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Few More Days in The Mother Land.

So yesterday (Saturday) we went back up to the Children's home for a half day of painting and then a half day of playing with the kids.

It was a great day. We got our goal dont RIGHT at 11:55. Just enough time to have lunch. Packed Lunch is so good when your out on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. So after lunch we went to the playground and hung out with the Toddlers. I wish I could capture these kids on Camera. I mean as you can see their faces are beautiful. But its like a scenery shot, you can NEVER capture that beauty in a picture. No matter how hard you try. I am going to post some other pictures soon on Facebook so I will set up a link for your viewing pleasure soon.

After playing w/ the Toddlers we found that most of the older kids were down at the field playing Football. So we hiked down and watched the game. On both sides of the field the mountain just drops off. And the wind just whips through there! Sometimes the kids will kick a ball and it will come right back at them. But I KNOW God plays a part in the game because whenever the ball starts rolling off the mountain the wind will blow it right into one of the 4 rocks in sight. It was a great game.

So at the end of the day I had to say goodbye. The kids have said goodbye to me about 3 times in the past 6 months. So I think they are starting to assume I'm never REALLY leaving. It kind of makes it easier. I and I think its better for them. And me. When the kids cry I Cry. So we said our goodbyes and head down the mountain and back to the Hotel for our last Stir Fry dinner.

One thing that is a bummer is that the road going to the Emmanuel Home is REALLY bad. Shirley say's there is no way I can make it up. And thats where my girl Nondumiso is. :-( So it sux that I wont be able to see her before I go. If you dont know the story of my Girl Nondumiso than CLICK HERE and you can read it. It's amazing.

Well today we had to be up a little early to get Jeff and Connor to the airport. They are heading to Cape Town for a few days and then back to Georgia. They are a great Family. From the two I've met at least. I told Jeff that I was planning on making another CD and before he we dropped them off he gave me $25 and said "Send me a CD when its done" Soooo Looks like I got my first CD sale. Before its even DONE. Soooo what do you say? Anyone else wanna buy a CD before its done?!? hah But really I am thinking about doing a Pre-sale when I get closer to recording. Its a good way to pay for the CD. Then when I'm done I'll ship them to the first people who bought one. But Jeff was the first person to buy my second CD. Thanks Jeff. I'll let you know when Pre-Sale starts.

We made good time today. about 9 hours total there and back. But some tell me they can make it to the Airport and back in 7 hours. I was thinking on the way back that this will be the last time this year that I will make the trek back to Swaziland. Its Sad. I'm gonna miss Shirley too. And Charles and Cindy and Joshua and the other Joshua and Caroline and Antony and Rachael and and Denis and Kaleli... The list goes on and this is JUST SWAZILAND. Not to mention all the children. Its hard now that my heart is in both Swaziland and Kenya. Who knows what the future holds. Well I know someone does. And I'm glad he wont let me in on it. No fun in that.

The next couple days I'll be layin low. Wont be much to BLOG about. Well actually you never know around here. But I will give you a Link to the new Pics as soon as they are uploaded.

Thanks Peeps,

Peace&Love...SPREAD IT!

More To Come...

Hello Peeps.

Wednesday:

Today we went to the Hlane Game Park. It’s the same one I went to with the group in August but this time it was cooler because there were only three of us. This time we got to get out of the jeep at one point and walk down a path to a little pond. Inside and around the pond was about 7 Rhino’s. When we first cleared the bushes and they saw us a couple of them jumped up like they were about to charge. The tour guide didn’t budge so I felt pretty safe. I thought a tour guide running was just about as bad as a doctor saying “ohhhhh I’ve never seen this before.” But he didn’t run. We saw tons of other stuff like Giraffes and Impala and Warthogs (with about 5 little babies) and even a Dung Beetle. The best was the Lion though. We had to drive for about 30 minutes to find one but when we did it was well worth it. He was sitting in the shade under a tree. And the driver drove off the road to get us close enough to take good pictures. When we were close I said “I’m gonna go pet him k?” and the driver said “It’s ok, watch” he then opened his door like he was going to get out. And as soon as he stuck a leg out the lion perked up and his eyes got big. It was so funny. Then we went to the market. I HATE going there w/o buying anything. All of the ladies say “Please support me!... I haven’t eaten any food all day and I am hungry” Its all part of the game but its soooo hard not to just give them money. One lady said “Who is going to help me if you wont?” and I said “God helps all of us doesn’t He?” and she agreed. Most of the ladies that own the shops are Christian. But still I felt like the guys in the Bible that say “Oh you are naked and poor? I’m sorry! I will pray for you!” and don’t feed them or give them clothes. Its hard. :-(

