The pain of sacrifice

My sister Susan emailed me early this week to inform me that my almost 20 year old cat, Matthew, that she was taking care of for me, was not doing so well. She Skyped me the next day to tearfully say that she had to have him put down.
When we left home one year ago I knew that there was a really good chance that I wouldn't see my Matthew cat again. He had been diagnosed with kidney disease a few years ago and I knew that he could go downhill anytime.
Susan kept me posted on my cat. She even sent pictures last August and I was amazed at how healthy and wonderful he looked! He obviously was being well taken care of and loved on!
Unfortunately that only caused me to believe that he would still be around when I get back next year.
Besides my cat Pokey I had when I was growing up, Matthew was the best cat I ever had, and I've had quite a few cats. It is a very painful loss, and I will miss him dearly. He lived a good, long life though and made many people happy!

Thanks again Susan, Alan, Alexander and Matthew for making Matthew Cat's last year of life special and filled with love!

Fun Micah sayings

Just found some fun things Micah said written in a small notebook that I just have to share. Some are from the end of last year.

"Look Mommy, billions of clouds coming from America!"

"I was there a-fore; a long time ago; before you and daddy." I asked him, "How did you get there? Did you drive?" "No, I took a donkey. Donkey's are fast!"

"Mommy, how do clouds connect?"

Already in our estate and around the corner from our house Micah asks if he can ride in "the boot". I told him I was not going to stop the car, open the back, and get him in there just for 2 seconds. He remarks, "Two seconds is over. I know two seconds. 1-2, see?"

In the airport last week waiting to greet our Kenyan friends from America (here to visit their families), Micah says loudly, "Look, that man has a dress" as he points in front of us to a Muslim man wearing a tunic.

"I want to watch the Jesus movie" (aka The Easter Story, an animated kids video.) After watching "the Jesus movie" Micah says reflectively, "Now that's a really good movie!"

One Year!

Today, June 24th, marks one year since we left San Diego to begin serving here in Kenya (although we didn't arrive here til the 27th due to a brief orientation stop at AIM in NY.)
This year has gone by very fast! It does not feel like one year to either Robb or myself. A couple of weeks ago we were talking about how we felt our first year has gone and what we might do differently in the next year. The thing that came up for both of us was to live in the moment and to really "be" here. We felt as though we spent much of our time during our first year in a transitional mode - living in a transitional house (which, incidentally, we have decided to stay in for our next year!), adjusting to, and even still getting used to the traffic and driving (or should I say drivers!), the so different time factor in that everything really does take longer, and visitors and people selling things (like Mama Samaki who sells fish) always require time, usually when you are "busy"!
We miss our families and friends, and are so thankful for so many who faithfully keep in touch! It has been difficult at times to be away for things like holidays, birthdays, Char's nieces 18th birthday, her high school graduation, and seeing her off to university soon.
As we enter into our second year we are prepared to persevere and finish well!
Enjoy some pics of our first year: Family pic at AIM in NY, June 25, 2009;
Micah standing on some of our Action Packers at Newark airport, June 26, 2009;
Micah standing in front of our Christmas tree and opening his new used bike, Dec 2009;
Micah's 4th birthday party, Jan 19, 2010; Micah's 1st day of school, Feb 2010;
Micah and Robb on scooter, March 2010; Family pic at Hell's Gate Nat'l Park on Father's Day, June 20, 2010.

A tribute to Kahawa

Kahawa, our 1-1/2 year old cat, died at the vet last night. We got him from another missionary family who was leaving last September. He didn't really become "our" cat until after we had him fixed. Then he stopped taking off, rarely stayed out all night, and was much friendlier, and more loving and playful!

We still don't know exactly what happened. I brought Kahawa to the vet Tuesday morning, and was told that he was hypothermic and had a large solid mass in his abdomen. He stayed over night, and even with a heating pad his extremities were still cold. The vet was not willing to do any procedures since Kahawa was too weak, and by Wednesday evening the vet informed us that Kahawa's condition was worsening and to be prepared that he might not make it through the night.

Well, he didn't make it through the night! I didn't realize that I had gotten so attached to him! Robb used to always say, "He's your cat!", and he was actually right! For some reason, Kahawa had decided that he was my cat! Whenever I sat down he would jump into my lap, often sharing it with my laptop. He would follow me around the house, play hide-n-seek around the laundry basket whenever I was taking clothes off the line, and generally just seemed to always want to be with me!

