When your caught in the DARK, look for the STARS....

Epilogue

2010-02-10T11:35:00.001-08:00

Thank you for taking the time to read this. These last few months have held some of the best memories of my life. I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to publish my journal entries- it takes a little bit of time to go through the pages of doodles and random thoughts, and to put them together as a journal entry that can be easily understood. I’m glad that you have been able to read about my journey. Thank you for supporting me both financially and through prayer, I hope that you can see how your support has played such a huge part of this trip! Many lives were changed, and many hearts (including mine) are on fire for the Lord in ways that I never would have thought possible.
I am excited to say that I am going back to Kenya in June of 2010. I love this country, and would be honored to mission there a second time!
I would also like to upload a thankyou video, so you can see what has taken place on this trip. I will update the blog again when I can figure out how to put it on youtube.
Again, thank you so much! Asante Sana!
-Heather

Friday, 7-31-09 (or? 30th? 29th?) day 45(ish)

2010-02-10T10:48:00.001-08:00

Wow, I had to get through 7 pages of doodles and such to get to this entry! Ha!
The benedryl was very effective in helping me sleep! When I woke up, I listened to my I-pod for a bit and watched duplicity. We have 2 hours left before landing in Atlanta. I’m not in a window seat, so I can’t see the ocean, but it’s kind of cool to know that I’m flying over it right now! How do I know this? Airplanes (keep in mind I haven’t been on one this nice in… ever.) have this little button on the tv’s that say “track your flight”. It shows you a map with a red dotted line (that is the flight path) and a little airplane that shows where you are.
I know this entry is boring… nothing has changed much, I’m just sitting on the plane, eating my breakfast, and impatiently waiting for these 2 hours to pass so the plane can land already. I want to be home, and I’m not there yet. I would like to be home sooner rather than later, but I know that the plane is already going hundreds of miles a minute. I was thinking about this further and realized something- thanks to time zones, I’m actually going back 10 hours, so when I get home it will be the 29th even thoug I left for home on the 30th. Ha! Who said time travel was impossible???
FINALLY! “Welcome to Atlanta, we hope you enjoyed your flight!” YES! Getting through security and customs was a breeze! “Welcome home” greeted the attendant, as she scanned my ever-so-American passport. Those were probably the most beautiful words spoken to me all day! I would also like to point out something to future travelers- it is amazing to see how your attitude to airline personal will affect how they react to you. I got the nicest service by being nice to them first. Just sayin’.
Jan and I immediately set out for the clean bathrooms (with toilets that flush!) and to satisfy our weeks long craving for pizza. We got soda WITH ICE! I didn’t realize how much I would miss ice! The Domino’s lady thought we were weird because we were excited to be handed back quarters (As opposed to shillings) and when we told her that we were in Africa for 2 months, she too gave us a warm “welcome home”!
Since our flight arrived a little late, we weren’t able to make the direct flight home to Vegas, so instead we are heading to Salt Lake city and are heading to Vegas from there.
It was roughly a 2 hour flight to Salt Lake City, and then another 45 minutes to Vegas. I was impatient for these flights, because now I was only hours away from seeing my family! I miss them so much! I can’t wait to hug them again, and to see them smile at me! I’m excited for my own bed, my own shower, and again- my family! I’ve been thinking about the way God has changed me on this trip- how He has taken my heart as His, how He has shown me how I’ve lost my way, and how He has taken my hand to bring me back to the straight path. I wonder if my family will notice these changes- and if they will like them. I’ve also humorously noted that my once-fear of navigating an airport has vanished. I feel like a pro at this now! I’m so glad I went on this trip- and I’m even more glad that I’m home!
I took my stuff down the escalator- I saw my brother waiting at the bottom, looking for me. Too bad he was looking at the wrong escalator! I snuck up on him and gave him the biggest hug! My sister was next to see me- holding a bright orange sign saying “welcome home”! It was glittery, very homemade, and filled with love! We hugged each other, and I was so excited to see both of the teeth she lost! My mom gave me a really tight, stopped-my-breathing kind of hug, and started crying. I was teary eyed, too! My dad was there, and he gave me a big hug, and asked me if I had fun!!! He told me that he was glad that I did decide to come home, because otherwise he would have sold my car and gone all the way to Kenya just to get me back! Another big surprise was that Nathan showed up to bring me home, too! He is such a good friend to me!
I could not be happier- I am home! As soon as we got in the car, I asked if we could go to In-n-out. I have had this ridiculous desire for a chocolate shake for 3 weeks now! (I talked about it so much that Jan wanted one, too!) Jan’s family, Nathan, and my family all went to In-n-Out and indulged in chocolate-shake-and-burger goodness. When we got home, I told my parents about the various highlights of my trip, they told me about all the things that they did while I was gone. It was an incredible reunion! I’m glad I’m home!

Thursday, 7-30-09 Day 44

2010-02-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

Between the day I had, the malaria meds that I had to take, and the Tylenol, I had the perfect concoction for crazy dreams last night! I really don’t want to be awake right now. It is 5:45 in the morning. I am tired. I am emotionally exhausted. I kept reminding myself that my family is home waiting for me, and I’m less than 48 hours away from seeing them. We were picked up late by our driver because there was an accident on the road and traffic was even worse than what it already is. He didn’t get to us until 6:30. We rushed to the airport, hoping and praying beyond all reason that we weren’t late. God got us through the traffic (magnificently, I must say!) and we got to watch the sunrise on the way. We checked out bags and got everything together for our flight. We ate breakfast at the Java House (which for me included a double-shot mocha) and were through check-in quickly. The airline ended up running out of space for overhead storage, and needed to check my bag. Jim kept telling me that whatever was in my bag would probably get lost. Nothing was life-or-death important in there, but I still would rather it not get lost…
The airline people made us walk on the tarmac outside to board the small jet of a plane. They didn’t park the plane anywhere close to our gate, either, which was irritating. They had us board the back of the plane only, because the plane makes a pit-stop where the passengers in the front of the plane de-board and new ones get on… then we all go as a happily family of strangers to Dakar. Still, the flight served us food and drinks. I sucked down coffee, coke, and some of Jim’s white wine. We’ve been on this freakin plane for a few hours now. I’m in seat 20E, on the right side of the plane, between Jim and Jan. You would think that I would be asleep right now, but this is not the case. After the pit stop and passenger changes, the airline served us food again. Jan could only drink half of her white wine, so Jim and I split the rest of hers. Jan crashed, so Jim and I watched this crazy African Soap Opera Drama thing. It was terrible, but it passed the time.
Guess what? Since they checked my carry-on, I had to go pick it up with at the luggage place. Guess who’s luggage was also there? The luggage for the rest of the team. The airline was supposed to send the luggage all the way through to Atlanta, so that it would be there when we got there. No such thing happened! It was a good thing that I checked my bag, otherwise we would have just gone through to the waiting area and not stopped to wait for the luggage at all! Jim was NOT happy with the airline!
Our next flight doesn’t leave for hours, so we opened up our snacks and made small talk. Certain team members laughed at me for re-packing my luggage. My logic was that I didn’t have a scale to weight the weight of my luggage when I first packed it, so I would re-pack it now so that my bags would be under the weight limit for our American flights. The funny part of this was that after I had my bags in order, the other teammates took use of the available scales and rearranged their luggage, too! Haha!
We spend a lot of time people watching. Some of the people here are immaculately dressed, and some dressed as per their culture’s guidelines. It’s cool to watch. There were lots of women wearing brightly colored suits and dresses, and others with vivid and beautiful veils that flowed behind them when they walked. Most of the men showed up in casual attire, but there were a couple that stood out with their cleanly pressed suits.
There is almost nothing here. This has to be the lamest international airport I’ve ever stepped foot in. There is one small drink stand that’s only open short bits of time. There are hardly any chairs to sit on (we grabbed the only 2 rows in sight). After an hour or so, half the team was bored of sitting so we decided to wander around and explore the airport while the other half of the team watched the chairs and luggage. We found a (very hidden) café. It was very “upper class” and the staff was less than polite. We grabbed coffee there and left to wander around some more. On the way back, we passed a small little gift stand that had a man standing outside holding a large stack of brand new hundred dollar bills. He kept asking us if we had change for a hundred- do we really look like idiots???
We got back to our seats just in time to watch a group of men unroll their mats and pray in the middle of the airport. It was an awesome cultural thing to watch- you don’t really imagine that someone would actually drop everything to pray until you see it happen right in front of you.
……. There is 8 hours left of waiting time, and I am running very low on entertaining things to do. Thanks to the drastic humidity change that is Dakar, my nose is stuffy. Humidity is not a strong point of mine. I’ve come to the realization that in the next 24 hours, I will probably get no sleep. I also realized that I need to make it a point to my dad that I used more Maxi Deet (that he made me bring) in Dakar than I did the entire trip put together.
The airport finally is starting to look busier, which means there are more people to watch. We finally were able to get in the baggage check line so that we could get ready to board the plane. They don’t have x-ray machines here- they have people that physically check out your bag. They had me open my bag, and they were pretty gentle going through it. I’m very happy to say that all of my knives are still there 
I am now on the plane, with benedryl in my system (to MAKE me get some sleep), and am people watching until I get bored. I’ve been flipping through the free chanels on the little tv in front of me. I’m bored out of my mind, but happier to know that I’m on my way to Georgia, which is just one step closer to being home! (I didn’t think I would be so happy to return to my own country!)

Wednesday, 7-29-09 Day 43

2010-02-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

I slept horribly last night thanks to terrible nightmares. Not to mention, I kicked off my blankets and got into a few fights with the mosquito net. Jan and I were up around the same time. We packed up the few things that managed to escape the grasp of our suitcases, and were the first up to breakfast. We enjoyed our eggs, toast, sausage, beans, and coffee while observing the interactions between another groups of missionaries a few tables down. After the boys were all up at breakfast and had their food, we were able to talk t the missionaries. We found out that they were from south Carolina, and are just arriving for their mission.
It was a very quiet drive down to the Kisumu airport. Our flight leaves at 8:15 so we made sure we were there around 7. It was a pretty easy, in & out thing. Our flight was only 45 minutes long, after which we waited a half hour or so for some guy named Albert to show up and take us to our hotel. We loaded up the van with our luggage and spent another 45 minutes in total chaos trying to drive to get to our hotel. Imagine this- overcrowded streets, NO stoplights (and very few street signs), and a bunch of roundabouts that people will go the right AND wrong directions on. After reaching the calm of the storm that was our hotel, we met up with Judith’s sisters, Evelyn and Susan. They were very nice. I really am not in a “talk to people” kind of mood today, so I was pretty quiet for the duration of their visit. Evelyn and Susan ate lunch with our team. We had the displeasure of a very inattentive staff. It took us between 2 ½ and 3 hours to get through lunch- and a half hour of that was waiting to get our check! Jan told Jim about a letter that one of the kids had written to some of Jan’s students. The little girl talked about 2 visitors who “didn’t even stay a month! And the visitor’s names are Visitor Sharon and her Son”. The little girl was so serious in her letter, it was hilarious! When I get home, I’ll have to tell Sharon and Brad that people in Kenya think that Brad is Sharon’s son.
After lunch, our team laughed in the face of death by j-walking in heavy traffic to get to Tusker’s grocery. We had to get food for our flight to Dakar, because we were forewarned by Sharon and Brad that Dakar is a terrible airport filled with French-speaking American haters and no place to get food or drinks. We were in and out of Tusker’s fairly quickly. The team went back to their prospective rooms, and Jan and I enjoyed getting some down time before dinner. Mike, Mark, and Jim were all set to go to have coffee with the Kean’s, who are full time missionaries here in Nairobi. (If I didn’t mention it already, we are staying the night here in Nairobi before taking off to Dakar tomorrow.) Jan and I were given instructions that we were NOT to leave the hotel until Susan and Evelyn arrived to take us to dinner. I brought my deck of cards with me to the lobby. Jan and I chatted and people watched while I shuffled and re-shuffled my cards on the small table in front of us. An Indian businessman from Mumbai saw my deck of cards, and complimented my shuffling. He proceeded to teach Jan, me, and another gentleman guest in the lobby some card tricks and card games. We played cards and talked about ourselves for about 45 minutes. It was very entertaining to learn a thing or two from a self-proclaimed card master.
Susan and Evelyn arrived around six, and we proceeded to walk back to the Ambassador Hotel (where we ate lunch at) for dinner. I guess dinner is a much bigger event, because there was many more people, many more tables open, and infinitely better service! We all had samosas, chips, and icecream! Over dinner, we discussed things like the water shortage in Nairobi (they section off the city, and each section gets their water turned on only once a week.) politics, the President’s recent to Kenya, and our family lives. I showed them pictures of all the smiling faces I get to go home to, which they oohed & awed over, and we walked back to the Diplomat hotel, where we traded e-mail addresses and said our goodbyes.

Jan and I were in for quite a night- There are no mosquito nets in this room, and we’ve already seen bugs crawling around. This is not okay. And as a consequence of the water shortage, there is a sign that says to use the minimal water necessary. I can get over that, but I can’t get over the lack of a shower curtain (or any kind of covering) for the shower. This is definitely not ideal, but I guess this is what a mission trip is all about.
Jan gave me two Tylenol PM to help me sleep tonight. Goodnight!

Tuesday, 7-28-09 Day 42

2010-02-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

God? I think there is a bad connection between heaven and earth right now. I have no idea what you are telling me to do here…
I woke up this morning and helped to tear down camp. I had PB&J, and then tea with Judith. I took pictures with everyone here while the “manly men” were loading up the back of the van.
I am going to miss it here so much! The goodbyes that I exchanged were not tearful, but definitely heartfelt. I can’t believe that this is the last time I will see this place for a long while. I am coming back next year, God willing.

Protus sat next to me on the drive to town. I was being a general nuisance- I kept poking him, undoing his watch, etc. It passed the time :)
We had lunch at the Imperial Hotel. Their chicken sandwich wasn’t bad but wasn’t too great either. It was nice to drive on a smooth road, and very nice to stay at the Sunset Hotel. After freshening up at the hotel, the team went shopping at the same outdoor shopping area that we took Brad and Sharon to. Protus helped me to barter with people so that I would get a good deal on the things I was getting. I got everything I needed! Protus and I got chatty with one of the shack owners while we were waiting for the gentleman of the group. He joked with the owner that he would sell me for 1,000 cows. (The owner immediately said “500”. Not gonna happen, buddy.)
We had a short drive back to our hotel. I took some time to re-pack my bags for the convenience of easier air travel. It was then that I realized that I had left my headlamp, razors, shampoo and conditioner all back at camp. I’m hoping that this won’t be that big of a deal! Jan let me borrow some of her shampoo. I guess I’ll just have to replace dad’s headlamp when I get home!

The team had a very leisurely dinner of rice, chicken, watermelon, and cooked carrots. I now have a serious desire for Kraft mac-n-cheese… maybe going home won’t be so bad afterall! Protus confessed to me after dinner that he was very upset about us all leaving. I recall Jim telling me earlier in the trip that this is the first time, in all of their mission to kimikungi, that they have had this many people in one group stay all 7 weeks. I guess Protus has been very attached to us! He asked me what the actual likeliness of my returning home was. I told him it was 90%, unless something drastic changed my plans. I fell asleep quickly, but am still torn between saying goodbye to Kenya and hello to home.

Monday, 7027-09 Day 41

2010-02-03T11:38:00.001-08:00

Today has been hard. I woke up late- breakfast was almost ready by the time I climbed out of my tent cot. The eggs and coffee were a great start to a busy morning- and lunch of samosas, fries, and coke made my day better.
Today is the day that we pack our bags. Jan and I went through the childrens ministry bags and the kitchen stuff that was being stored away in our tent. We each went through our own bags to reorganize them for the trip home. Our laundry was all pulled of the line, wet or dry. The kitchen shed was re-organized. We took an inventory of what we had, so that we could form a list of whatever’s needed for the next trip. (I plan on coming back to the next trip.)
We went to town, where we got a break at the internet café, and lunch. We continued to clean and pack anything that was at the office, and we took inventory of the things that were there.
We had some down time so we watched movies. I wasn’t concentrating on the TV so much as I was concentrating on the situation. Today has been a very emotionally challenging day. I want to go home so badly so that I can see my family. I miss them so much! At the same time, I want to stay here. I’m home here, and I’m going to miss it terribly. I want to stay. Ideally, I would go home for 2 or 3 weeks to see my family, and come right back here to Kenya.
When we went home, I went to Judith’s house to have tea with her. She is a very dear friend of mine, and I will miss her so much! Today has just been melancholy.

Sunday, 7-26-09 Day 40

2010-02-03T11:29:00.001-08:00

This morning was a little difficult. It’s day 40, and we are almost ready to go home. This is our last Sunday here in Kenya, which is bittersweet.
We started our morning with toast, eggs, coffee, and pineapple. Jim taught church this morning, and all of us got a chance to go up on stage and say our goodbyes. After service, one of the church elders (Rose) wanted me to come over to her house “right now”. She was a little scary- a very upfront, bold person who does NOT take no for an answer. She didn’t understand that I couldn’t go to her house today, and wouldn’t accept my polite declination, so I had to step back and let Protus handle it.
I went to town with Mike and Mark (Mike drove! Ah!), where we had Samosas and Chapati for lunch at The Coffee Garden. We went to Shariffs to do a bit of shopping; and I bought 4 new mugs for Judith to replace the one that I broke. (I hope she likes them.) When we came back home, Protus tried to pick a fight with me about buying new mugs, and telling me that it wasn’t necessary and that I needed to return them. I wasn’t about to back down and I told Protus, specifically, not to worry about it and just say thank you! He told me that I shouldn’t have bought the mugs, and asked how much they were. I told him not to worry about it, and threw the price tags away. He dug them out of the trash, and I chased him around to get the price tag back from him (for about 10 mintues) like a highschooler. It was fun banter, and he never did look at the price!
The team walked down to the crusade (again held right down the street.) Webb was on the stage at this time, and his whole family was there to support him. I hung out with his daughter, mainly. Her name is Emma, and she is 25 years old. It is her son that keeps crying whenever Mzungu’s are around! (speaking of which, people have really gotten a kick out of my “Mzungu” shirt! I wore it on Sunday!)
The crusade was great! Webb thinks that I should go and dance with the girls, because I have very loose shoulders (they mainly dance with their shoulders in this part of Kenya.) Many were saved today, and many more were reassured of their faith.
The team had PB&J for dinner. Later that evening, I went to the church, where I learned some keyboard stuff from Job (who is quite gifted!) We had a conversation about different worship styles. He asked questions about how we worship in America, and how worship is done in Panama. Trying to explain how the singing was different was the hardest part- and eventually he suckered me into singing so that he can hear the difference. I was a little embarrassed because I don’t make a habbit out of singing in front of other people, but Job (and the 3 other guys that were helping with the instruments) said I sounded “like an angel”. It wasn’t long before the instruments were finished being set up for the revival service that was taking place tonight. A movie was going to be shown after doing a few worship songs. I was told that many “different” kinds of people would be showing up at this service, there was extra security around for the sake of Jan and I. It’s just another reminder of how welcomed and loved we are here! Judith assigned me the job of taking tea to Protus while he was setting up the movie. Afterward, Judith and I had our own tea, and another chance to sit and talk to each other. She got her hair redone today, and was showing me her braids and the red pieces that hey braided into her hair. She is very excited about it, and it looks beautiful as always! She told me that she loves her new cups, which made me very happy! Now… Lala Salama! Sleep well!

Saturday, 7-25-09 Day 39

2010-02-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

Considering the rain, barking dogs, moo-ing calf’s, and the chickens; I slept very well last night! I was the first up again this morning, so I set up the breakfast things, boiled the water for coffee, and dried the chairs. I decided to have Hot Cocoa instead of coffee, and ate some buttered toast. I sewed up the tear in my skirt so that I could wear it after my shower today. (remind me to bring sturdier skirts next time!) I wore the slip that Judith had made for me. It fit perfectly! It was very beautiful. I decided to go show Judith right away, and she was very happy that it fit well! I have to say, it was hard to walk in- this particular slip doesn’t allow much room for a long stride when you walk. I guess I’m just too used to my jeans! Judith and I sat outside with our tea, this morning. I was given the tour of her outdoor kitchen!

I was informed that I’m teaching today. I’m glad that I have that teaching about Abraham already prepared- I’ll deliver that again. I won’t be teaching for a few hours, though, so I have time to kill. I sat up on the rock for a while. Senior and Zippy (Zipporah) were playing with a friend of theirs. (Mary, I think.) I have discovered that these shy girls love when I say Oriena (how are you in Bikusu) and Molamoo (I am fine, in bikusu). Anytime I said these words, they would burst into a fit of giggles! I taught them how to say Heather (it doesn’t seem difficult, but they don’t have the “th” sound in their language.) They pronounced it “Heda” most of the time, which was quite entertaining to listen to. It brought back memories of my mission to Panama- the kids there pronounced my name the same way! Senior, Zippy, and Mary sang their favorite Sunday school songs for me. They tried teaching me the words to some of them. My favorite one so far is: “I am happy today, so happy! In Jesus name, I am happy! He has taken away my sins (today) I am happy, so happy, today!”
I really enjoyed the rest of the day today! It was mainly spent spending time with the kids and with the families that were here in Kimikungi. I was sitting in the church while Job and some other people were setting up the stage for worship. A few kids were watching me (while I was writing this all down in my journal), so I took a few pieces of paper, asked them their names, and drew their names in word art. (it’s a habbit of mine to do such things.) They LOVED it! Pretty soon I had a crowd of people, all of which were wanting their names in word art. 3 kids were playing with my hair, and all some other kids started to sing while they were waiting. It was so much fun! Then Oscar came in and asked me to do his name, too, so he can put it on the wall! Since I had done one of these for Judith a couple weeks ago, I decided to do one for Protus as well. As I was drawing Protus’ name, the kids were still playing with my hair, but this time kept whispering the word “samba”. (Simba means lion in kiswahili.) I asked them if they thought I looked like a lion, and they all said yes…. So I asked them if they wanted me to REALLY look like a lion, then they all GIGGLED and said yes. As per their wish, I flipped my hair over, shook it out so it got very fluffy (and tangled), flipped it back again and roared really loud at them. They loved it! I scared at least 2 of them, the others were just surprised.
The nights events were very fun. The music was great tonight! The team had spaghetti for dinner; after which Mike, Mark and I sat around the Jiko talking about alcohol. (Mike’s been to Germany during Octoberfest.) it was quite a spectacular day, let me tell ya!

Friday, 7-24-09 Day 38

2010-02-03T10:28:00.001-08:00

Malaria Pills give you such cool dreams! Last nights’ starred my brother and I. We were secret agents that blew up some guys’ hotel because he stole someone’s calf. Quite odd, but I woke up feeling like a superhero!
By the time I got to the dining hall, they were starting to serve breakfast. I let the main crowd have their way with the buffet table while I had my way with my very delicious coffee. Toast, eggs, and cheap cornflakes were on the menu. I wasn’t very impressed with the food, but I’m glad it was edible.
We left Nakuru (where the hotel was) by 9:00, and I tried to get some shut eye in the van until we stopped in Eldorat. We had coffee there, which kept me awake for the rest of the trip. We stopped once more on the side of the road because there was a huge Equator sign! (forget that we have already crossed the equator 15 times on this trip- this time there is a sign involved!) There was a tourist shack set up right next to the equator sign, where you could get “official Equator Crossing Certificates”. It was pretty awesome, and I bought a certificate just because of the ingenuity of the shack owner for creating them!
We were back on the road in no time, and before long we were back in Bungoma. We ate at the Coffee Garden, and were very disappointed to find that they were out of samosas! I had chips and chapatti instead. Afterward, we walked to the internet café to send e-mails to our family, and went to shariffs to shop for food for the next 2 days.
We had such a nice welcome home back to Kimikungi! I found out that Judith had a slip made for me (along with some of the other ladies, and the wives of the gentleman on our trip, Save Brad.) Judith blessed me by giving me a slip with purple trim, as opposed to the all white slips given to the other ladies. It was such a wonderful gift!
Titus had arranged for one of his employees to bring items from his store down to Kimikungi, so that we would have a chance to shop at his store before we left back to America. (We didn’t have time to go to his store before the end of our trip.) Later on, I went with Protus, Titus, and Evan (Titus’s employee) to watch Pastor Webb preach down the street. It took only 2 minutes to go down the street where Webb was, and in that 2 minutes it had started to rain! (not an uncommon thing, but still slightly aggravating when you are trying to preach outside.) It was good that we brought the van with us instead of walking, because we immediately had to load up the sound equipment. (I got to help by making sure none of the precariously placed speakers fell over.) The crusade was moved from the streets to the church. Protus and Titus, being the gentleman that they are, dropped us off at our tents before taking the sound equipment to the church. It was very considerate of them. Later in the evening, I was treated to watching another thunderstorm. (Thunderstorms are so awesome!) In the middle of it all, Jim needed to go into town, so I decided to go with him. (Just because I could, of course!)
Jim and I decided to grab dinner before heading back to the office. We went to Shariffs since it’s the only place (other than the “club”) that is open at night. There we met another Mzungu, who’s name I think was York. (“Just like New York, but without the new” he told us.) He was from Germany, and was cycling from Cairo to South Africa to “help find himself”. He was quite an entertaining gentleman, and it was fun talking to him. When we got to the office, I made the guard laugh because I couldn’t figure out how to unlock the gate in the dark, and when I dropped the lock, it made a ridiculously loud noise. The guard came to my rescue, laughing along the way. I’m sure he’s going to be telling someone a story tomorrow about the crazy mzungu girl who can’t figure out how to open a gate!
Not much happened after this. Jim finished all that he needed to do, and I hung out and charged my Ipod. We got home to find that Jan had gone to bed, Mark and Mike were still sitting around the Jiko making fun of each other, and the dishes were already done. (Woo-hoo for me on that one, I’m the dish girl lately!) I stayed up for a few minutes with Mike and Mark before hitting the hay myself.

Thursday, 7-23-09 Day 37

2010-01-25T18:19:00.000-08:00

5 in the morning! I woke up at 5 in the morning! That’s just not okay! I have no coffee, and it’s still dark outside! The team decided to do a very early morning safari, so we have a better chance of seeing animals. It ended up paying off nicely. We saw more zebra and gazelle, as usual. We also saw waterbuck and wildebeest, and some kind of dog-like thing running around. The real treasure of the morning was in the savannah grass- we stopped the van less than 10 feet away from 2 lions (1 male, 1 female) feeding on a zebra! No one else was out on safari yet, so we got to watch and listen for at least ten minutes by ourselves. (Trust me, it was a big deal! Lions are one of the “top 5” so vans are always crowded around them!) To hear a lion purr and growl while chewing on a zebra carcass is just amazing! National Geographic has NOTHING on this! After vans started showing up, we moved on. The cool thing was that we moved on to see two more lions enjoying the African morning in the savannah grass! We hung out there for a little longer before vans started showing up there, too. We went back to the tent site for breakfast- scrambled eggs, toast, beans, and coffee. (The coffee part was my favorite.) Today we go start our journey back to Kimikungi. I’d like to add as a side note that I’m very excited about the shirts I got- The one for Titus says “Tuko Pamoja” or “We’re Together” and the one I got for myself and Brad says “Mzungu” which means “white person”. I plan on wearing my Mzungu shirt on Sunday!
So, Mike got sick in the car on the way back to the hotel. I hope he feels better because it’s really not fun to be sick on a trip of any sort. We ended up stopping at another gas station where we had Chapati that was good, samosas that were terrible, and coke that was also good. I slept the whole rest of the way to the hotel!
Our rooms here are nice. The boys are on one side of the property, and Jan and I share a very nice room (right next to the pool) on the other side of the property. We have to walk to the internet café, but that’s alright. We went to dinner at the hotel, where I had a margarita pizza and vanilla icecream!
Jan and I left shortly after dinner, it’s time to get some sleep before we finish our journey home tomorrow.