Thursday:

So today we went to El Shaddai and painted some more. Its kind of difficult because some of the walls got bad water damage from the rain. So the concrete is just rolling right off as we are trying to roll paint on. But we got a lot done. I think this was our first FULL day’s work and it went by very quick. Also the guy Mark who is staying at El Shaddai asked us to stay for a Thanksgiving Dinner. As soon as he told me there would be Turkey I was on bored. Jeff and Connor were excited too. So we stayed and played soccer with the kids after work to kill some time. Well I mostly hung out with Gift. She is a child who is very chicky. Is that a word we use in America? I learned it in Kenya. But Gift is full of life and is soooo fun to hang out with. So she took me on a tour of El Shaddai (even though I had seen it many times) and she insisted she be on my shoulders for the duration of the tour. It was fun. For dinner Mark had Frank and Jane (couple who is working at the bottom half of El Shaddai), Sean and Alison (worship leaders for Marks church), Jeff and Connor, and Me. The food was amazing! A serious Thanksgiving Feast. Two Turkeys, Mash Potatoes & Gravy, Sweet Potatoes, Baked Potatoes, Broccoli Casserole (yeah mom I ate it and it was GREAT), Stuffing, Corn, Jell-O mixed with fruit, and Coleslaw(I’m sure I’m missing something. Oh and to finish it all off… Pumpkin Pie, Apple Crunch, and Ice Cream! I Love you Mark! So later in the night I found out that I know Frank and Jane’s Daughter. She went on my first trip to Kenya with her boyfriend who now she is married too. It was cool to make the connection.

Well after the great dinner we got home By Gods Grace. The roads had more fog on them than I had ever seen! It was so scary to drive. You never know when a GIANT Cow will pop up in front of you in the middle of the road. And on top of that I forgot to get gas on the was to El Shaddai. And when we got there I saw we were on Empty. I seriously doubted that we would get to the closest Gas station that was FAR away. But we made it. Now I’m home and I see Shirley has turned the Internet off. I think she found out I’ve been sneaking on to check e-mails and update my blog. Hah. I have fallen in love with Shirley. She is the greatest lady ever. I’m gonna miss her. She will miss me to although she probably wont admit it.

Today(Friday):

Well we went back to El Shaddai today to paint. I thought we were gonna get a lot done but the second coat is white as well and its not covering. So we might have to do a third coat. IF we can make it there. Today the Fog was still bad on our way up. And then at lunch time when we went to eat (leftover Turkey!) the fog got WAY worse. And we started to paint more and the storm came hard. Thunder and Lightning everywhere. We realized we needed to get down the mountain soon. Once in gets bad the roads are like slip and slides. When I was cleaning the brushes and rollers in the pouring rain I started to see lightning all around me. I started to think It wasn’t a good Idea to be on top of a HUGE mountain in the middle of a HUGE rain cloud with HUGE lightning bolts all around. But God kept us from danger once again. It was sad seeing all the kids walking in the rain with no umbrellas. So if the rain continued than we wont be able to make it up the mountain tomorrow. Sooooo we will have to see.

Also I had a cool idea today. I think when I get home I will put on a Christmas Concert at Café Primo to raise money for another CD. I REALLY need to get these songs down on a CD. I’m working on one right now that’s got some potential.

I Love You All,

Peace&Love…SPREAD IT!!!

Canaan Update W/ PICTURES!

Yes people you heard me right. WITH PICTURES!

Real fast shout out. HI SAMANTHA MARSCHALL.

But those will come later. First let me tell you something I recently learned.

When I spent some time with the Kenyan's they told me I was lucky to be alive (I just keep finding more reasons to thanks God that my Run-In-With-A-Thief wasn't worse). I guess the Red Eye bus that goes between Mombasa and Nairobi is a very dangerous ride. Kaleli was surprised that no one informed me. Just about every one of them had a story about someone getting jacked from that bus. You see the road is long and dark with no town for miles at a time. Kaleli said he has heard many case's where people will buy a bus ticket and board the bus like a regular people. Then when they are at the "planned meeting spot" they will pull out guns and put one on the driver and some on the passengers and tell the driver to drive into the bush. They will take you out far from the road and make everyone get out of the bus and remove ALL their clothing and place it in a bag along with Cell phones, wallets, passports. EVERYTHING. Then they will take the keys to the bus and their friend will show up in a car to load all the goods and they will leave. He even said sometimes they would make people do stuff that I don't want to repeat. So I guess you can say God really protected me on that trip. They couldn't believe I actually went on that bus!

