I am home from a 12 day journey "up country". I traveled about 800 kilometers north (past the equator! :) ) to spend time with the families of friends I have made in the last 4 months. My first destination was to the home of a pastor-in-training named Peter Nyonje. He's an older fellow, whose first born son is heading to ANU to student science in January. It was great being in their home. They live in a sugar plantation that is maintained by the family (immediate and extended) - I learned that while my teeth are stronger than most in the US, they don't hold snuff up to Peter's sons who have grown up peeling sugar cane with their teeth. I tried it...it felt like I was chewing on a piece of wood. One example of how I had to return to the state of foreigner hyper-dependency for the first few days I was there. Peter's home was beautiful - on a hill over looking the river bordering the Nyanza providence and the Rift Valley Providence. Panoramic views of the Kenyan countryside accompanied everything we did. It was a relaxing time as they did not allow me to do anything as far as work. At length I managed to coerce the family to let me help with some planting, and taking me some places...they were surprised at how far I could walk (it wasn't that far...)
I spent my birthday with Peter's family, they all gathered and we ate, his daughters and nieces sang for me (which sounded very good! crazy.) and he gave me a sweet pot from a potter who lives a km or so from his village. It's a sweet pot, versatile and good looking! It was so great spending time with him and his family. Some of them did not know English or Swahili...so it was interesting trying to communicate, though I did pick up some of their tribal language (They are Luo...I mainly learned thank you, good morning, how are you, I'm fine, and grandma! :) )
On the 22nd I met up with Charles' family. It was a great time - they are all grown, functional people who live in and around Nairobi. We all piled into a bright blue 14 passenger van and traveled another 3 hours or so North to his parents home. It was with the Okinyo family (they call themselves OFA...awesome.) that I spent my Christmas in Kenya. It was a great time, plenty of straight up hanging out, eating washing dishes (they actually let me help, God bless them) and playing games. On Christmas morning we slaughtered a ram to roast (nyama choma!) for the big Christmas meal. We didn't exchange gifts till boxing day, and it was a white elephant style deal. I was left with some funny little toy that is small and peculiar.
Oh a sad note: I took about 550 pictures and videos (3.4 gb). On Christmas day I accidentally formatted my memory card, deleting everything. Very heart breaking business...they were some special pictures. Luckily, after a few hours and days I don't feel that sinking disappointment anymore. I gave my card to a friend of Charles' brother Japheth who works for a data recovery company. I hope they can get the pictures back, but my expectations are not high. Pray that Timothy's computers are smart enough to recover the lost data!
It's nice to be "home" in Nairobi, able to communicate with my family again and sleep in my bed. It was a wonderful trip - something I'll remember forever and something I wish I could have shared with everyone I love. Thanks for your prayers. As far as I can tell I made it off the trip healthy enough, so I have so much to be thankful for. It's surreal to think of there only being 2 months left (2/3! I think in ratios.) ... I hope that God uses me in exciting ways during these last 2 months in Kenya.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Kenya Update 12/14/09 - Jamburi Days
Happy Birthday-week Ardreys! Friday was my Dad's birthday, tomorrow is my sisters birthday, and Saturday is MY birthday! Wahoo. I gave Dad a call during his birthday dinner which required me to get up at 3 am in the morning...I had some halfway coherent conversations with some friends sitting remotely in my living room...but it was 3 am, so I take no real responsibility for what I said!
This weekend was Jamburi Day in Kenya - Kenyan Independence day, if you will. It's pretty sweet end of the semester, especially for the students...Friday was the last day of classes, and Saturday was a public holiday. Speaking of Saturday, the Nairobi Chamber Chorus (who I have the GOOD fortune of singing with) was invited to sing at the National celebration at the Nairobi State House - where the President of Kenya lives. It was a big ol' jamboree in the front yard of the State House, there were about 12 (maybe?) performing groups to provide entertainment for Mr. Kibaki (the president) and a bunch of dignitary hoo-ha's. We were one of those groups. It was a lovely day, and I expected to get home late afternoon and do some stuff before dinner. Well, the event was scheduled for 2 pm, but Mr. Kibaki did not show up until about 4:45, so the program didn't really get moving until 5.
