only been one week.

Wow, I can’t believe I have been here just a little over a week. Feels like I have been here for ever and it feels like I got here yesterday. It was a crazy week as we prepared to have teams start arriving tomorrow. Along with all the preparations I got a chance to connect with many of my friends here in Kitale. It is wonderful to see their faces again. We had the Cooksey’s over for dinner on Monday night. I met them last time I was here and felt such care for them. Bella has joined their family and my heart as well. Wednesday we had Roger and Julie and their kids over for dinner. It was great to get and sit with Roger as I have never had the opportunity to get to know him. Sean and Meridith came for dinner one night and played Settlers with us. What a great time that was. Than women’s bible study, twice. The second time everyone was there and a few more that had started the bible study with me last year. I am so proud of them for continuing to meet and study together.

A visit to Veronica’s house, our home for children who are HIV positive was wonderful. The house mother had a baby a few weeks ago so I was excited to sit and hold baby Meridith for as long as possible. Last year when I was here we were looking for land for this home. This year there is land and a home with many renovations being done. The kids are so joyful. It was wonderful to spend the day under the trees playing with the children.

Last year the interns started a project with six young women from the Shimo slums close to our home. Five of these women had children. This year one has gone to high school and the others come two mornings a week to learn how to sew. They arrived on Tuesday laughing and joking with one another. It was beautiful. We have hired the oldest girl (19) for the summer to help us with cooking for our teams. I am so excited to get to spend more one on one time with her.

Evan and Mike painted the bathrooms for me. They were in great need of a new coat of paint and if it wasn’t done this week it wasn’t going to get done until the end of the summer. They look wonderful! Thanks Mike and Evan.

Meridith and I went grocery shopping on Thursday to prepare for the team that arrives tomorrow. None of you have any idea what it is like to have to shop here. It takes hours!! We went to three different “grocery” stores, the market and the meat lady. Having no car we check our bags in at each store and than call a taxi to come get us and collect it all before going home. We had so much shopping we couldn’t call our regular taxi but needed someone who had a station wagon. Thankfully Sean came along to help carry the heavy boxes. Once home we had to unpack it all! I really don’t like grocery shopping here.

Today I baked 12 loaves of banana bread, finished cleaning the rooms and bathrooms, typed up the menu for the next two weeks, and watched three episodes of “So You Think You Can Dance”. Tomorrow is the big day!

Because it is always good to fight corruption.

You know that dreaded middle seat you never want on a plane? Where you pray that the other two seats are occupied by a couple hoping to not have anyone in the middle and they give up the middle seat and let you sit on the isle? Where you pray that the people on each side are not “large” and “smelly”? Well I got that middle seat for 8 hours. They were not a couple traveling together but they were also not large and smelly. It was ok and I discovered the games they have on the back seats of the headrest in front of you. I have always watched movies but never played the games. It was great! And I will never play Blackjack for reals because I would be poor.

I arrived in Nairobi, got my Visa, spotted Daniel outside the window and waited for my bags to arrive. My plane was very large with many people on it which meant a lot of luggage. For some reason when they loaded the luggage on the carousal they loaded everything upside down AND on top of each other. Luggage was falling off the carousal and it was hard to identify which luggage was mine. I found the first two pieces quickly but the third piece seemed to be taking forever. I realized it was the piece of luggage that had the “weapons” that had been confiscated in Holland. I knew it was probably going to be a while before it showed up so I sat and waited. Finally it arrived!!

I proceeded out the front door and was stopped by a nice man who was checking bags. I figured he wanted to see my luggage tags to make sure the bags belonged to me. He was very friendly and asked me about my stay. I told him I was visiting my son. “Oh you are” he says, “Did you bring him any gifts”. “Why yes, I bought him some clothes and new shoes”. “How nice” he says. “You will have to pay duty on the”. He gets out his handy calculator and punches the numbers in and tells me I have to pay 17,000 shillings. By now I am staring at him trying to figure out what is going on. I have NEVER had to pay duty on anything coming into Kenya. I told him I was not going to pay it. “Oh but you have to” he says. I tell him I have no Kenya Shillings. “No problem, he points to the money exchange place and tells me I can go right over there and get some”. Hmmm what the heck is going on? I am looking blankly at him and he tells me it is ok I can just pay him 10,000 shillings. A light went off in my head!! He is trying to cheat me. Oh no that is not going to happen. I am alone, I won’t embarrass anyone by the way I am about to act. I look him in the eye and tell him, YOU ARE CHEATING ME!! Now he is shocked. I tell him, I have never paid duty on gifts I have brought to my son and I never will and I begin to walk away from him. He hollers at me, well now you know you have to pay next time. Hah, what to bet?

