T.I.A.- Three letters that have become a widely-used aphorism among expats living all over the beautiful continent of Africa. During my first few days here I have heard this phrase used to explain things like driving habits, long lines at Nakumatt (a Walmart-like store based in Kenya), and the sudden loss of power/hot water with no idea of when it will come back on. This IS Africa, after all, and even though I have been here before, and have spent the last 6 months preparing myself for the possibilty of the unexpected, jumping into a cold shower first thing in the morning and coming within inches of hitting another car or pedestrian while driving, seem like things that are going to take a very long time to get used to.
I finally arrived here on Wednesday night after falling very ill on Saturday and needing to delay my plane flight for 2 days. Because I had delayed my trip, there was no time to recover from jet-lag and I hit the ground running first thing Thursday morning. The first few days we have been staying at a guest flat about 2-3 miles from the apartments we will soon be living in. We went shopping yesterday for all of the necessary household items for setting up an apartment. Tomorrow we will be getting our bed frames and mattresses. We went mattress shopping yesterday, but quickly realized that although they have the same names for mattress sizes that the US does, a twin bed could describe a mattress that is 3'X6', 3.5'X6', or 4'X6'. Again, T.I.A., and you can expect nothing to be the same as you would find in the US :) So far everyone has adjusted and adapted very easily, and we have started to build the foundation for some great friendships. Much of our time has been spent getting acclimated to the area, eating, shopping, eating, Q&A time, eating...do you see a pattern? The school, and all of its staff, have taken very good care of us. We had a cinnamon roll and banana bread breakfast, as well as a Kenyan dinner at the Boccaccio's house yesterday, and had a taco dinner at the Bussell's house tonight. A lot of the other staff members went to the Maasai Market with us today to help us get good deals on traditional crafts, jewelry, and household decorations. Pam also took a few of us to furniture row to see what kind of deals we might be able to get on furniture when we eventually are ready to buy it. You can get almost any kind of furniture hand made with wood or metal for a fraction of the price you would for a similar item in the US. The pride and dedication they have to making a quality product is evident when they try to call you over or follow you with pictures when you walk by their roadside stand. Today as we walked we had quite a few people yell to us "Hello white ladies!" or "Hello sister!". I actually had a young Kenyan boy point at me and laugh today. I can only guess it was for the same reason they pointed and laughed at me last summer; I am the whitest of the white people in our group :)
Tomorrow we are going to a Giraffe Park where we will have the opportunity to have a Giraffe eat out of our hands (or mouths, if we so choose). I hope to get a bunch of pictures to be able to post. The internet is actually better than I expected it to be. Although it can sometimes take a little longer for things to load, overall it is not much slower than my connection was at home. Most of the girls have been able to upload a few pictures to their facebook pages or blogs. I hope to do the same once I take more pictures. Next week starts orientation and classroom set up at school. All of the other girls got to see their classrooms on Wednesday before I arrived, so I am excited to see what mine will look like! The next few weeks will be very busy with lesson planning and continued transition into Kenyan living. We are going to start driving cars on Monday which should be quite the experience because not only do they drive on the left side of the road, but they also have no driving laws except no talking on your cell phone while driving. It's pretty much a free-for-all when it comes to driving here! (To the staff at Ganse: I have to learn to drive a car while I save up the money for Akar ;) )
I am so excited to see what else God has in store for me and the rest of the new staff here in Kenya. He has already done some amazing things in our lives and has blessed us in so many ways. Please continue to pray for all of us. I miss all of you and can't wait to continue to share all of my adventures in Kenya with you through this blog!
Prayer Requests:
- Our financial situation is even tighter than we expected it to be. Please pray for continued financial support for all of the staff and for wisdom in budgeting.
- For friendships to continue to be built between the staff members.
- For all of us to find a church quickly that we feel like we will be spiritually fed at and welcomed into the congregation.
- For the first few weeks of school to go as smoothly as possibly and that we would begin to form great relationships with our students.
Verse of Encouragement:
"As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength."~Psalm 138:3
My prayer is that God continues to encourage us by giving us the strength to face each challenge that we will encounter here in Kenya. I also pray that prayer would be our first response when we do face those challenges because as this scripture says, He will answers as soon as we pray.
