Far {Africa} is Near

Thank you.

2010-06-23T13:36:00.001-07:00

I often have an issue with putting things off that I don't want to do. In this case, I've been putting off writing this blog post. Its not because I don't want to share my life with you all, but rather I don't want to really face the fact that I'm not in Kenya anymore and that that journey of my life has come to a close. I can't tell you how many times I've sat down to write or laid in bed day dreaming about what to say but when I go to write it down, I just have a continual blank page in front of me...but today I'm facing it and writing.

My last 5 months in Africa were incredible. I can't quite pinpoint what made it so incredible, but it was. Africa became so different to me than when I had first started my journey a year and a half ago. The beginnings of my adventures were bound with fears and uncertainties. Slowly as my time in Africa progressed, the Lord began to strip those fears away and in return asked me to replace those fears with trust. I did. I would often fail and allow fear to overwhelm me but time and time again the Lord provided small reminders to trust in Him.

This past September (right after the plane crash which involved the two missionaries from my mission) I found myself overwhelmed with fear and heartache. I missed my family and friends and wanted nothing else than to end my time in Africa early and to go home and be with people who knew me and could tell me that at the end of the day, 'everything will be OK.' I remember picking up my phone and calling my dad and telling him that I was finished with Africa, didn't want to be there anymore, and that I wanted to come home...NOW. I had anticipated his answer to be something like this: "Sure pumpkin, come on home. You've been there long enough and you are going through some tough stuff lately. I'll buy you a ticket home and you can take some time and see what is next." Before I even picked up my phone to call him that day I dreamed about leaving Africa and how great it would be to be back in the US away from all my hardships that I found in Africa. Sooo...when I got quite a different response from my dad, I was shocked and furious. He said "No...you can't come home. I'm sorry, but you committed to a year and coming home is not an option. I know its hard right now but you will hate me later if I tell you to come home now." I remember being sooooo angry at that response that I called my mom later that day hoping that she would tell me that she would talk to my dad and see if they can get me home. Nope! Not her either. She agreed with my dad 100%. If it wasn't for the fact that I was on a missionary budget and didn't have enough money for a plane ticket home, I would have been in a jet in an instant.

I couldn't understand it at the time. My mind was so consumed with going home in September that I couldn't even look past that. I felt like that would be the best medicine for me....to escape from Africa and come home where life is 'easier.' Now, after not only spending a year in Africa, but rather a year and a half, I am SO thankful that my parents didn't allow me to come home then (and that I didn't have enough money to fly myself home!). I am so glad that I stayed. If I had left in September, my view on Africa and missions would have been horrible. I was at a low point and leaving then would have kept my view of Africa at a low.

Now that I gave it time, allowed myself to reach my commitment mark, and to see Africa in all four seasons, I left at such a good place. It was so difficult for me to leave but I knew that that meant it was the best time to leave. I didn't want to leave at a point were I was thinking "Leave my bags, just get me on that plane and get me out of here!" It was so difficult for me to say goodbye when I left. I had made so many rich friendships over the year and a half and I didn't want to leave them behind.

I'm praying about whats next in life. I'm not certain about it. I know that the Lord has really grown my love for photography and I hope to use that gift in as many ways as possible. Upon return to the US, I've embarked on a new adventure. I've started my own photography company. I want it to be used to tell stories...to continue the stories I heard in Africa as well as to share people's stories from all around the world. You can visit the new site at www.katemagee.com

Please be praying for me as I seek the Lord's leading. I don't feel that my call to the mission field is over yet but I am praying for direction as to the 'what' and the 'when.'

You all have been a great support to me during my time in Africa. You've been with me through the good and the bad. You've showered me with prayers and encouragement and you've blessed me by your support during my time over there. I am so grateful for this past year and a half and it's impact on my life.

Thank you for coming with me on this great adventure!

My past weekend....

2010-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Small blessings

2010-05-05T09:24:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share about some ways that I have been really truly blessed this week! They are small ways but have humbled me and made me question if I am really taking advantage of ways that I can bless others.

I do not know if I have mentioned this before, but here in Kenya, most people have 'house-helpers' which are women who come and help you with house work. At first I felt really silly about hiring someone to do my laundry and such but once I realized that it is giving someone a job, I let down my pride and started having someone help me around the house. It is such a blessing while working to know that your laundry is getting washed, and hung... and I never thought I'd say this but I am going to really miss ending a day of work and walking back to my house as the sun begins to set, drop off my bag, grab my laundry basket and walk out to the grass and pull off my freshly cleaned laundry from the line... ah its the little things like this that I'm going to miss... the simplicity of life.

Ok, so how I was blessed this week... My house-helper has been gone for the past month. I have been able to manage, doing laundry when I can and not sweeping here and there. Two weekends ago I went on one of the most amazing hikes of my life. I left the hike sooo excited about the adventure that I didn't really care how my shoes and I were covered in some brownish-green slimy waterfall water. When I got home, I simply took off my shoes and left them on my porch to dry. Since my house help wasn't here I didn't think much about my shoes staying on my porch. A few days ago I came back to my house over my lunch break. I noticed my shoes were missing but didn't think much of it. As I was doing my dishes and looking outside my front window above my sink I noticed my gate guard walking over with my shoes. I was curious what this man was doing with my shoes so I stayed quiet while he was on my front steps. While watching him I noticed something dangling form my porch... shoe laces....white shoe laces... no longer brownish-green shoes laces! I stared at him as I watched him carefully set up my shoes so that they would properly dry in the African sun.

Blessed.

Humbled.

I had to take a deep breathe as I realized how self-less this man was. He saw that I had dirty shoes on my porch and while his job is not to wash them, he took it upon himself to bless me. I still get a bit misty eyed when I think of that. The next time I saw him I made sure to thank him... he wasn't expecting anything nor held out his hand for a few shillings. He just smiled his big smile and said "Karibu!" (You are welcome!).

Ahh... to bless others this way too... service. What a challenge to my heart.

Story #2 goes as so... Many friends here, and friends who have visited me have joked that one of my unofficial ministries here is 'market ministry' where I minister to all the people at the market selling their goods. Its true, I know tons of them by name and love sharing a conversation with them... but come on, someone's got to minister to them! So what if they sell cute earrings and scarves, right? ;)

There is a particular group of vendors that I have loved getting to know this past year and a half. One of the women is the one who made my beautiful bed spread, Esther. I have enjoyed getting to know some others, share in their laughter, and their warmth. There are probably about 8 Vendors in this one location. Its a peculiar location, the back of a parking lot near a shopping center. I can't remember how I stumbled upon them but I am really glad that I have. I had not seen them all since January and today I decided that I would go into work early so I could get off in time to go sit with them and catch up. As I neared the parking lot I saw them all and was so eager to say hello that I didn't realize they changed the whole order of the parking lot...and lets just say I barely missed a cement pole....

I went up and greeted them all and asked how business was going. Although they all said business was not good since the new construction of the parking lot, they were eager to hear how my life has been, where I have traveled to, and why I have been "lost." (The term Kenyan's use when saying they have not seen you in a long time.) I got to sit with Esther for a long time and hear about her family, her business, and life in general. I love just being able to catch up on these friendships... it had been way too long.

One of the men I hadn't noticed was the flower man who sells me flowers for my house. I went into the shopping center and came back to walk past my friends and say goodnight to them. Thats when the flower man hopped up to give me a bouquet of flowers! Ahhhhhhh! I normally am not the type of girl who needs/wants/expects flowers from people but these were specially because with them he said "Its to welcome you back to us! Karibu, Rafiki!" (You are welcome, friend!).
Once again....

Blessed.

Humbled.

Check out how bright and cheery these flowers are. How amazing and thoughtful of him to do so! And I must say, he is quite the florist to match up such beautiful flowers all together. I love wild flowers and he happened to combine that with some yellow roses...so me! :)

Once gain... to bless other this way too...a sweet gift. What a challenge to my heart.

I'm so thankful for these blessings this week. Sweet and small but powerful. I hope my eyes are just as open to be able to think of small ways to bless others when they didn't ask for it or expected it... to go the extra mile, just because.

_____________

Rain

And this is just to show you what my commute home from work looked like. Yes.. it rained a lot to day (Thank God, right?!) but that meant that there was a river on my path that went up mid calf... insane. As I juggled my bag and computer, I hiked up my jeans as high as they could go and hoped for the best as I tried to not slip in the muddy murky mess on the way home. While moving quite slowly, a neighbor of mine who was smart and had rain boots on tromped passed me giving me a sympathetic laugh....

Knowing she is a nurse I half joked with the question "sooo how bad is it to be walking in here barefoot right now?" Her response being, "Oh yeah... you might get some fun critters from that! Perhaps de-worm when you go back to the states!"

Yikes!

Rain boots would have been an awesome investment...

Ohhh and Feliz Cinco de Mayo! I had full intentions of making guacamole... but unfortunately my bowl still looks like this:

Mombasa...

2010-04-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

North Africa Film

2010-03-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

North Africa from AIM On-Field Media on Vimeo.

Sahara

2010-03-24T00:02:00.001-07:00

One of the things that I got to do while freelancing in North Africa was to take a camel desert tour into the Sahara and camp in tents with some locals. It was beautiful out there! Sand dunes as far as you could see! Two of my roommates and best friends flew over from the States to join me on this adventure. I took photos for the work I was doing and was in complete awe the whole time!

Our tour started with a night in a desert hotel. It was pretty vacant so my friends and I had tons of awkward laughs at not knowing what we should be doing or when. Like dinner... I think it wasn't until 10pm that we finally ate but we weren't sure if we were supposed to stay in our rooms or go to the dining room.

Around 9pm we went into the dining room wondering what the deal was since our sleepy eyes were winning over our hungry bellies. We found a room full of men sitting there and lounging on pillows. So, being 3 woman, we went to the furthest corner in the room and sat there staring at them wanting to say "hellooooo, we have no idea whats going on!" Finally our food came and it looked like a hot bubbly cheesy pizza... we were excited...until we found out what it really was. A shallow bowl of greasy fatty meat sunk in some tomato paste and topped with egg whites (what we thought was the bubbly cheese). Gulp. Had to be better than eye lashes, right? We ate what we could so we didn't waste food.

After dinner, the lounging men played drums for us. Sarah did an awesome job at being an apprentice to their drum beats.

The next day we woke up late and had some breakfast on the dunes. It was awesome... a cute little paris type table and chairs on top a dune with a little tiki umbrella and tea and coffee. It was amazing.

After breakfast, we headed out to hike up the biggest dune we could find. It took 'fo-eva' to hike it. We had some fun filming our own videos of our last words in the desert just in case...since it looked like we were in the middle of no-where. ;)

Around 4pm we hopped on some camels and headed out for a TWO HOUR camel ride. It was amazing. We had a big caravan of camels and we were led by a man in a turban who really liked to say "For example." Let me pause to explain this. You know when you need to pause and think for a moment while speaking? You usually use words like "so" or "um" right? Well, this man, our tour guide, used the phrase "for example" for every pause he needed to make. It took EVERYTHING out of me not to crack up every time he would explain something because most of his sentences sounded something like this...

"We will be leaving, for example, around 4 this afternoon, for example, evening time. We will then be riding on our camels, for example, each person gets their own camel. It will be about a, for example, 2 hour camel ride. We will stop for sunset, for example, on a dune, for example, where we will hike up."

Amazing, right??

We spent the night in tents in the desert. It was great. My roommates and I were put in this tent that was made of sticks and rugs hanging up. The rugs had holes in them and we commented how cool it was to see stars through the holes. We didn't think those holes were so cool later that night when the sky opened up and started pouring rain. I kept laughing through the night because there was nothing we could do about the rain or the holes letting in the rain. We were soaked.

We got up and had breakfast and figured we should caravan back to the hotel while there was no rain. The 'For Example' man told us that it only rains 4 times a year in the desert... and yes, we were experiencing it full on. Not 5 mins after we left our campsite on our wet camels did the sky open up again and it rained... then it poured. I then made the colossal mistake of saying "it couldn't possibly rain any harder!" ...because it did. Not only did it rain harder but it never let up. Not only did it not let up but it started to hail. Little pellets of frozen rain in the middle of the Sahara desert. Seriously? Our tour guide didn't even have a statistic for how many times it hails in the desert, in fact I'm pretty sure that it never does, for example.

We laughed the entire 2 hours back to the hotel. There was nothing else you could do. No trees, no shelter, just dunes. At one point we saw a 4x4 car come over a dune and we all got our hopes up thinking it was coming to rescue us from the hail-ish weather. Nope... just out for a joy ride. So we continued on. I now know the true meaning of the phrase 'soaked to the bone.'

The tour company that we were booked through kept apologizing for the bad weather thinking that it ruined our experience. Not at all, it actually enhanced it. We loved all the laughter that came from our helpless experience in the desert. We'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Orange Juice

2010-03-13T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hello to you all! I'm sorry that I've been so MIA these past few months. I arrived back in Kenya mid January and while still getting over jet lag, hopped on another plane to travel to North Africa. I spent the entire month of February in North Africa doing freelance design and photography. I was nervous about this trip: the length of the trip, traveling alone, and a culture I was unfamiliar with. I think the fact that I was still jet lagged helped with my culture shock however... I was too out of it to really think much, I had to jump in head first and soak it all up.

North Africa is predominately Muslim. Islam is everywhere, again, something I was unfamiliar with. My first morning I woke up in North Africa was to the call of prayer, a constant reminder of the area I was living in for a month. This call to prayer happens 5 times a day and in the city I lived in, they seemed to have the speakers from the Mosque turned on high! I enjoyed being apart of this culture for a month.

I love experiencing new things, new sights, new smells, new tastes, new adventures! Ok, I take one of those back... the smell factor. Wow... there were some smells that I am ok never smelling again.

Because my trip was so long, I'd like to break up my blog posts in different stories and photos of the adventures I had up North. The first was something that happened on day 2 of my trip.Two of my co-workers joined me on my trip for two weeks of the month I lived in North Africa. We wanted to jump into this culture head first, no fear. So, our first day on the job we decided to go to a street cafe and grab some local breakfast. Our breakfast included a flaky tortilla covered in butter and honey, cafe au lait, and freshly squeezed orange juice. The interesting thing about these street cafes is that they don't have their own kitchen but rather have a runner who runs to different venders to grab the tortilla, cafe au lait, and orange juice.

After our runner sat our breakfast in front of us, I descretely inspected my food rather than throw it in my mouth blindly. Tortilla and the cafe au lait was fine and free of anything forgein but my orange juice was another story. I sat there, bug-eyed, swallowing hard as I pondered what to do about the two eyelashes that were mocking me and my adventurous spirit by floating at the top of my orange juice. I didn't say anything to my co-works about the eye lashes and tried to think if I should just scoop them out or ask for a new orange juice, but then I remembered that the orange juice would come from the same place. I pictured a man sitting there squeezing out a new glass of fresh orange juice as he's rubbing his sleepy morning eyes...no thanks.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but all my co-workers are men. I often find myself trying to be more adventurous and less girly around them so I don't get identified as high maintenance or the weak link...kinda like the time we had to hike 10 miles in the mountains of Sudan and all. So, while all this was going on in my head, I peacefully continued eating breakfast and drinking my coffee. Finally I decided that I would scoop out the eyelashes and not think about it and just drink it. Trying to be descrete, I slipped my spoon into the top of my orange juice and started fishing. The man who ran around to get our breakfast saw what I was doing and unfortunately misinterpreted my actions. He thought I was trying to unsuccessfully stir my orange juice that had seperated since I took forever to drink it. Before I could even get one eyelash out our my glass, he runs over to my table, grabs the spoon out of my hand, plunges it straigt into my glass and starts stirring as hard as he could while smiling at me and saying in broken english, "fresh orange juice stay not mixed good, drink fast now." Perfect. What a sweet man. I tried not to think about the man who made my orange juice and what he looked like (or what his eyes looked like) and I knew for the rest of the month whenever I walked past an orange juice stand, I would try not to make eye contact with anyone squeezing orange juice. And with that...bottoms up, I drank it all as quickly as I could like a horrible tasting medicine. I figured as long as I'm not thinking about what I'm doing, my gag reflexes wouldn't set in. I eventually told my coworkers a week later what had happened and one of them did remember the guy stirring my juice and then using my spoon in their juice. Lets just say for the rest of my time in North Africa, I avoided orange juice!

I was HOME for Christmas....

