Home....what is this supposed to feel like again?

Home. It doesn't feel like it.... My home is Kenya. Rolling plains and desert, grasslands, heavy rains, hot suns. Giraffes and zebras and wildebeest daily running by. Trees with thorns. Dirty kitchen and line dry laundry. What is this would of cars, and dishwashers, and tv's, cell phones, malls....I'm so lost here! And no one understands what I went through. My experience is not something I can explain to you. As hard as I try, you won't get it. Not that I blame anyone for that, or am angry, it's just the truth. I learned so many things that I can't share until I fully understand them. Things about the kingdom of God that blew me out of the water. There's so much that I'm still sorting through, things I still have to process. Being home is nice. Being with my family...but then again, now I have a whole family out there, spread across several countries and nationalities. What will I do without them? We grew together, cried together, laughed, slept, comforted, discovered. It feels like only yesterday I made the decision to forgo college and spend 5 months in Kenya...where did my time go? And now I only have 2 months until I leave for England. How fast will that time go? "I can sum up in three words what I know about life: It moves on."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Back at Base

So we travelled all through Sunday night, and arrived at the base around 4am monday. It was such a sweet, sweet moment. We were returning to the only home we knew there. It was beautiful to call a place home, even if we didn't have beds there anymore. Me and one other girl claimed beds in our leader's house. We slept a few hours until breakfast, then got up to meet all the new people at base. I felt like a veteran returning from war! Everyone wanted to hear about our adventures, and there were soooo many new faces, it was overwhelming. We spent the next few days doing laundry and prepping for our graduation, and listening to Pastor Bob from England and his son Ben talk about what it will be like when we go home. Friday the 24th of Feb, we had our ceremony. We cooked in the morning, then showered and got all fancied up. The ceremony was lots of singing, a few performances, a message from Bob, and gifts and certificates from our staff. We sang them a song for our staff, and it was all over. Some of my teammates left that night. Me and Franchesca watched harry Potter in the classroom and went to bed late. Saturday, we went to the Maasai Market in Nairobi and got all our souvenirs and had a yummy lunch. In the evening, we took Fran and Sam to the airport, to fly back to Cali. It was so bittersweet, for them to be going home, but knowing we will not see them for a long while. We all became a family, and here was part of it leaving us... but we prayed, cried, said I love you's, and they left. Sunday, Kate left early in the morning, and then me and Meaghan left late that night. Being at the airport made me so anxious! And we were no able to sit together like we thought! We were all on different airlines, so we had to wait separately!!! I cried when I had to say goodbye, because Meg and I were roomies, sisters. She lives so far away in Toronto, CA. But I know god will bring us together again someday. He loves us, so why wouldn't he? Almost home now...

Mombassa

So from Kakamega, with both teams together now, we drove to Mombassa. Which if you look on a map, are on opposite sides of Kenya! It should be about 18hrs worth of travel, but took us 30!!! Our bus broke down around 11pm on sunday, and we didn't get it working til 5am monday. So we slept in the bus, like charter-style bus, overnight on the side of some sketchy road, no idea where we were. When it got running, we took off again. It was such a bumpy uncomfortable ride. And every hour it just got hotter and hotter. Late that night, around 9pm, we got to a very nice house in the town of Watamu, where a muslim family had agreed to let us, christians, use their home! That in itself was a miracle. The rest of the week there, I spent mostly at the house. I was still very sick, and trying to recover, but in 90 degrees and 90% humidity, that's hard. A few more of our team members got sick, but many kept on with ministry. This are was tricky, because it is dominated by Muslims. So we had to be very careful what we did, how we carried ourselves through town and stuff. I did participate in a revival meeting or two, and preached at church on sunday. The week went very fast. We spent several days on the beach. I got so sunburnt! But it was lovely. Being sick....was not. It was very hard for me, having paid to come and do ministry, and then to be incapacitated. It was a learning experience. The past three weeks especially, God taught me that I have to wait on him and his timing, not mine. And that I can't change people, I can only follow what he has for me and share his love. Sunday evening we piled into matatus and drove to the bus station in Mombassa town. From there, we tried to leave, but it was Mohammed's birthday! So the streets were packed with people and floats and music. It was cool to see, but hard at the same time. it was a huge group of people, so close yet so far away. god was speaking to my heart, saying, I died for them too, and I LOVE them. I love them.... We finally got out of town, after leaving Kevin behind, one of our team. He caught up though. I had to pee so bad at one point, I went behind some houses on the side of the road during a gas fill up stop. When in Kenya....

