Not in Kabarnet anymore...

These pictures are in the Masaai Market in Nairobi (where i did all my christmas shopping). It is crazy! People follow you and ask for money and try to sell you everything. I had my own personal shopper-i went around and collected everything I liked and then we sorted it out and I payed for it all at once to him, and he brings it to the his boss or something. I am not sure how it worked-but it was an experience.
Now today is the last day of the Spiritual Life Conference, which has been such a blessing. It is wonderful to have so many missionaries-about 350 people here-to talk to. Some have been missionaries for over 30 years here. I am the youngest :) here. But there is a group of short termers my age, and we have had such good discussions about theology and stuff that i have just been craving to have. And being with so many families just blesses my heart! Babies and toddlers, so cute! But the best is just hearing where they are and what they are doing, I learn so much from them. It is great to have my familiar "western" style of worship again too, as cheesy as that sounds.
Rift Valley ACademy, where we are for the conference, is so awesome! IT is a 4th-12th grade school for missionary kids, and it is huge and beautiful. it is in the foot hills of the valley, so it boasts incredible views of the vast valley and hills. THe school has two big football feilds, volleyball courts, basketball courts, weight room, gym, racquet ball, just about anything you can think of! It is similiar to a college because of the way that each acedemic apartment is a different buildling, so lockers are outside and it is just open and spacious and beautiful. THe dorms are really nice too.
Tomorrow I am going to start shadowing/learning/helping at Bethany Kids at Kijabe hospital, just down the hill from me. I am really excited about that and what kinds of things i'll learn and see. Then in a week I am going to Masaai Mara-the game park that is part of the Serhengeti in Tanzania! SO i am very excited about that. It is about 45 minutes by plane, so i 'll stay overnight in a lodge and go on two or three game drives. I am pumped. Well, that is all for now.

"Praise the Lord, O my soul. i will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live" Psalm 146

The first two pictures with the Pokot tribe, the second two are the great kids i love!

A few more pics...

me in the chapel during musical tryouts, then me at campi ya samaki, then the cutie kids i love, then the director with me and jennifer

some pictures!

me with all my cutie kids

me and jebotebin...she's so much like me

beautiful rift valley

baby python!

back at Mayfeild

We were supposed to leave Kabarnet at 3am, however when we woke it was pouring and there was no electricity, so we waited out the rain to leave. We didn’t end up leaving for our 6 hour journey to Nairobi until sometime after 6am. This ended up being so wonderful, because we took a route I have never been on before and it was absolutely spectacular. Because of the rain, everything was so bright and green and fresh. The first hour or more was winding down the into the valley below, going up and down, making 160 degree turns, just weaving gracefully through the hillside in our big white van. The road was canopied by trees and brush, lined with the red rocky dirt. It was as if you were looking on an aerial view of this tremendous lush valley, and someone took a paintbrush and made a big sweeping strokes of gray along it, and that is the road we were on. As the sun continued to rise, it slowly unveiled the valley below, bringing it to life. The mountains became vibrant and the trees danced as we drove past, light revealing the beauty once hidden by the night. As we made our way, it was like a forest, and then all of the sudden a clearing would give way to a vast valley below, soft clouds gently passing through. Sometimes even we would find ourselves enveloped in white fog, only to come out of the cloud in the majesty of God’s creation. It was awesome.

When we were about an hour away from Nairobi, our muffler and exhaust pipe fell off. So we pulled over, picked it up and put it in the van, and carried on-like we were a race car or something. It was so loud. 4 koreans and 2 white girls driving through Kenya in a big white loud van. Awesome. Well, we did make it to Nairobi and had our last meal together. Nairobi is westernized, loud, busy, and sick with pollution. Most of the exhaust that comes out of the vehicles is black and just disgusting. However, now I can get things like good coffee, yogurt, and oreos. There are bathrooms here with real toilets, and even toilet paper! What a treat. So we ate together, did a little shopping, and then they brought me and my Canadian roommate Jennifer to Mayfeild Guesthouse, where I had a tear ful goodbye. As hard as my time there was, I still love them and will miss so many things about my “Korean family.” But you know, I am ready to be done, and glad to not go back.

I said goodbye to the special school on Friday, and cried each time a student left. It really broke my heart to know that I will not see them again. On Saturday we had the big graduation-typical Kenyan as it started late and lasted a long time-my musical was a hit. Then those students left rather abruptly as well. I will also miss hanging out with them. Then it was just a lot of down time on Sunday and Monday until I left.

I am very content to be finished. Of course there is much I will miss, but much of it was hard, challenging, draining, and something I don’t want to deal with anymore. So I am in a very happy now! Tomorrow I leave for Kijabe, about an hour from here in Nairobi, for a Spiritual Life Conference with AIM missionaries. I will stay there for the remainder of my time, then go on a safari  and then leave Kenya December 5th. I fly to London, then New York, where I stay overnight, then come home on the 7th.

I am not sure how to process everything yet, but I do know God is faithful, and he will always provide. I know he will carry you through whatever your circumstance, and I trust in his provision over my life even when I know I’ll never understand it with this mind. So God is good, and that’s all I really know.