Because it is always an adventure to travel alone.

This is the first time I have traveled alone to Africa. It just feels different and lonely. You can’t share any of it with anyone because no one is there. It started out bad in Reno when they wouldn’t check my bags all the way through to Kenya because I had an overnight stay in LA AND they charged me $100.00 for my extra bag. I knew full well I would have to pay again the next day to board my next set of flights. I was tearful at the airport with Luke, Andrew, Ruth and Larry with me and having to pay $100 for a bag to LA did me in. I cried! Not over the money, it didn’t matter really. Over leaving my family and friends for so long. Over being nervous to travel alone. Over questioning what the heck I was doing. It was hard to say good bye and I was so thankful I didn’t have a crowd of people with me.

After checking in and saying goodbye I settled in to wait for my plane. Of course it was delayed an hour. Our trips to Kenya have always started roughly in Reno. Once we almost missed our flight because they changed our itinerary and couldn’t get the tickets printed. Once it snowed in Reno in May and no flights could leave or land. This time the flight was delayed because . . . well now that I think about it I have no idea. I got to LAX, had to collect my almost 200 pounds of luggage and figure out how to maneuver them to the shuttle to take me to the hotel I had booked. At the hotel I took a very long shower in a very nice bathroom where they provided my shampoo and conditioner and had extra towels and even wash clothes for me to use. Something that I knew I wouldn’t experience for six months. I ordered room service, bought internet for my computer and turned on the TV. I was up at 5am out the door by 6am and checked in and at my gate by 7:30 for my 9:00am flight. Again I had to pay for the extra bag, $100 plus Continental only allows one checked bag for international flights so I had to pay for my second bag .as well. Don’t fly Continental. I arrived in Houston and had to change flights. I had one hour and I walked 50 miles to get to my connecting flight but made it. I landed in Amsterdam with two hours between flights. These are the closest connections I have ever had. It seemed like a great idea when I booked the flights but is pretty tight once at the airport. In Amsterdam I had to get my boarding pass and walk another 50 miles to my next gate. In Amsterdam they have your go through a security check before you board your plane. They take your water and anything else they feel like and you wait in a hot stuffy room until it is time to board. I waited out side the security as long as possible. As I was walking in the line to get there I looked at the desk where two policemen were standing inside of security and I noticed something that looked familiar. There on the desk were item out of my bags. They were four pellet guns I had brought for my friend Jane’s boys. She had ordered them and I happily brought them in my luggage for her. As I waited in line I tried to figure out what all of this meant. Why were they sitting there? Did I have room in my carry ons for them? Did I have the paperwork for them? Maybe they weren’t mine? Did I do something wrong? WAS I GOING TO BE ARRESTED? How can I check into this flight and not admit they were mine? Well of course as I had my boarding pass scanned it flagged me and told me to go to THE desk. I went to the desk, looked at the police officer and said, those are mine. He said, than you are in trouble. For the second time in 24hrs I wanted to cry AND wished I wasn’t alone. The nice police officer explained to me they were illegal in Holland. I explained to the nice police officer that they were toys. He explained they weren’t considered toys there. I told him that Daniel and Caleb were going to be very disappointed if I didn’t show up with those guns they were looking forward to me bringing to them. He said I could voluntarily give them up or I could hang around in Holland and go explain it to the judge. I told him that I guessed Daniel and Caleb were sure going to be disappointed. Sorry Daniel and Caleb. The nice police man said he left the pellets in the bag for you.

Because it is time to go back!

I am on my way back to Kenya, this time for six months. I will be helping Transformed International with a group that is coming to build an orphanage over the summer. Than in September I will have a group of interns I will help with for three months. I can’t believe that I get to be part of both of these projects.

I am nervous and a bit apprehensive as I wait for my flight in the Reno airport. Leaving my family and friends is hard. Going to a place that isn’t always “comfortable” can be unnerving. Being gone for almost six months is a concept I can’t even imagine. All the babies in my home church will be totally different. My son and his wife will be married almost two years. It will be winter.

I have goals I have set for myself while gone. I will share them if I accomplish them. . . . or even if I don’t.

I am excited and sad. Scared and happy. I am ready to begin the adventure. Because . . . it is time to go back.

THE GIRL INTERNS

WHY AM I IN KENYA?

