Mara Nianda

So after Narok, we travelled another 4 hours to a place called Mara Nianda, where we were staying at a boarding school. It was a big compound with bedrooms, kitchen, squatty toilets, and lots of classrooms. We did relatively the same kind of ministry, so I taught the youth again. There were even less than the last place, but we still got the opportunity to speak into their lives. We also got the opportunity to go into the Mara game reserve for only $15!!! We saw all kinds of animals, in open sided eeps. Lions, elephants, cheetah, antelope, topi, lots of birds, and so many others. Also we stayed right next to a river with hippos and crocodiles. We had revival meetings every night. They were quite powerful, with tons of loud worship. We left there on Friday the 30th, at 11pm, and made it back to base on New Years Eve around 8 in the morning. The roads were so bumpy for the first few hours...It was so difficult. When we got settled and sorted through our things, we found that we had been stolen from again, but A LOT this time. One girl is missing over $400 of hers and her roommate's. And she is missing earrings and another girl is missing candy, and another a picture frame, and lots of other random things. It's so heartbreaking, because there was only 5 people at base while we were gone, and no outsider would have access to our room keys (our rooms were locked). This week we have been doing lots of outreach prep, and some lecture on biblical relationships. AAAAAAAND, my family suprised me HERE IN KENYA on the 2nd!!! I almost peed my pants. My mom and sister, and Auntie M.E. came into class that morning and suprised me. Unfortunatley we leave monday night, the 8th, and they don't leave until tuesday night. My team for outreach is good, but I'm having lots of anxiety issues. I'm every excited for outreach, even though we will be gone for 6 weeks, without communication. Be praying for us, and I will be back on Feb 20th. Only 51 more days!!!!

Naira Sirasa

So we left base and drove to Narok, about 6 hours away. When we got there we set up tents and started on dinner. Definitely cooking over open fires. Sunday was AWESOME. We went to church and got to see all the old maasai ladies in traditional garb doing their tribal dance. Part way through the week, two of our teammates had to go home. They hadn't come with us on outreach, so they were still at base. But they had real bad infection and had to fly back to America. I cried for a week straight. We spent the week ministering to kids, my age group was the youth. They tended to show up on "african time" so instead of 4 hours of teaching/games we only had about 2. But at the end of the week, they told us that they learned so much and were so blessed by us. Christmas was amazing. It was sad to be away from home, but the cultural experience definitely compensated. So Christmas Eve, we stayed up past midnight having a wild dance party, praising God and watching skits and performing songs. Christmas morning we went to church and did more songs and skits. In the afternoon we went to maybe 4 different houses, and had food at each one. One of the mammas said the teenagers will stay out til one am going to peoples' houses and eating! It was so cool. At the end of the week, one of the mammas that we got to bless, turned around and gave me a bracelet that she had made for me! Also, one of the days we walked down to the river, and the "bridge" that we had to cross was simply branches that had been nailed and vined together, extremely high above the water. So sketchy, but such an adventure.