Lessons Learned

Our time here in Kenya is coming to a close and I have learned many things from these wonderful people. They are lessons that we American's should take note of and incorporate in our homes and with our families.

1. Always greet someone when they approach you
2. Take time to welcome a visitor in your home, even when they come unannounced, and serve them
3. A visitor is just that- a visitor. They are not to get things for themselves, you should serve them
4. On day 2, you are no longer a visitor and can share in the house chores
5. Always offer tea and something to eat to your visitors
6. Hug and love one another as if you were family
7. Put the needs of someone else in front of your own needs
8. Lend a helping hand if you are physically able to
9. Share what you have- bread, tea, sweeties, jacket
10. Most importantly, you may not have a lot, but love one another....always, and be proud of who you are.

I love these people and feel like I am part of them. I know they feel I am part of them too. Mum gave me the name Makenna last year when I was on this trip. It means "loving woman" and I surely have a lot of love to give them. I feel like I am part American and part Kenyan. Until I am back with them again, I will be loving them and thinking about them everyday.


Other lessons worth noting:

The Kenyan sun is very hot and I am allergic to my sunscreen. Putting sunscreen on my face and neck has caused hives on my face that have been there for 2 days. My face is fried because the sun is still hot and not having sunscreen on is not a good thing.

Showers will be freezing cold when the power goes out and the bathroom will get very dark.

When milking a cow, make sure you jab up before you pull down to get the milk.

Things here don't taste good, they are "so nice."

You will never meet a stranger.

Muzungu's are very interesting to Kenyan's, especially if they have never seen one.

Physical labor is the only work these people know.

Taking tea is a must, at least 2 times a day.

"So smart" means you look very pretty.

What's for Dinner

It seems like we eat a lot around here. Mum is constantly trying to feed us more and more so that we don't get "cold."

Today, they children arrived so we spent the morning preparing their "snacks." We had to roll out the pieces of dough into balls, then press them into small patties that were then fried.
These women are very strong. I witnessed Ann pull a metal spoon from grease that had been frying for at least 30 minutes.

She didn't panic or make a face or shake her hand because it was burned. She calmly pulled the spoon from the boiling grease and set it on the table. Impressive.

Mum made us a chocolate and banana cake.
Everything is very simple here- no recipe and no measuring.
The cake batter consisted of flour, 3 eggs, baking powder, cocoa, banana flavoring, and a handful of pure sugar. Short and sweet. It was delicious!

I served tea and bread outside today under the bright Kenyan sky. Peter, Mum, my dad and I enjoyed sitting in the sun, surrounded by the Abadare mountains taking tea and apple snacks.

For dinner, we were to have spaghetti noodles- plain, nothing on them or with them.

I told Mum that I could make a tomato sauce but she was not familiar so we walked down to the local stores to get them. There I met Mum's friend Gertrude. A beautiful lady with stunning eyes. We bought bread, tomatoes, carrots, onions, sweeties (candy for the children), sodas, and jam.

When we got home, Mum put an apron on me and I got to work. They loved every bit of it!
I was amazed because they had never had it before and never had heard of tomato sauce. To top it off, we each had a piece of Mum's cake.

Sights and Sounds of Kenya

Gonga - they are trying to get my dads attention. It means "grandfather" in Kikuyu

Take (insert drink or food name) - instead of eat or drink, they say, "would you like to take tea or bread..."

Auntie - they are referring to me

Muzungu - white person in Swahili

Smart - pretty

Kuja - means to eat in Kikuyu

Decker - is a bunk bed

A Shave - is a haircut

Top up - they want you to add more

The first day someone arrives, they are a visitor and are not to do anything but take tea and bread. If you have been there, like we have for a couple of days, we are expected to wait on that person.

If you cook dinner, everyone else does the dishes.

The power goes out more than once everyday and stays out for 2 hours at a time sometimes. Because we are in the mountains, it gets very cold at night- about 50 degrees and gets VERY dark. You are not able to see your hand in front of your face. There is no heat or air here. If you are going to shower, you must turn on the water heater, which runs off of electricity, so that you can have hot water. Last night, the power went off while I was in the shower. There went my hot water and all awareness of where anything was. Imagine, standing naked in a 50 degree bathroom, with ice cold water falling on you, you're not able to see the hand in front of your face, and you've just lathered your hair with shampoo. Good times... when I came out, I was breathing smoke and shivering because of the cold.

