Merry Christmas and off to the Village

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

I was blessed with three different Christmases here. Christmas Eve I went to Atara'a parents house. They had a small gathering of people from church. Their house was decorated for Christmas so it was nice for it to "feel" like Christmas as I sat next the fire and admired the Christmas tree. Doug and Sue were so kind to have me stay over.

The next morning we attended a short out-door Christmas service put on my the Church. It was strange sitting outside in on a semi sunny day singing Christmas carols. I then went the house of Sandra and Jonathan, a South African couple from church. They had a few people over and we had an AMAZING lunch. Jonathan is an incredible cook.

Then I spent the afternoon enjoying a Kenyan Christmas with Nkita and her family and friends. Probably my favorite part of the day. We had so much food! I went to the market with her on the 23rd and we seriously brought so many vegetables and even a live chicken! (She was actually buying it as a gift for a friend, she already had like 10 frozen chickens in the freezer) I named it Alfred. Side note: So once you buy the chicken you have to transport it home so they tie it's legs and put the thing in a plastic bag, so your carry a live chicken just how you would carrying your other groceries. We put in the backseat of the car with some feed and it was content as could be...too bad it didn't know what was coming. Poor Alfred.
I had to hold a six week baby for like an hour on Christmas and I loved that. My Christmas was busy so that was good, I didn't have much time to think about home although i still did. I was really lucky and blessed with a wonderful Christmas.

I'm catching a ride to Kisumu tomorrow to go live in a village for five weeks. Pretty excited. I leaving earlier than first thought, because I was running into a lot of dead ends with everyone going to their villages it being on leave or it just being Christmas time so many of the people I needed to talk to for my research project are gone and will be gone until Jan. So I decided to copy them and go to the village as well. Instead of sitting around here waiting for people, I'm going to go get settled in the village and start my community life project. Then I'll come back to Nairobi the end of Jan. and have a month to finish everything before home.

I'm still alive

Sorry I know it seems I dropped off the planet. However, I’m assuming that most of you are quite busy partaking in Christmas time crazyness, finishing up school work, or just trying to survive the cold (I heard it was 18 degrees! Is there snow?! I even heard LA has been in the 30‘s yikes!) to really be overly concerned about what is going on here. By the way it’s been mostly sunny here, I’m guessing in the mid 70’s. There’s been some rain but mostly at night. The weirdest thing happened the other day, half of the sky was clear and was poring down rain. The sky was clear except for a little patch of sky.

Things here have been going well. I’ve been doing a lot of different things. I’m still working on my research project. I changed my topic slightly to the reintegration of children from the orphanage system in Kenya. This still includes how older youth are prepared to reintegrate but I’m also looking at adoption, and fostering, and the process of reintegrating young children back into their extended family. It’s really interesting learning about different programs being employed by different children‘s homes. From my understanding, which is still quite limited, the Kenyan government ultimately wants children’s homes to become short-term placements for children in which children are only committed for three years and during those three years permanent placement is found for them. This placement could range from adoption to finding extended family to take the child. Did you know that the majority of children in children’s homes/orphanages in this area have guardians/family outside of the children’s home who they visit several times a year?

Last week I took my younger host brother, Herzon (10 years old) to a movie (yes we saw New Moon!). I already moved out of there but I had to wait for him to be out of school and for a Monday. The movie theaters here have a special on Mondays called Monday Madness where a drink, pop corn, and hot dog are included free with your ticket all for 500 shillings, about $6.50. I ended up taking him and his cousin. Neither of them had been to a real movie theater and before the movie we walked around the “mall” which they had never been in and it was so fun to watch their faces. We even went to Nakumatt (think safeway) and they were amazed by all the food and different varieties. I gave them culture shock.

I decided this week that I need to work harder on Kiswahili. It’s so easy to get away with speaking English, because almost everyone I come in contact with does. I’m just not a language person. I struggled through Spanish in high school and Zulu in South Africa and now Swahili in Kenya. However, language is a really important aspect of culture and I need to honor this culture by learning more of the language. I just really wish I would have taken an intensive language course when I got here. I learn so much better in a structured classroom setting.

Christmas. So I know I’m 21 years old and this is only one Christmas and I will survive, but man I miss my Washington Christmas! Thinking about family and all that is going on there is so hard. Today we had a Christmas service in which all the kids dressed up and performed the Christmas story, it was super cute, but I couldn’t help but think about all the kids I know at home and the Christmas service at our church. I’m still figuring out what to do for Christmas but I think I’m going to spend Christmas eve with Atara’s parents. There is a Christmas day service, then I’m going to the house of a South African couple from church, then spending Christmas afternoon/evening with my Kenyan family. Christmas is celebrated in Kenya, but very minimally. Mostly people just prepare a lot of food and have family over. Which really when you think about it is pretty close to what we do without the excessive decorating and all the hype. It’s so strange to not be completely crazed and busy running around, buying gifts and wrapping presents.