2010-01-29T23:04:00.000-08:00

I realized, according to my last written blog entry, I’m still stuck in Amsterdam. I finally made it out and will bring you up to speed with the happenings in my life! I am now sitting back in my living room after a full two weeks back in Kenya. I knew … but I was not expecting the F-14 speed it flew with! After the initial “Ohhh no I’m stuck in Amsterdam!”shock, I decided to make the most of it. I met 3 other girls who were traveling from Uganda to Washington D.C. They said I looked a little shell-shocked and so they offered to help me figure out how to navigate the airport, buy a coat and boots, and find our hotel shuttle. I was so thankful for them! For the next 72 hours or so, we spent our free time together exploring Amsterdam through the snow, sharing meals, and hanging out by the hotel fire. It was a neat experience how you can be strangers with someone one second and best friends with them the next. I was truly blessed by their life stories and their friendship in Amsterdam!

Once I FINALLY made it back to the states I had my first bite to eat, state side. It was pretty anti-climatic: Einstein’s bagel and cream cheese. But hey, that was my first bagel and cream cheese in a year, so I was happy! I had a 4-hour layover in Detroit (yes, I missed the Amsterdam-Detroit terror attack by just a few days!). Once I left Detroit my heart was pounding in anticipation for being in VIRGINIA after almost a year!!! And the anticipation of seeing my family was overwhelming! Seeing them again was like, well, “coming home.” That’s the best way to describe it… 6 warm hugs waiting for me! (My friend Sarah came to the airport too!). They were all wearing Santa hats-hilarious! My bags, as expected, did not make it. Africa taught me at least one thing: “Hakuna Matata”… “Don’t worry.” And so I didn’t! I knew my bags would come and I was finally with the ones love! (They finally showed up on Christmas Eve).

Once home, 3 of my best friends came over! We all laughed at how normal it was to see each other. No tears, no jumping up and down, just long amazing hugs. I needed that. It was just…familiar! We all had some amazing chicken burritos that my mom makes and I had missed out on for a year. They were better than I remembered! Go Mom!!!!! That night was filled with laughter, stories, and many hugs. My heart was full that night! I’m truly blessed.

As the week drew nearer to Christmas, the hustle and bustle began! I was quickly reintroduced to Northern Virginia. Question: Do you all ever slow down???? Geesh! Haha. I ran errands with the family, attended a Christmas party here and there, finished up shopping, tried to sleep off the jet lag, and rest in remembering that I was home with my family! Christmas Eve was super fun. My family has a tradition of the 4 kids making Gingerbread houses and then having a contest to see who’s wins. Even though we are all (almost) in our 20’s, I think we still have about 4 categories for winners so no one feels left out: Most traditional, Most futuristic, Most candy-on-without-falling-over, and most colorful…something like that. We spend hours on them as we tend to be a wee bit competitive with each other. But its fun!

We also go to explore the Gaylord hotel all lit up in her glory for Christmas! We went to the National Harbor to look around and went inside the Gaylord to check it out. Wow. Its insane! When we walked in, we noticed in the foyer a huge… HUGE yellow Christmas Peep (like the marsh mellow). We found out it was a kid’s game seeing if you can spot all the Peeps hidden throughout the Gaylord. So, being the adults we all are, we set off and found them all. They also had this spectacular water show where they told the true Christmas Story of the birth of Jesus…. (taxes!!!). It was a great night with the family!

Christmas Eve was spent spending quality time with the family and going to Immanuel Bible Church for the Christmas Eve Service! It was so great to be back at IBC again! It was a great service and I got to see a lot of special friends. Afterwards we high tailed it out of there to indulge in another Christmas Eve tradition: Outback Steakhouse. Not a bad tradition, ay mate?

Christmas morning came with traditions of it’s own. Suffering from jet lag, I of course got up at 4:30 am and tried to fall back to sleep till around 6. I came out of my room and my older brother was already up (seriously like a little kid on Christmas morning). We then made an executive decision for the rest of the family: time to wake up! :D We ~~jumped on them while they were sleeping~~ nicely woke them up! We walked down the stairs in age order and “ohhhhh”-ed and “ahhhhhh”-ed over the tree and the stockings. After opening the stockings we had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast complete with a “Happy Birthday Jesus” Coffee cake.

After breakfast we went to the tree and opened up presents. The most random gift was the one I gave my younger brother: A sheepskin rug…. Literally looks like a sheepskin. It kinda smelled and its kinda odd and I think everyone was thinking “Why, and how dirty is that thing???” It made me laugh to see their faces!

Christmas was just a great day to be with the family. We actually had a WHITE Christmas! My DREAM for years!!!

It was a memorable day…to remember the true meaning of why we celebrate, to be with the ones I love, and to just rest and cherish each moment. My thoughts often went to Kenya where I wondered what Christmas day was like there.

As soon as Christmas came, it went. Hustle and bustle began again.My family all piled into a car on the 27^th and headed up to the city that never sleeps… NYC! Woot wooooot! So fun! We got to freeze are backsides off, eat hot dogs and pizza! We walked and walked and walked! My family had a big secret they were keeping from Megs and I. After a huge Italian dinner in Little Italy, they decided to walk towards Broadway to reveal. As we were passing the Lion King my sister and I kept saying “Remember the time we were on a safari… remember the time…..” Right then my family handed us over an envelope and inside were 6 tickets to “The Lion King” Broadway show! We were in shock and so excited!!!!

I fought my jet lag during the performance but it was so spectacular. The opening scene: goose bump worthy, let me tell you! A must see for anyone visiting New York! Watching it was like, well, being in my own backyard! :D We spent the next day in the city exploring tons of fun places. We went to Canal street to do some cheap shopping… I think I’m a little too used to bargaining in Kenya because I got kicked out of a perfume store for bartering too much…whoops!

After NYC, we headed to my Grandparents house. It was SO great to spend time with them. They have been so supportive of my trip and it was so good to just see them and give them hugs and to share with them about my journey this past year. I can’t wait to see them again when I get home.

The rest of my time was filled with family and friends all over Virginia and the D.C. area. I got to spend New Years Eve with 4 amazing woman of God. They are great and we shared TONS of laughs that night! My dad always says “When you all are together, there is always a story when you come home.” I like that that has never changed.

As my time at home came to an end, my stomach began to turn in knots. Not because I didn’t want to go to Kenya, no, I know that is God’s plan for me right now…but because I knew I’d have to leave the ones I love again. The Sunday before I left, the two sibs kids returned to college. The Monday, my older brother left for his adventures overseas. Wow, all fun must come to and end!

My mom and I spent the next few days having lots of fun together. Pedicures, shopping, talking, and drinking coffee together in the mornings. I cherish those moments! And then it was my turn. My parents brought me to the airport for another difficult goodbye. Saying goodbye is easiest when you know the “hello” you will say soon is just around the corner, but its still painful!

My flights back were less adventuresome, which I guess is a blessing. Not going to lie though… a few nights in Amsterdam due to weather would have been great. Back in Nairobi, I’ve finally battled a long journey of jet lag only to get right back on a plane and head for another adventure. I’ll update when I get back! Until then, before you fall asleep at night, please say a little prayer for me that I can fall asleep too! ;)

2010-01-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

"Through the years We all will be together, If the Fates allow."

2009-12-20T06:24:00.000-08:00

Apparently the "Fates" aren't "allowing" this one... So I figured I need to document this story before I forget about it and it just become another one of those "remember the time" stories...

Twas the week before Christmas and all through House...one creature was packing, packing like a mouse. (Dont know what that means but I needed it to rhyme.)

The presents were packed in the luggage with care. In hopes in America, it would all arrive there.

Passengers were all nestled snug in the plane. While visions of snow danced in my brain.

And feet in their flip flops and I in my t-shirts, had just settled down to listen to Matt Wertz.

When in Amsterdam arose such a clatter, I sprang to the departure board to see what was a matter.

"Canceled," blinked on the screen so bright , And a scream I muffled with all my might.

Away to the Customer service bar I flew like a flash. Tore through the lines offering bling bling or cash.

"No flights today, I'll have you know." "Good grief" I thought of the new-fallen snow.

I rang a call to my home far from here, Awoke my father did in wonder and fear.

I shared the news of my canceled flight, and tears fell quickly hindering my sight.

When what to my wandering eyes should appear, The store H&M was ever near.

Off went the flip flops from my frozen toes, on went the boots and warm winter clothes.

Out of the airport I busted a move, zipped and buttoned my coat, I behooved.

Below zero the crazy temp read, my body was frozen...pinky toe to head.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be Hotel Valk.

Our shuttle drove us to a large hotel, I scampered inside to see it so well.

Back in the cold I shivered and froze, while Amsterdam awaited, I wrinkled my nose.

Hussle and Bussle went the shoppers around. I walked and saw what was all this town.

As nighttime fell on the streets so dark, my train wouldn't budge and stayed in park.

A man on the tracks caused many delays. "Of course" I thought and headed back in the maze.

Finally a bus came out of the street, but many a stops did he need to meet.

After 50 or so stops the bus needed to make, ours was the last and oh my head ached.

Three hours till 'home' or hotel I should say, into bed I plopped...oh what a day!

The next morning I rose thinking "Today is the day", but all flights were cancelled... again I would stay.

A day in the city didn't seem all that bad, till delays on the train irritated me a tad.

Back to the hotel the bus tried to crawl, for into the snow it was luck of the draw.

Tomorrow means home... it IS the day. Almost Christmas....Please Pray Pray Pray !

T-minus 3 days.

2009-12-15T06:33:00.000-08:00

Nerves. Phew. I’ve got them.

Those silly little butterflies. They get me every time.

I’m spending my last few days in Kenya packing and finishing up some projects for my team, all the while these nerves keep surfacing, forcing me to face the nerves caused by one question: “What’s it going to be like?” The last time I faced this question; I was all packed and stepping one foot on a plane while one foot still on American soil.

The last time I was in America was almost a year ago. Whats it going to be like? Whats it going to be like to be back in America? To be around friends? To be around family.?

To be..out of Africa?

Of course its only for 3 weeks, but I still wonder.

I’m already praying for my expectations. That they would not exist. Expectations get me every time. I anticipate and dream up a perfect scene, a perfect life and yet it rarely ever is perfect. But even though it’s not perfect, that doesn’t mean that it is bad. It’s my own expectations that cause me to sometimes overlook the good and wish for my expectations to be fulfilled.

I was talking with a co-worker the other day about how Africa truly changes you. He put it in i n t e r e s t i n g words. “You’re ruined” he said. What a way to put it and yet it sounds like a perfect word to use. Not as in ruined physically, socially, or even spiritually. Ruined in the sense that things I once valued now have a whole new meaning in my life… or none at all. The way I view the world is different then when I first arrived.

I never knew when I first arrived that my eyes would see so much pain…and redemption. Never knew that my feet would walk in the footsteps of so many incredible men and woman of God. Never knew that I would rub shoulders with witch doctors and warriors. Never knew how many people were so eager and in need to hear the Good News.

Just wonder how its changed me and what it will be like to suddenly collide with the life I lived before I came out here. Guess I’ll find out in 4 days! :)

Please be praying with me for my preparations for leaving, safe travels, and a loss of expectations! Thank you.

I can’t wait to see many of you soon!

One life

2009-12-10T01:32:00.000-08:00

This season... Choose Joy.

2009-12-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

We 3 Kings...

2009-12-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

I made a big mistake...

2009-12-07T03:44:00.000-08:00

...in assuming that Kenya doesn't 'Deck the Halls' like America....

Some great friends and I were walking through some stores and we found Santa! There were Elves, and Christmas Carolers...who knew???

AIDS

2009-12-02T22:07:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, December 1st was World Aids Day. Its a day dedicated to remembering those who suffer with AIDS, who have died because of AIDS, lost a loved one because of Aids or who have been orphaned by AIDS.

AIDS is all over the world, and especially rampant in Africa.

When I was in college I had the privilege to help start a campaign at our school to raise awareness and have a week dedicated to opening student's eyes about AIDS in Africa and it's effects on people. We focused on children who have lost their parents because of AIDS:

AIDS Orphans.

We worked side by side with World Vision and their Acting On AIDS department. We made tshirts which were simple but impactful. All it said was "ORPHAN" Each shirt came with a fact about AIDS Orphans in Africa...

And finally on World AIDS day we asked everyone to wear the tshirt. Each tshirt representing an AIDS Orphan. It gave me goosebumps to step foot on my campus that day and see hundreds and hundreds of red tshirts which doned the word, ORPHAN.

Click {HERE} for World Vision's AIDS site. I would encourage you to research more for yourself about AIDS and its impact on this continent... and if you dare, watch this video:

Imagine...
In the time it takes to watch that video... 10 children were orphaned by AIDS.

The facts and the video above will make you feel uncomfortable and break your heart. Let it. These are real people going through this. Allow yourself to hurt with these mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters. Pray for them.

Remember the least of these...

2009-12-01T05:06:00.000-08:00

Matthew Twenty Five: Forty

2009-12-01T03:48:00.000-08:00

I read a statistic today...

2009-11-25T03:59:00.000-08:00

.... 3.5 Billion gallons of fresh water are spent daily to water golf courses around the world.

People in places like Africa.... can't even find 5.

(((( How is this ok? ))))

Its not.

We're All In This Together

2009-11-23T12:13:00.000-08:00

I realize this event already happened. But the trailer is worth the watch. Just makes me think... is what I'm doing enough? It's a good reminder... we're all in this together.

I also can't get this verse out of my head...

"As long as you did it for the least of these,
you did it for me."
(Matthew 25:40)

Water.

2009-11-22T09:15:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while I turn my faucet on and the water comes out like this….

Anyone care to take a sip? It would probably knock you out for a few days, just one glass of this. The nice thing is is that I have a filter to filter this water and make it drinkable. Its probably a 20 minute purifying process, and yet I complain. I often think how easy it was to just turn the faucet on at home and put my glass under and drink away…. Or better yet, skip the glass, put my head under the faucet, and drink away!

But imagine if THAT glass of water above was the only option you had?
Hmm, lets put ourselves in another world for a moment.
Lets imagine...

Imagine yourself in the middle of Africa, with a family… 5 or 6 children perhaps? All of which are relying on you to sustain them and provide. What is essential to life? Water. But what if there wasn’t any around? How far would you go to provide this simple thing for your family? Would you walk a half a day’s walk to the nearest hole in the ground and sit there as the water trickles into your cup, slowly, slowly filling until you can dump that cup into your can and watch it slowly fill up?

What if you spent the next half of the day under the heat of the sun with a 25 lbs can of water on your back, returning to your home hoping that your children made it through the day?

And what if that water that you just spent half of your day searching for was as brown as the glass of water above?

What if you had to worry as you gave it to your children if that water would give them the nourishment they need, or take their life because of disease?

How can something so simple, be so complicated?

Its just water….right?

I spent a few days with these people who are in constant search for water. They live in the desert and their lives are enslaved to finding water. They walk miles and miles a day to find gather water. Sometimes they reach the well to find that it is empty and have to return home with nothing. Other times they reach the well to find out that it is poisoned, and again return home with nothing.

I complain that it takes 20 minutes to filter my water.

I complain that the water sometimes runs brown.

Is something wrong with this picture?

….of course.

I might feel like I can “relate” to these people who have dirty water, but reality is, I walk 10 steps, turn on a faucet and out comes dirty water. They walk miles and miles for hours and hours, get on their hands and knees and pull water up from a well with their blistered hands and aching backs… to get that dirty water.

If you are like me, you see these huge world issues and want to tackle them all, get really fired up, but then have no idea how to approach the issue, feel defeated, and go on with your life wishing you could have figured out a way. But, there are organizations out there to help with these issues. They show you how you can help in little baby steps. And helping one person’s life is better than giving up because you couldn’t help everyone’s!

This isn’t me saying “Go do this or else!” but I know what its like to feel helpless yet want to help. Here’s an organization that was introduced to me by my friend’s sister.

Its called “Water4Christmas.” Give water for Christmas. Just $20 can provide water for someone for 20 years. And not water like they are used to, but the type of water that makes you fit your head under the faucet and let the water fill your mouth.

THAT kind of water!

Water4Christmas is a fundraiser through the organization, “Charity Water.” I just love their idea of giving water for Christmas. And it makes it so easy to do so! You can give water yourself, or how about for those people that are hard to buy for, why not give water to someone for $20 in the name of that person?

To find out more, click ((((here))))

Yummy Sweet Potato recipe

2009-11-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

Howdy! So I know Thanksgiving is in less than a week and HEY, Kenya has real sweet potatoes! Always something to be thankful for! :) I found this amazing recipe that could be a fun twist to the original sweet potato casserole...or a great addition! I made it last night with my neighbors and they loved it.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries (Adapted from Martha Stewart).

{Ingredients}
As many sweet potatoes as you want to make
2 egg whites
Chili powder
Salt
Honey

{How to make it}
Preheat oven to about 375
-Cut sweet potatoes in half, then slice to look like french fries (keep skin on)
-Put in micro-wave safe dish and microwave for 2 mins, stir and 2 mins more
-Mix egg whites with chili-powder (you can make as spicy or not as you want)
-Oil cookie sheet with olive oil
-Toss sweet potatoes in shifts into egg mixture, lift out with fork and let extra egg white drip
-Lay on cookie pan till finished with all "fries"
-drizzle honey all over (yum)
-sprinkle with a little bit of salt
-bake till soft on the inside and crispy on the outside! :)

If you want to make it more like the sweet-potato casserole, make up some "dip" to dip the fries in using marshmallow Fluff (yeah momma moose!) and chopped pecans with some brown sugar!

