Just 4 weeks left to this first term of school. Time flies here in Africa too! I’m finding I have mixed feelings about how quickly the time is going here. On the one hand I miss all of you, my dear friends and family. On the other hand, I really can’t imagine leaving here. Now don’t worry, we MUST come home after a year because of our status as volunteers and tax issues, so we will be home. Grace and...
Continue ReadingIt would be hard to find the bright side of having no water, but never underestimate the power of a ten-year-old boy. On Tuesday, we had no water; the drought is making it tough for everyone. Everyone but ten year old boys. Slowly, the revelation struck them, and the euphoria swept through the dorm like a fire:
WE CAN’T TAKE A BATH!!!!
I am sure I have seen more rapturous joy before, but where escapes me at the moment. It was as...
Hello again from sunny Kijabe. Unfortunately, no rain since last week. We pray on.
God is at work in us. God has always been at work in us, but we find ourselves in a new way, aware that God is doing something on our insides. And we don’t have a clue what it is. Well, we could guess and analyze and all, but I feel like God doesn’t even want us to do that. He wants us to just surrender ourselves...
What is the vilest insult a ten-year-old boy can hurl at another ten-year-old boy? If you say `Hey, you stink’ there is usually agreement and the opportunity to talk about the favorite subject, which is gas. Recently, one of our guys had a birthday. In our house on birthdays, we like to go around and state what we like about that person. One guy said `I like that he is handsome to girls.’ With great fury, the accused said `I...
Continue ReadingWe went to Kitale this weekend and I learned more about Kenya. Some of it was new information and some of it was finally realizing that what I saw was what Kenya really is.
The trip to Kitale took us through some beautiful countryside. There has been a lot more rain up north and things were green and lush. We traveled through the Rift Valley for a while and then onto the western side, almost to the border of Uganda. We...
It rained last week.
In Dallas, when it would rain, I would think `All the morons are going to take their stupid pills and try to outrun the raindrops and cause a million accidents and I’ll get home later.’
The drought isn’t over, but I saw people walking around with tears in their eyes. Tears of joy. Adults were walking around just to feel the water on their face. What an amazing feeling: to be grateful for rain.
We had our midterm break...
Email was down for the entire nation of Kenya this last 7 days. Kenya has only one satellite that handles all its email, and when it goes down, there is no plan B. When email goes down for an extended period, I start to imagine all sorts of wonderful news items I will receive:
CUBS WIN WORLD SERIES
DOW HITS 30000
CURE FOR CANCER FOUNDInstead, what I received was a message from my good friend who is renting out ...
We are settling into our school routine and I am beginning to know what to expect from each day, but there are still so many “little things” that take me by surprise. I guess when you’ve grown up in the safety and comfort of middle class America in a stable, loving family that is just going to happen over here.
Grace, who works for us, was sick with a bad cold last week. She worked in spite of it, but I...