Khaunga

So we rode in a matatu for about 3 hrs, and got to this place that looked like it used to be a small shop. And found out that's where we were staying. I thought it was a joke. but we ended up having the girls sleep there, while the guys stayed somewhere down the road...this week would prove to be the biggest test from God. Tuesday morning I got up super early to give devotions at the high school close by. I LOVE working with the youth!!! The rest of the week was a mixture of door to door, revival meetings, and  workshops for the church leaders. I got to share my faith with a Muslim for the first time. It was interesting to compare our faiths and understand some of the similarities and differences. This week proved very testing. for one, my leader started falling apart. He was not being a good leader, lets put it that way. Or even adequate. And many of my team members were very sick. And some of them refused to participate in ministry,saying they didn't want to anymore. So suffice it to say, i was very upset this week. to top it all of, I'd had diarrhea for 2 weeks now, and a burning stomach. Went to a clinic and found out I had amoebas! So gross. When I came back to our camp, my leader told us we were not going to finish our outreach and go to Vehiga as planned, but we were to join the other team in Mombassa. I was so angry, I couldn't believe it. He told us so many reasons for it that I did not believe. He lied to us and told us all different things. But the reasons we went were 1-we were all sick, and Vehiga was going to be a lot of hard labor, building and planting and stuff; 2- he was tired of leading our team because 3- we were not functioning as a team, because people were holding grudges, gossiping, not wanting to do ministry, etc. So Sunday, we went to church, then got in a matatu and met the other team in Kakamega. We got on a bus and rode for 30 hrs, and arrived in Mombassa on Monday night.

Mount Elgon

So Monday, the 30th of January, we started our week in Mt Elgon. We arrived in the early evening, and got settled in the nice house of a teacher/pastor. It was such a nice break after being in that nasty rat infested room. here we have a lovely view of Uganda out our back windows, and rooms, and a "kitchen". tuesday we spent resting and catching our breath. The next few days were spent doing door to door. In the afternoon on Thursday we got to go to a school, where me and henry spoke to the from 1&2's. It went so well. I really love being with the youth. On friday morning we got up super early to hike the mountain. At this point, I'm still pretty ill, and so is half of the rest of the team. But we were determined. The kenyan girls stayed behind, and we went on. It took us about 4 hours and much groaning to reach the 7000ft summit. It was SO hard. But we got to minister to a very hurt people. This area, mountain top and valley, have been plagued by rebels. They break out into war after every election, that's every 5 yrs, since 1963. so many of the people in the valley used to live in the mountains, but they got run out. Everyone has lost someone. It was so sad to hear their stories, but such a God thing to be there to encourage them. On the mountain it was even more intense. many people lived with nothing, because it always gets stolen! It was very hard walking, because everything is terraced into the mountain sides, so either steep down or steep up. But so worth it! We got to visit the caves they used to hide in, and listened to an mzei (an old man) who had been there since the beginning. Ministering to those people I think the best experience I had in Kenya. Sunday I went to church just up the hill form the house, with Meaghan. They asked me to do sunday school, so I came up with a lesson on the fly. The kids put together a skit really fast for the congregation, and then we listened to the pastor, and Meg, and then sang lots of songs. Kenyan people love to sing. Monday we headed out for our next location, but many of my team members were quickly becoming ill.