They are pretty fabulous, not gonna lie! :) I might be making them again soon... at least while real sweet potatoes last in Kenya!

Yes, Christmas music is all over my ipod...

2009-11-19T01:12:00.000-08:00

Psalm Thirteen:5

2009-11-17T10:36:00.001-08:00

"Karibu (welcome) to my Crib"

2009-11-15T07:23:00.000-08:00

My sister reminded me today that I have yet to post where I'm living (My house, obviously you know the country... ) So in as much "Crib" style as I can, "Welcome to my Crib."

I live in a very tiny house on one of the missionary compounds. Unfortunately, I have a really long frustrating commute to work, all 30 seconds of it! :) Yep, all I have to do in the morning is walk out my front door, through a gate, up a little lane and in the front door of my office! Its pretty fantastic, not gonna lie! Because of how small my house is, photographic angles to capture these pictures were pretty limited, sooo I'll try to give you little details.

Welcome to my bathroom (ha, I feel funny typing this out. Anyways....)

Thanks to my mom for bringing out this fun shower curtain and matching bathmat! (Nothing fancy... around the corner is the toilet, sink, mirror and thats about all that could fit in there!)

Welcome to my Kitchen (yep, still feel funny...)

I never got around to painting the kitchen... sigh. But I was able to convert my old shower curtain into actual window curtains to try to brighten the place up! And thanks to Target (I miss you, Target) I have a nice rug to match the curtains. That apron is made by my friend Esther! It has all these cool little squares of African Fabric....makes baking all the more fun!

I got these frames from a missionary friend...they also help brighten up the kitchen...I miss those people in that picture a whole heck of a lot!

And this is my tea jar that I got from that cool glass place, Kitengela Glass! I also have a sugar jar, splenda jar, Chai tea Jar, and a popcorn jar...I learned how to make popcorn without a microwave!!! Woot Woot! :)

Welcome to my room!

I live on a single level house and so my windows, which are covered up by those curtains, are about 20 feet away from our gate guard...so, I obviously keep those closed haha. The funny looking texture on the wall is actually made from my light overhead! I love these lights... cool handmade twine light fixtures that I bought from a friend!

My quilt is another handmade beauty by my friend Esther! I just love the amazing rich colors that go into her quilts and that all the fabric is from different African countries! Just love it...

And over my head hangs this cool handmade frame that I had a different idea of what to do with it, but I liked this better.... inside are some more K-glass hanging vases with some red Gerber Daisies inside (thanks to my mom who sent them over with Hannah and Catherine! :) )

"Beeep Beeeep"

Whats that you hear? Oh, that's just my ride....pretty spiffy, huh? It has this amazing anti-theft feature on it called no "No Hubcaps So I Look Ghetto And No One Will Want To Steal." Device. And get this... that Device was FREE! Who would have thought??? Another safety feature is "Waiting To Clean Your Car But Once a Month"....I added that anti-theft feature myself!

And to wrap up the house...welcome to my living room!

I have to take the picture in two parts since its too small to take one of the whole thing. The room has a fireplace in the center that has yet to work....however I cleaned it out today and am going to attemempt to start a fire tonight to go with my Christmas movie, tea, and working on some design work...

First half...

Second half....

These frames are my favorite! They are made out of weathered African wood....My friend, "Mr. Handsome, " (I honestly have never gotten his real name out of him, this is what he tells everyone to call him) makes them and sells them at the market... really fun!

And of course, the house wouldn't be complete without little bit of holiday decoration....thanks to my mom, me and half of the missionaries in Nairobi have pumpkins to celebrate autumn and Thanksgiving! :) I have all mine on my fireplace and it really makes the place look "fall-ish!"

Well, thats the tour... all four rooms of it ;)

"So, what do you do in Africa?" .... I'm glad you asked...

2009-11-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

OFM Trailer from AIM On-Field Media on Vimeo.

silly swahili

2009-11-10T10:28:00.001-08:00

Choosing Joy

2009-11-08T10:27:00.001-08:00

Don't you love the excitement of a book? The story unfolds as quickly as your eyes skim the page. You are able to pause the story or speed up to the anticipated ending. Each chapter has its own theme, a life of its own, a new story that twists and turns your soul which ever way the author intends.... and you fall for it , no matter how many times the book has been read. You start each new chapter with eagerness of the unknown. "How will it end, how will it be redeemed, how will it all fit together?"

I often find myself talking with my very own personal Author, Jesus Christ. I'm that annoying book fanatic who's always asking the same questions with the utmost curiosity..."How will it end, how will it be redeemed, how will it all fit together?" I like to think its my right to know all the answers before I get to read the final chapter.... but alas, how boring would a book be if the dramatic ending was spoiled with in the first chapter?

Christ seems to be taking me through a new chapter..... I'd like to call it "Choosing Joy." In my morning devotions everything seems to be about joy. Ok, let me pause first and talk about the word, Joy. Don't you love the word? I do.... it seems joy bursts out of the word in its self. When I hear that word I just cant help but feel joy. I guess its like an onomatopoeia to me? You know, how the word zip almost sounds like the sound that an actual zipper makes when it, well, zips. Or like.... well, you get it, I'll spare you my thought process ;) So yes, the word, Joy just makes me feel joy.

This chapter isn't exactly the easiest but its just as important as any other because the Author wrote it before time. Like I said, my morning devotions have been surrounded by the idea of joy and challenging me to find joy in all circumstances, all the time, no exception. I've been trying to think of tangible ways to find joy in all circumstances, even the ones I don't feel are worthy of that simple, beautiful word, joy. And then it hit me one day...praising God. Giving him praise in all circumstances, allowing Him to be the reason for my joy, not joy (or lack of it) the reason for my attitude. Rearranging my thinking and striving to praise God in all circumstances and find joy in my praise for Him alone. Sometimes I don't feel like giving God praise when things don't seem to be going my way, but its not about me... I need to praise him despite that and allow joy to fill the void.

A few mornings ago I read this during my devotions: "Then came these thoughts: I was to ignore my feelings and act on principle. I was to do it despite the lack of joy-simply because God told me to. True praise grows out of recognition and acknowledgment that in His time God will bring good out of bad. I am to turn my back on the bad and face the good, and begin actively to praise God for it as Scripture commands. Following that, joy began spilling over into the tiny everydayness of my life." -Catherine Marshall (Author).

I've been trying, its not easy, but I've been trying to chose joy and praise God in ALL circumstances. I've been feeling another wave of "loneliness" begin to hit, not sure why, not sure of its purpose right now, but I'm trying to praise God for it and to find joy in this time.

This morning I decided to listen to a Podcast sermon, the only one that I had on my ipod was a sermon series by Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church..... can you guess what the sermon series is focusing on? No, seriously, take a guess....three letters. Yep, you got it right, Joy. :) Ha, I had to laugh... oh, and just wait, it gets even better! I found a specific sermon that seemed to by crying out, "Listen to me, oh oh oh, pick me, pick me!" It was called "A Rebel's Guide to Joy in Loneliness." I mean, really.... why would I pick a different one when that one had Kate Joyce written all over it? :) And of course, I was praising God for that sermon. Of course it talked about joy and it talked about loneliness but one of the things that Driscoll said in it allowed me to take a deep breathe. He said something along the lines of, "Have you thought, that maybe, perhaps, God is LEADING you through this time of loneliness because he wants you solely to Himself? To grow you, to mold you, to prune you, and to make you more like Him? He loves you THAT much that He is taking you through this time of loneliness, and THAT in itself might be the purpose." Wow. Ummm, I'll take that! :)

Its hard to believe that times like this, where I don't see an outward purpose or can't comprehend an answer to the "why's" of life, that God is choosing to shape me and mold me to be more like Him. I want to chose joy in this because of who He is, not because of what he has done or will do, but simply because of who He is.

I want to radiate that joy. I feel like that would be an honor to be able to bare witness to Christ through visible joy that I radiate out of praise because of who Christ is. I'm working on it... we'll see how long this chapter is... I tend to be a slow reader ;)

A Thousand Pictures are worth how many words?

2009-11-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

They say, "A pictures' worth a thousand words" ... so I'm guessing that a thousand pictures are worth 1,000,000 words??? I realized that I've never put up links to my pictures. Once I'm home for Christmas I'll work on uploading them to flickr, but for now.... Just click on the album name..... Happy viewing! (Don't worry.... there aren't a thousand pictures to look through!)

{Kenya}
:
{Out of Africa}
:
{Glass }
:
{Tanzania}
:
{Sudan}
:
{My Backyard }
:
{Masai Mara}
:
{Big Babies }
:
{MoMmmmmbasa}
:
{Egypt}
:
{Desert Nomads}
:
{Famine Relief Trip}
:

Guess...

2009-10-29T22:30:00.001-07:00

I don't know how it's slipped my mind to mention this, but can you guess whats happening in about 7 weeks?

Here are some clues....

.
.
.

Yep, "I Will Be Home For Christmas!"

I cannot tell you how EXCITED I am :)

Famine

2009-10-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

What words come to mind when you hear the word...

famine ?

Perhaps, hunger, lacking, starving, poor, sad....? Does the word make you feel uncomfortable? Does it make your heart break or make you want to block it out of your mind and forget about it?

The dictionary defines it as "extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area." Well, that large geographical area happens to be Kenya right now. Due to the drought, lack of rains, and extreme dryness here, there is a famine. For a while, here in Nairobi we were on a water ration as well as electricity ration because... there were no rains. I thought we had it bad. Then, I went "upcountry" where they truly, truly know what the word famine means.

The Church that I attend here in Nairobi is led by a pastor who grew up in Kenya and has a huge heart for those suffering in this country. In church we have two offerings. One for our regular tithes, and one for those suffering from the Famine and lack of water.

Once a month my pastor leads a "Famine Relief Trip" upcountry to these places of suffering to allow our church family to see what it is like in other parts of the country and to be able to play a roll in helping those suffering by purchasing food (maize, rice, beans, flour...) and delivering it to churches in the areas hit hard by the drought and famine.

The drive was looooooooooooooong to get to these places. I think after 3 hours I had put my head down on the window and let my eyes wander outside at the passing people, cattle, acacia trees and such. And then, in the distance I spotted Kilimanjaro. That was about the point of the trip that I knew we were FAR from home. The landscape became very dry as we approached the town we would be visiting. Everything was covered in dust and dirt and you could tell by the lack of vegitation that rain has not been spotted in a very long time.

Things like this break my heart. Its so hard for me to understand God's will sometimes. How something that most take for grandted, rain, can just not come to a place that so deserperately needs. it. I do know, however, that God is God.... He has a plan and He loves these people.

And you know what the best thing about these people are? They KNOW that God loves them. WOW. They are in so much need and yet, on a Saturday, over a hundred showed up at the church to give thanks to us for bringing food and for praying for them. The joy on their faces can only come from God alone.

It's challeneged me to try that sometime. When I feel like I am in need or that God is not providing the way I think he should, to smile anyways. To be so in love with my Savior that I can't do anything but trust in Him for his provisions and to be joyful in all circumstances.

The trip was hard but necessary to visit these places so that I now have mental (and actual) pictures of what it is like to be in a place of real need, real famine, and real drought. Please continue to pray with me for those suffering from the drought and the famine.

The Desert.

2009-10-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

I was a child when I realized my thirst. I remember the desert, and the void. I heard about a man who could quench that thirst forever. “How is that possible?” I wondered. I was a human, a sinner in need with a thirst that could not be satisfied by anything…anything on earth.
Then He came to me. I was sitting at the well under the heat of the sun, lost and in need of a savior. He asked me for a drink. I asked "why?". Then he spoke the words that would change my life forever.

“If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

My curiosity was peaked. “How?” I asked.

“Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

That night, I drank from the water He provides.

I was the woman at the well… and I often find myself there still. Not because the well has run dry, no, He promised that would never happen. I find myself there because I have neglected to drink from it.

If anyone would ask me “How has your time in Africa been?” I will return an honest answer. It is not easy. For those who have been joining me on my journey, you know. You know how many times I’ve been in a “desert” while out here. After the events of this summer I felt like I was plopped in the middle of a desert, mid day, no hat, no sunscreen, no water, no map. Not only did I want to get out of the desert but I wanted to fast.

I remember calling my dad up and asking him if I can just come home, end my time here early and leave. I didn’t want to be here and I especially didn’t want to learn any more life lessons. I had anticipated a warm welcome to come home. Anticipation and expectations are my downfall. He encouraged me to stay the course, stay committed, stay encouraged, but most of all stay in constant seek of the Lord.

That was the last thing I wanted to hear but after much prayer I knew it was true. Staying the course would be difficult and bring pain but I needed to. I continued to feel the heat of the desert. I knew the Lord was there but I continued to wander. I tried to quench my thirst with different things… advice from friends, different Christian books, and so on. It was like coming in from long summer run, needing a drink and instead of grabbing a refreshing glass of ice water, you are handed a glass of hot chocolate. It might taste amazing but it will never quench your thirst...

I left for my OFM trip still feeling the desert and ironically that’s exactly where we were heading…the desert of Northern Kenya. As you all know, I was TERRIFIED of the bugs, to say the least. I had already set a glimpse in my mind of what life would be like up there; constantly swatting flies, brushing off spiders, sleeping with cockroaches, and showering with scorpions. Ohhhh wait, that’s right, I DID shower with a scorpion…but that’s another story.

The first night in the desert I found out that there were two other young single missionary girls my age stationed where we were filming. They were great. We stayed up late chatting about life. We talked about our lives back in the states, those we left behind, the transition to coming here, and our lives now. It was exactly what I needed. Slowly I began to realize that God was providing. There were NO bugs in site but there were two girls that provided me with some much-needed community.

That night before I went to bed I opened up my bible. I turned to Psalm 107. This part of the Psalms has never stood out to me but I read and am forever glad that I did. These verses pertained to me so deeply. Read them with me…

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithfulness endures forever. “

“Some wandered in the desert, lost and homeless. Hungry and thirsty, they nearly died. “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress. He led them straight to safety.”

“For he satisfies the thirsty.”

“He changes rivers into deserts, and springs of water into dry land…But he also turns deserts into pools of water, the dry land into flowing springs.”

It was as if could hear my soul crying to God with those same words, “Lord, help!” Once again, He and I were having that same conversation again and I was reminded… “Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.” It was as if a glass was being offered to me, pressed to my lips, and suddenly I was drinking. It wasn’t hot chocolate but the crisp fresh taste of clean, cold, refreshing water. And it was restoring.

The time in the literal desert continued to be incredible. Our team spent five days up in Korr and Karungu, Kenya (Apparently not even on a map). We took one of the 4 seater planes up there which was flown by one of my team members, Mike. We all have to do many different jobs on the team….thankfully flying a plane will never be a requirement for me. It was two hours after take off when we finally started to descend. In the middle of nowhere! Gotta love my job…. Not going to lie.

Our job was to film for our new documentary on nomadic people, take notes for articles, and snap as many pictures as we could in those 5 days…. Ok, maybe I took too many… oh well, that’s my passion!

The trip was rough for photography. With no cloud in site and a very bright sun above us mean harsh shadows, which just means a little more moving around to get a good shot.

We got to hang out with the Rendillie and Samburu tribes, drive through miles and miles of desert, walk on lava flow, chase dust devils, follow a huge herd of camels, and bask in the beauty found in the desert. I loved waking up in the mornings to the bright sun coming over the African desert, feeling the heat and the wind combine together as it swirled past me.

I loved getting a chance to sit inside one of the Rendillie houses and share a cup of warm goat chai with homemade mandazis…

Its ok, I too thought the sound of it was kind of unappetizing especially at the tail end of an extremely hot day of shooting…. but cool to experience it, none the less!

The children up there were so cute. They were so eager to have their pictures taken, to grab my hand, to have me twirl their little naked bodies in the air.

I just love how curious they are...

Whether it’s touching my skin to see if my white will come off onto their little black hands or touching my camera lens while I take their pictures. They are all precious.

One of my most memorable times in the desert was getting a chance to talk with the missionaries about their ministry. Whether in Korr or Karungu, they all had such amazing stories to share. Humility and their trust in the Lord graced their stories through and through. They have done great things with these tribes and I felt honored to sit and listen to these stories.

The Lord continued to provide during that week. He continued to remind me as we sat at the well together that he will always be there through the deserts and through the springs. I know, as I continue my walk with the Lord here in Africa and wherever else he leads, that He and I will have many chats by the well. He told me from the beginning that He has living water. I drank… but I’m also a stubborn human and often forget that water is more sustaining than hot chocolate will ever be.

"This is my prayer in the desert
And all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in the hunger in me
My God is a God who provides"

Just thought you might want to know....

2009-10-15T04:10:00.000-07:00

It's finally, really.... RAINING IN KENYA!

Thanks for all the prayers!

Living in Kenya is....

2009-10-13T02:16:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on my post about my trip to Northern Kenya. In the mean time.... some friends have been asking what is it really like to live in Kenya... here's just a few examples.

Living in Kenya is...

When only having power twice during the workweek is completely normal.

When you think your grocery store is really expanding when they place ten jars of powerdered flavored creamer on their selves and sell it for $10. Watch out world.

When you can keep your cool having a bus drive at you head on and swerve back into their lane at the last second.

When a drought causes there to be no chicken breasts for sale at the store for a week.

When you start thinking in Swahili rather than English.

When a stranger stops you and asks you if they can pet your hair.

When it feels like Christmas the moment the clouds open up and rain pours down.

When the Internet Company decides to shut off your service without telling you except through email that you can’t check because you have no Internet.

When live lizards are a common natural wall decoration.

When buying 20 roses cost $2. Yes… $2.

When a rule from the video store is to eject your DVD directly after viewing due to frequent power outages.

When water from the tap is like poison and you avoid it like the plague.

When driving on the left side of the road and driving in the front right seat is completely normal and the other way around seems backwards.

When you live on a guarded compound in a house with bars on the windows, a steal door, and another door with two locks, plus a required “safe room” in your house. And it somehow gives you a sense of security.

When your car can drive through pot holes and other crazy places that people back home would call “undriveable”

When running out of water and having to ration is just everyday life.

When dinner conversations with friends consist of creepy insects, snakes, break-ins, war zones, indigestion, jungle illnesses…..

When you run on a treadmill with caution unsure of when the next power outage will hit causing an uncertainty of what THAT would do to you.

When you can order something off a menu from a restaurant by pointing at it to the waiter and having something completely different brought out to you.

When you are ok with the little bleach after-taste of fruit.

When you have to have your windows rolled up in traffic because people try to sell you anything from passport holders, air fresheners, and fruit to car jacks, news papers, and knives.

When packs of howling dogs keep you up at night.

When the man from the mosque starts praying out through the speakers that happen to be right outside your office window.

When the gas station is out of gas when you need a fill up.

When walking outside your gate after sunset is a big “no-no.”

When everyone you meet is somehow related to your president. “Did you know Obama is my cousin?” “Yes… yes I did.”

When your seasons are flip flopped from what you are used to. (To all those freezing right now, I’m sweating… but I sure do miss pumpkins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, apples, apple picking, apple pie and all the colors of autumn.)

When walking down the street can seem challenging due to a huge herd of Masai cows blocking your path.

When you think you couldn’t possibly drink another cup of tea.

When you don't think twice about the man walking next to you carrying an A-k47.

Living in Kenya is when you wake up everyday to the sound of birds singing in the trees, having the most beautiful blue skies, and enjoying a breeze to cool off the heat from the closeness of the sun. When you rejoice in rain. When you don’t check the weather predictions but let whatever comes your way, come. When you can drive twenty minutes and encounter a lion, zebra, giraffes, rhinos, and buffalo. It’s being intoxicated by the joy within Kenyans and captivated by their smiles.

Living in Kenya is hard and has its challenges, but it also reveals the raw, unaltered, undefiled beauty of our creator.

Egypt

2009-10-08T00:24:00.001-07:00

They were tired, battered, and fleeing for their lives. The army was on their heels. Not only had they stood strong during the plagues, the persecution, and the whips of the slave drivers, but they were now being led by one man who seem to have brought so much pain with him.

Their leader stood with courage. He had been given orders and was carrying them to the best he knew how. He felt blind and unsure of his next move. He could hear the wave of whispers from the people in the crowd, “They are almost here… why, why did we follow this man? We’re about to be massacred. It would have been better if we had stayed.” Even so, their leader had yet to complete his mission, so he pressed on. As he and the crowd crest the hill their hearts sank as they saw what was before them. Surely they would now die.

“Let my people go.” Moses recalled his repeated request to Pharaoh. God commissioned Moses to do just that. Although such a task seemed impossible, God provided. It took perseverance and trust, but God followed through. Now His people were free and yet trapped between army and sea. The Israelites stared at Moses with angst in their eyes and fear in their hearts. He looked heavenward and approached the sea with passion. The army was advancing. So was the Lord. Moses raised his staff into the air and with great strength, struck the sea.

Time stood still. Egyptians and Israelites stopped at the very view before them. They were mystified. God was in the sea. They now understood. He too was in the plagues, in the death of the sons all throughout Egypt, in the cloud of dust by day and fire by night… and now their eyes were open to see that He too was in the water before them. He’s in everything. Moses claimed victory for the Lord and placed his sandaled foot onto the coral-ed sea floor. He was in the presence of the Lord. He turned around and welcomed the Israelites to join in on a great once in a lifetime adventure...

To walk with the Lord THROUGH the Red Sea.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

When I approached the Red Sea, I didn’t quite get the same experience… although when my goal was snorkeling, I’m glad that the sea did not part. As the waves rocked me and I swam further out I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I was swimming in the very sea of miracles. There were so many amazing sites in the sea. Colorful coral, large and small fish, star fish, great depths… so many cool things to look at. I wonder what it was like the Israelites crossed that sea.

On the way to the Red sea, our plane soared over a range of rocky mountains. Ryan squinted his eyes and looked out the window and told me to look for a mountain top with a small white church on top. We finally found it and as I’m staring at it Ryan said “That’s Mount Sinai.” “Wait…… hold on…. WHAT???????” Mount Sinai….. the mountain that Moses met God. The mountain that the Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The mountain right below me was THAT Mountain. Can I just pass out already??? Haha. I was in awe the entire time I was in Egypt.

My trip began with us going to the top of this mountain outside of Cairo to get a great view of how big the city was. It was HUGE. The view was spectacular. Only in the Middle East would you find huge mosques that take the cake and are the focal point in the skyline.

The sun setting over the city allowed for some sweet pictures… and so, of course I had to take tons. The place we were at was the home of an Egyptian Coptic Church within a cave of the mountain.

It was an awesome structure. Everywhere there were carvings of bible stories and scripture in Arabic.

The next day I got to spend two hours in the Egyptian museum. Unfortunately no camera’s were allowed inside the building so I can’t provide you pictures of the Rosetta stone, King Tut’s Mummy, and other fascinating items but they are there! It was kind of insane how the Museum is set up. I’m used to museums in the US where EVERYTHING is blocked off so you cannot touch. Guards are everywhere. One time I was at an art museum where my friend Ethan touched a piece of Art and got verbally beat up by the guard who had nothing better to do than protect that one piece of art. Now, however, priceless artifacts were just out in the open in Egypt. When I first got into the museum I was overwhelmed with all the tour guides speaking Arabic so I just went on my own. I found these sweet wooden carved coffins that at one point cased the Mummy of an Egyptian Pharaoh. So I look around and I touched it! I waited… and no guard was there to verbally beat me up! SAWEEEET! I was touching Mummy coffins and I didn’t feel a bit morbid. It was art, it was history, and I was getting a chance to encounter it all. I was touching the coffins that Egyptians long ago carefully carved out. Although it was a coffin, it was their art. Their chance to let out their creativity, to express to others the beauty they see in a single object. And it was beautiful. As you can see from my pictures, I’m obsessed with textures, color, and antiqued items so of course I spent a long time looking at everything.

The museum was so big that I probably only saw 60% of it within two hours. I was amazed with how many artifacts they were able to discover. Other than the beautiful carved coffins, my favorite part was the parchment writings in Ancient Egyptian. Each small icon painted on weathered cloth was beautiful. I tend to think anything is beautiful though…. Poor Ryan had to stop and wait for me to take all these random pictures of things such as these bricks that had Arabic written on them. I just thought it was beautiful.

We got to go to an Egyptian market that day too. Everything was beautiful! I got to buy a few Middle Eastern Looking candle lamps (glass), which amazingly made it back to Kenya without being broken!

That night we got to meet up with one of Ryan’s friends and have dinner on the Nile. Another one of the amazing biblical references on Egypt. Hello, baby Moses’s personal little river to royalty! It was a beautiful place. His friend was hilarious, he wanted to know American phrases so that he could say it to all his Egyptian friends. He, unfortunately liked to try them out on our waiter. So phrases like “Get lost” or “Scram” didn’t go over so well with our waiter. We tried to teach him context too… it was good for a good laugh though!

The next day Ryan and I headed out for the Pyramids! Before we left for them, however we had breakfast. We sat at a table and although there were tons of open tables, a Nigerian man decided to sit with us. We all shared some small talk and he found out that we were Americans. He looked at us in all seriousness and with a strong Nigerian accent and asked this question: “Are you Asian-Americans or Afro-Americans?” I seriously did not know what to say. I just looked at Ryan with my food just resting in my mouth. I knew if I swallowed I’d probably choke as I was already holding back my laughter. I mean really? As if we look Asian or African…and as if those two were the only options we could be.” Ryan just looked at the man and said, “Oh no, sir… we are just regular American.” Not sure what a regular-American is either but I guess since we weren’t the other two options that fit better. After breakfast though and as soon as Ryan and I got in the elevator, we died of laughter and have since referenced that question many times.!

Ok, back to the pyramids! I saw them from a distance and couldn’t believe it! The cool pyramids I saw in National Geographic and history books was now RIGHT in front of me! Ryan surprised me with a horseback ride through the pyramids! ☺

The one thing he didn’t know, though, was that I had never ridden a horse! Haha. Here’s how my first experience went down: I was pretty nervous but more nervous about my horse getting spooked by something and then galloping off into the desert with me on its back. As we were walking down the city streets to get to the sands of the desert, a car rounded the corner I too was rounding. He was driving really close to me and a little too aggressive. I thought for sure my horse was going to get spooked. My instant reaction was to do all possible to not have the car hit my horse. And my reaction was to kick my legs out so that the car would hit me and not my horse. Next thing I know, my foot hit something and the man’s side mirror was flying into the air and landed a few feet to my left. Ryan was in front of me and didn’t see it happen so I tried to do that yell/whisper thing to get his attention. “Ryan, Ryan….. I just kicked off that guy’s side mirror OFF and I think he’s pretty mad.” Sure enough, I turned around and the man had stopped his car and was getting out to retrieve his mirror. That should teach him to drive more carefully around horses and nervous tourists! ☺ His car was still there when we got back from our tour but thankfully there was on repercussions!

The pyramids were awesome! I stopped my horse constantly to take pictures. They were HUGE! I just kept saying “Oh my….. Oh my….” Then Ryan pointed out the Sphinx. ... WOW!

It was all amazing and beautiful. I snapped tons of pictures and just loved being there. With my brother. He was incredible…

totally fluent in Arabic. I would suggest hiring him if you ever want to tour Egypt. Best tour guide, and best translator! It never ceased to impress me. Hearing him speak really taught me that perseverance pays off. He’s been taking Arabic for about seven years now and now can speak it amazingly well! I felt privileged to hang out with him in Egypt where he could use this skill of his.

After the horse back ride, we walked around the pyramids for a few hours, touching them, taking sand from them, and just standing in awe. We got a horse carriage ride back down to the bottom of the LONG hill and ended our experience with PIZZA HUT!!!!!!! This pizza hut had the best view! Here’s a view from our window looking out at the pyramids could it get any better than that? Pizza and pyramids. I submit that it cannot.

We got invited to an anniversary party to one of the hottest lounges in Cairo and so we went. I got to meet up with an Egyptian millionaire, owner of the lounge, and the Paris Hilton male equivalent of Egypt. I had to laugh because I’m just a little missionary in Kenya and here are all these big-wigs. Life.

The next day we flew out to Dahab to spend some days at the Red sea. It was SOOOO relaxing. Our hotel room was right on the Red Sea and had a beautiful view. Nights were spent lounging at many of the town’s lounge restaurant where you sit at low tables and lounge on pillows. So relaxing!

I was sad to say goodbye to Ryan because it was sooooo fun! Thanks for everything, Ryan. You are the best older brother, EVER! ☺

My flight home was pretty eventful too! I happen to get the plane that held the Kenyan Golf Team, Cameroon’s Pro-Futbol team as well as Congo’s Pro-Futbol team. For a Red-eye flight, it was pretty rowdy!

And THAT, my friends is my trip to Cairo in a big nutshell.! I’ll be writing about my trip to the Kenyan desert as soon as I edit the photos!

I survived!!!

2009-09-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well, actually... I didn't just survive the desert, I loved it! More to come on that. For now, here is a cool video of my next adventure that I leave for in just a few hours!

MOMMMYYYY!!!

2009-09-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, that may be a little dramatic sounding. Its not. Ha... I'm sure all my missionary friends who are reading this right now are laughing their heads off. Annnnnd, I'm being completely serious! These are one of those moments where I want to act like a 2 year old and just scream

"MOMMMYYY!!!!"

Instead, I'll act my age and ask you all for some prayer.

Bugs. I hate bugs. And I say that with as much passion as Harrison Ford did in his Indian Jones films when he unveils his fear of snakes. I mean, I'm THAT girl who would rather flail around like an idiot if I see a spider on my wall than compose myself and squish the little dude.

This week I'm heading on an OFM trip up North to Korr. I was SUPER excited about this trip as we will be following a nomadic people group. I'm excited to capture some more photographs and be in on the action of OFM. Did you notice the use of the word "was" above? I just got finished talking with a friend about Korr and her experience there. I asked her how it was and there was just a long pause. (never a good sign). "How do you feel about bugs?" And then I got silent. Apperently this place is CRAWLING with bugs. Ohhh joy to the world! She described some of these bugs, and going against my better judgement I decided to google them. BIG mistake. Serioiusly? I can be such an idiot sometimes.

Here, take a look with me at the kind of bugs I'm talking about...

Such cute creatures, huh? I'm so sure they are all gonna want to cuddle up to me at night. I mean I consider myself a pretty tough cookie. I can handle a group of guys with their A-K47s pointed at my head, a 10 mile hike in Sudan, swimming way out into the ocean, braving the Nairobi roads. But seriously, bugs and I just dont' mix. There was one time in the year prior to me moving here that a bug landed on me and I jumped up and screamed while running away. I come back to join my friends in which they said "Ohhh, you are gonna do AWESOME in Africa." Touche, I deserved that one.

So, if you all can be praying for me. Seriously. Haha, stop laughing, its not funny! :) Just that I am not bothered by these bugs, and that I NEVER see a scorpion in my room. That I don't feel the bugs at all at night.... and don't suffocate from all the bug spray I'll be spraying in my room... Yes, guess who is buying the jumbo pack of bug spray tomorrow?

Deep breaths....

Splish Splash: Mombasa

2009-09-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

I love water. I’m not talking about the water you drink to quench a thirst. I’m talking about the water that you run, jump, tuck your legs to your chest and cannonball into. THAT kind of water is fantastic and so refreshing. I’ve needed refreshment, as you could probably tell from the way the end of the summer was going here. I felt like my entire being was drying up before my eyes. Joy wasn’t as profound in my life as it had been. Creativity was something I had to work double time to conjure up. I needed to do something…something fast!

One of my favorite memories with my best friends in college surrounded spontaneity. We would all be sitting together in our living room at midnight and someone would randomly say “IHOP?” We didn’t even have to think about it. It was spontaneous, so of course we were all in! Last week I was sitting in my office and realized that I needed to do something spontaneous to get myself out of Nairobi for a little bit. I looked up tickets to the coast and to my surprise, the prices were amazing! I texted my friend Joelle and just asked: “Mombasa?” Good thing she too is spontaneous! ☺

Friday evening we found ourselves all packed up and heading to the airport for our last-minute trip of pure spontaneity to the coast! As we boarded the plane and strapped in, I could sense the tension and stress from the past few months falling off. We both couldn’t stop smiling the entire plane ride. I think we said the word “beach” about 50 billion times before we landed.

I had asked some friends of mine that I had met on my way to Africa (Justin and Shannon Brown) if I could come stay with them. Good thing they too enjoy spontaneity because they opened their house to Joelle and me for the entire weekend! They have two precious little girls (Avery and Hunter) with a third on the way. I heard they were excited to see me again but didn’t know the truth of that until I saw two tiny heads peaking in my bedroom door the morning after we arrived (we arrived after their bedtime so they were told “Miss Kate” would be here when they woke up in the morning.). It was so fun to be around those little ones again. Especially Hunter because she and I shared many conversations concerning the formality of being a real, true princess. I have a looooong way to go apparently. But she is willing to help me out! ;) A few times she would look at me and tell me: “Princesses don’t really wear hats, so if you want to be a princess, you are really gonna have to take that off.” “Yuck, princesses can’t wear brown. They just can’t. The ONLY colors princesses can wear is pink, purple, and blue. Sometimes yellow, like Belle.” Trust me, I don’t know if there is an ounce of brown in her closet… mostly pink. Too cute!

