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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment