Week Four!

         Bright-golden rays of sunshine beamed across the valleys and onto our now rosy cheeks as we walked from the clinic to the Siyiapei primary school. We were much grateful for the warmth. We arrived at the gate of the compound where many children had already run out to greet us. Waving and running up to shake our hands in shy excitement, they made us feel welcomed even in our first moments upon arriving. We met with the principle and several of the teachers, and then we were taken to a meeting place where hundreds of happy and curious eyes fixated upon us while a shush filled the room. We sat at the front looking out at all the students that had come to listen to us talk about America, healthcare, who we were, why we were here, and in return to tell us about themselves and answer any questions we had. I must say that it was quite nerve-wracking at first, but the atmosphere quickly turned lively as we laughed and shared, seeing them get up the courage to show us a Maasai dance, and us speaking English with funny accents or Swahili with strange pronunciation in our explanations of different health infections they asked about. We loved singing praise songs with them and experiencing a glimpse of what their lives are like. When the session ended and everyone was dismissed they crouded around us, combing through our hair, rubbing our palms, giggling, asking us questions, plucking our armhair and giving us hugs. It was wonderful to be able to spend a big clump of time with so many beautiful little Kenyan boys and girls. And it is amazing how brightly Christ shines through his children. We waved and hugged goodbye and made our way back to our home, promising to come back again soon.

           At the clinic this week we were graced with presence of Nelson and Tom, both skilled in nursing, who stepped in for Orpha when she had to attend a conference mandatory for all nurses employed under the government. We missed working with her but were so blessed by getting to know and learn under both Nelson and Tom. It was really good to see how, while each person has a different style of treating patients, all display an amazing model worth emulating, as they whole-heartedly show the patients care. We were able to learn so much this week and talk with, treat, and pray with many patients. Most of the people we meet are Maasai and it has been incredible to see and experience their culture. Conversations with those who know Jesus Christ intimately have given us an understanding about how they relate to Him in thier culture, and has revealed so many unsearchable truths about His character. It has blown my mind to see the faith and dedication of so many we have met. Often, we have found that people depend on God to supply even their next meal or their fare to get to school the next day, waking up early just to spend time in prayer with Him, giving away thier best simply to love and welcome others. We have recieved many a fruit from people sending a dozen mangos or several avocados our way wishing us blessings and sending us greetings (a few days ago we recieved two huge bushels of banannas from a mama who is 85 and still working the garden!) One morning, talking with our Lab Technition, now really good friend Fred, about his growing up in the orphanage, he told us about how he and nine other friends would pray together every morning from 4am to 6am just to pray. He said that not a single one of them ever went to bed hungry and that all of them now have jobs, that God has and always will be faithful to meet every one of their needs. Another woman we met, though physically weak and in great pain, could barely contain her joy as she exclaimed her love for Jesus.

      

       Earlier this week we were surprised when a knock on our door turned out to be a young boy, 12, who had remembered us from church, wanting to take us for a walk. We thought this a strange proposal but accepted nonetheless thinking it the cultural thing to do and come to find out, he was wanting us to come meet his family at his house. Passing the breathtaking prairie and musical herds of cow, sheep, and goats along the way, we arrived to see a quaint mud house with a tin thatched roof and two little girls peeking around the corner. It was one of the most at-home places we have felt as the mother, Sabina, and her children (who warmed up to us shortly after we arrived) sat and spent the afternoon with us, their jubilant personalities and laughter contagious. We were touched and put in awe by her story and the love that we not only saw but also felt by their family. We are looking very forward to having them over to our home tomorrow after church!

       It hard to believe that already, half of the time we have here is over! Amidst the ups and downs, trials and blessings, the vast depth of how much God is working behind the scenes continues to amaze us, much of which remains to be revealed. We have been able to grow so much as a team, make relationships with, and further those relationships with the people around us each day. On Thursday, we had a blast celebrating Fred's birthday with a home cooked meal of goat, ugali, sakumawiki, cake (which according to their tradition, you feed to each other), a good ole fashioned birthday card, and water (important for pouring over the head of the birthday boy when they least expect it, we learned). Each saturday we hear the beautiful voices of Maasai hymns being sung by a group that meets on the other side of our house in the morning, and we have even come to learn a few! We hope to be able to preform one at church before the end of our stay! We are praying for continued opportunities to witness, encourage, learn, and develop deeper relationships with those around us (at the clinic, at church, in the community, possibly having some of the older women over for chai and sharing how Jesus has worked in our lives, mentoring some of the children at the school, etc.). We are so thankful for the support and prayers, knowing and experiencing how faithful the Lord works on behalf of them!