Wednesday, 7-22-09 Day 36

2010-01-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

I woke up around 6 this morning, and had my coffee pretty much right away. Jan and I were very glad to know that the buffet has coffee in the early morning hours. We met a 19 year old Masai guy named Sammy, who wanted to take Jan and I back to his tribe. Ha! Not gonna happen!
It wasn’t long before the rest of the team was up, and we were on our way to tour the wild savannah of Masai Mara! Since it was our first day, we decided to “invest” in a tour guide, whose name was Joseph. We saw zebra, gazelle, and impala right away. Mike was upset because we stopped to take pictures. He’ll get over it. Mark told him to shut up, and continued taking his pictures of the zebra.
Not long after, we saw elephants! They really are beautiful when they’re in the wild! (Oh yeah, I don’t think I mentioned that Masai Mara is a wildlife reserve. You drive through dirt trails, and all the animals are wild and in their natural habitat. It’s cool, because they are in the middle of a migration right now!) It was a whole elephant family- A bull, a mama, and 2 babies! We also saw a bull charging today, to protect a mama elephant from what he thought was danger.
My favorite part of the morning thus far is that I was able to witness the fiery African sunrise over the savannah plains. It’s quite a site! We also spotted Lions, lots of wildebeest, and ended up driving right in the middle of a heard of Cape buffalo! (Also known as Water Buffalo- mean creatures!) It was thrilling to know that if I wanted to, I could reach out and pet a cape buffalo. (Rest assured, I didn’t attempt this!) We saw some wild ostrich, and a giraffe eating from a tree. It wasn’t until I saw meerkats and a warthog that I was really thinking about The Lion King movie…
We came back for breakfast at 9. We were served sweet chapatti, toast, potatoes, beans, some omelet thing, and tea. We ate our breakfast slowly, because we don’t go back out until 11. I’m looking forward to seeing more animals when we go out again.
We drove a long way when we went back out again. We saw Tanzania in the distance (and were even IN Tanzania for a few minutes.) It was worth it, though. We saw a HUGE Crocodile and lots of hippos! Hearing the hippos make noise was really entertaining! They make this deep throated sound… the only thing I can compare it to is the sound of an evil villain’s deep, maniacal laughter in a scary movie. Our tour guide taught us that the Crocs will eat baby hippos if they’re left alone, which is why the adult hippos form a circle around the baby hippos. The hippos are also playful with each other. While taking pictures, we watched the hippos all rush into the water at the same time, pushing in the baby hippos! It was so much better than anything you could find at a zoo!
On the way back from visiting the hippos, we spotted a small herd of Giraffes. That was quite a site! We also saw a herd of about 20 elephants, who were all rolling around and playing in the mud! It was awesome! We found a gift shop on the way back to the tent, and decided to check it out. I ended up buying a shirt for me, Titus, and Brad (I plan on pranking him when I get home!). It was at this gift shop that Jan and I discovered that Titus had never had Pringles before! You see, when you ask a Kenyan if he wants chips, he’s talking about fries. Titus had yet to be formerly introduced to American chips, so Jan and I shared our Pringles with him. Mike also “lost” his cigars today- not that I had anything to do with it, of course. It was just entertaining that for a few hours, his precious cigars were, uh, misplaced.
Dinner tonight was a bread with soup, chapatti, and pineapple. Chai was our staple drink of the evening. Titus is so funny- He keeps saying that we are going to “do our thing”! it’s so funny! Everyone on our team has immensely enjoyed the trip here to Masai Mara. Jan and I retired early in favor of getting in long, hot showers before bed. Tomorrow, we pack up our things and go back to Kimikungi! Since the drive is so long, we decided that on the way home we would stay the night in a hotel, and give ourselves a break from the van! I think we’re all getting a little van-ed out!
Sweet dreams, everyone!

Tuesday, 7-21-09 Day 35

2010-01-25T09:44:00.000-08:00

Before I get to today’s post, I must tell you about something that happened yesterday. I don’t know why I didn’t write it down already. Zapporah had a friend who we hadn’t met yet, and who went to boarding school. We found out yesterday that this friend of hers was sick yesterday, so she went to the hospital, and ended up dying there. This little girl was between 10 and 12 years old. Zippy misses her friend, but didn’t cry or anything. Death is such a normal thing over here, that even a 10 year old little girl doesn’t give it a second thought. I am saddened by this news.
Today:
Getting up at 4:30 is NOT FUN! I ended up falling asleep in the van. Hours later, I am still without coffee. This is ridiculous. Do these people not know me at all? No sleep AND no coffee? And they want me to be NICE? I don’t know how this is going to work.
We stopped at a gas station, where Jan and I had the misfortune of using the worst bathroom in Kenya. Still no coffee. This trip is supposed to take us all day, because Masai Mara is so far away. I passed the time by watching the new scenery. It’s weird to be driving through actual cities, when we’ve been in rural Kenya for so long. It’s also odd to see how the scenery changes from jungle to savannah. Along the way, we saw some refugee camps. To see them on TV is one thing, but to see them in real life and watch the people living in them, it breaks your heart!
Later on, we got pulled over by the police. There is really no surprise here. Pastor Titus was in a t-shirt and pants, since he was travelling and not pasturing. There seems to be no point in me telling you this, but trust me it’s important! They asked Titus to step out of the car. I was later told that they were purposefully taking up our time because they were looking to be bribed. Pastors don’t give bribes, and Titus told the policemen that he was a Pastor and would not bribe them. “How do we know that you’re really a pastor?” they ask. And Titus, in all seriousness, says, “I have a suit!” Forget that his bible is sitting in the driver side door. Pastor Titus puts on his suit jacket, the police finally accept that he is a pastor, and they let us go!
The closer we got to Masai Mara, the more we started to see wild boar, zebra, and gazelle along the road. Sometimes they were actually in the middle of the road, and we had to wait for them to cross before we could continue our journey. We stopped for lunch at something similar to a trucker stop. I had something similar to sourdough chapatti, which was terrible, and a chicken toasted sandwhich. Jan and I each had an icecream bar, which was a nice treat!
Mike also had us stop every once in a while to check out hotels that we could stay at on our trip back. That was fun.
After another 4 or so hours driving in the middle of sand and savannah grass, we finally found our tent sight! Oh, but these were no ordinary tents! These had actual BEDS! The beds were surrounded by mosquito nets, the floor was concrete, and it had an actual bathroom room with a working toilet, sink, and shower! This was the absolute cheapest place to stay in Masai Mara, but the team couldn’t have been happier to stay here! They have a buffet style community dinner place and bar. It was an open building- no doors or windows. We had a nice meal of spaghetti, bread, and tea. We met a nice lady named Michelle, who was from Canada. She told us about how she spent a few weeks in Ethiopia recently. She told Jan and I about how she grew up part of her life in Ethiopia, and about how beautiful it is there. She told us that it’s filled with beautiful, ancient castles and church that are over 800 years old, and are still in use! She said that a lot of people don’t visit Ethiopia for the buildings, so there are many castles that are still well preserved because of the lack of human traffic around them. It makes me want to visit Ethiopia one day!
Tomorrow is a long day, so I’m going to get my sleep. As Titus says, “Lets do our thing!”

Monday, 7-20-09 Day 34

2010-01-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

I’ve got a long day ahead of me. Breakfast this morning is toast and coffee! Let’s see… I did some laundry today (my team laughs at me when I do this.) We went to town… I ended up breaking one of Judith’s cups. I feel so terrible about this! She thought it was funny and tells me not to worry. She doesn’t know that I’ll be buying her more cups.
We went to town today, paid a visit to the internet café, and went shopping at Shariff’s. We went to the office so Jim and Jan could get some stuff done. The rest of us watched Spy Game. It is such a good movie!
Anna had washed the laundry for the rest of the team, and it was still wet and hanging outside. (They don’t have washers and dryers here, remember? All clothes lines.) We packed up our bags for tomorrow, and I took the opportunity to go through everything I packed and get rid of all the trash that was sitting around my bag. Jan and I made sure that anything of importance was either on our persons or locked in our suitcases. (Some of the guys decided not to lock their bags earlier this trip… then were upset to find that people had gone through their stuff. Silly boys!)
We got to play with the calf a little bit today. Have you ever tried to pet a baby calf when the mom is right there, loosly tied to a flimsy tree, growling at you? She also had horns. I felt like I was testing death, it was a pretty exhilarating experience. Ha! Protus thought it was funny, and tried telling me that the flimsy would keep the mama cow from charging at me. No way, my friend!
WE went to the Coffee Garden again today. They must love it when we mission here.
Camp is seemingly ready to go… we leave tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM for Masai Mara. Yay! That means I have to get up at 4:30. Not so yay…
I talked with Protus and Judith over tea, and went up on the rock to pray. I’ve been doing that a lot, it seems. I’m pretty sure that this rock is my favorite place in all of Kenya. Dinner was Marks famous (in Kenya) chicken with potatoes, onions, and carrots. We had some delicious pineapple for dessert!
Hmm. At Shariff’s today, I found some Rum flavored chocolate. It will be interesting to try that, for sure!

Sunday, 7-19-09 Day 33

2010-01-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to find that my ankle is 90% healed! Yay! I’m also excited because I woke up at 8 today, which is sleeping in! The team had eggs and coffee for breakfast. We got ready to go. My laundry is still wet thanks to the rain, so I’m wearing one of Sharon’s shirts today. We went to Pastor David’s church for service this morning. Personally, I thought it was a joke. He seemed very much like a “showman” pastor. He was laying the praise on thick, had to be the loudest singer, loudest “amen”-er, and then started talking about “tapping into Mama Janice’s spirit”. It all just seemed off to me. The rest of the team thinks I’m being harsh. I probably am. I don’t always assume the goodness of people, and it is probably my downfall.
Anyway, he had a wonderful assistand pastor, who’s name is also David. He has a wife named Catherine and a son (who’s name I can’t seem to recall.) The congregation was lively, and all in all it was a decent service. We had lunch at Gertrude’s house, which is Enoch’s wife. They served Chapati, rice, chicken, and beef. Yum! After lunch, the team went to Shariff’s, then the office. That’s where we are now, as I’m writing this down!
Not much else happened today. Judith and I talked over chai. I went up on the rock to pray. We ate a dinner of Hot dogs, beans, cucumber, and pineapple. (The hotdogs left much to be desired.) I did all the steps of the dishes, because poor Jan has been stuck doing it the last 2 nights.
Oh, yes, something exciting did happen! Really late tonight, Protus and Judith’s cow had a calf! It was the cutest little thing! Not to mention, the first time I’ve seen a baby calf less than half an hour old!
Ah, and we’re finalizing our plans to go on Safari to Masai Mara!

Saturday, 7-18-09 Day 32

2010-01-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

AH! Sleep! I’m so glad I slept well last night! I had a banana for breakfast; it was nice to have something other than toast. I have a lot of praying to do today. I’m supposed to be teaching the teenagers today, and I have nothing. Yesterday’s thoughts are now here to pester me again, so I really don’t feel like I have anything to offer these people. I guess today’s lesson will just have to be spirit led.
Mike noticed today that I haven’t been life journaling with everyone. In honesty, I prefer to journal alone. I can be more personal that way, as opposed to sitting in a crowd full of people where I know I have to share my entry in the end. Also, Mike’s partly right about my lack of life journaling. I’ve been concentrating on studying my bible, and writing my lessons, so life journaling hasn’t been at the top of my to-do list.
We are all here, waiting. Hurry up and wait….. We’re waiting to go to Nyangali. One of the dancers hurd her ankle, so now it’s infected and swollen. I hope that it heals quickly. Dr. Mark is in his area of expertise again- He’s helping get her the right medication and care for her ankle to heal properly.
We are all finally in Nyangali. It turns out that the “teenagers” I’m teaching to aren’t teenagers at all! Teenagers over here are between the ages of 17 and 25. I’m glad Mike is going first. He gave a wonderful speech about what it means to be a Christian, and about living a life for God. I was next…
I asked all 28 people to tell me 3 things about themselves: their name, favorite food, and something else like their favorite color. It was a nice time to get to know one another, but then I had to start my lesson. I don’t even want to go into detail about how I was so lost, and how I failed. Mike brought up that we were low on time so I had to keep my message short. I ended up just summarizing the same things Mike said. Put another check in the failure box…
We had chicken, rice, and potatoes for lunch. After that, the team just hung around the crusade site. I’m happy to say that the utility knife that I brought with me helped fix our sound system! (Though, the men of the group weren’t happy that I was around OR that it was my knife to fix it. Apparently that’s not womens work around here.)
I had to stop drinking from my water bottle because there was this crazy lady that kept trying to drink from it, and I don’t know if she succeeded. This guy named Steven likes to hang around our team to help out. He kept hitting on me today and asking me to “bring him back a beautiful American wife” when I return. Mark thought this was hysterical, but let me stick by him for a while so that was nice. Oscar talked to me more today than I think he ever has! Mark, Titus, and I got to take over Protus’ video camera, too! That was so much fun! We filmed the different speeches, the dancing, the music, and ourselves being silly of course! The only hard part about using his camera is that you can’t hit the record button and expect it to keep recording. You have to hold down the record button for it to record, or it doesn’t work!
I got to watch Titus preach for the first time today, while we were at the crusade. He was convicting, funny, and truthful! He had a very pentacostal style of preaching, and it was astounding to watch! A lot of people were saved at the end of this crusade, and I was thrilled to have such an honor as to pray for these people!
We went to the coffee Garden for dinner, and I got my usual 2 samosas with chapatti. I also got a water, that way I would have a new water bottle that hasn’t been messed with by a crazy lady. From there, we went to the internet café, where we stayed until it closed. I didn’t bother telling my parents about my failing in the last few days. The last thing they need is to worry about me even more. I was glad to write to them and see pictures of my family, it made my day! After the internet café, we walked back to the office and put in a movie. 2 minutes into the movie, Titus shows up and we’re ready to go! Oh, Cot sweet Cot!

Friday, 7-17-09 Day 31

2010-01-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

BWANA SE FEWA I GOT SLEEP LAST NIGHT! WOOHOO! I had some toast for breakfast, and re-wrote my lesson. Jan and I were hanging out in our tent, and she told me that she had a dream last night that she was at the church, and some guy named David was smitten with me, and I liked that he liked me, and my dad didn’t like him at all. She told me that she then had a dream about her daughter finding a guy that loved her. Ah, I love the affect malaria pills have on our sleeping lives! We finished our coffee, finished getting ready, and took the “shortcut” to Nyangali, where we are holding the crusade. The shortcut was one of the many UNFORGETTABLE roads that are here in Kenya, but it saved us around 20 minutes of driving time. Jan was the first to talk today, or teach, rather. She repeated her earlier teaching about the importance of having God in a childs early years, and about marriage. I taught about Abraham and how he trusted God with his most precious possession- his only son. I related the story with how God’s love covers the people who trust in Him. It was cool to be able to teach with no inhibitions! The Lord blessed it, too! I was truly honored that the Lord spoke through me, and that the audience wanted me to keep teaching. After Jan and I were done teaching, we met up with a group of ladies to listen to the worship music. They tried teaching us their dance moves, and it was a lot of fun trying to learn! Oscar saw us, I guess, because he starting making fun of us and how we were dancing!
Lilyan thought that this was funny. She told me today that she loves me and considers me a great friend. She held my hand again, which is something very difficult to get used to! One of the ladies that was teaching me how to dance (and only speaks Bikusu) told me that she “wished she was still in her youth because we would be great friends”. It was so sweet! She also said that we would laugh all the time and would live together. It was a very nice compliment. It’s cool to watch the other dancers onstage during the worship services. They’re so upbeat, and for hours at a time! There is a drunk guy that keeps going up to the stage, dancing and singing. It’s pretty hysterical! Jan is teaching again, and doing a pretty good job. Jim taught next and was excellent! We had chapatti, beef stew, sweet bread, and chai tea for dinner. After dinner, we texted Mike, Protus, and Titus. They went to Kitale today while we were at the crusade. They were supposed to be back a while ago, but weren’t, so we kept texting them to find out where they went and to tell them that they needed to come back and pick us up. Jim asked them if they “enjoyed the ice cream that they must have stopped for in order to be so late”! We had a lot of fun with them- we purposely stressed them out and told them that we started to walk back in the dark. We didn’t, actually walk back)
While we were waiting, Jan and I hopped onto the stage and played with the kids. We took turns singing songs. The guards thought it was hysterical! On the way back home, Mark and Jim had to get out of the van to help guide Titus around all the potholes. We actually got stuck once on our way home! It was definitely an entertaining night! Our team spent some time around the Jiko before going to bed, and it was nice to see a sea of stars out tonight!

Thursday, 7-16-09 day 30

2010-01-24T18:15:00.000-08:00

Add another tally to the “slept horribly last night” list. Once again, I’m up before the rest of the team. I set up the kettle for making coffee, dried the chairs, and put out our usual breakfast things. I went to my hiding place in the rocks to listen to music and pray. I enjoyed another sunrise, too. The team had a pretty relaxed morning. We didn’t leave for the crusade until 4, so we had plenty of time to go over our teachings again. I spent more time with Judith today, having tea with her.
The crusade ended up being great! There were a lot of shy people there, and our sound system was having problems, but a lot of people gave their lives to God today! I am truly am elated over this! The team went to the office again today. They were doing their business stuff, so I went outside and played with the 4 year old neighbor girl, Purity. Running around with Purity hurt my ankle again, but I think the way I re-twisted it actually healed it! It feels better now. We’ll see tomorrow if I’m right or not. We went to the Coffee Garden again today. It was busy so Jan and I sat at a different table from the rest of the team. While they were being all serious, Jan and I were taking silly pictures with ourselves and the menu! Afterward we went to the internet café, and I got to chat with my mom for a while! My family is so awesome!
Oh, and today is Titus’ 40th birthday! Congrats my friend!

Wednesday, 7-15-09 Day 29

2010-01-24T15:58:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I slept well last night, thanks to wonderful dreams about my family!
I was the first up again today. It’s becoming a trend, I think! I made the water for the coffee and set out all of the breakfast stuff. God treated me this morning with a beautiful sunrise! I got to enjoy it from the rock, while I finished my coffee and listened to some music. This is definitely a good start to the day! When I came down from the rock, there was STILL no one else awake! That’s just odd. So… I listed to more music, took my vitamin, and prayed for a while. When everyone else finally started to wake up, they reminded me that today was malaria pill day (Wednesday ya know!) which is good because I forgot!
Then my lovely day comes crashing down because for whatever reason, I threw up before I could even finish my toast. So… I don’t know if I caught a bug or what, because I feel fine! Dr. Mark tells me to wait a bit before taking my pill, so I can let my stomach settle.
Jan prayed for me, and is going to e-mail my mom for me so they have the new flight schedule. I guess now I have the whole day to write my next teaching!
Later today, I got to go to town and help Protus set up a facebook account! That was a lot of fun! I got an e-mail from my brother, which really made my day! I’m inexplicably in the mood for fight music…
On the way back to kimikungi, I get to listen to my fight music on the ipod. I went up on the rock to pray, and I really questioned why I am here in Africa. It seems like an odd question to have after being here for so long, but I was thinking about my different team mates and how much they have brought to the Kenyan’s and to the team. What am I? I haven’t been useful to anyone here, I just happen to be someone that the rest of the team finds relatively tolerable. I had a serious conversation with God today while I was sitting on this rock. Why did He plan for me to be on THIS particular trip, when I keep screwing things up? I don’t know exactly WHY God opened this door for me. I don’t know what I can do to make this trip better, either. After a few tears at these realizations, I decided to come down from the rock and spend some time with Judith. It was nice to relax over chai and spend time with her! I treasure Protus and Judith, and their home is starting to feel more and more like my home. That’s all that I have to share for this evening!

Tuesday, 7-14-09 day 28

2010-01-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

We go to Kitale today! I started off the morning with toast for breakfast and Jim mocking my coffee. I guess mere teaspoons of this instant coffee is good enough for the general public. Unlike the general public, I like strong coffee, and was adding tablespoons of this ridiculous instant stuff.
We drove to Bungoma first, where we went to the internet café and dropped off Jim at the office. We drove to Kitale and got to visit the other Holy Cow! We took Titus’ wife shopping for her family, but ended up shopping for the orphanage instead. Once we discovered the shopping mix up, we went to a local Shariff’s and went shopping for Titus’ kids and wife. While shopping, I found this really cute pirate-style jacked that I thought was super cool! It turned out to be about 11 american dollars, so I bought it. We at lunch at Titus’ sisters’ house, where we were served chapatti, rice, spaghetti, chicken, beef, cabbage, and what resembled shortbread cookies. After lunch Jan and I took pics of these really cool flowers that grew outside of the house. We said our goodbyes and left for Bungoma, to pick up Jim from the office. When we got back home to Kimikingi, Judith and I sat in the living room with our tea and talked about our days. I love spending time with her! Our dinner tonight was made mostly by Mark- Chicken with gravy, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We broke up 2 chocolate bars to share for dessert. Dishes are done, and now I’m off to bed!

Monday, 7-13-09 Day 27

2010-01-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

Uh! NO sleep last night! So, I was up early again today. HOWEVER… I made sure that THIS TIME… I would make sure that the FLAME was on to heat up the water for the coffee, not just the gas!!! HAHA! I have mastered the camp stove! After coffee, Jan and I were cleaning up the table full of junk in our tent. I spotted this weird looking shadow toward the top of our tent. I thought it was a stick bug, and poked it to see if it would move. It didn’t. Jan was looking at me funny, so I told her about my stick bug theory and we decided to go check it out. We walk outside of our tent, and what do we see??? A STICK BUG!!!! It was so cool! We took pictures then started hitting the tent to make the stick bug move. I found out today that a stick bug curls its tail up like a scorpion if it starts to feel threatened. How cool!
We went to the internet café in Bungoma while Titus was getting the van fixed. Getting the van fixed took 5 hours!!! After a while at the café, the team walked back to the office. We all just chilled out and tried finding things to do. I charged my Ipod and took funny pics of everyone with Jan’s camera. Titus was still MIA (Missing in Africa! Haha!) & we were all hungry, so we walked to coffee garden for lunch. You know, we were supposed to be traveling to Lorende today. (Lorendi? I’m not sure on the spelling.) Since the van is still not fixed, we can’t go. We only have a couple hours of daylight left, and a trip to Lorendi usually takes up 6 hours of the day. After a leisurely lunch, we walked back down to the internet café to play there a little bit more. It was nice to have some time to write longer. Titus finally found us (his phone was at the office to charge, so we couldn’t reach him). Protus seemed a little upset that we couldn’t make it to Lorende. On the way back home, we picked up the shirts that Jan and Mark had custom ordered. We did some shopping at Shariff’s and at the local market.
After we went back home, I spent another few hours enjoying tea with Judith! I’m still tired from my lack of sleep last night.
I helped out with our dinner… egg salad sandwiches.
God put on a magnificent thunder and lightning show tonight! Even better was the hazy, colorful sunset that appeared after the storm had passed. It was so awesome!

Sunday, 7-12-09 day 26

2010-01-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

20 days left, but who’s counting?
I don’t recall too much of last night’s dreams, except that someone was trying to move my hairbrush from my bag to my bed & I got mad at them. I woke up a few times because I kept kicking whatever it was that was at the end of my cot. Since my restless sleep caused me to be the first one awake this morning, I had the duty of making the coffee and drying off the chairs. As far as making the coffee goes, I thought I was doing great! That is, until Jim woke up and informed me that I had turned on the gas to the stove, but not the flame. The water that I thought would be heated soon was still sitting cold in the kettle. Such is my life! To top it off, all the kicking I did last night re injured my ankle. I felt better after Mike woke up- I had fun messing with him! When the team went to town yesterday, he went and got a haircut and pedicure! It’s a sad day when a gruff, grown man has prettier feet than I do!
We went to Timbe-Timbe (pronounced timba-timba) for church. Pastor Leanord is the pastor there. His daughter, faith, was quite afraid of Mark! His wife, Kristin, was pretty much everything in the church- she is in charge of childrens ministry, cooking, is the worship leader, and is a part of anything else happening in the church! I would say that she gets the “hostess-with-the-mostess” award for the year.
The first thing we got to enjoy at Timbe-Timbe was the kids! We did our childrens ministry classes first, and were treated by the kids singing 3 beautiful songs for us! They were so excited that we were there to watch them sing, that they smiled extra-big and were very well behaved! (some of them even started dancing while the other kids were singing!) My whole day was turned around by these kids! I think my favorite song that they sang for us was “Baby Jesus is My Savior”. Jan taught the kids to sing “Jesus Loves Me”, and we did the bracelets thing. I was in charge of doing the cross story (which tied in very well with the bracelets), and then we were on to the puppet show! Afterward we handed out bubbles, candy, and balloons! This has been the most incredible childrens ministry day! After childrens ministry, we finished out the rest of the adult Sunday service. The service was also well done, and I really enjoyed that this church has a set testimony time, for the members to share about the good things that have happened to them that week. I noticed that sharing these good things has helped the church to stay united in each other’s joys and sorrows, and the church as a whole is very happy, welcoming, and unified. Eventually we had to leave. We brought Protus’ kids (Zapporah, Junior, and Senior) with us, so they sat in the back of the van with me on the way home.
Alright, readers, you’ll get a kick out of this! Along every road is a police check. Most of the time you get waved through them, but today we were stopped. There was a female officer this time, and she came up to our window to say hello and check out that everything was normal. Mike (in the front seat as always) asks her: “Did you got to church today?” It was hysterical! (officers here are generally corrupt, and usually aren’t asked such questions.) She laughed and said no, and that she was going to be attending a service tomorrow, because she was working today. (obviously.) Then she asked us to pray for her and her fellow officer, and sent us on our way! I asked Mike what could have possibly led him to ask an officer that question, & he said that it was definitely spirit led because he was surprised that he asked it himself!
On our way home, we stopped by Pastor Fred’s house to drop off a bunch of flipflops that had mysteriously found their way into our van. Then, we were asked to say hello to his wife, Ruth, who was holding her weekly women’s meeting down at the orphanage. Of course, that meant everyone had to get out of the van to go talk to all of these people. It seemed like every woman there knew exactly who I was, and were all addressing me by name, and I don’t remember seeing any of these women before today! I’m glad this happens at work a lot, because I was able to play along with this until we left.
At last, we made it through the 45 minutes of bumpy roads to get back home! Titus and Jim left again to go tune up and check out the van. The rest of us meandered quietly around the compound. We devoured a chocolate bar (it doesn’t take long, here) and I finished some laundry. Now I’m just here journaling and eating beef jerky…
I decided to visit Judith for a while. We ate chapatti and had tea. I gave Protus the pictures of CarolAnn’s family, and decided that he MUST get a facebook. I’ll have to work on that tomorrow. Bonaventure stopped by for a visit while I was there. He was an interesting guy.
Ahh! I’m now sitting on the rock and enjoying a wildly colorful, beautiful sunset! I love the beauty of the things left unsaid!