When we arrived on Friday night, Joelle, Justin, and I went to an Indian restaurant (one of the few restaurants open in Mombasa due to Ramadan… it’s a VERY Muslim area of Kenya). At dinner, Justin shared with us some history of Mombasa, things to do and see as well as filled us in on his recent conquer of Kilimanjaro! Way to go!

On Saturday all of us made our way to the beach…yes, the BEACH! I could not contain my excitement when I finally saw the coast and the BEAUTIFUL Indian Ocean! Its been a strange feeling having it be “summer” in my mind here yet not doing any summer activities since its technically “winter” in Kenya. I played with Hunter and Avery in the baby pool, laid out some, and then played a made-up game of “The clam catches the mermaid princess” with Hunter in the big pool. Can you guess who was the clam and who was the mermaid princess? ;)

After the pool we headed back home so the girls could take naps. Joelle and I headed to the market to check it out. Shannon suggested us wearing long skirts and covering our head with scarves to lessen harassment. I don’t know if it lessoned it. I think at one point we had about five men trying to “sell” us spices, jewels, and fabrics. They kept telling us that their stores were “right down that alley.” Yeah right. Finally after they found out that I "have" a very large husband who is a professional boxer/marine/personal trainer/or any other intimidating profession they left us alone. But seriously, after so many movies out there, who would go down a dark alley after being told by a stranger that their store is down there??? I wasn’t born yesterday. Other than that, it was a great experience to see a whole different culture within the same country I live in. It was like being in a Middle Eastern country. Pretty amazing!

That evening Joelle and I tried our hand at making some brownies… and yes! FINALLY! They turned out like what I was aiming for! No more Garden (enter baked good name). ☺ We also went over to the Brown’s neighbor’s house for Mexican night and some card games. Tons of fun! One thing I’ve learned here, is that no one is a stranger. Although I had just met this new family a few hours before dinner I left Mombasa feeling like I’ve known them for quite a while.

On Sunday we went to a coastal church. One of my favorite things about this church was that we got to sing the song “An New Hallelujah.” Singing it with a church full of African’s is amazing.
Especially when we got to the verse that sings:

“Africa sings a new song
reaching out with the new Hallelujah
Every son and every daughter
everyone sing a new Hallelujah.”

It was great to say the least. We then went out to a quick bite to eat at an Italian restaurant. Another one of the few places open in Mombasa during Ramadan it was great! And after church, back to the Beach! This time I GOT TO SWIM IN THE INDIAN OCEAN! Was I excited about that? Of course not… ;) It was so great! Justin and I were the only ones up for snorkeling. We grabbed our gear and walked down the beach a ways. We had to step over a lot of coral but it was worth it. We saw camels all along the beach giving rides to whomever.

It was too cool! Finally we reached a spot, got on our gear and started swimming away from shore. I was soo paranoid about sea urchins that I never once put my foot down on the swim over. We had to cross this one spot where Justin said is the migration path of shark whales. This is not my picture, but just so you get an idea of what a shark whale looks like. It’s huge. I don’t’ even know what I would have done had I seen one! EEEKS.

If you can see in the below picture, about where the waves are breaking in the distance, we had to swim out there to get to the best snorkeling spot.

It was soo neat to have swam out ourselves to this underwater world that is FULL of amazing creatures. I can’t even remember everything we saw but I’m posting pictures that I found on the Internet so you can see a bit of what I got to swim with! I don’t think I could give them enough credit with my words. God is awesome though. Not only did he create amazing creatures on the land like giraffes, zebras, and elephants, but He created these intricate and odd creatures who live underwater! My creativity doesn’t hold a candle to God’s.

Sunday evening we made some homemade chicken nuggets then quickly headed back to the airport to go back to Nairobi. It was definitely not enough time at the coast or with the Browns, but it was just enough for now. I guess I’d describe it as not being a cannonball type refresher, but more like a dip. Enough to cool you off, enough to refresh you and sustain you and DEFINITELY enough to entice you back for more! Yes, Browns, I will be coming back! Thanks for a fun spontaneous trip! ☺

Think About It!

2009-09-14T03:54:00.000-07:00

Remember back to my time in SUDAN? You saw many of my still pictures that were taken during that week. We (OFM) just finished the video! I'm pretty excited how it all came together at the end, from footage, editing, soundtrack, and all.

I present to you... "Think About It!" (and really.... think about it)

Think About It from AIM On-Field Media on Vimeo.

love.

2009-09-09T13:35:00.001-07:00

If you wished to be loved, love.

Thank You!

2009-09-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

To all of you who have been writing and sending me letters in the past few week.... thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! :) It has been such a joy to be able to see a few hand written letters in my mailbox at the airport! I love reading each encouraging word that you took the time to write and send to me.... and it has been encouraging indeed! :) They now are finding their new home on my fireplace mantel and I love looking at them when I'm in my living room! :) Thank you!

Make my day.

2009-09-04T04:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it doesn't take much to make my day.....For instance, a conversation between my brother and I, oh how I miss him!

Explore. Dream. Discover.

2009-09-03T04:14:00.000-07:00

Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

"What if you were some crazy tribal graphic designer???"

2009-08-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

So, while all my classmates were making their beautiful stationary and business cards in our Senior Year Graphic Design class to hopefully land a job at an amazing design firm....... you would find me doodling on my stationary, fully knowing that I probably wouldn't be at a design firm for my first year out of school. My friend Rachel and I would laugh at the prospect of me doing design in Africa... and I'm actually here now...designing-crazy thought! She had taken one of my "stationary" sets that I had doodled on and just found it again and sent it to me. We just had another good laugh via gchat! :) Thanks Rachel!

The {oops} Birthday Cake {garden}

2009-08-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today was my friend, Tianne's Birthday... Happy Birthday Tianne (wish we could get a repeat of the Kenyans singing you the longest version of "Happy Birthday")!

Joelle and I decided to bake Tianne a birthday cake. Betty Crocker hasn't visited Nairobi in quite sometime so we had to bake it from scratch... but we were ready for the challenge. We strolled on down to my friend, Ruth's, house to get a recipe for a yummy cake. (Whenever I need a recipe, I normally knock on her door before opening my cookbook :) ). She gave us an easy recipe for an egg less chocolate lover's cake... perfect! We also bought ingredients for homemade chocolate butter cream frosting. We whipped up the cake batter, had it taste-tested by an eight year old who declared "It tastes dusty.... oh wait, no, my hands are just dirty." :) We popped it in the oven then headed to see a surprise that this 8 year old wanted to show us. He had found a little baby bird in a nest! This is a picture of him "singing" to it to comfort it.. how cute!

So we then headed back to my house to take the cakes out of the oven and to whip up the frosting. The cakes turned out great and the frosting... well, not so much. I couldn't get the right consistency so I grabbed my bowl of frosting and ingredients and headed down toward Ruth's house to have her fix the damage. It took a few quick tricks to make it into real, yummy frosting.. the way frosting is supposed to look!

Then, things got interesting. I present to you....

"7 easy steps to make a Birthday cake garden."

1) First, follow directions carefully.... don't forget to grease the pan. Seriously, don't.

2) Secondly, if you did forget to grease the pan well, the cake will stick to the pan, breaking into a million yummy pieces the second you try to flip it over.

3) Mix up your frosting... this will be the amazingness and your "glue" to your Birthday cake garden.

4) Spread the frosting all over the cake top... its ok if pieces come up onto the frosting... for once, that is really ok!

5) Chop the cake up into even more little pieces. Add chopped cake to a pretty bowl. Mix, making sure that the frosting and the cake are mixed evenly.

6) Add pretty flower decorations and candles.... tada!

7) Present to the Special birthday person as if what you are presenting them is exactly what you were aiming for in the first place....they will just think you are creative and love coming up with your own recipes. (You must be very confident in this step... if you aren't, then the birthday person might catch on that this Birthday cake garden was a direct result from you goofing up on their birthday cake).

*** Incase you didn't catch the sarcasm... this was a complete goof up on my part. But when you are in Africa, you can't quite run to the store and get another cake mix and whip a perfect cake up in 30 mins. You have to use some creativity with what you have! However, Tianne thought it was amazing, cute, and tasted wonderful on top of a scoop of ice cream. I'd have to agree :)

Happy Birthday, Tianne!

Time is a companion...

2009-08-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I feel restless, I like to go on a run. Sometimes the remedy is talking with a good friend or relaxing with a hot cup of tea and a book. Sometimes, my outlet is art. Mmmm, today was a restless day for me. Not sure why. Today's antidote... art. I took some of my photos that I've taken over the years and added a bit of an antique look and a sweet quote!...Enjoy!

Time is a companion...
that goes with us on a
j o u r n e y.
It reminds us to cherish each
m o m e n t,
because it will never come again.
What we leave behind
is not as important
as how we have lived.

Whatever you do, DON’T get out of your car in the presence of lions….

2009-08-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I think its time for a fun story for ya’ll! A few weekends ago I had a family friend (Caleb) and his friend (Jake) come through Nairobi. They asked me to show them around Nairobi and were hoping for a Safari. Well, anyone who knows me, knows that I won’t pass up a chance for an adventure… so the safari was indeed on the list of things to do!

The Nairobi Game Park is about ten miles away from my house but is MASSIVE. I’ve heard it is easy to get lost in but figured that God gave me a good sense of direction so that would never happen to me. I’ve been able to bring many visitors to the park this summer and have enjoyed every minute of the safari whether we are driving through tall grass, chasing a warthog, sneaking up on zebra, searching for lions, or just looking at God’s amazing creation. I’ve been told that there are lions in the park but I’ve never seen them and so I guess I kind of just thought that they don’t exist in this particular park but that they tell you that they do so that you keep coming back.

So, with the thought that lions don’t exist in this park, I figured that it was safe to step out side the car to get a good picture if I needed to. (Yes, the sacrifices I make for a good photo! :P ) So the first time I got out of the car was a little scary. I kept thinking… “What if THIS very moment is the moment that the lion decides to show himself to me….eeks!” My friends were apprehensive as well. But as the day went on and no lions were spotted we felt more free to get out of the car.

About a month after my first few drives in the game park, my sister, Meghann, and friend Kate came for a visit. They too wanted to check out the game park. We left early in the morning to spend a few hours in the park. For some reason, on this day, zebras were EVERYWHERE. I mean the whole park looked black and white from all the zebra stripes. It was humorous at times when we couldn’t even move our car because of all the zebra. At one point we were trying to drive but got stuck in the middle of a herd. I decided to have a little fun and put the car into park, got out and started running like a crazy woman on the road ahead of us… and it worked… a path was cleared for our car. I didn’t even think twice that there could be lions around! It was quite the experience to be running in the middle of Africa with zebras all around me. I would recommend you try it sometime in your life ;)

Ok… so back to the present story. Like I was saying, my friends Caleb and Jake and I decided to head out for a Safari one morning. On the way to the park we picked up a new Kenyan friend, Regean who is from the Kibera slum. This would be his first time in the game park so I wanted to make sure that it was a good one for him as well as Jake and Caleb. The whole drive to the park I talked up the park and all the animals we could see. I even shared with them how you can get out of your car and how I’ve run with a herd of zebra before. They were stoked to do something adventurous, as was I!

It was a hazy morning, which made it difficult to spot animals. We strained our eyes to find something. We saw a warthog at one point as it scurried past our car. The guys were smart enough to know not to get out of the car that point. A few minutes later we spotted a carcass of a zebra in the distance off the road. The guys unlocked their doors and dashed out to get close up pictures. I could hear their manly grunts as they enjoyed being so close to this carcass that had just been eaten by…. A lion. They came back and showed me some disgusting pictures. I politely smiles but acted like I had to really concentrate on my driving so that I didn’t have to look much longer.

About an hour later we spotted a buffalo. Jake tried to get out but a car passed us and reprimanded him for getting out in the sight of such a dangerous animal. (ha… I didn’t know they were dangerous till then!). So then we decided to off road a little bit. We spotted a cool tree in the distant that the guys wanted me to take a cool shot of them at. Below is the picture that I took of them with the tree.

After this picture, we got in the car, and went on our merry way. We spotted some zebra to our left and we were all intently watching them and talking about how cool that would be if we saw lions right then. That’s when it happened. I didn’t even hear it approaching which is strange since my driver’s window was all the way down. But all of a sudden I heard all this yelling in Swahili and I turned to see this huge army truck pulled up uncomfortably close to my drivers door with about six men inside with guns pointing at me. My first instinct was to put my hands up but then I realized how silly I would look to them. I didn’t even have time to ask them what was wrong before they were at my door, guns still pointed at me. I turned to see if the guys knew what was going on. They too were just as shocked and panicked as I was. The men would not speak English except for two words that they kept repeating “Open trunk, open trunk!!!!!!” I popped my trunk and tried to see in my rearview mirror what they were searching for since I had nothing in there. Regan finally got out of the car to see if he can talk to them in Swahili. Oh yes, the guns were still pointed at me as well as the frowns of half a dozen army guys. As I was looking in my rearview mirror I saw one of the guards grab Regan and start pulling him towards the army truck. The guard took Regan’s citizenship card and started saying things on his radio. Regan started whispering to us that we were not supposed to get out of the car and that these guys thought he was our guide in the safari and so he is to blame. Poor guy, in his excitement of his first game drive, he had dressed in “safari clothes” so he did indeed look like a tour guide. I tried to speak to the man who’s gun was pointed at me. He didn’t really want to talk. I explained to him that it was my car and that we were sorry. He yelled something to the man who was on the radio. Finally they started speaking in English… angry English. They told us that they were going to escort us out of the park… permanently. Ouch! After a few more moments they decided to give us a warning and told us that they would be watching us. Their final words being "Whatever you do, DON’T get out of your car in the presence of lions…" I wanted to respond with some sass; "WHERE are the Lions then??? Show us cause we sure can't find them!" But I bit my tongue... figured that was best with angry army men with guns. It took me a few moments to recoup from all of that… once I did, I put the child safety locks on all the doors so the guys didn’t forget. I was not about to have another truck full of angry army men with guns come up to my car!

And that’s not all. Because of being frazzled, and off roading, I lost track of where we were in the park. Yeah, that whole “God gave me a good sense of direction” deal… well, I forgot that He has a greater sense of humor! Yes, I got lost. At this point, we had been in the park for about three hours and with all the excitement of the guns and army men, and not finding any lions, we decided that it might be best to start heading back to the main gate. Ha. Lets just say that four hours later after driving to a random village in the middle of nowhere we finally found our way out of the park.

I learned quite a few things that day…

1)There are Lions in the game park but worse, there is a truck full of armed guards there who like to sneak up on you when you aren’t looking.

2)Buffalos are dangerous… Don’t play chicken with them on a bridge.

3)Although only ten miles away from your house, you can get lost for seven hours.

4)Seven hours of driving in the game park can cause a lot of dust to add up on your dashboard.

5)Little four door Suzuki cars can drive up a boulder infested mountain if you are listening to the theme song from “Rocky.”

6)You should really use a map at the Nairobi game park.

7)Don’t dress like a tour guide.

8)Life is an adventure! :)... well, that I already knew!

I Need Africa More than Africa Needs Me

2009-08-11T23:54:00.000-07:00

Quenching the Thirst

2009-08-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I pray this message finds you all well. I feel like I have to take a very deep breath right now to be able to write this post. I know that my posts recently have been a little "heavy" but it is the reality of life at the moment in Kenya. In my last post I shared with you about the passing of one of my neighbors, a missionary pilot with AIM (Frank) and the hospitalization of my other neighbor, Ryan. Life on the compound was difficult this past week. I struggled with trying to find ways that I could serve these families but our AIM "family" here was incredible in supporting the family's, the wives, and the children of these two men. I realized that I needed to just be available for anything that might come up and to constantly be in prayer for everyone.

As the week went on we found out that Ryan (Missionary Mechanic who was in the hospital) was going to be moved to a burn unit in South Africa. We prayed that the Lord would deliver him down their safely... and he did. Shortly after his arrival in S.A. we received word to be praying for Ryan's health as it was deteriorating due to the infection in the burns. I know many of you were praying and I am so greatful. Friday morning we received word that the Lord took Ryan home to heaven. I was devastated with this news. The mood among everyone turned from saddness to complete overwhelming shock.

We lost two family members.
Two woman in our family are now widows.
Eight children in our family are now fatherless.
...so much loss in a week.

I feel exhausted emotionally, but I know that can't compare to what these men's families are feeling. I pray for them whenever they come to mind... .which has been constant lately. Please join me in prayer as well... pray for their wives, their children, their parents, their family, their friends and all those who's lives have been effected by these two great men.

