Out of Africa and into The Promise Land

Welcome to the city of Jerusalem.  Me and 6 of my teammates, plus one teammate's parents traveled to Israel to spend a week there.  It truly is a beautiful and yet solemn city full of ancient and new stones, history, churches, mosques, people from all over the world, and vendors lining the streets as well as the famed Via Dolorosa

Despite the commercialism, parts of it were breath taking and in a sense helped history to come alive

I loved the road signs...:)  But sometimes I wanted to say, "Now how am I supposed to pick which direction to go with those kind of options?"  Haha!  These three together made me smile the most :)

Of course I ate a few Falafels for my dad :)  My teammate John is giving his thumbs up on the quality and awesomeness of it :)

Me and my teammates loved the self-inflicted spa treatment at the Dead Sea...haha!  What a blast!

While I was in the area, I decided to pick out my burial plot on the Mt. of Olives...Just kidding :)

Passing through the "eye of the needle," put a new thought into His statement that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven...

Some things never change...money changing stations could be found a few feet inside every gate leading into the city.

Standing on the temple mount

Ending with a splash by walking through Hezekiah's Tunnel in the City of David :)

This is David's Tower located at the Jaffa Gate.  It actually still contains some original stones used by Herod the Great.  It was a good trip...I'm still processing everything I saw and I'm enjoying the pull to dig deeper into the Word for clarity about this ancient and yet modern city.  These are just a few pictures...I took SO many pictures that my camera as taken the last couple of days off :)

A Little Bit of Everything

Me and Haley...again...I just can't get enough of this little one.  She has started talking and more days than most I waken to Haley and Daisy hollering my name as they sit and sing and play on the bench in front of the house.  I'm not a morning person, but it's too adorable to make me grumpy...haha!

One of the many ironies of the simple life...for clarification, there isn't any dry cleaning for hundreds of miles and I wash/scrub everything by hand...also with the humidity here nothing stays dry for long and as for being clean I'll just remind you that I live in a mud hut...haha!  Oh, and I love my life!

So, this is what my sisters next door were cooking one night...It wasn't long before there was  a knock on the door and some of this loveliness was brought over as a gift...:)

This blow fish was caught on the wrong side of the reef...meaning the side I dip my feet into...reason number 176 that swimming in the ocean is not for the faint of heart, or people who desire to keep all limbs intact :)

Welcome to the airport English class picnic.  In celebration of passing their final exam, the airport staff decided to have a picnic on the beach.  They were quite excited to get their official certificates and I was excited to eat the amazing food that they had cooked :)

It's Christmas Time!  Or, I guess it was Christmas time...:)  I took this picture on a rainy day when Haley and Daisy had been left in our care for the morning.  I thought the contrast was great...I have officially introduced the commercialism of Christmas...funny story...I made the Christmas tree out of little strips of ply wood and then I painted it green.  Corinna suggested we hang our Christmas lights on the tree and for the final touch I placed the cookie cutters my mom and friend, Carmen, had sent on the tree for ornaments...sometimes I wonder if I will ever let go of my former life...

On Christmas Day, we had a picnic celebration of our own where we invited our family and immediate neighbors.    At the far end is Corinna holding Daisy, followed by Daisy's mom, Natalie, and lastly this is Naomi.  We held the picnic in our front yard and besides the normal picnic food of chicken wings, green bananas, cassava, and pop, we served Christmas sugar cookies...it's amazing the Truth that can be told when explaining the shape of a Christmas cookie :)

Here is Naomi again frying green bananas.  It's quite a process, but it rivals french fries, especially when you dip it in the local habanero hot sauce...SO good!

Here is Noel and Ritta arranging the chicken wings to be roasted over the hot coals.   Just like holidays back in the states, everyone pitches in and does their part.  And they love it!

Finally, here they are eating local style...all from the same bowl, no silverware needed :)  I love it!  It was a great day!  Ritta found a speaker and we had Christmas carols blasting from the door of our house all day long as we cooked.  After the meal, Corinna and I explained why we give gifts at Christmas and then we were able to give everyone a little something to take home.  It was a first for our family and neighbors to celebrate this day and we hope that we were able to bless them and show them the reason for our Joy.

A Time To Celebrate

Me and Haley, one of our little neighbor girls...we’ve nicknamed her “Pig Pen” though it may be culturally inappropriate to talk about that animal...she loves dirt and sometimes it plumes off her!  Part of the problem is that she is on the verge of walking, but her current mode of transportation is just to scoot across the ground...haha!  Sometimes she just lies in the dirt and goes to sleep making her look like a poster child for World Vision...I assure you she is not.  She has a mommy and daddy who love her very much as well as an australian auntie and an american one who cuddle her every chance we get, no matter how dirty she is :)

Since it’s been a year, I thought it would be fun to show you what our backyard looks like now...it’s really green!  We are growing all kinds of things from bananas, to pumpkin, to corn, to tomatoes, to watermelon!  It’s amazing how fast and how well things grow here...good volcanic soil you know...haha! :)

We called on Ali, our brother who lives next door, to come and chop down our tree...he is better with a machete than me and Corinna combined...haha!

We held a neighborhood block party in our backyard following the felling of our banana tree :)  It was great to get to sit down with our local family on our turf and share a meal that we were able to give thanks for in the local language.  It was such a fun time and gave us the opportunity to play “host” for those neighbors who have been SO hospitable to us!