Saturday, 7-11-09 day 25

2010-01-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

This is the morning that I finish my teaching for the Leadership Conference. Did I mention that the leadership conference is today? I woke up perplexed, downed some coffee, and after a few laborious hours I had a teaching ready to be taught!
I spent a lot of time in prayer, and sincerely asked God to just use me as a tool, and to make sure that His words were the ones being spoken- not mine. It turned out that I was the first to speak today, and was addressed to the group as “Servant of God” and “Doctor Heather”. Check, that’s the second time I’ve been called doctor in my life! Pretty good for someone with no interest in the medical field. The teaching was on having a heart of worship. I covered what the definition of worship is, what people let stand in the way of worship, knowing WHAT you’re worshiping (God or yourself?), and using all that you do to worship the Lord every day. Honestly, I screwed it up big time and I knew it. However, the Lord is ever faithful, and He made good on His promise to me that His words would come out of my mouth and not mine. That being said, a good majority of the group found the message truly inspirational. The Kenyans that I met today are a truly generous people, and tried to credit me for the message that was spoken today. I made sure that the credit was given where it was due, and assured everyone that it was God’s message today and not my own. I’m also grateful that Jim was around to make the points of the teaching clear to the group, because, as I said earlier, I screwed it up and fumbled all of the words.
Mark was next, and gave a wise teaching on Beginner’s Faith, and why we need forgiveness in our lives. I know the message that he taught was geared for people with new faith, but it was great to hear the message as someone with “old” faith. I like that I was reminded of what it’s like to have a beginning faith, and that I could re-learn the absolute beauty of God’s forgiveness.
Jan taught on being a mother, and how the first few years of a child’s life are a lot more spiritually important than most people will give credit for. (Basically, how Moses turned to God in his adulthood when he was only introduced to God during the first 3 years of his life, when he was with his mom.) Jan also taught about things concerning marriage. It doesn’t apply to me right now, but I took mental notes for down the road. Jim gave a sermon about the differences between sermons and teachings. That was a little harder to follow. All in all, it was a great leadership conference!
After the conference, we went to town! Webb was talking to me on the way to Bungoma and was absolutely astonished that I (a “young girl”), could possibly know how to drive a car, much less have my own car! His astonishment was quite amusing, and a great pick-me-up after botching up my teaching earlier. Not much happened in town, we just got to e-mail and facebook like we did yesterday. Lunch was the same as yesterday. We had goulash and exactly 3 pieces of chocolate for dinner tonight, afterwhich nothing extraordinary happened. I am excited that my ankle is feeling better today. It’s not in as many pretty colors anymore, which is kind of a bummer. Sitting around the Jiko gets boring after a while, so I’m off to bed.

Friday, 7-10-09: Day 24: Protus' Plate!

2009-11-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

Only 22 days left until I get to see my family again!!!!!!!!! I’m going to change into jeans, eat BBQ, and spend a solid 3 days with no one but my family! Oh how I long for the day!
This morning’s breakfast was a delicious toasted PB&j with ¾ a cup of coffee. I’m teaching tomorrow, So today I’ve done a lot of praying and reading of my bible. I’m still having trouble with my ankle- it’s very bruised. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than 2 colors on my foot at the same time before. I took a picture of it, but I don’t know how it turned out. Walking on it is much better than yesterday, but it still hurts a lot so I’m glad that today isn’t a busy day. I’m thinking that my teaching tomorrow will be on having a heart of worship. I don’t know quite how I’m going to teach this subject (I’m pretty sure I’m drastically under qualified) but that’s the subject keeps tugging at me.
So, I was talking with Oscar today- nothing unusual. As we talk he tells me that I look so nice, that I’m “Very Beautiful”, then asked to look at the pictures of my family that I brought with me, and finally tries to finagle my e-mail address so he could “say hello to my family and ask them something”. This is all very out of the ordinary for Oscar, so I informed Mark and Jim so that they could keep a general eye out for me. You know, I never thought that I would have this problem while I was over here! The team was treated to a wonderful lunch of Beef, Chapatti, Chicken, and Rice. It was so good!
I got the privilege of being able to take a minute to watch the kids play at school. It’s been quite a treat! They took an old tire and were running it across the field. There were about 15 kids running after this tire; all of them were laughing and giggling! These kids really fill my heart with joy.
We get to go to town today after Jim is done preaching. I hope that we get to spend some time online today- that would be so awesome! I should title my facebook post “The Curious Adventures of a White Girl in Kenya”.
Anyway- we’re still waiting for Jim, so I’ll just write down some little stuff that’s gone on. I started reading the book that CA gave me to read on the plane (because of course, being defiant, I would read it in Kenya and not on the plane at all.) It’s interesting how the beginning of the book applies so much to me right now- and how if I HAD read it on the plane, the book wouldn’t have applied to me at all. I find it funny that God chooses to work with me this way.
After reading my book for a while, I was finally informed that we were able to go to town. I spent almost an hour online. I wrote about my crazy dream, e-mailed my family, and got a message from the pastor whose church I spoke at during the Kisi Crusade. In his terms- they have four new converts! I’m very excited for him.
We went to Coffee Garden for dinner tonight. I had my usual Samosa’s and coke. Protus wouldn’t let me sit next to him for dinner because LAST time I did; I kept messing with his plate! (I would take the straw wrapper and put it on his plate while he wasn’t looking. I did the same thing with Limes, bottle caps, silverware, napkins, and scrap pieces of other people’s food. It was hilarious.) This time he wanted me to specifically sit across from him, so that he could “keep an eye on me” and I wouldn’t be able to touch his plate. Oh, Protus- I should never be underestimated! Of course I took his actions as a challenge. I messed with his plate anyway. Again, I used straws, napkins, bottle caps, lime pieces- and again it was hysterical!
We left dinner and went to Shariff’s, which wasn’t much fun. We eventually made our way back home. It’s about 9:30 or 10, but I’m used to going to bed around 7:30-8:30.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh…. I almost forgot this fun fact of what happened today!
Webb stayed over (and stayed in Brad’s old tent). He went to take a shower this morning. The lock for the shower is on the outside of the door. First of all, webb started yelling at us from inside the shower that the water was cold. (he took a shower around 3… we boiled the water for showers at 6:30 AM.) Mark and Jim and I convinced him that the water would warm up in the two minutes, because the hot water was at the top of the water barrel. He stayed in for a while and eventually got used to the cold water, and started to sing. While he was singing, we locked him in the shower. He didn’t even notice that he was locked in until way after his shower was over and he tried to get out the door. “I think the door is stuck” he said. We told him to try a number of things to “unlock” the door, and he started asking us why the door was stuck. Then Jim told him I locked the door (which wasn’t true! I just came up with the idea- Mark was the one who actually locked it!) It was SO FUNNY!!!!! A very good memory for the day 

Thursday, 7-9-09 day 23: Mt. Elgon!

2009-11-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

So sleep was terrible last night. I think it was the malaria pills yesterday… I’ve noticed a habbit that I always have the worst dreams the night of taking it.
Last night’s episode involved six inch long flying cockroaches invading my tent whilst I was sleeping. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that the cockroaches were actually there, and searched my bed for them for a good five minutes before realizing that it was only a dream and laying down on my bug-free pillow. I tried to go back to sleep. Alas, luck was not on my side tonight because some shady people were wondering around the streets; which meant that the dogs on our compound were barking, the dogs in the neighboring compounds were barking, and dogs all down the main road were barking. (I should tell you- we’re in the middle of the jungle, so there isn’t a lot of noise at night. Seemingly small noises, like barking dogs, can carry their sound for quite a distance.) Over the next few hours, I tried to listen to music to fall asleep. It proved useless, so I settled for a daydreamy-halfsleep-state. That was working nicely until the chickens decided to wake the rooster… then the rooster crowed for however long. I think someone around here is determined that I don’t sleep.
So, I’m now writing this portion of my daily journal just as the sun is starting to come up. No one else is awake… all I’ve got right now are miniscule amounts of sleep and a half cup of coffee. I’m thinking that I’ll start getting things ready now. I’ve got nothing else to do. (For the reference of the reader; getting ready includes setting out the breakfast stuff, boiling the water for coffee, setting out the coffee stuff, getting the water for dishes prepared, drying the chairs off and putting them right side up again, etc.)
The team is scheduled to do a Safari today, and everyone is scheduled to be out of here by 7. (If we actually do leave by 7, I’ll be shocked!)
Let me show you what no sleep does to me- When packing for the trip, I remembered to pack the Megaphone, and forgot to pack my water. Hmm. Go figure I would leave behind the one thing that can keep me alive while I’m in the middle of the jungle.
We dropped Jim off at the Office, and made our way to Mt. Elgon. We picked up Gertrude on the way- for whatever her reason, she felt compelled to come with us. I felt pretty bad- There’s a major language barrier between she and I (she doesn’t speak hardly any English, and I don’t speak hardly any Kiswahili) and she kept trying to talk to me. I was already short-fused, so I was trying extra hard to be polite because I was getting increasingly frustrated at the situation. She is such a nice lady. Jan tried talking to her, too. I don’t think she had any luck with the whole communication thing either, because we all eventually just sat in a comfortable silence with the occasional smile. On the way there (it took us a few hours to get there) I started majorly feeling the effects of my tiredness. I started getting giggly and really talkative…. Poor Gertrude wasn’t expecting it, and she kept saying stuff to Jan and laughing at me. I told Jan I would probably fall asleep on the way there. Gertrude was still smiling. As suspected, I was out within 15 minutes. (I feel so… predictable.)
We stopped at some local café that used to be known for it’s great food. Turns out, the café changed managers and their food is now less than great. I ordered the fried eggs, chapatti, and coffee. What they brought to me (and to Protus and Mike) was the chicken and chips. (They didn’t order that either.) We told the guy that he gave us the wrong food and that it was probably meant for another table. He brought the manager out and accused us of changing orders. When we finally DID get our food, it tasted horrible. We were ready to leave, and it took them 20 minutes to bring out the check. I waited with Mark for the check while our other teammates headed toward the Van. Titus ran into a friend of his, so they talked for about 5 minutes before we left. On our way to Mt. Elgon, Jan was talking about this bible verse she was thinking of- a verse about how man sharpens man. We were trying to find the verse in our various concordances but couldn’t find it, so we made the educated guess that it was probably in Proverbs somewhere. We all scoured through proverbs, and I found it! Proverbs 27:17! I’m sure that when you read this you will think it’s no big deal. So I found a bible verse, go me. No…. It took a few hours, along incredibly bumpy roads, with small print. It was only one verse out of all the CHAPTERS of proverbs. So… it was a big deal! We all had our little celebration and were bored afterward. Eventually the van got quiet again, because we were all staring out of our windows at the beautiful, lush landscape that surrounded us! (Mt. Elgon is gorgeous!) We finally arrived at our destination (After almost getting lost), and were haggling the price for the entrance fees. They were ridiculously priced- 200 shillings for locals and 2000 shillings for visitors. Talk about INFLATION!
We also had to get an armed guard (whose name is Kevin) to “protect us” from the animals (it’s a drive through zoo). We saw some horses, baboons, bats, monkeys, and gazelle on our drive through. It really wasn’t worth 2000 shillings. Meanwhile, I took the megaphone out of my bag and started playing hostess. “Welcome to Titus’s Vanways. We ask that you please keep your hands and feet in the vehicle at all times, because 25 Km and hour is a dangerous speed. If you look to your left, you will notice a jungle with no animals in it. If you look to your right, you will notice some pretty trees. If you look ahead, you will see the rocks we are about to pop our tires on, and if you look behind you, you will see my smiling face!” (We made it fun.) I think the best part of being in the Zoo was when Kevin told us to stop the van. We got out (except Mike, whose cigars were calling his name) and started hiking up this picnic area. Instead of stopping, we turned down this trail. The trail was a footpath that eventually got narrower and more densely surrounded with plants and trees. We saw some more monkeys, and some creepy “mountain beaver” thing. We made our way up the side of the mountain- it was beautiful! We had an awesome view. It was also dangerous because there was very little to keep you from falling OFF the side of the mountain. Eventually we came to this enormous cave (that is said to have been “carved” by elephants!). This is where we saw the bats. I felt SO adventurous! How many people get the chance to say that they’ve explored a cave in the lush, jungle-y Mountains of Kenya? I feel so privileged. I danced my way back down the mountainside. (Mark threatened to push me off the mountain. He loves me!)
The road on the way back to the entrance was filled with sharp rocks and mud. I was thankful yet again for the amazing driving skills of Sir Titus!
Since the Mt. Elgon reserve turned out to be bogus, we decided to go explore one of the lesser known animal reserves. There is a gentleman who privately owns a bunch of property, where he keeps and sustains various wildlife (both endangered and otherwise.) We saw Giraffes, Zebra, Gazelle, pregnant rhino, and some other crazy looking animal. (Just a quick side note- if we had gotten there a few hours earlier or called in advance, they could have served us fresh Antelope. I would have loved to have tried antelope!) It turned out that minutes before we arrived, the owner’s son (who is an American Citizen) flew in from Vermont with a few of his friends. He was college age, and Jan kept telling me that “I’ll never know where love will find me” and “they’re kind of cute” (they really weren’t.) I thought it was funny that I’m an ocean away from home and I STILL have people trying to set me up with other people. Later, everyone was petting the giraffe, and I had to put something back in the van. It was within eye range of the team, so they handed me the keys and said to hurry up. I jogged over to the van and within ten feet of it, fell and twisted my ankle. It turns out that there was a hole in the ground that was camouflaged by the taller grass in that area. Out of the whole field, I had to pick the hole in the ground to trip on. I was incredibly embarrassed, but when I stood up I found out that not a single person noticed (so much for watching out for me, guys!) I was irritated that I ripped a big hole in my skirt (again) so I took the hair tie out of my hair to fix that real quick. As I was walking back to the van (thinking I was fine, just slightly injured) I began to get dizzy and my vision blurred completely. Then I felt like was going to throw up. I don’t know what happened- my ankle didn’t hurt THAT bad. When I stumbled my way back to the van, I laid there for a while. It turns out Mike was around the corner with his cigar. He saw me lying in the van and said I looked a lot paler than usual, and flagged Mark to come over. Told him I was fine, just needed to sit for a little bit. “When was the last time you had water?” he asked. ……..none…………… I find it incredible how completely stupid I can be sometimes. Didn’t I JUST go through this whole “dizzy from no water” thing YESTERDAY?? K. this won’t be happening anymore. All I really wanted to do was get some dinner because it was late and I was hungry. On the ride home Jan kept talking more about how “you just never know when you’re going to run into a young guy, you should always be prepared”. She humors me! I told her I had my eyes on a different prize. There was no need for me to be concentrating on young guys in Kenya. She laughed and we shared a granola bar that she found in her bag.
On our way home we stopped for some quickie food. We had coke (and then Mark made me down a few litres of water) and Samosas! Our team was shocked- these samosas were better than the ones in the Coffee Garden! We didn’t think such samosas could exist! I’m wondering if it was the cilantro that was added to it. A cute little end to my day- on the way home we saw some kids playing on the pillars holding up their parent’s store. 4 kids, 4 pillars. It was like 4 separate “ring around the rosy” party of one’s. It was cute! There was also another Amazing Sunset to be credited to God. That made me smile!

wednesday, 7-8-09. Day 22

2009-11-17T17:34:00.000-08:00

Malaria pill day!!!! I love that I only have to take these once a week.
I had the greatest dream last night about me and an old friend of mine, Elyse. We were being escorted to the mall, via the back of a police car. The dream continued with Protus suggested having icecream, Elyse and I unknowingly steeling icecream from and underground secret meeting for golden spoon, and a huge all-employee chase as Elyse and I craftily finagled our way out of the mall.
I woke up in a very silly, crafty mood today. My poor teammates had no warning- they were just immediately exposed to my silliness! I had Jan, Protus, and Judith in stitches for most of the morning. Protus was especially giddy to have been a part of my dream! I downed some toast and coffee, along with a LOT of water (As per the requirements of taking the malaria pill) and got myself ready to head to town. We made a stop at the cyber café to e-mail. I took some time to update my facebook.
We made a stop at the bank and I pulled out money for the Safari trip. That wasn’t fun- I really don’t enjoy seeing my money go down the drain. But, what am I to do? When in Kenya…
We ate at the Coffee Garden. I had my usual Samosas, Chapati, and coke. (it thrills me that they serve their soda in bottles! I think America should re-adopt this concept.)
We made it home in time to do more path ministry. I was paired up with Mark again. We walked 3-4 miles in the hot sun. I, not thinking, didn’t start drinking water until AFTER we started our walk. Thus, we had a semi-dehydrated and dizzied Heather in our midst. We hit around 13 houses today. Our guide started taking us around to houses of the church members again, and we had to stop and remind him that today was definitely the day that we were supposed to visit houses of people who didn’t attend the church. He was confused for a minute but granted us our wish anyway. We saw many people- some of whom had families that were in perfect health, and others of which had HIV, malaria, issues with drunk husbands, or who were housing 40 people on one property. There were lots of farm animals roaming around today, and we got a great view of the mountains of Uganda. Much like yesterday, the families we visited felt unprepared for our arrival. Some were excited to be visited by Mzungu’s anyway, and others were too scared to even come up to us and immediately asked us to leave. Today’s ministry was interesting indeed.
Toward the end of our path ministry, I found myself increasingly dizzy. Dr. Mark shared some of his water with me and warned me not to pass out because “he wasn’t going to be carrying me back to the compound”. He truly cares for my well being.  (Let’s say that this is the last time I will be dumb enough not to drink water before hiking under the hot Kenyan sun. )
Once I was home, I laid in my tentcot for a minute to cool down and let my body rest. I downed much more water (under the strict instruction of my friend Mark) and took a luxuriously cool shower. I’m happy to say that it’s the middle of the day, and I’m in my pajamas as I write this!
We got a special Pre-Dinner treat: Esau brought over a little girl for us to meet. We had given malaria meds to Esau. He informed us that a friend needed them and couldn’t get to the compound to pick them up. That friend happened to be this little girl, Dory. I’m guessing she’s about 8 years old. She suffered horribly from Malaria last week and is now in tip-top shape! It was very nice to meet her, she was a sweet girl.
Dinner tonight was hamburgers (cooked by Sir Mark) on white bread with a side of butter noodles. Jim was making all of his usual jokes- it seemed like there were more jokes about “bread” than usual tonight. We proceeded with our nightly story-telling around the Jiko (a jiko is this circular, charcoal thing that they use to cook food. Think of a cross between a charcoal grill and a wok.) I have to say, it was strange to be in Africa and talk about driving in the snow.
Goodnight everyone!

Tuesday, 7-7-09 Day 21 (potato fight).

2009-11-17T16:40:00.000-08:00

Today is one of those days that I am SO thankful for malaria pills! I had some awesome dreams last night that I got to fly home for a weekend to see my family, and THEN come back to Kenya. In my dreams, I spent the whole day with my parents, my brother, and my sister! I was subsequently very refreshed this morning and revving to go for the day!
Our first path ministry is today, I’m so excited! I’ve been looking forward to this for a while! Today’s agenda was to visit various members of the church. I didn’t really understand this, because I was previously under the impression that we would be visiting new people who are NOT a part of the church. My opinion meant little to our guide, who assured us that visiting the church members was what we were supposed to do; so I just went with the flow.
The coolest thing about path ministry is that I was able to witness the way ordinary people live on a daily basis. Most families that we saw had either no father figure, or the father was out of town and working. Mark and I noticed that some houses were decorated- an artist or the friend of an artist would decorate the in-and-outsides of the hut with black paint. (they used bold and usually floral patterns to create their art.) Most of the women that we came across were incredibly shy. They were often nervous because they weren’t expecting company and felt unprepared for our arrival. At every household, we had to refuse their offers of food and drink; and more often than not we were told to wait until the neighbor could bring their chairs over so that all of us American’s could sit. I adored being able to see and play with the many kids that I saw, and truly loved getting to pray for the women and their families. I was very surprised and excited that one of the houses that we visited belonged to my friend Judy! Judy is a very quiet lady that I immediately felt connected to. She’s a few years older than I am, has a very handsome baby boy, and is one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met in my life. Her smile is bright and contagious! I had the pleasure of meeting her brother, who lives with her and her husband. He was very kind, but I had a feeling that he was scared of Mark.
All in all, path ministry today was great and I’m looking forward to doing it again tomorrow!
At home I enjoyed some PB&red-plum-jam! I was eating up on the rock, watching the dogs play, when Consolaté, a cook for the school, came up to say hello to me. She told me that She and her 6 kids at home we hungry. I got a sick feeling in my stomach knowing that there wasn’t much I could do to help, and instead did as I was instructed to do. I told her that she should talk to Pastor Protus about it so that a solution could be worked out. She kept pushing me to help her right then, and I kept referring her to Protus. It broke my heart to do this. I don’t know if she ever did talk to Protus, but I did find out from Judith (who was none too happy about the situation) that Consolaté gets paid every month for her job.
After this conversation, I was recruited by Jan to make more bracelets. Yay. A little while later, Jan decided it was her nap time, so I took the opportunity to explore some more of the compound and to pray for Instruction from God. What did I get from God during this time? The infamous, “wait”. I feel like I’m in some kind of holy Obedience School.
After my futile attempts to get some answers from the Man Upstairs, I hung out with Mark and Mike. I’ve decided that Mark is way too tolerant of me! I know that he has 2 daughters around my age, and I wonder if that is part of why he has acted so fatherly toward me. I personally don’t mind, because I miss my dad and am glad that I have someone around who is comforting in a fatherly way.
I got to have an 18 minute phone call with my family before dinner! It was SO nice to hear their voices! After thanking Protus over and over for the use of his phone, I was summoned to help prepare dinner by Jan.
We got into an argument about dinner tonight. She wanted me to peel potatoes. Peeling potatoes is something I don’t do. She tried the “you need to do it anyway” approach. I don’t take that very well either, and I unfortunately had a moment of being out of control of myself and told her that it simply wasn’t going to happen. (I hurt myself on potato peelers all the time- so unless there is a dire need for me to be the specific potato peeling person, you can find yourself with un-peeled potatoes.) She then brought to my attention that If I planned on being married, I needed to learn to peel potatoes because my husband is sure to want potatoes with his dinner. By this point I was pissed off, and told her (politely) that if my future husband wanted peeled potatoes then he could be a man and peel them himself. Then I offered to wash the potatoes (and carrots) while mark peeled them. That seemed acceptable for everyone involved, so Mark (who thought the entire argument was hysterical) happily peeled the potatoes (and carrots) because then he wouldn’t have to do dishes tonight. (for reference, snappeas, chicken, and gravy were also on the menu tonight!)
I happy did the dishes after dinner tonight (my white flag for the potato-peeling mishap). I washed, rinsed, and dried, and put away everything to the happy tune of my Ipod.
I’ve noticed tonight that the moon is especially beautiful. I would love if I could take the African sky home with me! As I lay in my tentcot writing this, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I miss my home and my family so much, and it seems like seeing them is so far away from now. I’m trying my best to not feel entirely useless on this trip- Because in secret, I’ve wondered what I’ve really done to contribute to this mission. God has yet to reveal his plan for me (plans for both my time on this trip, and my time after getting home) so I don’t know what direction I’m supposed to face. Besides my usual nightly prayers, I want to include this one:
Lord, set my path before me, so that nothing shall happen that is not of your will. Let what I do here be pleasing in your sight. Amen.

Monday, 7/6/09, day 20

2009-11-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

Oh , How I wish I could have slept longer!
I had coffee for breakfast, which is ALWAYS a good pick me up. I’m a little upset that my hair can’t cooperate even a little bit for me this morning…
I’m writing this down at around ten in the morning. I have no specifics on what time it actually is, because African’s have no minute hands on their clocks. Therefore… it’s ten o clock until it’s 11 o clock. Either way, it’s very quiet this morning. The chickens and roosters are crowing somewhere in the middle of the cornfield. (Did you know that “chicken” in Kiswahili is “Coo-coo”? Just thought I would throw that in there.) My teammates are silent as the grave right now, which is perfect for listening to the kids at school singing their morning songs around the flag pole. Traffic is vaguely audible in the background… One of the dogs is asleep next to me, the birds are chirping in the trees, and the wind is blowing ever so softly. The sky is as bright and big as ever and there’s scarcely any clouds out. The few that are hanging around are drifting lazily by, like their waving to each blade of grass on the ground. I love when I can sit back and enjoy moments like this, because these are things that are rarely experienced at home. I treasure these little things that God puts here. If I had my way, I would spend the rest of my day on the Rock and admiring God’s handiwork. Alas, there is much to be done!
I got to e-mail my family again today. Getting to write to them or hear from them is truly the highlight of my day, I love them so much! I was volunteered to make dinner tonight because LAST night I had sicamouwicki and Ugali with Judith. (I’m so glad that I got to spend time with her yesterday!) I’m a little irritated that some of my teammates have decided to start treating me like I’m 5. I’m trying to convince myself that It’s just a part of being on a mission, but I really don’t like being talked down to by someone who has no business talking down to me. I take a break from these people, and hang out with Mark instead. He’s such a funny guy! I mess with him all the time. He keeps telling me that “If I keep messing with the bull I’m going to get the horns” and I tell him that “it’s the spice of life to play with fire instead of just watching it burn”. A little danger is good, and it’s making this trip much more fun! Mike get in moods where he is so serious, and the way he goes about it is just downright entertaining. The sarcasm surrounding this team astounds me, and really makes me feel at home! I’m still missing Brad and Sharon. I’m trying to comprehend the reasons that God took away two pillars from the building. I don’t know about the rest of the team, but I think God is telling me that it’s time to stand on my own instead of having a leader to follow.
We went to Bungoma today. Stopped by Shariff’s (sha-reefs) supermarket, dropped off laundary to Ana, went to the local market for our fruits and veggies, waited patiently for the other teammates to order shirts, and got to finish the rest of Hotel Rwanda. (The movie was hard to watch at times. The reality of the situation was just devastating. It probably didn’t help that I was in Africa while I watched it for the first time…) I was able to have about a half hour of personal time to just chill out in front of the office and listen to my Ipod. No one was around the compound, so I let myself sing a little. Gotta keep the vocal chords warmed up!
On the drive back home, Titus had to stop the van in the middle of the road because there was a chicken crossing. Oh, lord, the “Why did the chicken cross the road” jokes were rampant!
One we were home, I had the pleasure of spending some more time with Judith. I also got to go up on the rock (Finally!) to pray. (I have thoroughly enjoyed having the rock here. It’s like my own private sanctuary- everyone leaves me alone so that it’s just Me and God. It’s been incredibly refreshing for my soul, and God is really helping me to heal from my burdens.)
When I got back to the tent, (protus had removed the tents to weed the grass and put them back) I found out that Protus had washed my tennis shoes for me! They were still dirty and muddy from the rainy weather we’ve been having, so it was such a nice surprise to find them clean! Protus is so thoughtful and nice to me all the time; I feel so unworthy of his generosity!
We had some strange version of hotdogs for dinner. Nothing fascinating, but I’m glad that there’s food to eat. In the past few nights, my teammates have made it a habbit to stay up a little late to talk and tell stories to each other. It’s happened again tonight, and I love that I get to listen to it! Mike usually talks about his time in Saudi Arabia; Mark talks about his life and previous job; Jim talks about someone he knows who is in such-and-such a position (as it pertains to mike and marks’ stories); and Jan shares a lot about her family. I usually sit back and listen to the stories, laugh at the banter, and write about my day (like I’m doing now.) I’m pretty sure God uses these times to teach me a little bit of wisdom.
Jan started talking about the most recent marriage proposal that I’d received today (while in the market place, some guy was getting googly eyed over me and started talking to Titus, who promptly told him that I wasn’t for sale.) The comments just kept flying about how Mark would keep me around for now and feed me to the lions later, and Jim was saying his jokes about how “I’m worth a lot of cows, and I need to remember that cows help people and it’s not about me”. Yeah. Keep talking everyone! It’s all in good fun. It was my delight to see a lightning storm before bed! Have you ever seen an enormous, pitch black sky lit up by lightning? It was addicting to hear the roll of thunder reach from so many miles away from us! I enjoyed this for a little bit before turning in for the evening.