Death is something that is so hard to grasp. It is so immediate and perminate. I have had quite a few experiences with people in my life dying and it never gets easier. I remember calling my friend who was battling cancer to talk but instead, had her father answer the phone as he choked out the information that she had slipped into a coma and would never wake up again. I lost my breath... I remember hearing about a bad car accident on the interstate only to find out later that my friend was in the car and didn't make it. I felt my knees go weak.... And now, the news of this tragic accident was devistating. I hurt so badly for these families but they are incredible. Even tonight, the facebook status of one of the woman who lost her husband stated "We are well, it is well with my soul." My body ached, arms covered with goosebumps, and eyes filled with tears. How trusting of our Heavenly father to be able to say "It is well with my soul." ... and I know she means it. I am learning so much from my family here.... I am blessed with their strength, encouragement, comfort, and joy in the midst of such saddness.

As I said in a few previous blog posts, this summer has not been easy here. I've had series of ups and downs in life. Some with closure through understanding where I can grasp the lessons, others leave me wondering the purpose behind it. Those lessons are obviously the hardest. I'm often the stubborn one asking "why?" instead of realizing the refining that comes through these lessons... as if I feel that God owes me something such as answering the "why?".

I've been realizing that through all these ups and downs that God is a God of healing. One thing I know for sure, had it not been for the various heartbreaks, I would not have been able to see the Lord piece me back together. I would not have experienced Him turning my ashes into beauty. I would not have known what it means to make all things new. I'm still working on my heart and being able to say that all these trials were worth the pain... but I do know that I am greatful to be able to get to know another attribute of my savior: The Healer.

When going through these difficult times I often feel that I am so "thirsty" for healing water and for time with my Heavenly Father. The other day I was organizing some of my books and came across a blank journal. It is such a fun and beautiful journal with handmade paper... one of those journals that is so unique that I couldn't imagine ruining it by inking its pages... but I automatically knew what I wanted to do with this one. I needed a place to record my healing and record ways that the Lord is healing me. I wanted something that I can write down scripture, quotes, song lyrics, and words from friends that have helped me to "Quench the Thirst" in my soul. It has been so great to have so far...especially right now. I'm excited to create this book through my journey of the rest of my time in Africa. To record the mountains and valleys that He leads me through, and to be able to have something tangible to look back on and remember.

A friend of mine (Meghan M.) sent me this quote to help me to remember that no matter the pain I'm sharing in with the missionaries here, God has called me to a task here in Africa and that no matter what, I need to be faithful to complete it. And yes, this quote is indeed going to make it into my book because it has helped me to "Quench the Thirst"...

"Yesterday you experienced a great sorrow and now your home seems empty. Your impulse is to give up amid your dashed hopes. Yet, you must defy that temptation for you are at the front lines of battle and the crisis is at hand. Faltering for even one moment would put God's interest at risk. Other lives will be harmed by your hesitation and His work will suffer if you simply fold your hands. You must not linger at this point, even to indulge your grief."

Urgent Prayer

2009-08-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

Please, Please be praying....

Around 4:30 yesterday I got word that one of our AIMair airplanes had crashed in Nairobi. Two of our missionaries were on board as well as two media men filming a documentary. The two passengers are in stable condition (however be praying for Dan as he has complained of abdominal pains today). The airplane mechanic has suffered severe burns, cuts, and broken bones. Unfortunately, I am sad to say that the pilot did not make it.... he is now in Heaven with our Lord. Please be praying for the family's of these missionaries. They need prayer support right now for strength, healing, peace, and encouragement. We are all soo saddened by these events and need prayer to be able to find ways to comfort and encourage these families during this time.

The following is a letter from the General Manager of AIMair:

August 02 2009

An accident occurred on August 1, with an AIM AIM Cessna 206. It occurred around 2:30PM (EAT) near the Nairobi Wilson Airport. There were four people on board; AIM AIR pilot Frank Toews, AIM AIR mechanic Ryan Williams and two Americans. At this time there is still medical evaluation being done but this is what we know: The two passengers have some broken bones, minor burns, cuts and bruises. They are both being kept in the hospital for treatment and further evaluation. Ryan Williams' injuries currently include a fractured pelvis, multiple contusions and some significant burns. However, his prognosis is good and he is receiving good medical attention in Nairobi. Frank Toews, the pilot, did not survive the accident and has gone to be with the Lord and Savior whom he loved dearly and served well.

Please pray with us, specifically for the timely return for health of those who are injured, their families, and particularly for Frank's wife and 4 children as they trust God for strength and comfort during this difficult time.

We are trusting God, with all of you, to show Himself to be good, even beyond our expectations and understanding of what good could mean, in a
situation like this.

Denny Dyvig
AIM AIR General Manager

"Morning brings a hunger for new eyes"

2009-07-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Jambo, ya’ll!

I hope this blog post finds you all well! I’m sitting here in my home in Kenya freeeeeezing! Yes, FREEZING! Crazy, huh? Who knew that Africa could get cold? Thankfully my mom brought over a nice soft fleece throw to keep me warm…. Mom, you rock!

Life has been pretty insane for me this “summer.” There have been tons of changes and life’s ups and downs. I apologize for not writing more but I have now set a new goal to update you all weekly on what is going on in my life. It’s hard to believe that I have now been here for half a year. It seriously few by sooooo quickly. I recall getting ready to leave the States and worried that this year would go by soooo slow but oh was I wrong!

In the past six months I’ve gone through 3 weeks of orientation, 4 weeks of living with a Kenyan family, 4 weeks of language school, getting sick, starting my ministry with the On Field Media team, traveling to Tanzania, moving twice, learned how to drive, traveled to Sudan…..and had visitors! ☺

My first visitors that came were 2 of my best friends…. Hannah and Catherine. It was such a blessing to have them here with me for two whole weeks! We jam packed those weeks with various adventures…every day we created new memories. It was so great to laugh again with friends who know me backwards, forwards, inside, and out. I love looking back on photos of our time together and knowing that they now have shared memories with me here and can relate to stories of new made friends and newly discovered places in Kenya. It was so difficult to say goodbye to them but I know that “Friends are friends forever when the Lord’s the lord of them…..” (Sarah Moore….that corny line is just for you! Haha ;) )

Shortly after my friends left I was visited by……. My friend, Kate, and my sister Megs!!!!! It of course was an emotional meeting! ( I always count it a victory when I can make my little sister cry….and I was victorious at the airport!) The first thing out of my sister’s mouth after we hugged was “I can’t believe you are you! I can touch you…. You aren’t just a talking head on a computer screen!” Thank the Lord for technology! A few days later my mom and brother, Justin arrived and it was just as good to be able to hug them again! Nothing like seeing Mom at the perfect time! Annnd a few days after that my dad arrived from Rwanda! We made a “Flatt Ryan” version of my older brother to bring with us on all our adventures so he wasn’t left out. We had seven days together and knew we would have to jam pack it with fun and memories… we had 6 months to make for!

I was so proud of how my family acclimated to Nairobi. Things that I anticipated would surprise them barely fazed them! They were super adventurous… trying new foods, shopping at the market, and keeping their mouths shut in the car while I drove ;). One of our highlights was being able to go to the Masai Mara for a 2 day Safari! We stayed at the Mara Sarova Hotel and it was fabulous. I’d rate it 6 stars if that were an option! We got to see every animal….I was most amazed at the elephants and the lions. Those two animals have been on my “bucket list” of things to do and see before I die. I can now die happy….well except for the rest of the items on my “bucket list.”

It was sooo hard to see my family go. Having them here was such a blessing. The Lord’s timing is incredible because he knew exactly when I needed them and he was able to provide to get them here at just the right time. It was strange waving goodbye to them at the airport. We kept waving as they went deeper and deeper into the airport. Finally I knew that it was time to let them go and it was not my time to go with them. I blew them a kiss and gave them the sign “I love you.” And backed away from the window. It was strange. It was strange knowing that for such a short time they were on my side of the world, with me but now are back in America far, far away from here.

I’ll admit that the days that followed are goodbye has been a little rough. I’ve done a lot of processing about life and the last few months trying to sort some things out. This evening I was looking through my blog archives and looking back on the past six months. One that I came across that stood out was my post about New Years. I listed my new years resolutions for this year. As I read each one I realized that it was time for me to assess how I’ve been doing in these areas….

Boldness:
"Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold." 2 Corinthians 3:12

Peace:
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

Surrender:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Strength:
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

I think recently the Lord is challenging me on all of these areas. Another one that I feel the Lord has been speaking to me about is living more fearless…and I think that will come as I work on the four attributes: Boldness, peace, surrender, and strength.

I’ve been praying that the Lord would use me during this time in Africa….to grown and refine me. I don’t want my time here to wrap up with me being the same Kate that I was before I left the states. I want to be a woman of the Lord who see’s life through Christ’s eyes….is broken for those He is broken for… who walks boldly in Christ… who lives in peace… who is able to surrender my future and my hopes and dreams to Christ… who has strength to face whatever the Lord lay ahead of me….and to live fearlessly no matter the circumstance. I think fear holds me back from a lot of things… I don’t want it to anymore. Whether it’s a fear of the unknown, of a conversation, of new beginnings, of loving and being loved, of hardships and doing things alone…. Fear will not rule.

I’ve got quite a few things to continue to work on but I’m looking forward to some quality time with me and the Lord. Just a few days ago as I was saying goodbye to my family I saw my loneliness here as a curse but I’m slowly seeing it as a blessing. How cool is that that God would bring me all the way to the beautiful land of Africa to spend some one on one time with Him.

"When I have been a victim of familiarity
When my heart has fallen into sleep
Healing is the voice that awakens me
And it is you"

* I'm going to be posting soon with more details about my family's time here with me! (pictures included of course)

God Bless the USA...all the way from Kenya!

2009-07-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

I hope that you all had an AMAZING Fourth of July! Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love the buzz in the air, the smell of bbqs, and the fireworks that wrap up the evening. Things are a tad bit different in Kenya when it comes to celebrating the Fourth of July…..obviously!

If you were to ask any of my friends here if I were excited about the Fourth of July arriving, they would for sure say that I wouldn’t stop talking about it! I counted down the days till I got to celebrate the 4th. Knowing that things would be different, my friends and I were determined to make the most of it! There are five of us that hang out (Sammi, Joelle, Luke, Phil, and me)….perfect amount to pack into my car and find some trouble….er,I mean fun! (Joelle is from Canada so we had pitty on her and let her be an American for the day. )

We started our celebration bright and early…. 8am. Sammi was up in Machakos volunteering to help watch kids for those at the Africa Based Orientation (ABO) for AIM so our first stop was Machakos! Before Machakos, however Joelle invited us all over for a breakfast. In the invitation she said: “Dress up in western outfits and bring country music!” I thought she was going to try to make fun of us Americans somehow since we like to tease her about being from Canada but instead she shared a Canadian tradition with us! It was called a “Stampede Breakfast” which apparently is a tradition in her town. For ten days the whole city shuts down to celebrate the stampede. All over the city people host amazing breakfasts. It begins on the first Thursday in July and continues for ten days. Sooo, although it was the 4th of July (an American holiday) we got to celebrate a Canadian tradition too! And it was Yummy! I got to make the pancakes and added an American twist….Mickey Mouse! :)

(Our "Stampede Breakfast"... Phil, Luke, Me, Joelle (the Canadian :) )

After our “Stampede Breakfast” we hit the road for Machakos. It was a fun ride with friends. We got to drive through many different towns and see so many beautiful mountains! The last time I traveled this road was in January and back then the roads were ROUGH! They made a new road but……..I didn’t get that memo. After a little “detour” (riding down a ravine and through a construction site) we made it to Machakos. It was exactly how I’d seen it 5 months ago! We got to meet a lot of new missionaries who just arrived and it was amazing for me to see them and to realize that I’m not “new” anymore!

Shortly after we picked up Sammi, the five of us headed to Mt. Lukenya where my pastor owns a camp. He invited all the Americans he knew for a bbq. It was BEAUTIFUL out there! So great to get out of the chaos of Nairobi and enjoy the fresh air! After a good old American bbq, we headed to the volley court for some “Big Ball Volleyball!” Ok….50 something Americans (plus one Canadian) on a volleyball court with a 3 foot ball is insane! Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the event, which is sooo sad cause it was a site to see. I laughed more than I hit the ball….for sure! Our team lost (wah wah) but it didn’t matter…the fun we had was priceless! The camp is on 100 acres. On one side of the camp is a mountain and the other side is a safari park…pretty much incredible to say the least! My pastor’s son, Paul, (who is the camp director) handed me his keys to his four-wheeler after the game. I’ve found a new passion of mine…four-wheeling around the African Bush…tooo fun! It was like Jet-skiing but without the water! I hope to get back out to that camp soon and ride some more! Before we left the camp, Paul invited us to his house that he just built. Yes, you read that right, he BUILT his very own house! It was AMAZING! I felt like it should be on one of those “Home” TV channels. The moment I walked in my jaw dropped. It was this incredible ranch in the middle of a Safari park. Paul says that a lot of times he eats dinner on his back porch as the sunsets, watching giraffe walk by. As we left the camp my mind was occupied with how I can get OFM to move out to some place like this camp! Haha….like that would ever happen!

(The Camp bbq... Joelle, Luke, Sammi, Renee, Me, Phil)

Our drive home was a little less eventful since I was able to find the newly paved road…and it was quite nicer than driving through the ravine! We made a stop at the grocery store and picked up some food for our own dinner that evening. It turned out amazing! We had marinated chicken, rosemary potato wedges and steamed green beans. (Don’t worry….we explained to the Canadian that this isn’t a traditional 4th of July dinner such as hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and corn on the cob.) It was one of the best dinners I’ve had in a while….soo tasty! The company, of course made the night. Laughter filled the air constantly as we recalled memories from the day and the past few months. We wrapped up the evening with quite a few rounds of the game “Apples to Apples” then 3 episodes of “The Office.” Have I mentioned before that we laughed a lot on the 4th? ☺

So, recap: Despite the fact that we were the minority who actually celebrate the 4th of July in Kenya we were able to make the most of it and make lasting memories. There were no fireworks, but there were constant explosions of laughter.

God Bless the USA!

P.s. I still have yet to update on my time spent with two of my best friends who visited me for two weeks! It was an incredible time! Once I get pictures then I will for sure fill you all in on the adventures we had! ☺

Sudan

2009-06-04T00:39:00.000-07:00

I leaned my head back to calm my nerves. The sun had already peaked to brighten the African plains. Palms sweaty, heart racing, I tried to distract my mind from what I was about to do. I looked around at the 18 other passengers to find someone else who looked as nervous as I. Most were already dozing off or deeply enwrapped in the pages of their books. A few found comfort in the conversation of a fellow passenger. I looked at my teammates Ted and Tim, they too were relaxed. I figured it was as good a time as any to share my nerves. “Wow, small plane! I think this is the smallest Airplane I’ve ever been on!” Ted quickly looked at Tim and with a slight laugh looked back at me to declare, “Just you wait.” “Great.” I thought trying to grasp what THAT plane ride would be like. I’m used to the big planes…the ones were a whole city is packed in, 10 to a row, 2 aisles, 15 flight attendants, 9 bathrooms, 500 sick bags, life jackets, oxygen masks….you know, the whole shebang! I guess when I think about it though, why does a bagillion pound plane seem safer to fly in the air than a little 19 passenger? Somehow it made sense of my nerves at the time.

The cockpit was open so I could see the pilots making their last checks. I too was double-checking the pilots making sure they touched every last button making sure it worked. This was the first time I didn’t care how long it took to get into the air… I wanted the pilots to check everything! Before I knew it we were lined up on the airstrip waiting our turn for the take off. I gripped my seat tighter and leaned my head down to peek through the tiny window. I said a very thorough prayer….and before I knew it we were landing in Lokichoggio, Northern Kenya! I almost prided myself on the fact that I made it through that flight. Aaaaaand then I saw our next plane. When Ted said “Just you wait” he wasn’t kidding….at all. We stood on the little airstrip as I saw this bug come out of the sky and land before us. GULP! “I’m bigger than that thing.” I mumbled as we walked closer to the plane. It didn’t help that the pilot who landed was taking seats out and rearranging the whole inside of the plane. I made sure to double check that they tightened the screws on my chair before I got in…haha, yeah, I’m THAT girl. But seriously, who wants to know how easy it is for their chair to come out right before they are about to fly?