So on a lighter note. The food at the Hotel has been great. And spending time with Jeff and Connor has been great as well. They are a great family. Connor is in that age where he asks TONS of questions. Even if he knows the answer. He will always ask his dad a question and I will just wait with a smile on my face to hear Jeff's response. They really love it hear. Yesterday we went to El Shaddai to do some painting. We got a tour from Mark and got to eat lunch on the Prayer Rock. Mark showed us a new building put up for guests to stay. He opened the door and their was a fake snake wrapped around the end of the bunk bed. I was thinking "DANG that looks real!" as I approached. It then jumped to the ground. I seriously screamed like a little girl about to sit on Santa's Lap! No just kidding. I caught bare handed Bear Grill style and we cooked it for lunch (Then I woke up). The kids are just finishing up the year so a lot of them were outside playing. It was soooo good to see some familiar faces. All the girls running from me before I even got to say hello. Oh and Sharla I told Ndumiso "Sharla said your football shoes will be here soon." and he said "How soon?" hah I can tell he is excited. Jeff and Connor had a blast running around and playing with the kids. Although Connor got mad because he said when he went to go pee the kids all stared at him. We tried to tell him it was because he is like a celebrity but he didn't go for it. So that was yesterday.

And today we went to Project Canaan. Mark (who works at El Shaddai) joined us. He's a great guy. So he followed us up in the morning and we met Kaleli at the building. Mark made the connection later that Kaleli was Charles Mulli's son and got very excited. If you haven't read Charles Mulli's book you should read it. It will change your life! Its called Father to the Fatherless. Kaleli took us in the 4Wheel drive Land Rover to see more of the land. We went up pretty high before the Truck started sliding of the mountain and we had to throw it in park and hike. We were pretty far up taking pictures when all of a sudden Kaleli says "Shhhh!!! quit!! There is something in that bush!" We had to quietly sneak down the trail. He looked scares so I was scared. I guess he heard something really big breathing really hard in the bushes next to us. He took us down to the lower dam. HOLY COW! OK here is where the pictures come in. This dam was seriously not even 1/3 full on Friday when I left Canaan. And now it was OVER FLOWING!

This is the upper BIG Dam. Honestly when I was there on Thursday I was walking around at the bottom of this Dam. I remember thinking "this dam is NEVER gonna fill" I wish I had some numbers for you but these two Dam's are HUGE.

The best part about this is that ALL of this water wasn't being used before this. It was just running off into huge rivers that took it to bigger rivers that eventually took it out to the sea! And this is good stuff. Not nasty water but fresh spring water. Brought straight from Gods creation. The other day I put a post on Facebook that said "I thank God for Rain. It brings Life to Life" But without the soon to follow sun the rain would ruin everything. So I also thank God for the BURNING sun that we had today. Because of it the Maize was looking great. Here is some snaps of the Maize.

Well what a great day. We were supposed to work on a gate but we never even started. We took a tour till about 1 and then Jeff and Kaleli talked a lot about smart people stuff. I nodded my head a lot. Really though I could tell Jeff was loving it. Sometimes I feel bad if we don't get work done but then I realize that these trips are meant for bigger things. I mean yeah we need this stuff done but the knowledge Jeff got from today he will go back with. And he might tell a co-worker who tells his wife who tells her sister. And her sister might come on a trip and donate some big time bucks. Or better yet maybe she's not saved and she see's what God is doing here and has but no choice to accept Him! These are the things God gets to enjoy on a daily basis. The connections we don't always see. But I know one day in Heaven we will be able to connect the dots. And we WILL meet people who are there because of us. Even if we've never seen them before. WOW. God is good. And his Mercies endure forever.

Tomorrow we go to a Game Park. I'll try to get some more pictures. Thank you all for reading. Nancy if you want to get some Stats from Wayne and post them in a comment that would be cool. Maybe telling us how big the Dam's are.

That's all for tonight. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Peace&Love...SPREAD IT!

South Africa & Back

Well I'm back at Shirley's house after an exciting trip to JoeBurg and back.

We left late in the morning because the Burglar broke the gate and we had to call some guy to come look at it. But we finally got on the road and head to the Hotel in Johannesburg to check in. We had planned to get their with ample time to relax before the flight came in but ended up getting lost looking for the Town Lodge. We finally found with barely enough time to check in and head to the airport. We got to the airport and after waiting a while they walked out of Terminal A. Jeff and his nine year old son Conner. We drove back to the Town Lodge to drop their bags and then went to the Rawhide Restaurant next door. I saw "Kingklip" fish on the menu and said "Does the fish come without bones" and she said "sometimes" hah. It was good though. Went back to the Hotel and slept. I didnt get any rest the night before so it was good to sleep.