I’m off to the village next month. In about three weeks! Yikes. I have a lot to finish up here school work wise but I’m excited for a change.

Phase One: Complete

I finished my internship and moved out of my homestay this weekend. I know your probably thinking, "but Julia you have like 3 months left in Kenya, what are you going to do?"

I call the last 3 months phase one. I did my internship and homestay the last 2 and half months. I have a 3o something page rough(very rough) draft for my family org course. Now I'm diving into my Global Research Project. Since my homestay was tied to my internship (i was living with that family because i was working at Sidai) I decided to move back to Nkita's, plus I don't have too long before I go to the village. I stayed with Nkita my first 3 weeks in Kenya. I love Nkita's and she's incredibly kind. Plus her house is amazing with running water, clean drinking water, a refrigerator; you know all the luxuries :) For the next three weeks I'm going to be staying there and researching orphanages. I'm researching how orphanages are preparing their youth for reintegration once they exit orphanage care. I'm excited to get out and visit different children's homes and orphanages. I loved my internship, but I really missed being out in the community.

I'm planning on traveling for Christmas. In hopes that I can distract myself from homesickness and all that. I'll either be in the Congo or in Nakuru visiting friends.

After Christmas I'm headed to the village! I'm going to be living with my Friend's family in a village near Kisumu (super close to lake victoria). I'll be doing my community life course there. After five weeks, I'm back to Nairobi for a week then home..it is going to go by so quick. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm falling in love with this place and two half months seems so short.

This friday was graduation at Sidai. It was more of a celebration for school ending. (in Kenya the school year/term ends in December) It was really funny...they dressed the kids up in graduation robes including caps and we had cake and biscuits and sweets. They slaughtered a sheep for lunch and there was so much food! It was neat, because it ended up being more of a community celebration. We held the first part of the party in the slum (sidai's original location) and got to show the community how well Sidai kids are doing. Then we moved the celebration back to Sidai later.

I hope you all had a very happy thanksgiving! It's so strange to be completely removed from all the holiday fun and crazyness.

Weekends!

My last couple of weekends have been so fun.

Last weekend I went to Nakuru with my Kiswahili teacher and good friend Margaret. We visited her family Saturday and Sunday and it so fun. We made chapattis and hung out and played with my camera, and just relaxed. It was peaceful too and beautiful. You walk outside the house and there are beautiful mountains and fields. They were such wonderful people. The kind of people you feel lucky to know. But the end of my visit they felt like family. If I don’t go to the Congo for Christmas, I’m going to spend Christmas with them.

This weekend I went to the home of one of my good friends here. She has three children and lives in a one bedroom apartment, about the size of my room at home. The room functions as their living room, kitchen, bedroom, and everything else. She is truly an amazing woman and I'm so lucky for her friendship. In african style I brought a bag full of gifts, mostly food and a few sweets for the kids. It was nice to just sit and talk and eat muffins, cookies, and tea.

I also met with my professor from APU this morning. He is in Kenya doing planning for a graduate program. It was good to see a familiar face and have someone to help process the last 2 and a half months.

In other news....

Life has been good. I feel all this pressure to write about exciting and exotic things, living in Africa and all, but really life is pretty low key most of the time. It’s just life in Africa, okay so its not just life in Africa, but not every day is super exciting….

Some days are like this:
I wake up, I drink chai tea, take my bucket bath, eat some left over ugali, go to Sidai, teach Baby class, talk with the ladies at my internship, drink more tea, leave Sidai, go to town, get peanuts for 5 bob and talk with my friend who sales them, go home, attempt to do homework, watch tyra banks, help with dinner, eat dinner(rice and beans), watch KTN(our only channel), talk with my family, drink more chai tea, and go to bed.


I love it.

more to come!

Sidai

I never properly introduced you to my internship.

For the past two months I’ve been working here…

Most of the kids living at Sidai are orphans. However, not all. Some children come from abusive homes, or homes where there parents were simply not able to care for them. A few children came to Sidai in 2007 as they uprooted from their homes in the post election violence.

Sidai houses about 30 children full time. Some of these children receive sponsorship to go to school. The rest attend school at Sidai and are joined daily by children from the Slum

During my first week at Sidai I spent a morning reading all the child files and their stories are heart breaking. I remember just crying that afternoon.