Sigor

So this is our first week in our separate teams. It is so sad to be away from my other friends! But I've got a lot of great girls with me, so that is good! This week was hard, so I'll start from the beginning. We got here sunday night, and I was on drugs, so I slept pretty good. There's rats in the rooms though. We're staying in a concrete building with two rooms, one for the boys, where we keep our water, and one for the girls where we keep our food stuffs. So where do the rats come? Our room!!! The worst. Monday morning, Joram (my DTS leader) cam and too k me to this town called Kakresion. We were to meet a guy who had gotten saved back in Nyagaita. So we rode on motorbikes for almost 2 hours (sore butt) in a skirt and flip-flops. That whole ordeal was a massive dangerous adventure in itself! But they stopped in this little shaded area, and we got off, crossed a swinging bridge, and waited in a little market area...which was lite 2 huts that were making food. There was some noise, so we went and checked it out. Turns out they love brewing their own beer! It is so bad. Just remembering the smell makes me so ill. So we hung out with the drunk people, offering me their vile drink while we're trying to explain the disadvatanges of drinking, especially when they are pregnant! We finally met up with the guy, like 4 hours later than planned. At this point, I'm not feeling well. I have not drank enough water or eaten enough food, and I am so nauseous. We waled through the bush to the guy's land (which included fording a river, but don't worry, it was too cold for the crocodiles...!!!). There was huts for each of the wives, one two and three. They cooked a whole goat for us, and it was finally ready around 10pm. I was very ill by this point and did not want to eat, but I had to so as not to be rude. They let us sleep in hut number 2, on beds that are constructed off the walls of the hut out of weaved and twisted twigs. It was SO uncomfortable. And I woke up several times needing to throw up, but I could not. In the morning, we took forever saying goodbye and thankyous. We trudged back through the bush and across the river, got on motorbikes, and made it back to where my team was. By that time, it was maybe 9am on tuesday. So I went straight to sleep, and woke up around 2, thinking I was going to die. I had the worst nausea, I was sure someone was cutting open my skull with an axe, my fever was about 105 degrees, and I was so weak I could not pick myself up off the floor. Finally I got up to get ibuprofen and put my feet in some water to cool off. I went to a clinic, they took a blood sample, and diagnosed me with malaria. Malaria! Well, I guess it was inevitable. I spent the rest of that week sleeping through the day while pouring sweat, and being woken up by rats at night while still pouring sweat. I ate nothing. The only time I got to participate in ministry was on saturday, and we went to a school so I could sit and listen to my girl Meaghan teach the Form 2 girls. It was so fun! On sunday I went to church where one of my team members spoke. It was so nice to get out of that room! Monday, our teams met up again to travel out of the mountains, and then we split as our team headed to Mount Elgon!!!

Nyagaita

So here we are in the buuuussshhhh bush bush. there is NOTHING but sand, rocks, bugs, scraggly trees, and HOT air. It hit at least 105 degrees Farenheit every day. The stars at night are so beautiful, and the sunrises are incredible. The week we spent here was slow. there wasn't much to do. All the people do here is drink and have sex. Seriously. The women have like 6 kids at least. They have small babies, and are hugely pregnant, all the time. AND they drink! It's so unhealthy. So we just sit with them in the river (by which I mean dry riverbed) and try to make conversation. But as always, there is a language barrier. But this time, there was a double barrier. From English to Swahili, and from Swahili to Pokot (the tribal language). Most if not all of them did not speak Swahili! So on sunday when I gave the message at "church" I am not sure how much actually got across. SO I preached for the first time ever. It was great. I loved it! We are only the third team to have come to this area, so we mostly were just building relationships. We did some door-to-door, or hut to hut I guess. We met people, prayed for them. We saw a few people healed, and many come to Christ. I just pray that the teams to come are able to foster these people and disciple them well. We got to help clean up an independently-run clinic, and some people even helped give shots. Every night we slept outside. There were so VERY large bugs...big furry white spiders, scorpions, beetles. I prayed every night that there wouldn't be bugs in my sleeping bag! One day we got to go to their "market". Mainly they just sell food and trinkets, like beads or string, and coke. On monday, the 23rd, we got back in the lorry in the afternoon, and went on our way. We dropped of the Romanina team that had been with us, then one of our two outreach teams from my DTS class. It was time to split, and it was really sad! I got bit by some weird bug, so I took benadryll. When my team arrived at our location nd met our pastor, I went straight to sleep, and slept all night!!!