Sunday, 7-5-09, day 19. Sold for Cows???

2009-11-16T22:49:00.001-08:00

I feel so much better after talking with God yesterday. I’m glad I have Him as a confidante. He’s changed me a lot since being here, and I’m not sure how to respond to this yet. He’s made it perfectly clear that my trip is just now starting. He’s helping me to have patience with people, to trust again, and is slowly breaking me down that way He can reveal Himself to me in a new way. I have to admit I’m terrified of some of the changes He’s doing, and at the same time I’m ready to let go of this shell that I called myself to see what things He has for me.
I was thankful to have my breakfast of champions- a cup of coffee! Today we traveled into Bungoma to visit Pastor Godfrey’s church. Jan and I did childrens ministry. It was a little difficult to do the puppets because the entire room was the size of my bathroom at home (which is not very big, let me assure you) so a lot of people sat outside to listen. If Sharon were here, she would be very proud of me! I did the paper cross story by heart AND was able to associate everything in the cross story with our salvation bracelets! Thanks, Sharon for being such a great teacher!
As is custom here, Pastor Godfrey asked the American team to come up and introduce ourselves. Pastor Protus went up after we did, and says to the crowd: “you may have noticed that the beautiful Miss Heather didn’t comment on her marital status like everyone else did”. He started saying something in Kiswahili. I guess he told the crowd that I was single because he told me later that “no one had enough cows anyway”. If looks could kill… Mark thinks he could get 20 cows (because of my lovely attitude I’m guessing) and Brad is at least polite enough to suggest 30. My lovely mom is saying that there needs to be an unreachable 200 cows. I have the feeling that I won’t be living this whole “cow” thing down anytime soon.
After service, we went to a community lot for lunch. It was here that we learned that the property we were on was (or, is) a tobacco farm (the British American Tobacco Agency, is what I think it was called.) We also learned that the church building we were in is being rented temporarily until the actual church can be built. It was ALSO here that the van got stuck in a pothole that was muddy. Eventually they got it out by the creative use of a rock….
Poor Protus was so tired! I guess Mark gave him 2 benedryl, so he was so close to falling asleep at lunch! I got pictures of him half asleep, they were funny! It wasn’t long before our chicken stew, chapatti, and beans were served.
After lunch we headed back to the vans , and one of the gentlemen that was sitting in service earlier told Jim to bring be back next year because by then he would have enough Cows. (I think I’ll be bringing a few of my guy friends back with me next year. They won’t sell me off!) Once we got home, I decided to spend some of my afternoon with Judith. I really treasure her friendship! She is an amazing friend, and I’ve missed hanging out with her for the last few days. We ended up talking until very late at night, about anything and everything! She taught me some of her recipes (which I have written down) and I’m hoping that I will be able to recreate them when I get home. It’s been a long day. So… I’m off to bed.

Saturday 7-4-09, day 18 happy 4th of july! (well... from kenya.)

2009-11-16T21:40:00.000-08:00

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!
There are no fireworks here, but I hope the rest of you got to enjoy yours!
Our agenda today is to go to the office, visit Protus Wakesa’s house, and make home in time to get some showers in before the rest of our day.
Blame the malaria pills if you wish, but I have been abnormally reflective this morning. I’ve thus far pondered over the more whimsical moments of the crusade, how milk here is so different than in the US (it’s either straight from a cow and boiled, or you can buy it in aluminum style pouches. Some varieties come in mini cardboard containers. Did you know that the milk here doesn’t get refrigerated? I find this odd.) I’ve pondered how we buy our fruits and veggies on the side of the road instead of in the grocery store, why we don’t do that in Vegas, and I’m still trying to figure out how it is that most Kenyan’s have no clue what to do with a carrot. Lastly, I’ve pondered about my experiences here and am wondering if I am even remotely capable of explaining these things to you. I suppose it’s much like explaining the joy of God to someone who has never heard his name- it’s not something you explain, it’s something you live. I’ll have to explore these thoughts another time and see where they take me.
God blessed me with great dreams last night that have left me in a wonderfully joyous state this morning! Had oatmeal and toast for breakfast this morning, which led me to another pondering: why is it that I only ever eat breakfast on mission trips? When I’m at home, I don’t eat anything this soon after waking up. I let Jan listen to some of my music today. I don’t know if she really did like it or if she was being nice, because I know that some of the songs I love don’t appeal to very many people.
Jan and I went to Protus Wakesa’s house today. He has this adorable, spitfire of a little girl who’s name is Nancy, and let me tell you she has the biggest smile I have ever seen! She is about 3 years old, and when you tickle her she has the most contagious laughter! I felt an immediate connection with this child and played with her almost the whole time I was at Protus’s house! I think what fascinates me most about Nancy is that she is OK. Protus is raising her and her brother and sister (both of who are 7 and older) by himself. His wife left him a few years ago to go and live her life and get a job. Most men in Kenya, when their wife leaves the family, will no longer feel a responsibility toward their family, which is one of many reasons that children become orphans. For Protus to stick around and raise his kids by himself is the mark of a Godly Man, and is indeed a very rare trait in Kenya. Protus has no permanent job, but has been blessed by the generosity of God for providing enough side jobs for him to feed his kids. He is also blessed by a very helpful family- his mother helps him a lot, as do his neighbors. He still does crusades with Protus Onchana and Titus, and gives what little he has right back to God. When Jan and I visited his home, there was a coffee table full of food! His neighbors generously made food for Protus to provide to us, as is the customary thing to do for a guest in your house. There was chapatti, chicken stew, rice, pineapple, oranges, coke, orange soda, orange cream “American style” cookies, and bananas.
Jan and I spent a good 3 hours at Protus’s house. We met his family and some of his neighbors. He gave us a tour of his house, and showed us pictures from when the house was built. He walked us around the field where his crops are growing and the hole that has been dug so that he can build his own bathroom instead of having to use a public one. He led us back inside so that we may play with the kids a little more before leaving. I happened to have the translation book that Brad bought for me when he was here, and Jan used that to help one of the neighbors’ kids practice his English. (the other kids were too shy to try and speak English to English speaking people! It was adorable!)
We were picked up by Jim and taken back to the office. We started to watch Hotel Rwanda but had to come back home for dinner in Kimikungi. Mark made Cajun style chicken and potatoes, with a chicken/onion gravy. (Mark is quite the cook- he says he does the cooking so he won’t have to do the dishes.) I was thankful to be able to take some time for myself and went up to my “hiding place” on the rock. I prayed about God’s will for my life, for while I’m in Kenya, and for the families that I had come across today. I had the small luxury of viewing the most beautiful sunset, and then turning around to see a bright, full moon that had a bright halo around it. I got lost in the sky for a few minutes… God was reminding me that my worries could be set aside, that he was right here with me, watching me and preparing me for His plans. It was the most at-peace I had felt all day. As I watched the stars start to peek out from behind the clouds, I wondered how a God so amazing and able to create such an intricate and beautiful world could have any interest in myself. I was reminded of my unworthy state. I voiced to God my concerns and the things that I am thankful for.
Later, I played some Frisbee with Zippy, Junior, and Senior (and some of their school friends). I helped do the dishes, and am now ready to go to sleep. Before I leave for bed, Jim tells me that he got a text from Brad. They’re flight was an hour late arriving in America. Sharon took the first, immediate flight home, and Brad decided to spend a few hours in New York City. Sir Bradley wished to inform us that he was eating a New York Style Pizza in our honor. Half a world away, my friends can still make me laugh. Needless to say, I was thankful for the envy-sparking fun news right before bed, it’s sure to help me sleep well!

Friday 7-3-09; day 17

2009-11-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

I woke up in a very mopey mood this morning. I’m really missing my family today. Had oatmeal for breakfast and spent most of my morning re-organizing the ladies’ tent with Jan. We went through everything- reorganizing our luggage, tents, and the children’s ministry bags! We also worked on getting a plan together for the upcoming crusades and how children’s ministry was going to work during them. (Our last crusade was very successful, if I haven’t already told you. The night we left, the locals held one last service, and I guess over 100 people gave their lives to Christ. Way to go Jesus!)
I wish I could have slept better last night. Simba, Shelly, and Jack (The dogs) were barking throughout the whole night. The chickens made their presence known at 3, 3, 5:30, 6, and so on until the whole compound was awake. Another church down the road started their preaching at some crazy hour in the morning, via microphone and large speakers. (I think that was around 4:30, because it was after the chickens crowed the first time but before they crowed the second time.) My only sanity last night was that I got Sharon’s blanket since she’s now gone, so last night I was pleasantly warm and not shivering!
We went to the office today. Jim wrote and finished a sermon, and I finished more bracelets. I was thankful for the sewing kit because I had to sew my black skirt together since it ripped. I got a chance to charge my Ipod, and walked to town with a few of the team members to get hot sauce and somosas (via coffee garden.) Found out upon our arrival to coffee garden that they were OUT of samosas already, so instead ended up eating the beef stew, chapatti, and some of Jan’s fries. We stopped at the internet café and I was VERY happy to get to e-mail my family! (like I said, I’ve missed them a lot today!) I wrote some stupid things on facebook that my mom was kind enough to change for me. Jim was kind enough to pick me up a film camera since disposable ones don’t seem to exist in Kenya. I’m glad because I now have something to take with me on safari!
We were stuck in the office for the rest of the day so the team decided to watch a few movies. The coolest one was “A Night With The King”, a story about Esther. I should mention that they made me attempt to figure out the DVD player and how it hooks up to the other million cables around the room because I was the “youngest one on the team” and should therefore know these things. I still needed Jim to come figure out how to hook up the DVD player to the very sensitive TV set.
Chicken noodle soup was for dinner, and my dessert was getting to call my family tonight! My heart was definitely warmed when I got to hear the voices of my whole family- Mom, Dad, Jake, and Tasha.
I hope that I sleep better tonight. Those chickens should be wary- I’ve already named one “Dinner” and have every intention of pelting the rest of them with rocks.

thursday, 7-2-09. Day 16. Saying Goodbye...

2009-11-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!
Anti-malaria-influenced dreams strike again! Last night’s episode: My aunt telling me I was preggers with twins. Then Jan wakes up and tells me about some named David running around church thinking he’s in love with me. 3 points for waking up to weirdness?
Breakfast was a freshly cut, deliciously zippy pineapple. I’m a little upset today because this is the day that Brad and Sharon go home. I planted the sippy cup into Brad’s carryon luggage. Mike, Mark, and I are going to see Brad and Sharon off at the airport. (that’s a 3-hour, 1 way trip.) We saw one of few female pastors, Pastor Milka, and gave her a ride to Kisumu so she wouldn’t have to wait for the next matatu. I guess she is on her way back to gilgal. After dropping off Pastor Milka in Kisumu, we stopped to go shopping. I did my “pre-shop” that way I knew what I would want for later. We went to lunch (chicken and chapatti!) at the last hotel that we stayed at. I got very self conscious during lunch that day, and I was sure that I was figety or something. We lounged about the hotel for a little longer. Brad talked about his upbringing, and how he came to live in Las Vegas. I was quite surprised, because his story was very similar to my own.
When we made our way back to the Matatu, we noticed the flat tire at the front of the car. Titus, Brad, and Mike changed the tire. (having all three of them on this task made me want to ask the “how many guys does it take to change a lightbulb” joke, but I had a feeling it would have been inappropriate.) They joked around that next time it was Mark and my turn to change the tire.
Brad found the sippy cup hiding in his carryon. Sharon laughed as he threw it in the back of the van (where I was) and laughed harder when I threw it back up to the front of the van (where he was) and nearly hit the driver on the head. We made it to the airport, and Mike was in this rush to drop them off and get back to Kimikungi. I said my bittersweet goodbye’s and hugged both of them. Before we drove off, I took the infamous megaphone and said a very loud farewell to my friends. As we left the airport premises, Mike turned around and handed me the sippy cup. “Brad wanted me to give this to you” he says. I had my 5 minutes of venting before I started coming up with my next devious plan. Brad unknowingly started a waterbottle war!
The rest of the ride home was very quiet. I had the opportunity to sleep a bit in the back seat, but my rest was anything but fruitful. It eventually started to rain, and then grew dark. Driving in Kenya is no walk in the park as it is, and this just made it that much more of an adventure. It was weird eating our cream of potato soup and cornbread with two team members missing. Had some chocolate pieces for dessert, courtesy of Jan.
After dinner, we visited with Protus in his home. He told us that “Cat” in Kiswahili is either puss-puss or paka. (pah-kah). We had our chai tea with Judith, and prepared ourselves for bed. As I reflected upon my day, I was once again hit with the realization that life isn’t fair.

Day 15, Wednesday, 7-1-09!

2009-11-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

Sketchy details today-
I remember clearly that it’s been long, but great!
Had samosas and pineapple for dinner, was interviewed by Brad about my time in Kenya thus far… and I have drafted my plan for the prank I want to pull.
Prank:
I took the wretchedly pink “sippy cup” (oh-so-generously donated by Brad and his unnamed associates) and wrote more snarky stuff on it to compliment Sir Brad’s handywork. My plan is to somehow sneak it into Brad’s carry-on bag before he leaves tomorrow. If everything goes according to plan, he’ll find once he’s onboard the plane and safely out of “retaliation reach”.
I have found today that I’m going to miss Sharon and Brad a lot more that I was supposed to let myself miss them. They somehow snuck their way into my friendship while on this trip. It’s going to make for a heartfelt goodbye on my end. I should also point out that I’m especially thankful for Sharon. She has been my rock, guidance, and confidante on this trip. The last missions that I’ve been on- No one has really been that person for me the way she has. It means a lot that she would care that much. I’m also greatful because I’ll be giving her a letter to deliver to my family once she’s at home. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to write my family a surprise letter, and I think they’ll be excited about it when they see it! Sharon is doing me a huge favor!
Reflecting on today, I can definitely say that I was honored in some very special ways. Today was Webb and Mary’s wedding. They have been “married” for years now, and have kids and grandkids, but today they got married legally under God. It was so cute, they were both nervous about their ceremony! When talking with both of them this morning, I found out that Webb still hasn’t paid his father in law all the cows that are owed for marrying his daughter. Therefore, if Mary’s parents find out about the ceremony, they still have every legal right to stop the wedding until Webb can “cough up the cows”. Before picking up the Bride and Groom at their house, I sat down with Jan, Sharon, and a bunch of church ladies to create decorations from the church. It’s a strict budget wedding, so Jan came up with the idea of making flowers out of tissue paper to use as the bouquets and such. It was an ingenious idea, and I was shocked that they got some of the Manly Men to come help make flowers!
I went with Brad and Mark to go pick up the Bride and Groom. Their house was full of friends and family! I made their grandson cry again (he’s afraid of Mzungu’s) and was honored to talk to Mary before the wedding. I got to talk to her privately for a few minutes. I encouraged her to keep her chin up, remember to smile, and feel blessed that this was what God had for her. I reminded her that Webb loves her dearly, and that she had no reason to be afraid. (The poor thing was shaking from nervousness!) I got to talk to Webb, too, who immediately after hugging me made me sit down and eat food. (Apparently it’s a tradition to feed family before the wedding. He wouldn’t let me say no!) I reminded both the bride and groom to make sure they didn’t lock their legs, that way neither of them passed out. Webb and Mary were placed in separate cars, and away we went! The car that Mary was in got a flat tire about 100 feet from the church! The wedding went well. Our team of 7 was quite honored to all have a place in the ceremony. Jim was the pastor who married Webb and Mary, the men were the groomsmen, and us ladies were some of many bridesmaids. The church cumulatively bought a goat for the newly married couple, and there was much rejoicing as we waved them off to enjoy their honeymoon!
Some members of our team were particularly happy on this day, and their happiness contagiously spread throughout the whole team! I myself was feeling very whimsical, and got Sharon to sing with me in our tent. We helped the church ladies to take down the decorations in the church; and one of my closer African friends informed me that they see a wedding in my near future. I wonder what “near” is to her? I loved what she said, but it was hard to hear such a hopeful prediction of my future when it concerns one of my heart’s truest desires. I was stuck between believing her words of encouragement and guarding myself from being let down. I reminded myself that it’s the Lords will anyway, not mine, and went back about my day.
I should also mention that it rained today- for a long time. I was quite sad because I was hoping to be up on the rock for a few hours. I think God thinks it’s funny when I plan small things like this. ;)

6-30, Day 14: orphans and Holy Cows

2009-10-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: two cups of coffee and some pineapple!
Shared today, that was great! Went to Kitale to visit with pastor Titus’s family, and I got to take a pic or two of Titus’s daughter Joy. Jim drove us there. I’m quite surprised at his driving skills, considering how crazy these drivers are over here. There was a few times (on the hour+ long trip to Kitale) that we had to stop the van in the middle of the road thanks to a chicken, cow or goat in the street.
Back to Titus-
I didn’t know that Titus had orphans staying with him (Similar to Fred and Ruth). There are 42 orphans placed in about 12 different homes, including his own, that he helps take care of. The orphans are housed and cared for by different caretakers, who are usually elderly and widowed women. Titus introduced us to Benson and Rhoda, a husband and wife with 3 children of their own, who inherited a large piece of property from Benson’s grandfather. They are in the process of being certified by the government to house a bunch of kids- they intend on having all 42 orphans stay at their house.
Titus also told us about the “Holy Cow” project that is in the works in an effort to help the orphans. The Holy Cow project is an effort to help provide consistant food for the orphans. Titus bought 2 milk cows, and gave them to two different caretakers free of charge. The catch is that the first calf born of each cow needs to go back to Titus. Those calves will then be given to two other caretakers, who will give up their first calves to Titus, and so on and so forth. After the first calf has been given back, and caretakers are free to keep the cow and the other calves born from it. The cows ensure that the orphans get some kind of food that day, as there are days where a child will go hungry due to a shortage of food or funds to buy the food.
Titus was asked by one of our teammates if someone from America could sponsor a child, and Titus told us that this was not possible. Having only one orphan get sponsored out of many will create problems between that child and the other orphans, which in Kenya can be worse than going a day without food. The best solution is for someone to donate toward helping all of the children, but most people won’t spend their money on a group of kids; only one.
Titus drove us through Kitale, and took us to meet some of the caretakers of the orphans, and to see one of the two holy cows. The team got so dirty! It rained (hard) while we were driving, and only a few of us remembered to bring our rain coats with us that day (myself being one of them.) so we walked through the rain (which is fun, I loved that!) on paths that were laden with mud and water. The children got a chuckle out of the way some of the “elders” on our team were slipping and sliding around on the mud! Most of the kids were running barefoot through it. We journeyed into a church, said hello to many people, shook many hands, thanked many strangers, and prayed over all of the orphans. By then, the rain had settled down to a slight sprinkle and we walked more mud filled paths to visit the holy cow! Along the way we saw many beautifully decorated huts. The kids all wanted to hold our hands, and were trying to talk to us even though we couldn’t understand a word they said. The women stuck close to our sides, making sure that the kids stayed well behaved, telling us stories along the way about our surroundings. It was like being in a whole different world! I love how the different parts of Kenya are so unique!!! Driving back to Titus’s house was fun. As previously said, the roads are made out of dirt- so the wet muddy roads caused the van to slip and slide in every which way when we were trying to get back to Titus’s house for lunch! When we got back to his house, there was a buffet of food on the table. His wife, kids, and extended family and friends had worked for hours to ensure that we would have plenty of food to eat. The rain started again while we were there, and when it hit the metal roof it sounded so loud that it was hard to hold a conversation with the person sitting right next to you! The Chapati, beef, pasta, rice, potatoes, and “soup” were all delicious and left our whole team feeling very satisfied.
Before heading back home (to camp), we stopped by Titus’ store. Sharon and Brad got to pick one free item from his store to take back to the US. (they were scheduled to leave soon). I ended up buying a few things from them, too! We also stopped by the office before going home. Heading there was an adventure, and police were trying to ask us where we were going but couldn’t speak English very well so they ended up shaking some hands, smiling, and waving us right on through!
Later I went with a few teammates to go into town and e-mail my family. I always love getting letters from people here. Tonight I got to experience driving at night- and boy is that an adventure! It was kind of scary the way the cars whiz by you like your NOT a huge van that they can crash into. I should also let you know- driving at night there is especially scary because they think that NOT using their headlights will save them power in their vehicles, so they don’t use their headlights unless they think they see something worth turning them on for.
Came home- had dinner (a ghoulash thing with bread and butter). Helped dry the dishes, played with Shelly, Simba, and Jack… watched as teammates tried to set brad up with someone… again… Got to CALL my family. That was the highlight of my evening. I felt bad though because the phone card only had 5 mintues on it and I involuntarily hung up on my parents after getting so say “hi, I love you!” I was glad for bed tonight, it was a good, long day!

Day 13, 6-29 (this post is everywhere...)

2009-10-05T18:27:00.001-07:00

Good morning! I slept so well last night. I had very pleasant dreams- although there was a small spat with the mosquito net. Breakfast was toast, pineapple, passion fruit juice, and watermelon. (the watermelon was nothing to talk about, I assure you.) Got my luggage all packed and ready to go… I took another shower before leaving for the pure sake of having a shower to shower in! Went to Bungoma and dropped off dirty clothes to Anna, and went shopping for food. A drunken dude kept trying to be our “personal tour guide” through the market. The men weren’t very amused… neither was Jan, actually, but I thought it was funny.
Oh- let me backtrack for a minute here. When we stopped to drop off clothes, we also dropped off Titus, who is now only a few more hours away from home and seeing his family! Now Jim is the one driving the van, so pray for us! Speaking of driving, let me just say that driving here is terrible! I thought vegas was bad! Here you drive on the left side of the road, not the right, and the driver’s seat is on the right side of the van, not the left. I might need to re-learn a few things for when I go back home. And did I mention that there is no real speed limit on these roads? And potholes EVERYWHERE? Oh my goodness.
Anyway, back to the present-
There is a sign in town that says Tasha. I want to get a picture of it (because of my sister,, whose name happens to be Tasha) but I keep forgetting to have my camera ready!
We ate at Shariff’s today (shah-reefs). Had Sombassas and Chapati! That’s pretty much the end of today. There were a lot of interesting pictures taken in the van (by those of us smart enough to bring digital cameras and not film ones- aka NOT I.) It was a great way to pass the time.
Dinner was… PB&J. Sleep was nicely welcomed. That’s all for today :)

day 12, 6-28 (an emotional day)

2009-10-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

I forgot to eat breakfast this morning… It’s usually not a big deal but I’ve been getting used to eating breakfast. Everyone was treated to a small square of chocolate because Mark was rejoicing after breaking a 4 day fast. We were at the church by 9 today because Mark and I were guest speakers at one of the local churches. It’s a reminder to me that today is our last day in Kisi. I’m a little sad because I’ve rather enjoyed my time here. It’s only been a few days, but I’m sad to leave. Mark and I had a little bit of time to kill (Hurry up and wait…) so I reminisced about dinner last night with our Hosts” Israel, his wife, and his sons. They prepared our dinner and served us in their living room.
Eventually the pastor of the church that Mark and I are speaking at came and found us. I shared my testimony at their service- I talked about the different things that I thought were so wrong in my life, the different struggles I had, and how God had been there all along taking care of me. I talked about how I came to realize all of the GOOD things that God had put in my life. During my sharing, I started to cry, and was honestly embarrassed. I don’t like to cry in public, and I was terrified to share my testimony. But, God let me know that someone in my audience needed to hear the words I had to say, and needed to see my tears and witness how God has truly done a work with my life. Mark spoke after I did, and he spoke on Jericho. He did an amazing job! The Pastor then asked us for the usually money and children’s supplies, neither of which we had. We walked back down to the main church. We were early- Pastor Jim was still teaching! So, at the end of THAT service, Jim convinced (well, volun-told) Mark and I to introduce ourselves to the crowd and share a word or two.
Brad was next to join us, and we ate lunch shortly after his arrival. (Ugali, “soup”, beans, oranges, and potatoes.) Jan and Mike were the next two to make it back, and we all had a good laugh when we found out that Sharon (who was late getting back) had to get here by Motorcycle! In a skirt! I was a smidge envious, because going on a motorcycle ride on a dirt road (with no speed limit) in a foreign country just sounds like a ton of fun! I was sorry to have missed out on that!
When everyone finished eating and the team was all together, we went to Protus’s mother’s house. It was a beautiful drive, and their property was so green and pretty! We went inside, and things were going smoothly, until Titus got a phone call. The news was bad- so please bare with me here, because I’m getting angry just writing this. Someone tried to rape Titus’s 6 year old daughter. Specifically, Titus’s BROTHER tried to rape his 6 year old daughter. The other women cried…. I was pissed…. Brad looked murderous…. Mark and Mike were unnaturally calm (in the scariest way)… Jim was the one who suggested that we pray. So we did. We prayed… and we asked God to help us see past the red, and past the things that we WANTED to do to this pitiful man- and to help us focus on getting Titus home to his family, and for little Joy (titus’ daughter) to be alright and unharmed.
There was no way for Titus to get back home that night, as it is was already late afternoon and it highly dangerous to drive at nighttime in rural Kenya. We did the best we could- we prayed along the way that God would set our path to get titus home, (and for joy, continuously) and we left Kisi IMMEDIATELY. The trip back was quiet- I don’t know what everyone else was thinking, but I was personally thirsty for vengeance against this person. How could someone be as selfish and evil as to ruin the lives of a little girl and 2 families??? God reminded me of my own sin. Now I’m mad and guilty.
HOWEVER…. We got another call from Titus’s wife. She took her daughter to the hospital. The doctor looked her over, and found out- PRAISE THE LORD- that the man who had found the man with Titus’s daughter had found them before Joy could be hurt. The police were called, and the creature was arrested! Hallelujah! There was great rejoicing and tears from everyone, and Brad led us all in a beautiful prayer of thanks and praise to God.
We stopped at the Sunset hotel, but there were no rooms available, and we went instead to the Nyanza. (I’m in room 405 with Sharon!) We went out for dinner (spaghetti) and had icecream (vanilla) and coke. The best part was that we had Showers and Beds waiting for us!!!!
All in all, it was an emotionally exhausting, and yet astounding day today! We welcome tomorrow!

