03.15.10

Monday, March 15

I got up at 7:30am and headed to breakfast at 8:00. It was a buffet; I had an omelet, sausage, corn flakes, and coffee. It was all decent but not great. We left for the Londiana Orphanage a little after 9:00.It was about an hour and a half drive there, and 45 minutes or so was on an AWFUL sirt/stone road. It was so bumpy! We took a tour of the orphanage and hung out with the kids for a while. They all LOVED having their picture taken and looking at it afterwards on the screen. I took SO many pictures of them! I'll post a few favorites at the bottom. Then they wanted to take pictures on their own. I let a few of them push the shutter button but I was too scared to let them hold my new Nikon so I finally just put it away. Even without the pictures, those kids are so fun to hang out with! We taught them how the play the hand slapping game (you know, the one where you put your hands on theirs and they try to slap the top of your hands before you move them out of the way) and a couple others. Then they had us all go into the dining hall. They sat us up in the front in cushioned chairs and gave us soda. This is just a glipse of the Kenyan hospitality we experienced. These people really want to make their guests feel welcome! They were incredibly nice. The kids sat on wooden benches facing us, and several of the children performed songs and poems for us. Then we went to a different room for lunch - beef stew, red beans, and rice. It was good! After lunch, we played with the kids some more until it was time to leave. These two girls latched onto me the last 20 minutes we were there and kept pulling me back and asking me to stay with them. It was so sad to leave them, and I only know them for a couple hours. I have my cheap walmart watch to one of the girls (Mercy). I really wish we would have had more time at that orphanage, because you could tell how much it meant to them. The kids just relished in the attention they were getting.

Once we left, we were told we were going to swing by the new feeding station to walk through real quick (it was on the same road, just a few km away). We didn't expect 200 kids and women waiting for us, but that's exactly what we got! They had us go into a main room where they sang us songs. It was so sweet! Then the kids gathered around us and bombarded us with a million questions. I had 4-5 kids hanging onto my hands at all times. It was overwhelming, but I loved it. One of the widows asked me to live with her. She asked what I liked to eat, and when I told her I like chicken she pointed to the farm next door and said, "Those are my chickens! I can feed you chicken! I'll take care of you, I'm a good mom!" I know she was messing around, but she sincerely wanted us to stay longer and visit more often. The ladies then gave us 3 gifts: a basket for Tim (our leader), and painted gourds for the youngest in the group (Stephanie) and the "oldest" (Mom; she isn't really the oldest, but Tim wanted her to have it since she's on the Orphans Board back in Midland.) We gave them gifts too: ballpoint pens! They LOVED them! They were warming us to get to them. It was quite a feat to make sure everyone got one, nobody got more than one, etc. It was so crazy the response those pens got! After that, we had to leave so we could get to the next hotel before dark.

But surprise, surprise.. our van broke again! There was apiece of metal underneath our van that broke part of the way off and it was dragging and banging on the stone road. We had to take it to a mechanic to fix it. It cost 50ksh to fix it. For those of you who don't know the conversion, 50ksh is equal to 65 CENTS. Yes, that's $0.65! WOW!

Once we got to the hotel (The Kericho Tea Hotel) we had dinner in their restaurant. I had a hamburger, and it literally came with ham on it! It was good though. And of course I had chai tea :) The Tea Hotel is much nicer than the Hotel Kunste in Nakuru (it's MUCH bigger) but not as nice as the Gracia Hotel in Nairobi. There's no shower curtain here! Steph and I ended up washing our hair with buckets over the tub (more on that later..)
I was shocked at how excited all the kids were to see us today. they've never met us, but they all want to hold your hand, and beg you to stay, or at least come back to visit. They're so greatful for the tiniest things - like cheap Bic ballpoint pens. they went crazy over them! Even the little ones who can't write wanted some! They have so little and are incredibly appreciative for anything we give them. Especially the kids we met at the feeding station - they don't even have a place to sleep! They're completely homeless, and so many of thsee kids were barely even walking! The kids in Kenya have to grow up so fast. A 9-year-old could very easily have to be responsible for a little baby. Like, COMPLETELY responsible. It was not uncommon for the "older" girls (who were actually still very young) to be carrying a baby less than one year old on her hip all day le it was nothing! When I was 9, I was playing with nano pets and learning my multiplication tables so I could go to the ice cream party. These kids are amazing! I want to help them so much.

