Blog 7

Blog 7
Well, this is the final one for sure, seeing as how I'm writing it from Spokane, and posting it now. This blog only covers the three days that weren't written about in Blog 6, but wow, those were some interesting days.

Okay, it's July 18th, and today is the start of our cricket teaching for the children. I actually didn't know anything about cricket until the night before, when Matthew gave me the "crash course of cricket for Christ". Quadruple C? Anyway, I was a little nervous, to tell the truth, because the kids we were "teaching" already had five days experience, compared to my zero. Well, the day started off with us buttering 32 loaves of bread (that, my friend, is a lot of bread...) for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. This took two hours or so, and I'm now proud to say that I am now a certified butter spreading expert. Anyway, we then hooked up the sawdust bags to a boda-boda, took two ourselves (remember, this is Matthew and I), and proceeded on to Temba-Temba school. Let's just say, that since it was a school day, things got awkward fast. Pretty much the whole school piled out to stared at the two wazungu, which got in the way a little bit. We did meet three people; Robert, a really great guy that I got to know over a couple days, Allen, who was some sort of coach, and another lady whose name I keep forgetting. Once again, I am HORRIBLE with names. After the people who were actually going to play got set up, Matthew conducted a series of warm-ups, designed to bring the kids back up to speed on cricket. This was also a good time for learning for me. After that, Matthew, who actually knows this game, went into a teaching session, which eventually led to a game to separate out the teams. To my inexperienced eye, these kids could play well, and were having a ton of fun doing it. After the teams got picked, we headed back, congratulating ourselves on a good day.

The 19th. Today was a full day, with us going to another school called Teremi. These kids had never played before, so I was a little more comfortable teaching them to play. Yesterday, I had mostly observed as Matthew taught, but today, I was teaching them fielding. After the customary warm-ups, we split the possible players into three groups, so they could learn the fundamentals. Robert was my partner, and was able to interpret, which was invaluable. Anyway, we had fun doing this, and after, we ate lunch (remember that bread?) and split up into four teams, two for each pitch. (That would be the field, for all you inexperienced persons out there) The games got going, and, although this was the first time for these people to play, they were almost as good as Temba-Temba. Well, the teams were chosen after much debating, and we headed home.

Side note- At the beginning of the day, Matthew urged me to use sunscreen, which I did, but apparently he didn't take his own advice. At the end of the day, he was glowing like he had just walked into the cooling chambers of a nuclear power plant.

The 20th, our last day in Kimilili. Today was the competition between the two teams we had chosen, held at Temba-Temba. I was score-keeper, and Matthew was ref. The game started, and although it took a while for the teams to catch on to the different kind of cricket we were using for today's game, they soon got it, and the game picked up. We had three innings, which is a long time, but they went faster than expected, and the game ended at about 12:30. Teremi, although inexperienced, actually managed to beat Temba-Temba one inning, holding them down to a mere 21 points. By the way, that's almost nothing for an inning. The final score, though, was Temba-Temba at 149, and Teremi at 134. That was a very close game. I think that if there was a rematch, Teremi would have a very large chance of winning, now that they know the drill. After that, Francis gave a sermon, and then we set about "feeding the 5000". Yeah, right. We headed back, and agreed that that was a very productive weekend. After the preparations to leave were completed, we said our goodbyes, and left for Kitale. Bye, bye, Kimilili.

I guess since I've been here a month, I'll do a quick thing about maybe some of the real differences from my perspective as an American teenager and the world of Kimilili. I know I've already done a section on the literal differences, and those could go in here, but I have some other things, too. For one, the teenagers there seemed younger than they actually were. I would find myself in a room, and when I announced I was fifteen, people would exclaim "Hey, I'm fifteen!" I don't know if they seem younger because of the schooling system, which seems so much harder than our system here (you have to pass an exam at the end of each year, or you stay in the same grade), or maybe because I'm white. That's just one thing. Another is the difference of worship in this country. People in America (at least in my church) are used to a traditional, fairly quiet service. Not so here. People are yelling "Amen!" like crazy, or singing, or something. During one service, the preacher actually started "speaking in tongues". The people here really hold on to God to pull them through harsh times, while in America, we harsh times are when the grocery store no longer has the discount 2% milk. I guess that's the major thing I've gotten from this trip; do NOT take our lifestyles for granted. A month is a shorter time than you might think, so I haven't experienced any major emotional changes, but it has changed the way I think about our living conditions, and really amplifies my gratitude for our predecessors. Our work in the field was mostly just that; work, so it wasn't like we were missionaries or something. Even so, the amount of trust these people put in God is pretty crazy, compared to what people here do. I don't know, but maybe I could try that for real.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my experiences, and if you'd like, just leave some comments. Thanks a bunch.

