Traveling Mercies

Greetings from Kijabe, Kenya!! I am battling a stomach flu-like thing right now but other than that-- I am great! Please pray that this sickness will pass soon. It hit me around 11:15 am this AM thus I am home blogging right now in between trying to sleep it off. This morning I went to the children's hospital and worked with a few kids and assisted with a seriel casting for a child with club foot. Some people speak English but most of the children and families from rural areas speak primarilty Swahili. I am learning a few words a day which is pretty funny.

I want to recap my days thus far. Lets take it back to the 9th—where we boarded a flight at 17:30 headed for London Heathrow. A cramped flight to say the least—but I sat next to a nice Italian man that was fun to coversate with. We must have stood in the back of the plane for a good 1.5 hours just talking about life, comparing/contrasting Italian and Spanish, and stretching our cramped legs. 10 hrs is a LONG time in the sky. Anywho, that flight landed in London at 8:30 in order to catch our 10:30 to Nairobi. All would have been well EXCEPT we made it all the way to customs/security…and I could NOT find my passport anywhere. WORST CASE SCENARIO. I had what was as close to a panic attack as I have ever felt. I tore my bag apart, which was filled to the brim, all the while the line is steadily moving. I could barely hear and I could feel my body temp rising steadily. Then it hit me…the last time I remember seeing it was on the plane. I prayed and I ran. The BA people were less than helpful…and I was in no state for conversation. I knew that I wanted back on that plane before they moved it. I finally found a woman who let me on…and I sprinted to my seat, tore through the seat pocket, and there it was. THANK YOU LORD. You are indeed faithful to the faithless. We quickly made it through security as I white-knuckled my passport. I still can not believe that happened.

Anyways, the flight to Nairobi was 8 hrs and I slept the entire way with 4 seats to my lonesome. Thank you again Jesus. After my adrenaline had kicked it with the incident…I was whipped. I slept the majority of the way, woke up to eat, and watch Juno. The airport in Nairobi was a culture shock. A tad scary if Im honest. The whole place is scary, to be honest. If I had never seen movies such as Hotel Ruwanda or Blood Diamond…I would be ok. Its hard to get those images out at this point. Silly, I know as none of those took place in Kenya. Anyways, our luggage all arrived-> thank you Lord. We were picked up by a driver and taken to the Smiths apartment. They have been missionaries in Kenya somewhere around 25 years. Pretty awesome people who have done amazing things. We all crashed there for 2 nights and got acclimated. The first night we arrived around 9:30 and just crashed. Then woke up and went to church. It was a 15 min walk to the African Inland Mission (AIM) where we walked into a church unlike anything I have seen. It was so neat to sit in the presence of other believers speaking in other languages yet we sang in English as well. The message was in English which was great. He taught about resisting temptation—using the strength of Christ. He said that faith is believing in the dark what the Lord had promised in the light. That is what I took away. My favorite part was listening to people sing in Swahili. So neat. Their voices carried unlike any other. After church, we were invited for chai and cookies seeing as we were new…and stook out a bit. After tea, we walked to an Ethiopian restaurant which was awesome. Very different from anything I have ever experienced. We ate outdoors and the place was beautiful. I actually liked a few of the dishes…problem is i will never remember the name of the food I liked. I guess ill just ask for the orange stuff. It rocked. I tried the meats but find that I am not much on foreign meats…at all.

Then we headed to the house for rest. We quickly decided to go to the Masai market to shop for a bit. I walked with mrs smith and she showed me where the recent “crisis” took place. It was rather earie…walking on the exact street where war took place 2 months ago. Something interesting about Kenyans is they all welcome you to Kenya then tell you how safe it is now. Its like they know they survive on tourism. Crazy. I bought a few things at the market. Had a blast overall. Kenyans are just as bad as Mexicans in nagging you to buy anything and everything. I found them to be easier to haggle with…maybe because they speak English and are a tad desperate due to the crisis. It was fun, all in all.

That brings me to 5/12/2008—we woke up this AM, had breakfast and headed out to every hardware store in Nairobi. It took all morning and we did not find what we needed…but I had fun just running around and looking. This place is pretty amazing. As we headed out of Nairobi to Kijabe—we passed what I thought to be quintessential Africa. Shanties and dukas…or stores. Seeing those babies running around everywhere barefoot…stirs my heart. The drive was beautiful although I left the window open the entire time in order to escape sickness. We stopped at the Great Rift Valley ledge so we could take pics…of course, we were swarmed with people selling nothing I wanted. They would NOT understand why we would not want to buy something. You have to be firm and direct with them…but can you really blame a man for trying to sell an elephant…to feed his family. Arriving at Kijabe was a bit tiring…so I napped for 2 solid hours with the windows open. Katie and I are sharing a room with bunk beds. Its nice. Felt good to unpack all my stuff and put the suitcase away. This afternoon we walked up to AIC CURE and met the staff. I love the fact that I will be able to work with peds.