Guess what this lady is selling?

If you look closely, you can try and figure out what this lady is selling in the wooden box. It is edible and is a bit of a  delicacy here. 

It's called matumbo

aka. Intestines. 

Yummy. 

Kanyariri School

Last thursday we travelled about 100m down the road from our compound to a local school called Kanyariri. Most schools here have a Christian Union that meet once a week to share, be encouraged, learn from God's word, worship and so on. We often go visit these meetings bringing along skits, mimes,  and songs which portray a biblical message. I have never been one to act or really sing but I have to say that I love these outings. Some skits can be very powerful and really teach the students a lot. Singing songs of worship just melts my soul. I love it. I love being with the students loving on them and encouraging them in their faith.

Our ring leader, Makau, decided to sit amongst the students. He blends right in. 

This is one of my classmates, Joseph.

Peter was preparing to speak to the students today. He actually used to go to this school and was the chairman of the Christian Union. The group was excited to see him again. However, the rain put a bit of a damper on his preaching. It started raining so hard that you couldn't hear him over the sound of the the rain pelting on the tin roof. So we decided to sing! It was joyful! Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain. It was a great time of unexpected, unscheduled worship of our king. 

Eventually the rain did stop and we were able to continue our lesson from James 1 which encourages us to be joyful during times of trial. The rain was an unexpected trial but resulted in great joy!

Daily Discoveries

I learn new things every day that always fascinate me and often give me a good chuckle. I love sitting with my classmates and chatting about their lives. Here are a few conversations I had this week:

Me: "Sammy, when was the last time you cried?"
Sammy: "When I was 8 years old."
Me:"Oh, what happened?"
Sammy: "I was biten by a donkey on my leg."


Loma: "Nikole what is the weather like in Canada right now?"
Me:"Actually it is very cold. This is our cold season. We usually have lots of snow."
Loma:"Oh I think I would like that."
Me:"Yes, but Loma its very cold. If you think Kabete is cold, you would hate Canada."
Loma:"Yes, but then I could just keep my meat outside in the snow so that it would not go bad quickly like it does here."
Me: "Well that's why we have fridges so we don't have to keep it outside in the snow."
Loma:"Well why not? It would save you from having to buy a fridge and pay electricity."
Me:"Ha, sure I guess that does make sense."

Me:"James, let's practice our memory verses."
James: "Ok, 1 Peter 5:7 'Cast all your cares on him because he scares you."
Me:"Uh, James, thats not right."
James:"yes it is, yes it is."
Me:"No, its because he cares for you not because he scares you."

I love my classmates.

Kayole

Yesterday we spent the day at a church on the other side of town. Often we are asked to come and preach or sing or act for local churches so yesterday we, the singing team, drove across town, through the slums to attend a service in Kayole. This church really touched me. First of all it is in the middle of a slum and it's painted bright blue. Then it is filled with children and youth as it is associated with a school.  The service was full of excitement. I was smiling the whole time as the entire congregation belted out swahili chorus' and moved their entire bodies to the beat of the keyboard. 

We were able to sing 3 different songs to the church. In Kenyan churches they often spend a considerable amount of time inviting various choirs and individuals to come and share a song or two. Often this can last for more than half the service.

My lovely classmate Rebbea made a small friend.

Our eyes we close, our heads we bow and time to pray!

It was a long and hot service but I loved every minute of it. The children thoroughly enjoyed having a white person around who was willing to play with them. At one point, I noticed that I had an entire following of children who were sitting around me as I stood outside listening to the sermon. It was precious. 

Resurrecting Pastors?

This story was in tuesday's newspaper. When I heard this, I was not completely shocked. People do funny things in the name of Christ but they seem to not really know who He is.

