The Ant Diet

I was chatting with mom last night about the frustrations of power outages. I was explaining that, for some reason, our apartment and a select other few in our compound had no power. The apartment next to us and across from us had stima (electricity), but not us. Because of this, my freezer started melting and water started leaking from my fridge. I couldn't boil any water to drink so my water supply was running low. It was a good thing there was a slight breeze so the fan wasn't completely necessary. My computer was almost dead. I wanted to save a little of the battery incase of an emergency.

As I was talking with mom, she blurts out, 'I couldn't live without my computer. It has all my work and everything. I just couldn't deal with that.'

"Yes, it is frustrating sometimes but you learn to live with it. The thing that is really bugging me is all the ants in my kitchen!"

I then continued to tell her how all my food is in the fridge so the ants can't get at it. The sugar, peanut butter, and rice doesn't need to be refrigerated. But in my house it does. Every morning I wake up to a stream of ants flowing in and out of the smallest holes in my kitchen. I have tried to block their little gateways but they find a new one. It drives me up the wall. I have succumb to the fact that ants are now a regular part of my diet. They are small so you can't see or taste them if you cook them, and they are terribly difficult to pick out of your food.

Recently I have noticed these bites on my body. I know they are not mosquito bites. Usually, I feel some stinging sensation on my skin and then a day later a big welt emerges. This welt is incredibly itchy for days until it turns into a small purple dot and then disappears. It then dawned on me that, I usually feel the stinging as I am dealing with ants. The sneaky little creatures not only take over my food, but also attack my skin!

"aw, nik, that is gross! I don't know how you deal with that. I can't believe it." My mom exclaims.

Sometimes I don't know how I do either. Grace, that's all I can say.

Bed Bug Prayer

The last few days I have been waking up with huge, red, itchy welts on my body. I got my first one in Vipingo this weekend. At first I thought it was a mosquito bite but after it didn't go away for a couple days and then turned into a tiny, bruise like circle, I knew it wasn't a mosquito bite. Mosquito bites are usually small and go away fairly fast if they are not tampered with. However, when I was in Word of Life last year, I used to get these bites in the night. I was so perplexed until  someone told me that they are bed bugs.

"Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite." - I don't think I ever took that literally.

Now I have huge welts (mostly on my back) that are extremely itchy and uncomfortable. I fear that I have brought some bed bugs home from Vipingo.

I did some research on the internet to determine if my bites were indeed bed bugs. My research came back positive: I am being bitten by the sly, bloodsucking creatures.

So I researched if there are any major health side affects and thankfully, nothing major can be transmitted. Some websites suggest "severe psychological effects due to lack of sleep" but in my case, I sleep like a log.

Then I tried to figure out how I could get rid of them. Most websites suggested you get professional pest control people into do it. Pretty sure Kenya doesn't offer those services. There were also certain chemicals that could be used but they are only found in pet food stores. Nope, no pet food stores around here.

A good vacuum cleaner with a small nozzle was good for sucking up all the little eggs in the house. Most Kenyans have never heard the word 'vacuum' before so that wouldn't work.

One other suggestion was to wash all your clothes, linens, and other fabrics in scorching hot water and putting them to dry in a drying machine with intense heat for 20 minutes. Would drying in the hot sun for 20 minutes work too? because drying machines are few and far in between around here. Soaking them in blazing hot water was the most promising option but considering I heat water on my gas stove and have a few small basins to do my laundry in by hand, that would be a momentous task.

After going through all this, I decided my best option was to pray (although that should have been my first response). God of the universe could surely stop this annoying pests from biting me.

Jesus, please make them stop biting me!

Creepy Crawler

Walking to my room this morning, I saw this gigantic, black stick that seemed to be moving. Millipedes are common here. I see them almost daily but I have never seen one this big. I wouldn't want to find this in my room or, worse, on my bed!

Mombasa RAHA!

"Mombasa Raha" is a popular phrase here on the coast. "RAHA" means joy or happiness. It's sort of a phrase to express the excitement and fun of the Mombasa lifestyle. It's a very party central, tourist, paradise type area so there is lots of fun to be had.

And this is where I will be for the next 5-6 months. Enjoying the "Mombasa Raha" or at least trying to. Honestly, I didn't think I would ever come back to Mombasa after living here last year but to my surprise, this is where God has brought me back to. My goal this time around is to truly enjoy the Mombasa RAHA. I want to enjoy myself, have fun, not be too serious yet still work hard for God and for Him to be glorified!

This is the view from my balcony. Yes, it's almost paradise. That is the beautiful Indian Ocean in my backyard. Our compound is right on the beach in one of most popular tourist spots in East Africa. All our neighbours are fancy resorts. No bush whacking for this missionary only swimming lessons.

I am slowly settling in here at Word of Life. There have been some changes since I was here last so I am trying to adjust. I will officially start working next week which gives me a few days to adjust. I am not feeling great so I am spending time just relaxing and laying in bed hoping to get better soon. I decided to go through my suitcases which haven't been aired out for almost 2 months now. I wasn't quite sure what I would find in there but I had suspicions that something was growing in there.

My suspicions were right. As I was pulling out all my clothes, I noticed that part of my bad had turned white. As I got closer and started scratching it, it broke open and I found a big egg sack. Yuck! Luckily, the eggs must have died and dried up so nothing hatched. The mother (whatever insect it was) must have evacuated my bag and left the babies to die. Thank you Jesus! I am not a big fan of bugs although I am building my tolerance for them the more I encounter them here in Kenya. I remember at one time last year, I had a black widow and her egg sack in one of my toilets. I just let her be and made sure she stayed there the whole time I was using the toilet. I figured that if I could still see her, then she didn't have a chance of biting me.

So Mombasa RAHA here I am! Actually, lets make that Jesus RAHA!

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.