Always singing!

All in a day...Be flexible!!

We had an interesting day two weeks ago that really speaks about being flexible but I have not had the chance to sit and write about it and actually post it. Between painfully poor internet connections, Micah, our househelper Dorcas, people coming to our gate, laundry to hand-wash, planning and fixing dinner…I am hoping to finish now!

We had been told about Wycliffe, a young man whom several missionaries hire to do yard work and other odd jobs. He is married to Celine and they have a 5 year old boy. He works hard and makes huge efforts to get by. We met him and his family two weeks ago at another missionary’s house and we felt compelled to offer him some odd jobs as well. Wycliffe and Celine were both orphans and finally were able to move out of the slums a few months ago. They are strong Christians and literally trust the Lord to provide each day.

We planned for Wycliffe to come by the next afternoon to help Robb with some yard work. He arrived about 10am…be flexible! Robb put aside the tasks he had planned for the morning and started working in the back yard with Wycliffe. They trimmed the loquat tree and bougainvilleas, and dragged piles of branches through the house to the front for trash pickup. I believe they filled 6 black yard waste bags and still had several more piles. Clearly, the yard had not been worked on in quite a while.

While Robb was working with Wycliffe, I brought Micah to another missionary’s house to play then continued with more cleaning and organizing. Shortly after, there was a knock on our front gate (be flexible!) and I met Mama Sumaki (the fish lady!) or Margaret. She brings whole tilapia fish and fillets them right there for you! I had to get over the fact that flies were all over the them as she filleted them. One fish costs 300/- or $4.00. Not bad considering one fish was more than one meal for us. She has been selling fish to missionaries (and others) for about 20 years or so. Needless to say, she really knows how to fillet a fish! I was disappointed that Micah was not there to see Margaret fillet the fish for us.I was told that Margaret likes to take the heads & bones and make soup with them. I had asked Wycliffe earlier if he wanted them so I saved them for him. The next time Margaret was to bring me fish I asked Dorcas if she would like the heads & bones to make fish and she said that she does not make fish soup. She asked if Wycliffe and Margaret are from the Luo tribe (they are) because the Luo tribe is originally from Lake Victoria, and she is Kikuyu and they do not eat fish. Interesting!!

Robb had connected with another missionary who said we could borrow his “extra car”. That afternoon Robb took a taxi to go pick it up, and I have to admit that I was quite surprised when Robb returned (be flexible!)! The “car” is fondly referred to as Big Red! It is a 40 or so year old Land Cruiser, and it shows and feels every bit of it! It is loud, rough, and tough to drive, but it is fun, can handle most any pothole that it encounters, and people generally stay out of its way! Shifting certainly has not been kind to Robb’s torn rotator cuff but it has been so nice having our own transportation!

Whew, what a day!!

SOME PICS

Please excuse my blog ignorance! I will work on it! I'm sure you can figure out which photos go with which caption!

Micah's first haircut in Nairobi - before and after.
Micah on the slide at Tickles, a great play place where they already know his name!
A market in Machakos.

RUSH HOUR...