And I am Snow White.

We just had our last church service of the year-it lasted 2 and a half hours! But it was really fun; they have a time for “presentations” and so students share songs or verses, etc. The Special School sang three songs and it was so cute! And I even sang a little song on the guitar, which is something very different from what they usually have! Anyway, so this is my last week here. The students have finals on Mon. and Tues. and then we just prepare for graduation on Saturday and the pre-graduation party on Friday.
This week little cutie Susie came back, she has been sick but her mother thought she had finals so she brought her for the last week. (Imagine, a six year old having finals! Ridiculous.) Anyway, I heard she was back right before dinner so I went over to the school to see her. The students were all sitting at their round table in the classroom where they watch movies in the evening. (This is also where they eat.) I hugged that cute little thing-she is really small and has cerebral palsy, so she is all wobbly and uncoordinated and so awesome. Her head is like a bobble-head doll as she smiles up at me, one tooth missing in front. I kissed her a bunch on the cheek, and then the student next to her said “mimi” which implied she wanted a kiss too. So all of the sudden I was transformed into Snow White and all the little dwarfs waited patiently for me to come around and kiss them. They had just gotten their heads shaved, so I went around to each one and kissed their smooth brown faces and rubbed their little naked heads. It just blessed my heart. It is amazing how I can know these kids so well, and be with them everyday, and not be able to talk to them at all except for simple commands. It took me a long time, but I am so proud of myself for learning how to say and spell all their names that I am going to write them all for you. It is Susie, Elkana, Edwin, Kipbrotich, Jebotibin, Letente, Jipkosgi, Kipkule, Jepchumba, Peter, Mark, and Evans. They all are so different and have such unique, precious personalities-and they are each other’s best friends. They are leaving on Friday, and that will be the strangest thing for me to deal with I think. To know I won’t ever see them again is a strange thought.
On Monday I am leaving Ebenezer for Kijabe, which I am very excited about. I will be very sad to leave Korea and Kabarnet. Pretty much my day is 50% Korean, 45% Swahili, and 5% English. At Kijabe there are a lot of American missionaries, and most of the people will speak English because it is only 40 minutes from Nairobi. Here I am in the upcountry, so much more Swahili is spoken. So I will be sad to leave my Korean culture as well as the students here. I can only imagine what it will be like to be in a place where miscommunication isn’t an every minute occurrence!
Well, I don’t have much else interesting to say today. The days are all pretty much the same for me, not terribly exciting. I hope you all are doing well; don’t hesitate to email me! I love reading about what is happening. Blessings to you!

Things I will miss:
Blue toilet paper, and throwing it away instead of flushing it
Kimchi
Mountains
Showering with a bucket
My log-cabin bedroom
Korean soap operas
The perfect weather
Cooking everything from scratch
Singing songs with the kids every morning
Teaching piano lessons and dances
Practicing Korean
Buying peanuts for less than 3 cents in town
Buying all our fruits and vegetables for sooo cheap in the market
Listening to the students singing every morning in Swahili
Seeing the sunrise most mornings over the valley
Having chai and chapatti everyday at 10:50am
Collecting rain water from the roof to clean…so practical!
I won’t miss how slow and expensive the internet is...
These are just a few of the things here that I will miss.

This is why I love Kenya.

