Thoughts from My Parents

In the movie Sahara, treasure hunters are searching for a great lost treasure on the continent of Africa. During the movie one of the main characters says a line that will always remind me of the way most of the world thinks about Africa. The line goes as follows: “It’s Africa, nobody cares about Africa”. The continent of Africa has been called the Dark Continent, the Forgotten Continent and for most of the modern world it is probably one of the most misunderstood and least thought about places of the planet.

Although we would never claim to be any type of authority on African culture, we were recently blessed with the opportunity to visit the country of Kenya and get a very small taste of what it is like to live in a country that has great beauty, wonderful people, and day to day challenges that make living there an adventure.

After landing in Nairobi and traveling 6-7 hours by bus to our final destination it became apparent that many of the modern conveniences we have grown to simply expect would not be so available in Kenya. Things such as power, water and smooth roads would soon become a treat that, when available, would elicit great joy and excitement.

We spent the majority of our time simply doing what our daughter and her fellow class mates do everyday. We were blessed to be able to visit two different schools in the area and meet several of the students, teachers and administrators that have taken on the day to day challenge to give this generation of children the best education they can. Two of these administrators were a couple that we spent time with on several different occasions. This couple has taken on the challenge of running a preschool, building a new home a bit at a time, and just plain trying to make a difference in the community. They are a fantastic couple who love the Lord and are doing His work to the benefit of those they meet everyday.

We were treated to fantastic Kenyan hospitality and food. We visited a giraffe park, went to the market, attended a local church, ate goat and camel, drank lots of water and the occasional soda, sweated a lot, prayed for electricity and water and simply looked forward to each day’s activities. We walked a lot, tried to talk in Swahili as much as possible, remembered how good cinnamon on toast is and learned that water doesn’t have to be clear to use for bathing. We were re-introduced to the art of simply sitting around for hours and talking to each other about any subject during those times when power and water were not available. We learned that you always take a flashlight and bucket of water with you whenever you enter the bathroom, and that it is actually possible to kill a hundred flies in less than twenty minutes without ever leaving your chair.

We remembered how good a cool drink of water tastes, and that a person can survive without napkins, ice, the internet or even Mountain Dew. After spending a few days in the country we discovered that those things that appeared to be total chaos when we first arrived were simply the way things are in a country that takes chaos and make the best of it. We learned that it is possible to dig a 200 mile ditch by hand, that when it comes right down to it the people are what make a country great and not the government, and that God loves those people dearly. Our hearts were opened for the people of Kenya and we discovered that when the love of the Lord shines, even in the slums of Nairobi, it can put a light in people’s eyes that shines for the entire world to see.

30 Days of Nothing

I stumbled across this blog the other day, and thought the concept was interesting. (Plus, it was fun to read her family's reactions to things like hand washing a load of laundry or living without electricity for a day -- things that are normal here, but very not normal in America.)

Her idea was to live for one month without buying "extra" things like lattes or clothing, more or less as an experiment to see how much money they could save and what sorts of things they could learn.

When I get back to the States, this would be a very interesting "experiment" to try -- but, maybe I'm just in a very 'live off the grid' sort of a mood lately. Or, more likely, it appeals to me because it is a tangible act of social justice, something that goes completely against the grain of American consumerism.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share my find with you. Enjoy.

Avast There!

We really do do ministry here, I promise -- I just don't seem to post about it on this blog!

This last Saturday, though, we spent the evening dressed up as pirates and townspeople and played a giant mystery game with some of our friends.


One of us got "murdered" at the beginning of the game, and we had to try to figure out who did it, kind of like a really complicated version of clue or mafia. I turned out that Daniel, one of our friends from the peace corps, killed the first mate of the pirate ship, because he didn't want the first mate to get any of buried treasure. Not a very good friend, is he? Lol.


We had a lot of fun making our costumes -- and we think that we should get school credit for learning how to make costumes in North Eastern Kenya...but our teachers don't agree with us. My jacket started out as a skirt, before I chopped it up and added braided trim and coke bottle cap buttons. Pirates totally made their buttons out of pop bottle caps, right?


So...maybe it wasn't the most historically accurate costume ever, but you work with what you've got, right?

Welcome to Our Planet

One of my teammates had his twenty-third birthday yesterday, and, for his Stargate themed party, we built a stargate in our front room and invented a planet. Yep. We're a bunch of nerds like that, but it's all good.

We filled "Daniel Jackson's notebook" with all sorts of notes about randomly invented planets

-- including a code
The birthday boy and the stargate that Rebecca made

An Unchun farmer chilling on planet P1122

Decoding the ruins of an ancient civilization with his handy dandy notebook
-- this took longer than I had anticipated. Oops! Note to self: it takes much longer to decode something than it does it to code it.

My job was to create ruins with a brief history of our planet
-- it may have taken up three and a half pages like this one... Sorry, Warren!

Question Words

Who: a college aged Christ follower seeking to live out the faith that I say has changed me forever -- and anyone who decides to follow along via the blog

What: the record of a life experiment in social justice

Where: North Eastern Province, Kenya and, in a few months, Minneapolis, MN and Eastern Washington State

When: from now until I'm dead -- or I find a new medium to record in

Why: to keep myself accountable and insure that I practice the things that are rolling around in my head

How (that poor little extra question word that doesn't fit in with all of the others): we'll find out as we go. Things will likely change radically as I move from place to place and into different phases of life.

Welcome. Enjoy the journey.

The Things You Learn

Last week must have been a good week for learning random things about Kenyan culture. It seemed like every time that I had a conversation with someone I was learning something new.