Many thoughts and much love from Siyaipei!

Week Three!

Hello everyone!!

The four of us are finally together at last.  I (Ashley) was warmly welcomed into my new home last Monday by Alyssa, Janie, and Janessa with a meal of guacamole, chapatti (similar to a tortilla), rice, and beans.  It was delicious and, I must say, that I am so very impressed with the way the girls have embraced and demonstrated true Kenyan hospitality. Also, after only living in Siyiapei for three days, I am so very excited for all that the Lord is going to teach us this summer.  We have quite a bit of down time both at the clinic and at home, and this allows us plenty of time for reading, praying, and bonding both with each other and the staff at the clinic. 

One of my favorite moments of this week occurred yesterday afternoon.  We were privileged to meet an eighty-five year old woman named Ruth who had walked to the nearby church to pray.  From the moment we met her, you could just see the joy of the Lord on her face and in her smile, and the first words out of her mouth were praise and glory to God!  Despite her significant pain from her leg, she began to quote Psalm 23 to us in Swahili (with Fred, the lab tech, translating for us).  She then proceeded to pray with all of us and give us a bag of avocados. 

My other favorite moment of this week occurred this evening as Alyssa urgently called us all into the bathroom.  To our dismay, we discovered a HUGE (okay, not really that big) LIZARD (okay, maybe a gecko) in our bathtub!!  Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.  We tried to make a plan without screaming too much.  Orpha (the nurse) came over with her daughter Saphie to help us, and reluctantly informed us that it was poisonous and we needed to kill it.  Great.  Plan 1: use a broom/plastic bag lizard net.  Plan 2: use a bucket.  Plan 3: turn on the water. Plan 4: call Fred to help us.  As it turns out, by the time Fred arrived, the lizard had already drowned under the bucket.  Mission accomplished: our bathtub was lizard-free once again.  Praise the Lord!  Bwana asifiwe! 

Love,
Ashley or Nashilu in Maasai (pronounced nah-she-loo)

Week two

We have now been in Siyiapei for a little over a week and we are finally starting to adjust to our new lifestyle here. We have met a lot of wonderful people in the community and have a lot of dates on our calendar for lunches and chai time with them! Yesterday we went to our dear friend, Lucy’s, house for lunch. Her home is very quaint with a beautiful blue front door. Her son, Henry, and her daughter, Eva, joined us for lunch as well. They were all so welcoming and kind, as many people are here. She made us the yummiest lunch we’ve had since we have been here--stew with beans, potatoes, and corn. Sounds simple, but it was absolutely delectable! :) We are looking forward to having her in our home on Thursday for chai!

Over the weekend Orpha (the nurse at the clinic) taught us how to make chapatti which is kind of like a thick, bready tortilla, but much more tasty. We are happy to announce that we are blessed with hot water now in our house! This make showering much more pleasant :) The power has gone out during the day a few times, but thankfully it always seems to turn back on right before sunset…when we need it most! We have successfully completed a few loads of laundry by hand and are getting better with each attempt!

As each day passes in the clinic, we are gaining insight into a variety of health problems that we are unlikely to see in America. It is amazing to watch how they treat these problems with the limited amount of resources and drugs that they have in the clinic. We are struck by how blessed we truly are with the healthcare that is at our fingertips back home. One story that has touched our hearts is of a 2-year-old boy who accidentally stuck his forearm into a scalding hot pot of chai. His mother brought him in last week and they have returned twice since then for follow up treatment. It was pretty hard to watch Orpha clean the burn as he shrieked in pain the whole time. On Monday this week we found that the healing skin was infected and had to be removed, which was also extremely hard to watch. The mother remained calm and was great at soothing her child who was in such terrible pain. She was very thankful to receive this medical care.