We were given certain precautions to using public transportation; avoiding rush hour was one. Yesterday we had our first experience of rush hour. We went into Karen to look at the furniture and metal works along Ngong Road, and then had to go to the store. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready to head back it was 5pm. We walked to the “stage” to catch a bus back as we always do. After three attempts to board a bus we realized that waiting in line and taking turns does not exist, and being courteous (ie. allowing older or pregnant women on first) does not get you on the bus! We had to be more assertive if we were going to get home. Each bus had room for only 1-5 people. Several buses passed right by because they were full. Full does not have the same meaning here as it might in the states. One bus stopped and I actually got on, holding Micah. As I got to the top step I realized that all of the people in front of me were standing because there were not any seats available. Mind you, there was a line of people behind me waiting to get on. I turned around and said, “There are no seats!” and squeezed my way back down. I guess it’s like subways, trolleys, or the tube where people stand. The only difference is that on trolleys, the tube or the subway, there is actually room to stand and hold on! We finally decided that the only way we would get back was to take a matatu. We take matatus but they are very crowded and can be more dangerous. With our new understanding of getting a ride, we stepped (pushed) right up and got close to the front of the mob. Picture minibus/van similar to a Volkswagen bus. Add three seater rows on one side and two seater rows on the other and a full row in the way back. This leaves approximately one foot for an aisle. You must turn sideways to get through, and then there are the people spilling over into the aisle (a three seater holds two people American style!) The only seats available for us were in the way back. We squeezed thru and made it to the back. Robb had to keep his head down or it would hit the ceiling as we bumped along home. This matatu was actually one of the few nice ones. The seats were actually attached to the floor of the van and we could not see the road thru the floor. There was not a huge screen blaring raunchy rap videos! I must say that I am so impressed by and appreciative of the people on buses and matatus. They are always so willing to help. I had to get used to men, usually the man who calls out to people to ride and collects your money, grabbing Micah and lifting him onto and off of the bus. People riding will hold your bags and pass them back as you squeeze back and into your seat. They will hold onto Micah as we thrash about down the aisle to a seat (they do not wait for you to be seated before they take off!! I’ve been still climbing the steps when the bus took off! One time there were no seats so a man picked up Micah and held him in his lap so he wouldn’t have to stand. As I was standing there thinking about how kind it was for him to hold Micah it dawned on me that if he was really nice he would stand and allow me to sit with my son! Anyway, we made it home in one piece. The people riding had a good laugh though. When we neared our stop, Robb called out, “El Peso”. They did not slow so I called out the same. Then Micah piped up and shouted out “El Peso!”

The Gig is up!

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HE GIG IS UP! July 24, 2009 Some of you know that, as many parents do, we bought a second MooMoo for Micah once we saw that it was his favorite (security object). For almost two years I’ve been secretly swapping out one MooMoo for the other so I could keep them clean. Packing for our homestay, I included both MooMoos so that I could wash the dirty (literally) one Micah had during our three weeks of orientation. When Micah saw the clean MooMoo he asked, “Where did you get this? Did you buy a new one?” I made several unsuccessful attempts at convincing him that this was MooMoo. So, we brought the other dirty, familiar MooMoo out and explained why we had two MooMoos. We don’t think Micah really understood, but now the two MooMoos are brother and sister, and he will often “wag” (stroke) both of their tails!

A Cultural Afternoon in Downtown Machakos, July 16th, 2009

It is the evening of our 17th day of Africa Based Orientation here at Scott Theological College in Machakos, Kenya. Today was great because we had a “Scavenger Hunt” in town. We were split up into six groups and each was given a paper with several “challenges” for us in town. First, we had to get into town using public transportation. We also were to eat lunch, ask different locals specific questions, and find several things. We all met back at Scott at 4pm to share our experiences, and the group with the best relational story won a prize.

Our group flagged down a small matatu (a small mini-van type vehicle, usually packed!) which brought us into town for 150/- (or about $2.00). Our driver gave us the meaning of several of the words we were to identify, both in kiswahili & kikamba (the local dialect.) We started off with lunch at T-TOT, a small restaurant that is part of the T-TOT Hotel. We had samosas (fried triangle shape filled with ground beef, onions, and cilantro), a chapati (a large, thick tortilla), and Micah had a hot dog (or sausage) wrapped in chapati. Alex, the plainclothes “guard” (I’m not sure what he was guarding, perhaps the TV he was watching!) was more than helpful in answering many of our questions about the history of Machakos, when and how Islam and Christianity arrived in Kenya, etc. His answers were not all correct, but he was most helpful!

