other week to savor it. i am half way through. and i am saving under the over pass for the flight home. all i can say is maybe some Jim Harrison or Hemmingway would be nice.

10. more photos. the kids love seeing photos of America. i have one that they like to look at for what seems like forever. a few more would of been nice.


my uncle John gave me the basics of packing for hiking trips. i used every little bit of knowledge that i could for packing for this trip. the pack was under weight, and i have everything i need. but man, 4 months is a long time to go without some things. sacrifice right?

well that's all for now. toodles.

St. Pats and Nairobi after dark

well, um this is a bit awkward, it's been a while since i posted last. errr.
we have had limited power this week so it's been kinda fun. this week has been filled with a lot of work, getting ready for endterms, and the date keeps jumping around so we are always on our toes. i have 3 bible classes to make endterms for, and the review was not as fun. those 2 years sitting in mr youngs theology class in high school though was perfect for me. just teaching what he taught me. but i keep having dreams where he gives me test that i am not totally prepared for, but still am able to do somewhat good. saturday i went into Nairobi to meet with Beto Paz who is the head of Missions for East Africa. we met at village market which is the nicest place in east Africa. its by the embassy and very very very white. nice areas to eat, wifi, super nice shopping areas, it's awesome. we were able to talk for a while about ministry options in Kenya and the needs of the leaders. very good stuff to work off of. after we were done I was in no hurry to leave, so i walked around, went to a naku mart which operates like the black market, they will never have the same food twice. i found airplane cans of pepsi, something tells me if i went back, it would not be there again. i found corn, which does not grow here, they have jerky, which is not made here. it's crazy, but i loved it. i bought a thing of french bread and ate that for a snack and then went in for pizza. so strange to eat real food. i also was able to meet up with my dear friend Jessie Hamilton who i met last time. Jessie was here for 6 months while going to school here. she is still in high school but she almost runs kenya. we were able to chat for a while and she gave me American food, always good. later at the matatu station, while getting poured on by rain, i finally fought for my spot on the last bus home, that took an hour and a half to get to ruai. i got home at 10 pm ish and was beat, wet, and happy about my trip. so that's last weekend in a nutshell.

post more later. and keep your eyes open for pics on facebook.

yippie skippy

Hills, mangoes, and menergy

Hola dear friends, it has been a while since I last posted. We found out that we must top up the internet account every month on monday, and just now found refills to do it. I have had a very interesting week with a good amount of traveling. I will try my best to tell you everything.

Last friday, my housemates and I went with a church that we go to for bible study on friday nights called AIC. It's a satellite church of Africa Inland church, which has been around since 1895. the trip was to a Mountain area called Kwambiti, which is the burial site of the first missionary to East Africa. We did not know much about it before we left but as soon as we got there, we started learning a lot. We learned that it takes 6 hours to get there, and you can fit 22 people into a van made for 14(not comfortably though).Another fun fact is vans cant negotiate incredibly rocky roads, which then calls for the following; grab your things and start walking. So we made the hike up to the church, walking aimlessly until someone said which way to go. After a while, we finally made it. We left at about 6 and arrived there at 1:30 am. We were fed a very nice dinner of Kasava root and modacoi. We then went to sleep at 2:30 am. The area just received power last December, and it has still yet to reach the church we were staying, which is also an AIC church. Everything is lit by kerosene lamps which you don't care about when your dead tired. In a large classroom, all 22 men slept on mattress pads, me included. The girls had a very similar set up, just up a little higher then us. When we woke up at 5 am, to the sound of the pastor declaring it was time for morning glory, I almost understood the feeling of Muslims that wake up for morning prayer before the sun arises. We all headed in to the church and had our very early morning service. As soon as that was over, I debated if I could work in an extra hour of sleep while everyone else was getting ready. It did not work out so well. As soon as the sun came up though, we were able to see the area surrounding us. The church was in the middle of a valley that seemed to keep rolling forever. Everything was green and the trees were massive. Mango trees plagued the hills like weeds, and the flowers were massive. We then got to see breakfast, which was Aero root, bananas and sweet potato and of course tea. Since the nearest super market is a few hours drive, everything we ate was as fresh as fresh could be. After breakfast we broke into teams and started the door to door ministry. At home, door to door means going in a neighborhood and knocking on doors, but in the mountains, it means trekking up steep hills and making searching fields to find people. Since the area is beautiful, and the hiking part is always fun, it was a nice trip. The elevation though killed me for the first 45 min, but after getting used to the high elevation, I was able to climb like a billy goat. Each house we stopped at was a very simple dwelling, stone walls and thatch roof. Most families have gardens and keep a good supply of crops growing year round. The people though are some of the nicest people I have encountered ever, after we talked with them and prayed with them, we would leave with a bag of mangos, avacados or anything from their own garden. After 3 hours of busting up hills, we headed back for lunch. I shared an avacado with a teacher who teaches here with me named Zadak, who also worked as my translator, tour guide and sherpa for the walk. Avacados here are bigger and cheaper then what we get in America, the inside is sweeter too. As we cool down from the intense heat, we get the word that the crusade, which was the whole point of this trip, is already starting. The crusade point is actually about a mile away from where we are staying. So again, the walking commences. A crowd of maybe 50-60 people show up as soon as the sounds of the African style keyboard start blaring through the speakers. The crusade was all in Kikumba and translated into Kiswahili, so I was pretty much out of the loop. After that was done for the day, we headed back and I was asked to give the message for the evening devotion, which I assumed would be just our group, but turned out to be the whole church and everyone who was at the crusade. I spoke for about 15 min on hope with the help of a translator. It's fine to speak slowly and in blocks so the translator has time to think, but I almost laughed every time I said something, and he would give me a blank stare and say “Amen?”. We when received dinner, which I still cannot believe. Staple foods are big here, Ugali, beans, maize etc. is a lot of what you can expect where ever you go. But there are a few staple foods that I cannot get enough of, rice served with stew and chapatti. And that is what they gave us. I was about to explode, it's 10 pm, we are all tired, I am trying to sleep on a church pew, and all I can smell is chapatti. But it's not only rice and stew, there is also a good amount of Goat meat being served with it. I ate all I could till the power went out and we all went to bed, perfect ending to a long day. Sunday had the same start as Saturday, 5 am wake up, but this one included mangos, so already a better day. That is until we partook in the 6 hour service the church does. I understand it's Africa, where services go for hours and hours, I can dig it, and on most Sundays, I welcome it. But when your working off of a few hours of sleep, it never ends. At about 2 pm, when the service is about to wrap up, they start a string of events which will always sit with me.