Our favorite memory of Kahawa is how he would playfully antagonize Micah. Kahawa would lay on the couch behind Micah's little chair and randomly reach out and swipe at Micah's neck or head! We would try hard not to laugh because he did sometimes scratch Micah, but we like to think of it as Kahawa giving pay backs! (I tried unsuccessfully to post a short video showing this.)

We already really miss him!

Long weekend trip to Lake Victoria and Western Kenya

Two weeks ago our friends, Kurt and Angie, asked if we wanted to join them and a Kenyan friend, Rosemary, on a trip to western Kenya to visit a children’s center and an orphanage that Rosemary started. We would also be helping to hand out Operation Christmas Child boxes from Samaritan’s Purse. We readily agreed, as we do not often receive opportunities such as this!

We knew it would be a little tough since Robb would just be returning from an eight day Personnel Forum in Bristol the day before leaving, but we also did not anticipate that Char would catch a really good upper respiratory cold the day after he left for Bristol! We started to vacillate but still believed it would prove to be a great experience. Char was almost better the day of departure.

We set off at 7am Friday for the town of Port Victoria on Lake Victoria which was about a 9 hour drive north west of Nairobi, often over challenging roads.

Micah endured the long drive so well, though he refused to sleep (he gave in to about a 20 minute nap). He always thinks he is going to miss something!

It was an interesting, exhausting, challenging, and exciting long weekend! Rosemary is the receptionist at AIM IS and she has started two orphanages as well as a children’s center. We were able to visit the children’s center and one of the orphanages. The children’s center is in Port Victoria where Rosemary’s husband grew up and where they have a not quite finished house with running water but no electricity, which we all stayed in over the weekend.

The children’s center accommodates about 120 kids, most of whom have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. They live with guardians, either grandparents, aunt/uncles, or foster families (who are poor – they often don’t have food and many kids do not have shoes), and they come to the center every day where they are provided with three meals (when available) and learning.

There are two volunteer teachers who care for the kids every day and teach them. The center itself sometimes does not have food for the kids (Kurt and Angie brought them a huge bag of beans and corn, and we were able to buy them a huge bag of rice there.) One of the teachers, Rose, who has been more or less running the center (Rosemary lives in Nairobi) has begun to search for a paying job so she can pay for her own children’s school fees. Rosemary does not have the funding to pay these two women so she is faithfully trusting the Lord to either provide funding to pay Rose or to provide a replacement when she leaves.

Handing out the boxes here was great! The kids were organized by gender and then by age. Micah was wonderful! We explained to him that most of these kids have nothing (including shoes, as he could see by the many bare feet) and that they do not have parents. He understood why he would not be receiving one of the boxes, and he wanted to be right in front handing boxes to the kids! He enjoyed watching the kids open their boxes and assisted many in opening their sweets (or candies), which was the highlight for him (and which was funny to us because he hardly ever gets candy!) He actually ate only one candy!

The amazing part of this process was witnessing the patience of the kids as they waited for all of the kids to receive a box. The kids were instructed to receive their box and then go sit down and wait until every child had received a box. Those who received one first just sat in their chairs holding their boxes in their laps, and they waited!

People who make and send in these boxes for kids have no idea where in the world they will end up. This was evident by the numerous girls who received hair brushes, combs, and hair accessories in their boxes. They were excited by them, however, most girls have extremely short hair and cannot use these items. Nice to be enlightened for future boxes we fill!

While in Port Victoria we were given a tour of sorts around the town. It was very warm and humid there. Lake Victoria is very large. It is bordered by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. We were quite close to the Ugandan border. It is peaceful and beautiful there, and the air is fresh and clean. What a reprieve from the smog and noise of Nairobi!

Being right on the lake, Port Victoria is a fishing town. The men usually fish at night and by early morning women are spreading out tiny little fish, like minnows, on large tarps to dry in the sun. I imagine one eventually grows accustomed to the smell! They also catch larger fish, like Nile Perch and Tilapia. Their fishing boats are what one would expect from a small, remote town, simple and carved out of wood!

As we walked to the shore at several locations we had quite a large entourage of local kids joining us.

As has been typical here in Kenya, but even more so here, the kids were fascinated by Micah. They crowded around him, pointed at him, touched him, and sadly, also laughed at him. Understandably, this became a bit overwhelming for Micah. The two men who led us on our walk finally told the kids to back off and leave Micah alone!