The singing and dancing was all very fun though - I wish they allowed me to take pictures! They were checking cameras at the edge of the State House property. Very sad because there were some awesome traditional performers that would've made some wonderful pictures...not to mention the President. Oh well. Its the closest I've ever been to a political "big wig" so it was pretty fun.
SUNDAY we had a performance as well. I went to church in the morning then hopped down to Nairobi to meet up with the choir. After some scrambling to photocopy music, we all piled into a matatu and went to the British High Chancellors house. I actually know nothing about what the British High Chancellor does, but the event was a fund raiser for um... something. Anyway, we had a good time, it was a long concert where we sang most of our repertoire, including a good chunk of Christmas carols. Highlight of the day for me (despite their lovely home and mince pies they gave us...so. delicious.) was our accompanist (accompianist? :) ) A Chinese woman whose name I forget (so you won't have to butcher it) had her "Doctor of Musical Arts", basically the PhD of piano performance. She was incredible! I wish she played more pieces, but alas.
After the concert I spent the night at Emmanuel Ashene's place. It was quite fun, we watched a movie, ate some githeri and eggs...then we fell asleep to the addicting goodness of 24. So good - though I'm glad I don't have the DVDs, I would have no soul.
Today, I hope to touch base with my Norwegian friend at St. Paul's orphanage to hopefully make some progress on their website (it all depends on whether I can find some air time...), finish my laundry and juggle other details and responsibilities.
On Wednesday morning (early!) I'll be going up country for a bit less than 2 weeks. This will be quite fun, I am looking forward to it, but it means I need to finish some stuff up on campus promptly! Pray for me for the wisdom/discipline to finish things on time and not forget anything!
This weekend was Jamburi Day in Kenya - Kenyan Independence day, if you will. It's pretty sweet end of the semester, especially for the students...Friday was the last day of classes, and Saturday was a public holiday. Speaking of Saturday, the Nairobi Chamber Chorus (who I have the GOOD fortune of singing with) was invited to sing at the National celebration at the Nairobi State House - where the President of Kenya lives. It was a big ol' jamboree in the front yard of the State House, there were about 12 (maybe?) performing groups to provide entertainment for Mr. Kibaki (the president) and a bunch of dignitary hoo-ha's. We were one of those groups. It was a lovely day, and I expected to get home late afternoon and do some stuff before dinner. Well, the event was scheduled for 2 pm, but Mr. Kibaki did not show up until about 4:45, so the program didn't really get moving until 5.
The singing and dancing was all very fun though - I wish they allowed me to take pictures! They were checking cameras at the edge of the State House property. Very sad because there were some awesome traditional performers that would've made some wonderful pictures...not to mention the President. Oh well. Its the closest I've ever been to a political "big wig" so it was pretty fun.
SUNDAY we had a performance as well. I went to church in the morning then hopped down to Nairobi to meet up with the choir. After some scrambling to photocopy music, we all piled into a matatu and went to the British High Chancellors house. I actually know nothing about what the British High Chancellor does, but the event was a fund raiser for um... something. Anyway, we had a good time, it was a long concert where we sang most of our repertoire, including a good chunk of Christmas carols. Highlight of the day for me (despite their lovely home and mince pies they gave us...so. delicious.) was our accompanist (accompianist? :) ) A Chinese woman whose name I forget (so you won't have to butcher it) had her "Doctor of Musical Arts", basically the PhD of piano performance. She was incredible! I wish she played more pieces, but alas.
After the concert I spent the night at Emmanuel Ashene's place. It was quite fun, we watched a movie, ate some githeri and eggs...then we fell asleep to the addicting goodness of 24. So good - though I'm glad I don't have the DVDs, I would have no soul.
Today, I hope to touch base with my Norwegian friend at St. Paul's orphanage to hopefully make some progress on their website (it all depends on whether I can find some air time...), finish my laundry and juggle other details and responsibilities.