To summarize this article for you, two pastors of a certain church in Nakuru died in a car accident last week. The church came together and decided to hold big prayer meetings to resurrect the two dead pastors. I am not sure where they got this idea. They said that with faith anything can happen which the bible does say. They said that if Ezekiel, an Old Testament prophet, spoke to dry bones and they came back to life then even today's christians can do the same. Hmph. Funny teaching but big faith. They were hoping that during the prayer sessions was when the pastor's would resurrect but it didn't happen. They resorted to shaking the coffin and were encouraged to become more emotional. In the end they decided to burry the bodies today if they hadn't resurrected today.

I hate to say this, but this doesn't surprise with churches here in Kenya. There are some funny things going on in churches here. This country claims to be 80% Christian. I am pretty sure that if 80% of the population were true believers in Christ, they would not have been slaughtering each other in 2007. It's sad to say that many preachers don't teach the entire gospel. The prosperity gospel or the shortcut gospel are usually preached. Kenyans tend to want instant results. They seek instant healing or money rather than seeking Christ. Ultimately they are all looking for the truth, for hope, for happiness just like everyone else. They seem to just be looking in the wrong places.

My Favourite Moments of the week

I love this picture as it shows the hearts of the boys. They are huddled together in a word of prayer before they started their game last thursday.

In Kenya there is no such thing as personal space especially when it comes to vehicles. There are no rules. You just fit as many people as you can. Here are 3 of the boys squeezed in the back of a tiny tiny car. The poor boys are tall too. They were such troopers. I usually get front seat since when cops see me they don't stop us. Sometimes it pays to be white.

On sundays we go into the city and often end up at this mall to get ice cream. This mall has escalators and 2 glass elevators. It's funny because many of us had never tried an escalator before so they were quite nervous. This is Gabriel, one of my classmates. This was his first time in an elevator let alone a glass one. We went up and down several times as if it was a ride. He thoroughly enjoyed. He was a brave one. Some of the other boys wouldn't dare get in with me.

Our first football match

On thursday, our boys played their first football match against a team from a local slum. It was so much fun to see them play intense and watch them show all their best moves. My boys took the victory 2-1! It was a fun afternoon. 

Here is my football superstar Peter.

The fans were rowdy! 

This is our newest fan, Baby Theo. He was born the same day I arrived. His father is one of our teachers and plays on the team. Memo (pronounced Nemo with an M) is mama Theo. The girls have bible study with her on tuesdays and we love it. It is the highlight of our week. We love Theo and Mama Theo!

We are the champions! 

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines day was an exciting event here on the campus. We had been waiting for weeks for this day constantly wondering which boy would ask us to be their valentines. We have a funny ratio of 1 girl to 3 boys so technically we could have had 3 dates. We had a few tables set out and the girls were told to spread out and allow boys to sit where they choose. It worked out well and I got to sit with a lovely family who work here on the property. They have the most adorable twin boys who I call my boyfriends (just to get a rise out of them). Anyways it was an amazing night with AMAZING food! I can’t praise our chef enough.

These boys came and volunteered to serve and wait on us. As you can see, we had an abundance of food. I was especially excited for the watermelon! I don’t think many people liked it, which was good for me. I must have scarfed half of it down myself.

Here we are, the fabulous girls. I have to admit, they looked gorgeous. They made the boys go crazy.

If I had to choose a date, I would have choosen Peter by far. I can’t tell you how much I adore this young man. Our first day, we sat beside each other while eating supper and he proceeded to tell me jokes which were honestly not that funny. 4 weeks later, he is a brother. He has an amazing heart. He just inspires goodness in everyone. He doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. He is very mature for just finishing high school. He is an absolute delight to be around. And you can’t tell in this picture, but he is tall! He must be at least 6’4. He is also one of our star soccer players.

Meet Makau (pronounced ma-cow). He is our bible school registrar/mentor/counselor/teacher/friend. He picked me up from the airport when I arrived 4 weeks ago and has been a great friend to me. He is often the one to lift my spirits when I am having a rough day or take me out for ice cream if I am craving some food other than rice and beans. He has made these last 4 weeks extremely enjoyable for me.

