A Weekly Update

All in all, it has been a good week. I think I went through a one to two day period of extra emailing and such to avoid missing home, but now I am feeling even more at home here after that short time. Monday I went with community health, but since then I have been working with a lady named Lisa Kuyaya who does sooo much here at Tenwek. She is a super secretary, doing projects for the medical superintendent, managing all the guest services needs and arrangements, and fixing daily problems. Anyway, I just kinda shadow her and assist in the ways that I can around the office and compound. One day I helped organize and take inventory of the guest food pantry; other days I did more typical office work. On Thursday, I had to man the office on my own the best I could which was actually kinda fun. Some things I (attempt to) do are organize and reply to emails, type of minutes from medical staff meetings or reports, answer phone calls, and help to organize files. None of these things I feel like I am necessarily adequate or helping, so my main hope is that I am not too much of a bother. I really am enjoying learning so much and doing the work that I am able to do. A few things I have done this week: a Sunday night church service that was out of control but so fun (prolly shook 200-300 school children's hands), went to a Bible study with many local Tenwek workers at a permanent staff home, bought lots of gifts to bring home for all ya'll, and went to dinner at Peter & Lisa's house last night. I was purdy excited about spending time with them and being invited into Lisa's home; I also hope to become better friends with a lady who works for them named Carol (she invited me to the Bible study). Last night was super relaxed... after dinner we sat on the couch and watched NCIS and the news. This was great though, because I felt very at home, as if I was visiting with a good friend from back home. Today, as I already mentioned, I did some shopping-that was also fun, but I probably spent more than I should. After that, we went for a walk down by the river which was really gorgeous. I can't wait til the next time that we can go kick around down there. Weelll I think that is all I have to say; hopefully soon I will write a post with deeper thoughts thus far. It is hard to be in the mood to write; I would always much rather just post a bunch of pictures to tell the story of my day.

BTW: these pics are all from today :)

Nice work, Aliya!

Not a great picture of the falls, but I really like it down there- so gorgeous!

Ohhh so common :) Just thought I would share a piece of reality.

Love the motto! Very very true :)

So cute!

Note: mosquito nets over every bed in the ward.
We took some pictures in the hospital, since we didn't have any "Tenwek" pictures yet.

***Grace and Peace in Christ!

Abide in His unfailing love and depend on His complete faithfulness.

Coca-cola wins!

Disclaimer: if you aren't on Senior Staff, you won't understand.

Coke kiosks are everywhere in Kenya; Pepsi is not here. Sorry Sarah!

SAFARI!!!

The safari was great to learn about Maasailand and see soo many awesome animals!

This first picture is the inside of my tent! I will have to show you more photos of the extravagant resort.
Just check out the pictures! I don't feel like I have a lot to say right now, but as the saying goes-"a picture's worth a thousand words"-so here ya go!

My favorites to see were the elephants and lions (especially lions!); we saw one male lion Saturday night and two Sunday morning! We saw a lot more animals but this is a taste of what we were able to see!!!

