Whoa, I’m in Kenya. This is awesome. It feels like a totally
different world, like I was light-beamed into an alternate universe or
something. Coming straight from Ireland, the shift in landscape, culture, and
lifestyle is dramatic. But it’s good… Kenya is amazing. The people here are
so warm, welcoming, generous, and hospitable. We’ve only been in Isibania for a
few days but I already feel like family. 🙂
(The gorgeous view on our way down to Isibania)
We took a nine hour bus ride from Nairobi to here on
Thursday and got a chance to catch up on sleep, meet some sweet Kenyans, and
enjoy the gorgeous African landscape. My heart slowly began beating faster in
excitement as we passed herds of cows, bulls and goats led by little shepherd
boys with walking sticks, thatched-roof huts lined in rows along the road, wide
expanses of fields, trees, and other traditional Kenyan wildlife, women
carrying water jugs, sugarcane branches, and bunches of bananas on their heads,
and small towns filled with bustling people tending to their outdoor markets. Mmm, it’s good to be back. We were able
to meet some members of the Massai tribe on one of our stops down to Isibania
as well, and we’re hoping to get the opportunity to travel to one of their
villages to do some ministry during our time here… we shall see.
KENYA! 🙂 We enjoy that the sign says AIM – Adventures In Missions is representin’ all over the world!
When we arrived we were warmly welcomed by Pastor Abraham,
our contact here for the month, along with some other members of the church
community – Bonnie and Michael. Pastor Abraham is an amazingly kind man who
loves the Lord with all his heart and whose actions surely follow. They piled
us and our belongings into a tiny van and took us to the guest house we’re
staying at – it’s adorable! I feel incredibly blessed and honored to be staying
here and I feel so well taken care of.
Pastor Abraham is married to a woman named Jenny (this is
the second time on the race that the wife of one of our contacts was named
Jenny! Wild.) and they have four small children – one of whom was born only a
few days ago! Their kids are Ronny, Peace, Bella, and Victor (the new baby). He
told us the situation with Victor, his new child, and asked us for prayer. It
turns out Jenny was having high blood pressure during pregnancy and they had to
induce her at seven months, so little Victor was born two months early. There
were some complications with the umbilical cord during birth and he ended up
with an infection in his stomach; he’s currently still in the local hospital
and Jenny’s blood pressure continues to spike here and there. So we prayed for
his family, lifted them all up to the Lord, asked for peace and healing, and
entrusted them to our Father. It was so special to just be able to pray
together as one body and one family only minutes after meeting each other – this is what the body of Christ is all
about. I would love to ask you for prayer for them as well – thanks so
much. 🙂
The birth of Victor marked the start of the rainy season;
they had been experiencing a drought for about three months prior to this but
now it rains daily. Apparently when it’s dry the mosquitoes are ferocious, but
because of the rain I’ve only seen ONE little bugger the whole time we’ve been
here (and I killed it of course, mu haha). Don’t worry, I’m still taking my
malaria meds but we’ve been blessed with almost no bites from the pesky things.
The rain keeps the temperature down too so it’s absolutely perfect weather; it’s
sunny and cool and reminds me of San Diego. Sweetness!
(The church we’re working with here: Deliverance Church, Isibania!)
Along with the weather, the food has been marvelous as well.
We’ve been blessed by members of the church community (Michael, Winnie, Lea,
Ladisha, Bonnie, and others) who cook all our meals for us and sure do feed us
well! We’ve been having combinations of meat, beans, rice, cooked cabbage,
bananas, papaya (aka “po-po�) and chipati! Mmmm… it’s all delicious. Chipati
has definitely become a favorite among our team; it’s like a thicker form of
tortilla made with flour, water, a dash of salt and sugar and fried in a pan
with oil. It’s soft, mouth-watering, and good with any meal… I could eat it all
day long. We were told yesterday that Kenya is the home of the best coffee and
tea in the world as well and we had to opportunity to try it out. I had some
chai tea yesterday and it was simply to die for. Blessings upon blessings are just
being showered down upon us… I am so grateful!
We’ve also been getting accustomed to squatty potties,
bucket showers, and no running water. I’ve been using my antibacterial hand gel
and baby wipes frequently to combat the imminent germs, but God is allowing me
to find peace amidst the inability to fully be clean. It’s all good. God is
bigger than germs, and He’s gonna take care of us. He’s a good dad. 🙂 I
actually love the bucket showers… it feels resourceful and scrappy (cause
that’s how I roll) and they even warm up the water for us over a stove so
they’re not freezing cold… I love our friends here! They’re so good to us.
There’s a well right outside our guest house that we get all the water from so
it’s super convenient. Yay Africa!
I think I’m gonna get my hair completely braided soon and
perhaps a skirt/ dress made so I can become a real African! I’ll take some
pictures, don’t worry. 🙂
Pastor Abraham was talking about the various East African
nations and the differences associated with each. In regards to the language he
said, “Swahili was born in Tanzania, got sick in Kenya, died in Uganda, and got
buried in Rwanda.â€� Haha. 🙂 Basically, Swahili is spoken the most in Tanzania
and the least in Rwanda. Since we’re only about 200 meters away from the
Tanzanian border (literally), there’s a strong Swahili influence here. We’re
trying to learn some of the language – it’s beautiful – but the majority of
people we come in contact with speak exceptional English so it hasn’t been an
issue in terms of communication.
The kids here are absolutely adorable. If I can get some
pictures up with the internet access it will be sweet, but if not just take my
word for it. When we walk the streets all we hear from the little ones is,
“MZUNGU! How are you?!� It’s the most precious thing. “Mzungu� basically means
“white person� in Swahili and it’s essentially the only thing they know how to
say. Sometimes they respond with, “I’m fine, how are you?� but that’s about as
far as it goes. The rhyming just makes me chuckle every time I hear it. When we
first arrived at our house here we were greeted by a group of small children
lined up across the street waving furiously in excitement, jumping up and down,
and reciting a poem they had learned for us. It just melted my heart. We asked
one of our contacts what they were saying and she said they were talking about
being friends with us. That made sense, since the only word we recognized from
their small and distant voices was “rafiki� which means “friend� (thanks Lion
King!) I love it here.
(Some of Pastor Abraham’s kids and some from the community – they’re precious!)
