The Best Package in the History of Ever

Sabbath was a GOOD day! I knew that a package was being dropped off for me that day, but in my head, I was picturing a little medium-ish sized flat rate box limited to the few small things that could possibly fit inside. Boy, was I wrong! (again!) 

When Derek, and another man I didn't know, approached me in the lunch line, I knew it was about my package. When he opened up his car and pulled out something that was closer in resemblance to an apple crate than a shoebox, I was floored! I couldn't stop smiling, all the way back to the lunch line. Everyone was super impressed that I didn't rip into it right away, but I knew I couldn't open it. Not yet anyway. Such a beautiful package from home contained so much promise. All through lunch, I couldn't bear the thought of reducing the possibilities that the box could contain to the reality of what was actually there. I wanted to savor my one and only package from home for as long as possible!

After everyone had finished eating, I took my package back to the house to unwrap it. Tanzi, Katie, and Macy were all there to watch the magic unfold. Turns out, what was in the package was beyond anything and everything I had imagined! From fig newtons, a brand new sleeping bag (that's right! no more blanket camping for this girl!), down to pens and ziplock bags, absolutely everything in the package was perfect! As Tanzi said, "I think that's the best package I've ever seen in my life!"

Some of my favorite things inside the box were letters from my Sabbath school class. It's amazing how little slips of paper can make such a huge difference!

Tanzi took my camera and caught a few of my faces/reactions in both pictures and a video. 

FIG NEWTONS!

I definitely cried.

Jacqui's Blog

Being a missionary is more than feeding the hungry  Serving people is more than healing the sick. The hands and feet of Jesus are not reserved solely for the physically impoverished. It might not be the most glamorous, but this is the mission work we are doing here in Kenya.

This is one of Jacqui's experiences from last week:

Today,

the freshmen had their Unit 1 Math Test. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon grading it. When Josh came in for study hall, he asked me to grade his test so he could know his score. He told me he was scared that he failed. I graded it and found out that he got 40%. There’s something you need to know about Josh. He tries so hard to do well in school, but he doesn’t always understand everything. I’ve been helping him a lot with math and he knows how to do most things, but he’s very unsure. He told me last night that his mom told him to study for 4 hours for this test, and I told him that that should help him do well. When I showed him what he got, his face dropped. I could tell that he was feeling really down and unhappy with himself. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, so I just prayed that I would have the words to say, but I was putting it off. I continued grading and he moved to the computer. After a few minutes, he asked me to look at his screen and written in a word document was “Sorry God for I have sinned. Sorry miss jacque for I have sinned.” I was shocked. At first, I almost yelled out “WHAT,” but then I calmly asked him to come and sit by me so that we could have a talk. ”Oh no…” he said. I took a piece of paper and I wrote on top of it “Things that Josh is good at” and underlined it. I explained to him that school and grades are very important, but they are not the most important thing in life. We started thinking of what to put under the list and it looked something like this:

Things that Josh is good at:

- biology
- bible
- typing
- soccer
- basketball
- volleyball
- making new friends
- being positive
- helping people
- singings
- saxophone
- working hard
- trying his best

There was more on the list but I can’t remember everything. ”What a LONG list!” I said, “Now let’s make another one.” He then told me three things to put on this list.

Things that Josh is not so good at:

- Math
- English
- Health

And that is all he could think of. I showed him how big the first list was compared to the second one. At the bottom of the page I wrote: And God LOVES him (no matter what).

I told him to keep this piece of paper and look at it whenever he’s feeling down. I also told him that as long as he tries his best, I will be proud of him. Josh is such an incredible kid. It broke my heart to see him thinking he had sinned by failing a math test.

Lake Baringo - Long Weekend Camping Trip

This past weekend was team A's first long weekend off, and we were all excited! When we were trying to decide where to go, the Mara was an option, but the SMs weren't sure if we would have our residency before we left. Instead of taking a gamble on our passports being stamped, we decided to take a trip up to the northern hemisphere and camp at Lake Baringo.

We packed up friday morning, and a five-hour car ride later, we arrived to find a very flooded campsite. Turns out that the water hasn't been this high since the 1960s! Because of all the high water, the restaurant and pool we were planning on going to both ended up being partially submerged. It started raining when we tried to set up camp, and with only one hammock rain fly and four hammocks to set up, we got creative. About an hour later, we had a monument to the hammock that ended up working quite well! We definitely attracted a lot of attention for it. Turns out hammocks aren't as popular here as they are in the states.

Our campsite was just a few feet away from the water where we saw several hippos, monitor lizards, monkeys, a crocodile, and an abundance of birds! It was a fabulous weekend for watching wildlife. We took an early morning bird watching boat ride on sabbath where we fed both eagles and crocodiles.