Church Services

Happy Sunday! It's church day...

Did you walk 1.5 miles through the mountains on a muddy dirt road?


Was it the kind of roads that led you up and down the mountains in no direct route?


Was your church service full of brightly dressed locals, who sang freely at the top of their lungs, and danced around out of sheer praise.

Because mine sure was. All to praise God because he is good!

A Taste of Nairobi

Saturday, December 17^th

We safely got into Nairobi about 9:40pm after two 8+ hour flights. I must admit, two 8 hour flights are much better than a 14 hour flight and then a 5 hour flight. Kennedy {our driver} was at the airport, ready to take us to the Presbyterian Guest House. Father and I had to share a bed and last night’s sleep was minimal thanks to his snoring. I believe I got a total of one hour.

Kennedy showed up bright and early to take us shopping in the markets. Because we did not convert US Dollars to Shillings in the airport last night, that was the first stop on our itinerary. I trust him and don’t think he’d do anything to put my life in danger, but this morning was a bit on the unsafe side. He took me into the downtown Nairobi market where we walked through it to a place that sold fresh fruit. In the back corner of the booth, there was a small closet, only big enough for two people to stand in. Inside the closet was the man who was going to convert my money into shillings. I stepped into the closet with him, gave him $800 in return for 64,000 Shilling. He lifted up his left pant leg to reveal a sock bulging with a lot of money. Definitely a shady deal, but I made it out of there safely.

We went shopping in the supermarket where we purchased 50 bowls, 50 spoons, 50 cups, 3 knives, a sharpener, 2 large serving spoons, rice, flour, corn, cooking fat, maize and candy for the kiddos. In total, we spent roughly 30,000 Shilling. Kennedy was such a sport. After we packed our groceries in the already over packed car, daddy and I ordered a 12 inch ham and mushroom pizza- I liked it, he didn’t…imagine that. I ate 2 small slices and he ate 1, we took the rest with us for Kennedy to eat.

Finally we were off to Tumaini, but that doesn’t come without a stop to the Great Rift Valley. I bought some souvenirs and Kennedy bought us some roasted corn. Back in the car we went with even more stuff. It wasn’t shortly into our journey, about 20 miles from Naivasha that our back left tire went flat. We pulled over at a bridge so we could have more room to change it. This small car that we are in has not another square inch of space but in order to get to the spare tire, we had to unpack it on the side of the road. There was an old man standing right where we were changing the tire and his granddaughter. He watched very intently as daddy and Kennedy changed it. When it came time to repack the car, I grabbed the box of pizza and handed it to the man and his granddaughter. He replied with a huge smile and mazuri sana (Swahili for thank you very much). He’d never seen pizza before and scarfed it down. The little girl took here two pieces and ran down the hill to back to tending the flock. She kept looking back as she carried the box down the hill smiling at me. Such a blessing to be able to offer something like that to them.

Once we arrived at Tumaini, it was a much different feeling that I remembered it and reuniting with the children was nothing like the scenario that I played out in my head. As we pulled into the home, for the first time I saw it as a real life orphanage. Maybe it was the torrential rain that we’d been driving through that made the day look sad, made the driveway incredibly muddy, or maybe it was that there were no children running towards the car in anticipation of seeing Mora and Carl again. There was no one around…no one.

Cecilia {the house mum} came to greet us and it was a warm one. The children are not here. There are only 4 girls staying here. The rest went to be with family and will return on the 22^nd. Major letdown. Daddy is disappointed and I am sad and upset that this has happened. Now, instead of 8 full days with the children, we will only have 3. We are going to make due until they arrive living life here at Tumaini doing things to help like milk cows, chop wood, clean up the classrooms. Even though this trip hasn't gone perfectly since we left, we are making the most out of it.

The Night Before

Well, here it is finally. The night before our departure to Kenya, we {my dad and I} are headed back to Tumaini Children's Home. As you might imagine, I'm experiencing every emotion possible. Let's start with the panic I experienced this morning.