On Wednesday morning (early!) I'll be going up country for a bit less than 2 weeks. This will be quite fun, I am looking forward to it, but it means I need to finish some stuff up on campus promptly! Pray for me for the wisdom/discipline to finish things on time and not forget anything!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Kenya Update 12/9/09 - The Wedding Weekend
How many days have I not posted in my blog just because "I don't even know where to start"? The answer to that question is 2. The problem with this particular excuse for inactivity is that the longer you wait, the more happens, and the more difficult it is to start writing about it! Craziness.
I will start with Friday and walk through one of the coolest weddings I've ever been to! Friday night all the groomsmen and bridesmaids came to the campus of ANU for the rehearsal and to spend the night so there would be no complications in the morning. The rehearsal was, well, a wedding rehearsal (slightly painful but necessary), and I had 2 groomsmen spend the night with me in my flat. It was a nice time, though Samsung (the fellow I was sharing my bed with) didn't come to bed till 4...some folks have some seriously weird sleep cycles/body chemistry. Saturday morning we woke up nice and early and headed to where Dibo (the groom) was getting ready for breakfast and harassment. I'm proud to say all the groomsmen were there on time, the ladies were a bit late, but all in all the ceremony was extremely punctual, starting at 10:30am with a published start time of 10:00 am (bravo!) This is very foreign for African weddings, evidenced by the fact that very few people were at the ceremony when it first started (even 30 minutes later than what was on the invitation!) Dibo tells me that guests were still arriving at 3 pm, surprised that they missed the ceremony...so funny.
African weddings are awesome. Even Americanized ones. Everyone was SO excited. It reminded me of the state of the union address in that the pastor could not finish 2 sentences without the crowd bursting into cheers and applause (though the cheers and applause were definitely more genuine then they are when our president speaks!) What else was cool? There was a troupe of women from Dibo's family and from around campus who surrounded Jeannette before she even entered the church, singing dancing and celebrating. Such a cool tradition. During the reception they have public presentation of gifts - which was great. It was fun watching Jeannette figure out what to do when one of Dibo's relatives gave her a live rooster. The reception was very nice and wrapped up by about 3 o'clock. Dibo and Jeannette stayed around to spend time with Jeannette's mom (Cathy) who flew in from Oregon for the wedding.
You can find some sweet pictures from the wedding on my Picasa page.
Sunday was also a very neat day - church was a lot of fun. My Congolese neighbor's son Gustaf decided he wanted to sit with me on my chair while I was playing my drum during worship...so that means I was multitasking keeping him well behaved (no shadows in the projector), keeping him from falling off the chair, and playing my djembe the whole time...it was quite the challenge! After church Pastor Gift grabbed me and we went to help fix the roof on the home of a church family...it was hot work, but it definitely helped (when it rained the water flooded into their front door, so we put up an extra piece of sheet metal to help keep the water out.)
It is eye opening to see some of the needs people have in Kenya - they are often so simple to meet. Just a few dollars can make such a difference in these peoples lives who are struggling to feed their families, much less buy material to keep their home from flooding!
Tuesday was a very fun day as well. I spent the morning working on data entry for the registrar (slightly more fun than invigilating...slightly...) and giving Rao Yi an english session. After that I met up with Jeannette, Dibo and their Mom to go see some elephants. Unfortunately we were 15 minutes late to their feeding which means we did not get to see them. Very sad. We went and got pizza to make up for it. After lunch we spent a bit over 2 hours at St. Paul's children's home playing with the kids. It is so great having Dibo there. He's got such a gift for children's ministry, and he knows Swahili which is a huge help. Jeannette got some pictures, I'll start a Picasa album for St. Paul's. Though the kids kind of go crazy when there are camera's around, so I might avoid pictures more than I want to.
Lots of walking, lots of friends and good times in Kenya. Like I mentioned, I'm doing data entry for the registrar, doing my best to get to the orphanage whenever I can and I'm also helping the student council plan their "cultural week" in February. It's hard to plan things here - lots of hoops and you're forced to hop through.