GOOOOOD NEWWWWSSSS I get to eat at the Hotel! So I WILL gain back all the weight I lost in time to see all your pretty faces. I figure I need to put on my winter coat before coming home.

Jeff and Conner are pretty cool. I'm excited to spend some time w/ them this next week. Jeff works for Verizon and he has the new DROID phone. So that makes him even cooler. I'm still not sure what we will be doing up at the Children's Home this week. I just know were painting something.

Ok Sharla you can be my Southern Sister. As long as your a Sister that makes good biscuits.

Mom for dinner lets do Grandma's famous Chicken Tortilla Casserole. mmmm. But dont worry Ill be eating good this week.

Thats all for now. OH WAIT!! The sun was out ALLLL Day today! God is Gooooood. I can just feel the Maize up at Canaan soaking up the sun. Thanks for the prayers and keep them coming!

Peace&Love...SPREAD IT!!!

Please Pray!!

So since I left to Kenya Shirley has had some problems with people breaking in. Just before I left Wayne had found money missing from his wallet two times. Since we weren't possative that someone had stolen it when he was in the house we didnt mention it to Shirley. But when I was in Kenya it happened again to Wayne AND Kaleli the same night. Turns out someone had stolen a house key and was sneaking into the house late and night to steal money from people wallets!! So they changed all the locks and took some more security measures. Well After staying up till 2AM I just got abruptly woken up at 4:15 and it turns our shirley woke up to someone trying to break into her bedroom window!! Shirley called the police and when the guy saw the lights he ran.... Leaving the gate open. So on top of stealing the house key he stole a Gate Clicker too. Anyways Now I am wide awake because I'm freaked out. I assume he was waiting for me to go to sleep. I had a weird feeling last night. Like right before I went to bed I noticed a break in the curtains and I felt like someone was watching me and I was scared to look outside. So I just went closed the curtains all the way. But anyways poor Shirley!! She must be terrified! Anyways I hope we scared him off for good. But really we need to pray for Shirley and the safety of the house because when I'm not here its just her alone in this big house!

Well Its now 4:45 and I'm up for the day going on 2 hours of sleep.

GoodMorning World.

Peace&Love...SPREAD IT!!

Warm Shower=Heaven!

Well I am finally back at Shirley's house and I cant tell you how nice it feels to be in a warm house with dry clean clothes and clean sheets.

Still not a steady Internet connection though. She has been having trouble w/ her phone line so it goes in and out. Which is a bummer cause I really wanted to Skype some people. Up at Canaan the rain was coming down hard. It was different from Kenya rain because it never stopped. In Kenya it would pour really hard for about 30 minutes than stop but here keeps going like the energizer bunny. And in Kenya when it rains you usually find shelter till it stops but here if you did that you would never get back to work! So we just work in the rain. I keep leaving stuff behind wherever I go. Like in Kenya I left a couple pairs of shoes and my work jeans. So my only pair of shoes now are soaked. I forget what I told you in my last post so forgive me if I repeat myself. We use a generator for power a few hours a day but it get overpowered easily. So for dinner when they are using the stove to cook dinner we cant boil water for tea or coffee or a hot bath. Sometimes I would sneak over and test it just in case and all the sudden all the lights would go out and everyone would say "CORYYYY!!!" hah.

I never knew that eating some of my moms bad food growing up was a test for my future. Not that it happened that often. Last night one of the guys made dinner and I honestly had to hold myself from gagging. The worst part was the spinach dripping with vegetable oil and salt. But the guy who made it was such a good friend that I had to finish my whole plate.

Most of the work I had to do was harvesting. Not the normal harvesting of potatoes but of grass. Yeah Grass. You see here in Africa you dont go buy grass in a roll or even buy seeds to plant. You go out and find grass. But not any grass. We had to find the stuff that didnt grow tall and kept snakes away. It was a muddy job. But seriously Canaan is looking amazing. I wanted to take pictures by it was rainy so I'm hoping to get some when I take the Father and Son up on Tue. The Maze is starting to grow and it looks like a legit farm! Nice long rows. We have been getting a little more rain than needed (Seriously Melba... you gotta stop praying for rain!) so maybe if you all could pray for some sunshine. Kaleli said with a couple days of sunshine the maze will grow big fast. So tomorrow we wake up and head to JoeBurg to pick up the Father and son then spend the night at the "Town Lodge" and drive back to Swazi on Sunday.