I've been in contact with Bishop David, the man in charge of Glory Outreach Assembly, since June when I first booked the tickets. Through our communications, we decided that he or his son would pick us up from the airport, take us to their house where we would spend the night, head to the market for some shopping the next morning and then make our way to Tumaini. That was the plan, short and sweet (was is key word there). About 2am, I started tossing and turning and wasn't sure why. Finally after getting out of bed, I realize that Bishop David had sent me an email. The time stamp on it was 2:15am.

Jordan,

My son Timothy have had to travel North Western Kenya to train young leaders who we call History Makers. The need for training there has been overwhelming so he was forced to extend his stay. I'm extremly exhaused after a series of trainings and minisrty opportunities that I have had in the last several weeks. If I regain my strength, I would still pick you up at the airport. If I continue feelng as weak as I'm now I may not be able to. So I have asked Pauline to be the back up plan. If I'm unable to come, Pauline will send you a driver by the name Hanniel Njeru. He will bring you to my house for accomodation. In the morning of Dec.17th, I know you would like to do shopping as you had indicated, before heading out to Tumaini. I'm extending an invitation to you if you would like to join us to Ruiru maximum prison where we will be sharing the Gospel, food and Christmas gifts with 450 prison inmates . If you joined us for this prison ministry, then you would leave for Tumaini after shopping and prison ministry to get there in the evening. If you choose to keep your original plans, then we shall leave our house together in the morning as we go for prison ministry and you go for shopping.

A question for you. If we had our friends in Atlanta sending you to bring Christmas gifts for the prison ministry, would you have room to bring them with you? What the prisoners needs are things like washing soap, tooth brushes, tooth pastes, tissue papers, coca colas and bread.

Regards,
Bishop David

So....as you can see, the plans have completely changed and that's why I was tossing and turning. If we didn't want to go to the prison, he offered, we would be dropped off in the market to shop by ourselves, just me and my dad...as white as can be. Mzungu's as they call us.

I scrambled. I didn't know what to do. I do not feel comfortable in a prison here in the US, much less in a foreign country. I sure as heck don't feel comfortable shopping in a market by ourselves. After 2 calls to Kenya and a short stint of panic to find a hotel, we thanked Bishop David for his help and services, but have changed our plans. Well, changed them back to the original plan.

As I sit here on my couch, with the air conditioner on {imagine that in the middle of December} I'm thinking about how excited I am to see the children. How antsy I am to hurry up and get there. How nervous I am because it's just my dad and I and I planned this all on my own. How much anxiety I have, because as I type this, we do not "officially" have a place to stay our first night in Nairobi. And I'm sad. I'm sad because I know leaving this time around will be even harder than it was the first time. Sometimes, I find myself letting that sadness set in and overtake the happiness that I'm supposed to feel first.

I don't know how I'll react when it comes time to come home. I know there will be tears, there will be smiles, there will be runny noses, and I definitely will leave even more of my heart there than I did the first time. I'm not going back to get the piece I left there, I'm going to give more of my heart to the children of Tumaini. I feel like they are my children.

Not that I'm counting....

135 days until we {my dad and I} are back in Kenya

83 anxious children to give our love to

28 total hours of flying time

10 blissful days to spend there

3 plane rides from the US to Kenya

2 suitcases to load down with goodies

1 fundraising project to tackle

I'm excited that this trip will take us through London instead of Dubai. I always love seeing different places, even if it's from the safety of the airport. We will depart San Antonio on December 15th at 12:40 pm and arrive in Nairobi at 9:30pm on December 16th. I can hardly contain the excitement that I have! We will be returning Christmas day at 4:50pm and will be able to join our family for Christmas festivities.

I am not excited about flying American Airlines there, though. The are, by far, the WORST airline that I've ever traveled. Here's to hoping they are more accommodating, excited, and helpful on international flights than they are on domestic flights.

21 Days on the Road

So you wonder why I haven't been blogging?

You wonder why I only have posted "What I've Been Up To's?"

You wonder where I've been?

I've been traveling my little butt off.

Mostly to the great (but not as great as Texas) state of Florida.

