Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Allison's birthday. All she wanted for her birthday was to go to a place called Capt. Davis' just outside of town because she heard you could ride camels and ostrichs.

It was awesome and very interesting...When we arrived there we thought we had gone to the wrong place. But we decided to explore anyway.
The guide took us to the game park area where you could walk around and get really close to the zebras and impalas...




The is our guide and his outstanding glasses...







It started to pour, so we had to go inside for a while...We ended up running into Capt. Davis himself and spent a few hours with him talking until the rain let up and we could wander around more...
He was an interesting fellow, we found out he was a former Member of Parliament and did something with the governments of East Africa.

The camp grounds...We found some awesome spiders and slugs in the drop toilets...


I loved this tractor, it reminded me of something I would have seen in Tennessee...






We rode some horses...




Meanwhile Chris hung out with the giraffe...



After riding horses, they saddled up the osterichs...




Chris was super excited...


I can't say an ostrich is the most sturdy animal


Before...


After...Yes I kind of fell off at the end...but only because it started running at the end...


Capt. Davis


It was a fun and interesting afternoon, definitely an experience and adventure...I hope Allison had a great birthday even though she was away from home...

Stitch Me Up

Yesterday I spent the day at Sister Freda's. It was great because I got to spend a ton of time with Elia...I wish I had new pictures to post, but my camera has been acting up for the last week and I haven't been able to take any pictures.
He looks so good and he's so smart...only problem is he knows it:)

There was also a boy from Oasis I brought out to Freda's because he was attacked last week by some Turkana's on the street. He went to District Hospital to get stiches and this was the result...





This was probably the weapon, it's called a Turkana Fighting Blade or Turkana Wrist Blade.


His name is Elijah and he used to come to Oasis all the time but has stopped coming recently. He randomly showed up on Wednesday with these deep cuts and stitches. I tried my best to clean it but huge pieces of dried blood and dead chunks of skin came off in the process.
I felt bad for the kid, District Hospital did such a poor job. Geoffrey said that it was probably because the hospital knows that hes a street boy so he wont pay...At least they did something, but he's almost worse off because the wound is still open and getting infected...

I knew Freda could do a better job so I asked him to come so they could look at it...
They said it was too late to put in new stitches but they could clean it properly and give him medicine to fight off infection

I'll go back with him tomorrow to check the infections and see if they can't possibly take the stitches out...

Puppies

Yesterday Ayub surprised us and brought home 2 Rottweiler puppies...
They are for protection a the house




They are 2 girls and they are so cute...I give them 2 weeks before they've chewed through everything, including my hand...


They dont have names yet, were waiting to hear back from Steve as to what he wants to name them...


I have to add that in no way shape or form does this change my love/obsession with my dog, Maximus back home...He's still my favorite little man...

Passa-Porta

Today we had to go to El Doret to get our passports renewed. It’s not as easy in the U.S. where you can just go to your local post office and fill out a form.
El Doret is an hour and a half to two hours east of here, and about 3 times the size of Kitale. It felt like such a huge city compared to where we live, like a mini Nairobi. They had street lights and tall buildings, and the streets were so crowded.

Our friend Stonic who works for a travel company and drives us everywhere when he’s in town had come up from Nairobi for work and offered to stay and take us.
It was good to see Stonic and we felt really safe traveling with him. We got there about lunchtime and had to get passport photos taken to give to the Immigration office.

Stonic...In my glasses...He swears he's a Masai warrior


I wish I had a scanner because these are some really sweet pics…The photographer must tell everyone to look stern because in all the Kenyan passport pictures we’ve seen, hardly anyone smiles…So in keeping with tradition we decided not to smile.

Another tradition we’ve noticed seems to be enlarging the passport photo, framing it, and putting it up in your house…This will shortly be in the works.
After the photos were taken we had to wait for them to be processed, so we went to The Eldo (short for El Doret) Grille for lunch. A friend of ours here in Kitale had told us they have great pizza so of coarse we had to find out. There’s really no restaurant for pizza here so if we want it we have to make it ourselves and the outcome might not always be good…

After lunch we went to the Immigration Dept. and applied for an extension to our visas. While we waited they asked each of us what our profession was…Its always a bit tricky explaining what I do for World Vision so I just said I was a DJ…The immigration people thought this was awesome and asked at which dance club…
Sadly, I had to correct them and tell them that it wasn’t a club but a radio station.

They seemed to be equally as excited about it and asked what kind of music I played and how they could find it…So I gave them the link to find it online and told them we played rock music. They got confused and thought I said rap music. It would be interesting to hear their impressions if they actually look up the link, but I highly doubt it’s music they will enjoy.
The trip was successful and our visas were renewed. Mine actually expires the day Im supposed to leave Feb. 20, 2009

Random Post...Waking the Dead

I'm not sure why I'm posting this, but my best friend from home found this somewhere and sent me this in an email. I really liked the points it made...Just about the dynamics of community and relationship, but also the importance of being able to stand on your own...It comes from a book called "Waking the Dead"

"Be kind, for everyone you know is facing a great battle.

A true community is something you will have to fight for. You'll have to fight to get one, and you'll have to fight to keep it afloat.

Suddenly all those "one another's" in Scripture make sense. Love one another. Bear one another's burdens. Forgive one another. Acts of kindness become deeply meaningful because we know we are at war. Knowing full well that we are all facing battles of our own, we give one another the benefit of the doubt. That's why you must know each other's stories, know how to "read" one another. A word of encouragement can heal a wound; a choice to forgive can destroy a stronghold. You never knew your simple acts were so weighty.

We check in regularly with one another, not out of paranoia ("Do you still like me?"), but in order to watch over each other's hearts. "How are you doing?" But be careful about what you are looking for from community.
If you bring your every need to it, it will collapse. Community is no substitute for God… I realized it was because I was looking to them (community) to validate me, appreciate me, fill this aching void in my heart. Only once in ten days did I take time to be away with God, alone. I was too busy trying to get my needs met through them (community). Which is why community cannot live without
solitude."

The Coffee Shop

Today after church Allison and I took the Oasis kids who were in classes 5, 6, & 7 to the coffee shop in town to help them study.
Allison gave them practice exams for Maths (yes thats really what is on the book) and English..



Centrine & Winnie



Charles & Braum




15 kids showed up, it was awesome...

Moses





Georgina



Soda for 16


They worked so hard for hours, so when they were finished with their tests we had a little fun...

Charles


Al & Nancy
&

Steward


Taditional Turkana Fighting Spear and a Traditional Turkana Pose


Al & Paul


Paul


Allison has spent hours grading the tests, in which she found numerous mistakes on the actual standard test itself. This is making it more difficult for the students because in reality the kids are getting more answers right but because the national test has some incorrect questions and answers they are getting more wrong than they normally would...
We're not sure what to do but it needs to be fixed because its the standardized test for all of Kenya.
Tomorrow all the students have the day off for Kenyatta Day so we are heading to Lydia's for more studying but also just a day to hang out and watch movies and play in the back yard...this should yeild some great pictures...be ready

Tumiani Soccer

I just scored 6 goals in a soccer match with the kids from Tumiani, which is an orphanage we visited this morning...I don't know if this means that they weren't very good or I've somehow absorbed Kenyans talent for soccer...either way I was super excited...Allison also did really well, she scored 3 or 4...
We freaking rule!