Sunday, we drove several hours to Rosemary’s mom’s church to hand out more boxes. There were more kids than boxes but part of the reason for this was that all the kids in the area came to the church and began getting in line for a box. Word got out fast!

We then drove to the orphanage which was just around the block. When the kids at the church figured out where we were headed they all started running over to the orphanage. This was a frustrating, and sad experience. The boxes were supposed to go only to the orphans. It was clear that there were many more kids there than the orphans and it became a mob, several times. It was complete chaos. Parents were coming to the front holding out their kids and pleading for a box. We gave a box to a little girl with a cleft palate only to see her soon after with her mom who pushed her to the front again for another box! There were also kids in the mob who had already received a box at the last church!

Rosemary just gave up. After she and Robb made several attempts to control the crowd and the box distribution she finally just came back up to the platform and sat in her seat with her arms crossed. There were TONS of kids, no control, and no way to control it. We only had about 15 boxes left, so we decided to leave the boxes with the pastor and let him give them out at another time or as he saw fit. We left at that point. We had a long drive ahead of us!

We should have left much earlier as it is not safe to drive at night. We ended up having to drive in the dark for about 2-1/2 hours. I, Char, was actually scared! There are no street lights so you cannot see, and most cars do not switch their high beams to low as they pass so you often feel completely blind! First, we almost got rear ended. At one point a bus a few cars in front of us stopped in the middle of the road to let on or off passengers. We heard a loud screeching behind us and Robb quickly pulled into the opposite lane to avoid being hit from behind. We were so thankful that there were no cars coming in the opposite lane!

We then got pulled over at a police check (which are common, but not a great thing for westerners as they try get a bribe from you.) The policeman who approached our car started to accuse Robb of driving too close to him and trying to knock him over with our car (yes, we came near…he pulled us over!), then he shined his flashlight in all of our windows. Amazingly, he finally just let us go without asking for a thing! If nothing else, they will complain about being cold and ask for money to buy chai.

The Lord continued to watch over us! As I mentioned, you really cannot see a thing on the roads at night. You cannot tell exactly where the cars approaching you are, and as a truck approached we realized that he was coming at us in our lane passing a vehicle in his own. Of course he flashed us to move over and Robb was able to pull off the side of the road a bit, which was a huge blessing as there is often no where to pull over!

Lastly, we were almost home when we drove into a storm – it was downpouring and the roads were already flooded! Now we really couldn’t see! It was pouring the whole rest of the way home! We got home at 8:30pm! It was a nightmare, and we were exhausted!

We were praising the Lord for keeping us safe as we travelled back from our weekend adventure! Although we were very tired, and Robb had to go to work and Char was starting at Tumaini the next day, we were so thankful to have had that experience. It not only helped us to remember why we’re here – to help make a difference in peoples’ lives – but also gave us a renewed perspective on how so many people here live with so little but still seek to serve the Lord and give to those who are needier than they.

Create-a-lane

My meetings and errands today took less time than I thought so I called Robb and asked if he had time to go to lunch, and he did! As we were headed down Ngong Road we reached the Create-a-Lane zone! This is where matatus and buses (and some cars and trucks) decide that they are more important than everyone else sitting in traffic so they make a second lane and drive down the middle of the road or even in the lane going in the opposite direction.
First, we hear a knock, knock, knock on the side of our car. Directly next to us is a bus and the tout (man in vest who takes your money) is standing on the bus steps knocking on our car (yes, it was that close) and motioning to Robb to move over. Robb intentionally drives as close as possible to the line down the middle of the road (Robb vs. the buses and matatus!) and it ticks off the bus and matatu drivers and touts. Robb grabs the rungu stick (carved wood stick with bulb at the end that Maasai warriors carry) that we leave in the car and bangs on the bus a few times. The tout laughs as the bus moves into the opposite lane and pulls ahead.
One minute later we hear a small scrape, the driver's sideview mirror pops in, and there is a bus literally inches away! Robb grabs the rungu stick again and pounds on the bus a few times. (Please note: This is not road rage, it is merely road survival, though I prefer to use the horn!)
Ahhhh, driving in Nairobi where it is each man or woman for him or herself!