I miss the snow, but I'm loving the weather here. It's perfect, and I have the most impressive farmers tan of my life!
I will start with Friday and walk through one of the coolest weddings I've ever been to! Friday night all the groomsmen and bridesmaids came to the campus of ANU for the rehearsal and to spend the night so there would be no complications in the morning. The rehearsal was, well, a wedding rehearsal (slightly painful but necessary), and I had 2 groomsmen spend the night with me in my flat. It was a nice time, though Samsung (the fellow I was sharing my bed with) didn't come to bed till 4...some folks have some seriously weird sleep cycles/body chemistry. Saturday morning we woke up nice and early and headed to where Dibo (the groom) was getting ready for breakfast and harassment. I'm proud to say all the groomsmen were there on time, the ladies were a bit late, but all in all the ceremony was extremely punctual, starting at 10:30am with a published start time of 10:00 am (bravo!) This is very foreign for African weddings, evidenced by the fact that very few people were at the ceremony when it first started (even 30 minutes later than what was on the invitation!) Dibo tells me that guests were still arriving at 3 pm, surprised that they missed the ceremony...so funny.
African weddings are awesome. Even Americanized ones. Everyone was SO excited. It reminded me of the state of the union address in that the pastor could not finish 2 sentences without the crowd bursting into cheers and applause (though the cheers and applause were definitely more genuine then they are when our president speaks!) What else was cool? There was a troupe of women from Dibo's family and from around campus who surrounded Jeannette before she even entered the church, singing dancing and celebrating. Such a cool tradition. During the reception they have public presentation of gifts - which was great. It was fun watching Jeannette figure out what to do when one of Dibo's relatives gave her a live rooster. The reception was very nice and wrapped up by about 3 o'clock. Dibo and Jeannette stayed around to spend time with Jeannette's mom (Cathy) who flew in from Oregon for the wedding.
You can find some sweet pictures from the wedding on my Picasa page.
 |
| The Dibo Wedding |
Sunday was also a very neat day - church was a lot of fun. My Congolese neighbor's son Gustaf decided he wanted to sit with me on my chair while I was playing my drum during worship...so that means I was multitasking keeping him well behaved (no shadows in the projector), keeping him from falling off the chair, and playing my djembe the whole time...it was quite the challenge! After church Pastor Gift grabbed me and we went to help fix the roof on the home of a church family...it was hot work, but it definitely helped (when it rained the water flooded into their front door, so we put up an extra piece of sheet metal to help keep the water out.)
It is eye opening to see some of the needs people have in Kenya - they are often so simple to meet. Just a few dollars can make such a difference in these peoples lives who are struggling to feed their families, much less buy material to keep their home from flooding!
Tuesday was a very fun day as well. I spent the morning working on data entry for the registrar (slightly more fun than invigilating...slightly...) and giving Rao Yi an english session. After that I met up with Jeannette, Dibo and their Mom to go see some elephants. Unfortunately we were 15 minutes late to their feeding which means we did not get to see them. Very sad. We went and got pizza to make up for it. After lunch we spent a bit over 2 hours at St. Paul's children's home playing with the kids. It is so great having Dibo there. He's got such a gift for children's ministry, and he knows Swahili which is a huge help. Jeannette got some pictures, I'll start a Picasa album for St. Paul's. Though the kids kind of go crazy when there are camera's around, so I might avoid pictures more than I want to.
Lots of walking, lots of friends and good times in Kenya. Like I mentioned, I'm doing data entry for the registrar, doing my best to get to the orphanage whenever I can and I'm also helping the student council plan their "cultural week" in February. It's hard to plan things here - lots of hoops and you're forced to hop through.