Round 1: the visiting church dance. The point of this is to show the appreciation the visiting church has for the hosting church. 2 lines go down the isle and everyone just dances to the front and then crosses. Usually no big deal, but it is when the only 3 white people the kids have ever seen and the first ones in a long time the adults have seen and trying their hardest to dance like the dance leader. It's then just better then a circus, the people laugh and cheer as we put as much effort into is as we can. We of course are also trying not to laugh, but not as easy.

Round 2: Church auction. I heard stories of church auctions before, people donate crops and things to the church and the church auctions them off to raise money. Simple enough. This one though runs a bit different then what we do in America, instead of having just the winner pay, every bidder, including the losers, have to pay. So if your going in on it, make sure you throw down big. The church though asked if anyone would want to buy something for the whites, which they did. We walked away with a bag of mangos, 1 egg and a bag of green leaves. Hospitality here is like no other.

Round 3: Shake the white mans hand. This was by far the most interesting thing I have done here. They invited the 3 of us to the front to basically greet the whole church, but it's cause white people there are just as rare as white bison being found anywhere. So might as well take advantage of it. We shook the hands of everyone willing to shake our hands, everyone was of course excited. More fun for us.

We then made our way to the crusade, but not without eating some githeri mixed with goat stock. Awesome stuff. The crusade had maybe 100 people that came from a lot of places. At the end of the crusade, everyone walked away with FMP materials like gospel bracelets and tracts. We did not leave there until 11 pm, and made it home at about 5 am Monday morning. Totally worth it though.

Hurray for adventures.

Hello hello, time for tales of fun facts from Africa. The first one is that when your internet minutes must be renewed every month. We did not learn this till Monday and did not get our internet back till Friday. So yeah, it's fine now.  We have had a pretty fun week other then that. I taught the kids about Ash Wednesday and Lent, but I don't think they will give anything up for Lent. We made our own stew on thursday night. It contained pumpkin, onions, garlic, beef stock, kasava root, potatoes. Two of the girls from grade 6 helped us make it cause they said we were doing it wrong. They did 90% of the work that would of taken us a lot longer to do. After it was done, we poured it over rice and had a pretty nice meal. Friday we had a Kesha, which is an all night prayer meeting. It goes from 10 pm to 5 am, and includes everything from singers, dancers, prayer (duh), and preachers and of course tea and mandazies . I brought in a thing of strong coffee to keep me going, so that helped a lot. By 5 am though, I was beat. Saturday was a very laid back day. I went to the butcher down the road and bought beef and onions and we made a pretty nice dinner. We added some boiled potatoes to it and it made it very nice. Even though I asked for 10, the lady gave me a very large bag with at least 50 instead. I gave the rest to the kitchen to use for dinner tonight. No real updates other then that, I am now the bible teacher for class 8. I am really moving up in the world. I bought shampoo that is Nivea brand but all in Arabic other then the words, "Menergy" and "Rebellious" i like it. smells like death though. Also bought African peanut butter, which is kinda expensive. not as good.