When one thinks of coming to Kenya they imagine working with orphans, widows, street kids and the poorest of the poor. Working in a village with dirt roads, mud huts and extreme poverty. Children with ragged clothes and empty eyes. This is the image we hold of being a “missionary”. This is what we WANT to do!

I knew that this trip to Kenya would be different for me. Although I would do all of the above there was something else for me to do with my time here. My main purpose was to help with the internship program and the five young women who were going to be part of it. Being the mother of three boys I was so excited to be able to parent five young women for three months. And I was never disappointed. It is a joy to be part of their lives and to watch them grow in their personal lives, to discover who they are becoming and to watch them learn and react to a county of children who live in poverty they never imagined. As I look back on these last three months I know I will never forget being part of these young women’s lives. It is truly one of the top “experiences” of my life.

Stephanie, you are growing to be such a wonderful and godly young woman. I was able to watch you change before my eyes.

Julia, you learned so so much about yourself and who your are becoming. You worked so hard on the TI videos and yourwork with them is so professional.

Steph, oh gosh, what a delight you were every day. I never knew what you would say but you always said it with a smile.What a blessing to occupy the same space everyday that your joyful soul occupied.

Jennifer, I got to discover who you were without all the “loud” people in your life that you meld with. You are a beautiful young woman and you have no idea the growth you experienced yet. I look forward to being part of your life for a very long time.

Hannah, what an amazing young woman. You gave of yourself until you were exhausted and than gave some more. I look forward to many more times with you and will make an effort to keep you as part of my life even if we don’t live in the same state. All of you enriched my life!!!

I also had the amazing pleasure of spending time with the “white” women who live their lives in Kenya. I have had a burden for these women who gave up their comforts to follow theirs and their husbands’ dreams to live in Africa and make a difference. What an honor to meet with you all once a week and encourage you in the way you are living your lives. We met for Bible Study but is was oh so much more. I treasure our friendships and long to be with you again.

Kenya is always full of surprises and this visit my surprise was the fellow American that God brought my way. I will never forget any one of you.

Because it is another side of Malindi

One day while sitting in a restaurant in Malindi I began to wonder if the Italians who vacation there ever see the other side of Africa. Malindi’s main tourist population is Italian and the locals tell us that they also buy and sale land there. The resort we stayed in was owned by an Italian as well. What would it be like to come and vacation there, flying in and out of Nairobi, getting a taxi, visiting the resorts, the beaches and the fine restaurants in the area but never experiencing a piece of poverty, struggles and hopelessness that surrounds the town. Even the children who beg outside of the resorts seem to be professional. They are dressed nice and have perfected a “wail” when told we will not feed them. I felt somewhat judgmental of the “Italians” until I stepped back and realized every time I get off a Cruise Ship and tour in Mexico or Jamaica I too am missing the essence of what that community is all about. I only see what the locals want me to see. Because we are working with the local people here and are in tune with the reality of this country I was able to see the needs in this tourist community.

Several people in our group felt a pull to explore further and to see if this is an area that TI would like to expand in. And if they did what would that look like? It is exciting to always see what God will have for TI and to be able to sit back and watch things happen. We will see!

Because it is good to visit again

Another trip to visit Ruth’s family and sew in Jua Kali

We ventured again to visit Ruth’s family in Turbo as Daniel did not have the opportunity to visit them on our first trip. I decided I would go alone the day before in order to spend the night in Jua Kali with Sally again. She wanted to learn to piece quilts. Again, there is nothing like sitting in front of her shop and sewing. The children gathered around my sewing machine to be with me and talk and the older people walked by and stared. I don’t know why I get such a kick out of it. Maybe it is because I get to be a white person in a Kenyan’s world. I love being there, chatting with Sally, eating her wonderful Kenyan food and getting to experience village life.

The next day Daniel arrived with one of interns, Hannah and Jared, a staff member and off we went to meet Ruth’s family. Such a delight to be there! Her mother, brother, sister and great grandmother are delightful and going a second time allowed me to process a bit more. It seems I can no longer imagine that Ruth ever lived in Africa and when I realize she did I am beyond grateful she is home with me. It is such a hard life here especially if you live in the village. No water, electricity, stores, transportation. You must walk to get anything you may need and the living conditions are marginal; a mud hut and a fire to cook on. It is so hard to live here. Always hungry and no guarantee there will be food tomorrow or a way to make money. In my eyes it looks hopeless! In their eyes, it is daily life.