Getting ready for Summer

When we arrived in Nairobi in July it was really pretty chilly and wet. Now as the weather is getting colder back in Illinois, it is getting much warmer (and sometimes really hot) here in Kenya. The kids love being outside and there are a lot of kids on the compound for them to play with. The school where Jason teaches has a new pool that we can use on the weekends. We have had the sprinkler out, and of course there is always football.
Lexi has been learning to ride a bike (with training wheels) and has gotten pretty good at it. Both she and Nate love to go on walks looking for birds we haven't seen yet. (one of the missionaries on the compound is a pretty serious bird watcher and has both of the kids hooked.)
Jason is the only one of us who is likely to miss snow this year, but even he admits the weather is absolutely beautiful. (We did have a pretty serious hail storm a few weeks ago - which are apparently very rare in Nairobi - so for a few minutes it looked a little like snow had fallen.)
So, for the first time in our lives we are looking forward to applying sunblock in December!

Football

I (Jason) went to the Kenya vs Namibia football (in the States we call it soccer) game a week ago. I really enjoyed it. I still don't understand all of the rules, but it is a lot of fun to watch.

We arrived at the stadium about 4 hours early. We then had to sit on concrete slabs and wait until the teams came out to warm up (only about 3 hours). The concrete slabs once had chairs, but they were ripped out and thrown during a riot several years ago, so now there is only concrete slabs.

The stadium would probably hold 100,000 people (it is amazing how many people you can squeeze in when there are no chairs). I am not sure what the official capacity is or was. Anyway, they only sold about 50,000 tickets, so the people who had been waiting in line for hours to buy tickets (we purchased ours about 5 days in advance) were told the stadium was sold out. Then they started to riot outside the stadium, so the police started beating on people with sticks and using tear gas. I was glad of the hard concrete seat.

They only sold 50,000 tickets because that was the number the police felt they could handle if things got out of control.

The game was a lot of fun - well the last half was actually boring, no one scored. Kenya won, which was great. At the start of the game, I was told to watch out for "P-bombs." I asked what that was (I could only think A-bomb). What they meant was "pee bomb" apparently people in the upper stands fill empty cups with pee and launch them at people farther down. Luckily that didn't happen, but we did get hit with soda cans, beer cans and watter bottles. But that only happened when something great happened or when something bad happened.
The people across the stadium from us got upset and ripped apart a bench and started a fire in the stands.

All-in-all it was so much fun, and I would love to go to another game some time. Maybe next time if Kenya loses we can get tear-gassed!

Road Works Ahead!

They have started construction on part of our road (unfortunately, not the part that really needs it). The signs say "Road Works Ahead" or "Hakuna Njia" (no through way). It is really an amazing process, let me explain it through our eyes.

We went to church on Sunday and there was a large, five-foot tall pile of rocks (about the size of basketballs) in the middle of the road. When we got back from church there were three huge piles of rocks in the middle of the road. We weren't sure why at the time. (And I was starting to wonder if they were breeding). The power was out, and we were tired so we decided to go out to eat - a treat for us. When we returned, there were five large piles of rock in the middle of the road. (So far the breeding theory made the most sense - there are rocks everywhere here!).

I wish we had pictures of the piles, they are literally in the middle of the road, so here we are swerving around these huge piles of rock trying to avoid the 2 foot deep ditch - that is conveniently the width of a car tire.

The next day, when I went to school, there are about 10 men sitting in the road with hammers and chisels making the big rocks into piles of small rocks (about the size of baseballs). Then they line the small rocks up on the road. This went on all week. (I actually tried to get a picture of this, but they said I "had to pay them 500 shillings." Tomorrow I will go and negotiate the price and post a new picture.) Anyway, now two separate roads are half-way done, and driving is even more of an adventure because you have to wait until the cars coming are out of the way before you start down the good side of the road. Sometimes you start down the road, and someone comes at you anyway, and you sit there pointing at each other until someone backs into a driveway - the biggest car wins! Thankfully no one directs the traffic, or it would be really confusing. (Just trust us.)

Here is a picture of our half-done road. I have no idea when the other side will be started, or when the road will be completed - we are not holding our breath, but we will keep you posted.

While I was stuck waiting for a line of cars this morning, I was talking to the foreman? about how this process works in the States with big machines. He said he had seen them, but if he had them "those 10 men would be out of work." Sadly, it is also cheaper to pay those men (probably about $3/day) than to buy a heavy machine.

Nana

Last week my Grandma Tracy went home to be with the Lord. It was very difficult week for us to be away from the family we so greatly desired to see. In a sense, going back home will never be the same again. For my entire life, Nana has always been there. From skinned knees to broken hearts she has always been a source of unconditional love, band-aids, and kisses. She has been a constant in my life, and now she is not there.

It has been a long time since I have been able to crawl up into her lap for a book. But I have had the joy of watching my kids sit there listening to my favorite story, Suzie Squirrel, and everything was the same. I can remember talking her in to going down a curly slide just to hear her scream all the way down. I remember playing our favorite game “Mixing Match-ups” together, learning to play “Sorry” with her (It wasn’t until I was much older that I learned the real rules, in Grandma’s game everyone shared spaces, the Sorry cards didn’t mean anything, and everyone always won.), and doing so many puzzles. Yahtzee was of course the best, hoping the whole time Nana would roll a Yahtzee just to hear her scream.

I still think spending the night at Nana and Papa’s house is the best vacation, and even Nicole came to feel that way. When I was a kid, there were always pancakes for breakfast (and still no one can make them the same), and no matter how early you awoke, Nana could always be found in the kitchen sitting at the table in her bathrobe, reading her Bible and praying. Always.

She was one of the most incredible people I have ever known. She was the first person I ever knew to own their own computer. She even took classes to learn how to use it. On the other hand, I remember riding with her after she had just learned to drive. (She never got great at that. And to my horror I remember telling her as a little boy to “try not to hit anybody.”) She loved her family in a way I still don’t understand and can only try to emulate. She loved us in spite of our failings, and saw the good in everyone. I suspect that all of her grandchildren felt they were the most special when they were with her, I know I always did.

I have missed her terribly this week, but I will see her again. And the greatest part of that truth is that I will see her not as she was, but as she was meant to be. Nana wasn’t perfect (though in my mind she was close), and the last few years her body worked against her. She is not in pain anymore, she is not weak anymore, she is not suffering anymore. Nana is not just a pleasant memory, or a happy feeling. She is not some sort of strength that I carry with me. The moment she passed from this life she entered a life so much more real than this one. Death is not natural – it is one of the most unnatural things I know of. A person like Nana should just go on living, her spirit was so alive, it was just her body that was wearing out. She is in heaven, not because she was a good person or a great Grandma, but because she gave Jesus Christ control of her life.

I have always felt bad that my kids could never know the Nana that I know. She has been slow and sick for all of their lives. But someday, really in just a few years, they will get to see her again as well. People sometimes ask me as a pastor if people look the same in heaven. I don’t know, but I do know I would recognize my Nana anywhere, no matter what she looks like, and I look forward to seeing her again. Until then, Good-bye!