The sun was beginning to set behind the Sudan hills. We had a 30-minute flight into Sudan where we would land on the airstrip in Dadinga Hills. Hmm, Airstrip is not quite the word I would typically use to describe it. After a prayer we were on our way! It was an amazing flight! Even in our little bathtub of an airplane we could see SOOO much more than you ever could on one of those big planes. At one point Ted yelled back “I’m opening the window.” But since I couldn’t hear him all I saw was him saying something and pointing out the window. I acknowledged what I thought he was pointing at. Next thing I know, he opens the window….what in the world? It was an instant tunnel of wind heading straight towards me. If I hadn’t already straighten my hair that morning, it would have been straight no matter after we landed…straight back that is! The coolest part of the trip was looking out the window and seeing all these African huts scattered over the mountains. Each rolling hill covered with unreached people waiting to hear the word of God! As we got close to landing I looked out the window to see a more modern looking hut and a white woman running outside flailing her arms at us in a welcoming fashion. Ted once again leaned back and tried to yell that we were landing. All I could see is this mountain and our plane heading straight for it. I was wondering if this was the point where I’d have to eventually formulate a phone call to my mom from a hospital bed: “Uhh hi mom! Yeah, Sudan was good…no, I’m not there anymore. Yeah I did get to really, uh, bond with Sudan! It was a unique experience…it kinda made me crash right into the culture. Yeah, God really broke me when we were there! Yeah, I’m gonna be taking quite a few weeks to recover from the jet crash..I mean lag, jet lag! Oh yeah jet lag…I know I’m on the same time zone but those little planes sure put a dent in your nerves!” Instead, however, the pilot did some amazing maneuvers and we were able to land on the top of this mountain, rocks, grass, holes, included!

As we landed and the plane stopped at the end of the airstrip we were greeted with TONS of Dadinga people scattered amongst the missionaries there! They did some sort of traditional dance to match their traditional dress they donned just for us! They broke their dance and charged us. I don’t know how many of those missionaries spit on my hand, but they say it was part of the culture and they were trying to be traditional. I have my doubts though… I never once got spit on the entire rest of the time I was there! (Funny joke, Dadinga TIMO, funny joke.) We were instantly surrounded by the people I’d be living among for the next 7 days. Naked children, curious woman, and strong warrior like men came out of the forest to see who was brought in the plane. I’d never been among such people before but it was breathtaking. Of course this was not the same situation but I couldn’t help but wonder how Jim Elliot felt when he landed among the unreached people group that had been so deeply placed on his heart. So many new smells, sights, people, traditions, a new language, a new culture…everything new to both you and the natives. It’s an amazing experience. Two completely different cultures colliding.

The missions’ team we were documenting is a TIMO team (Training In Mission Outreach) made up of young adults who are seeking to live a life in ministry. TIMO is a two-year training foundation towards a future in missions. I got to spend about a month with this particular team during my time at ABO (Africa Bound Orientation) so I was stoked to find out that our next video would be in the Dadinga hills with my friends! I’d heard so much about this team and was excited to experience everything with them!

The Lord made me put my money where my mouth is during this week. Forever I’ve been thinking how great it will be to live in Africa, serving God, traveling, documenting all these amazing stories and so on. I think I had this romanticized idea that wherever I go, my little comfortable house, shower, and bathroom will follow. And of course NO bugs, snakes, or animals would be anywhere I went! Not so much. I spent my first night with two of my friends. It was fairly dark by the time we headed down, yes down to their house. Not “down” as in just like down the street. I mean DOWN the mountain, down. It was about a 30-minute hike down a pretty steep part of the hill. My foot often slipped on a softer part of the path, which I found out in the morning was cow dung! Finally, after the hike in the dark we came to a clearing and there was their tukal! (correct me on the spelling, TIMO) Their tukal was two round rooms divided in half on either side of a small square kitchen area. The houses are made of woven sticks splattered with mud and dung. The roofs were a combination of a metal and thatched roof. The bathroom was a drop toilet with a small-sloped area for washing. The thing that surprised me the most was how cold it was! My first night I had to borrow scrubs from one of the teammates and tuck them into my socks while I had my rain jacket zipped up to my chin and tied my hood tight around my face. Ok, fine…that was partly for the cold and partly from my fear of bugs! Haha…yes, I do live in Africa and have a huge fear of bugs. I can testify that God can still use those who fear bugs! (Can I hear an amen?)

Our week was extreme, to say the least. It consisted of constantly hiking up and down these steep hills, rewriting our script, documenting different parts of life and ministry in Dadinga. We got to spend some time with the Dadinga people, seeing how they live and how they interact. We were privileged to share in with prayer and every day life with the team. Just being with these missionaries serving them and with them brought back my spark of excitement for being here…and is priceless. I loved sitting with the woman and hearing my friend talk to them in their own language. I loved seeing the TIMO team use their hands to minister to the Dadinga people in their new clinic as they bandaged wounds, prayed for the sick, and held new babies.

I adored the Dadinga children.

They were SO playful and SO curious. An “Agotuno” (hello) in their language coming from white lips was a delight in their eyes. Their precious little faces could melt any heart. Although they don’t have much in the hills, they made games out of EVERYTHING! I kept thinking about the little one’s and praying for their lives and the lives of the TIMO team here to serve them.

The trip couldn’t end without a bang, of course! We were supposed to be picked up at 9am by the same small plane. Due to the size of the plane, however, and the winds that rush through the Dadinga hills, our departure was cancelled for that day. I sat in the kitchen overhearing the conversation between David, the team leader, and the pilot through the radio. I could only understand bits and pieces of the broken conversation but what I could catch was the words “Hike, tomorrow, Nagishot, and Caravan.” Putting two and two together I realized the adventure that we were about to have…as if living in the hills for a week wasn’t enough! The only plane regulated to land on the closest airstrip was being serviced in Nairobi so we would have to hike to the next closest airstrip about ten miles away. 10 miles seems like a piece of cake until you add the factor of Sudan hills and tons of media equipment. Being the only female on our hike I felt I had to make sure I kept up with the pace of the men. I kept my camera close and was able to take a few shots of the incredible landscape, but pictures could not, I repeat, COULD NOT do the landscape justice. At a few different points in our hike we paused on the bridge of two mountain peaks that connected and looked at the vast amount of land on either side. It was beautiful and it was amazing to think about how the God of this universe created that very spot, in the middle of nowhere, Sudan and that I was privileged to view His creation.

As I spent time with the people I knew that this is why the Lord called me here. Being among these people and the people who are there to serve them, watching them interact and understand each other was incredible. These are the stories God wants me to tell. Of course, God doesn’t NEED me to share these stories. No, he doesn’t need me at all. That’s the beautiful thing. He doesn’t need me and yet he allows me to share in and be apart of His great work throughout Africa. After 5 months here, I've come to a simple conclusion: God is SO big, that me being here is of course to further the Kingdom but it is also about God caring so greatly about me that he would bring me all the way to Kenya to stretch me, break me, and refine me into a more pliable person willing to be placed wherever the calling may be. And when he calls, we have to be ready enough to say “Ok, Lord, I don’t fully know what this is for or how you can use me, but I’m here…please, use me.”

For more pictures, follow the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79334967@N00/show/

Coming soon!

2009-05-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

I'll update my blog this week with pictures and stories from my latest trip to Sudan....best yet!

2009-05-06T05:00:00.001-07:00

Its the little things...

2009-04-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Jambo!

So sorry that its been so long since I've written. Life's been a whirl wind. Since my last post, my body decided it didn't want to get to 100% health. In fact, it decided to back slide back into being sick again...and then some! When I went back to the doctors this past week, not only did I have my same bad cough and chest infection but I also tacked on an ear infection with a little throat infection. Lovely, huh? I've pretty much been a walking infection for the past month. I go to the doctor tomorrow for a follow up appointment where she will determine what has been/is wrong with me. Earlier in the week I was tested for Malaria and TB but those two have since been ruled out...thank the Lord! Still praying that this cough and all the infection can be cleared away so that it doesn't return! Despite the sickness, I once again was overwhelmed how others have stepped in where I've needed them. Whether it was sitting with me in the waiting room until I got my test results, going grocery shopping for me, or dropping off some tests at the hospital, the out pour of help from fellow missionaries has been overwhelming. Its the little things that mean so much.

On Sunday I got to experience my first big holiday in Kenya! I'm not gonna lie, it was a little hard to not be with family, especially knowing they were all together back at home but I did not feel alone here! On Sunday morning, a family I've been blessed to get to know, picked me up for the Easter service at their church! It was great to go with them and to feel apart of their family. At the end of the service, the pastor said that we would be doing communion a little differently this week. He said that each family would get bread and grape juice and preform the communion as a family. Gulp...my family wasn't there. Before I could think twice, Lesa said, "Come on, be apart of our family...we want you to!" I don't think she knows how much that meant to me. Its the little things that are said by others that can make me feel accepted.

After the service I met up with a family that my family knows from Virginia. They brought with them a package for me that my mom sent! I was so excited to receive this package. There is something special about getting a package all the way from the US. Knowing that each item inside was carefully packed by the hands of someone you love makes you almost feel like you are with them as you open it! Inside was a jump rope (my new method of working out!), some VA honey (yummm), an Easter hand towel, 2 books, a Pampered Chef Avocado peeler, and a journal. I was so excited for each item in that box...each filling a specific need I've had here! Its the little things that make life just a tad bit easier here. (Thanks mom! :) )

Later in the afternoon I headed over to my boss's house for an Easter supper with 2 other families and my roommate. I don't know what I expected but the fellowship shared at this house was exactly what my heart needed. Although I was not with my very own family this day, I felt a part of many families. We ate an AMAZING meal of chicken, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade bread rolls, fruit salad, and punch. We shared, fellowshiped, prayed, sang, and encouraged each other. Its the little things that are beginning to make me feel at home.

Tonight I drove to the airport to drop off my roommate, Liz. She spent two and a half months in Kenya as a mechanic intern at AIMair. It was such a strange and bizarre experience to drop her off at the airport and not be leaving too. The whole day I feel like my heart was a little sad and I think that's because I knew what she must be feeling like. In all the trips I've taken to Africa, I've never left without shedding quite a few tears. I watched Liz say her goodbyes, pack up, and gear up for heading home. Wow...I would not be ready to do that right now, and THAT in itself tells me that my heart is beginning to settle here. Praise God! As we drove her to the airport, I tried to distract her sadness with talking about how exciting it will be for her to see her friends. The more I talked with her about seeing friends and family the more I found MYSELF getting jealous. Haha but obviously the Lord has other plans for me. I'm here now! The reality set in for me as I stood in line with Liz talking with her about her future. In a few hours she would board a plane, spend 24 hrs in the air, and then Land in America. It was crazy for me to be at the Airport and to not be leaving myself. I think that I'm so used to spending just a short time in Africa and then leaving that I almost felt like I should be leaving too! As I gave her a final hug, waved goodbye and watch her disappear behind security, I found myself still standing in Kenya. I wasn't going through security, I wasn't about to board a plane. I'm staying right here. My life is in Kenya now. I walked away from those heading towards security and walked towards the car. The further I got from the airport the more the realization was setting in: Home is here now, home is in Kenya. As we neared my home and I got dropped off, I realized how familiar my neighborhood has become. The sounds, the smells, the neighbors...all are familiar because they are home. As I unlocked my 47 pad locks to get into my house, closed the door, and headed upstairs I realized how comfortable I've become in this house and how its familiarity is such a blessing. Although having to say goodbye is never easy, its the little things that make you realize how far you've come.

Right now I'm clinging to the little things. They are all blessings from our Lord. They grow you, they mold you, they encourage you, and they change you.

Take off your shoes...

2009-04-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

This past week I've heard multiple references to the Israelites. You'd think after the first few times I'd get it....the Lord is trying to teach me something. It wasn't until today, when I was listening to a song ABOUT the Israelites leaving Egypt that I was able to grasp a morsel of what the Lord may be teaching my heart. Funny how a simple song can finally drive a point home and connect my heart and mind....but that's kind of how I'm wired. I love to listen to a song above skimming over it's lyrics and search deep for its meaning and find beauty in the carefully chosen and woven words.

The song is called "Painting Pictures of Egypt." Sara Groves truly does paint a picture with her lyrics of what my heart feels. The song is about this pull between two places and the heart that is stuck in between. She sings as if she is one of the Israelites on her way into the Promised Land and how it is filled with opportunities and dreams but how her heart still longs for the way things were....comfortable, familiar, easy and "home."

"The past is so tangible...I know it by heart Familiar things are never easy to discard I was dying for some freedom,but now I hesitate to go I am caught between the Promise and the things I know "

Can I relate? 100%. I feel that I'm in this "limbo" stage right now, or as the song says, "I am caught between the Promise and the things I know." I'm not sure if its the things I know or to be known that I miss the most. I took comfort in being known inside and out by friends and family back at home. Here, I'm just a new missionary carving who I am in the sands of Kenya. On Monday, my office had our Monday morning devotion. My co-worker, Andy, was the one to give the devotion. He spoke on this exact topic and explained the same struggle he too had in coming over here and not being known by anyone. He said that the one thing he and his family had to do was claim that the Lord created them for this and to find rest in knowing that the Lord has called them here to Africa and has equipped them accordingly. Our identity should not be found in our skills or talents but in Christ alone.

Things were so comfortable and familiar three months ago...that has since all been stripped. I was talking with my dad the other night and shared with him about my "limbo" status and feeling that my heart is at this tug of war....loving it here but not wanting to settle entirely. The thing he said made me see a verse in a whole new light. He told me to take off my shoes, for where I am is holy ground.

Exodus 3:5 "Take off your shoes, for where you are standing is holy ground."

Hmm...where I am is holy ground...take off your shoes. Yes, of course their is the significance of taking of the shoes because the ground is holy but I started thinking about it in a more "African" way and I learned something new. It is custom here to take off your shoes when you enter in a Kenyan home. You are then "home" and should make yourself feel comfortable. Its like the whole "take off your shoes and relax, stay a while" mindset as if the Lord wants me to take off my shoes here and let myself settle for this season of my life. He doesn't want me spending my time here wearing my shoes in case in a split second I'll need to take off running. I know this will not come easy because my heart longs for the things familiar such as walking into a room and having people know what makes Kate Joyce, Kate Joyce. But then again, who's to say I won't eventually find that here? Maybe its about time I start untying my shoes and feel this holy ground beneath my feet. I always did like walking barefoot anyways! ;)

Grace: (n.) the free and unmerited favor of the Lord.

2009-03-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

The Lord sure has His ways of extending his love and grace to us. Over the past week I have been blessed to see these ways more clearly. About a week ago I started coming down with a cough, which progressively worsened throughout the week. If you heard by voice you would think that I had been smoking a pack of cigarettes every 10 minutes…don’t worry, I can’t smoke that fast. Just kidding, I don’t smoke at all haha. Anyways, so as the weekend hit, my body decided it wasn’t happy with me and revolted anything I consumed. By the time Monday morning hit I figured it was about time that I go see a Dr. I ended up at Nairobi Hospital to be seen right away. Because of how early it was in the morning, the husband of a friend I met here drove me and waited with me until one of AIM’s Physician Assistants joined me through the process. After I bounced from line to line to get registered, I sat down in the waiting room waiting for a bed in the ER to open. As I was sitting there, Jim said he would like to pray for me and for the doctors who were about to see me. Prayer, duh! Others have been praying for me, but to be in prayer and to be prayed for in person was such a breath of fresh air. One of the things that Jim prayed for me specifically was for grace. I like the definition of grace above. The free and unmerited favor of the Lord. I was seen shortly after we prayed. After some blood tests and being seen by a doctor it was determined that I had an upper respiratory and bacterial infection in my stomach. I was given antibiotics and some medications to lower my fever. The PA that joined me was incredibly sweet and helped me get back home with some sprite to calm the nausea. During this time, I saw the Lord’s grace with me, not only with my health but the ways that he provided so much help from the AIM family here in Kenya. I received many text messages and phone calls from missionaries wanting to hear how I was feeling and letting me know they were praying for me. A few hours after I got home from the hospital and was able to rest, one of the missionaries I’ve gotten to know well sent over some homemade chicken noodle soup, crackers, and j-ello. The soup is MmmmmMMmm better than Campbell’s!

After resting last night I’m starting to feel better but still taking it slow. A few moments ago I went to the Duka (small African store) next door to my house. The owner, and my neighbor, Rose, asked me if I was feeling better than told me that I am looking much better. She then added, after I asked her for four bottles of Pineapple soda, “You are in love with Pineapple!” Haha…that’s the only drink that my stomach seems to be able to handle right now.

Although I’m not sure I would say that the sickness has been a huge blessing, I would, however, say that the lessons I’ve learned through it has been a huge blessing. I learned that no matter how much of a stranger I am to those here or they are to me, we are all still a family. I’ve only been living in Nairobi for a week and I already have people making me chicken noodle soup and calling me up to see if I’m feeling better. I even have a Kenyan neighbor who cares about my health…and recognizes my love for pineapple! ;) As I begin to settle my life in Kenya the Lord breaks me, challenges me, and encourages me in ways that produce refining in my heart and character. I’m thankful for these lessons. As I’ve said before, even if the graces from the Lord were not so evident as it has been recently, it does not make him less graceful…. it just means I might have to seek a little harder to see His grace.