This trip is already stirring compassion in me and making me want to do something big to help. It's definitely something I need to be in deep prayer about (and I'd appreciate your prayers too!) because I know it's easy to come back from a trip like this and want to change your lifestyle, your career goals, etc. because of the high you're on from the trip. We were warned not to make any drastic changes or decisions in the first couple months after being back, and I can totally see why. So while I know some of what I'm feeling is emotionally driven due to the trip, I believe some of it is God gently stirring these emotions. I'm not sure what He wants me to do exactly, but I know I'm supposed to be involved in this ministry, in some form or fashion. The thing to figure out now is what He has planned for me.

03.14.10

On Sunday (March 14), I woke up at 6:45am and we left the hotel around 7:30. some people went to the buffet breakfast, but I just had a zone bar. We headed to Made in the Streets for Bible class and church. Made in the Streets is an organization that takes in street children and teaches them a trade (sewing, cooking, etc.) so they can have a way to support themselves when they leave M.I.T.S. It's a really cool, really practical idea. We got to M.I.T.S. around 8:30 so we had half an hour to hang out in the Mbuvis' house and drink chai. Francis and Mauryn (pronounced "Maureen") Mbuvi are a couple who travel with us to all the orphanages. I believe they work for WBS (World Bible School) which is a completely different story, but WBS helps with the orphanages (I think). The Mbuvis have two little boys - Johnathan ("J") is 3 and Jeremy ("Remy") is 1. They were really shy at first, but they definitely came around to us.

<< J and Charlton, the preacher at Golf Course Road Church of Christ in Midland, TX

We walked down the street to the church campus, and attended Francis' Bible class at 9:00. They served some DELICIOUS coffee! It was black with only sugar, but their sugar is unrefined which makes it 100x better than our sugar. After Bible class, we went to the main service, which lasted about an hour and a half. It was mostly singing - Church of Christ inspired ;) Only 2-3 songs were in English and the rest were in Kiswahili (the other official language of Kenya). They had a songbook with the Kiswahili words, and it was fun trying to pronounce all the words and sing along. I loved hearing the Kenyan people sing. It was mostly teenagers, with a few adults too. What an awesome thing it was to experience - being halfway around the world and praising our Lord with the native people. We serve the SAME GOD! This has never been more evident to me than then. It was truly an incredible thing to be a part of :)

After church is when the problems started.. We need two vans to hold all 18 of us (12 of us from the States, 4 Mbuvis, one other driver, and another native Kenyan, Risper), but only had one so they sent off for another. I'm not sure if it was lost, or if we just couldn't find it, but finally they tracked it down. They sent another rental van to take us to the WBS one. While we were waiting for the van to come, I climbed up on top of the M.I.T.S. bus and journaled some. We all shared snacks and visited until the van came. We were pretty crowded, but it was only for about 20-30 minutes. They took us to a marketplace for lunch. I had a slice of pizza and a soda - it cost 300 Kenyan Shillings (ksh) which is equal to less than $4! We walked in a few shops, but I didn't buy anything.

<< all the girls on the trip:
Becca Yocham
me
my mom (Eileen)
Susie Neale (Tim's wife)
Leah McQueen
Garen Glasscock
Stephanie Guthrie

We were supposed to meet at 3:45 to head to Nakuru (the town we were staying in Sunday night) but the van they brought for us had a flat tire. They sent for another, and it took close to half an hour for it to get there. And when it did, it only had room for 6 passengers (we had 8) so Jason and Becca Yocham moved to the other van, leaving me, Mom, Dad, Steph, Joel, and Garen in that van.