The rest of the trip was spent relaxing at camp with dinner at the Thirsty Goat restaurant (dubbed the hairy goat shortly after arriving), walks down the main road, and lots of laughter had by all. It was definitely an absolutely wonderful weekend!

(all photos are from Keith's camera except the last one)

Team A SMs and the Raymonds

Our Shrine to hammocking 

The campsite

Our early morning birdwatching boat ride 

We stopped and took a picture at the equator. Awkward family photo material.

Sunrise

Residency

Guess who is now an OFFICIAL resident of Kenya?

That's right! This girl! :D

Neema

On Thursday, Maxwell Adventist Academy lost one of our senior girls. Neema had sickle cell anemia, and had been in the hospital since the beginning of the week with an infection. At staff worship, the staff were told that she was doing better, and was expected to be back at home, or on campus, around Saturday. Macy, Tanzi, and I were all sitting in the library office when Mrs V came in, not 30 minutes after worship, saying that Neema was gone. Immediately my heart felt sick. Even though Neema had been one of my senior chemistry lab students, it wasn't until that Thursday that I finally put the correct face with her name. My chemistry lab meets only once a week (if that) and since they don't give me as much trouble as the other classes, I've still been working on getting everyones names and faces straightened out. Even though my memories of Neema were few, the reality of her death stunned me.

When the three of us emerged from the library office, the campus was eerily quiet. As the students filed into the chapel, not one of them said a word. After giving the news to the whole student body, the rest of the school day was canceled. Students found comfort in different ways, and I, along with a group of students and staff, stayed in the chapel and sang hymns. 

Jacqui captured how we were all feeling:

October 18

Now all I see is your face and your smile

A quiet reminder that we’re here just a while

And life is a fragile, dangerous thing

When you think of the pain and injustice it brings

When death shows us his disfigured face

It causes us sorrow, we start losing our faith

But really it’s placing us a little bit closer

To joining our creator, our heavenly father

Death, where is your power? 

You prowl around

seeking to devour

But we have a power much greater than yours,

we have a king who loves and restores

And on that day when he finally returns,

we will watch as your reign

crumbles and burns

For we are not subjects of your wrathful hand,

with GOD on our side we have courage

to stand

To the grave,

I’m not scared, you can roar all you like

And when it’s my turn, I won’t even fight

When you come to me, when you take my last breath

I will see the face of the one who conquered death

BEST. DAY. EVER.

It seems like Wednesday is becoming an unofficial blogging day, and I don't mind one bit! That's mostly because Wednesdays are always super exciting and have a bunch of great down time packed in for good measure.

Today didn't start out looking all that promising. In addition to my regularly scheduled recorder class at the elementary and biology class with the freshmen, Mr R asked me to teach senior physics as well. Because of PSATs, Mr R was busy all morning proctoring, so yesterday I started looking over his textbook and started preparing to talk about force diagrams and friction for 40 minutes. Despite all of my dreading, when I started talking to the four seniors who are in the physics class, everything flowed beautifully! The students seemed to enjoy what we were talking about, and were very involved throughout the class. I came out of that room completely pumped and excited about teaching! I'm pretty sure that worked in my favor, because my very next class was recorders at the elementary. My main problem down there is classroom management. That and learning all the kids names. Thanks to the dobaz (book of all the pictures and names of students and faculty) I now have a way to study their names. I only had about three more names down than I did on Monday, but even those few names made a huge difference! I came out of recorder class practically floating (and that's saying something!). 

The afternoon didn't begin looking all that promising either. The other SMs spend yesterday afternoon exploring, but even after hearing about their adventures, Jacqui and I decided to play it safe and simply make a stop at the Gallaria Nakumatt. What we both had very much on our minds as we entered the mall was the cereal we had found last week. I had little hope of finding it again for the same price, but even so I was disappointed after we both spent several minutes scouring the cereal isle and had nothing to show for it. While I was still dragging my eyes over the shelves of cereals one last time, Jacqui called to me from the bargain table at the end of the isle, "It's here!" Not only had she found the cereal, but she had found a whopping eight boxes worth of it! It less than 10 seconds, each of us had four boxes each in our baskets. Success! 

SO excited! Eight perfect boxes of chocolatey hazelnutty goodness!

By the time we were done at Nakumatt, and Jacqui had eaten her frozen yogurt (I finally resisted this week), it was only 2:30. Neither of us wanted to make an appearance on campus that early in the afternoon, and with our spirits now very high thanks to eight boxes of chocolate hazelnutty goodness stashed safely in the school van, we decided to do some exploring of our own.

I started driving towards Karen with only a vague idea of which road the rest of the SMs had taken the day before. Once we veered off our beaten path, we started to see lots of signs for all sorts of amazing places. We found a spa with Jacqui's name on it, a place that recycles old flip-flops into crazy sculptures, and the Kazuri bead factory where we took a tour with a group of mzungu. Definitely one crazy awesome day!