When I was at Karabisha weekend a while ago I was told by some full time missionaries that there is a place nearby me that has children with physical disabilities. So I looked into it and it is an A.I.C. church that has a children’s center for these children to live at during the school year because then they are right near the school. (otherwise they wouldn’t be able to make the commute from their homes to a school because it is too far) So I gave the place, Kampi Ya Samaki Children’s Centre, a call and arranged to go this weekend. Kampi Ya Samaki is the name of the town, also known as Lake Baringo. Samaki means fish, so I think it is something like place of fish. Anyway, me and Jennifer set out at 6:30am for the bus to pick us up that would take us about an hour away to Marigat, and from there it is only a half hour or so from Kampi Ya Samaki. So we piled on the bus, already packed, and this is the size of a city bus minus the personal space we are used too. As we drive we pick up anybody and everybody on the way, including whatever they are bringing with them. This could be big bags of grain, buckets of fruit, jugs of milk, etc. you just rest your feet on it and carry on. I bought some peanuts rolled in a little newspaper that a vendor came on the bus with at a stop for less than 5 cents to save for later. We arrived at Marigat at the matatu station and began to wait for the one matatu to fill up with people so we could go. Meanwhile we talked to the driver and someone else who was the drivers brother, I think, who was young like us and worked on the boats at Lake Baringo. He told us we should come by the lake and we could see hippos and crocodiles! After talking to many people, as usual, this guy from the lake came back and introduced us to a man and then they said “twende” which means “lets go.” Questioningly, we followed, and they explained they are leaving now and the man is a teacher at the school the kids from the center attend. So we took the ride. They drove us right to the church, which the matatu wouldn’t have done, so that was nice and we met some people from the center and they said they would come back at 3pm for us. (okay, whatever you want to do, I think to myself, but remember you don’t even know us??) So we met the secretary and I think the chief of the town, maybe the church? Who knows. Either way they were expecting us and excited for us to come. So we got to meet the children and see the place. The kids ranged from having no leg, to leg braces, to damaging burns, to a limp, etc. The place is very small, two dorms, a tiny “kitchen”, a really small office, a workshop where someone makes shoes and braces, and they were building a small dining area to eat and study in. A hospital that I am somewhat familiar with comes from about 8 hours away three times a year to do evaluations and treatments, sometimes bringing them back to the hospital for surgery or prosthetics. So these kids are fortunate to have those types of supplies, but they don’t have any sort of therapy or anyone who does therapy consistently for them. Most of the kids also are considered shameful in their families as well, so they can’t get the help they need at home. Me and Jennifer colored with them on the patio and played string games for a little bit. We were treated to some sodas, and then two people took us to Lake Baringo. It is a short walk in the hot sun. Kampi Ya Samaki is down in the valley, where the cactuses are many, the dirt is dusty, and shade is scarce. There are trees with really sharp things on them; they’ll poke right through your shoes if you step on it. The trees are scattered, the cactus is used as a fence, and as usual, so many goats. The lake is really large with a blue mountain backdrop and an island big enough to have a community and a school in the middle. We got into a big canoe like motor boat and slowly set out into the brown water. There some little naked kids bathing on the shore, as well as many mothers washing clothes. Within five minutes we saw the hippos in the distance, and as we got closer an occasional crocodile head would pop up. The water was shallow, you couldn’t tell, so the hippos were just walking along. (and I thought they could swim!) We could see there huge heads as they traveling in a big group. We watched them for awhile, and then we must have gotten too close, because the big started coming after us! So we quickly moved on. We spent a little more time on the lake, and then went back to the center-all the while baking in the burning sun. We were welcomed to come sit on plastic furniture under a roof, a pile of wheelchairs and crutches in the corner, the kids scattered, smoke from the kitchen rising. One person came around with the usual pitcher of water to pour over our hands before we ate. They gave us lunch: rice, chapati, and stew. They welcomed us to come back again, over and over, and thanked us so many times for coming. We left there around 3:15, took the absolutely impossibly bumpy road back to Marigat. (on that road a big bus came piled high on top with who knows what, packed with people, looking like it was going to tip over at any second on the bumps that were over a foot deep, and the sign on the front said :God is Able. I thought, “yeah, I know God is but I am not sure you are!”) At Marigat we bought a watermelon slice and some crackers, and waited in a matatu. Soon we were shifted to a big bus, all the while being bargained for to ride in a certain matatu. We of course talked to many people, especially the people who met us on the way there and now acted like we were long time friends. We got to ride in the front with driver, and warded off vendors trying to sell us peanuts, crackers, sweets, tomatoes, honey, etc. It took about two hours to get back, once again because we stop to pick up anyone who waves. But we made it back by 7pm…just in time to enjoy a Korean dinner. As usual.

I love mornings here. LOVE them.

This morning I stepped out into the cool, damp air to go for a little jog. Everything is colored a faint orange from the sun beginning to rise behind me. I walk a little ways down a muddy path until I hit the “driveway” which I refer to as “death by road” in my mind because of how terrible rocky it is. I greet the guard at the gate in Swahili as he lets me out onto the silent road full of hills that I will attempt to fun. The air is so fresh and silent, as usual, and it I welcome it against my skin. I didn’t make it very far before my legs started burning from the exercise so I just walked slowly, enjoying the clouds filling up the valley and smelling the faint scent of something burning and that freshness that rain brings to the green. I only passed one person, walking to who knows where and asked me why I was walking so slow, so it was nice to just enjoy being alone. I sat at the side of the road and listened to noisy birds and monkeys playing in the trees. No, I couldn’t see the monkeys, but I know they were there because they sounded just like Abu in the movie Aladdin. (way to go Disney for being accurate!) I began to walk back, thinking to myself that I can’t run back, I thinking that I am actually going to give up! I haven’t given up on that last hill- I always push through it, but today it seemed to hard. I am tired! Soon a kid, maybe 10or 11, came out of the bush with his uniform on-maroon sweater and button down, with navy blue shorts, a small satchel over his shoulder, and no shoes. I asked him where his school was, and it is a good 40 minute walk from where we were (and friends, no joke, up hill both ways!). Then I told him that I was going to run a bit, thinking we would end there-but as I started running he started running too! Not saying anything, mind you. (most of the kids are very shy to talk) This lanky kid (as all kids are here) with no shoes ran next to me, with his bare feet pidder paddering next to me on the wet pavement-his two strides to my one actually kept my pace-as I huffed on next to me. He just kept right on, shoeless with his school satchel. And you know what happened? I kept right on, all the way back to Ebenezer. This is the way God works. I seriously think I am going to give up, I can’t quite finish. Even when amidst it can be beautiful! The air can be fresh, and I love it…but then I think I can’t make it. But something comes along that pushes me to the end; gives me some endurance to make it to the next day. And I think, wow, I can do this. God will give me what I need…and then I can breath. I can see the clouds and the sun beaming through, shining light bright on my face.