This week we have also had the opportunity to converse with several patients as well as pray with and for some of them. We are praying for opportunities to share the gospel with people while we are here. We have really enjoyed getting to know each other more, sharing what is on our hearts and minds with each other, and growing as sisters in Jesus Christ. We anxiously await the arrival of our fourth team member, Ashley (***IF YOU’RE READING THIS PLEASE BRING US GOOD DISH TOWELS AND CHOCOLATE!!!***), next Monday!!!

Little boy with burned arm

Maasai man with his two wives

Making chapati!

Lucy's family in front of their house

Love to you all,

Alyssa & the Siyiapei girls

Week One!

Jambo from Siyiapei!

I am so sorry that this blogpost has taken so long. We actually don’t have internet at our house in Siyiapei, so we had to wait until the weekend when we could go to an internet café. This week has been such a time of spiritual growth for each of us, as we have been stretched outside of our comfort zones in almost every way possible. We are learning so much about God’s goodness to us, even in our weakness and complaining. We cannot even begin to tell you how faithful He has been in meeting us where we are! I think many of our thoughts are summed up by Lamentations 3:21-41! We urge you to go now, pick up your Bibles, and read it. We are memorizing this passage together as a team and have received so much strength from its words.

African culture is very different than American culture, which has definitely been an adjustment. We were aware of this coming in, but have daily been struck by the contrast. Our new friends here have been incredibly gracious and patient with us. On Wednesday, we were excited to have our friend Orpha (the nurse at the clinic and our next door neighbor) allow us to enter her kitchen and watch her cook dinner for her family. This was a huge deal, as most Africans are incredibly hospitable and want you to relax in their living rooms at all times, usually never allowing visitors in their kitchens. We were incredibly honored to be givenMaasai (the tribe we are primarily working with) names! We were amazed to have a Maasai man and two women agree to take a picture with us, since many still hold their cultural belief that a picture taken of them will steal part of their soul. Even though our cultures are so very different, we are learning from each other and building relationships with the people, by the grace of God. Bwana asifiwe (Praise the Lord)!

God is also taking care of us physically as well! A man came today and fixed our water, hopefully giving us hot water for showering! The spider count has seemed to decrease, possibly from seeing the large number of bodies that have already had death by flip-flop. We are well-fed with homemade guacamole and rice. The electricity was out all day, but has just now come back on, right before the sun had fully set. In an attempt to create thankfulness in our house, we have created a “Thanks Wall” where we post things we are thankful for. I was reading 2 Chronicles 20:21 the other morning, which proclaims, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.” We are choosing to fight our flesh daily and obey this command!

We are so very thankful for the prayers on our behalf, and have felt them daily! Please continue to pray that we would have more opportunities to share our faith with our patients. Also, please pray that we would become more comfortable in our surroundings and that we would have joyful spirits in all circumstances. We are also praying that God would increase our love for the people here, and that we would love as Christ has loved us!

We love and miss you all very much and are praying for you all back home as well! Thank you for partnering with us in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Love,

Namunyuk (Janie’s Maasai name, meaning “blessing”), Naserian (Alyssa’s name, meaning “peace”), and Nashipae (Janessa’s name, meaning “happiness”)

The Beatitudes

As we prepare to go to Siyaipei (where we will be living for the remainder of our trip) tomorrow, my prayer comes from Matthew 5 - the beatitudes. I pray that I will internalize these promises and encouragements from Jesus.

Lord, give me a humble heart to put all others above myself. May my heart and soul hunger and thirst for righteousness by walking closer to you than I ever have before. Let me remember that you will comfort me when difficult and challenging times come my way. May I show mercy to those I come in contact with and the people I will build relationships with. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me so that I may see you clearly. I pray that you would give me a peaceful presence among the people surrounding me. When times of persecution arise may I rest in the assurance of my salvation and building your kingdom. Amen.

Life in Nairobi...

Jambo marafiki!