So funny story. Kaleli bought a NetBook (which is a small laptop like the one I HAD) and I was talking to him about it and he was like "Yeah I really like it but they are so hard to find bag's for!" I happened to leave my back here when I went to Kenya cause it was to bulky to bring. So I said "I got a bag you can have!" and then he thanked me and later on in the conversation he said "Yeah the ONLY bad thing about this computer though is that it doesnt have a disk drive. So I cant install any programs or watch movies on it" and I happened to buy a disk drive for that very reason. And I KNOW my next computer will have a disk drive so I said "I have a DVD Reader/Burner Disk drive you can have too!" hah Really I had no need for either one of those things now. So I'm glad he can use them. THEN he said pulled out this point and shoot waterproof camera (which is what I've had my eye on for my next camera) and I asked if he would sell it for cheap.... But he said it was his only camera. DANG. haha. Its ok though. Really it just felt good to have two things he said he was looking for.

I am getting so excited. These next couple weeks are going to fly by and I know that I will enjoy them.

Holy Cow! I just saw something that looked like a spider behind the nightstand next to my bed. So I went to move the nightstand and the spider jumped out of site! I'm scared now.

Peace&Love...SPREAD IT!!

Back To The Bush...Kind Of.

Hellloooo everybodyyyy!!!

I am spending a couple days up at Project Canaan. We got up here last night and I couldn’t see anything but when I woke up this morning I was AMAZED. Soooo much green! A fire ripped through these hills a while ago so usually I am used to seeing a lot of dead brown trees. But with all the rain they have gotten I can’t see one dead tree in site.

No electricity up here yet so we are using a Generator. Although we keep overloading it, and I’m using a laptop from 1973, so when I was replying to Doug’s e-mail the computer died two times! They have about 12 hectors of Maze planted. ALL BY HAND. Don’t as me how many acres that is. Ask Google. He is smarter than me. But I play guitar better than him. Only bummer part about staying here is NO hot water. Cold Showers it issssss. Anyways I am here till Friday and then heading back to Shirley’s. HFA had a trip planned for next week that got cancelled but a father and son still want to come. So I will be in charge of leading our 3 man painting team. We will be going up to El Shiddai for most of the time and coming back up here to Canaan for a day. Usually when we have groups I get to go to the hotel for dinner. Although since it’s a small group I’m not sure if I’m going to be able sneak in. If I DO get to eat there I will easily gain back all the weight I lost in Kenya in one week. I’ll keep you up to date.

Today at about I was walking back to the building to get my jacket when suddenly I got a major head ache. I sat on my bed for a second then got a major stomach ache! Stomach aches I’m used to now but I NEVER get head aches. I mean unless I get hit in the head or kicked in the jaw. It was weird. But I found some Tylenol and it seemed to help only after I got some rest. The four people living out here on the land are Kenyan’s. Which is cool cause I still get to practice my Swahili. But they cook Ugali. My least favorite Kenya dish. And there are no kids in close proximity that I can give my leftovers too.

So I don’t want to have to deal with this computer shutting down on me anymore so I’m gonna wait till Friday to update again. Sound good…. GOOD.

Peace&Love…SPREAD IT!!!

Back in the Swazi's Land

Hey everyone. It is nice to be writing to you from the comfort of Shirley's once again.

The first thing I did was take a shower and use the toilet. ohhhhh yessss. A real toilet WITH a toilet seat.

Anyways before I go on I want to say that my time in Mombasa was AMAZING. The beaches were unbelievable with white sand and clear water. And a lot of people offering me Ganja. (Thats Marijuana mom.)

My carry on luggage was very light on the way here :-( but it was actually nice to feel like I had nothing of real value in my backpack. It looks like I'll be going to stay up at Project Canaan on Monday for a week or so. Which I am very excited for because I hear the progress has been amazing. I have a lot of e-mails to reply to so sorry this is so short. Shirley said I can only use her Mac for a limited time since she has to pay money if she goes over her Internet usage.

Love and miss you all

Wish I had pictures to post for you. But I don't. So I'll take one.