Day 11 6-27

2009-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh! Toast with red plumb jam for breakfast! Don’t forget the Coffee. It’s my morning addiction. Got to call my mom today that was cool! I’m pretty sure she almost cried. Today we have a busy crusade day- Jim, Brad and I get to teach the kids a play. To be honest, there is such a fear of Christianity here that I’m not too sure that this play thing is going to go so well. As suspected, the kids had a hard time practicing the play. I guess I’m not that great of a teacher (Brad “doesn’t do” plays and Jim pretty much ditched us. So, I got to teach a skit that I’d learned just an hour or so beforehand.) We had all girls in our skit (the boys were too afraid to volunteer themselves) and all they wanted to do was play with the balloons. I get that, I would want to play with the balloons too! The skit was rehearsed a few times, and they were really starting to get it- until we told them that they would be doing this play at the crusade. That was the plan- and it’s what made them all split up in different directions and leave. (The kids weren’t the only ones that left- brad ended up leaving too, along with the translator. I had one of the church members walk me from the church to the crusade site. ) To be completely honest, this whole skit thing was frustrating and by the end I was thoroughly angry. When I got to the crusade site, Sharon was in a clown costume and reading stories to the kids. I sat on the edge of the stage that they’d built for us, and read my bible for a while. It was very refreshing, and put my mind back into perspective. The phrase “it’s not about you” kept getting into my head, and I’m sure I needed to hear it right then. While Sharon was finishing the story, some kids had gathered around me. Some were playing with my hair, and another held my hand and inspected my nails. The translator told me that she was comparing our skin, and it really was her curiosity and joyfulness that helped lift my mood!
We ate lunch at the church; had ugali, bananas, cooked bananas, and sicamowicki (guess what I didn’t eat???). Around 4, Sharon and I talked to 4 of the pastors that were involved in childrens ministry. We discussed lesson ideas, projects, and introduced them to new ways of showing God’s love to the kids. It was so cool because we had to demonstrate the games to them (so that they would understand what things like “duck duck goose” were) and get them involved in playing the games with us! It was an extra special treat because the pastors, especially the men, don’t usually so such things. We showed them different ways to use the 5 senses during their teachings. Sharon did a fantastic job helping the pastors, and I was glad to be there to support her. She and I really made an excellent team!
Afterward, we went back to the compound that we were staying in. It was a good time to shower, and a great time for us girls to sneak some chocolate! Pretty soon, the boys came back from the store, which mean that our times of chocolaty goodness were over and we had to help put groceries away. I got to read a few of my letters (The letters really brighten my day!) before preparing for the crusade. It was really cool outside tonight! We danced and sang, and the pastors made the team come up on the stage and introduce themselves to everyone. It was quite eventful! (I believe this was when Brad videotaped the attendees saying “this is Africa”… it was a great idea, I will have to remember it for another time.) Mark and Jim talked, and both of them had very powerful messages. It is a beautiful thing to see someone humble themselves and let God speak through them.
The highlight of my evening was witnessing a chorus of kids getting saved! I’m sure that when all the kids raised their hands to accept Jesus, the stars sparkled just a bit more! Two of the children asked me to pray for them that night. Edna, a girl who was saved the night prior, requested our whole team to pray for her against the heavy spiritual attacks that she was facing. She was only 18 years old, and was dealing with a lot of pressure. We prayed for her, anointed her, and gave her some words of encouragement. It was late, and I really wanted to walk her over to the revival. Mike was truly a gentleman and offered to go with us, and I’m glad he did. (First of all, I wouldn’t have been allowed to walk her by myself, so if Mike didn’t go then I couldn’t either.) Edna was a bit scared, and made sure that we were on either side of her. It made me happy to know that she felt safe with us, and it made me happier to see the big smile that lit her face when she walked into the revival meeting! Mike and I stayed at the revival for a few minutes during Worship, and went back to the compound to eat dinner. The owners of the compound had treated us to a meal in their home! They served us Chapati (my fave!) rice, avocado, pineapple, potatoes, and fresh milk (straight from the cow!) It was quite delicious. Brad once again brought up the dreaded pink “sippy cup”. He and a few of the other men tried to get me to believe that they had brought the cup with them. Little did they know that I had locked it in my luggage (which was in my tent cot) in Kimikungi. Nice try boys.

Day 10: Friday, 6-26 {AKA LONG DAY!}

2009-08-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today was such a busy day! I actually wasn’t feeling so well this morning, so I skipped breakfast and went to lay down for a while. After a bit I had half a nature valley bar… eating something usually helps. Today we have a conference, which means I get to teach. Shock and surprise, I have no desire to do this and I really hope God gives me something to work with here. Worship was first, and it was great as usual. Mike taught (for about 3 hours) then me. I took a whole 15 minutes! Short, sweet, and simple. That’s the best way. Didn’t like that Brad was filming it, I don’t like this kind of stuff on camera. His video, not much I can do about it if he wants my face in there. For the record, I taught on making sure you are steady in your faith, even when no one is supposed to be watching you. I chose this because generally people are watching you, and you’re still accountable to be the “light of the world” when you think no one is paying attention to you. Case in point, I was outside praying today (by myself, no one watching) and I prayed out loud for the first time in a VERY long time. When I opened my eyes after my prayer, I had a group of 4 kids watching me pray and listening to what I was saying. Talk about God taking over my lesson….
Jan taught next (and did a splendid job) and then Mark (who also did quite well). There were some amazing lessons today, I hope I can absorb something from each one of them. I hope our audience liked the lessons- I don’t know about the rest of the team but I felt like a fool up there telling these people something they probably already knew. I just have to trust Jim’s advice on the matter. We ate lunch around 2 today. Had a lovely feast of ugali, avocado, sicamouwiki, and bananas. Later we just relaxed and prepared for the evening cruisade.
The cruisade was a blast! Sharon and I had this older lady teach us to dance “African Style”. Kenyan’s (or maybe just the Bikusu tribes?) dance primarily with their shoulders, and learning how to do that was so much fun! Sharon is really good at it, you can tell she’s done this before! Brad and I had a fun dancing adventure later when he and I got a circle of kids together to dance with. We jumped and twisted and hokey-pokeyed till we were exhausted tired! The best part about the dancing was that it started so randomly. I had a small group of kids around me and we were dancing in circles and having fun, but a bunch of the men started gathering around to watch us, and my lack of control over the situation started to unnerve me so I moved closer to Brad (the closest in reach) and he told me to stick close to him for a while till the teachings started. So, I did as I was told, and took it a step further and invited Brad to dance with us. He refused. I’m pretty sure I called him a chicken or something, because he eventually joined us. That was a mistake, he stole the show! That’s when the foot thing started (brad would put his foot in the middle of the dance circle and all of these little girls had to get their same foot ON TOP of his! So cute!) and that’s when we added a lot of flair to our little dance circle. Those kids had smiles a thousand miles wide, and were so high energy! We were all twisting and turning and jumping around like crazy! Eventually we attracted the rest of our team, who started taking pictures of Brad dancing with the kids. He seemed to really be having fun, for a guy he got quite twinkly when he was dancing! It was about time for me to disappear and move on to something else, but the kids just wouldn’t let go of my hands! So, our circle of kids grew bigger and bigger, and Brad and I danced with them for another half hour or so. Honestly, it made my day! Something that started out so small grew to be such an event! That wasn’t at all my goal, but I’m glad that it at least made my team happy and touched the lives of a few more kids.
Pastor Protus kicked off the crusade tonight by delivering a wonderful sermon about the bleeding woman who touched the robes of Jesus, among other stories. During the sermon, I sat down to the left of the stage and was surrounded by the kids that I had danced with! I had a girl in my lap, another girl hanging onto my free hand, another girl to the right of me just sitting there, and 5 more behind me playing with my hair. It was very fun but I’m pretty sure it was annoying Jan and Sharon. (As horrible as it sounds, I didn’t much care who was annoyed. I was having fun loving on the kids, and wasn’t willing to let anything unreasonable steal my joy. )
Oh, an interesting event happened today. The crusade was visited by [what we think is] the town witch doctor. While Protus was still talking onstage, a guy wearing this long orange tunic style thing walked around and talked to Brad, Sharon and I. He had a cross in one hand (which I saw) and a sword in the other (which I DIDN’T see). When he approached us, people in the crowd backed away and showed a few signs of fear. Honestly the man just looked silly to me and I was more afraid that he might be some kind of mental crazy person than anything else. He smiled and was polite. I couldn’t understand a word he said to me so I smiled and told him to listen to the teaching. The whole situation was just amusing to me. He talked to Brad twice, and Brad looked ready to take him out (I found out later he was…) I suppose this is another notch on the entertainment totem pole of life!
On a serious note, I can definitely see that the Lord had big plans for Kisi. You can see AND feel the “2 forces” at work here.
After the crusade was over, Brad and I danced more with the kids. After about 10 minutes our circle of kids growing, we realized we had entirely lost our waterbottles. After another 20 mintues of dancing, we stopped the kids (and the music, thank God or there would be NO stopping the kids!) and Brad was the hero who found our water bottles. Cheers!
He went wherever, and I immersed myself back in the group of smiling children and tickled all of them to bits and pieces! You thought tickle monster went well with your child or sibling? You’ve seen nothing until you’ve seen it affect 40 laughing children who keep begging you for more! It was so much fun! Some of them started getting brave and attempted to tickle me back, so a few kids got chased around. A while later I tried to put an end to my side of the tickle game, but the kids wouldn’t have any of it! If I started to leave, the kids started following me. I felt like the freaking pied piper or something. Again, Hero Brad saved the day and rescued me. (As a side note, I’m sure that if Brad knew I’ve started adressing him as “Hero Brad” in my head he would be soooooooo less than thrilled. I love it!) He reminded me how to say goodbye to the kids (kwaheri!) because he memorized it before I did. So… the two of us walked back to camp. (Relatives, there’s no need for a gun or a shovel, it wasn’t that kind of walk!)
Unfortunately for my hero friend, I was in a very silly mood… we passed a girl that was balancing a huge bag on her head, so I decided I better start practicing balancing things on MY head. I tried balancing my waterbottle. It lasted less than 20 seconds before falling to the ground.
Reached camp, and discovered that our friend Mike was back from his store run. We helped him clean the apples, which involves a “bleach rinse” and another rinse cycle via purified water and plastic bags. Within a few minutes, the rest of the team was back, so we set up Jim’s computer and started playing (and singing) some worship songs! The people who own the house we were staying at loved hearing our songs, and even attempted to sing along. I’m pretty sure it was the first time any of my teammates have heard me sing… luckily for my shy voice and I, the whole team was singing along so there shouldn’t have been anything that distinguished my voice as being different from the others. Yay!
We drove down to the church for dinner. (They’ve been feeding us well) where we had potatoes, passion fruit (which was slightly sour but quite good!) avocado, beans, and a cooked banana thing (which I actually liked. I thought my Panama trip might have ruined that for me.) As this is the second time avocados have been served to us here, I can’t help but think of my mom and how much she would love to taste what she would consider good avocados. (I don’t like avocado, so I find nothing “good” about it…)
We all came back to camp to rest and sleep, as opposed to going to the revival meeting and movie. All of us are TIRED! It’s been quite a day, my friends!

Side notes: discovered our second spider in our room today. And, wouldn’t you know it, 2 BIRDS decided to make the ceiling of our room their new nesting grounds. They were flying all over the place! It was incredibly unusual. Oh, and I should also mention that the owner has a cow and baby calf. It’s cool, especially the calf who is adorable. The mooing, on the other hand, is less than desireable when you’re trying to sleep. Nature’s alarm clock…
Oh, last note. I think that Pastor Webb is the funniest guy! I imagine he and Daniel (Villanueva) would get along very well.
That’s all for tonight!

Day 9, Thursday 6-25

2009-08-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

I didn’t sleep so well last night, I was FREEZING! Who knew it would be so cold when we’re so close to the equator….
Skipped breakfast this morning. Everyone packed their bags (the guys suggested that all the girls share a bag because they’re all taking their own. Nuh-uh…) and we all went for a drive!
We stopped at the equator and took some pictures of the team and our very fancy, hand-made “equator” sign that had all sorts of crazy arrows pointing in god knows what direction. It was cool.
We stopped again in some city (I think kisumu? I don’t know.) to have lunch at the Imperial (which is a “guest house”…) had samosas and coke. Kept driving… many long hours….
Eventually we got close enough to the town that we could go shopping for food for the next few days. I guess we’ll be essentially in the middle of nowhere, so food shopping is a good thing. Also got to make a quick stop at the internet café and sent some e-mails. Sent my mom some prayer requests, so I really hope the e-mail went through.
Anyway, back to the van: It’s really not so much fun to carry a 3-4 gallon water jug on your lap, with 2 pieced of luggage at your feet, people on either side of you, and going on a VERY bumpy road. I should also mention that whoever’s luggage was in the trunk of the van (because I’m usually placed in the farthest back seat of the van) kept hitting me in the head every time we hit a big enough pothole. Poor Jan had the pleasure of pushing the luggage away from my head every ten or 15 minutes, until we decided that it was easier to keep that piece of luggage at our feet. Wow, getting to Kisi has been quite the adventure!
After a bit more driving, I started to feel the atmosphere tense up. This is the kind of spiritual warfare that I’ve been expecting to see on this trip. I could tell we were getting closer to Kisi (the witchcraft town) because my breathing got a little more labored, I became acutely aware of my surroundings, and my spiritual concentration was at an all time high. The spiritual attacks kept coming, and God kept protecting me (and the team) from them. I just did my job- prayed heavily to God; for his protection, for his will to be done in Kisi, for his will to be done in our team, for the people of Kisi (that their hearts would be softened and opened), for the messages that we were bringing, for our team to be careful about what we do and say (so that anything noticed by the people in Kisi would reflect God and not our own downfalls) and for the health and safety of the team.
FAST FORWARD>>>>>>> (we’ve arrived!)
We’re staying at some couple’s house. We have two rooms inside this compound style house. The girls have one room, and the guys have another. It was funny, the guys couldn’t fit all the tentcots in the room unless they left the door open. The other alternative was to make Jim sleep outside (we seriously considered it) but, in Brad’s words, “I’m not having you sleep outside”. I guess sleeping in a tentcot outside is entirely different than sleeping in a tentcot in a room with the door and window open all the time. My teammates amuse me…
So, the guys left early for the crusade down the street, save for Mike who opted to escort us pretty ladies when we were finished setting up our room. The cruisade had already started by the time we arrived. There was a (very rickety) stage that was built for us to use, and Webb was on it singing and dancing with the rest of the dancers, and blowing on his whistle. Whistles seem to be a hot commodity around here. Jan, Sharon, and I had to sit close to the stage so that the locals would stop paying attention to the mzungu’s and start paying attention to the lesson.
Speaking of the lesson, I should tell you- Brad gave the most incredible testimony. It was a great way to kick off the crusade, and it gave me a lot of insight to his character, and I have a much greater respect for him now than I did at the beginning of the trip. I personally thought it was a GREAT intro to Jesus. Jim followed after Brad and gave a truly profound teaching, covering some difficult issues of being a new Christian. I felt truly blessed that I had the opportunity to see the faces of the people as Jim was onstage talking. When I looked into their eyes I saw many things. The kids were so curious and happy, some were scared. When I looked at the adults, I saw some that were so happy! Some of the people were listening quite intently to the lesson that Jim was teaching. Yet, as I looked around the crowd, I saw some people that were filled with so much hate, anger, and coldness. I really feel that God is going to do something amazing here in this little town. Oh, and another personal victory- tonight is the first time I’ve been in front of the stage to help pray for people. Not many people were brave enough to come up to pray, but that’s beside the point.
I got to play with the kids for a little bit, but was rushed to the van because it was getting dark outside. I guess when the sun goes down, the kids start to “misbehave”… that’s when the hair gets pulled, the clothes get ripped, the glue get’s passed around…. We (as in Brad and Jan and mark and I) waited for the rest of our team to make it to the Van, we played with the kids through the windows. They kept asking us (over and over) what our names were. Mark and Sharon used our “van time” to inform me that some guy named Chris was “actively and aggressively” looking for the “beautiful mzungu girl” (boy, please…) that was with them. Mom, you’ll be very happy to know that I didn’t get married tonight. And the jokes start flying…
Had a wonderful dinner prepared for us tonight by whoever owns the church in Kisi. We had Chapati, rice, been, “soup”, ugali, and chai. Only half the team decided to go down to dinner, and they totally missed out! It was great to get to know the pastors and everyone without the hassle of distractions. Pastor Webb tried tobasco sauce for the first time. He kept telling us about how “Africans love spicy” and kept shaking more and more tobasco sauce on his plate. We kept trying to tell him to stop shaking the tobasco sauce, and that it was hotter than most of the stuff that they had in Kenya, and he just didn’t listen! When he finally took a bite of his food (with WAY too much tobasco sauce in it) he burnt his tongue and actually started crying!!!!!! It was so funny!
Sharon braided my hair tonight so that it will be curly tomorrow and I won’t have to do much to it. We had plans tonight to talk through some stuff that’s been bugging me, that way I won’t be so distracted for the rest of the trip. Couldn’t get any kind of alone time to just have her and me talk without everyone else around, so I wrote her a letter and left it in her cot. Hopefully she can help me through this, or the next week or so is going to be pretty rough till I can figure this out on my own.
That’s pretty much all. I felt so bad because I was being a little loud going to bed tonight, I got a bit hyper-tired and giggly. Wow, I was trying to avoid that happening on this trip!

Day 8: 6-24-09 The first wall goes down...

2009-08-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

I was so excited this morning! I woke up AFTER the sun!!! I was ready to kill that rooster last night, though! It chose to crow right next to my tent at whatever hour of the morning. NOT COOL.

I did get the privilege of making breakfast this morning, but I didn’t make omelettes. I was in a cooking mood after that whole chapatti thing yesterday, so I made French toast for breakfast! It came out pretty good, the only thing that was missing was a small splash of vanilla. Vanilla would have made it much better, but no such luck for us. It was the first time I’ve had French toast with “honey syrup” instead of maple syrup. I felt a little bad because I forgot to put nutmeg on one person’s French toast, but they told me later that it was good French toast so I didn’t mention the uh…. Lack of spice.
Fast Forward>>>>>
The Lord really blessed me today! I worked with Brad in the childrens ministry department while everone else did a teacher’s meeting. Brad set up a makeshift goal, and let the kids kick a ball (made up of tightly wound plastic bags and some twine… these kids are ingenious!) at him while he played goalie. After the kids finished with Brad, they came to me and I set up a few different Frisbee things for them to do. It was cute teaching the kids how to throw a Frisbee! After that, Brad made up a balloon game (well, made up a few balloon games- he kept having to change the rules until the game fit the group of kids we had.) and I was the balloon blow up girl. We were using cheap balloons that popped easily, especially with how hot the sun was. So, I had to make sure I had a few balloons constantly on reserve so that popped ones could be replaced right away. I was glad I wasn’t working directly with the kids at this time because my mind went way south with the whole “plastic blow up objects” thing. It was good that my lips were busy blowing up the balloons because I had many things to say that really didn’t need to be said! When I wasn’t focusing on the balloons, I was the water girl. Brad was running around with the kids, and didn’t get a break. I was quite sure that if he didn’t drink water every once in a while that he would pass out or something. I was glad that he was doing that, though, because I got to play with the other kids! There were kids that were hanging around underneath a tree; some were waiting for their turn to play the balloon game, and others weren’t interested in the game at all so they opted not to play. I loved getting to play with them! I would tickle them, talk to them, repeat what they said (they loved that) and was generally just silly. I had a lot of fun!
After playing with the kids, the team got together for lunch. We had some kind of tuna-pasta creation with veggeis on the side. I did the dishes and put them away while listening to some songs on my music. After that I did my life journaling, and found a great lesson in 1 Timothy 6:1. After life journaling, I was inspired to actually write down my testimony. I went to the rock, but Brad was already up there. I guess great minds think alike… instead, I went downhill from the rock and found a quiet, hidden place where I could be just myself, by myself, and be able to spend some great quality time with the Lord. He really broke me down to tears today…
Within minutes of my emotional breakdown of tears, Sharon was at my side asking what was wrong. Honestly, I already didn’t like that I was crying, and I was really uncomfortable with Sharon seeing me cry. I questioned if I should trust Sharon or not, because my reason for crying was quite personal. I decided that I could talk to her, but before I could tell her the reason for my tears, she was pulled away and informed that the Women’s conference was starting and that we needed to be there for it. Sharon advised that this was perfect timing for me to have a breakdown, because now I’ll really be able to connect with the women at the conference. Honestly, I would have been perfectly okay with skipping the conference. Mark is a very intuitive gentleman, because I slithered my way (I thought unnoticed) into my tent to clear my face and calm my breathing, and mark came in with a small thing of tissues. That was really a defining moment between Mark and I; his action really astounded me. I don’t know if Sharon tipped him off to my tears, but I do know that most people I’m around on any normal basis wouldn’t be able to tell if I’d just got done crying. Even less of those people would be so kind as to get me tissues if they DID see me crying. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s nice to know that there are a few people in the world (outside my own family) that care, even if it’s just a little. Maybe I’m being too dramatic with this….
Fast forward about 3 minutes…. >>>>>
We started the women’s conference, and Sharon decided that God must have done something incredible with me, so I was the first to share my testimony. I briefly went over how my heart has been torn and broken, and how certain holes have got there. I told them about how the Love of the Lord is the reason I am able to spiritually grow, and how God is the reason I’m able to see beauty in this life. Tears started up again, but this time it wasn’t just with me. When the women shared their testimonies, they were far deeper than my own. They have gone through so much more than I have; abuse, neglect, sicknesses, and other things- yet their love of God is so deeply rooted in them! It was such a humbling, beautiful experience to hear these women speak! Even as I write this, it sends chills down my body. That’s the kind of Love that I need to have for my God. After one woman spoke, she offered me “words of encouragement”. She blessed me so much by telling me that God was there for me, that he was doing beautiful things with my life. Honestly? I was so humbled- I clung to every word she said. I don’t’ know what it was about today, but I left that women’s conference with such an admiration for the beautiful ladies of Kenya! I left that meeting craving to be closer to God, begging him to do whatever it took to get me where he wants me. That small bit of encouragement’s helped me to push forward a little harder.
After the women’s meeting, everyone just chilled out. I wonder if Mark told the other guys that I was crying, because they all got pretty quiet when I walked up. I realized then that I really didn’t care; there wasn’t much they could do to help me anyways. That meeting- it meant more to me than I think my teammates realized. This was my hope for change, and I really felt like God was finally starting to reveal a little more of His plans for me. I spent a little more time on the rock today, just talking with my Jesus.
We leave for a cruisade tomorrow, so I’m praying that things go well for that. It’s the witchcraft town that we’re going to, I think. Had some dinner….. hotdogs and chili. Crappy hot dogs, I should say.
In other news: There is a pink canteen waterbottle type thing that the team keeps saying I should keep. (if you don’t already know, I’m passionately against pink.) I threw the thing in their tent, and they threw it back in mine. I threw it back in there tent. It was my mistake for thinking this was the end of the story, because I just walked into our tent and it’s HANGING FROM THE ROOF. That was ingenious and incredibly funny, but WRONG…………….

I bid you goodnight :)

Day 7: 6-23-09

2009-08-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

I had nightmares last night. It’s never fun to have some of your worst fears play out in any form of realistic manner while you’re asleep. Unfortunately, mixing Brad’s story and malaria pills made this my reality. I felt better when I got to wake up to Coffee and Toast, and the news that today’s a shower day! I took the luxury of listening to my IPod a little bit this morning, and my wonderful playlist helped me sort through some things.
We went to Kisumu (I think…) today. WE got to visit the orphanage (a great treat!) and webb’s mom’s house. Let me tell you, it’s clear to see that Webb has his mom’s personality and dancing skills, and his dad’s looks! His mom was the most joyful lady! Her happiness made me happy!
Pastor Fred owns the orphanage that we visited. Besides seeing his orphanage, we got to see Fred’s house as well, because most of the kids in the orphanage live in his house. Fred’s wife’s name is Ruth, she was a wonderful lady! She was very strict, though. You see, it took a few hours to get to the orphanage, so we stopped at some restaurant on the way and ate there. We had eaten less than an hour before getting to Fred and Ruth’s, but they cooked and served us a buffet of food! The team only took a little bit of food because we really weren’t that hungry, and Jan and I fed some of our food to the baby we were playing with. When the time came to take everyone’s plates, Ruth told the girls who were clearing everything to leave my plate because I “need to finish my food”. I tried telling her that we ate before hand, and instead I was stuck with even MORE food on my plate (I didn’t know rice could be served so fast…) and was told that my plate wasn’t going to be taken until I finished my food. It really wasn’t fair, they took Jan’s plate and she left more on it than I did! I ended up feeding even more of my food to the baby, forced down many more bites myself, and moved the rest of the food around (in a toddler style fashion) to look like I ate more than I did. The taking of the plate was a defining moment in the Fred/Ruth household that I’m sure I will never forget!
Visiting at Fred’s was really a fun time, though. There is such a community there! The ladies of the house taught me the traditional way of cooking chapatti. They say I catch on fast, and I’m wondering if they weren’t just being nice! Brad came in and started filming me, which was a little awkward. I’ve decided that I much prefer cooking at home, but at least now I have a new recipe! (side note: they separated the chapatti that I made and the chapatti that they made. I would like to say for the record that Brad, who joke about how bad my chapatti was going to be, liked my chapatti quite a bit. It just proves that I do have a little bit of cooking skills!) Also on the menu today was chicken, rice, beef, and potatoes. I didn’t write it all down but I’m pretty sure that’s all there was. (our OTHER lunch? Chicken with Ugali, which is an “wet bread” like thing made with maize and boiling water.)

When we finally reached home (camp), we had PB&J, and I was VOLUN-TOLD to make omelettes in the morning. Apparently since I can cook chapatti, I can cook anything. We’ll see how the morning goes. I’m pretty sure omelettes isn’t going to happen. On a last note, I was introduced to everyone as the youngest member of the team. Jim used my youth as an example. God, I don’t like it, but if you’re going to use it then I guess I don’t have much choice but to follow your will, do I? I’m glad today was a good day, but I really hope I get better sleep tonight!

Day 6, 6-22-09

2009-08-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today started out wonderfully! I woke up freezing, but warmed up soon after some coffee! Had breakfast (toast and pineapple), got dressed, made sure everything was ready to go for Anna to do our laundry…. I feel sorry that she has to even TOUCH the guy’s clothes.
Let’s see, went to the office again, then picked up some more food, laundry supplies, and enjoyed a little bit of chocolate deliciousness!
We went to the bank to pull out some shillings, and while waiting for the rest of the team, Brad surprised me by buying me a Kiswahili to English translation book. How very sweet! After that we picked up lunch for everyone, Sombossas from Coffee Garden! Brad and I got into a mini-argument because I offered to pay for the food and he didn’t think I should have to. Couldn’t help my sassiness, told the poor guy to shut up, and I DID end up paying for lunch. I was glad, because I felt compelled to do something nice for my teammates. I’m surprised at how much I actually like them!
We had our sombossas at the office, and they were delicious! The men started throwing around ideas of what would make the sombossas better, and I think the one thing they agreed upon was sweet and sour sauce. I might be more enthusiastic if I liked sweet and sour sauce, but I don’t like it very much so I’m thinking that it would ruin the beautiful, culinary masterpiece that is a sombossa.
The team (minus Jim who was staying at the office and Mike who wasn’t feeling well) went back to the compound and held a children’s ministry thing for the school. It was so much fun! Jan and I put on two puppet shows. The kids loved it! It really got their attention, and I was so happy to hear their little giggles when my puppet (Rhino) started crying because “Noah was going to DIE!!!! Well, someday.” I got to be a bit dramatic with my puppet, and Jan (whose puppet was Froggie) was a good match for me to do a puppet with. I suppose being good with puppets is just what teachers do! Next we got to help the kids make these little “scrapbooks”. Honestly I don’t know why we had the kids make books, but they seemed to really love the project! Some of the kids I talked and sat with were SO cute! They had a lot of fun and were very creative! Some kids didn’t know how to write their names, others were complexed over where to put the paper, and most of them were very excited to show off just how creative they were! I will never forget how they drew pictures of the rain, the trees, their huts, and stick figures of their families. It was quite an honor to hear them tell me stories of their families (even though I could hardly understand what they were saying because half the time they weren’t speaking English). I really felt blessed after this, and to be honest I haven’t been so happy in a long time! About half way through childrens ministry, I heard some music, and brad was being schooled on how to play this guitar thing that’s popular in Africa. I hope he had a blast with that, because it looked like so much fun! The people here are very musically inclined, it made me wish Nathan were able to come on this trip, he would have loved it!
Later the team went back to town to pick up Mike and Jim, and we stopped for a quick visit to the internet café. I was very glad to get to write from my family, and loved reading the e-mails they sent me!!! I got pictures of my sister after she lost her tooth (and who was smiling big because the tooth fairy let me send her a letter for because that’s the first tooth she lost while I was away). It made my day, I miss my sister so much!!
FAST FORWARD to tonight…
Brad told the team the story of why he was single. I won’t go into detail about it, that’s his story to tell, but it really broke my heart. I told him that I really felt for him, but I don’t think it meant much to him, he doesn’t know of why his story affected me so much, all he knows is that some girl who’s never been married is telling him how sorry she is. Looking back on it (it’s bed time as I’m writing this down) I’m quite sure he and Jan (the other person to hear my comments to brad) are viewing me as just a kid….. I’m sure that to them, I’m living up to the oh-so “high” standard as the baby of the group.
As far as other insecurities, I really don’t know what God has me here for yet. I hope it get’s revealed to me soon, but until then I guess I’ll just see what it is He’s unfolding. I guess this is one of those “Jesus take the Wheel” kind of moments.