So till something interesting happens.

orphans on a tight rope and a 1 month anniversary

i think the title of this entry is the best so far.

Yesterday was a very fun day, i gave the sermon, was able to right a very very long message to an awesome someone, and then the fun started. the power went out ("hakuna Stema") so bill busted out his slackrope, which is a "hacky sack" version of a tight rope. he put it between two trees and in no time, had 30 kids wanting to go on. at first it tough for them, but after a few times, they could clear the 13' of rope in a few sec. they still held on to our shoulders but they had it down. i tried it and did not do to bad, bill said it's tougher for tall people, but seeing as how everyone calls him kamow, which means tall warrior in swahili, i figured it take a good bit of practice.

before i left, my friend Holly Peters, the same one who named my blog, said she wanted to do a pen pal type thing but with email. we finally got to pick back up with it earlier this week which was a nice change of pace to the average day. to stop and read about stuff my friends are doing back home makes me feel more at home. i love updates about home just as much as you guys love updates about here. 

to fill in space i will tell you about how to buy soda here.
you have 2 options when buying soda, glass or plastic. plastic is easy but cost more, seeing how recycling is tougher to do here. glass though is a bit tougher. i noticed the last time i was here, that bottles get reused for soda here, after being cleaned of course. new lables are applied and they are refilled. since they don't have to make glass bottles new as much, it requires a down payment on a glass bottle. so you buy your orange fanta or coke or krest or something, you pay 125 schill for it, once you drink it, and want another, to to a shop and return the bottle, then you exchange for another soda and only pay 25 schill. the bottles get picked up and go through the process again. there are always 2 sizes, 300L and 500L, the bigger the bottle you bring back, the more money off. it's a neat system. though i have not since i got off the plane.

random fact updates

-i am reading a book that i got from the school book depository called "3 cups of tea". i suggest you go out and buy it and read it. it's amazingly good.
-i have not been able to buy salsa making materials yet.
-i will be gone this weekend on an outreach in the mountains with a church that my housemates introduced me too.
-i learned how to make mud bowls today
-today is my 1 month anniversary of being in Kenya woot woot. now 3 more to go.

okay that's all

bye

ich bin ein American

'Well hello again all, my blog post are becoming more frequent because of days off and having the internet. Things have been interesting around here this week, I have had classes canceled due to mid term exams, which means a lot of free time. Next week should be normal. We only have till the end of march though to teach, and then mid terms again, and then a long break. I will use my break chilling out in Nairobi and doing whatever I can for FMP. My highlight of the week is still the dinner we cooked on Tuesday. I will attempt to make salsa tomorrow if possible, they have everything I need to make it but who knows if it will come out the same. My roommate and I have been spending an hour each night hanging out in the boys dorm before they go to bed. It's a lot of fun because the boys are crazy and wild even though they should be in bed soon. Some boys wake up just to hang out. They have been trying to teach me Swahili, but it's not as easy as it sounds. I now tell them “mimi ni simba” which means “I am Lion” in Swahili. I taught them a few words of German and Spanish but it was a no go. It reminds me of kids camp. We show the kids our facebook photos of us and our friends, and it blows their minds. They like the white people. I went on google maps and showed them where we were but from space. We also showed our homes to them on google maps, maybe not the best choice. They like CNN, and like learning about things other then where they live. I might push to teach an intercultural studies class maybe in May, but who knows. A lot of them think London is a country, they only think that because of where Soccer teams go. It is funny to hear them yell at the planes that fly over the school, if it's Emirates, they will yell “Fly Emirates!!!!!!” because thats the slogan that goes on kenya soccer jerseys. We finished the bootleg version of the Expendables yesterday, I laughed when you could see people standing up in front of the screen, just to prove that it was shot in a movie theater in Russia. Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode. I was able to surf the internet like an American yesterday too. I read a few articles on roasting pigs and one on skinning goats. I am preparing to by something big for the kids before I leave, and meat is an awesome thing to by them since they never really get it. A Goat is around $25, so maybe for Easter I could toss in a live goat for dinner. The rule is the person who gives it has to slaughter it. I thought it could be a really nice example for an Easter message. Before I leave though in June, I was thinking a pig might be nice to do, we have the supplies to roast it the Hawaiian way, plenty of pineapple, red onions, garlic etc. I think it can be done. I will have to talk to the cook about it, but knowing him, he would be up for it, he might even throw in his expertise into it and make it the best pig anyone could ever eat. The cooks name is George, and he's one of my favorite people here. He is calm and collected always, but will make me laugh some how when ever I set foot in the kitchen. We just made him a facebook this week. He grew up watching the NBA during the Jordan years, he likes American cartoons and can cook some of the best meals. We like to use really bad swahili around him to make him laugh.