Our adventure continued as we strolled along, observing many people walking up and down the street and tons of shops, men or women sewing clothes on sewing machines from the 40’s, butcheries with cuts of “meat” hanging in the window, an outside shop with tables piled high with used clothing and shoes for sale. One of our challenges was to go into a butchery and see how many cuts of “meat” there were and what was the least appetizing. From a U.S. perspective, butcheries are just wrong! They STINK and it just doesn’t seem right that slabs of raw meat are just hanging free. I have to believe that if people were all getting sick from buying their meat this way then there wouldn’t be so many butcheries~

The locals are fascinated by mzungus (white people) but especially love little white kids for some reason. As we walked along an alley lined with small shops, many people reached out to touch Micah and say, “Hello!” and “What is your name?” Also, their personal space bubbles are much smaller than ours so they get really close. Micah was tired and was not really enjoying all the attention. At one point, several men were talking to Micah and started laughing hysterically. One man came up to me and told me that the reason they are so interested in Micah and laughing is because they think he looks like a little monkey! I could have been offended but I believe they thought this because Micah was holding my hand and jumping off rocks and curbs!

We made our way to the market. We loved it! I had been to markets in Kenya when I was here last time. This market was so orderly, clean, and calm, and the people selling were not hounding you to buy from them. There were umbrellas lining the aisles and rows of bright oranges and red tomatoes stacked in precarious little formations, little apples, many different kinds of passion fruit, avocados the size of eggplants (for 20/-, or about 25 cents), and every kind of bean you can imagine. Many of the women were sitting beside their fruits and vegetables weaving straw bags in bright colors. It was amazing how quickly they worked and without watching what they were doing!

We also had to find the clock tower and then seek out a local to tell us how time is counted in Kenya (and most of Africa.) They start their day with sunrise (approximately) with the 7, so 7am is their 1, 8am is 2. (At 7am they say it is 1 o’clock)

It was great to get out and not have to sit in class all day. We had been in town several times before so we were familiar with the transportation and the grocery store. Micah’s favorite form of transportation is the tuk-tuk. These are 3-wheeled enclosed carts, or a cross between a motorcycle and an enclosed cart. They vary in condition. The one I took back from town yesterday with some friends did not look as though it would make it, but it did and it was fun!

Our Visit to a Scott College Student's Home, July 14, 2009

Our Africa Based Orientation (ABO) is actually renting part of one of Scott Theological College’s residential buildings and sharing their cooks and dining hall. Classes are still going on therefore all of the students are here. Walking to and eating at the dining hall gives us many opportunities to meet and converse with the students.

In the first week of our time here, a student introduced himself to us and asked if we would have time to come to his house for coffee and to meet his wife and kids. We told him that we would love to go to his house but we would have to check our class schedule since we don’t have a lot of free time.

We had not seen David since so we both forgot about his invitation, but we ran into him again the end of last week. He was very eager to have us come to his house so we arranged to meet him in the parking lot at 3:30pm that Sunday. David was waiting for us promptly at 3:30pm. He said that his house is “just there” as he pointed toward the entrance of the school. Well, “just there” (a common African phrase) can mean a distance in sight or a distance out of sight. David’s “just there” was definitely out of our sight!

After walking past the entrance of the school, David said we were about 7 minutes to his home. He did not take into consideration that we were also towing a three year old along. The trip took us approximately 20 minutes!

The afternoon was really nice. We met David’s wife, Eunice, and their three children. Eunice prepared coffee (not chai, go figure!), and served a very yummy mango! Interestingly, kids here drink coffee and tea. They were surprised when we told them that Micah does not drink coffee! Eunice made him some milk, hot milk! Micah added some sugar, then some more sugar before drinking it. He’s not used to drinking warm milk!

Micah eventually played with their children and the other kids hanging around. It is amazing that the language difference does not hinder children’s play! We stayed for about 3 hours, a typical African visit, then the whole family walked us back to the main road. Micah and the kids ran the whole way!

Robb and I talked later and we both confessed that we had suspicions about the visit. Was David going to ask us for money for school fees for himself or his kids, or for something else? We were both uncomfortable with this thought, but unfortunately it happens so often…David did not ask us for anything! We felt badly afterwards because we forgot to bring something for his family. It is customary to bring a small gift – sugar, rice, etc. Thankfully, we did not offend them with this oversight. We saw David again before we left and he has already sent us an email thanking us for coming to visit!