Interesting day

I had several interesting incidents happen today that I just have to blog about. Unfortunately, I do not have any pics to help you visualize.
Angie, Candace, and I (and Micah) headed out to Karen this morning to a 2-family sale. Typical of most family sales that I have gone to Micah "made out like a bandit" (to use the words of my since passed on grandfather)! I was hoping for household items, small furnishings, etc. I did though buy a set of queen sheets for $4 (in really good condition), a red (my color!) spatula/scraper, and a Sony DVD player for $33 (the woman selling it said that it works fine, they just have quite a few of them, this one was their son's and he's getting a new one and his own TV for his birthday! These missionaries are living better than we did at home!). Now we just need a TV!
After that I took Micah to Tickles, a play place at Crossroads Mall in Karen where we often went during our homestay last July/August. I went into a couple of stores while he played for an hour, and as I approached Tickles to pick up Micah I realized that I did not have enough money to pay! This is the first incident of my day.
Thankfully Joseph, the guy running Tickles, remembers us from our many visits last year, so I told him I needed to go to the ATM to get some money. I trek to the other side of the small mall to KCB bank only to discover that their ATMs are "being serviced" (as I was told by the security guard). As I look closer, servicing in this case meant a complete overhaul as the two ATMs were no longer in the wall! I tried my card in the three other bank ATMs at this mall but it was not accepted. By this time Micah is sitting on the stairs (with Joseph) waiting for me. I tell Joseph I could not get money so he directs me to the bank ATM I need in another building across the way. He tells me he trusts me since we've been coming for awhile. Thankfully, they don't hold your kid(s) ransom if you can't pay! We found the ATM and returned to pay!
The next incident occured at the same mall when I pulled up to a fuel pump and waited, and waited, and waited for the attendant to come out. (You don't pump your own fuel here.) I finally got out and asked the men working in the service bays if they were pumping fuel today and they told me I needed to go to the other end (of a row of about 6 stand alone pumps.) The fuel attendant finally came out and told me the same thing so I moved my car to a pump at the other end and told him I wanted to fill up. He proceeded to wash my car windows as I commented to Micah that it sure would be quicker if he were also pumping fuel into our car at the same time! (FYI: It costs $46 to fill up the tank of our Subaru Forester - around $4.40/gallon! Yikes!)
We finally headed back toward our neck of the city and stopped at Java House (a great coffee place) at Junction Mall (bigger, nicer than Crossroads) to get a bag of decaf coffee. As we headed back to our car I noticed that one of the front tires had a huge yellow metal wheel lock and chain on it! My mind began contemplating all the reasons why this might be, the most logical one (which means nothing here!) is that I shouldn't have parked where I did (even though it was a parking spot!)
I go and find a security guard (every parking lot has many) but he tells me he just got there and that I need to go the small, one room security building at the entrance to the mall. On the way I come across another guard and question him. He motions to another guard who walks me the rest of the way to the security building. This guard says I drove on the landscaping on my way into the mall, and they think I was just in a hurry and didn't care, and drove through the landscaping! (I almost laugh as I picture me and Micah driving up over the curb, through the landscaping -plants flying, back down the curb and then tires squealing through the parking lot, just to get my decaf coffee, but I don't!) The guard tells me I need to go talk to the mall "caretaker" and apologize.
I explained to the caretaker that I did not intentionally drive up the curb and through the plants (which, incidentally, was only the edge of some ice plant). I told him that I misjudged how much room I had when I was trying to pass a van which was stopped at the mall entrance and so accidentally went up onto the curb. I was sorry for crushing some plants. He asked the guard, "What is the damage?" Again, I want to laugh but am respectful. He decides to go see the damage himself. The guard comments to the caretaker that he thinks the plants will be fine once the landscaper comes out. The caretaker had me write my name and phone number on a piece of paper, and told me that if the landscaper decides the plants will not survive the damage they will call me and I will have to pay! I did take a couple of pics with my cell camera.
On the way back to my car the guard mentions me that because I "had the right response" everything should be fine. He then tells me that if I had responded differently, if I "was yelling", then they "would have had to discipline me." Thank goodness I controlled myself, from laughing! All that because of a few "damaged" ice plant leaves, when I often see people walking through the landscaping! Par for the course! After removing the wheel lock (I so wish I had a camera!), the guard then said that he hopes I will continue to visit their mall to which I responded, "I guess it will depend on whether or not they make me pay for the plants!" Micah commented as we were driving away, "Whew, well that took a while!"
Our last errand was to bring a scanner to Robb that he bought last weekend for HR. Thankfully this was uneventful and without incident! While we were in Robb's office though I noticed the view out his window looks at a huge billboard...advertising Guinness, Robb's favorite beer! (which he cannot have because we both signed a contract stating that we will not drink while serving with AIM!) How ironic!