Christmas in Kenya

Sarah made us stockings that said "My First Christmas in Africa"... so cute!

Praise the Lord, I survived my first Christmas without my family! And in Kenya, at that!

Heading into Christmas I figured it'd either be really sad not being in Wisconsin with my family and waiting for our Santa presents, or else I'd be so busy playing with other families that I'd hardly have time to be sad. Thank God, it was the second.

On Christmas Eve Sarah, Cassie and I headed down to have dinner and games and fun with another family here on campus. There was another family that joined and a couple other single people, so there was a nice little crowd. We ate ribs... DELICIOUS... and played all sorts of games before everyone dispersed. The girls and I decided to spend the night there, so we helped stuff stockings (it was SO strange being on the adult side of Christmas Eve...) for the kids and stayed up way too late chatting and then headed to bed. Christmas morning we were awakened by squeals and such, which was so precious! They have 4 kids - the oldest is in my class - and we all waited at the top of the stairs until the parents gave the "okay" to come down. We opened stockings and presents - they had both for us as well - and played with all of the funny new toys. It was so refreshing to see kids enjoying toys that cost very little and not caring that they didn't get a $50 video game or computer or phone or something.

Afterwards I headed back up to the compound to have Christmas lunch with the family next door and a few other families they invited over. I was absolutely ecstatic to realize that they had all the foods I usually eat on Christmas - REAL turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, jello casserole, and tons more. We ate REALLY well and I was a little tired of food by the time I left, which is a good sign :)

Then Christmas night me, Cassie and Sarah got together to open our gifts from home. Dad had brought over a few presents when he came and I got a box in the mail a few weeks ago that I never opened. Sarah was so sweet to wrap my presents for me so it'd actually feel like Christmas when I got to open them, and we had so much fun. Most of my presents were food, but I nearly danced a jig of excitement when I saw the clothes I got - SO PRETTY! I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law helped my mom pick them out? If so, great job Andrea :)

Mom sent these candies a little after Halloween, so there's both holidays here! It was pretty funny...GAP!!! :)I was SUPER excited about all of my new goodies! And notice the s'mores stuff! And LOTS of Crystal Lite! And new pajamas! And Craisins! So fu

God was so gracious to surround me with such love and fun here that I hardly felt homesick and went to bed full of joy. However, I definitely look forward to Christmas with my family again next year, God willing :)

Christmas with Little Lambs

About a month ago I got word from my Aunt and Unlce that they wanted to donate a large amount to use for Kenyan kids over here - whatever I thought best. So I talked about it with my worker/friend, Bernice, and we decided to buy shoes for all of the kids at Little Lambs. The checks came in, the cash was gotten, and off we headed to Kimende, a village at the top of the hill, on market day to buy all of the shoes. Bernice did the bargaining while I helped find all of the shoe sizes we need, and when she told me the total, it was EXACTLY how much was donated!! Praise the Lord - His provision was so obvious and perfect! We hauled the shoes back and have waited patiently to give them to the precious kids...

And Wednesday finally came. Little Lambs had their Christmas party on the 23rd and I was thrilled to be invited to join them in their celebration. I bought a little 5 ft. Christmas tree and some decorations to take with, and Bernice and I loaded the shoes into the taxi and headed up the hill.A handful of kids were already there setting up the decorations (ribbon and balloons, mostly), they food was already cooked, and the chairs were all being set up. We emptied out the shoe bag and lined them all up to get ready to hand them out.The kids lined up as we called their names and blessed them with a good, sturdy pair of shoes. Some of them did a little happy dance, many faces lit up, and most walked away with an "asante sana (thank you very much), God bless you." These blessings, of course, are for my wonderful Aunt and Uncle who provided this incredible gift.Somehow we didn't have the right size for the last little girl, so Bernice and I headed out on an adventure back to Kimende to grab a pair so she wouldn't be the only one without new "smart" shoes.

She obviously needed new shoes, so we were happy to adventure out and get them :)
The one on the right was the last to get her shoes, but better late than never, eh?

After the shoe extravaganza, we ate a feast by standards here, watched a few skits, the choir sang a couple songs, and then it hailed. Yes, it hailed in Africa. In the hot season. We all ran inside to a small, cramped little room and waited the storm out in there. I sang some Christmas carols with the kids in English and Swahili - a bit difficult, but great! - and they climbed ALL over me for about 1/2 an hour. But it was SO fun :)This trip to Little Lambs was such a beautiful blessing. I've started building relationships with most of the kids, and a lot of them that didn't really have anything to do with me at first are some of my closest little buddies. I'm getting to know the staff there much better, and God is definitely opening my eyes to opportunities to help and serve them. I was truly blessed by their graciousness and love, and I am so thankful that God has placed me in the midst of that wonderful place, even if for only a few times. Merry Christmas, dear little lambs of The Good Shepherd...

Goat: It's what's for Dinner.

Here at RVA we are blessed with some really great guards to keep us safe enough that even Daddy approves of where I live. Some of these guards happen to be Masai - one of Africa's biggest tribes. They're fantastic and rich in tradition - google them sometime if you'd like.