We girls were each given a beautiful rose. Rahab gave me hers since she hates flowers and thinks they are nothing more than weeds! The only problem was that we couldn’t find a vase to put them in so we improvised with a water jug where they sit in the middle of the room.

All in all, it was a lovely evening. It was a treat to get good food, great company and chance to celebrate loving others and the Jesus’ abundant love for us!

One of these things just doesn't belong

Half a cow

For some reason, cows really fascinate me. I find them so interesting with the funny things they do and how they are such a part of life here. They are often tied up around the compound during the day to feed on the grass. They stand there all day just watching the world go by. Last week, one of them thought that my favourite sweater was something yummy to eat and so he pulled it off the line and began to chomp on it. Luckily, he didn't think it was very tasty and didn't do much damage to it. I washed it thoroughly, stitched up the two small holes and it was good to go. 

I walked into the kitchen the other day only to find a huge carcass of a cow. The chef had literally bought half a cow. He got two legs and the left ribs which also included the heart. It was huge! I guess I am so used to steak nicely cut and packaged ready to be bought in the supermarkets. Here you get everything except the skin. So it took till late at night to chop it all up and prepare it to be eaten. The whole thing cost less than $200 and will feed us 25 people for the next two weeks. I think its a pretty good deal. Here is our chef, Sylvester "de-boning" it. I just need to say that Sylvester is an amazing chef! He loves little details so often I find pineapple in the coleslaw or cinnamon in the chapattis. These are things that are foreign to most kenyans. My favourite food he makes are hamburgers. They are so juicy and full of flavour. I think he needs to sell the recipe to MacDonalds. 

Chef Rahab is not really a chef but helps out when it is chapatti day. It is a lot of work but she's the master. She is such a hoot and even dresses the part. I can't tell you how much I love this girl. 

I have enjoyed playing our evening football (soccer) games although at times I can get discouraged because I can be more of an obstacle than an asset. But I love watching the boys play. I have never seen boys play like this before with all the fancy footwork and aggressive play. Some of them don't even have proper shoes. We have one guy who wears about 4 socks on both feet to play. 

If they don't have "soccer boots", which we call cleats, they play in simple rubber shoes or barefoot.

 

This cute little boy came to watch the big boys play.

Today was my first afternoon off since I arrived. I have not had a big chunk of time to just relax since I got here. It's been a good time catch up on emails, reading, and laundry. This is my washing machine. 

Washing is getting easier for me and I am getting quite fast at it. I washed half of my clothes today and then went outside to put them on the line to dry. Just as I got back inside, it started to rain so I ran outside and pulled them all off the line again. I hurried inside and hung them up around my room. As soon as they were placed nicely in my room, it stopped raining. So I packed them all up headed outside to hang them all up once again. It hasn't rained since so they are hanging outside nicely drying.

I am ready to start a new week now. Last week was tough as I was getting quite tired and antsy and really needing a break. I am praying that this week will be more energetic and joyful. I am loving what I am learning. We started the topic of African Traditional Religion. It's a really fascinating topic and very relevant today in Kenya. As much as many kenyans claim to be Christian, many of them still resort to traditional practices like witchcraft. It hurts to see so many people fall into these funny practices. In Tanzania, they have a big problem with murdering albinos. Albino body parts are high on demand in witchcraft circles. Continue to pray for these funny yet very real practices here.

Life on the compound

These are my two roomies Rahab and Tswilah. 

Here are some of the boys Defense, Jack and Benson. We were getting ready to leave for an afternoon at a bible study at Limuru Girls School. It was a great afternoon.

And this is little Micah and Michal. They are twin sons of one of the maintenance guys here on the compound. They look cute but if you get too close, they will attack. Here, Loma decided to play but they started attacking her with a dead palm leaf.

Life here is never boring here. We played with a gigantic slug this morning before class. It was interesting. There is always someone to talk to or at the least, a cow. The birds are always chirping. The sun is always shining. Its Wonderful! 

The Girls!