Blog Six

A quail catcher’s baskets. Yes, this is a profession.

Blog 6
Well, our stay in Kenya is quickly coming to a close, but things are definitely still happening. This could possibly be my last blog, but don’t count your chickens before you’re even sure if they’re chickens.

Anyway, July 13, Sunday, was your normal Sunday, with church, and the rest of the day off. We went to the Dreamland Education Centre today, which was a good choice because it was led by the boarding school kids. When I introduced myself (a white person causes quite a stir, so you’re always expected to introduce yourself, and give a short spiel about something) as being fifteen years old, everyone kind of shifted and laughed, because a lot of the kids there were older than me. It’s hard to explain. Anyway, it was a good day.

Monday, the 14th was the day that Mom and I left for Butere, where Mom’s old friends, the Ashenes. Upon arrival, we met Johnston, Florence (aka Flora), and one of their sons, Joshua. Not much to do that day, but apparently after it rained, it had been the first rain for quite a while.

The Ashenes with us.

Tuesday was about the same, with really nothing to do, so I was able to finish a book in two days written by the alleged killer of Martin Luther King Jr. proving his innocence. Good book, called “Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.?” That was pretty much the whole day, but I was able to sleep in, which was nice; breakfast is at 7:30 at the house.

Wednesday was our departure day, and Joshua was kind enough to give us a tour around their ancestral land, and on the trip, we saw an extremely rare bird; the secretary bird. After that, though, they presented us with a kuku (chicken), which we were sort of flustered to receive. I hope he finds a good use for it. Well, it’s back to Kimilili again, and the mosquito nets on the beds are looking good after we got eaten alive.

The secretary bird. You should probably use the zoom option to properly see it.

Ah, Thursday, the 17th. Another one of those “speech days”. This time it was for the purpose of handing over the house that was completely finished. This apparently involved a two hour speech, followed by sermon. It was in Swahili but there was some interpreting this time. Matthew also made a speech, pretty much challenging the fellowship why they couldn’t come and help with the construction (remember that downer day I told you about on Tuesday last week?). That was interesting. Pictures, now…

The completely finished house.

Me unlocking the door to give the keys to Moses.

I think that since this is near the end or our stay, is would be nice to kind of give an overview of the Swahili and Bukusu words I’ve learnt. We’ll start with Swahili, shall we? One note, though. All the r’s have a slight roll, all the a’s are like saying aaahhhh when the doctor shoves that stick thing down your throat, all the I’s sound like ee, and the e’s at the end of the word are actually eh, like a Canadian, (Sorry, for all those Canadian viewers, if I have any…) and when you see an M at the beginning of a word, say mmmm (like when you enjoy the food you’re eating) and then the rest of the word. Also, for most words that are adjectives, just add Sana to make it very whatever.

Probably the six most needed words you need to know-
Habari (Yako)- How are you? Say Yako if very formal, or to emphasize Also, this is what every little child screams at you as you walk past.
Mzuri- Good. The traditional answer to Habari.
Asante- Thank you. You use this A LOT.
Karibu- Welcome/ You’re welcome. You use this for actually welcoming someone, like to your house, and to answer someone who has already said Asante. No, it’s not Caribou, for those people who are reading this at home.
Jambo- Hello/ Hi. You answer this by saying Jambo again.
Sawa- (Sawa)- Either one means Okay.