I guess this is goodnight, then. Way to end the day on a bad note, heather....

Day 5: 6-21-09 childrens ministry, tears, & smores

2009-08-08T18:06:00.000-07:00

So, it’s been a great morning! Forget that I’ve been up since 4, I was still heavily rested! I was really happy that I left my tent this morning to see Mike and Jim awake and coffee already on the table! I get a real kick out of having coffee ready for me in the morning instead of the usual I make coffee for everyone else.
Sharon and Jan and I were up a bit last night, heard some noises, and Sharon informed us that they’ve had a guard (or, a few interchanging guards) that have been staying up at night to make sure we’re safe. I’m really touched that they would go through that much effort for us!
In other news, the team had to help teach children’s ministry this morning. So, we ate breakfast (eggs, toast, and pineapple) and Jan and I practiced the puppet show that we were planning on putting on for the kids. Sharon had lessons plans ready to teach, so she kind of delegated the puppet show to us. All was fine till Brad decided to break out his video camera and film the first rehearsal. Sorry, he didn’t call it rehearsals, he called it “outtakes”. The rest of the childrens ministry went well. Judith (Pastor Protus’s wife) taught the class first. She had the kids sing some incredibly cute songs (in both Kiswahili AND English- I’m impressed!). I’ve noticed that they really love their worship here! The voices of the kids- it was so cute! They pronounce their English very well, and speak in what’s similar to an English accent. Let me tell you, I’ve never seen smiles as big in America or Panama as I’ve seen here in Kenya! These kids really amazed me today!
Back to lessons- Sharon taught the kids about Noah, and Jan and Sharon taught them a song about Noah’s ark, Brad filmed through the window, and Mark, Mike and I conveniently hid ourselves until it was time to put on the puppet show. (That was great though; because I got really absorb what was going on, instead of fretting over a lesson.) I’m pretty sure it was around this same time that I discovered that Mark doesn’t like kids. That’s going to make this trip quite the adventure for him, don’t you think? Funny stuff ;)
The puppet show didn’t go as well as I had hoped- I let myself get in the way which affected how well I played the character in the puppet show. I kicked myself a bit because I could have made it so much better than what I did….. Jan and I then took the puppets around the classroom so that “they” could say hi to the kids. I made some kids cry, and it really broke my heart.
Luckily, Brad bought a soccer ball for the kids to play with, and Sharon had more outdoor fun and games for the rambunctious group of Sunday schoolers. So, they played merrily outside, and I took the opportunity to give Judith one of the aprons that I made.
God had to work with me on that, because I was really struggling. I know I’m not the best seamstress, especially considering how well they do sewing stuff here, so I know that the apron I made wasn’t exactly up to their standards. I actually considered not even giving her the apron, but God tapped me on the shoulder (as he’s famous for doing) and told me to give what I had, regardless of how much I feel it’s worth. I hope I figure this lesson out soon because it’s one I’ve struggled with before, this whole “not being good enough” thing is entirely cliché and I can’t wait till I find a way out of feeling this way.
Anyway… after the apron giving, I went back to watching the kids play with the parachute and soccer ball. With the way they keep bouncing it around, I’m waiting for one of the three year olds to get hit in the head! It’s making me kind of nervous…. Spotted some smallish children watching everything from inside one of the classrooms, so I went over there and introduced myself. The older one (who was maybe 8?) smiled, got all shy (as the kids often do) and shook my hand. She was a very sweet little girl! Her younger brother (who looked no more than 18 months) started to cry. The SECOND child I’ve made cry today! I’m not liking my statistics so far. Not long after I was surrounded by a small herd of children, and that’s when Jan and Sharon joined my side and we started taking some pics of ourselves with the kids! They were so cute and got so excited and happy over seeing the camera!
After Sunday school, we were the “honored guests” (a title we would hear much more of, as I’ve come to find out). It was our first real time seeing the worship team, and I loved it! Some of the dancers (there are 6 of them, as I counted) got REALLY into worship! It was incredible! The whole church was singing and dancing for hours, I was impressed!
We listened to Jim preach a little bit. He was preaching about Change, and for whatever reason his sermon really affected me. I unwillingly broke down in tears, was mad at myself for crying, and Sharon saw me. She was supposed to have her eyes closed in prayer (like I last saw her doing) like everyone else and I was supposed to get myself under control by myself. She talked to me a bit about it, I told her very little about why I was crying, and she understood. I’m happy that Sharon came on the trip now, because It’s looking more and more like she’s going to be the one I follow on this trip. To top off this wonderful morning, we had to go up on stage and introduce ourselves to the church. It was fun, though. They introduced me as the “youngest one of the team”. I guess that’s a big deal here ;)
Someone named Esau is a dance teacher for the church, so at the end of service he brought the dancers to the front of the stage and they performed a show for us. That really made my day! You can really see how much the girls (all the dancers were girls) loved the dancing and singing! Their happiness made me happy! After the service was done, and team got to do a “meet and greet” with the church members. Then, we went back to our tents and had some lunch (grilled cheese and goldfish). Brad and I did Dishes, Jim went to fix the toilet, and Mark, Mike, and Sharon went to pray for a lady in the church. I did my bible study, and had a long and wonderful chat with Judith! She really is a sweet lady, I’m glad to have met her!
Webb, Protus, Brad, me, and some other guy all went into town. I was pretty much riding along because I had nothing else to do, but the adventure was fun! Brad charged my ipod for me, and we got to meet Webb’s wife, Mary! Meeting Mary was a big deal because she works as a nurse, and we were the first people in a long time to meet her. (Sharon hadn’t even met Mary yet, from my understanding, and she has been to Africa for the last 6 years in a row!) Brad and I made their grandson cry, because he had never seen a Mzungu (white person) before. Count this, everyone- this is the THIRD time I’ve made a child cry today. Really, I would much rather stop childrens ministry and keep the kids happy and smiling than to be the cause of their tears.
Moving on…
It was here that Brad and I were informed that if a person offers you something in their home, it is rude to not take it. I’m glad I learned this lesson now, or I may have offended a lot of people on the trip. Before leaving, we prayed over and anointed Webb’s daughter, Emma. She was sick with malaria. We stopped at the store on the way home, and Brad was kind enough to share some chocolate with me. He’s turning out to be a much nicer person than I thought; for some reason I had him pegged as being a little more… harsh. I would rather him nice than otherwise, so I won’t complain!

Once back home (as in, camp), the team had dinner (chicken soup and coffee! Nice!) and prepped for the youth outreach. We are introducing SMORES to a bunch of kids who have never had them before. This is going to be entertaining ;) Jim’s wife, Michelle, found a bunch of glow bracelets, so Sharon and I started getting them pre-set up for the kids. The rest of the team focused on putting the smores ingredients together and building a fire on the edge of the compound (for perfect marshmallow toasting!!!)
REWIND<<<<<<<<<<>>>>
Some of the manly men around here took 4, 6-7 foot long sticks of wood and sharpened the ends of them so that we had something to toast the marshmallows with. Anyone toasting marshmallows had to really watch that we didn’t hurt someone on accident, but we got quite skilled at stick handling by the end of the trip. In the end, Brad was “toasted” the marshmallow king, and I the marshmallow queen (we were the only two that toasted the entire time.) Sharon had hands that were absolutely covered in sticky marshmallow goo, Mark re-emphasized his dislike for children, and jim and Mike were on crowd control. I don’t know who passed out the glow bracelets, but I feel sorry for them because they were flooded! Later that night, Pastor Protus broke one of the glow bracelets and his shirt (and hands) were glowing green! It was so funny! We made a ton of jokes about how he’s the “glow in the dark pastor” and how “this is the only way to find and African at night”. It was quite a humorous ending to my day :)
I should also brag a bit that this was the third night of having an enormous star-filled sky! I wish I could take it home with me :)

DAY FOUR! (6-20-09)

2009-08-08T17:14:00.001-07:00

Woke up this morning at about 5… it’s probably an hour before the sun comes up, but I’m awake because everything keeps making noise. And by everything, I mean the rooster.
This is NOT ok….
Made oatmeal, had coffee, finished some dishes, and organized the food. Then we kind of sat around and were all chatty for a bit, so I decided instead to get around the campsite and get pictures of whatever I didn’t get the day before.
Later, we drove back down to Bungoma to be at Pastor John’s compound. I guess that’s where the office is? I was given the task of beading bracelets, Sharon and Jan went through stuff in the other room, and Brad and Mike and Mark put together gift bags that had scarves, ties, hankies, and seeds. (I guess we’re giving these out later?) The boys were quite persistent that they wouldn’t be helping me make bracelets. “It’s women’s work” I’m told. I’ll be nice to them and keep the my attitude in check… for now.
I would just like to say that by the end of the time at the office, the boys all helped me bead the salvation bracelets! I would also like to note that we probably beaded and cut 1,000 bracelets today.
Had some oranges, bananas, and sombosas. (Samosas? They are little triangular things… imagine an eggroll but filled with beef.) Had a LOT of water… Sharon and I had the opportunity to travel down the road with Pastor Webb. WE checked out the roadside stands, and bought some oranges and papayas. On the way back from the stands, Webb told us about Marti. He led us down one of her favorite roads to walk down, and told us how the community has changed since she was last here. It was very fun! We came across a lady named Nancy, who invited us into her home and let us meet her 3 kids. One of them had malaria, and when she saw us walking down the street she wanted us to come inside and pray for her malaria-stricken daughter. Webb informed Sharon and I that people around here think that a Mzungus prayers are more powerful than theirs, that we’re closer and more favored by God. We layed hands on her daughter and prayed for her- I never did catch her name. It was quite the experience!
Spent most of the rest of the day at the office, and had a pretty quiet ride back to the campsite. There was another cloudless night, so most of us stayed up and just looked at the sky. Brad showed me some astronomy stuff, and we talked a bit about how much fun the astronomy lab is. (I wouldn’t know, haven’t taken the class yet.)
I’m really glad that I got to spend time with Sharon and the team today. Sharon is looking like she’ll be a good friend for me while I’m here, and I’m glad that I’m getting to know my team a little better. I am feeling incredibly like I need to just sit down and shut up for most of this trip, though. That being said, I haven’t hardly spoken to my teammates, just listened to them. I can’t imagine what kind of crazy thoughts they must have of me so far! I don’t think I’ll be opening up to any of them anytime soon- except, as I said, maybe Sharon. Now, the question is, do I still open up to Sharon when she’s going to be leaving in two weeks? She’s and incredible lady and trustworthy as I’ve seen, but what will I do when she’s gone if I open up to her now?
Once again, I’ll just keep my mouth shut and see how this all unfolds…..

Friday, Day 3 (for blogging purposes)

2009-08-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, I don’t know if this is technically day three, or four. For the purpose of the blog, it’s day 3.

Woke up around 1 this morning. It’s a Friday morning, and I have no reason to be up at 1 in the morning, except that I thought it was 6 in the morning. I started walking around the hotel room getting what little stuff I have with me together so I can get ready for the day because I can’t be the one that’s late and holding up the team. Jan wakes up when I start turning on lights, asks me what the heck I was doing, and tells me to go back to bed. “It’s one in the morning!” she says. Dazed and confused, I figured that she must be right (because I’m hardly ever right) and I slither my way back to bed. Woke up (again for the second time) around 6 to the ever annoying sound of a ringing phone. I picked up the phone, ready to throw it against the nearest available wall, and realized that it was my wake up call so instead politely made some kind of noise to the guy on the other line to let him know that everyone in my room was indeed awake, and that he could stop calling the room now.
I DID get my shower… it was ice cold, and I had no shampoo (our luggage was on a bus somewhere headed to kimikungi, the team only had what they carried on the plane.) So, I took the “imperial leather” soap, and lathered it up quite nicely until it sufficiently washed my hair. Did I tell you that the shower was freezing? I think it needs to be said a third time. I came out of the freaking bathroom with ice crystals on my eye lashes and I was shivering. Cold and I are not friends, I’ve apparently adapted to much to Vegas.
I was downstairs by 6:35, and by 6:45 (maybe 7) the team was on lake Victoria checking out hippos in their natural habitat. After that was breakfast- eggs, sausage, potatoes, watermelon, and oh-so-precious COFFEE! Today we’re on our way to Bungoma. I’ve been told that it’s pronounced “boon-go-mah” not “bun-go-mah” so please, dear readers, don’t get confused. On our way to this little town, we passed the Equator (I felt no change between the northern and southern hemispheres) and stopped to take pictures of one of the many wonders of the world- the Weeping Rock. The weeping rock has been featured in national geographic. It’s a wonder because water seeps from between these two rocks that are stacked on top of each other. No one knows where the water comes from, or how it got there, or why it flows, but they do know that the water is quite uncollectable because it disappears before hitting the ground. National geographic says that the water never stops flowing, but a lady that lives close to the rock (and who was kind enough to come talk to us) said that every once in a while it will make a loud noise, and the water will stop flowing for a short while before starting up again. It was around this time that Pastor Titus started talking about how seeing two bats flying next to each other around the rock means something is going to happen. (good or bad.)
Fast forward:
Now we’re in Bungoma. Pastor Protus is one very cool gentleman, with a stellar family! His wife’s name is Judith, and his kids are Zapporah (the eldest, a girl) Junior(a boy) and Senior (a girl). Junior and Senior are twins. Zippy is about 10, and junior and senior are 7.
Fast forward again- we found out today that Pastor Webb and his Wife, Mary, are going to be getting married. I guess they have been married, have kids and grandkids and all that, but they are going to be married on an official basis under God. I’m told that Jan, Sharon and I are going to be Wedding Planners! How fun will that be?
This may be a good time to mention that the water buffalo song by Superchick is stuck in my head. I might just have to show this song to Jan and Sharon today. [I brought my i-pod with me, good thinking ;)]
Oh! I haven’t told you about camp yet, have I? my apologies. Well, after the bumpy ride that was the road from kisumu to kimikungi, the team gathered up all the bags we had and set up camp! Whoever lives onsite was kind enough to have these ginormous tents already set up for us, so we just had to set up our tentcots inside. We also set up tables, got the ministry items all separated, and created our “kitchen”.
After all of this was done, we were given short tours of the grounds. There are big, beautiful fields of corn. I saw a coffee plants for the first time (personal victory!) and found myself enamoured with the way of living here. We got to check out the school, church, the place where the cows hang out, the kitchen, protus’ house, and the rock of prayer. The rock of prayer… I think that’s where I’m going to have my hiding place while I’m here. I’ll have to find a good spot that’s just away from everyone.
Anyway, half the team went to the store (for 3 hours) to get food and any other necessary items that may have been overlooked. The rest of us got to relax at camp and finish up some lifejournaling. It’s been discovered that for whatever odd reason, my teammates seem to enjoy reading the scriptures from the lfiejournals out loud. They also want us to share our lifejournals with each other. This is fine to an extent, but really, I don’t want to share something so personal with people that I don’t know. This whole life journaling with EVERYONE may not work out so great, I don’t know how long I can handle this whole “sharing with the team” thing. I don’t plan on knowing them all THAT well. Had dinner at camp, tough chicken (flavor was decent) rice, and chapatti (tortilla that’s thicker and tastes better). It filled me up, so I can’t complain.
I have to say- African sunsets are amazing! The colors are so vibrant and relaxing! Another Treat… the stars were so bright! It was a clear night, so I really got a chance to lose myself in the stars. I saw the milky way, and was reminded of how small I really was compared to the world. I really wondered, as I looked at this intricate sky, what God would do with someone so imperfect as me, when he can make something as perfect as that?
I wonder what all he’s got in store for me now. I have a feeling I’m going to get stretched.

FLIGHT TIME: the journey there

2009-08-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

Boarding the plane today was simple. The luggage was underweight by about 2 pounds so that was nice. I opened up some letters that CarolAnn and my Mom gave me to read on the plane. They were quite encouraging!
I’m reflecting a bit on what’s all happened so far.
Jim bought me starbucks. Free drinks are always nice. The starbucks people gave me a caramel frapp and not a mocha one. No big thing, but chocolate is always better.
Saying goodbye to my family was a little hard. I’m very much ready to start this journey, but watching my sister be in tears (and knowing that she’s been crying every night for the last month) was quite heartbreaking. My mom and dad are trying to be strong. I know I’ll be fine, but I can pretty much they’re still worried, and will probably break down when they get home, So, much of my flight was spent praying for my family.
Flying out to Georgia was cool! It was a stellar thing to look out the window and see crop circles everywhere. The clouds were really awesome to look at; I completely understand why my grandpa loved being a pilot!
Georgia is beautiful from up top, but I kind of lost that joy knowing that our plane was an hour late and the plane to Dubai boards an hour before takeoff. At least the plane is nice. We’re in one of those jets that seats 9 new a row… 3 on the left, 3 on the right, 3 in the middle. As silly as it sounds, I never thought I would be on a plane with this kind of seating arrangement. I’ve only ever seen it in movies and up until this flight have always perceived the “movie planes” as being fake…. Anyway, I’m sitting in the middle row. So no window for me.
I guess I’ll be babbling a lot about nonsense things because this flight to Dubai is supposed to be incredibly long (13 hours? REALLY?) So pardon my uh…. Nonsense babble. Dinner was served on the plane… manicotti.. Veggie pizza…. Couscous (cold rice thing that was incredibly gross)… fruit cup… Milano cookies. Eh.
So far, we took off from Vegas on the 16th of June, crossed a time zone sometime after Atlanta (over Europe I think?) and watched the sun come up on what is now the 17th…. We’ve lost 12 hours on the plane. 12 HOURS. Now I’m at the Dubai airport, and it’s 2 in the morning (local time) on the 18th of June. This is freakin crazy…. Let me also remind you that throughout this time I’ve still yet to sleep. It’s like I have some kind of anti-sleeping-on-planes disease. Drew a bunch of crazy pictures……..went to starbucks in Dubai. I don’t technically know if this is day 2 or 3... That’s kind of creeping me out. Jan and I ate McDonalds while the rest of the team (who are Mike, Mark, Jim, Brad, and Sharon) ate at some crazy pizza place. Jan fell asleep on the table so I took a picture. She can kill me for it later ;)

{In DUBAI}
So, this has been my first time being segregated into the holding area to get on a plane. The airport security people put the men in one line and the women in another, checked our tickets, and we proceeded to the holding area to wait for the plane, and the women were once more allowed to mingle with their manly counterparts. Craziness. My bag had to be checked, because apparently it’s too big to Kenya airways to handle as a carry on. No big thing. I’ve been informed by Jim that it’s quite likely we will miss our flight from Nairobi to Kisumu, meaning that it’s quite likely we will be staying the night in Kisumu before venturing onward to bungoma. We’re not even in Nairobi yet, and I’m freaking exhausted tired and {still} unable to sleep, so at this particular moment I don’t really care if we have to stay in kisumu or not.
Moving on….
I’ve spent 6 or so hours now just reflecting. I’m no longer crying for my family, but I’m quite proud of them. I know that my leaving for Kenya is putting them through a lot, and I’m thankful they’re supporting me with this. I’m also happy that God has revealed to me what my testimony is. I was actually quite worried about what my testimony would be, I should really learn to trust God a bit more.
As I was sitting in the Dubai airport, I noticed it was quite beautiful. They have 2 story high palm trees (fake, everyone.) elegant chandeliers, and an overall lovely, almost Arabian themed airport. Seen a lot of Muslim women around here. It’s pretty nifty to see them in those long black dresses and headscarves so you only see their eyes. Nifty but creepy- I turned around one time and only saw this big black thing with eyes staring at me. It was a fun time. People watching at this airport has been killer!
Speaking of people, the team has been pretty cool so far. Everyone is hysterical! I’ve loved listening to the stories that they’ve told.

{Plane to Nairobi}
What day is it? I don’t even know. I think it’s still technically the 18th but I’m probably wrong so don’t listen to me. Uh… coffee, orange juice, bread and butter, mixed fruit yogurt, some spinach thing, potatoes, scrambled eggs with avocado and tomato, and turkey sausage. That’s NOT all one meal, people.
{IN Nairobi}
We have FINALLY arrived in Nairobi…. Made it! In Kenya! We missed our 7:15 am flight to Kisumu by a half hour. The next one takes off at 5:30. In the mean time, we decided to take a tour of Nairobi to pass the time. We went to the Nairobi Historical Museum. They had an evolutionary exhibit (of humans… creepy looking too). They had the “Then’s and Now’s” of artifacts used in Kenya. There was a school there at the same time we were, and the kids seemed to enjoy the museum so much! The museum worker people decided that the “Mzungu’s” (white skinned foreigners) needed to view the exhibits on their own and NOT with the mass crowd of children… so they held the kids back from entering the rooms we were in until after we had left them. Kind of a kill joy, but we’re not here to change their policies. For the first time on this trip, I desperately wish I had MY camera and not the janky throw away ones I brought. I found this gorgeous staircase that wound up to a second story, and hanging down from the staircase was a huge (possibly 8-12 foot long) PICTURE chandelier! It had pictures of different people, places, and things in Kenya!!! They had it blocked off for whatever reason, but a guard saw me looking at it and let me up the staircase anyway to get a better view. That really made my trip to the museum, the pictures were beautiful! And the room the staircase was in was filled with windows; I could have taken some amazing shots had I brought MY camera with me. Instead, I convinced myself that not taking my camera was the better idea. What was I thinking? I don’t even know.
Moving on…
After leaving the museum, (and running into a shopkeeper that was terribly upset that Jan and I didn’t buy anything from him) we spend a good 10 minutes searching for our Van and driver. We weren’t thrilled that he moved the van where we couldn’t see it, because he had all of our luggage with him. When we did find him, and the van, and our luggage all intact, we ventured onward to a zoo. The Kenyan’s didn’t call it a zoo, actually. Its correct name is the “Animal Orphanage”. While there, we saw alligators, lions, cheetahs, leopards, monkey, an ostrich, and a few other animals. It was so cool! They have no real fences in the zoo (the San Diego Zoo and SD Wild Animal Park kind of spoiled me on the fence thing, I imagine.) They have chain link fences to separate smallish children from lions and chimps. It was pretty stellar. As Mzungu’s, we were once again given special treatment when most of our team {minus the ones who decided to venture off on their own} got to go see the big lion up close from where only the zoo keepers are supposed to go. The lion was sleeping right in front of me, I could have pet him! (Alas, I wasn’t brave enough to wake a sleeping lion that could easily make its way through the chain link fence. That, and I don’t think the guard would have appreciated it.)
After that adventure, we got to go visit the Cheetahs. And, by visit, I mean we got to go in their cage and pet them!!!!!! It was thrilling!!! As it is, I think “big cats” like lions and tigers are cool. I never imagined in my life I’d get to pet one! That really set the tone for my trip! Soooooooooooo worth the 30 hours of flight time!
>>>>>Fast Forward:
We’re eating dinner… I had pasta, and tasted some Kenyan chicken. Had sprite. And when the table felt like it was moving to the right, and my world seemed to be tilted to the right, and when I stood up and things started spinning in the best way, I realized- I haven’t slept in 48 hours. Maybe more. I had the craziest vertigo. I felt like I was trying to stand still on a moving boat! When we got back to the airport, and were on our Nairobi-Kisumu flight, I slept the whole way! (Disregard that “the whole way” is only about an hour long. It’s the first hour I’ve slept in a while.) When we got to Kisumu, we got hotel rooms at the Sunset hotel. Went out to eat, and I got to know my teammates a little better. After that, it was la la salama for me!!! {Good night}.

Start of the Kenya Blog- a letter to my readers

2009-08-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

To my readers:
Jambo sana everyone! If your reading this letter, it means you have probably heard about my recent journey to Kenya. I’m going to tell you all about my trip, start to finish, in this blog; but before I do, I want you to know: this trip to Kenya changed my life. If you weren’t aware, God called me to go to Kenya when I was a freshman in highschool. He told me to start getting ready for an adventure. I faced many adversities getting to kenya- many roadblocks set forth to prevent me from leaving- but with God by my side, every mountain crumbled.
I started out my trip a very different person than when I left. I won’t go into detail, but to be honest, I didn’t much like the person that I was when I left. However, I came back from Kenya a woman of renewed faith. I grew so much on this trip. God did something in me, CHANGED something in me, that has made me very different person than what I was, and I couldn’t be more greatful! The experiences of Kenya have changed my life, and it is for this reason that I claim Kenya as my other home.
This trip was an experience unlike any other. Many personal victories were won, many lives were saved, and many had their faith in God restored. To know how God has connected the lives of the people in Kenya to the people in America- I find it incredible! Mighty things were accomplished in Kenya, and in America. To see how so many people have grown in faith and in the Lord touches my heart in ways I cannot even begin to describe. I hope that as you read through my blog, that you will look beyond my words and experience how God worked in His people.
Asante Sana-
Heather Lynch

Day 11: Coming Home!

2009-04-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

Yay! I come home today!

we ate breakfast (speaking proper english, now. ate breakfast. not did breakfast or had breakfast, according to Ugo and Chris.) and finished debriefing and Hot Seat. I woke up at 6:30 this morning and wasn't able to go back to sleep! (whether this is good or bad- i don't know!)

I jumpes on Ana and Laura to wake them up at 7:30. Needless to say, they were not the slightest bit pleased with me.

I found out from Ugo and Chris that i need Lotramine because I have this funal thing on my arm. it actually went away on it's own, so i'm not worried.

We're also taking albendazole to prevent worms. Wonderful -_-

Not to mention, I still have another 4 weeks of malaria pills. (Mefloquine, of course!)

On the way back from the airport, we picked up another group of cornerstoners that had traveled to different countries to help out women in guatamala and stuff. That was awesome because Jana was on that trip, and she is a good friend of mine.

Now we are at the airport. It's actually quite boring just sitting here, writing random things in this notebook. I go through another security checkpoint (not while writing this at the same time, of course!) and i'm on the plane, eating gross chicken sandwiches.