We found Jacqui's studio! 

My obsession. This little bracelet cost as much as FOUR boxes of cereal! Disappointment.

Best. Day. Ever.

(all photos from Jacqui's Instagram)

Rumors

Rumors have been flying around campus faster than the flying termites which are now emerging (thanks rainy season). Rumors about work permits that are paid for and may or may not be here for long weekend, rumors about the arrival of a girls dean before Christmas, and rumors about job descriptions for next semester. All these rumors hopefully have some truth behind them.

Rain

Well, after three straight days of rainy afternoons and evenings, I think it's safe to say that rainy season here in Kenya has officially begun. 

A Very Interesting Wednesday

So this morning was my turn to speak for week of prayer. The theme this week is "Glimpses of God" and my topic was Leader. All week we've had two meetings led by the SMs and some of the spiritual committee students. Every single speaker has been a blessing. I told the story of how I was led to Guyana (read the story here) and I think it went really well! Definitely an answer to prayer.

After lunch, Jacqui and I set out for our second town trip to Matumbas. We were only going there to pick up our "bananas" aka our African dresses, but the trip still ended up being eventful! I drove the whole way, which I'm actually really enjoying! I never thought that I would look forward to driving on the left side of the road with crazy matatus everywhere, but I do. That's been one of the blessings of having a separate town trip day. If I was with the other SMs, my chances of driving regularly with Tanzi and Keith in the car would have been slim.

On the way, we experienced some of the slowest traffic I can remember! First, a lady stuck her head out of the matatu window in front of us and started throwing up. Gross. Then, while I was trying to watch the road, out of the corner of my eye I saw a bunch of people running again. The last time I saw that, it ended up being a riot, so I was not thrilled at the prospects of another one. It turned out to be the collision of a car and a matatu.

Once we finally arrived at matumbas, we made a beeline for our dresses. On the way, we saw a guy walking toward us pull out his iphone and start taking pictures of us. This is not all that uncommon, and has actually happened to me before, but today, the guy who was taking the pictures was white and definitely looked like a tourist! Creepy. Jacqui and I were very confused. The only explanation we came up with is that we will shortly be the newest meme on the internet: "blending in, you're doing it wrong."

After successfully acquiring our african dresses, we headed off to Gallaria for froyo and Nakumatt. I successfully created my cheapest froyo yet; peanut butter chocolate topped with slivers of almonds. Yum! Then at Nakumatt, I had my best find of the day! We were in the cereal isle grabbing Jacqui's cheap sugar flakes (roughly 195 KSH) when on the way out, I saw that the cereal I had been drooling over for a month (previously over 600 KSH and completely not worth it) was now down to the incredible price of 200 schillings! Craziness! I definitely picked up two boxes... :)

My super awesome find!

Gratitude lately (according to instagram)

Recently, I've been overwhelmed with gratitude. There are so many things that I am thankful for, but these are some highlights.

Weather that makes heating and air conditioning completely unnecessary

Hot water in less than 30 minutes 

Side by side outlets

Ginger beer that knocks your socks off

Internet in every room

The most amazing friends I could ever ask for

Letters from home to brighten my day

My two favorite books in the whole world

Warm fuzzies to fill my empty mailbox

A library offices that holds twice as much joy and laughter than it does people

Lake Magadi

Yesterday I visited the Africa that most of my extended family and friends were sure I was going to in the first place. Team A SMs plus Derek descended from our cushy, almost 6,000 ft, elevation and drove down to Lake Magadi. The change between Maxwell and Magadi, only a two hour drive apart, stunned me. Keith said it was a lot like hell, or at least very close to common perceptions of it. It's incredibly hot, it smells like sulfur, there's not much water, and the water that is there is undrinkable. A definite far cry from the paradise I call home.

To be fair, I had a great time! Watching Keith, Tanzi, and Derek crawl into 114 degree water was very entertaining! (I only got in to my ankles before calling it quits). The birds were also incredible! I saw my first wild flamingo (since SeaWorld doesn't count), as well as a bunch of other birds I couldn't identify. We saw zebra too, but what they were doing there, I'm not quite sure. While the wildlife was good, my favorite thing we saw were a group of Masai ladies who came up to where we were parked. After rinsing ourselves off with the jugs of water we brought, we offered the rest to the women gathered around. We filled their jugs and dumped water on their heads. Even though we didn't buy anything they were selling, I think everyone enjoyed the encounter. They tried to teach us some words, and we tried to take some pictures. (Neither party was very successful)

On the way back, we had the top of the car open, which is great for breezes, but also great for direct sunlight. Thanks to my shorts, I got my second lovely tan line of the year (the first being the trapezoid emblazoned on my chest). I walked into the girls dorm last night, and all the girls were commenting on my burn. I think they were just jealous.

My pretty epic sunburn #2. Can you see it?