We have 21 students in our class. 15 boys and only 6 girls. My days are surrounded by boys, boys, boys. I do love the boys; they are wonderful young men but my heart delights being around girls. So I want you to meet my new sisters for the next 3 months. From left to right is Rebbea, Rahab, Faith, Loma, and Tswilah. Aren't they beautiful? The boys are already fighting over them to be their valentines dates.

Becoming a real missionary

Kenya is one of the most missionary-populated countries in all of Africa. There are few places in Kenya where you won’t find a missionary. Sometimes I questions why I am here knowing that there is already so much work going on here but then I am reminded that God indeed led me here for a purpose.

Somehow we have made the missionary life look glamorous. We drive around in our big range rovers or land rovers (there is quite the debate over which car is better), we live in some of the nicest houses in town, we eat our comfort food like pizza and ice cream, we only shop at the local supermarkets, we have washing machines and water coolers, we let our kids go to the best schools in the country, we fly instead of taking the bus, we get pedicures and manicures, and we never do anything for ourselves as we have maids and guards to do everything for us.

I won’t lie; I am guilty of living this lifestyle too. Some of the nicest places I have ever lived in are here in Kenya. I enjoy not having to wash my own clothes or clean my own house. I like being able to get an ice cream cone for less than $1. My life is good here.

I have been having some interesting conversations with some Kenyan friends of mine over the past few days about missionaries. Unfortunately, they have some pretty negative views about the way we live here. We often come and live comfortably while staying away from the places that need our resources and us most. Many of us tend to interact with each other more than the Kenyans. You find us at the local pizza joint rather than in the slums eating maize and beans. We come and think that we are making huge sacrifices to be here. I tried explaining to my friends how much we actually do sacrifice to come here but I did not win that argument. My friend said to me, “you come to preach the good news to the poor but I never see any missionary in the ghetto where the poorest of the poor live.” He made a good point. There are many Kenyans who are missionaries too who are supported by churches in the west. They often live better lives than top business people here in Kenya.

It really made me think of what kind of missionary I want to be. It made me think of the people I want to reach. If I want to reach these people, I need to become like them and take on their way of life. Why should I pretend like I am reaching them when in actuality I am just coming close but not too close lest I be uncomfortable? But part of me doesn’t want to give up my comfy and privileged life. I don’t want to live in the slums. And what about my safety? Or my health? I cannot drink the water here or I could get sick.

So I am challenged. What sort of missionary should I be? More than that, what kind of missionary does God want me to be? What kind of life does He want me to live in order to reach those who need to be reached? If I am His hands and His feet, whom does He want me to touch and where does He want me to walk?

After numerous conversations, my friend said to me, “Nikole, just become a real missionary…”

Give us clean hands

“He who has clean hands…He will receive blessing from the Lord”  Psalms 24:4-5

Ok, so I kind of butchered that verse and took it a wee bit out of context but I need clean hands. Literally. We all do. Every afternoon we have to work on the compound for two and a half hours. This means pulling weeds, digging, slashing or, if you are lucky, cleaning. Yes, the lucky ones get to clean as in mop, dust, sweep, wash the cars, etc. Those are the jobs where your hands don’t hurt for days afterwards. Yesterday I spent my day pulling weeds. These aren’t tiny garden weeds that we find at home; they are huge weeds up to your knees. After two hours, I had three blisters that had popped, a couple small cuts, and dirt in the depths of the wrinkles on my hands. I have had two showers and still haven’t gotten all the dirt off my hands.

I thought it was just my poor, precious, fragile mzungu (white person) hands but when I look at everyone else’s hands, they are just the same and some are even worse. We are all feeling it. I have used more band-aids in the past week than I have in the last 2 years.

However, one of my classmates said to me yesterday, “Nikole, I don’t know where the myth came from that mzungus are weak because you are much stronger than I am. I admire that.”

How many people can you count?

How many did you get? Well there are 19 people crammed in that photo. Some of them you can’t see cause they’re sitting under someone or on the floor. We went for an outing on Sunday and the only way we could get there was by our van. So we crammed all of us 18 students plus 4 more staff. It is a dusty, bumpy road so there were lots of laughs as everyone banged into each other. Needless to say, our personal body bubbles were popped. 

