When you know you've been in Kenya a long time

While our family has just spent a year in Kenya, that year represents a huge amount of time for our kids. Nate has spent 1/3 of his life in Kenya, and Lexi 1/5 of her life. Both of the kids have changed so much in this year, and are going to face some culture shock when we return to the States.

Lexi was surprised to hear that not every home has guards that keep us safe and open the gate for us when we get home and honk the horn.

They will both be shocked at the number of choices there are in the States, and the number of toys. They are also used to us bartering when we buy gifts for other people - somehow I imagine Walmart would frown on that practice.

Fast food. It just doesn't exist here. Whenever we "eat out" here, we generally eat outside. Most restaurants have an outside eating area, many of them only have an outside eating area.

While we probably won't always think of it, we will miss the fresh food here. I will miss buying juice that only has one ingredient, for example the label on our orange juice says: "ingredients: orange juice". There are no preservatives in almost anything we buy.

Everytime we drive we see hundreds of people walking. That doesn't happen in the States. We pass dozens of bicycles, a few donkey carts (more often than not pulled by a person), a herd of cows, goats, or sheep walking somewhere across the road, and at least one three-wheeled taxi cab. The kids don't really remember driving without these things. There are also the hawkers usually standing between moving lanes of traffic. Whenever traffic comes to a stop, they try to sell you something (maps, flags, knives, sunglasses, puppies, dresses, birds, phone chargers, jumper cables, pictures, produce, hats, cell phone cases, toys, DVDs, warning triangles, magazines, hiking sticks, etc.

This week when we were driving downtown, and stuck in "a jam," my three-year-old son cried out, "Hey, this guy is selling apples! Roll my window down!" He was ready to start bartering for a bag of green apples.

Here is the 1/3 Kenyan tending a fire with a stick and sitting like a Maasai with his "warrior hat" on. (I have never seen any Kenyan actually wearing one of these hats, but they sell them on the side of the road, and one of our Aunts thought Nate needed one.)

There are many ways we will all face some amount of culture shock. We will miss living here a great deal. It is shocking to realize how much of their lives have been spent living overseas at this point. I hope we can come back someday.

Car Trouble

We had a little car trouble recently. (The Swahili word for "trouble" is "shida" one of Jason's favorite words) The land cruiser wouldn't start. The alternator had gone bad and needed to be replaced. Of course we discovered this after we had purchased a new battery! Car repairs are pretty expensive here (an oil change costs about $100).

We are thankful for the vehicle that we have though. The vast majority of Kenyans walk or take public transportation (matatus = Jason's favorite thing to hate here). We were driving to get a few groceries yesterday and Lexi remarked, "Look at all of the people walking today! I sure am glad we have a car!" That sums up how all of us feel. We are blessed to be able to use a vehicle that is very safe on any road (even the roads in Nairobi).

Sunday mornings are the best times to drive in the city - there is virtually no traffic. Sunday afternoons can be one of the worst times. Many of the citizens of Nairobi who own a vehicle only go driving on Sunday afternoons. They take public transportation to work on the week days, and only go driving on Sunday afternoons. That way they don't have to pay for petrol except four days a month, and they also have plenty of time to forget how to drive during the week!

Driving here in Nairobi has been an interesting experience. In some ways I will miss it, it is always an adventure. I am convinced that people who get "road rage" in the States are Weenies!

Here is a picture of Jason and Edwin push-starting our truck.

Camping with wild animals

Last week we decided to put up some tents outside for the kids. We hung "Shukas" (Maasai blankets) on two ropes between two trees in our front yard and the kids had fun playing in their tents. The kids had a reading room, a room for the babies, and a cooking room. Even the older kids came over for a while to play. Mosquitoes and safari ants eventually began to invade the tent so we had to take it down.

A few days later Lexi and Nate decided to go camping over night. Since we have safari ants in our yard and it is the rainy season we were unable to camp outside or even go to a park to camp with all of the animals. So we made our own tent and slept in the living room. The kids were very excited and were involved in the whole process of putting up the tents (we used shukas again), finding the bedding and making it nice and neat, and then finally getting the animals and blankets that they sleep with into the tent.

We all went to bed around 8:00 (a half an hour after the kids usually go to sleep) but they were so excited about their camping experience that they didn't fall asleep until about 10:30. We didn't get to see any wild animals (except Lexi and Nate), but we all have very good imaginations so we pretended to be in the wild with the animals. It was a very fun experience for all of us.