I miss the snow, but I'm loving the weather here. It's perfect, and I have the most impressive farmers tan of my life!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Kenya Update 12/4/09 - Invigilation
This week I learned a new word: invigilation. This is like the old school style of proctoring exams, literally defined as "keeping watch over examination candidates to prevent cheating" (thanks Google define:!) I think sometimes how "cool" a word sounds influences my gut reaction to how cool something is. For example: I was asked to be an invigilator for the final exams that were help this week! That sounded very cool, like I would get a sash or a whistle... but it turns out invigilating is not as exciting as it sounds - indeed the act of saying the word "invigilation" is more fun than the act of invigilating itself! The way that final exams work is super intimidating though - 400 students in one room with invigilators walking up and down the aisles looking for cheaters...for 3 hours...in silence...fun? Reminded me of the standardized tests we took growing up.
My students did well enough on their exam, both passing, one with flying colors and the other with muted earth tones. Uncanny how there is a direct relationship between how much you study and how well you do on exams. Who would have thought?
Yesterday evening I spent time with the Pitts getting ready for Christmas. This involved eating a delightfully home cooked meal while watching Elf, putting up Christmas decorations and a long conversation. It is very good to have people in your life to encourage you who seem to encouraged by you in the process. This is their first Christmas sans immediate family as well, so it's good to be together. Also, when I was doing lights I shocked myself with good ol' 220v Kenyan AC current...it didn't feel good, but my hearts still beating. More fodder for that "2 Truths and a Lie" game that everyone (teenagers) love so much!
The name of the game this weekend is wedding. Tomorrow Dibo and Jeannette are getting married, which means this evening I'll have 4 of the groomsmen sleeping in my flat, which will be WILD. 2 in the bed, 1 on the floor and one on the coach. Super fun. Tomorrow should be fun too. Dibo asked me to be a groomsman which is quite an honor and pleasure, and I get a nice blue tie from China (um...no lie) out of the deal! I don't know what tonight will hold, but I know tomorrow will be a very exciting day (while it will be exhausting!) I'll be sure to take pictures of the festivities.
My thoughts are with everyone at home during Christmas preparations. It won't be easy being apart, but God is faithful - and we're still celebrating together, we'll just be doing it globally instead of locally! :) Speaking of which, there is a neat thing that the Blood:Water Mission folks are doing this year...for 85 dollars you can buy whats called a BioSand Filter, a device that uses sand to clean water. It is hard for us to imagine how great the need for clean water is in developing countries - but it's true. This filter seems like a natural and efficient way to improve peoples lives where its not possible to get clean well water. Check out the site and video and think about the real difference your dollars can make for people!
My students did well enough on their exam, both passing, one with flying colors and the other with muted earth tones. Uncanny how there is a direct relationship between how much you study and how well you do on exams. Who would have thought?
Yesterday evening I spent time with the Pitts getting ready for Christmas. This involved eating a delightfully home cooked meal while watching Elf, putting up Christmas decorations and a long conversation. It is very good to have people in your life to encourage you who seem to encouraged by you in the process. This is their first Christmas sans immediate family as well, so it's good to be together. Also, when I was doing lights I shocked myself with good ol' 220v Kenyan AC current...it didn't feel good, but my hearts still beating. More fodder for that "2 Truths and a Lie" game that everyone (teenagers) love so much!
The name of the game this weekend is wedding. Tomorrow Dibo and Jeannette are getting married, which means this evening I'll have 4 of the groomsmen sleeping in my flat, which will be WILD. 2 in the bed, 1 on the floor and one on the coach. Super fun. Tomorrow should be fun too. Dibo asked me to be a groomsman which is quite an honor and pleasure, and I get a nice blue tie from China (um...no lie) out of the deal! I don't know what tonight will hold, but I know tomorrow will be a very exciting day (while it will be exhausting!) I'll be sure to take pictures of the festivities.
My thoughts are with everyone at home during Christmas preparations. It won't be easy being apart, but God is faithful - and we're still celebrating together, we'll just be doing it globally instead of locally! :) Speaking of which, there is a neat thing that the Blood:Water Mission folks are doing this year...for 85 dollars you can buy whats called a BioSand Filter, a device that uses sand to clean water. It is hard for us to imagine how great the need for clean water is in developing countries - but it's true. This filter seems like a natural and efficient way to improve peoples lives where its not possible to get clean well water. Check out the site and video and think about the real difference your dollars can make for people!
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