Thank you to all you at home who were praying for me and continue praying that I feel better. Your emails and messages have been a comfort…its not always fun to be sick in another country.

Below is a picture of the ER room I was seen in!

JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!

I am excited that I have had my first Kenyan Hospital experience…I’m not sure what I was worried about, its just like an American Hospital…however I did get through to the ER much quicker than I would have in America! (Hannah, if you ever want a job in an ER in Kenya, I know one you can work at and its probably pretty similar to yours, as far as the type of people go ;) )

Started off as a visit to the market...ended up on a Safari!

2009-03-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

Bedroom...finished!

2009-03-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Warning...very girlie post: I spent the day today decorating my room. One thing I didn't realize before contracting myself to this job was that there are NO paint rollers to be found here. Yep...my right arm is pretty much dead now after painting from 7am-2pm with a single paintbrush. As I was painting I kept getting new ideas of what I wanted to do, which is why it took so long. Its amazing what a can of paint, paintbrush, and tons of painting tape can do! Except for a dresser and a possible chair, my bedroom is finished! :)

Fun little African finds.

2009-03-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

Today, I ventured out with a friend. I definitely needed to get out of the house. My friend, Cathy, was going to this glass blowing factory called Kitengela. I hopped along for the ride. And quite the ride it was! It was seriously in the middle of nowhere. At one point, Cathy pointed out the window and said "Look at the horizon over there, its Nairobi!" I squinted my eyes and could just see trees, dirt, and dust. "No...look further!" And sure enough...we were FAR from Nairobi! We had left the city life behind and were driving through land that looked like a scene from the Lion King...minus the animation, of course. To further the point of how far out there we were, as I looked out my window, there were zebras, antelope, and baboons! I couldn't believe it...we weren't even in a safari park, but these animals were just roaming around! I was really hoping we wouldn't run into any wild hungry lions out there!

Ever since I moved into the house, I've been searching for cheap ways to decorate. One thing I was thinking of buying was some glass jars and somehow tying twine around the rim and hanging them up with flowers. Well, I walked into the bargain part of the glass store and looked above my head, and there they were. Flower vases with leather string tied around the rim to hold flowers! Even better than I was imagining! I practiced quite a lot of swahili with the glass blower to try to get the best price possible. I ended up with 8 of these hanging vases and he threw in one for free! I already cut flowers from my back yard and hung them all up on all the random nails in my house...amazingly there were 8 nails already in the downstairs wall which left one vase for above my kitchen sink!

(Aren't they beautiful?)

I was going to the grocery store yesterday and stopped by the market. I've been looking for a lamp shade for my ceiling light but hadn't found one thats caught my eye. In the market, I found this woman who makes these really sweet looking ceiling lamp shades. From what I understand, she dips twine into colored glue and wraps it around a balloon and leaves it to set and dry. Once dry, she pops the balloon and then you have a really cool looking lampshade! I found a blue one that totally completes my bedroom!

(More pictures of the house is on the way, but not till the house is finished)

The other African find that I wanted to share with you is kinda silly, but I thought it was fun. Check out their bananas! I put an egg next to the bunch just so you get an idea of the size. I laughed when I saw them because it seemed like even fruits are going for the smaller "100 calorie pack" sizes.

Better than words can describe!

2009-03-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

I am now in Nairobi...praise God! One of the blessings tonight, other than moving into my new house, was to have better internet! I was able to video chat with my dad and siblings. At one point I was even talking to EVERYONE in the family because my dad ended up calling my mom on the phone and putting it up to the speakers, haha. It was incredible because this was the very first time in 2 months that I got to see the faces of my family!

Two days till I move into my first home ever!

2009-03-12T13:21:00.001-07:00

Maureen recently moved in with my Kenyan family. She is the house-helper…and quite the language helper for me too! She is from up-country in a more rural village and came here looking for work to help save money for school loans someday. Her dream is to become a Swahili teacher for Muzungu’s like me, which works out perfectly for the two of us. I get to come home from my class and practice what I had just learned and she gets to practice correcting and encouraging me! When the two of us are not conversing, however, she has a list of responsibilities to complete each day. Maureen wakes up at 5:15am to start preparing breakfast so that Baba can have it before he leaves for work. Every morning she boils milk for our chai, walks to the store to buy bread, makes porridge for mama, and sets the table for the rest of us. Never have I woken up and there hasn’t been bread and chai on the table waiting for my hungry mouth. At this time of the morning (7:30am) she is already busy doing chores. She has to “mop” all he floor with a bucket and a rag which ends up just as dirty as before she mopped due to all the dust in the desert air. She also washes all of our laundry by hand. There are 9 of us in the house right now…and you can imagine how laundry piles up if it is not done on a daily basis. Maureen has an efficient system. She sets a bucket under the faucet and has to wait about 25 minutes as the dripping water fills up. She then soaks the clothes, scrubs with a bar of soap, rinses (somehow, still haven’t seen this step), then rings and rings and rings and rings the clothes… finishing up with placing them on the clothes line. I’m always so impressed with how clean she can get the dusty clothes I’ve been wearing for 2 months. Once I tried to wash my own…it wasn’t the same at ALL. After she is done with the clothes she then heads back to the kitchen and washes the dishes used from breakfast and puts away all the uneaten food. At this point, I’ve already left for language but I assume she finishes mopping all the floors before she starts to heat up lunch. I’ve never been around for lunch but I arrive home shortly after when she is washing the dishes from lunch. Around 2:00, Maureen begins the preparation for dinner. Our meals consist of (I have no idea to spell these so just imagine phonetically what they sound like) sukumo-wiki which is like chopped spinach with tons of salt and boiled, ugali which is corn meal boiled with water into a thick paste, and stew which has a thick chop of meat boiled with various chopped vegetables, salt, and oil. We don’t eat until 9:30 at night, but the meal requires the attentive eye and stirring of Maureen.

Tired just listening to all this girl has to do in her day? Get this….she is only 19 years old! I couldn’t believe it when she told me that. Her day seems exhausting! Once I found out how young she was and how far away she is from her family I stared making more of a point to talk with her throughout the day. Last week , while she was attending to the dinner, I went in the kitchen with her to teach her how to make tortillas! We had a fun time talking about our families in Swahili. Of course laughter filled the kitchen as we mixed the dough, rolled it, and placed them on a hot skillet. I told her how much I loved these tortillas…and they truly are amazing when made from scratch! She too enjoyed snacking on them as we continued. One mistake I did make, however, was making the tortillas in the first place. Ever since I initially made tortillas, ‘momma’ has wanted more ever since. I’ve made over 130 tortillas in just two weeks! Wowza. Good thing I found a rolling pin…the first time I made them it took me over 2.5 hours cause I had to try to flatten each tortilla with the palm of my hand.

This morning I woke up a little late, trying to catch up on some sleep that I had missed over the past couple of nights. I was the only one at the breakfast table and filled my cup up with chai. I was about to grab for the bread when I heard a ‘psst’ from the kitchen. I strained my neck and looked around the corner to see Maureen washing the dishes with a huge smile on her face. She was whispering “njoo” (‘come here’). I went into the kitchen and Maureen handed me a plate. The plate was covered with another plate to keep whatever was inside warm. I lifted the top plate and found two round flat pieces of warm dough. “Tortillas” she said with a smile. I smiled back and said thank you, thank you, thank you! It was so cute that she made me two tortillas on her own for me for breakfast. Most likely that meant that she woke up even earlier than normal to make these for me. When I got back to the table, I opened the plate again and got a closer look. These tortillas were dowsed in oil. I’m pretty sure had she not been watching me I could have wrung out each tortilla and filled a cup with oil. Another ‘gulp’ moment for me. I knew I had to eat these considering that she had made them for me and that she had stopped washing dishes to watch me eat them. “Mmmm, Maureen!” I said with a smile. “Nzuri sana…Anante!” (Very good…thank you!). My taste buds and stomach weren’t quite saying the same thing to me. Each bite seemed to squirt out more oil in my mouth. I finally took to swallowing huge portions until the ‘tortillas’ were gone and then chasing it all down with my cup of hot chai. Unfortunately all our filtered water ran out last night so I couldn’t even try to compensate for all that oil.
Despite all the oil, however, how sweet this action was. Out of Maureen’s busy day she wanted to show me that she had learned something from me. She put to practice what I had taught her just as I continually practice her language. One of AIM’s goals is to make me into a “Lifelong Learner.” This time spent in a Kenyan home has broken me most of my standers of living. I’ve been challenged with bathing with a milk can and a basin, washing my clothes by hand, making food from scratch, trying food I’ve never would have wished to try…but its all been great for me. I don’t say “broken” as a bad thing. I think the Lord knew how closely I held my comforts in Northern Virginia and too knew how hard it would be to break me of them. I’ve been humbled this month indeed. There have been times, like today with the ‘oil-tilla’ or the other day with the flies and larva that I would like to refuse what is placed before me and stick up my nose to say that it wasn’t what I eat, and no thank you. But that’s not what it is about to be a “lifelong learner.” Maureen’s actions today displayed what a “lifelong learner” is. She may not have nailed the tortilla recipe down, but she tried. I know that I didn’t learn everything about this culture in this one month but its been a continual learning experience…and I’ll continue to learn if I trust and try.

I can’t believe that I have only these two more days left with the Kenyan family. I think back on a month ago, talking with my parents on the phone and saying, “I’ll give it one week…JUST one week. I can’t do more than that because its just too hard for me to do it alone.” And yet, here I am…one month later and LOVING all that I was challenged with and learned. The confidence I’ve gained from each step of the way is priceless. I also laugh thinking of how slowly I unpacked my things. The first week I still was living out of my suitcase thinking that at any moment I would call the coordinating missionary to tell them that I need to move out cause its too ‘different.’ That second week I moved my clothes to a shelf but left everything in the trunk…just in case. Now, however, you would think I’ve been living here forever. I have one shelf dedicated to all my books, one to my clothes, the bottom shelf holds my flip flops, my scarves are hanging up, and my toiletries are in the bathroom. Its going to be a process to pack up in a few days. Hmm could this be foreshadowing of my time in Kenya? ;) So scared to make this my “home” for now…but if I just let the process of change and settling happen, I wonder how God will provide and humble me next? I wonder what different “shelves” he has in store for me to place my gifts and talents to start to build roots here? I wonder how hard it will be to collect and pack up once my time here is through? One thing is for sure…I’ll be learning along the way…learning for a lifetime.

Social Manna

2009-03-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

One thing I have been craving lately is fellowship with people my age. I've started missing my friends like crazy this past week and whenever someone asks me for prayer request my answer has been: friends. I've SO enjoyed getting to know other missionary families here and their kind friendships have meant the world to me...but hanging out with some American 20-somethings would be amazing.

I met my Swahili teacher today at a local coffee house. It was a great new environment to be able to converse with each other and to practice what I've been learning. I successfully ordered us some coffee, samosas, and a cold Sprite for Ireri. To my surprise, during our hour and a half at the coffeehouse, I was able to use minimal English! It didn't feel like a class, rather felt like hanging out with a friend but speaking about our lives completely in Swahili! At one point Ireri began to say that he teaches a class 26 American students my age before he meets me for my tutoring. My heart sank. It was that "so close yet so far" feeling. What I've been craving recently...fellowship with exactly those he teaches right before me. I SO wanted to say "Can I come to your class???" but instead waited and listened to what he had to say about his class. My ears perked up as he continued. I caught some words "phone...who?..."kate"...nairobi...meet..." As I began to put the pieces of the language puzzle together I realized what he was saying. Yesterday I had to call him to confirm when we would be meeting. Apparently when I called he was in the middle of teaching these students. After we talked he hung up the phone and all the students were curious as to who he was talking to since he was speaking in English. He told them another American who has recently moved to Kenya alone. He concluded that they wanted to meet up with me but he wanted to ask me first if I would like to meet with them. "INDIO!" (yes)...haha not to sound TOO excited, but come on... another answer to a specific prayer...who wouldn't be excited??? I figured it would probably not come about but I did let him know that he could pass on my email if they ever asked again. As we concluded our lesson, I said goodbye to Ireri hoping that he would remember to pass on my email to the other Yanks. I remained seated in the coffee house and picked up my newest book. Within 5 mins I was already engrossed in it's pages, clueless of my surroundings. All of a sudden I looked up and saw Ireri again. Not just Ireri though, he had two others with him. Two other AMERICAN 20-somethings! "Uh Bibi Kate, I was about to leave and noticed two of my students outside!" With that Ireri left and they sat down to join me at my table. Brijal, Ryan, and I quickly introduced ourselves and laughed about how great it was to meet other Americans in Kenya. We agreed that while it has been AMAZING getting to know Kenya, her language, and her beautiful people...sometimes its great to converse with those from the 'Motherland.' It was indeed amazing...at that moment, the Lord was providing me with my very own "social manna!" The guys told me that they are a part of a four-month study of the Kenyan culture and Swahili with 24 other students from around the world. Although they will be leaving in May they invited me to start hanging out with them and to further explore Nairobi. Exploring Nairobi is something I'm very excited about but never wanted to do it alone. AND to further my amazement, their own compound is just a few compounds away from my office. We exchanged numbers and made plans to meet up next week with the whole group. I'm sure I will have some fun stories of our adventures together in the future. One things for sure...never underestimate the Lord. Even something as tiny as craving some social interaction is cared for by our Savior. Thank you to all who have been praying for this for me! :)

2009-03-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

If you want to confuse a Kenyan...

2009-03-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

Today, 'Momma' asked me to help her with her recent research paper. The help she needed was for me to research how to do a Turabian Citation. What the? Well as we are researching she noticed the picture on my background (the one up above). The picture was taken days before leaving for Africa. I was on my way to church and wanted to buy a few more tank tops so my sister (Megs on the left) and dear friend (Kate on the right) took me to Tysons corner to shop. We ended up at H&M and all happened to like the same shirt. Being silly, trying to mask sad emotions about being separated on my departure a few days later, we decided to do a photoshoot in the dressing room. Ok...back to the story. So 'Momma' asked "which is this?" She thought it was somehow a picture of me tripled! I can see her confusion since we are wearing the same shirt and have the same hair color and length. But it did crack me up. This broke yet another one of my stereotypes. Here I was thinking that all Africans tend to look the same to me (until I get to know them of course) but it seemed so foreign to me that she couldn't tell us apart...even with me sitting right in front of her! Pushing the idea of research aside, she kept asking me to point to each picture and say who is who. I finally realized it was a lost cause trying to say "This is me...and this is Kate." (?!?!?!) I enjoy conversations like this...we both laugh hysterically. She knows that I find humor in our confusions just as she finds humor in my confusions about learning the Kenyan culture!

OHHHHHHH and I feel like I need to inform you all of an update on the Brownie situation in Africa!!!

Today I tried my hand at baking brownies...from scratch. Yes, from scratch. I know back in America its hard to comprehend having enough time to sit and wait for brownies to bake...yet baking them from scratch? Inconceivable! Well, when you are in Africa and time isn't really an issue anymore you can indeed bake brownies from scratch. I got a recipe from a new friend here, Ruthanne. She has been such a great friend here to guide me in learning how to live in Africa as a single woman. She is now married but spent several years single in West Africa and can therefore sympathize with me not quite knowing the ropes. So I got this recipe from her recently and decided today was the day to practice my skills and see if I can beat the beloved, Betty Crocker. (Drummmmmm Rollllllllllllll, Please!) I brought the brownies in for tea time and set them before 'Momma.' I eyed her curiosity and waited nearby to see what she would say. I was afraid her response would be "what is this?" knowing that it was nothing like the brownies I had baked before....nothing like Betty Crocker. "Kate! These are too good!" "How do they compare to last time?" I asked. "Much better!" Ahhhh, take that Betty Crocker! And now I sit with the plate already half eaten by the family...and I only placed them on the table 15 mins ago! Let me tell you, these brownies are incredible! Seriously...So moist and chocolaty! (Don't worry Justin and Shannon...I'll bring you a batch to Mombasa when I come! ;) ) I thought I'd include the recipe if any of you all decide to venture out from the American time crunch and practice a little good 'old fashion 'from-scratch' baking! Who knows...you may never reach for Betty Crocker again!

"Better than Betty Crocker Brownies"

2 cups of sugar
3/4 cups baking cocoa
1 1/2 cups flour
4 eggs
2/3 cups shortening/butter/or oil
1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 F (or 178 C).
Mix together and place in a greased 9x9 in pan. Bake until the batter seems solid when you shake....about 35-40 mins (might be more but that's what it seems to be in the oven here in Kenya). Enjoy! :)