It just doesn’t seem fair. These children are no less important or special than those I care take of in the states. Yet these children were born into poverty and a system of injustice in which they remain. They had no control over where they were born or what families they were born to. They are innocent. Why is it that the most vulnerable must suffer the most?
Despite all these children have been through they are amazing. They are beautiful, their smiles and playful nature light up my life.

I have a theory about African children, that are some of the strongest most resilient children in the world for all they must endure.

Sidai doesn’t have a consistent source of donations so they struggle month to month and most months they don’t make their budget. Compared to the other childrens homes in the area, Sidai has a long way to go in their development. Currently affording food each month is a struggle.

During my time at Sidai I’ve taught baby class. (I still smile when I hear the phase "baby class" because these kids are like 3).

I’ve also been working on the compute stuff quite a bit. Trying to update child files and the computer database. I’m also hoping to go on home visit’s the next two weeks to get information for the kids that are not currently living at Sidai.

Basically I have fallen in love with the kids here. They are great, but Sidai really struggles. Not only with money, but with management and development in general. They are currently working on develop projects that would enable them to become more self sufficient, but they have a lot of work ahead of them.

Check out the website: www.sidaichildren.org

Be sure to look at the newly created newsletter and brochure :)

Looking Up

[disclaimer: I hate my camera. It takes horrible pictures in Kenya and I every time I play with the settings it makes it worse. In this case it really is true that the pictures don’t do the real thing justice, not even close]

As you know I live on a big hill. So most days I walk up this….all the way to the top

Sometimes when I’m coming from town I take an alternate route up the other side of the hill. There’s path that goes along the hill and eventually comes out at my house.

This is not an ideal path. It’s rough, uphill, uneven, dirty, and has lots of protruding thorn bushes. Before the rainy season the ground was incredibly dusty and loose and now after the rain its incredibly muddy and sticky.


So much so that this is what happens to your shoes when you attempt to walk it in the rain.

Before the rains came, a few weeks ago, I was walking this path. I was having a hard day, drowning in loneliness, homesickness, self doubt, and my inadequacy at changing anything. The dirt was so loose and dusty and I struggled with every step as it sunk beneath my feet. I had to focus on the ground and the path as not to make a wrong step. However, eventually I loss my balance and I fell down hard. As I stood up I started crying and through my tears and frustration I asked God, “Is this really what you had for me?” As I looked up and out I got my answer…

It was beautiful. It was as if God was saying, “yes this is exactly what I had for you.” Sometimes I get so stuck in the difficulty of it all that I forget to look up and see the bigger picture.

Yes this is hard, yes I’m lonely, yes I feel powerless. Yet there is also so much beauty in this experience. There is beauty in the faces of the children I encounter everyday. There is beauty in the independence and strength I’m gaining. Beauty in realizing my powerlessness, that I can not “fix” everything. There is of course beauty in drinking chai tea at all hours of the day with wonderful Kenyans :-]

This life is beautiful…I just forget to look up and see it.

It’s true of this country as well. It’s so easy to just focus on the muddiness. Yes there is a lot of corruption, yes there is a lot of poverty, yes there is a lot tragedy. But there is also so much beauty to be found. I don’t say this to make light or lessen Kenya’s problems, but to remember that there is more to Kenya, more to Africa. Much, much more.

So I encourage whenever you are to remember to look up…

The truth

The truth is i'm not always honest on here.

The truth is I cry a lot in Kenya. Sometimes I cry because i feel like I'm failing at GLT, sometimes I cry because I feel helpless to do anything about the poverty and injustice I see around me, sometimes I cry for the children at Sidai, sometimes I cry because I'm just overwhelmed, sometimes I cry because the inequality of it all, and sometimes I cry out of frustration.

The truth is I'm not sure I'm cut out for this life. And that's a hard pill to swallow when this has been my dream since forever. What happens when you realize your not cut out for your dreams?

The truth is I'm still struggling to find peace here. Peace with this place, peace with myself, and peace with God.

The truth is I'm learning a lot.

The truth is I do enjoy and love being here, it's just harder than i thought it would be.

The truth is I feel myself growing, becoming a stronger person day by day.

The truth is God has been so gracious.

The truth is despite how hard it is i'm so thankful for this opportunity.

I'm learning to find joy and peace in the small things, smiles on the kids' faces, a beautiful sun set, the beautiful african trees, sitting in the dark talking with my family during a power cut, drinking chai tea....

so that's the truth.

Mombasa and other things...

I know this post is late.....(pictures on facebook, blogger won't let me post them here)

But Mombasa was amazing. We ended up staying with amazing people who took such great care of us. We met them through the Mombasa Vineyard church (i go to Karen Vineyard). We were so lucky to get connected with them, because we originally planned to stay in a cheap-not-so-nice hotel.