It was roomy, there just weren't that many seatbelts. I slept for an hour or two, on and off. Then THAT van started having trouble..It would stall or go out completely when we went up hills about two or three times. Once the driver got out, popped the hood, and banged on the battery with a hammer to get it to start up again. It was pretty weird.. It finally died all together about 30km from Nakuru. We got all our stuff and piled into the other van for the rest of the way. In case you were wondering how many people can fit into a landcruiser van, the answer is 12 mzungus (white people) and 5 Kenyans.

We got to the Kunste Hotel, checked in, got our rooms (this time it's just me and Steph), and met for dinner in the hotel restaurant. I had peppered steak with frieds; it was pretty good! It took a long time to cook so I went back to my room after I ordered and took a shower. It was FREEZING! Then I went back to dinner and the food still wasn't there so we waited a bit more, ate, paid (700ksh = < $10), and went back to our rooms. I got to bed a little before 11:00pm.

03.12.10 and 03.13.10

I'm starting my journal entries from the trip. I think this is the easiest way to explain what I did every day and make sure I don't leave anything out. So here we go with the entry from March 13 :)

We left Friday (March 12) at 1:25pm from Midland and flew to Houston. Our flight was late so when we got to Houston, we had to rush to the international terminal to catch our flight to Amsterdam. We left Houston around 3:40pm and got to Amsterdam around 8-something their time Saturday morning (12-something Texas time; it was a 9 hour flight!) We had a little less than an hour before we had to board our next flight. We went to a little deli and got breakfast (even though they gave us croissants on the plane an hour or so before we landed. They also served dinner - chicken and rice - on the plan, and we went through some pretty bad turbulence while we were eating.) The flight was long but I really couldn't sleep. Anyways, at the deli in the Amsterdam airport, we all got coffee and snacks. I had a "large" coffee (MAYBE 8oz) and a sausage wrap (a flaky pastry with a thin strip of sausage in it, but no cheese). Neither was very good. I actually poured out the coffee. They don't have any sugar-free sweetener in Africa or Europe apparently, and I didn't want to use a lot of sugar, so the coffee was pretty bitter tasting. We went through the gift shop and bought a bag of Bountys (for those of you who don't know, a Bounty is the greatest candy bar ever invented. It's like an almond joy with no almond. It's just creamy coconut covered in milk chocolate. It's DELICIOUS!)

Our next flight was from Amsterdam to Nairobi! It took 7 1/2 to 8 hours and I was able to sleep a few hours on this flight. We landed in Nairobi at like 8:45pm but didn't get out of the airport for at least two

more hours. First, we had to get our visas. The line for that was pretty slow-moving, and there were 12 of us that had to stay together. Next, we had to go to baggage claim. My family packed all our personal stuff in carry-ons. Joel and I each packed only in a backpack! But we checked 6 bags of beanie babies and tshirts for the orphans and widows. Becca Yocham also checked a bag of things to give away, and Tim Neale (our director) actually packed all of his clothes and personal things in a checked bag. Continental lost ALL EIGHT of these bags! It was weird, bc some people got their checked bags, but these ones got lost. We were picked up by Francis Mbuvi (more about him later) who was waiting for us at the airport wearing a Texas Tech jersey! We all piled into the Made in the Streets van (more about that later too) and headed for our hotel.

We got to the Gracia Hotel in Nairobi and split up into rooms. They cost 5000ksh per room for one night. Steph, Garen Glasscock, and I shared a room, so it cost us about $20 each for this room! It was by far the nicest hotel we stayed at. It had two twin beds so I shared a bed with Steph. I say it was a twin bc that's the closest American size to it, but it was bigger than what you think of as a twin sized bed. We weren't even crowded with both of us in one bed! There were these mosquito nets you had to pull around your bed too. You don't want to get malaria! These were also the nicest mosquito nets we had. It's the little things that you learn to appreciate while in Kenya :) I fell asleep right away, with all the lights on and everything. Those of you who know me well know that I can't sleep very well with lights on, so this shows you just how tired I was from all the traveling! I think I only woke up once in the night (again, unusual for me) but fell right back asleep.