I've slept almost the entire flight. Not slept well, just... heavily resting. It's been pretty quiet.
We're descending now into the Houston airport, now.

It was pretty cool flying over the gulf of mexico. I'll also be sure to take pics of houston from teh air because it's gorgeous! soo green! There is some sad news... the doctors need to stay here in houston. It turns out that when we bought the tickets, the doctors' flights were at 8:00 inthe morning, and ours were around 1. Why we weren't on the same flight, i have no idea, but we got them about another plane now. So, they have to stay here in houston until another flight comes. Ugo couldn't come to say good bye, (the airport security wouldn't allow him to because he didn't have a valid ticket to get to the other side of security), but they let Chris through for a short amount of time. He used the recording option on his camera and recorded Ugo saying goodbye to everyone, so we got to see everything that way. We all recorded messages to him, as well. I'm really going to miss them. They were so cool! Chris was funny, and Ugo was like wild fire.

I'm really excited to see my family. It's unnatural to have not talked to them for this long. When i got my letters half way through the trip, it took everything within me not to cry. I missed them so much! i can't wait to see everyone, i'm so excited! I have plenty of gifts for everyone, thanks to my selected shopping excursions!

I think the most exciting momento that i have to bring back is the Basket. It's handmade and gorgeous! it's exactly what i was hoping to bring back from this trip.

I'm also excited about showing everyone the tatoos (henna, of course) done by the chiefs wife. How do you think they'll react?

That's all for now, i suppose.

Day 10: Hit the Beach!

2009-04-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today was Amazing! We got up and ready by 8:30, grabbed some snacks, and hit the beach! but not just any beach- a private beach comlplete with cabanas and jet ski rentals, banana boat rides, hammocks, slightly cloudy skies, good waves, and white sands- it was so beautiful! we got there about 10:00 and didn't leave until about 5:30.
I slept in the hamock which the ocean came in and out of tide, and I could feel and hear the sounds of the wind through the palm trees. It's an experience I could have only dreamed of! Now i get to live it in real life! Had chicken nuggets and fries for lunch at a sea food shack that was right on the sand. we got home, took showers, I rinsed the sand out of my bathing suit (got a lot in there after collecting sea shells! we had to dive under the water to get the good ones!) and got ready for dinner. I wore my new skirt/shirt outfit that I picked up yesterday, and we went back to the mall for dinner. The only place open was the Hard Rock! It was fun to watch Ugo dance to the rock music. we danced while we ate (danced in our seats!). It was fun! I'm all tan, now, too. That's nice. Evidence of my tropical getaway :)

When coming back to the hotel after the beach, our bus was stopped at a light and there is this man hopping on one leg across the street. Amanda stops the "hot seat" (where we all compliment someone) to say "that guy's retarded, he's hopping across the street on one leg!" and Jesse Chriswell says, "He only HAS one leg!"
I think amanda has been embarrassed by this story ever since!

**side note:
On the beach today, while walking along, marcus and ugo and I found a dead pelican. It was creepy, and we tried to get a closer look at it, and some guy yelled at us in spanish when we got too close to it. It was highly amusing :)

Day 9: Panama City

2009-04-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

So much happened today!

We had to be on the bus at 5:00 am Panama time- that means 3 am Vegas time!

The team got everything ready and loaded up, and we were all pretty tired. When we got on the bus, I fell asleep!

Then, I woke up to someone next to me, and moving me over so they would have more room. (when everyone was on the bus, i had 2 seats to myself.) Some guy was sitting next to me, and talking to me in spanish. Still under the influential daze of sleep, I wondered if this person was even real, or if he was a figment of my imagination. as i looked at him, eyes half open, i thought he might have been an angel, like mary and joseph received angels. I looked at everyone else to see if I was the only person that could see this guy, and I wasn't. After realizing that this guy was no angel, and that he was in fact real, i decided that he must have been a worker on our trip with us, and probably was one of the guys that helped load the bus. (I figured that this was the only logical explanation for this strange guy considering he was even ON the bus. )

I told the nameless person that I was tired, and to leave me alone.

He STILL kept talking to me!

I found out that Angel told him to shut up and leave. (not very Christian like, but probably neccessary for safety.) Kathy was about to push jesse toward me to make the guy go away. the few other people on the bus who were awake realized that this stranger just randomely decided to board our bus, and he had no business doing so. Pastor David told him to get up and leave, and the guy just looked at him. Pastor David then switched to saying (in spanish) "leave or I call the Police!" which made the stranger get up and move rather quickly!

I have to say, i felt very protected- everyone that was awake watched this guy until we determined if he was allowed to be on the bus or not. they were looking out for me and my safety. It's a nice feeling to know that someone has your back! (for your reference, Jessica was the one who realized that this man wasn't a part of our team.) Jesse also reminded me, after we were already on the road, that I had no reason to worry because everyone had my back.

In greater news, we got to see the Panama Canal today!

It was pretty cool, to watch some of the ships go through the rising of the water. I had to buy a digital camera (since my other camera still wasn't working), and I bought some souvineer things. I took some pictures, too, want to see?

We also went shopping today. We went to two thrift shop places, and I got some cool gifts! (i collect spoons, so i got 2 of those.) I got some bracelets, and a few other little trinkets.

I also found out today that the hotel we're staying at is 4 stars! that's a lot different from what i've been accustomed to for the last 8 days!

When we arrived at our hotel, we divided our rooms up. the boys were one floor, expect for jerry who shared a room with his wife, and the girls were on the floor above the boys. Once again, i shared a room with laura and Hannah. This time I got the real bed and Ana got the spare, althought the spare from this hotel was considerably more comfortable. Actually, my room wasn't even ready until later that evening. we had to store our stuff in Jerry and Leah's room until after dinner!

Anyway, we were instructed by Jerry and Leah to put our stuff down in our room, unpack whatever is neccessary, and to come downstairs. we walked about a block, and into a huge mall! the food court was on the fourth floor, and everyone had their choice of food! of course, i had a serious craving for Pizza hut. :) we also got another hour and a half to browse the mall and shop around. I ended up getting a beautiful blue skirt and black and white top, along with accessories! (a lovely bracelet!)

When we got back to the hotel, a bunch of us went swimming in the pool. we met a new girl (who didn't stay for long, due to how late it was by now) that was from Columbia. she was pretty nice.

We played marco polo, and in the "kiddie pool" created a whirlpool that would let all of us float like the lazy river at wet and wild. After that, it was a shower, and off to bed! (a very comfortable bed!)

*Views from outside the hotel room.

*View of me in the hotel room.

Day 8: in Yaviza!!! (day 8 part 2)

2008-08-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Going through the town was fun! we saw a very old catholic church, a soccer game, and everyone walking around in a good mood, stores open, it was so awesome!! Today happens to be a national fiesta day of some sort, so everyone is in a good mood!! we found a long bridge that we crossed. It wasn't nearly as stable as i would have liked. {it wobbled way to much to be hanging over a wide river so HIGH in the air!!!
Once Jesse {S} realized that i was afraid of the bridge {and very ready to get OFF of the bridge} he started to swing it back and forth!!! he would jump on it and i was so mad!!! {we had to walk in a certain fashion: girls in the middle and surrounded by the guys, as a safety precaution, so Jesse was placed behind me :P} I was so not happy with him!!! everytime i'd turn around, he would laugh adn move the bridge again. At least marcus was on my side, he didn't like the bridge either!! Jerryman was just amused. :P

on a more serious note..
God really revealed himself in a whole new way to me today. I've been fine all day, and then out of nowhere Chris is looking concerned and asking me if i'm okay. "Of course I am!" I tell him. and why wouldn't I be?? Then, a little before i'm to go up and sing, Jessica and Pastor David come up to me, and tell me that God hears my prayers and answers them. {They also told marcus, but we were both under the impression that the entire team was individually told this.} Before going up to sing, the room seemed to get dark, even though the lights were on and it was bright in the room. it was like a black fog surrounded the brick walls. It was like there were more chains around the room... very strange.

Then I stopped breathing.

I was barely taking in enough air to survive on my own.. but i recognized this- Spiritual warfare. It was a challenge for me. Would i still sing and worship God and carry out the rest of the service if i couldn't even breathe?? would I try and do this on my own or ask God for help??

I prayed for God to pull me through, for him to {once again} but the air in my lungs, open my mouth, adn sing for me. I asked that he would pay extra special atttention to make the worship that night most effective. I was able to talk to Leah and to Angel about it all, quick enough to ask them to pray for me too, and then I had to sing.

It felt like someone had laid me on my back, and placed heavy boulders on my lungs. The harder i tried to breath, the less air i took in.. but God had enough air in my lungs to keep me going. I sang flawlessly....
after worship, i was able to breath a little better, until dramas began. then i couldn't breath again. then spanish worship, it happened again. same with service and ending worship. However, i was paying attention. I kept praying. I had other people praying.
I could see the darkness fading more and more... Whereas before, i could look out the door and see nothing but pitch black.
I also noticed that we started our service with only 2 families and a few strays, and we ended service with a full house and people standing even outside to watch!!! {that was an extra blessing.. remmber how i said that it was a national day of fiesta-ness??? would you go to church on a party day?? exactly!!}

It wasn't until everything was over, and we were packing up our stuff that i was able to breathe easier. {still, my breaths were shallow.} Then.. I felt totally in teh presence of God. I got the shivers down my neck, spine, and throughout my body. {I get this everytime i feel in the presence of God.} I took the biggest breath i had ever taken in my entire life... it was like someone was forcing air into my lungs, and large amounts of it. That happened twice. I knew that God was filling my lungs with air, and afterward i was breathing perfectly fine as if nothing had happened to me at all.

I know it was a spiritual attack, but i was greatful for it!! How awesome to be tested so heavily, and to overcome the challenge at that!!! It was amazing, looking around the room with 'spiritual goggles' and knowing that God just won a battle in the war. To succumb completely to God, trust him with your life, and to be used like a tool in such a way, it was miraculous!!!

Remember from earlier? Marcus was the only other person to hear from Jessica and Pastor David the words that were spoken to me. {we didn't even know this about each other until later.}
he was also heavily spiritually attacked that night. He suffered from severe loss of money {when you are in a foreign country and still have a few days before heading home, the last of your $60.00 is a lot to lose!!} and an even more severe case of heat exhaustion. I really didn't know too much of what happened to marcus, but i know God pulled him through in the same manner that he pulled me through. Something happened that Marcus was able to get some {or, most?} of his money back so he could last the next few days. After service was over, he also felt fine and was cured from his heat exhaustion. God is Miraculous!!!

It was, in my opinion, a good ending to a good day XD

Day 8- Back to Yaviza!!!

2008-08-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

Today has been fun.

I'm still feeling a little on my own... i guess whatevers' whatever.
Angel is cool to talk to. I know that some people are getting on my nerves a bit, adn she's talkign me out it, helping me keep it under control. I'm actually ready to go home, i really miss my family!!!
The kids of the village are so cute. they helped us bring our luggage to teh canoes. It's so nice that they help us this way!! they offer it!! they're very strong, too. You have kids that are 7 years old carrying 30-40 pounds of luggage at a time!! At least the luggage is lighter now... thank goodness we're not taking the medicine back!!
We had an interesting start this morning. The engine didn't want to start!!! we sat in the boat waiting for the engine to be fixed for about a half hour...
To pass the time, we were tossing hacki sacks to the kids {who were up higher than us on a cliff} and they would toss them back. We conversed with each other, and we through snacks back and forth from one side of the boat to the other. it was a lot of fun!!! I think half the stuff landed in the water. Jesse {s} sat two 'rows' up from me. {i was at the very back of the boat.} Last time we were in the canoes, HE was in the very back, and I would splash him with water everytime he fell asleep. {the boy slept EVERYWHERE!} so i think he was glad that the situation was revered. {actually, i know he was, he kept splashing me!!}
I had angel and Amanda pray over the engine, that it would start working and that we would get to Yaviza safely. About 5 minutes later, the engine started. {Can someone say amen?? Hallelujah!!!}

During the canoe ride, I saw a lot of wildlife {again}. There was a lot of ducks this time.

I thought it was majestically beautiful to see the top of the mountains from the river this morning. You could see the tops of the mountains, and part of the middle, but mos tof the middle of the mountain was covered in these beautiful clouds, and the sky was so blue and clean from the rain the day before!!! I wish my camera was working so I could take a picture, because it was SO lovely!!!!! God's handywork is a majestic piece of art, indeed.

I bought some jewelry yesterday. {I had a lot posted for yesterday, so i'm telling you about it now... otherwise this post would be really short :P)
The cheif allowed some of the villagers to come up to our hut with stuff they were selling. I bought some stuff for my mom and I.

Okay Pause:
Angel just asked if i had a spare hairtie, so i gave her the one that i was using at the moment. {i didn't need it then.} she hands it to jesse who is now using it and another one to have his hair put in pigtails. He already let us paint his nails!!??!! Geez, what a guy will do when a girl is around :P

Moving on...
something else happened this morning.
Okay,let me backtrack a bit so you'll understand what i'm about to tell you. A few days ago when i was prescribing for Chris, a man came in, and after being diagnosed, showed Chris two little sculptures made out of a nut. {hand carved and painted, very intricate}. one was a dragonfly, and one was some other bug thing. The man said he would cut chris a deal, and that the objects could be purchased for $8.00 each. Chris told the man he would have to wait, and that he had to see the other patients first. Well, Pastor David, in one of his many sparks of generosity, bought both pieces from the man and gave them to Chris.
This morning, as we are packing the rest of our stuff up, Chris pulls me aside and gives me the dragonfly piece. He told me that he wanted me to have it since i was the one prescribing for him at the time. It really made my morning that Chris would share his gift that Pastor David had given him. {if your reading this, Chris, then Thank you again!!}
It was one of those special things that kicks off your day. ^.^

back to the present~
I think that the river is so beautiful. I've never seen anything like it!! it's truly majestic!! My camera couldn't even begin to capture the unrealistic beauty that is the Darien Jungle. {althouhg, i wish my camera was still working. at least i have 7 days of photos!!!}

OS now.. it's been a while on the boat. I've written in black ink on my arm because of the lack of paper. {i'm runnign out of journal space, which is crucial, so i'm saving it...}
I think my mom would kill me if she was here watching my write on my arm this way. Many others, too, actually. I need to take it off before going home. :P

So.. you know those things in life that make you feel absolutely beautiful?? Take this moment right now. It's lightly sprinkling on the river, i'm surrounded by beautiful and lush greenery, it's calm and quiet, and i'm here to just soak it all in!! It's as if i'm looking at a beautifully created masterpiece, and that i've been put there by mistake, or as if i get a sneak peak at something so beautiful that I'm not actually supposed to be apart of. It puts a smile on my face and now people are looking at me weird. they'll get over it. ;)

I was so comfortable, actually, that i slept for 2 hours on the boat. Now i have some serious tanlines from my sleeves on my arm.
So, i'm going to backtrack again to somethign that happened last night.
We were performing the Hat skit, and i forgot to put the white hat on Jesse's head!!! Ana elbowed me right as we were walkign away and whispered, "the hat! the hat!"
The hat was in my pocket, along with toys. the music was still in my favor so i turned around, whiped the hat out, and while iw as putting it on his head noticed that a bunch of toys had flown out of my pocket and onto the ground. It was very dramatic. {the toys were there to give out to the kids, seeing as it was our last night in Union Choco.} All the songs went really well, too!!
RANDOM: Bananas. Did you know that plaintains {bananas of a different kind} grow on awesome trees that only sprout the fruit once in the life of the tree?? {it only takes ten months for a tree to grow and sprout fruit.} So, instead of just picking the fruit, they chop the entire tree down!!! THIS i have a picture of. The kids like when this happens because then they have a new plaything. I thought it was pretty interesting when i first heard it, and wanted to write it down before i forgot...

When we got to Yaviza, we found this plant thats similar to a fly trap. it was really cool, if you touched the leaves, then they closed. it felt like touching.. air.
Other than that, the team just chilled for a while, and talked. It was nice to just relax for a bit. We tried another new fruit. It's small, round and green. there is no name for it, but it's similar to a lime except its jsut as sweet as it is sour and it's a seed... that you suck on but don't chew. Very odd fruit, but good all the same.
While we sat, we looked at each others pictures {and took some more goofy ones!}
Pastor David once again showed his generosity to us by purchasing soda and chips for us to snack on. How sweet of him!! Beef and Rice was lunch, which was really good!!!

Side note: it's now the second day of taking Defloquine. only 5 more days to go...

I was called into the Hot seat for tonight. {hotseat: During our meal, the entire team takes turnes saying something nice about whoever is on the hotseat.} Honestly, i don't think the team knows how much it helped that i was on the hotseat during this time. I really didn't want to be on it at all. I thought it was going to be fake or forced, or a simple compliment that you would give a stranger off the street. I was getting a little negative about it, actually, because i didn't want the attention. God really worked on my heart, though, and it turned into a huge blessing!!! so much so, in fact, that i wrote what everyone said.

... you have a beautiful voice
... I love the way you do worship with Jesse

... I'm thankful you're singing because it makes my job easier {jesse}

... I love your smile/laugh, it's contagious!!

... I Love how random you are {amanda}

... Your Awesome at prayer

... I love how you throw yourself into the things that your doings, even if you don't exactly know what your doing. {chris}

... I love how when your unsure of something that your doing, you pray and ask God to do it for you so he can help you {kathy}

... I like how you pray for people sincerely and how you know what to pray for even though you don't understand the language

... I like how you act with the kids, how you play and have fun with them

... How you learned all those spanish songs and how you pronounce them so well.

... I'm glad to have gotten to know you {or know you better}

... She can do everything!! I needed someone to draw, she can draw. Someone to sing, she can sing. And did you knwo she did the myspace for Evident??? {Jerry is the drummer for Evident} {as said by leah and jerry}

... Your Singular Wit!!! {ugo}

... How you are always laughing/how contagious you are when your happy!

... I sometimes forget your age & how young you are because you have wisdom beyond your years, but at the sametime have a child like humor about you. it's a good combination!!

These things really lifted me up, and I was genuinly surprised at the sincerity behind the words, it really meatn a lot to me that people thought I was doing a good job. It kind of made the other things i was thinking of and going through {throughout the week} vanish.

... in other news. I bough this really cool handmade mask today. we also get to take a walk through the town today!!!

Somethign else that i've noticed today is this: our team was told to NOT wear american flags and such because we don't want to appear prideful aobut our country to these people. we also went through basic etiquette of the area; eat all your food, etc. we were reaching out to show the people we respect them. They did the same for us, because we've been seeing people wear american flags on their shirts everywhere we go!! it's been quite an adventure.

I'll post the rest of today's entry in another blog, because this one is getting very long :P

Day 7- An Amazing day!!

2008-08-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

1/2 clinic today, followed by clean up. I'm glad i brought a few packs of those HUGE ziplock bags that hold like 25 gallons of stuff, because those were the bags the medicine was put in that we left down there.
I got two more letters from home today... it took everything I had not to cry!!! I miss my family so much!!!
So, Amazing things happened today.
first...

I was so tired at clinic today. I could barely keep my eyes open, and i was yawning every minute or two. I was supposed to sing this mornign for clinic.. and i can't sing if i keep yawning liek this!! i have no energy and i haven't warmed up my voice at all so it's probably not goign to sound too good. I had breakfast {two plantain patties, w/ham and cheese. like a mcdonalds meal thing.} and two cups of coffee. Then I prayed, that God could open my mouth and sing for me, since i couldn't do it by myself, and that the songs would really touch the hearts of the people and affect them and their life.
It was the coolest experience!!! It felt as if i was outside of myself... as in, i wasn't really controlling what was doing, i was just standing there as it was happening. it felt like someone had opened my mouth for me, and then i started singing. It wasn't really me singing, though. it was my voice, but i wasn't the one singing. {aka, god was singign for me, or through me. so cool!!!} Let me tell you, i woke up very fast! and my voice has NEVER sounded so sweet!!! Beyond that, the rest of the service was FLAWLESS!!! Everyone was worshiping fullheartedly. God is Amazing, isn't He??

On a less important note, we got soda today!!! {last night, too, actually. forgot to write that in XD} Pastor Santiago {i htink thats who bought it for us} got us all soda to share. it was so nice!!! {and a good change from water!!}
{santiago}
we saw a monkey today that was being walked on a leash. how.. interesting.

Oh!! today we tried raw sugarcane!! that was awesome!! i've enver even seen it before, so they had to teach me how to eat it. You don't chew it... you bite into it and suck the juice out. it's very sweet, but very tasty.

Only a few people at clinic today. not very many at all...
After sitting for 15 minutes with nothing to do, we decided to make baloon hats....
{Jessica}
{Jesse (s), Amanda, Angel, Laura, Ana}
{Jesse Stretz}
{Me and Jessica}
{Chris}

The cheif of the town took us on a small tour of the village. we saw different houses, walked along the river, and had a generally good time.
{Girl and the Cheifs baby}

{Sugarcane}
{He was fixing his boat. They let some water leak into the canoe so that it will float.}
{a piece of land recently bought by the church}
{Panamanian Turkey!!}

At the end of the tour is when the Cheifs wife painted us!!! it was soo cool!!! It's supposed to last about 4 weeks.

After dinner, Kathy, Chris, Marcus and I all went to the school bathroom. {it's slightly nicer than the outhouse}. While walking there it started raining. No problem, right??
Then, when we're almost there, it rained harder. we waited for marcus for a while {he was quite descriptive about how loud he was being :P} and the rain came down very, very hard. This would have been fine if I had thought to bring my poncho. {Unfortunately, I forgot it.} We walked all the way back to the campsite in the rain. {even the locals were laughing at us, as they were donned in jackets and ponchos :P} My backpack is soaked, my shirt is soaked, i'm generally just soaked. I decided that since i was wet anyway, i would rinse my hair in the rain to get it at least a little clean. Jessica {a person from the panamanian team} joked with me about it for a bit, and then dumped an entire bucket of rainwater on my head!!!! the only bad thing about that was that my camera was in my pocket... and it's now shorted out. AH! {i hope my dad doesn't get mad??}
{Me n Kathy.... rain soaked}
{Chris}
{Me and Jerry}
{Me and Leah}
{Me and Kathy}

At least it didn't rain like this during most of our trip. it would have made clinic a little difficult. The team made the most of it, though. a good 6 team members {give or take a few} decided to play with the kids in the mud. they wrestled, played with a ball, etc. it was fun!! {we found out later that this mud playing was the cause of the stink eye epidemic.}

{Chris playing with the Kids}
{Kids playing in the mud}
{Amanda}

service tonight went amazing!! I prayed again {before starting the dramas} and the lord really opened my heart to the people and dramas. Jesse {stretz} did amazing in worship todya, as did jerry. both were on beat and played really well. We all got really into the worship tonight!! It was a good ending to a good day. Tomarrow, it's off to yaviza...

Thats all for tonight. My last real shower was days ago... i hope i get another soon XP {Hasta everyone!!}

DAy Six: going backwards!!

2008-08-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

I've decided that i'm listing today's event out of order. Actually, i'm listing them backwards.

Most recent: Jesse strets has strong legs, as everyone found out by means of various 'leg war' matches with the boys.

Also found out that people don't like to talk during devotions, it's like someone glued their mouth shut. Jesse {s} did devotions tonight. I thought it was cool because his devotion was on the beginning lines of Psalm 139. He said that the verses really spoke to him, and that it was an added bonus that it said the psalm was written for the Director of Music {who was Jesse, this trip}. It personalized it for him. It was personalized for me because I did a bible study on the palsms of ascent, and I have referenced to psalm 139 before so it caught my attention.

Moving on...

I taught Missy and some other girl how to walts tonight. {after service ended, of course.}Ugo and Chris said that I was now officially a Brit because i taught them that.

I shared my Testimony tonight, but it was much harder to translate than I had originally thought, so I had to dumb it down a bit.

The sin bucket skit went very well tonight- i'm very proud of my realistic sounding sobs at the end ^.~ The kids laughed when Jesse {chriswell} brought out the fake knife. I didn't realize my fake potential death was so humorous. The only thing that I wish I could change with the Sin Bucket Skit was the beginning... I dropped the bucket!!! {for those who haven't seen this skit, the point is that once you touch it, whatever part of you that touches the bucket is STUCK to the bucket.} It was quite funny... it flew right out of my hands, hit the floor, bounced up and hit Jerry's Cymbal, and rolled toward teh edge of the stage. I think i took a total of two steps to scoop it back up again, but it definitely got peoples attention!!! {Jerry was oblivious to the bucket even contacting his cymbal. I don't know how he missed it!!}
Nothing went wrong in the dead man skit, which was nice because everything seemed to go wrong with worship. I was singing at the wrong times, the sound {speaker} was WAY off, Jesse forgot a few cords, I fumbled a few words {almost forgot a few more!} and I was completely confused as to who to listen to {jerry or jesse??} because they were both giving me directions on what to do/not to do and they contradicted each other entirely. Luckily, by the Grace of God, no one seemed to notice how terribly worship went.
Chris was amusing... he got overhappy with stamps!! Then he taught the kids how to put ink on their hand, smear it together, and rub it on my face/arms/etc. it was quite... annoying. Consequently, I now have red ink on my skin.
All of us {as in, jesse chriswell} kept asking about the war paint that the kids had on. {think henna... times 3. or, 33} we wanted to get painted too!!!! no answer on that yet.
Lets see, what else happened today??
Oh!!! I got to hold a baby chicken today!!! they are SO CUTE!!!!!! and fluffy!!!
Also got to see 2 more monkeys...

Dinner was good. we had Ribs w/ a side dish of some kind. Lunch was delicious... Beef stew!! yumm!! and rice!! Breakfast was Chicken and Fried bananas.

I'm not sure i shoudl actually write this... but I'm feeling like the black sheep of the group. I feel like i'm weighing down everyone and they're putting up with it.. it's like i don't really fit in. the guys hang out with laura and ana.. the adults kind of hang together a bit. I'm not really into either. angel sticks by me sometimes, but she also hangs out with her sister a lot, and the doctors hang together a lot too. {they have a project in all of this, so it's neccessary}. it's just a little hard, i think the enemy is just messing with my head. Maybe it's a lack of self confidence on my part, i don't know. I told Kathy about it, and she prayed for me. but maybe this is something God wants me to deal with on my own??? i don't know.
we'll see.
Clinic went well today. saw some interesting diseases....
I didn't do childrens ministry, but i prescribed for Doctor {STUDENT doctor} Chris. I guess I was helpful :) Saw a puppy today, too. it was so cute!!!
Helped with Trioge and found otu i'm horrible at it. Today was a pretty full blessed day.

Panama Day 5: First FULL day clinic!

2008-07-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today was amazing!!!

We had fish again... for breakfast. o.0 and i ate it... again.
we also had plantains. during our breakfast conversation, i found out that Jesse (stretz) is cuban, laura can sing Opera, and Ugo is trying to pull off being twenty two. {Other sources say he's 27}.
Anyway....

Clinic was really cool today. There was a woman that I got to pray for that really stuck out to me... she was in such spiritual bondage. It was like I could see her sitting in a box wrapped in chains... I really hope {and pray} that my prayers were effective...

I also got to work in the Pharmacy today. that was fun, but there are a lot of names and numbers involved. I was very thankful that more than one person was checking each prescription...