It was beautiful..white sandy beaches, warm ocean to swim in, and lots of palm trees. It rained on and off but we still got plenty of sun (I promise i did apply sunscreen).

It was 7 hour bus ride, but it wasn't bad. We got to see the country side and even a giraffe cross the road! You could tell we were Americans as every time we saw a animal, we would get excited and point while all of the Kenyans on the bus weren't phased.

We spent two full days on the beach just relaxing. Seriously, being there, I wished I would have done my GLT in a coastal city because it's so nice and beautiful, but then I would probably get nothing done so it's probably better that I just visit the coast.

We we're too poor to stay at nice fancy hotels so we just spent the day pretending to be guests at nice fancy hotels. We ordered drinks, swum in the pool, played water polo, used their towels, and had a great time. It worked out really well. It's totally the way to go when your traveling cheap.

Other Things

I said goodbye to Atara last week and i already miss her so much. She was such a blessing to me during my first month here and i feel so lucky to have her as a friend. Thank you Atara for everything and I pray you are enjoying home!

I'm have the great opportunity to house sit this week for a south african couple from church. i get to enjoy an beautiful house and internet til thursday. It comes at a perfect time. We have not had power at my host family's house for 4 days now and we are getting it back until this thursday. Plus we still don't have water consistently. Not having electricity for days and never knowing if there is going to be water is really difficult. I know it's short term for me, but people here know no different and there are even more people who don't have the privilege of losing power or water for a day, because they have never had it.

I have about 3 and half more weeks at my internship...it's been good, but I feel so limited in what I can do there. There are so many needs. I'm going to write a post about Sidai soon so you all can better understand.

I'm starting my project officially this week! This is for the Global Research Project Course in which I basically carry out my own research project through interviews with individuals and organizations. i'm going to research teen pregnancy in Nairobi. I still need to define my project a bit more, but i'm working on it.

Exciting News! I'm going to the DRC (Congo) for Christmas! My friend Christian is from there and invited me to come for Christmas and stay with his family. I'm so excited to travel and see more of Africa. I also need the distraction during the holidays, because I think if i just stayed here i would get really home sick...i need to do something.

back to life

So I'm back from Mombasa. It was amazing! The Mombasa story is coming soon. It could not have worked out better though.

So i had all these ideas of people I wanted to message and such so I decided I would spend some quality time at the best internet cafe in Gong. Seriously it has the fastest internet I've encountered in the past 2 months. You actually have to wait for a computer because everyone knows it's the best internet. It's the only internet cafe where I don't feel like kicking the computer. Anyway I made my way to this great internet cafe and waited 20 minutes for a computer. I finally get a computer and of course the first thing I do is log into facebook because I'm pretty much addicted. However facebook missed the memo that I'm in Kenya with limited internet access and decided to chose this chuck of time to perform maintenance on my account. I'm really mad. So i wasted a bunch of time checking email and reading blogs waiting and hoping it would stop it's maintenance but no such luck.

In other news I came home to a full (fuller) house last night. There were four new family members. I figured they were just visiting as there are always people visiting, but it turns out they are living with us for the next month at least! So now there are 10 people living in the house. It's fun. The new family is Milka's brother and wife and two kids, lucy (6) and Stanley (1). They are so cute. It definitely adds a lot more nose but nothing I can't handle.

well keep your eyes open for the Mombasa post. Maybe I'll venture to this amazing internet on Monday and hope facebook has stopped it's ridiculous non-sense.

Looking Up

The Path

[disclaimer: I hate my camera. It takes horrible pictures in Kenya and I every time I play with the settings it makes it worse. In this case it really is true that the pictures don’t do the real thing justice, not even close]

As you know I live on a big hill. So most days I walk up this….all the way to the top.

Sometimes when I’m coming from town I take an alternate route up the other side of the hill. There’s path that goes along the hill and eventually comes out at my house.

This is not an ideal path. It’s rough, uphill, uneven, dirty, and has lots of protruding thorn bushes. Before the rainy season the ground was incredibly dusty and loose and now after the rain its incredibly muddy and sticky.

So much so that this is what happens to your shoes when you attempt to walk it in the rain.

Before the rains came, a few weeks ago, I was walking this path. I was having a hard day, drowning in loneliness, homesickness, self doubt, and my inadequacy at "changing the world." The dirt was so loose and dusty and I struggled with every step as it sunk beneath my feet. I had to focus on the ground and the path as not to make a wrong step. However, eventually I loss my balance and I fell down hard. As I stood up I started crying and through my tears and frustration I asked God, "Is this really what you had for me?" As I looked up and out I got my answer…

It was beautiful. It was as if God was saying, "yes this is exactly what I had for you." Sometimes I get so stuck in the difficulty of it all that I forget to look up and see the bigger picture.