03.21.10

Well, I made it back safely from Kenya! All in all, it was an amazing trip. Words really can't describe it. But hopefully they'll do justice to my experience. And a few pictures will surely help, too :)

I love to write (as most bloggers do, I assume) so I kept a daily journal during my week in Kenya. It was used to record the facts of my adventures, as well as my thoughts, emotions, feelings, etc. throughout the week. Some of it was personal, but I really want to share my experiences with you guys, so I'm going to be posting my journal. Yes, I'll edit some of it out. (Like I said, there's some personal stuff.) But I hope it gives you the gist of what we did, saw, heard, and experienced in the beautiful land of Kenya.

I'll be posting a separate blog for each day in Kenya. I think this is the best way, because you would definitely be overwhelmed if I lumped the whole week into one post. Some days I'll post one blog, and some days I'll probably post more than one. The titles of my blog posts will correspond to the days I'm describing. Hopefully it won't get too confusing.

I'm in Midland now, and I'll head back to Lubbock in an hour or so. Tonight I'll try to start on my Africa blogs (complete with pictures!) but since I don't know how to do pictures yet, it may take longer.

Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who prayed for us while we were overseas. It meant the world to us to know we are loved and cared for by those of you back in the States. So again, thank you!

I know this post was jumbled and I probably rambled a bit, but I'm still pretty tired and worn out from the 31 hours of traveling it took to get home from Nairobi. Yes, that's THIRTY-ONE hours of traveling! But I'll explain that better in a later post.. :)

That's all for now, but stay tuned!

-AG

03.10.10

1 day, 20 hours, 16 minutes.

That's how long I have to anxiously wait (and frantically make sure I have everything together) before I leave for Kenya, Africa!

This morning, I packed. I'm taking less on this trip than I normally take on a weekend trip back to Midland. Seriously. I'm going to weigh my bag when I finish, but it has to be under 5 pounds. I'm considering ditching the duffel bag and just packing in my backpack. That's how little I'm taking. Which is pretty amazing..

For the trip, my parents got me a Kindle! I was so pumped, because I had been thinking about buying one for myself for the trip, and now I can use my money on something else. For those of you who don't know what a Kindle is, it's basically an iPod for books. That's the best way I know how to describe it. You buy books from amazon.com for usually about $10 and they download directly to a hand held device with a 6" screen. It's so easy to read, I often forget I'm not holding an actual book. I got my Kindle registered to my dad's account (my mom got him one for Christmas) so that I can read all the books he's already bought. I got 4 books from him, and bought one more. I also bought a study Bible, which is AWESOME because now I don't have to take up space with my hard copy (which weighs about 5 pounds on its own..) AND I still have God's Word with me at the touch of a button! The joys of technology :)

I also bought a hard copy of a Max Lucado Bible Study called "Experiencing the Words of Jesus" which is a study of the teachings of Christ. I'm excited about it because it has it broken into daily studies with prompts and places to journal right in the study book! It isn't too big or heavy (about the size of a spiral notebook, maybe a bit thicker) so I'm taking that with me to Africa too.

I got my last shot yesterday, so I really am ready to start this adventure! I do have one request, though, of all of you. Pray. Please pray. General prayer for us would be GREATLY appreciated! There are also several specific things I would like you to pray for:

1. Our hearts. Please pray that God will prepare us to do the work He wants us to do. Pray that we would all be open to hear His voice and have willing hearts to serve Him.

2. The Kenyan people traveling with us. There are about 5 Kenyan people that will be traveling with us while we are there. They work with World Bible School, which is a program we help support in Midland. They will be taking us to each orphanage and staying with us the entire week we are there. Thank God for them! And pray for their hearts as well, that they would be changed by this week, just as we undoubtedly will be.