I want to introduce to you my dear friend Rahab. I met her in Mombasa last April. She is now a student with me and she is also my roommate. I love her to bits and pieces. I don’t know how I would survive without her. She is such a sister to me. We took this picture one morning just before breakfast. The mornings are beautiful here as the sun rises and the birds start chirping. 

Look who's knocking at my door

I turned the corner to my dorm yesterday and look who I found in front of my door. Yup, he wanted in. I told him that I do love him but it is impossible for me to let him in. First, he wouldn't fit through the door.  Second, he would make it stink inside and he might end up doing potty in there and I definitely don't have time to clean it out right now. And thirdly, the others would miss him and think it was unfair that he got to visit me and they didn't. I didn't want the others to resent him. So I kindly asked him to step back so I could get to my door without any of his yucky flies getting into my room. I saw him today and even after I rejected him, he still loves me.

5am jogging

I am in day 2 of Bible boot camp. Yes, this is not just bible school; it is combined with a boot camp. Day 1 was great but by the end of the day I was exhausted. As I sit here it is 6:08am. I ran under the stars at 5 this morning. It was difficult to get up this morning but when I walked outside and saw the bright stars in the sky, I was in awe. I know that this early morning will catch up to me later in the day.

Our schedule is strict. The only time I can get on the computer is about 6:30-7:00am as the rest of the day is full. I am busy learning scriptures everyday as they are expecting us to recite 60 scriptures at the end of the course. My poor mzungu (white person) hands are blistered and bruised today after pulling weeds in the field for 3 hours. We had our first class yesterday morning and I loved it. I loved that my textbook just happens to be my favourite book in the world. This morning we have our first quiz on what we learned yesterday.

The only free time we have is on Saturday afternoons so that’s when I plan to catch up on sleep, laundry and emails.

Big Bugs

Last night I was in the bug squishin’ business. I was sitting in my room and everywhere I looked I seemed to see huge bugs crawling across the floor or flying in the air. Tiny cricket-like bugs were crawling around in my bathroom. They weren’t scared of me either. I would stomp my feet at them hoping they would scurry away but they just kept coming so I would kick them. I found a great big beetle stomping it’s way under my bed. I quickly scooped it up and chucked it out the window. I had mercy on the poor fella and spared his life but this guy wasn’t so lucky.

I always felt bad for this bug. I thought God gave him too big of a body for his tiny wings. When he flies around, he sounds like a mini airplane. He is so loud. The kids in Eldoret showed me that he isn’t the smartest of the insect kingdom either. They used to catch these big flies, roll them around in their hands like dice and then let them go. The bug would fly up and down and all around in circles and loops. It was pretty funny.

Today is a beautiful Sunday. I am excited to go to church this morning and hear all the singing and hymns. Here is a picture of my backyard. If you look to the right you can see my dorm room where I will be living the next 4 months. The rest of the campus is behind there. It’s a beautiful place.

Torch Bearers

Mom and Dad sent me this picture yesterday. The Castlegar News had come to write a story about them. My dad is carrying the Olympic torch through Salmo on January 23rd (which happens to be my brother's birthday). My mother carried the Olympic torch for the 1988 Calgary Olympics while she was 8 months pregnant with me. So technically I carried it too right?

 I am so excited for Dad to have this opportunity in a few weeks but I am quite sad that I will have to miss it. I wonder if they will be watching the winter Olympics in Kenya? I hope so.

My Roomies!

This morning I said goodbye to the four lovely ladies I have been staying with. They were huge blessings in my life these last few days. If it weren't for them, this would have been a very lonely experience. From left to right is Kristina, Amber, Me, Shannon, and Mana. This picture was taken at about 7 this morning right before they headed to class. When they all left, I found little notes of encouragement on my desk that they had written to me. I am thankful for facebook so I can keep in touch with them and hopefully see them again one day!