Today is our third full day in Kenya, and we are already learning and experiencing much! As the girls on my team have been quick to discover, I thoroughly appreciate the value of a good list, so the following outlines a bit of what we have been up to recently:

-Sleep: Thankfully, the jet lag has not been unmanageable, and I think we are now completely on the Kenyan sleep cycle
-Eat: The house in which we are staying, Mayfield House, provides us with three meals a day, and they are great!
-Drink Chai: This is a Kenyan staple, and I think we are all hooked!
-Kiss a twiga (giraffe in Swahili): We had the opportunity to visit a giraffe park. Check out the picture below. What a blast!
-Go to church: It was such an incredible blessing to worship with Kenyan believers! Kenyan people are incredibly hospitable and welcomed us into a smaller waiting room after the service was over, where they served us chai and cookies and we were able to get to know some of the college students. What an amazing experience to be able to hear the Word of God preached and to worship our God with Christians across the world!
-Play Bananagrams and learn Swahili, in that order: We have a few pages of introductory Swahili that we are attempting to learn. As a reward for semi-focused studying, we allow ourselves to play a round of Bananagrams (double points if you play a Swahili word). See video below!

We are so looking forward to tomorrow, when we hit the road early for our drive to Siyaipei. We are sad to leave our dear friend Aimee, who is going to be staying in Nairobi and working in Kibera Slums, but are excited about what God is going to do in both locations!

Upendo,
Janie

This is a Masai man we met at the market

Giraffe center!

Nairobi Orientation

We are in Africa!! The thought still makes me smile :) We arrived last night and because of a little switch up, it was thought that we weren't coming until 6am this morning, but we saw someone with an AIM Mayfield guesthouse sign who was there to pick up others going to the guesthouse and they said they could take us. So we called our Kenya shortterm facilitator who talked to him and knew him, so we trusted it was safe and packaged all of our bulky bags along with those of a family of six plus an adventurous solo traveler's bags in the back and on top of the church-sized van to the guesthouse. Since they weren't expecting us for the night, they didn't have room for all of us at the normal quarters so Alyssa and I stayed in a room still inside the complex but through the yard, under some clotheslines and around the corner to a place where the workers normally stay. I think the innworker was sad to have us stay there and we felt bad that he felt bad, because as we are learning, hospitality is so important to Kenyans, especially when you are from america, that they want to give you the best and do anything they can even at their own expense. But we didn't mind one bit! Infact it was kinda cool to experience that, and the quarters were not at all bad, it was simply a small room with cement floors and regular walls, one bunkbed with a mosquito net, and a side table. This morning we got moved to the room they prepared for us and we feel as though we are in luxury, the room is like an american room with four beds and a Kenyan touch! The guesthouse very much has a feel of like a camp on the lake, only Africa style. The three from my team and a girl we met at orientation who will be spending the next six weeks in the Nairobi slums, Kibera, (the second largest slum in Africa I believe) is staying with us too! It is absolutely beautiful here and the people are wonderful and warm! They feed us well and at Atlanta orientation we all bought the water bottle that filters itself so we can drink the water wherever we go. We are getting over jet lag fairly well and more excited than ever for the days to come even as we prepare for hard times. The Kenya shortterm facilitator (He is american but lives here) came to meet us this morning and took us for a walk to the local grocery store, market, and walmart type store here in Nairobi to get anything we needed. He also took us to a local coffee place "the mug" where I had Kenyan coffee for the first time and where he told us a vast amount of information (we have packets to study too) all about the culture, etiquette, people, health, safety, importantance of spiritual life and guidelines, etc. etc. and answered many of our questions! He is very friendly and had so much incredible advise that we would have never known had he not told us! At Siyaipei we will have a Kenyan facilitator who is a native Kenyan and who will be the go to for all questions on local culture, prices, etc. We have met many missionaries here at the guesthouse and it is like an amazing family, everyone being believers and many of whom are passing by on thier way back to or on their way to North African countries, and are amazing to talk with and learn from. They all are so wise, I feel like a sponge that can not seem to soak up enough of thier words. This afternoon we are going to go outside and study our books, practice Kenyan culture, work on our swahili, have tea time (a practice we hear almost all people from Kenya observe, setting aside a time to simply sit, chat, and drink chai!) and then watch Lion King!! Also fun fact, today is a holiday here, like Kenya independence day! Dont worry, although we are living quite well here, when we get to Siyaipei we will be living in what many here call "the bush," although they say it is rural, they also say it is not far at all to the nearest town which has most things we need! This only makes us more excited and we are much anticipating Siyaipei!! :) We will be going to experience Nairobi church sunday and heading out to Siyaipei on monday! Anyways, I could talk for hours already but I must conclude. I hope and pray that all is well with all of you!