The “lesser” words, that aren’t necessary to survive.
Mzungu/Wazungu- White person. The M at the beginning is for singular. This, too, is what small children scream at you as you walk past.
Kidogo- Small.
Watoto/Mtoto- Children. Once again, the M at the beginning is singular.
Kuja- Come.
Twende- Go.
Simama- Stop
Pole- Sorry. You actually use this a lot, since it also means “excuse me”
Pole-Pole- Slowly. No, I don’t know why it’s just repeating Sorry twice.
Haraka- Fast/Faster
Narudi- Go back.
Kuku- Chicken.
Wekesa- Harvest. Yes, this is the name that they gave me.
Kubwa- Big.
Tuonane- See you. Kind of informal
Qwaheri- Goodbye. More formal.
Iko- Is there…
Cindio- Do you hear/understand?
Wey-a-Wey- Hey man! Sort of an attention-getter.
Buena- God/Man. Saying eh, Buena is like “hey, dude”
Bya- Bad. Sounds like “buy a”

And now for the two Bukusu words I know. By the way, that’s the local language.
Oreyena- How are you? Same as Habari.
Dimilem- Good. Equivalent to Mzuri.
Ok, I know that I know almost nothing, but considering everyone speaks English, it’s not that big of a problem.

Blog Five

That jungely/rainforesty place thingy.

Blog 5
Of the days that have gone by so far since I last wrote, only one of them had a big activity. That would be Saturday, if you’re wondering, but let me get the in-between.

Thursday, the 10th was another rest day. Yessssssssssssss………….. No, I am not a snake. Truly, I did nothing.

Friday , the 11th, was supposed to be full, with doing an overview of the progress of the house, going to Bungoma to shop, and posting the blogs (I don’t know if I told you, but we’ve had power out for like a long time…). Yes, I had multiple blogs that I was supposed to post that day. Anyway, our brilliant plans were slightly upset by the fact that during the night I developed some sort of stomach disorder (aka BLEAGH), and so was in bed the rest of the day. ?This might have been because of the food in the community? I don’t know, but there are some bacteria here that American immune systems really aren’t used to. Well, that day was boring. Oh, well… John and Jan left today also, which was bad, since we had become good friends with them over the course of their stay.

Saturday, the 12th. Today was a great day, with us taking an opportunity to actually do some touring. Our place of interest was the Kakamega Natural Reserve, and, since I can’t really explain it to you in words, most of this blog will be pictures with a short explanation. I’d also like to point out that we hiked like 17 kilometers (10 miles?) according to the maps. This is going to take a really long time to put on the computer…

This is of me at the Isiukhu Falls, our first stop along the way.
The overlook at the highest point of our hike (roughly 5000 feet- yes, we were breathing like Darth Vader with an asthma attack while trying to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a backwards pulling vacuum cleaner.) Buyongo point. From here on out, it was down.

Just another photo of Mom, Sammy (recognize him from any earlier blogs?) and, The King of the Universe As You Know It (Me.) at the top of the climb.

The colobus monkey is pretty common in this jungle thing, but extremely hard to photo. Maybe if you have a zoom option on your computer, you can find the monkey in this picture. Where’s Waldo?

Yahoo, baboons! Coming back, we spotted this clan just lounging around near the road. Apparently they’re extremely mean, and pests of the forest. I still think this picture’s cool though…
This is completely unrelated to the subject at hand, but here’s a picture of John and Jan Gribben, who we became really good friends with over the course of several weeks. I took this picture the day before they left. Just so you know.

Blog Four

Me stamping mud.

Blog 4
Well, it’s been a while since I last wrote, but quite a lot has happened. I’d just like to point out that I would put on a huge amount of pictures, but the connection we have available to us allows for almost nothing. Okay, I think I ended on Saturday, and today is Wednesday, so I’ll get all the stuffing.

Sunday, the 6th, was a rest day (whew!), consisting of a church service and then pretty much nothing else. I’d like to say, though, that we could have made a much better church choice, because roughly two-thirds of this thing was announcements. And I’m talking like small things, like what you don’t even care about. The actual sermon was solely based towards how to be a good father, which (I would hope) doesn’t concern me. The sermon was actually good, but the only problem was that I didn’t notice the transition between announcements and sermon, so I kind of just kept reading my novel. This may sound rather bad, but believe me, you would have been doing it too. The rest of the day consisted of several movies and reading..

