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)