I learned that this lizard (the red headed rock agama) is considered by Islam to be an unclean animal, like a pig or a dog. One got into a classroom and the kids were screaming like American kids might if a really big spider fell from the ceiling. Apparently, the prophet Mohamed was lost and needed directions. The only thing around to ask directions from was one of these lizards -- I guess it is kind of like Balaam's donkey talking to him...


Lizards must not be as smart as they look, though, because it gave him the wrong directions. As it's punishment, he made it an unclean animal. That means that, if you touch it, you are unclean as well, and you can't say prayers until you do a ritual washing. Thus, the running away and screaming when it came in.

I also learned that, back in the day, the only test to see whether or not you could get into first grade was that you were asked to reach over the top of your head and touch your ear. Still haven't figured out the logic of that one...let me know if you figure it out.

And, I learned that in at least one of the tribes from Western/Central Kenya, they have a saying that, if your hands are shaking, it means that you killed a lizard, and, if your legs are shaking, it means that you stepped on a lizard (Somehow, I learned a lot about lizards this week!). It is kind of like how people in some parts of America say that, if your ears are burning, it means that someone is talking about you.

Good job, kids

The school year here in Kenya is split up into three 3-month terms, each with a 1-month holiday in between. School closes for the end of the third term some time this week -- depending on the school -- which means that the kids have been busy taking exams.

The school where I have been helping to re-write the curriculum only has baby class (preschool), nursery class (K-4), and pre-unit (K-5), so, in order to continue their education, the pre-unit kids have been busy taking entrance exams for various other schools in the area. Six of them are hoping to start class one (first grade) at the primary school we have been involved with.

Pre-unit studying for entrance exams

They took the exam last week, and all six of them did very well. The curriculum at their pre-prinary school is much more focused on creativity and sensory development than standard Kenyan curriculm, and it is serving these kids very well. (Go figure...three and four year olds need to learn other things in addition to reading, writing, and math...)

As a point of contrast, one of the girls from the school continued on to one of the public primary schools near by and spent two years studying there. This year, she wanted to attend class three at "our" primary school, so she came back to her teachers in the village for study help. This very bright girl actually was less advanced academically now than she was when she graduated from pre-unit two years ago.

Pre-unit taking a practice exam
-- don't you wish that your teacher would let you sit on the floor to take a test?

They helped her study for a few weeks, and she managed to do realatively well on her entrance exam -- testimony to how quickly she picks things up. The education they get plays a huge role in determining these kids' future, so, schools like the ones our friends are running are an incredible blessing to the community -- and a huge ministry opportunity.

Living Life

When we first got here, I kind of assumed that the, “What have you been doing?” question would be easier to answer once we got to this point in the internship. There was a fuzzy sort of idea in my head that, by now, I would have regular ministry and a schedule-ish sort of something to my week.

Ha.

Let’s see. Today I woke up early enough that it was still cool out – which doesn’t last long on days that hit 113 Fahrenheit – and typed up a baby class curriculum for a local school for about an hour, until I decided that, since the power was out, it would be smart to save my battery for other things (like writing blog entries). So, I moved on to formatting the English rough draft of a kid’s storybook that covers Genesis 1:1-2:7, so that I will be closer to ready for really formatting the book on the computer, once I get the Swahili version proof read.

After I got myself stuck trying to decided how to portray God – with my less than stellar art skills, no less – I finished the rest of the pages, and moved on to my, still-in-the-process, attempt at turning a skirt into a sleeveless officer’s jacket, that I will need for a murder mystery party my team is doing next week with a few friends.

(The skirt has already been butchered once in order to be used as an elvish cloak during my birthday party this spring.)

Somewhere in there, I ate two meals, got drafted in as the stamp person for Bible club next term, hung out with my team, listened to Dave Dawson preach a sermon on hospitality, worked on NaNoWriMo, and cleaned up a little around the house.

On Monday, I went to town on an unsuccessful errand run, had Philippians class, went to a prayer meeting, and went back to town – with a little more success.

Tomorrow we have class with some people who are visiting from America, and then they want to take us out to dinner, and, Friday, I plan to be out at the school in the village to work on curriculum. But, nothing is certain until it is history, so, we’ll see.

If I’m ever vague on the details of daily life, it is because we tend to be doing a little bit of everything...

Sorry for the lack of updates, guys. It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

First, Laura, Heath, and I went and spent a little over a week in South Africa, which was more or less like being back in the States, minus any of the people that we know – long story, but, basically, we had to leave the East African Union for a few days so that we could come back in on a new tourist visa that will be good for the rest of our six months here.

Our friend from South Africa arranged for a few people for us to stay with, and those people in turn arranged for other people to pick us up / drop us off / entertain us while we were there. The first several days were a giant game of “pass the American.” It is a game kind of like “hot potato,” except that the potato has to try and introduce itself to each person holding it and go through a certain number of getting to know you questions – including trying to explain how three Americans from Kenya ended up in South Africa – before being passed on to the next player. Rather exhausting for the potato all in all.

We did have fun though. We managed to eat kudu, crocodile, ostrich, and wild buck; talk for an hour to a “youth group” that consisted of 12 to 26 year olds – yes, we are 20, 21 and 22 respectively, and we are here to tell you what to do with your life…not so much – visit a cave where they are excavating Littlefoot, one of the oldest human skeletons ever found; barbeque with the youth group; go see a couple of movies; and go strawberry picking with the seniors from the church.

A few hours after we got back, we went back to airport and picked up my parents. I’ll let them tell you all of their stories – I might even make them come and write a blog entry or two… – but, let’s just say that they got the full experience of powerless nights and afternoons and got to see our abundant collection of mosquitoes and flies…not quiet Africa’s big five, but wildlife nonetheless. :P

Now, it’s time to get back into normal life and hopefully back into the habit of actually updating my blog. Lol.