3. The orphans and widows we'll be visiting. Pray that they will receive us gladly and understand that we are there because we serve and love the same God they do - and He is amazing! Pray that they will truly see His light shining through our actions this whole week. Pray that they be encouraged, and encouraged greatly. The whole point of this trip is to be an encouragement; pray that we accomplish this goal.

4. Our safety. Pray for our flights to and from Kenya, as well as our travel while we're there. We will be traveling for over 24 hours each direction, and I can only imagine how tiring and draining that will be. While we're there, we will be traveling in two vans on awful dirt roads. I don't know about any of you, but my mom, sister, and I all get terrible motion sickness. This may seem minor, but please pray for that, because it can ruin a trip so quickly. It's happened to us before, and this would be the worst time for it to happen again.

Thank you so much for your prayers! I'm not sure what the internet situation is over there, but I'll update this blog if at all possible. And if it isn't, I'll be sure to give a complete recap of the entire week and how the Lord moved in us and through us.

-AG

03.04.10

I know I say this all the time, but I really am going to do this more!

I've recently become obsessed with photoblogs. My favorites are people I know here at Tech - Aric and Casey Lampert and Brittany Strebeck - and their work is AMAZING. I just love it. So anyways, that made me want to start up my own blog again! If I can figure it out, I'll post some pictures I took with my AWESOME new camera (Christmas gift from my mom and dad - PERFECT).

I have a few big pieces of news in my life right now.

1) Kadie and I recently moved into our new house! It is soo cute and so nice! We just love it :) Steph and Matti will move in with us in August before school starts again in the fall. Yaayy! We're still in the process of unpacking (aka my room is a DISASTER) but our living room and kitchen are way cute. And clean!

2) Joel got into Texas Tech Law School! So his plan for now is to start in the fall and graduate May 2013. That sounds so far away doesn't it? That's also when I'll graduate with my MSA (Masters of Science, Accounting) AND when Steph will graduate with her bachelor's in who-knows-what. You'll have to ask her about that - she's currently studying Broadcast Journalism (can't you just see her being a sideline reporter? I sure can!) but I know she's also interested in Social Work (which is another area I could TOTALLY see her in).

3) And speaking of social work.. My family and Joel are leaving NEXT FRIDAY for Kenya! We're going with a group of about 12 (including us) to visit 4 of the 9 orphanages my church from Midland sponsors. Last summer, a group of youth groups kids and families went to the same places. Their group was MUCH larger (30+ I think?) and included my parents and Steph. I had summer school, so I didn't get to go :( But THIS TIME I DO! And I could not be more excited! Last summer was a medical mission trip, but this time is an encouragement trip. That basically means we're going to just hang out with the orphans and widows at these orphanages and love on them. So cool, right?! You just can't even imagine how much I'm looking forward to it.

4) The last piece of news is that I got a job in Lubbock at a CPA's office! I started at the end of January and I'm working until April 30. They needed help during tax season, and being an accounting major, I jumped at the opportunity. I'm learning so much, and it mirrors what I'm learning in my Income Tax Accounting class, which is pretty cool. I don't enjoy working and going to school full time (who does?) but the experience is definitely worth it. I'm looking for an internship for this summer too, on my own, and I'll go through "formal recruiting" through Tech next spring.

I'll interview for an internship then (spring 2011) and actually do the internship in the spring of 2012. Then I'll graduate the spring of 2013 and start work, hopefully with the same company with whom I intern. (Don't make fun of my grammatical correctness.) Apparently, most interns get full time job offers at the end of their internship to start the NEXT fall (for me, September 2013). As you can see, the internship/career process in pretty intense at Tech, and takes a couple years of planning. I happen to like it, because I love planning :)

So that's the plan, as far as school goes. But if I've learned anything from my 2 1/2 years at Tech (have I really been here that long?!) it's that God can ALWAYS change your plans..

That's all I have for now, but hopefully I'll be back soon to post again :)

-AG