Yes this is hard, yes I’m lonely, yes I feel powerless. Yet there is also so much beauty in this experience. There is beauty in the faces of the children I encounter everyday. There is beauty in the independence and strength I’m gaining. Beauty in realizing my powerlessness, that I can not "fix" everything. There is of course beauty in drinking chai tea at all hours of the day with wonderful Kenyans :-]

This life is beautiful…I just forget to look up and see it.

It’s true of this country as well. It’s so easy to just focus on the muddiness. Yes there is a lot of corruption, yes there is a lot of poverty, yes there is a lot tragedy. But there is also so much beauty to be found. I don’t say this to make light or lessen Kenya’s problems, but to remember that there is more to Kenya, more to Africa. Much, much more.

So I encourage whenever you are to remember to look up…

We have a Problem

We have a Problem. It’s a phase my host mom said a lot this past week. My poor host family. The beginning of the week Milka, my host mom, was feeling ill so she went to the doctor and turns out she has typhoid. A few days later Eric, my 10 month old brother, wasn’t doing so well so they took him in and he has malaria. They are on medicine and doing fine now, but it’s been quite the week.

We have also struggled with water and electricity this week. Tuesday we ran out of water and didn’t have any all day. Then Thursday the pump water got fixed so we had running water! (but still no hot water because it’s too expensive to turn the water heater on) But Friday we were back to no water. Then Friday the rains came and they came hard. El nino rains are no joke. It appears my life is going to involve a lot of mud the next month as the rainy season is officially here. So we lost electricity at about 7 last night and it didn’t come on til 10 this morning. So today we had water but no electricity. I’m told the power is very unreliable during the rainy season. It’s a bummer, since the power rationing just ended. I’m not sure if we are going to have running water again. Right now we go to the “river” (our water tank outside) and bring it in.

Sometimes I forget where I’m living. Life normalizes and the fact that I’m living in Kenya isn’t such a big deal. But then my host mom comes home with typhoid and the baby has malaria and the reality of where I am slaps me in the face. This is Africa and malaria and typhoid are part of life.

I was at Sidai four days this week. Unusually I only do three but since I’ll be gone next week I worked Friday this week. I’ve been doing a lot more computer work lately. I’m working on a newsletter and brochure for Sidai. To help as resources for more donors. I still get to play with the kids lots.

Mombasa is finally here. We leave Tuesday morning and set out on a 7-8 hour bus ride. I’m really hoping the rainy season has not hit Mombasa yet. I want sun.

This is Africa

TIA is something I find myself saying quite often here. The phase This Is Africa helps keep me sane. I say it when the power unexpectedly goes out as i'm about to Skype people I love, or when I find three huge spiders in my room in one night, or when I see the ugliest biggest cockroach making it's way across my floor, or when I open a cabinet in the kitchen and see thousands of ants crawling on the pots I eat out each night, or when there are live "things" swimming in the water I'm washing dishes with, or they shove 20 people in a matatu meant for 12.

This is Africa. And I love it.

This week has been a turning point for me. I'm finally getting to a point where I feel really comfortable here. I feel like I'm through the adjustment phase and I can now enjoy things. .

Like the mornings here in Kenya. I live on top of a huge hill and every morning as I step out of my gate I'm greeted by the most amazing view. It's breathe taking.

My homestay is still great. They are teaching me so much. One of my favorite times of the day is after dinner when we take chai tea and sit and talk. I look forward to it. Oh the chai is so good.

My internship is still challenging, but I love the kids. They are precious.

I was sick last week. I had a intestinal bacterial infection. I was also having asthma problems. It was not fun. But a 17 dollar trip to Zam Zam (a private clinic here in Gong) and four different drugs, I feel great.

We are for sure going to Mombasa on the 20th so I'm looking forward to that.

sorry this is short. hopefully i'll write something more intensive and insightful soon.

LIving the african life...

So i had a post all ready to put up but I can't post it so this will be short but hopefully I can get to better internet sometime this week.

We didn't go to Mombasa this weekend. OUr plans didn't quite work out but we're hoping to go in a couple weeks.

I love my homestay! They are wonderful people. So kind, generous, and funny. We spend the evenings in the kitchen together waiting for the food to cook and just talking and laughing. It's my favorite part of the of the day.

I'm truly living the African life. No running water (we have water it just doesn't pump into our house. No refrigerator, stove top, oven, microwave, or tv. But it's fun. There have been days this last week that I really wished for a hot shower or regular flushing toilet but honestly I'm loving living where I am with the people I'm with.