Monday, the 7th was the start of building. Finally! Something really productive that we can do! Aside from the “fun” outlook this building had at the beginning, the appeal soon got lost in the blistering equator sun. You ever thought about climbing in the oven in your kitchen to see what it’s like? No? Well, I have (sort of). But with this sun, there’s no need; it’s all around you, the whole time. If Matthew was a cannibal, he could have had roast Scott for lunch. Luckily he’s not… Okay, for all people who have dug holes, you know what a great thing a post-hole digger is. Right? Well, we didn’t even have a shovel. By the way, this was for the foundation posts, which needed two feet holes; about twenty of them. For digging materials, we had short metal rods which made you stay on your knees for long amounts of time while repeatedly beating the ground. I guess the philosophy was to make the ground submit to your iron will, and conveniently collapse upon itself, making a perfect two foot hole. This philosophy, however, did not come into play at this point in time, as it took at least thirty or forty minutes per hole. No, I’m not joking or exaggerating. Today, for me and Matthew, was mostly menial labor, requiring little skill, but much sweat. I’m talking MUCH. I’m fairly certain I drank like three liters. Okay, for some people (ahem, COOPER) this is almost nothing, but for me, this is like consuming Lake Ontario in an hour. (That is possible, for those non-believers out there.) Other people were making the roofing structure, and it ended up that we got the main structure up at the end of the day. According to Matthew, this was the most he had ever gotten done for house construction within one day.

The original site.

End of the first day.

Tuesday was much the same as Monday, but today mostly consisted of nailing the supports on the sides to hold up the mud siding (They’re called fitos). This takes much more time than it looks like, mostly because of Matthew and my “skill” at hammering. There was also the fact that not many people showed up, compared to Monday. The working force consisted of Matthew, me, the chairman of the fellowship, the actual owner of the new home, and two children. Hmmm. All I can say is that today was pretty discouraging. The actual building is made of mud; wet dirt, for those of you who don’t know what that is. This is a process where someone tears up the ground with a jembe (sorry, I don’t have a picture, but think of a combination of a shovel, spade, and rake, with a short handle), and then water is poured, and then people stamp around in it, until the right consistency is achieved. This takes a long time, since we are making a ton of mud. Today, though, we only got a fourth of the house done, due to the conditions I specified above. The coordinator of the unit, Constant, who is a great guy, gave the fellowship a serious dressing-down because of their unwillingness to help. On the way back, he had to get a different motorbike, because his had popped a tire, so as Matthew and I anxiously looked at the exhaust, it belched gouts of smoke that could rival Mt. Wannahawkalugie (It does exist! Just watch Finding Nemo trademark!)

End of the day on Tuesday.

Wednesday, which is when I’m writing this, was pretty much the completion of our part of this project. (Did I mention that my mom pretty much paid for this whole thing?) The whole day consisted of mudding, which is seriously tiring. It was mostly all right, though, since the roof had been put up the following day, so we got some shade while working. The walls came up really quickly today, and a ton of people started helping, due to the speech Constant gave yesterday. The children helping were really having fun, too. As you know, mud+children=explosion/fun/insanity/throwing of/2. Anyway, we built up the wall to a certain point, where we left the rest, which is almost nothing for the fellowship to finish up. We will be coming back on Friday to check up on progress, and will be officially handing it over next Thursday. Job well done. Oh yeah, Marian and Rule, and Jack came from Dutchland. Wait, that would be Holland. They are long time visitors of Kimilili, and know the place well.

End of work for us.

Blog Three

Example of what people put on bikes. And then ride the bikes.

Blog 3

Wow. Where to start my third blog. Where I left off, I guess. Okay, so it’s July 3 (Thursday). Market Day. This is a huge part of life here in Kimilili, and the peak of the week for some people. There are several sections of the market, like the textile and clothes part, the agriculture, which is pretty much just a lot of bidding for cows and goats. There’s also a fish section, and miscellaneous electronics/everything part. We all agree that the fish that are and have been on sale for multiple market weeks, which supposedly is okay, since they’re dried, but I’m not so sure… Luckily we don’t have to eat it, though. Whew.

The fish. Too bad cameras can’t take smells along with the pictures.