Anyways, a dear couple here, the Holts, decided to buy a goat from one of our Masai guards and roast it for some of their workers and their families as well as a few of the guards we're friends with. So Sammy (the owner of the goat) brought up his goat in the trunk of a car and there in the Holts' backyard we watched as they slaughtered it. I have great pictures of it all, but seeing as most of you probably don't want to see them, I'll just post a few :) The meal was complete with other Kenyan favorites - chapatis, sakuma wiki, stew, and other meats. They also fried the intestines, but unfortunately due to a chain of events I was too late for that... bummer! Such a fun day - thanks Holts!

Before...

And after!

Sammy and Givan and their little girls!

Pineapple Mayhem

Last week a few of my junior highers showed up at my door with one of my towels they grabbed from my clothes line and proudly announced "Bigger or Better!"

The elementary kids were having a game night and my junior highers, also bored, decided to try to make their own game night. The problem is that most junior highers don't know how to organize games or control others enough to get them to play along. This was their attempt at doing so, but it failed quite miserably. Also noteworthy: I had given an elementary group my pineapple and the junior highers were amazingly jealous and NEEDED that pineapple.

So my neighbor Sarah and I decided to put this information together and make a junior high game night and somehow incorporate pineapples into the games. This idea mixed with our delirium from the hike resulted in one of the most hilarious nights I've had with my kids, and they loved every second of it, praise God :)

When we sent out invitations we told them to bring a pineapple and dress monochromatically (thanks FLIC...). They were all really confused, but reeeally excited to see why the madness.

They started by having to find hidden balls with glow sticks all over the campus. Some of the glow sticks weren't quite glowing, so that made it a little bit harder. Then we moved on to the pineapple games. We had them dress up their pineapple, judged the "best dressed pineapple," then had them make a commercial which incorporated their pineapples in it. Yes, this sounds ridiculously strange and cheesy, but they LOVED it, and it was absolutely HILARIOUS... way funnier than you'd probably expect.

So without further ado, the results:

Yes, this IS a Pineapple dressed as Rudolph...And A Pineapple dressed as Papa Smurf...The skit was about Santa and some reindeer smoking.. and they all died... which is why you shouldn't smoke... nice.
The Lunas, a.k.a. the African Idol judges...waiting for the results...

I really like junior highers... :)

A Real Cliffhanger

Cassie's brother and sister have been here all week from California, and they decided while they were here they'd try out hiking. So Thursday morning a group of us gathered to hike to the waterfalls - known to be a nice hard hike - prayed, and set off. I guarantee that if the entire thing would've been filmed it would've been watched by millions. The comments and squealing and complaining and ridiculousness of the whole group were.. more than entertaining. And despite all of the squealing and complaining and ridiculousness, we survived.
The hike started with a nice trip through a tunnel. You can't quite stand up straight, and you can't see your face in front of your hand without some sort of light. Luckily Kenya equips its cell phones with flashlights, so we had a wee bit of light to guide us. We slowly but surely made our way through the tunnel, breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the light at the end, and then groaned a nice groan when we saw the next stage: climbing straight up the side of a hill. After pulling ourselves up by plant roots and being careful not to fall off the side, we made it up to the top - to the train tracks. Now the train tracks were probably the easiest part of the whole hike - no steep inclines (other than the sides of the track), no sliding dirt, etc. However, somehow this is where I managed to take a nice fall. 15 minutes into the hike and I pretty much kill my leg, allowing the pain to stay with me for the next 7.5 hrs of hiking. Nice Amanda, real nice.

Right after I fell... it knocked the wind out of me so I needed a little resty...

We followed the tracks for a little over a mile before turning off onto another steep path that would take us into some of the most beautiful, movie-like scenery I've ever seen. Sarah (our fearless leader) pointed out the path miles ahead - you could see it on the side of the hills. We realized we were in for a LONG hike, but we didn't realize how hard it would be...If you look closely you can see our trail - right through the middle of the picture.We made our way through all sorts of pokey bushes, past slippery slopes, up Wrench Hill (you had to have been there...), around dangerous bee nests (or so we thought...), and killed about every muscle in our bodies to finally reach our destination: the waterfalls. There are apparently a string of waterfalls in these hills, and we reached the top of one of them where we decided to rest. Actually a different waterfall, but that's okay...The group at the waterfalls. They were obviously dried up a little bit, unfortunately...We took some pictures, watched some monkeys, gazed up at human-looking trees, and ate our snacks before half of the group decided to go see another one higher up.

They never came back.

They climbed up a steep cliff and realized they couldn't get down, so they had to make their way around the rim of the hills and forge their own path. All the while, we that stayed behind had to find our way back on our own. We had a few adventures of our own, including some stinging nettle and different liquids... :) Both groups ended up making it back to the train tracks at about the same time and we hiked the last leg of our adventure - back on the train tracks - together. 7.5 hours after leaving my front yard, we returned, a lot dirtier, most a bit bloodier, and everyone much more tired than we began. We spent the rest of the night doctoring our wounds and laying around, moving as little as possible. We were a pitiful sight, but everyone was more than pumped that we did it.My bruise colored quite nicely...

Yay hiking :)