The internship is also going well. It's challenging. I love the kids. It's impossible not too. Sidai just faces a lot of financial struggles. Like last week we didn't have enough money for food. We got the money but Sidai really needs consistent donors. We almost have a website up so I'll be sure to past that along to you all.

I hope you all are doing well. I miss you all and think about you often!

Birthday Post

Happy Birthday to me!

I remember telling Atara last week that all I wanted for my birthday was a homestay and an internship and amazingly I got that and much more.

So here’s the run down:

Internship: A week and half ago, I just started searching the internet for children’s homes in the area where Atara lives. My plan was to set out and locate one of the organizations and ask them if I could work there. I ran the list past Atara’s host mom Nkita and she actually recognized one of the homes( it‘s associated with her church). She was kind enough to take us out last Sunday night and show us where it was. So last Monday Atara and I set out to visit the home. The organization is Sidai Children Rehabilitation Centre and it’s in Ngong. The center is right next door to a large slum area. Sidai provides food, clothing, education, and shelter to children that would otherwise be on the streets. Not all of the children are orphans. Many of children have parents they see, but the parents can not afford to feed, house or educate them.

I still have a lot to learn about Sidai. I’m going to be helping teach the kids (and there‘s few other things I‘ll probably help out with). There are four classes at Sidia. When I visited last week I helped with what they call the baby class which is 2 to 5 year olds. There’s a lot of challenges teaching and working at Sidai. These are at risk kids and most of them are extremely behind. One six year old little boy I was working with can’t recognize his numbers or letters at all. It doesn’t help that my Swahili is horrible. It’s going to take some creativity and work to teach these kids, but I can already tell I’m going to love working there. I start officially Tuesday.
Homestay: Lucy is the founder and mama of Sidai. She started the home in 2000. She has three grown children who help run Sidai. I’m going to be living with her daughter Milka. Milka and her husband David have two boys, a 10 year old and a 9 month old. Eric, the baby is so cute! The family is great and Milka is so kind and funny. I’m excited to be living there. Their house is really close to Sidai which is nice. The only thing is, it’s a top this huge hill! I’ll be fit for sure after three months of walking that hill everyday. I move in tomorrow!
Birthday: My birthday has been great. It’s been a whole weekend thing. Atara and her family are incredibly kind and generous and I’m so lucky to have them. On Friday Sue took us to get our nails done. A pedicure and manicure. It was amazing. My feet were definitely disgusting, but now they are beautiful. Well, see how long that last!

Friday night we went out on the town with a Atara’s host brother and his friends. It was a lot of fun.

Today we went to church and came home and had a great lunch. After lunch Atara and her parents surprised me with chocolate cake! It was so good. And Atara’s dad brought me plain chocolate m+m’s from South Africa! He was there last week for a pastor conference.
Looking forward to…
I’m excited to finally have a sense of purpose and be busy! The last month gone by so quick and I’ve barely done anything so I know the next few months will go by super fast.

On Thursday Atara, and I are going to Mombasa! For four days of beach and sun. There’s a lady from Atara’s church that has a beautiful house that she is going to let us stay in. I’m super
excited to see the coast and the beach. I'm not looking forward to Atara leaving in a month though. I will miss her so much.

So that’s my life. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update before we leave but there will definitely be an update next week.

Things are coming together!

I have much to say but I'm in an internet cafe with the slowest internet ever. And the loudest music ever as well.


I will be brief but I have really good news! I found an internship today. I'll be working at a children's home in Ngong. I'm really excited about it, because there are so many oppertunities there. They are still in the beginning stages of substaining and establishing thier home so it will be exciting to be apart of it.

I'm meeting with a possible homestay today. As far as I know it's going to work out and it's also in Ngong so hopefully close to my internship.

Everything just came together today! I've been praying so much and the Lord is so faithful!

Funny Story: I was in a car accident yesterday. I'm fine, just hit my leg hard on the seat. Atara and I were taking a matatu home and seriously the driving here is some of the craziest I've seen. I didn't see exactly how it happened as I was sitting in the back, but I think we were trying to pass a car and didn't make it back into our lane fast enough and an on coming car hit the front side of our matatu. Luckily, we were putting close to home so we walked the rest if the way. I'm told these type of accidents are not uncommon and often worse and I believe it. Thankfully Atara and I are fine!

I don't think I'll have internet this week. But next sunday is my birthday and we're going to Atara's dad's house to use the internet, so if you have skype be sure to be on Sunday morning! And I'll post sunday a more detailed update!

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers!

Small Victories

Thanks for hanging in there these past couple of weeks.