We (Mom, Matthew, and I) mostly just looked around at the wares, and the only things I got were a cool little oil “lamp” aka tin can with some sort of wick, but is actually quite cool, and a pair of sandals made out of tires. These are not actually meant to be worn, but cost almost nothing. The owner of the store wasn’t even using them. Talk about product confidence. Mom got some cloth things, and we were able to “haggle” whereas Matthew tells the seller that this item is “too expensive”. We actually did lower the price, so that was good. Also, on the way home, the weirdest thing happened. We were sidling along the street, when, out of the blue, some little boy just sprints up, flings his leg behind his head (while standing), unflings his leg, and runs away. I’m not joking about this. It actually looked like he really banged the back of his head while doing this. Maybe he was expecting some money. This is as weird as it sounds. Anyway, that’s all we really did that day, but it was a great experience. Here are a few pictures.

The agricultural section.

Next day, (July 4, Friday), Matthew and I were just touring schools on the premise of planting five trees. It turned out that the actual planting took about five minutes, and the “trees” were actually just branches with soil at the base. Whatever, but the schools themselves were fairly interesting. We got to three that day, and each one has some Kenyan name that’s insanely hard to remember, so I can’t remember. All the schools knew that we would be touring in advance, by the way. Ok, before I begin, let me tell you that a guest in Kenya is given some serious privileges. That means they will try to feed you at the school, and will make you give impromptu speeches in front of the whole student body. Long speeches. Like more than ten minutes. They began giving us a tour of the school, whereas the chairman gave us a full history of the school and at the end, though, it was worth it, because we were presented with the nationally winning choir, of which pictures don’t do justice. I do have video, but the blog doesn’t let me put it on.

The choir.

After leaving, the next school was about the same way, but this time, there was no choir, we planted those “trees”, and the head teacher was welcoming us for lunch however we was running short of time.

The tree planting. With me.

Last school we were very impressed with (the head teacher was gone at the time), and it had actually grown a ton since Matthew had last been there. That took the whole day. Oh yeah, HAPPY JULY 4!!!!!!!!!!!

The good school.

Next day (June you know what it is…) Saturday.
All I can say that this day has seriously taught me a lesson in patience. It was an opening ceremony for a new transformation unit, whereas a seven hour speech, in Swahili took place, along with some entertainment. The end.

The entertainment.

Blog Two.

Picture o’ Matthew (finally)

Blog 2
Well, here I am again, with this blog thing. I forgot to add in the last one that I have been christened Wekesa (Wi-kessa) which means Harvest. Apparently, Scott doesn’t transfer over to anything Swahili nicely. It’s now June 30, and it hasn’t actually been that long since I posted my last one (aka number one) but multiple things have happened. During the time since, I’ve had a thorough orientation to IcFEM headquarters, meeting with the Line Ministry directors for thirty minutes each. By the way, there are twelve of these people, so I was sitting there being talked at for roughly six hours. But hey, I had nothing better to do, and, to be honest some of what these people do is extremely interesting. Some examples of the ministries that have been introduced to me are just these- education, relief and health care, senior citizens, agriculture, trauma relief, finances, etc… Ok, some of these titles are actually several of the ministries, which are broken down to pretty specific topics. I’d say the trauma relief was the most informing. Most of you know of the Mt. Elgon crisis, which displaced thousands of people, many of whom came to live in Kimilili, which is close, but safe. The trauma relief counsels children who have suffered, whether by losing parents, siblings, seen killing, etc… I hope this kind of gives a very brief overview of IcFEM. For anyone who’s interested, I can explain it much more in detail if you’d like. (Sort of…)

Inside view of IcFEM headquarters

Day after that (July 1, Tuesday), I finally did something, other than talking to people; I “went into the field”. This means that I was actually able to go somewhere other than the headquarters. I went with Samson, one of the IcFEM staff; Gloria, a student working @ IcFEM, and our driver, whose name I can’t remember right now. Here’s a picture (if I’ve figured out how to put in pictures yet)