Our party had a special holiday meal type feel.  It came complete with fried bananas, fried cassava, grilled chicken wings, sodas, and of course the local hot sauce!  Delicious!

Me, Lesley, and Anna took a quick trip to the "big island" to visit the ATM and do a little grocery shopping.  It's 20 miles between our islands...by glorified row boat with two motors it's a 1.5-2 hour ride across the Indian Ocean...haha!  It's like being at Water World for next to nothing...haha!

Here are some of our groceries:  Real Hamburgers with cheddar cheese!!!

Real Hotdogs on homemade buns!

We had a two day team retreat on the south side of the island.  My mom had sent a birthday package which included stuff for smores, so I talked the boys on the team into helping me construct a bonfire on the beach.  We sat by the ocean roasting marshmallows and reminiscing about old campfire stories and teaching the Commonwealth team members what a smore is and how to eat it..:)

I am now a quarter of a century old...for the first time in my life, I feel old...I was graciously told by my older teammates that I should get used to the feeling.  The other three single ladies celebrated with me.  Corinna made a delicious chocolate cake with strawberry jam in the middle! :)  And they agreed to suffer through my movie choice..."The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"  Haha!  It's never too early to get into the Christmas spirit :)

Corinna, my housemate, gave me a beautiful rolling board and pin and two purple coffee cups :)  I love it!  I'm making homemade tortillas tonight!

Continuing on with the birthday celebration, we decided to create an oven on our stove top.  Theoretically, you buy a very large pot and a medium pot to go inside.  You elevate the medium pot with sardine cans, rocks, corral, or whatever is available...Everything was fine until the pot started to smoke aggressively.  As we removed the large pot from the stove we discovered that we had managed to burn our way through the pot...it wasn't a total failure though...

We successfully cooked pizza before we lost the pot :)  All in all it was a great birthday!  It was quite different from any other birthday that I've had, but it is one I will not soon forget! :)

The Flavors of Life

Did you know that you can make pumpkin pie from scratch...haha!  My housemate, Corinna, is from Australia and she didn't know that you can buy pumpkin in a can...weird...:)  Well, we bought a pumpkin the other day and we've been eating it for days: pumpkin soup cooked in coconut milk, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin and beans, and pumpkin bread...it was a big pumpkin :)  It's been fun learning how many ways you can eat pumpkin!

Here is Ginger curled up in the dust pan...it can't be comfortable, but he sleeps there often :)

There have been many wedding dances lately.  A wedding here usually lasts for up to two week.  The first week is full of fried bread making by the women.  Then the wedding happens on a Friday and almost everyday after that for the next week there is at least one dance a night...they don't usually start until 9 or 10PM and they turn the speakers up loud enough that the next village can hear the celebration.  Most of these dances have been happening a few yards down the street from my and Corinna's house...:)  We've gone to a few of the wedding dances mostly to take pictures for friends.  This is Mama Hannah.  She is our next door neighbor and a joy to hang out with :)

This is Mama Hannah's sister  Zoey.  She is all dressed up having come from one of the many wedding dances.  My friends love getting their picture taken when they are all dolled up :)

This dance is called the Ngoma Nyombe, "the dance of the cow."  This is a man's dance where women dance into the circle and place a lei of jasmine flowers around a man's neck...hence why I am watching from a distance :)  It's called the dance of the cow, because they tie a cow right next to the speaker.  Sometimes at the end of the dance they will let the cow run through the street and chase people and other times they slaughter the cow and have a big feast.

Daisy helped me cook the other night.  Can I say that I think headlights are quite possibly one of the awesomest inventions for those who live in places with limited electricity!  I love it!

We cooked rice over our newly created firepit!  Our grill grate is made out of wielded re-bar...it was so fun!

We also grilled/roasted/smoked chicken...I was so proud I cried, then again I may have been crying because of all the smoke in my eyes :)  But the chicken was pretty amazing too!

Visiting the Mainland

Here's Mt. Kilimanjaro as seen from the airplane window while flying to Kenya.

Welcome to Kenya!  This is one of my teammates going through immigration...notice the sign above his head,  "Kenyan Citizens Only"  Haha!

This is the upper half of the mountain we climbed for one of our Saturday activities

Stopping to smell the flowers on the way up :)

In the spirit of Julie Andrews, "Climb every mountain..."

These are some friends I met on top of the mountain...I discovered that they really like Fanta

Chaco dirt lines following in the hike :)

We went on safari for a day...the monkeys were cracking me up...they really enjoying groom each other...haha!

Off-roading :)

If you look closely you can see the zebras :)

Look Mom it's a giraffe!

The internet cafe was out in the field beside the dorm where we stayed during our training conference

I was on the decoration committee for the big dinner following the conference...I was in charge of building the fire

We went with a survivor theme for the dinner :)  These girls are quite the artists!  I really enjoyed getting to know them!

This was taken at Rift Valley Academy...the entire campus was beautiful, this is just a taste

A view of the Rift Valley in Kenya...so beautiful, the picture doesn't do it justice, but it's all I got :)

Welcome to Tenwek Hospital, their sign says, "We treat Jesus Heals" 

This is one of the original buildings at Tenwek

I had the privilege of touring the Tenwek School of Nursing.  I was very impressed with the organization and the fact that their nurses are triple qualified with general nursing, midwifery, and community health.

This is the sign outside of the Tenwek Hospital ER departement.  Emergency Rooms in Africa and the UK apparently don't give their patients much hope...haha!