Preaching

On Sunday we had the opportunity to worship at a Maasai church out in the bush. It was one of the best experiences we have had in Kenya. The church was down in the Rift Valley about 3 hours away from our home. Jason had the privilege of preaching at the church. It was his first time preaching with an interpreter as almost no one at the church spoke English.

The service was long by American standards (we left at 7:30 AM and got home at 6:30 PM - that was with only 1 service, they asked us to stay and have an afternoon service with them, but we weren't able to). The service was filled with much singing and dancing. The church building is in the middle of nowhere, everyone walks to church. There are very few trees and plants near the church and everything that grows there is covered in thorns. The "road" leading to the church is guarded by a "fence" of thorn bushes. There is no electricity in the area, but they do have a battery to power a microphone and a piano. The building is made of sheet metal, and most of the seats are plastic chairs and rough wooden benches.

After the service, we greeted everyone outside of the building. Jason was given a beaded necklace by one of the ladies, and Nicole was given a beaded ring. The Maasai greet children by touching the tops of their heads, all of us really enjoyed this. Lexi was the first kid most of them had seen with long blond hair. The children spent a lot time stroking her hair and feeling her skin. Both Lexi and Nate handled all of the "hands-on" attention very well, and made some friends.

After the service we ate lunch with the pastor at his home. We were very honored and humbled by his kindness. We had red beans, goat meat, and chapatis. (Lexi and Nate decided they don't like goat meat - but everyone loves chapatis and read beans!)

The area is very hot and dry most of the year, and desperately needs rain. Water is scarce, and a very precious commodity. Many of the Maasai's cows have died, and carcasses were everywhere. We were able to help take corn meal (for Ugali) and sugar to help those in need. We have too many pictures to show here, but will post a few. It was an opportunity we will never forget, and are so grateful for the memories.

Bowling

Nicole and I got to take almost all of the AG MKs bowling today. Our field moderators went with us (basically they are our bosses here in Kenya - absolutely wonderful people. We are really going to miss Uncle Bill and Aunt Barb! It was their idea to go bowling in the first place, and we were honored that they asked us to go with).

There were 13 kids ranging from almost 2 to 15. We had a pizza part picnic before we went bowling. Our pizzas were delivered on the back of a motorcycle (one little boy we know refers to all motorcycles as "motorcycle pizza"). To our huge surprise, the pizzas were right on time (we have friends who have waited 5 hours for their pizza to be delivered before!).

We almost had the whole bowling alley to ourselves. The younger kids bowled 1 game in the time it took the older kids to bowl 2 with a 15 minute break between their games.

We really love the kids in our mission, and wish we had more time to goof off with them. They have really embraced Lexi and Nate, and we have a lot of fun with all of them.

Lexi scored a 93 and Nate got a 73 (hooray for bumpers and ramps!). We just got home, the water has been off for 5 days and the electricity is off, so we might just go out for supper!

A first time for everything

We went ice skating last week. Lexi and Nate will always be able to tell everyone that they went ice skating for the first time in Africa. Not many people can say that!

We went with some of our very favorite people (MKs) and had a lot of fun. The ice skating rink had these little soft penguins that the kids could hold on to to help stabilize them. We skated for about an hour (the kids couldn't have taken any more), and then went to watch a movie.

Monday, June 1, was Madaraka Day. A national holiday (sort of like independence day). We drove past the thousands of people listening to speeches at the stadium, and were fortunate to miss all of the pedestrian traffic. We had our own celebration at the ice rink! There were a few falls; a few nastsy looks (Dad tried to spin each of the kids, much to their dismay); and a lot of fun.

I don't imagine there are many ice skating rinks on the entire continent, so it was a unique first.

Shoot

I got to go shooting with the Assistant RSO the other day from the US embassy. What a blast! (pun intended). I got to fire fully automatic rifles. We fired a glock, an SMG, and an M4 rifle. Got to practice from various distances, firing positions, and moving at the targets.

The gentleman who took us is basically an expert with firearms. He did a great job of training all of us. I also got to meet one of the men who helps train the Kenyan police force. It was a thrill! Most people don't get to practice on a range where you have to stop shooting to let the Giraffes walk through.

The day was a lot of "guy" fun. I have a nice bruise on my right shoulder, but it was worth it. Kind of fun to have a purely "redneck" experience in Africa!