Peace&Love...SPREAD IT

The Bright Side

Donna you are amazing. Mom, Sharla is my Southern Mom and Melba is my Southern Grandma, and Donna is my Georgian Mom. They are all amazing and I'm trying to talk Donna into bringing her hubby to Idyllwild. I love how all you commented on this. Donna your words brought reason to my problem. I HAVE to buy a new laptop. But the Camera and iPod and glass' can wait. sooooooo ahhhhh mommmmmmmm. :-) You know I'd never ask you to buy me a laptop so maybe if you havent already gotten me a present you can just get me an Apple.com gift certificate. And a little more bad news. I got these sweet wooden elephants with our last name (WAY) carved in them. That was part of my present to my brothers but he took them. And for my Moms present I collected a rock from the Mountains of Kenya, from the Desert of Kenya, and dried reef from the ocean of Kenya.... The Desert and Ocean rocks were in my backpack... and he took them. SERIOUSLY!!! He took rocks but left my passport. Oh yes the Bright Side. I've been trying to find the good in all this and here is a list I came up with.

The Bright Side:

1. I got robbed without being in danger.
2. I luckily put my wallet with my debit and credit card in my pocket when we got on the bus.
3. My Passport WAS in my backpack and he left it!! Thank God because I leave tomorrow morning.
4. It was my less expensive point and shoot camera. (Although I used it on most of this trip so ALLL my Swazi/Kenya/Mombasa pictures are on it.
5. My iPod was about 3 years old.
6. My laptop only costs me $350 and most can be up above $1000. AND I backed it up before I came to Africa. But also allllll my pictures from my last 5 months were in it :-(
7. My Blackberry was also about 3 years old.

Sooo there is a good side to all of this. And really if I was smart I would have kept my backpack under my legs the whole time. Live and Learn.

So I'm staying at ANOTHER orphanage in Niarobi and yesterday when I was Big Time Bummin a little girl (Doreen) who I think has a mental disability came up to me and said "Hi... I'm Doreen.... Jesus Loves You and so do I because you came to visit us" At that moment I felt like my night turned around. She is adorable. Its interesting that after this happened I read all of your comments about what REAL blessings are. From my Last Kenya Post. It was a good reassurance that all the stuff I had is replaceable and aren't as important as all the time I spent here or the memories I have from it.

I Love You All.

Peace&Love...SPREAD IT.

Bummmmmin Day

Well I was supposed to get to Nairobi today and post the TONS I wrote about my Mombassa trip. But that wont happen because my Laptop got stolen. On the bus ride back to Nairobi our bus had trouble so we had to unload everything and wait for another bus. When the bus came it had tons of people on it already so I put my backpack up above on the shelf and went to find a seat. I should have just held my backpack but I was half asleep and didnt realise what we were doing. So turns out when I put my backpack on the bus it was heavy. Then when we got back to Nairobi and I woke up half the bus had already gotten off at the past few stops. So I went to get my backpack and found it a lot lighter. I checked and EVERYTHING of value was gone. Laptop, Blackberry, Ipod, Camera, and Sun glass'. So I'm really bummed today. We tried to talk to the manager and he said he would look into it. But I leave in two days and really doubt anything will turn up. He went through EVERY pocket. It sux because I wrote so much good stuff about Mombassa and I'm not ready to rewrite all of that. Please pray that my stuff turns up. I forgot to look but I think he stole my brothers and my moms Christmas presents. :-(

Peace&Love...SPREAD IT!!!

Last Update From Kenya. :-(

Saturday:

Naivasha was also very cold and rainy. I never thought about bringing a umbrella here. But a lot of people sell them. I don’t really mind the cold weather and rain its just it makes me want to sit by the fire and drink hot cocoa. Hah David has a fire place in his house but covered with a blanket. And I asked “you don’t have fires?” and he said “no way what if it starts other stuff on fire and burns the house down?” he says now that he has a kitchen he thinks the fire should stay there. But I found a review online for “Naivasha” and they said the best place to eat was Jims Corner. So I found it and it turns out they were out of Simosa’s and chips as well. I felt bad but everything else on the menu wasn’t appetizing so I just left. They probably think I’m a snobby American. It sucks being picky. But I’ve eaten a lot more on this trip than I normally would of. Tonight was cool. Two of the children snuck into my room and we watched Africa videos from the past years and I showed them our Lake Havasu trip video. When it showed a girl in a bathing suit one said “ that’s how girls dress in America?!” hah Good times. Goodnight.

Sunday:

Hey. Today was nice. Got to sleep in a little then go to church. At church this guy came up in front of the church and said he wanted to accept Christ. It was awesome cause he said “I’m a school teacher in town and since I moved here I felt like I wasn’t giving these kids everything I could. Now I realize that I wasn’t teaching them about the most important lesson on earth.” So after the service I asked him if he had a bible and he said no. I asked him if he wanted mine and he got very excited.. Although it was the bible that Simba (the little rat dog in Swaziland) ate part of. I figure its better than nothing. So we walked back to Tumaini and helped plan a soccer tournament for the kids. David K. was on one team and of course his team won. Course… or Coarse.? Microsoft Word tells me its “Course”. I was in my room and wrote a pretty sweet chorus. We will see if it turns into a song. Then right before dinner the electricity went out and its still out. Everyone went to bed really early. Also the kids have their first (of three) exams tomorrow. So pray for them. Well You’ll read this on Saturday. So pray for their second exam next Monday. And their third and final exam the following Monday. Mombasa might be next Sunday.