Left to right: Gloria, Sampson, Mr. Driver (who was actually a great guy, I’m just bad w/ names)
This field work consisted of sitting in on one the elections for one of the Transformation Units, which, as I’ve already said, is made up of at least 40 Fellowships, which have at least 25 members. This unit had over 90 Fellowship, and over 2000 people in it. They’ll be splitting soon, because there are two groups represented, into two different Units. Anyway, this election was supposed to start at ?11:00?, and we would be leaving headquarters at 10 am. Yeah, right. Just to let you know, “Kenyan time” compared to “our time” in terms of getting to an appointment at a certain time is like comparing armadillos to heavily clad battleships. So, pretty much, there is no comparison. We actually left headquarters at 11, got to the sight, ready for some electin’, and promptly began waiting for everyone to show up. Of course, we are talking about fifty people, but seriously, I’m pretty sure we waited until 12:30, and even then, a ton of people hadn’t shown up. Yes! We can now elect the line ministry people for the Unit! Wrong. The amount of people spurred a spontaneous four hour speech by Samson (who you couldn’t really blame; according to Gloria, you had to explain EVERYTHING to this village, or they would get confused) about every little fine point of the electoral process. This was all in Swahili. I’m pretty sure we fit some bible study and hymn time in there too. (The hymns were the best, because since this was all in Swahili anyway, there was actually a tune to listen to.) Oh, did I mention that this was in Swahili? Yeah, this was in Swahili. In Swahili. Swahili. Great language, but pointless if you sit there for four hours listening to something you have no idea the topic is on. Well, the elections finally came, the people were elected, the end. Hurrah! I’m starting to get the idea, that the “time” is a non-existent concept in this culture. Well, it sure feels like it. To offset all this though, every single person is extremely kind, and inquisitive into your life, and very talkative. I’d say that definitely voids the boredom. Oh yeah, everyone here is fluent in English. Have no fear of not being able to communicate. Just leave lots of time.


Me picking coffee beans.

Today, (July 2, Wednesday) we visited the elderly in the morning. Our group consisted of Matthew, me, mom, and Sarah, the senior citizen ministry director. This was our first time on boda-boda’s, which, to be given a very general description, are pretty much just cushions on the backs of bikes, that you ride on. This was an interesting experience for my mom.


My mom’s boda-boda experience. I feel sorry for the guy driving.

This was a great experience, and we were able to give some elderly people food, which definitely made their day. The rest of the day was uneventful, except the regular pouring downpour to end all downpours. Pictures don’t do it justice, so I won’t even put one on.

Me on da boda-boda

Ok, I’m just going to sum up five of the really major differences between America and HERE.

The driving. It is insane. People are walking in the street like it’s a sidewalk, crossing without regard for personal safety (or so it seems like…), bike riders (who are always present, no matter what time) are careening around with cargo, both human and inanimate. Sometimes this includes sugarcane stalks that have a length of like fifteen feet, stretching across the road. This is all made all the more scary because of the fact that the taxi drivers go at roughly 100 km per hour (how many mph?) at all times. Hence the speed bump I talked about earlier. I mean, seriously, it’s crazy. However, Mom has this strange idea that the taxi drivers actually know what they’re doing. I expect this is true, since I’ve gone on several rides, and have generally come back with all major limbs still partially attached. I wonder what the crash or death rate is on roads?

Timekeeping abilities. No. They don’t exist. Sorry, you’ve reached the wrong number, please redial. You already heard the above story, and if that doesn’t prove it, Peter and Martin were always complaining about this fact. You’d wonder what would happen if you, say, actually had to go somewhere for something? And be even marginally on time? Well, you’d just have to be late, which would be accepted, since this is the norm.

Temperature. Um, it’s hot. This is supposed to be the cool season (yes, it is flipped- January is the hot) right? Sort of. If you consider over 75 degrees plus extreme humidity cool. I don’t, apparently they do. I guess I kind of expected this, though, so I shouldn’t be complaining.

Food. All vegetables. The end.

People. They are the nicest people you could possibly meet. You’ll be walking down the street, and someone will randomly come up and shake your hand leaving you wondering… if you should know them? Whatever. Everyone at IcFEM is of course kind, but it’s the people other than that which make a difference. The thing you have to get used to, though is the stares. If you were, to, say, walk down the street, or do something normal like that, be prepared for a tidal wave of stares. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAZUNGU!!!!!!!!!!!!! (WHITE PERSON!!!!!!!!) is what these children must be thinking, if their stares give anything away. In a kind way, of course. The adults are generally more discreet. I like to think of this as the cataclysmictidalwaveofstaringatyoubecauseyouarewhite theory. Yes, that is in the dicintionary (dic-in-shin-ary). Be prepared for some serious change. Oh yeah, you can’t ever wear shorts, and women can’t wear anything but dresses/skirts. Anything else would be extremely taboo. That’s it, the end, goodbye, see you later. Yeah, right…

Side note- I was too harsh on the vegetable portion. They have many other foods, and, to be truthful, the veggies are really good, seriously. You won’t find better, and I actually find myself liking bananas, which is weird for me. Don’t worry, the food is different, but great. At least we haven’t had to eat monkey brain. Thanks for the advice, Cooper.