The list of kids I would like to adopt is getting longer everyday. It's hard not to love them. It makes me happy that I won't leave for a while, and I told them the other day in service, that yes I miss America but this is where God wants me, and this is where I want to be. They think my watch is the most interesting thing in the world. But even I think that. I made my first goal in soccer last week in a quick pick up game with a few of the kids. Proud moment, but Lucy says they let me score. I am getting better at it......kinda. the soap opera we watch ended last night, so we have to find something else to do at 8 pm. My dreams lately have been varied and always strange. Last night I had a dream that I was talking to a bunch of my friends about butcher shops but kept getting interupted when trying to talk. The other night I was at a gun show and some protest group proved that you could steal guns easy from gun shows, and I started yelling “those are loaded” but no one responded. I hope the dreams get less weird, I would love that. But till then, yay for American dreams.

Bill and I were tasked with leading the service on wednesday, which was the first one to be done on a wednesday. We had some idea of what we were doing, but it all worked out. i turned to him and said "2 mzungu's lead a service". I felt like it was a youth group wednesday night at cornerstone, but i did not get to do any lame jokes. I love being able to speak here, since i always have at least a few backup sermons ready. i talked about Jonah on wednesday with the kids, my favorite sermon i have ever done. i did it in front of orange lutheran last year, and was more then happy to do it again.

Love you all.

more updates soon.

in search of goat meat part 2

3 weeks ago I consumed my first kilo of grilled goat meat. last week my roommate and i did it again, and i was just as happy. but this week i wanted something a bit different. my roommate bill and i went up to junction to get a few things. while waiting at the post office while bill was sending somethings, i could not help but watch one of the many butchers of the 1/8th of a mile strip of shops clean a very large hunk of meat. she went over it with a small knife like a someone shaving. so delicate and caring, she striped the meat of everything that was not good to eat. my stomach wanted meat. after stopping off at a few stands, we bought onions, garlic and herbs, just to have to mix into dinners and what not. we hit on the subject of getting a few kilos of meat for dinner, but bill said "why not get it raw and cook it at home?". so after stopping at the butcher shop and being tempted by the already cooked meat on the grill, i walked inside to buy the freshest meat i could. i put up 2 fingers and as clear as i could, said "2 kilos of goat". the man inside became so excited, he grabbed a fresh leg, and started chopping and weighing it. "1. 3 kilos" he kept saying, i guess 2 was not possible. after some talks with bill, he dropped the price from 700 schill to 580. Tip 1: always bring the smarter American with you when buying anything. we took the meet home, but not without striking fear into a few passing goats by showing them their own departed brothers. when we got home, i went to our resident expert chef, Lucy. i sometimes call Lucy our team mom, because she takes care of us much like a team mom would do for her sons basketball team. Lucy lives on the premises with her 2 daughters and the 3rd one going to a nice school close by. Lucy has agreed to show us how to prepare the meat and make it the best possible. she would know, the food she produces is out of this world good.

she starts by boiling the meat in a pot for 10-15 min to get the meat to fall off the bone. already i start to get really hungry. after it's done, she transfers the meat to a tray and starts slicing as much of the meat away from the bone. not long after hitting the tray, there is a nice pile of meat. she then takes the onions and garlic and herbs we bought and throws them into an empty pot. i should mention the water that the goat was boiled in is being saved almost as a stock for future meals. we heat the pot and toss in the meat. Lucy says to let the meat sit on top so the fat melts off and cooks the onions and garlic below it. we begin to stir it, not wanting anything to burn. it's like stiring almost solid conctrete, the bones work against us stirring, but when Lucy stirs, it's like stirring butter. she tosses in salt and beef seasoning and we are told it's done. the kitchen smells like the kitchen in Heaven smells like, fresh herbs and meat. we portion it out among us (giving Lucy the most) and finally we sit down to eat. the first bite hits me like a nothing else, this is the best meat i have ever eaten. i devour my meal while savoring the intense flavor of the meal. I am somewhat depressed when i took my last bite. but the satisfaction that the entire meal brought with it is unforgettable. on the way to the boys dorms to say good night, the 2 dogs who live here, can't help but follow the smell of the goat that has sunk into my clothes. the boys ask why i smell like meat, i don't respond.

I love kenya.