(warning: this post is a bit random and probably not written very well)

I still don’t have a homestay but soon hopefully. And an internship soon! I hope (life here involves a lot of waiting). I’m starting to find the humor in this situation. I do, however, have a working ipod! And they fixed it for free. I have no idea what was wrong with it, but they gave back to me working and said I didn’t have to pay anything.

It’s all about small victories here. So I take what I can get.

I’m still staying with Atara’s homestay. Atara lives with a woman named Nikta who has five grown children. Atara’s grandparents were missionaries in the Congo and Nikta actually met them as a girl and Nikta ended up moving to Kenya as an adult. Basically Atara’s family has known Nikta forever. Anyway, her house is nice. Atara has an extra bed in her room so that’s where I’ve been staying. Nikta has been so kind to me and shown such great hospitality. I’m so thankful to her.

So Atara’s house is half between Karen and Ngong. Karen is a suuburb of Nairobi and it’s where a lot of white people live, which surprised me a little. There are many nice houses and a few shopping centers. It reminds me a lot of South Africa. Outside of the mzungus(white people) meeting places I stick out quite a bit. I get a lot of attention.

The weather has been kinda random. It’s been cold and muggy the past couple of weeks. It usually warms up by the afternoon. Then there are days like today where it’s gorgeous outside and so warm. But we want rain! Nairobi and probably much of Kenya is in the middle of a drought. It’s estimated that Nairobi will run out of water in five years.

Kenya has no plain m+m’s (my absolute favorite candy) and there are no McDonalds! Imagine that and you thought Mcdonalds were everywhere. Well of course Mcdonalds and all those other global fast food places wanted to come to Nairobi, but Kenya wanted them to use their products. as opposed to importing thier products. Mcdonalds and the other guys didn’t like that so no Mcdonalds. They do have this chicken place which I’ve heard is the closest thing to fast food. I have yet to try it, but I’ve heard it’s good.

Like South Africa they are rationing power here. We don’t have power til 6 on Tuesday, Thursday and then 1pm of Saturday. So that’s something to get used to. It definitely influences how you plan your day.

I have yet to get sick so that’s another small victory!


Life has been slow these past couple of weeks. Without an internship my days are spent reading, walking or taking small outings (Atara is gone at her internship). I can get around by myself now so that helps a little. The lack of busyness has caused me to think of home quite bit which has led to quite a bit of homesickness. But i think once things start happening, I'll be alright.


If you want to know anything else just ask!


I'm going to try to share some pictures. The internet is not so great.

An upbeat update

Hello!

So I just wanted to update all of you. Things seem to looking up. I have two promising leads on homestays so I'm hopefully that one of them will work out. I should be in a homestay but this coming weekend. (I hope!) Both seem llike good locations. So keep your fingers crossed and keep praying!

I took my ipod to an Apple store. We ran into one yesterday. So they are going to check it out and see what's wrong with the dang thing. (maybe even fix it?!)

Still working on the internship. I have a few places I need to call.

Today has been a good day and I'm feeling better about being here. I usually don't experience a lot of homesickness but the last week and a half has been really hard.

But I feel it getting better, especially as things work out.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! it really does mean so much to me. I have to run. I'm in an internet cafe.

A real post will be coming soon!

-J

bumps in the road

Hello!

I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to post again. So it's been a week and a half. Have I really only been in this country 10 days? I’ve been contemplating how on earth I fill you about this week, and I’ve decided that there is simply too much, but I’ll try my best.

I over came my jet lag a couple days ago. After all that travel and then a few days of waking up at 3am and not going back to sleep, I’m very happy to report that I’m sleeping through the night.

So this past week I’ve stayed with Atara and we have had a few adventures. She introduce me to the main form of public transit here; matatus. Large vans that go everywhere, as fast as they possibly can. . I’ve been trying to get a feel for where things are, but it’s overwhelming at first. I’ll get there.

Last Sunday we climbed a mountain. We went with the youth of another vineyard church. Mt. Longonot is an extinct volcano so that was cool. When we got there we realized, that because it was a national park it was going to be 1,600 sh ($20) for Atara and I since we are non-residents. Everyone else paid 200 sh ($ 2) . Atara and I were not prepared to pay that much but the leaders were able to come up with the money which was extremely kind. The climb up was pretty intense but I made it and it was incredibly beautiful. e

So there are a lot of bumps and potholes in the roads here but that's not what this post is about...I've ran in a few bumps of my own.

Bump # 1: So I know that I said I was moving in my family last week. And I would love to be able to tell you about them and my new life there, but I’m no longer going to be living with that family. I did go to meet them and they were very nice and their house was beautiful, but when it came time to talk about rent, they wanted a lot more money than I could afford. It's been a little discouraging and frustrating. I’m still with Atara at her homestay, but I need to find my own family soon so I can start the course work and it would be nice to be settled. Not to worry, Atara has lots of connections here and great friends so I’m sure, we’ll find something for me soon. So keep me in your prayers, that someone will take me in!