I've been all over that long state- from Fort Lauderdale to Stuart (where I got a speeding ticket), from St. Petersburg to Palm Harbor and finally

KEY WEST!

That's right, I spent the 4th in Key West Florida.

If you've never been to Key West, you should definitely go!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves but to sum up the trip,

1. stayed at the best bed & breakfast- The Cypress House

2. Made some awesome friends

3. Went to a drag show

4. Spent time at a "clothes optional" bar where my clothes did not come off

5. Toured the island on a scooter, eh

6. Was at the southermost point of the United States and got a picture of random people in front of the sign, not my own picture

7. Toured Mel Fishers Treasure Museum

8. Marveled at the beauty butterflies have at the butterfly conservatory

9. Ate a world famous chili dog at the world famous Hogs Breath Saloon

10. Had the best lobster bisque at Hogsfish restaurant

11. Did the elbow trick to strangers on the street

12. Had the best 4th I've ever had!

Happy Birthday America!
I had fun celebrating your birth Key West style!!

What I've Been Up To...

...in no particular order

*traveling the state of Florida (from Boca Raton to Ft. Lauderdale, to Miami, Stuart, Tampa, St Petersburg, and Palm Harbor)
*spent a lovely vacation in south padre island; fishing, sun bathing, swimming, hanging with loved ones, enjoying too much food, drinking beer
*getting a speeding ticket
*eating lots of sushi and seafood
*making to do lists
*debating my future
*stressing out about the little things
*blocking people from facebook (never knew this option exsisted and I absolutely love it!)
*making plans for key west
*trying to plan for a good weekend for company to come visit
*wondering if I can make a trip to Cancun with Bill Creager and company for Roger's Birthday
*juggling every piece of technology available- 2 cell phones, ipad, laptop, internet card, mouse
*trying to relax and not take life to seriously
*looking forward to going home

Day 1: Back On the Road

3 am: alarm goes off; wander to the bathroom to fix my hair and face

3:40ish: dress myself, grab luggage, briefcase, jacket, make sure the cat and dog have enough food and water to last 5 days

4:20: go through the routine of going through TSA where everyone is on a power trip, thinks you're a suspect and herds you around like cattle at an auction

4:27am: first email goes out to the girls on my team about scheduling future meetings

5:15: flight 278, via Continental/United, boards for Houston (flight actually leaves at 5:50, but if you're late, you're screwed!)

6:30: deboard flight in Terminal C and boogie over to Terminal E and immediately board flight 1868, next stop, Ft Lauderdale. While in the air, try to sleep but can't because the couple next to me insists on munching on chips...because chips make the most sense for breakfast?!??

10:40: land in Ft Lauderdale, emails go out at 10:47, 10:53, 10:54, 10:58, 11:23, 11:42, and 11:43; phone calls go out at 11:07, 11:10, 11:12, 11:13, 11:35 and 11:45. All of that takes place off of my BlackBerry while walking to baggage claim, getting the rental car, trying to hurry up the poor rental car man making nice talk with me, and driving to my first appointment of the day.

12:30: first appointment of the day; goes well. he's a Heat fan and dislikes the Spurs. concentrating on bringing his book of business from Orlando back to Miami.

1:50ish: feel like I'm starving to death; stop at a sushi place and chow down on sashimi

2pm: meeting number 2; very nice guy, does a lot of business with us, very funny and serious at the same time

4pm: last appointment of the day; it's like pulling teeth but we find some common ground. all is well.

5pm: on my way to the hotel which is 40 miles away. check in and make nice talk with John, the front desk guy. There is a man, who is also waiting to check in, looking at me...scratch that, staring at me. He's one of the types that doesn't look away when I look at him, so I politely say, "hi." even though I'm thinking, "what the hell are you staring at?!? you're supposed to look away when I catch you, dummy!"

5:30ish: John calls from the front desk to make sure my room is to my liking. I love being a platinum member at Marriott!

5:40ish: there's a knock at the door and fruit, cheese, and wine are delivered to my door with a note from John welcoming me again (that's a little much).

6pm: dinner in the hospitality room consists of fruit, water, and small triangles of cheese.

I've just showered and am now laying in my bed....exhausted! For the first day back on the road, it was a successful one!

Wordless Wednesday