While on a break with the prayer team, I learned how to say 'pain' in Embera and in Spanish. In embera, it's 'pu-ah' and in Spanish it's 'Dolor'. I most likely wont' have to use these words {in these languages} again, but it was cool to be taught that. I also got to teach the words headache, stomach, pain, cough, itch, and other various words to the prayer team {so we knew what to pray over}. it was interesting but fun learning these new things, and teaching them!!! It was also while we were sharing these words {in different languages} that Pastor David came to talk to me. He told me that the Embera language is so old, that certain words like 'holy' and 'spirit' aren't even in the original language. Instead, they use the spanish words. I thought that was pretty interesting.

I also got to work Childrens ministry today. It was actually fun- I first let them make necklaces and bracelets with beads and strings and such. that was CRAZY!! I also let them play with a beach ball. they love those... so much that they popped it. Then, instead of using the rest of the childrens ministry supplies, I was able to have the kids copy me. that was incredibly fun!!
{touch your nose, touch your toes.. turn around, sit down, stand up, arms in the air, run in circles, sit down again, stand up, and fall asleep!!!} While doing this, i would point to somethings {say, my nose} and say ask them {in spanish} how to pronounce that thing {in spanish} and then i would tell them how to pronounce the same word in english. the kids are very smart... i found it interesting that in America, people teach kids how to count to ten in spanish. in panama, they teach the kids how to count to ten in english. It put a smile on my face, thats for sure!!!
After that we colored pictures {i even got to take some home with me!!} and i put stamps all over the kids.

There is one girl whose spanish name is pronounced similar to preedera, (spelled much differently) and i decided to call her Missy {short for mischievous, since she was just that!} I think she's about 10 or 12. In this village, that means she's almost an adult. {some people had kids as Young as 16!!}

The girls got to leave early today to Shower. The villagers collected rain water in huge buckets, so we got in our bathing suits and.. hit the bucket!! soap was flying everywhere... but it was so nice to be clean!! better yet, it was raining while we were 'showering'... a shower in the rain... how awesome!!!

Lunch was Hot dogs and plantains.... Dinner was Beef with Yucca. {yucca... and stringy potato??}

The service went very well tonight. We sang 'Abre Mis Ojos' {pastor Davids fave song!} and others as well. I think ugoman was trying very hard to not dance his heart out when the panamanian missionaries starting singing their spanish songs!!
We did the Pregnancy Skit {which got a lot of people laughing!} and touched a few hearts with the Hats skit and Blind skit {I got to cast the net on the blind skit} . God's presence was really apparent today. we all prayed at the end of the dramas and service... it was cool because a lot of the adults {who stayed outside the building, but watched all the same} were praying with us, along with the kids! a lot of prayer happened today, and a lot of prayer was answered.

I hope tomorrow is another good day!

Panama day 4: First Day, Union Choco!!!

2008-07-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today was so awesome!!!

I got to make fun of Ugo all day with his use of the term "Inconceivable". It was quite entertaining for me ^.^
we had a pretty decent breakfast of Panamanian Hotdogs. (sausage with the Panamanian seasoning on them). we also had fried bread and more cups of amazing coffee!

We started the Medical Clinic today- we prayed over it, for wisdom and discernment for the team members. We also prayed over all of the different stations.

{the medical clinic!!}

{Here is the order of the stations:}

1. waiting area- grab number!!
2. Trioge: basic info (blood pressure, temp., etc all written on the number card)
3. second waiting area to see the doctor
4. Doctor visit/prescription slip filled out
5. get prayed over
6. third waiting area to wait for prescription to be filled
7. Farmacia- get your prescription and off back home!!

{during the time the adults were going through the stations, we had another 'station' for the kids to go to. someone was always doing children's ministry to keep them occupied.}

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every team member got to try their hand at the various stations. {by the end of the trip, I learned i excelled in prescribing (station 4) and in prayer (station 5) the best!!}

I started out in Prayer. I worked with two pastors from the Panamanian team. One pastor (who I never found out the name of) spoke only Embera. The other (Pastor Tito) spoke english and Embera, and Maribel (a Pastor's wife) spoke only fluent spanish, but was slowly picking up on the english language enough to translate very basic ideas.
It was a lot of fun!!
I loved this station. It was through this station that I experienced many things I'd never experienced before... like the prayer. In America, only one person prays and everyone else listens. In Panama, everyone prays at the same time. It was a custom I adjusted to through this station, and I have to say that it is miraculous to witness first hand!!!
There are also a few stories I have to share of my moments in prayer.
Here's one:
There was a lady that I had already prayed for once. She was older, in her 40's or so, with her granddaughter in her arms (who was about 4.) She was waiting for her prescription. She watched me and the other 3 pray for other people. in between people coming in to our station, i would look around the room to see what everyone else was doing. I kept catching her eye, and every time I would, I would smile at her. It's amazing how I didn't even know her language- I only smiled! and she came up to me after about 10 minutes of this happening and asked me to annoying her and her daughter. It was the coolest thing!! God was totally there that moment and I never felt like such a tool before!!!
There were a few other minor stories that happened. One lady that came in was so old that she didn't even bother keeping track of her age anymore.
I also got to help do prescriptions today; I found out I'm really good at that station.

Fish was for lunch. I actually ate it. I was kind of shocked in myself... and it was decent for fish, considering i can't stand fish. I suppose it's just another step to making fish part of my diet.
Dinner was much better, chicken and spaghetti!!! (although, the spaghetti was rather... interesting. thick noodles and the spices were the same Panamanian seasoning in a soupier form.)

We had a fun night today- We cancelled the service for tonight since no one knew about it and the electricity went out. Instead, we played signs up in the hut. After a while we started hearing music, and as a group decided to go check it out. Turns out, the Panamanian group created makeshift drums and instruments and were singing really upbeat {wonderful for dancing!} worship music right underneath out hut!!! We decided to worship with them, and bring down the drum set, microphone, speaker, and other instruments. then the music really starts kickin'! it was now that we learned about Ugoman's amazing dancing skills, and we caught fireflys!!!! The whole team was dancing, having fun, and being silly. {the guy's especially!!} the Jesse would climb onto the other jesse's shoulders, and Ugo climbed onto Chris's shoulders. they danced that way!!! were were having so much fun that it wasn't until the end that we realized we had attracted quite a crowd!!! hopefully this will attract more people the following nights where we have a real worship service.

I have to say, the sky was also quite a sight!!! to compare it to anything, I have to say it looked the 'real life' equivalent of the sky in the movie Aladdin when they were flying on a magic carpet!! the clouds were swirly, the moon was big and bright, and the stars were numerous and sparkly!!!

On a not-as-happy note, I asked Kathy to pray for me today. There's this spiritual cloud that seems to be following me around... i'm really starting to feel like i'm the weakest link of the group, like i'm dragging everyone down instead of being pulled up by them. I know it's not true, but it keeps making it into my brain. After she prayed for me, I felt much better.

On an irritating note, my Crocs gave me blisters on the sides of my feet. hopefully those will clear up. Kathy has an extra pair though, which is cool.

Overall, it was a very full but wonderful day!!! {I especially liked the ending!!!}

{L2R: Kathy, Laura, Angel, Me, Amanda, Ana, Leah}

{L2R: Ugo, Jesse S., Chris, Jerry, Marcus, Jesse C.}

Panama Day 3: Canoe to Union Choco!!!

2008-07-23T11:37:00.001-07:00

Today the team is traveling by way of Motorized Canoe to Union Choco.
We had an interesting breakfast; the Panamanian version of a tortilla. {they are little circular things made out of plantains, about 3/4 inch thick- vey good!!} along with what seemed to be Churizzo and Eggs. best, though, was the coffee!!! I've been without coffee for days now!!! Jerry noticed this and was exceedingly nice in letting me have the first cup. However, being the klutz I am, I spilled his coffee and there was no more to replace it with. I felt very bad, it was good coffee!!!! I don't think he was too thrilled with me.
It's about 7:00 AM, and we're loading the luggage back and forth to the canoe to prepare for our soon departure. it was quite interesting, we saw a family that had a monkey as a pet. Seriously!!! it was the coolest thing!!!!

It's now about 7:30 in the morning and we are slipping and sloping down a muddy, wet hillside, trying to get to the Canoes.

It was very entertaining for the locals, who managed down this hill with ease. It was a miracle that half of us didn't fall!!!
Going down the rive, I was distracted by the houses. I noticed how they changed and how they became fewer and farther between as we went further into the jungle. It was expected, but odd seeing the houses made of wood and cement bricks. Just looking at them makes me feel priveledged to live in the house I do at home.

Pastor David also got us a police escort, which was very kind of him.

I let my hair down for this canoe ride. Something about being in the jungle on a canoe with your hair swayign in the breeze makes me feel pretty ^.^
I have Pocohontases' 'Just around the Riverbend' song stuck in my head now. Pastor david points in the trees at a sloth thats hanging there. It looks like a small hanging blob from where we're at, and we move on before I can get a picture.
I'm happy that the weather is nice; it's an answer to prayer!!! The humidity isn't bad, and the sun isn't beating down too hard.Yesterday before bed I had the team pray for our travel and that the weather woudl be nice. Jerry keeps reminding us to put on sunblock and drink water. many people are also reapplying their bug spray. {Did I mention this is my first day using the bug spray??? Amazing!!!}

I've been talking with Chris {english doctor number 1} and we're discussing languiage differences. for instance, we americans generally pronounce the word mosquito as 'Miss-kee-tow' while their english-ness allows them to pronounce it 'Moss-kee-tow'. it's quite interesting because they say it slowly and pronounce the different sounds while we say it like we couldn't get the word out of our mouth's fast enough!!!
We played Zip on the boat again. it passed the time. we also made a habbit of tossing food (like gummy worms and stuff) from one side of the boat to the other (our luggage was in the middle of the canoe so that all the weight was centered.) the Military people were also a lot of fun! They picked off some fruit for us to try. it was green on the outside, and on the inside was this orange, fleshy stringy stuff. (kind of slimy, too, now that I think about it.) It wasn't too bad, it was an odd mix of orange-pumpkin-mango. I can't quite describe it, but it was fun to try something new!!!

{us on the boat playing Zip; I won!!!}

The only problem with the canoe ride being so long is that it allows you too much time to think. a few poeple fell asleep so it's quiet. I look around and admire the beautiful scenery, and marvel at how I can see God in all of it. {He really is a wonderful landscaper.} this brings me to thoughts of my grandma, and how much she traveled. AS I write this in my journal, I try nto to cry. I miss my grandmother a lot, and I know that she would be so proud of me for going on this trip!!! it essence, i'm following her 'world traveling' footsteps. I think my grandma would have loved to visit here. I also think of my family. it's only been 3 days but I miss them, it seems unnatural to not talk to them for this long. I look at the picture of them I brought with me and pray that they are doing alright. {After pondering these things for entirely too long I decide to put my journal away and soak in the fact that i'm actually in the middle of the jungle.}

We eventually get to Union Choco. I was thankful that instead of having to climb another muddy slope, we had some {mostly stable} stairs. The townspeople were excited we were there, it seemed half the town showed up for our arrival!!! they formed a brigade to carry our luggage {which was all very heavy, since we still had all that medicine in our bags!!! some of them were close to 50 pounds!!!} for us. It made our team feel very welcomed!! we were immediately shown to the place we would be staying. it's a large round hut consisting of three rooms. it was so beautiful!!! it must have taken a long time to make. they helped us unpack all of our stuff before we played with the kids.

The kids absolutely loved the beach ball!!!
we also discovered that they are maniacs at soccer. I haven't ever seen such talent!!!
I also tried to get them to say my name. The spanish language doesn't have a sound for 'th' so most of them called me 'heh-der' or 'heh-d-d-d-d-d-er'

at the end of the day, we set up our tents (we got done before the boys!!! total domination!!) and sorted through the medicine until late at night. the power actually went out on us due to the rain, so we had to use flashlights.

had chicken and rice as our lunch/dinner {linner???}.
I've been talkign with Chris and Ugo some more, too. we're still comparing the differences of the terms we use. they've never heard of Lollygagging. I've never heard of 'this plate is hot!' in reference to anything other than a hot plate of food. since our use of flashlights as a singular light source, we discovered that in the UK they don't call flashlights by the name flashlights. they call them torches. {how are they torches if there is no fire???} because torches with fire are called firesticks in the UK. they think of flashlights in the literal sense. It really is interesting comparing two countries. ^.^

after medicine sorting, we had a small peptalk/training session on what was to happen tomarrow.
I also was chosen to do devotions, which was amazing since God gave me the verse before I was even chosen to speak on it. I chose to do it on Exodus 3:15. {God tells moses to tell the people that he is the God of their forefathers (he was more specific) and that his name shall continue from generation to generation.} I put a modern spin on this verse, that we are the moses to these people. In a sense, God is Our God, not just the God of our fathers, and that we are to continue telling the people of new generations and those who haven't heard His name about God, so that His name can live from generation to generation and forever. {I explained this much more eloquently at the time.} It was a really cool devotion becasue it kind of reminded the team of what their focus should be.

Lastly, I've been a little bit spiritually attacked today. I'm starting to feel animosity toward certain people, for no reason on either of our parts. It makes no sense, so i'm praying and having other people pray for me. I'm not going to divide the team for something so petty that it doesn't even exist.

On a happier ending note, I have to tell you that it's amazing falling asleep to the sounds of the jungle. there are fireflys that twinkle like the stars, you can hear monkeys in the distance, the birds chirping, and tree frogs {they make this 'bloop-bloop' noise thats totally awesome!!!}

sweet dreams, everyone!!!

Panama Day 2: Yaviza!!

2008-07-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

The team had to wake up so early this morning... 6:30 panama time. that means 4:30 Las Vegas Time. we got to shower, which was nice... (it's our last real shower for the next 5 or 6 days!! yikes!!!)
We started our journey to the small town of Yaviza. Driving out of Panama City was amazing- there were lots of tall buildings since new condos and luxury hotels were being built in the area. It was so nice interesting seeing the different culture!!! the buses were different.. they were old American school buses that were painted in a childlike professional graffiti colorful style. it was so cool to see!! The walls of the highway were also painted graffiti style, with sayings like 'God Bless Panama' and pictures of sunsets and skylines. It was so cool!
We stopped at this place equivalent to a walmart. the food court there had cheap but good food so that was our stop for breakfast. (I got to enjoy chicken and fried bread. that's new!!)
The team played signs while we waited for the store to open. it was very fun!!! We ate, bought anything we needed to buy, (mainly things for children's ministry) and were off. during the next 7 hours, I saw all sorts of new things. Natural growing palm trees (so much more majestic than landscaped ones, natural ones are so beautiful!!!) banana trees, and so many other new plants and trees than you could see in one day on the history channel.
I got to know Ugo and Chris a little better. this is when I found out that they are extremely silly when they want to be. they know how to have fun when it's allowed and how to be serious when they need to be, which is very cool. Ugo used the word 'Inconceivable!' for the first time, and it is now my most favorite word to use!!! Go ahead, try saying it in a British accent. it's wonderful! the team played another new game called 'zip' where you have to say Zip, Boing, or Who-oo-oop! to pass turns to another player. The part that makes it hard is that you can't show your teeth or your out, and watching people say Zip and Boing with their lips covering their teeth makes you want to laugh. I didn't get very far in that game, not this time at least.
I've seen all sorts of wildlife so far: cows, goats, chickens, geese, pigs, horses, and mules. it's been very interesting seeing the towns go from so urban to so rural. i know it will only get even more rural the closer we get to union choco.
I've also been paying attention to the houses. It seems you can tell the wealth of a person by their house: some houses aren't enclosed all the way (due to lack of air conditioning, perhaps??)
the lesser homes seem to be made of wood, the nicer ones made of cement bricks, and the nicest ones are painted. I've also noticed that the houses vary a lot between tin roofs and roofs made out of palm and banana leaves. it's quite interesting.
You can tell that the boys (the 2 jesse's, actually) are getting bored because they let the girls paint their nails. it was quite sad and there were too many jokes about them not being manly men anymore. then again, a lot of the boys at my church are kinda weird.
We are also introduced on this trip to the rest of the Panamanian tea,m. Santiago, 2 pastors, (pastor tito and i don't know the other's name), Jessica, Maribel, and Maribel's husband who is also a pastor. They seem to be a very nice team, but none of them speak English so we had to communicate through strange methods of sign language and the translational arts of Pastor David. Pastor David also showed his appreciation for us being there by getting us all bracelets and hats that say panama on it. Considering his strict budget, this is a huge blessing. I felt truly welcomed and was glad to have a good Panamanian team with us!!!

Now we're finally in yaviza. we have a pretty view of one of the rivers, which is nice. the river is very dirty, so i don't think we'll be bathing in it any time soon. we blew up one of the beach balls we had, and played with the kids. we taught them hand clapping games which was fun. Pastor David took us all aside and showed us where we were staying {in his church}. We were showed our room, where to set up the tents, and were told to come check out the upstairs.
When we were upstairs i was in a playful mood, so i pretended to push ugo off the ledge. (the second story wasn't built yet, so we were technically on the roof....) later he came up to me but instead of a small push, he half threw me over the edge and pulled me back and then {while laughing} said to me, "Go tell your mom i saved your life." we went to go back down stairs, and my 'afraid of heights' senses kicked in when i realized i had to make it back down the stairs. it normally would have been fine if the stairs weren't so small, close together, and very steep. thankfully, one of the Panamanian pastors saw me, laughed at me, and helped me down. it was sweet.
Dinner was good, the best Panamanian chicken I've ever had! and 'banana fries' as they were called. I'll have to learn to like those, i heard plantains come with every meal. yay.
we played with the kids more... i let two little girls do my hair, and i got to braid theirs too.

I shared a tent with angel, and we didn't sleep till 11:00 because we were talking!!! i didn't sleep very well after that, though. a side effect of the malaria pills I'm assuming.
Tomarrow, we canoe to Union Choco!!!

Panama Day 1: The Flight

2008-07-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning at 3:30.... that means 3 hours and 30 minutes of total sleep for me last night.
My dad drove me to the airport. halfway there, my mom calls me on the phone crying to tell me that she loves me. it was very sweet ^.^
my dad and i talk a little bit on the way there....
I'm one of the first 4 people to show up. all of us are tired, half of us have coffee in our hands (not me, unfortunately) and we're all waiting for the last person to show. Turns out to be Jesse Stretz. (God worked a miracle here: he didn't have an alarm set and just happened to wake up early enough to get to the airport on time.)

The team moves to an aisle separated from everyone else since we're all a group. We were blessed to have a good luggage guy; he didn't charge us the $100 we owed for the four extra bags we brought, and he was quite the jokester. he told me that my bag was 25 pounds overweight!!!!! needless to say i started to freak out a little bit, trying to figure out what in my bag i could get rid of. He let me {and the leaders of the team} suffer for a few minutes before telling us that he changed the numbers as a joke and my bag was actually fine.

We made it pretty easily past security, and we all got starbucks as a final treat before heading on the plane. turns out that our pilots had to take a mandatory 8 hour break before flying again so our plane was about a half hour late taking off. It was a smooth flight, though. we watched horton hears a who. ^.^ they served us chex cereal as breakfast... it was decent , if nothing else.
we landed in houston and made it through those security checks pretty fast, too.

Before getting on the plane, our team got to meet it's two missing memebers, Ugo and Chris, who live in the UK. it was pretty cool meeting them for the first time. Both seemed very quiet but very smart, typical of a doctor, is what i thought. (i'll find out later how wrong i was!!! both were so much fun to be around!!!

We got our passports back from Jerry and boarded the plane.
We were served beef sandwhiches with salad, carrots, and milano cookies. it wasn't the greatest but i've heard worse stories about plane food...
Houstons' ariel view was so beautiful!!! lots of trees, lakes, and rivers... and flying over the Gulf was awesome too. Looking out the window, you couldn't tell where the sky ended and the water began!!! it was so amazing!!! Best of all was flying over Panama. it was so lush and green, a huge different from the sandy las vegas desert i'm used to.

We could feel peoples prayers as we went through the security in panama. it was supposed to be a huge deal getting through secrity, and it was so easy!! they didn't even look in the bags!! no one had any problems, thank the Lord!!!

Outside the airport was waiting for us one very happy Pastor David. throughout this trip, he is our pastor, tour guide, translator, and entertainer. (this man is hysterical!!!) we quickly learned that his favorite phrase to say is 'you un-duh-stan?'
He talked to Jerry from the time we left the airport to the time we got to our hotel. I think it was safe to say that Pastor David was very excited that we came to panama...
The Hotel was pretty nice, too. stayed in Hotel Lisboa. (room 504!) Our room had such an amazing view of Panama City!!! (I'll post pictures when I get them uploaded.) The only downside was that we were on the 5th floor, and had to carry our luggage up the stairs because the elevator was so small!!! (the boys took all of the really heavy stuff up for us, but almost all the luggage was heavy thanks to the medicine!!) We were rewarded shortly after when Pastor David treated us to McDonalds. I have to say that I like Panamas' McDonalds a lot better that those in the US. the food actually has flavor there, it's very nice!
I stayed in a room with Ana and Laura. it was fun, I learned a lot about them that night. They're the best of friends and they do practicaly everything together!! they were telling me all sorts of crazy stories about the pranks they've pulled and the places they've been. they were a lot of fun to be around. They kept me up till a little after midnight, though. oh well. I can sleep on the bus tomarrow.
Devotions that night was cool, too. everyone met in our room, and we discussed the things that were going to happen the next day, how blessed we were today, etc. it was nice to look back and see how God and Prayer helped us through the day.
I was also suprised that the night was so cold. thank goodness for blankets!!!
I'll be looking foward to my 7 hour drive to Yaviza toamrrow....

Panama! the pre-adventure

2008-07-20T18:42:00.001-07:00

time for my first entry on journalisticness for my Panama Online Travel Diary. (the first.)

I'll start with the happenings of the pretrip- AKA training camp.

Training camp was an amazing experience that brought my closer to my teammates. (Jerry and Leah, Marcus, Jesse C., Jesse S., Ana, Laura, Amanda, Angel, Kathy, Ugo, and Chris.)

We had various tasks to do (the rope tricks, leadership exercises, practicing worship) and we concentratedheavily on learning the dramas, testimonies, and explanations of the dramas. these were key to our trip. we also packed and repacked our bags until 7 large boxes of medicine and soaps could fit into our bags and not arouse suspicion with security.
it was quite an experience...

I found out during this trip that i was to be put in charge of prayer for the team. I made sure everyone prayed, kept track of the prayer journal, and called for people to pray during times we needed it most.
it was very exciting!!! I also perfected the worship with Jesse S. (the worship leader). I was going to be singing most of the spanish worship for the trip, so this was a critical step for us.

We rehearsed and re-rehearsed all the dramas....

Bags: Jesus dies on the cross {imaginary cross}... 5 people carrying heavy bags of sin come and fall at the cross. Jesus rises and takes the bags from them, leaving them free from their burdons and they worship him. [point of the drama is so the people of union choco know that god died so he could take our sins from us, and that if we turn to God, he will set us free.]

Sin Bucket- (i lead this one. ^.^) Death comes with it's black cape holding a bucket of sin. he creeps up, sets the bucket on the floor, and walks out. I come in, walking along, and discover sin for the first time. should i touch it?? no.. oh what the heck, yes!!! so i grab the bucket. Now it's stuck to my hand and i can't get it off!!! Ia strong man comes in, so i try and get him to pull it off. he hurts his back, and i'm still stuck with the bucket. Next comes a rich lady. I present the bucket to he, and she buys it!! i try to give it to her, and it won't come off my hand so she takes the money and leaves. I get really mad now!! then a famous person comes in. she looks at my pitiful self, and hands me a boa and sunglasses. I prance around all fanciful, but the bucket doesn't come off so i throw away the boa and glasses. Another person with a bucket on her head comes in... funny, mine was just stuck to my hand!!! we dance around in our sin for a while.... this is fun!!! then she leaves. not so fun. i try to get the bucket off again. Then a really cute guy comes in.... i straighten out my hair, hide the bucket, and smile. wave. wink. he takes my hand. i swing the bucket as we walk, and he sees it!!! thats not cool, he tells me. he leaves. I throw myself on the floor. then i realize my FOOT can fit into the bucket!! great now my foots stuck.
a girl comes in with beer and cigarettes. She pors some in my mouth.. now i'm tipsy!!! she pours it on the bucket... still not bucket-less. she gives me some of the cigarette.. now i'm high. she leaves.... i cry. i cry for a few minutes, and someone taps my arm. it's death and he's holding a knife. he shows me how to slit my throat... to do it or not to do it?? he leaves. is is worth death to get rid of this bucket?? i decide it is. before i can make the cut, a christian comes in and throws the knife to the floor!!! she tells me i'm beautiful, and that she can make the bucket go away. she tells me about God, and what he's done. she reads me the bible. we pray... all of a sudden my foot comes unstuck and i sit on my knees to praise God. I raise my arms for worship, and the bucket falls off my hand. I'm FREE!! i kick the bucket away and prance offstage. the other girl with the bucket comes running... WAIT FOR ME!!!

dead man: a man is spiritually dead. peopel come and try to revive him.. money (my character), a king, a pimp with girls, knowelege, coolness, drugs and alchohol, strength, and all matters of worldly things. the dead man doesn't wake up, because he doesn't have the lord. we all leave in the order we came, and carry him offstage.

blind: a girl is blind... looking for a cross thats right in front of her. a huge chain of blind people, led by a blind person, come around. they feel her there and grab her, putting her at the end of the chain. she falls off, and into the hands of a christian. they show her God and her blindfold falls off. she finds her other blind friends... half of who follow her, and half of who stay blind.

hats: a man is waiting around, nothing going for his life. He meets two christians (me and ana) and they tell him about God, so he wears their hat. when some partyers show up, he tkaes on their hat. same when the gangbangers and girls show up. the only hat he keeps is the christians, so they introduce themselves again. he has so many hats on his head that he can't keep up with his multiple lifestyles. the christians save him and tell him to make a choice... he thinks about each hat... throwing away the party hat, throwng away the gang hat... thinking twice about the girls hat but throwing that away too. he makes the decision, puts the christian hat strongly on his head, and falls to his knees in worship. the christians come in and support him. point of the story?? you can't serve multiple gods.

Doctor Skit: the purpose of this skit is for humor... jesse comes into the doctor with a cough. another few seconds go by, and an itchy guy comes in. he's scratching and itching, and jesse catches it, so the guy leaves. another guy comes in thats throwing up. jesse starts throwing up so the guy leaves. now he's scratchy, coughing, and throwing up. out of nowhere a girl comes in laughing hysterically with now ability to stop. (this is my character.) he starts getting giggly and he girl leaves. another girl comes in crying uncontrolably. he starts crying too. the girl leaves. now he's itchy, coughing, throwing up, laughing, and crying. another person comes in and has this uncontrolable, possessed hand. he gets it!!! another comes in sneezing realy bad. he gets that too!!! another comes in and falls asleep. he falls asleep. another comes in and can't stop screaming. Now he's coughing, itching, falling asleep, waking up screaming, trying to control his hand, throwing up, sneezing, crying, and laughing. a pregnant girl comes in, so he runs away screaming.

thats it for the skits, but they were a whole lot of fun!!!

[songs that i sing: Mira lo que dios a hecho (look what the lord has done); Admirable es nuestro dios {our god is an awesome god); cambiare mi tristeza (i'm trading my sorrows); and the peoples personal favorite, Abre mis ojos (open the eyes of my heart.)

other than that, the highlight of my training camp was getting to throw rubber balls at everyone and wake the boys up by hitting them with pillows. chya XD