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!