Monday:

It just hit me how fast my time here has flown by. Its already been almost two months! And then to think that I started this adventure 5 months ago blows my mind. Today I was baking and Ann (the lady in charge of baking) asked me a question that I had no answer to. Shocking huh? Not. There a lot of questions that I don’t have an answer to but this one was different because I thought about it all day and STILL don’t have an answer. Her exact words were “How come you Americans are so much more blessed than us?” And I said “what do you mean” and she said “It seems you all have jobs and are rich (considering almost half the world’s population, over three billion people, live on less than $2.50 a Day, I would say 99.9% of the people reading this are rich). I stumbled over some words before finally saying “I actually don’t know... that’s a deep question.” I was going to go into how from a spiritual sense I would say they are more blessed, but I knew she was talking about earthly blessings. I mean you could say it’s because of the “Christian” founders of America but there are a ton of Christians here and they don’t have the earthly blessings we have. You could say its because of the hard work and smart choices of our government but I KNOW they work hard here and I think there government plays the cards they are dealt. Or maybe we just have the opportunities that they don’t have. But its safe to say that God’s Blessings transcend Lack of Opportunity. Then I started thinking “who’s to say these are blessings from God and not just a simple product of smart people and good Choices?” Though I do think God has played a part in every Americans life. Man this hurts my head. Its questions like these that keep life from getting boring. And make my walk with God so interesting. Later in the day I had guitar lessons that went very well. George is going to take over where I’m leaving off so that’s good to know. That’s all for now. PLEASE if you have any input on this question put it in a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts. GNight.

Tuesday:

I killed a puppy today. :-( It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. When I woke up this morning I saw her sitting in the rain shivering so I tried to get her to move under a covering but she wouldn’t move. David told me she had some kind of virus so I shouldn’t touch her and she would probably die today. So we got some sticks and put her under the covering. When I came back at lunch she was making whimpering noises and breathing really hard. I felt so bad so I asked someone “Should we put her out of her misery?” But they all said “no way we can’t kill it.” All the kids started coming and poking it with sticks and the school Head Master got really mad and said “go dig a hole and we will bury it.” Barry the dog. But It was still alive! I knew the right thing to do was put her out of her misery but I asked every grown man here and they all said “that’s so mean!” So I waited as they dug and dug and finally the hole was deep enough. They were about to pick the bag and drop him in (still whimpering and breathing!) I finally said “ok wait” I went and got an ax. I know sounds brutal but I thought if I could get one good hit in the neck it would be over fast. I thought about a big stick but that would take to long. Turns out the ax wasn’t sharp. It still took 4 hits. It wasn’t bloody or gross it was just sad. I ate about two bites of lunch and passed it to the kids. I was seriously depressed the rest of the day. I had to pretend to be interested in teaching the kids a song tonight. I taught them “Amazing Grace.” Most of the day I worked in the Shamba planting Potatoes. Don’t forget to reply to my deep question from yesterday. Love You All.

Wednesday:

I was haunted last night with what I did to that poor dog! And then people today were like “did you seriously kill it?!” I know I did the right think but it still was hard. I’m not one of those people who go to all these measures to protect animals. Although I once saw a movie about how they treat the cows and chickens and went vegetarian for a week. In fact I get irritated when people make a huge deal out of the treatment of animals and then they don’t know anything about the PEOPLE suffering in our world. Like the 25,000 children that die EVERY DAY due to poverty. Its cool if you have a passion to protect animals but please go beyond that and support an organization that protects people. God’s final and greatest creation was us. And everything else he created was for us to enjoy. Other than that haunting memory today was good. I checked some prices and decided to take George to Mombasa. Travel to Mombasa is gonna cost us about $50 round trip. Which is ok because I was going to have to pay David half that to take me to Nairobi for my flight. So now I’ll be coming back to Nairobi from Mombasa instead of all the way back to Tumaini. And we found a hotel for about $13 a night. Cheapest one in town. Maybe that’s a bad thing. Only downside to going is I have to say goodbye to the kids this Sunday. I told the kids tonight at fellowship and they got very sad. Girls who usually run from me (for fun) came up to me saying “Don’t go home… who’s gonna call us beautiful?” It seriously broke my heart. I started this thing w/ some of the girls who seem to be left out a lot. I say “Who’s beautiful?” and they say “I am” hah sounds cheesy but most of the stuff you do in Africa is cheesy. That’s how life is here. Plus once the girls caught on they began to love it. Anyways tonight was difficult. My Naivasha trip this Saturday is going to be fast. I’m only going because I want to buy the kids biscuits and juice for my last night. I suddenly feel bad for going to Mombasa. Although I know that leaving this weekend or next would still be just as difficult. Electricity went out again right before dinner. Usually it makes the dinner good but I REALLY don’t like Ugali. So it tasted the same. Hah. Everyone says Travis LOVED Ugali. Well I’ll try to be happy on my last few days w/ the kids. That’s enough for tonight.

