Power rationing, rain, and other late nite thoughts!

The word on the street is that the power rationing has officially ended - for now! Some of you may not have known that Nairobi (and surrounding areas) has had power rationing for a while. Different areas had different schedules. Our schedule was no power Tues., Thurs., or Sat. Although we were scheduled to have power Sun., Mon., Wed., & Fri., we would still experience random power outages! The nice thing is that we knew, for the most part, what days we would not have power so we could plan ahead.
So now, we have power every day, for the most part! Robb made an interesting observation though. What a coincidence that the power rationing ends about the same time that the power rates increase by 36%!! Hmmmmm!!
We have had rain off and on for the past several days! I awoke a few nights ago to rain falling hard and fast - not the kind of rain we need here! We have had more rain though yesterday and today. New leaves are blooming, and we are seeing a bit more green! Is this the arrival of the infamous El Nino? I guess we cannot really tell yet. Similar to southern California, rain causes slippery roads and accidents galore!
We are definitely still in the middle of a serious drought. Sadly, it is not raining in areas where it is most needed. Please continue to pray for long, slow rain that will help restore crops, and provide food and water to people & animals! (I'll post some rain-related pics tomorrow!)
Why is it that I cannot go to bed early? Robb was tired at 9pm so he went to bed. I was tired at 9pm but...here I sit at 11:15pm still playing with this blog! There is no possibility of sleeping in - the latest Micah will wake up is 7am, and here I sit!
Okay people! It is now midnight and I have one question - where oh where has my downloaded photo gone??!! I give up and I'm going to bed!
Blessings!!

Cat story

As most of you know, we are cat people (Micah and I also like dogs but Robb is not so keen on them.) We were so anxious before leaving the states about what to do with our two cats, Matthew & Trouble. Although they are both older cats, they were still active and playful! God is so good even with things like pets! Robb's mom, Rita, said she would take Trouble. As you can gather from his name, he can make life interesting! Well, Rita says that he is doing very well! He occupies her lap whenever he gets a chance and enjoys her backyard!
God really proved His goodness with Matthew. Randomly (without any pleading or coercing), my brother-in-law, Alan, who is dreadfully allergic to cats) mentioned to my sister Susan that they would take Matthew as long as he did not have an allergic reaction! Wow! That was really big of him!! (Seriously Alan!) The other factor with Matthew living with them is that they have a big dog, not something our cat had really been exposed to! Well, Susan is happy to report (and I am sooo thankful to hear) that Matthew is doing GREAT! He and the dog get along great (they touch noses) and Alan is still breathing! Thank you God and thank you Rita and Susan (and Alan, Alexander, Matthew & Kasick!)
Now God has given us the opportunity to help out a missionary family who returned to the states while blessing us with a cat! We bought a few items from Debra and her family last month. Each time I went to her house I would see this cute white and tan cat sleeping in her front yard. They named him Kahawa, which means "coffee" in kiswahili, but she said they should have named him "chai" or tea because he looks more like chai than coffee!! I asked her what was going to with Kahawa and she still did not know, but was going to have to take him to the animal shelter if no other options came up.
I had talked to Robb but he did not think we should get a cat so soon. Well, the last time I went to Debra's house she said that they were going to bring Kahawa to the shelter that next morning. I called Robb and he said, "Okay, we'll take him." Debra and her family were so thrilled to know that their cat was going to live with a family and be well taken care of.
Kahawa has brought us joy and I believe has even helped in our transition! Micah loves him and he tolerates Micah's "pets"!

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!

T

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!