Bump # 2: We are also looking for an internship for me. It’s been a challenge to find a organization that fit’s the criteria of our program. I had an internship before I left but I learned they wanted a lot of money to work with them so that didn’t work out. I know the perfect organization is out there, it’s just finding it and making sure it’s close to wherever I end up living.
Bump #3 My ipod broke (i have no idea what happened, it was fine than I came back to it and it wont do anything, plugging it in does nothing). I‘m so sad. I still have hope that if I leave it alone for a while it will miraculously work again. My ipod was my lifeline as silly as it sounds. I came to rely on that thing quite a bit. The nights are nosy here so it was nice to have it. I miss my music.

So my first week and a half has been a bumpy road, but I’m learning and I know it will all work out. I have so much to be thankful for and God is faithful.

I have arrived!!

I’m here! After 22 hours of flight, 14 hours of lay-overs, and minimal sleep, I arrived in here in Kenya! Travel was a long tiring process, but it went much smoother and quicker once I flew out of JFK. I was finally able to sleep on the flight to Zurich. My last flight from Zurich to Kenya was amazing! It was less than half full so everyone could spread out and I was able to sleep across 3 seats. All of my flights up to that was were completely full so it was nice to have some space.


So I got in yesterday around 6pm here. Atara, a really close friend of mine who also goes to APU and is here on her global learning term, came to meet me at the airport with her Dad. Her Dad is here as a pastor for the Vineyard church in Nairobi. Anyway, traffic was unexpectedly horrible so I had to wait in the airport for about 45 minutes. It was a little overwhelming, with all of my bags searching the airport for Atara, while trying to avoid the relentless taxi drivers. Luckily a nice Kenyan woman named Anna came to my rescue. I was a little suspicious at first because I thought she would want money in exchange for helping me, but she reassured me that “we are all human beings,” and she wanted to help me out. She let me use her cell phone to call Atara. Atara said they were stuck in traffic and coming. Anna led me to the food count and sat with me for a while. She told me she was a Christian and liked helping people. I felt a little guilty that I had been so suspicious of her after she had been so nice. It was a good reminder that I need to be careful making blanket judgements about groups of people.

Atara came and it was so good to see her! I lived with Atara on LA term and she's amazing. We went to her home stay. I’ll be staying there for the next week or so. I had my first Kenyan meal which was really good and then got ready for bed. I really thought I would have no problem sleeping last night, but I woke up after two hours and I was pretty much awake more then not for the rest of the night. It’s jet lag I guess, but I’ve never experienced it like this. Surprisingly, I not that tired so I’m going to try and stay awake all day today so hopefully I can get a full night of sleep tonight.

It’s hard to believe I’m here. I keep reminding myself that this is happening.
That’s all for now. My posting might be a little off and on since I don’t have Internet at Atara’s house and I’m not going to be settled into a real routine for a while.

Here we go!

Leaving for the aiport!

Is this really happening?

So it's Saturday night.
I'm in the middle of packing.
Everything is ready to be put in a bag.
I leave Monday morning and the only thing running through my mind is "is this really happening?" It hasn't hit me yet and I'm not sure when it will. But regardless it is happening!

The breakdown-

I'm going to Kenya on my GLT (global learning term). Basically a independent study abroad program. I create my syllabi, make my own arrangements, and initiate all the learning (I won't attend any classes) I'm taking 12 credits through APU.

Family Organization- I'll be living with a family with 4 kids :) I'll basically be observing, asking lots of questions, participating in any way I can and writing about it.

International Internship- Working with a community organization and writing about it. I'm still figuring out what organization I will be working with. I have to do lots of hours for this since I will be earning 6 credits.

Global Research Project- I come up with a research question and conduct interviews, do research, and assemble all my findings in a portfolio.

So as far as traveling goes, it's basically going to take forever.

I fly out of SeaTac Monday night around 7. I have a short layover in San-Fran and then I fly over night to JFK. I get Tuesday morning around 8 am and have the whole day in New York. My flight for Switzerland takes off at 6pm. I have a another lay-over in Switzerland then it's finally off to Nairobi! I get into Nairobi on Wednesday.

So that's the basic information for now.

Check back for updates!

Preparation

So it's happening.

Next monday I fly out.

I'll be making my way to Kenya for 6 months.

It's a program called Global Learning Term.

It's required for the global studies major.

You'll hear a lot about it as time goes on.

This is just a test post.

I promise my future posts will include a bit more information!