Thursday:

I just realized how lucky you guys are being able to read the whole week at once. Its like for me my life is one of those addicting show’s on TV. And I have to wait for the exciting and not so exciting stuff to happen… next week. But you just get to read the next paragraph. Like when you read this my next few days would have already happened. Although I guess in some ways its bad because I update on SaturDAY and I’m saying bye to the kids on Saturday night. So you wont get to know about the Goodbye night till WAY after it happens. Just kidding I’m sure I’ll find internet in Mombasa to update. Anyways today I baked bread with Ann and went to town to develop pictures. She told me about a month ago that she wanted to make Queen Cakes with me once since I had never had them. Then last week she said she was going to buy the ingredients to make them. Well I kinda forgot but she showed up today with Butter, Eggs, Milk, Sugar, and Flour. I asked her how much all of it cost and she said 200 shillings! This is the woman who told me she only makes 100 Shillings a day and only works two day a week. So she spent a full weeks worth of money on the ingredients. While we were making the Queen Cakes (which turned out delicious) she told me about how God always provides. She said yesterday she was praying to God because she didn’t have enough money to buy the ingredients then later in the day someone called her out of the blue (who she hasn’t heard from in years) to ask her if she had some time to do some work for money. I was so amazed at her determination to deliver what she promised and how much she sacrificed to do so. I was able to develop a picture of us and write her a note on the back. She only comes Monday and Thursday so I had to say goodbye to her today. It was sad. Tomorrow I’m hiking up a mountain that David said I shouldn’t because of wild animals in the area. But Alice and Charles are accompanying me. I’m excited. Oh yes and tonight I shaved my head and of course Benson collected all my hair off the ground. He has my hair from the last 2 times I shaved my head here as well. Weird I know. But I cant just refuse him my hair. I like the feel of a fresh shaved head. Tomorrow…We Hike.

Friday:

What an amazing day. We went to the Shamba for a little bit and then hiked a pretty big mountain that since day one I said I wanted to hike. David said I shouldn’t because there are wild animals that they had to put an electric gate around to keep them from getting into the community. On the way to the base of the mountain we came across a boysenberry bush (and I got really excited cause I LOVE them) but most of the berries were picked. But when me and Charles and Alice started walking we prayed that God would give us a way to get past the gate and get to the top and back safe. Well we went to the opening in the gate where there is “Always” a police officer and the little shack he was supposed to be in was empty so we walked right in. The hike up the mountain was amazing. At some points the bush was so think that we had to get on hands and knees to get through. We would sometimes be lucky enough to find a path but then it would disappear 5 minutes later. At first I thought the paths were good but then we came across a couple of big tracks and a place where is looked like a big animal had slept for the night. Then I wanted to stay off the tracks because they probably belonged to animals. We finally got to the top and had an AMAZING view. And the best part. TONS of wild Boysenberries! Never been picked HUGE berries. I was in heaven. We enjoyed them and I busted out a few sandwiches I brought. The hike down was a lot easier cause we found a more open area. Then we finally got back to Tumaini and I was beat. We walked about 4 KM (Not sure what the conversion is.. Google is leslie) to the base of the mountain then Hike up and after walked 4KM back home. LONG day but so worth it. God answered all of our prayers. To get us to the top, to get us their safe, and to get us down. And He even through in a prize at the top. And I saw tons of amazing birds. Sorry mom didn’t find any feathers. I tried. I’m sleeping well tonight. Up at 6 to catch the bus to town.

So Yes. This is my last update from Kenya. Next Saturday I will be back in Swaziland. It will be nice to have hot water pressure and a toilet. But I’m dreading saying goodbye to the kids tonight. :-(

Peace&Love…SPREAD IT!