Number One.

The guest house room which I’m staying in. With me in it.

Blog 1
Well, this is my first blog ever, so I’m just going to ramble about my experiences so far. Each blog tells of experiences over multiple days, so don’t get confused by the change. Okay. So, my mom and I arrived in Kenya yesterday (that would be June 25), and pretty much Matthew has just been orientationizing us to the local culture and activities. IcFEM Mission is one huge organization. Apparently there are over 16,000 members, with 9 different “transformation” groups split up over a large area. A transformation group is made up of forty or more fellowship groups, which in turn are made up of at least 25 people. Wow. Anyway, we arrived at the guest house, with me sleeping in the van from the airport (If you can call it an airport; more like a small building bordering a long strip of concrete) and set up shop in the house.










This is a picture of the compound, with the Guest house courtyard guest houses behind me, so you can’t see them.

We met Helen, and Catherine who are to be our cooks through the duration of our stay, and Martin and Peter who had just filmed 12 hours of raw footage about the IcFEM Mission, and now had the daunting task of editing it. Nothing else really happened, except for the constant annoying dog(s) and the rooster which likes to hear itself crow. Not fun. Especially after having lost like 9 hours in our flights over here from Spokane (that= extreme tiring). I’m pretty sure that my mom and I didn’t sleep for roughly 30 hours straight on the way over. That was even more fun than the rooster. Other than that, however, the people are extremely kind. The thing I really noticed, however, was the fact that everyone walks/bikes. Vehicles are scarce, and when they do appear (like our taxi) they’re forced to weave through the whole road, avoiding civilians, potholes, other cars, and other hazards o’ the environment. I took a run this morning with Matthew when it was still cool, and, although we took it easy, the fact that we are at 5600 feet compared to Spokane’s 2000 or something made it pretty interesting for the whole issue of breathing. Hopefully within a couple days of running I’ll be used to the big change. The tour of the IcFEM headquarters was full of people always welcoming, shaking hands, and pretty much going out of their way to greet you in the best way possible. Apparently, my program for the next four weeks includes full orientation to the workings of IcFEM- I’m going to be showing it to various people who might be interested when I get back to Spokane- constructing a house for people whose original burned down, and are now living in a shed (should I even call it that?) no larger than the space your bathtub takes up in your bathroom. Oh yeah, did I mention that this is a family of eight we’re talking about here? Anyhoo… I’ll also be doing some field work among some of the transformation units, and for the last week, I’ll be teaching kids cricket, even though I don’t really know how either (that would be Matthew’s job to teach). Oh, by the way, Matthew is from the UK and has been here for 3 years, and is the leader/ setter- upper of the Gap Programme, where college kids take a “Gap Year” to do mission work. He lives at IcFEM quarters, which is where we’re staying. I’ll try to get a pic later.

The hospital at Dreamland.

These two pictures show the primary school and hospital at Dreamland, where an eighty year old man had a repeating dream to give his land to aid Christ, and gave it to Solomon (the director o’ IcFEM), who had been having a dream about building hospital, school, and other needed facilities.

These are the kids at the school in Dreamland close up. Happy group.

We went to Kisumu today, (three hour drive) to pick up a UK couple, Jan and John. That was interesting, especially when our driver, who is actually very nice and experienced, hit a ginormous speed bump going at like 65 kilometers per hour. I’m pretty sure we got some air on that one, but aside from that, the trip was uneventful. So far we’ve lost power twice, but only for a short time each occurrence.

My Arrival Day

I will arrive in Kimilili on the 26th June to start my 4 week gap programme with the IcFEM Mission which is currently operating in Bungoma District, Western Province.