Skip to main content

Crazy Saturday morning, wonderful Saturday day

I woke up this morning to meowing, barking, and the house trying to implode.

Okay, okay so the meowing was the ringtone of Danielle's Kenyan phone, the barking was actually a dog (Emma), and the imploding house was really just a compo of Emma (dog) slamming herself against the laundry room door and two Kenyan women knocking forcefully on the locked back door, determined to sell us stuff…. at 8:30am on a Saturday morning.  Funsies. My just-woke-up-to-chaos brain was only more confused when I answered Danielle's phone to find another lady rambling loudly at me in Swahili. I answered in confused English, she replied in confused, rapid Swahili. Great.

The morning finally settled out as I read some emails from our host family about the house (such as what to do with barking dog, how to unlock doors, what time Aidah the house-sitter would come by) and woke up enough to process things. At this point, Aidah the house-sitter appeared at the door (which I now knew how to unlock!), entered with soft-spoken greetings, and began cleaning the house. With Aidah doing her thing and with absolutely nothing planned for the day before lunch, I dragged myself back up to bed. Mmm warmth.

Danielle and I finally woke up around 11 to gather laundry (which Aidah offered to do for us - Thanks Kenya mom!) and head up to Rift Valley Academy for lunch. The only thing on the rest of the day's scheduled was resting.

The day's highlights include:

  • Racing up the hill to Rift Valley Academy (RVA) for lunch and finding salad… oh also cucumbers… and potato chips. #WorthIt?
  • The RVA gate guard either misunderstanding us or just having some fun with us and sending us in the OPPOSITE direction of the cafeteria. Fun trick, Africa.
  • Napping. napping. napping.
  • Reading (at the Letchford's, we have found 4 bookshelves full of books... I'm wearily encouraged that doctors really have this much time to read.)
  • Finding the Letchford wifi (I hope I was supposed to…)
  • Video chat with mi madre for her birthday
  • Crock-pot dinner stew made by Aidah
  • Meeting more neighbors: a houseful of nursing and med students also in Kijabe helping out at the hospital. After creeping around their house trying to figure out how to get in, we shared some laughter and made nice connections with some people who will be around the next week when Danielle and I return to shadow.


Road up to the Letchford's house (aka mini paradise) 

View from the Letchford's porch (also mini-paradise)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Getting ready for take off...

So its the night before I leave on a grand month-long adventure to Kenya.  In less than 24 hours I will be in London. Craziness. I keep trying to go through everything in my head: Do I have it all packed? Do I have the too much stuff packed? Did I forget to do something before I leave the country? My malaria meds are in that one bag... The sunscreen is in there too... My passport still hasn't disappeared from my backpack no mater how many times I frantically check for it... Okay, I think I'm good.  I'm definitely not worried about the trip itself, actually being in Kenya and all. In fact, I'm pretty dang excited. I think I'm mostly worried about packing the right things, if you couldn't tell already. My clothes and stuff is split between one check bag and one carry-on duffle bag with some wiggle room in each for Wheels equipment. I hope my duffle bag meets the carry-on measurements. I should probably look for that online...  The team is meeting tomor...

Ecuador!

The posts may have stopped for a while but the beat of a traveling heart continues!  This past December, a t the beginning of winter break, I traveled to Ecuador with my father, my head pastor, and another pastor from my home church: International Full Gospel Fellowship (IFGF) of Austin, TX.  My time in Ecuador was very beautiful very fast! Three different cities in three days plus a day on either side of travel time.    I never realized how diverse the country of Ecuador is! Imagine beach, jungle, and mountain climates scattered with villages, towns and cities that are filled with over 21 different ethnic groups. The capital, Quito, has a population of around 2 million people.  W e enjoyed some wonderful food on our trip, which included fire roasted tilapia wrapped in banana tree leaves, armadillo meat, and roasted palm tree weevil larvae. The purpose of this journey was not, unfortunately, to eat but to conduct training se...

Run Data Run - Joytown (Half)Day 12

A quick and uneventful day today as we spent the afternoon "home" at SACDEP to finish spreadsheets and crunch data into graphs and meaningful information. The team headed to Joytown in the morning like normal for devotionals, which were led by Nicole and I. We focused on 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 and each shared on the idea of Christ's (God's) power being made perfect in our weakness. Nicole expressed how focusing on self iniquities goes nowhere but that serving others brings joy and growth. I shared the Parable of the Cracked Pot which basically expresses the idea that we do not need to be perfect to fulfill God's will and serve others. In fact, God uses our specific weaknesses/cracks for good. We really are all crack pots… :) The rest of the morning we double checked student demographic information with the Bethany Kids therapists then headed back to SACDEP for a home-base day of working on spreadsheets and stuff. Other events from the "uneventful...