KENYA: Days 2&3 at Tenwek >>> Community Health

Riding along on red clay two-track roads with more rocks, ditches, and mudpuddles than ever thought imaginable- this has made up many hours of the past two days of my life. I have traveled with nurses and doctors to faaarrrr out villages and communities to do immunization clinics for children (usually babies) and pregnant women. Yesterday we rode in a small truck that had a cap of sorts with two rows of seats facing each other in the back, that is where I rode. Today we had a bit more of a normal vehicle but definately no shocks. I actually love the rides though, because the countryside is soo beatiful and riding bumpy 2-tracks reminds me of Drummond Island. But yes, yesterday we had an extremely busy clinic. Upon arriving I had no idea what to do or how to help, but thankfully there was one other American girl yesterday who could show me the ropes- and I needed the basics!- I learned how to assemble different simple medical instruments, diluted one of the vaccines, and was able to give orals to the children (being Vitamin A gel and Oral Polio droplets, if you care haha). Today I did many of the same tasks but was the only non-Kenyan in the group; I really enjoyed talking to the men more and being able to ask them questions and begin learning a couple Kipsigis words. I can say them once, but I REALLY have trouble remembering them...ugh. This afternoon on my "lunch break" I just took my water bottle and camera with me and was able to take a few photos of/with the women at the clinic. They knew nothing about a camera and thought it was awesome to see the picture on the back. One man I took a picture with wanted a copy immediately; unfortunately I had to tell him I could not do that ;) This was a really great ice breaker though for a group of people that only speak Kipsigis...sometimes language barriers REALLY STINK but taking a few pictures was fun. One lady, Estell, invited me to her home, but when Alfred came to ask how far it was and to translate, we found out that is was quite far away so I could not go, but thankfully with Alfred translating, he made things clear and the decision was more reflected on him than on me- I didn't want to offend.
Something that is definately a part of the culture here is CHAI! We have tea twice a day, morning and afternoon. The past two days, our afternoon chai has been in restaurants on the way home from community health. It is just funny, because a cup of chai is 10 shillings, which would be somewhere around $.15. I thought of fifteen cents compared to my like $5 typical Bigby/Starbucks treat and could only laugh. One thing though, you always here those stories of people drinking coffee in foreign countries and having their glass refilled over and over; well, today in the White Hotel, I had to learn to be strategic in my chai drinking. My glass was refilled once, and from then on... I casually watched the waitor as he made rounds and when he would near my table, I would take a sip, assuring that my glass was not on the table at the time he came. Yes, this was not the best thing I could have done-but at the time, it is what I did.
And as far as lessons learned from this trip... I cannot tell you what they will be, but I do know that God is frustrating me in ways that I would have never expected and has much different (and I am sure much greater) plans that I had ever imagined.
Praise the Lord that I have been able to have my computer and the internet both function long enough to write this blog.
Hope you are doing well; I would LOVE to hear from anyone who reads this!
I will write soon and hopefully put up pictures; tomorrow morning I leave for an overnight Safari! -Adios all.

***These are some of the women from the clinic today. The picture below is from a walk with Michael and Aliya today near the compound.

So this is Africa.

Well, this won't be poetic or probably even using proper grammar, but I will give a quick update of our events so far. The travelling here consisted of 3 airplanes, no misses flights, and only one engine repair (which apparently was a long 2 hours for everyone else, but I slept). We arrived in Nairobi Sunday night [which would have been Sunday afternoon or evening for you; we are 7 hours ahead of MI time]. We stayed two nights in Nairobi and relaxed, doing more touristy yet fun things around town. We saw baby elephants, warthogs, a couple rhinos (one Aliya named Jim), and fed giraffes. At the elephant place, I saw monkey's in a tree, that was purdy cool! We went out to lunch at a really nice outdoor restaurant that day, and our afternoon was spent at Kazuri Beads. This is somewhere that had been recommended for me to see, yet I did not think we would go, so I was very excited to see Kazuri. It is a ministry where single mothers are provided with work, and they make beaded jewelry and pottery. The whole process is very open to visitors, so we saw the clay to the molding, where they fire, paint, ect...
So anyway, around the city, it was not too different, because it was still a city BUT there were some fun sights, like men herding goats or cows along side the road, women carrying jugs of water on their head, random markets and kiosks, baboons along side the road, dangerous driving -basically just being in a foreign city :)
Ok, fast-forward to yesterday when we drove to Tenwek, which is about 3-4 hours outside of Nairobi. The nearest town to us is Bomet if you want to see kinda where I am. It was beautiful to see some of the countryside. We stopped at one point where we were able to take in the beauty of the Rift Valley. It was one of those roads along side the mountain with the valley below; we passed a huge semi-truck that on a curve had rolled and seriously could not have gotten ANY closer to rolling ALL the way down the side of the mountain into the valley. But reguardless, Rift Valley- gorgeous!- even though pictures don't look that amazing. After this, we continued driving, first in an area of great drought. This is very sad, because the people already struggle and now this. We passed one spot that was a place of government food handouts; giant white bags filled with rice. Our driver, Gerald, said that people would have walked for miles and miles to receive these handouts-so sad. But later in the drive, nearing Tenwek, things became much more green.
Ok, well let's see; now we are here! I must say that already the compound is not really anything like I had imagined it. It is much larger than I pictured and different in ways I cannot necessarily describe. Today I got a tour and saw my way around a little bit, but I still have a lot to learn about where things are and have lots I want to see! Late this morning I began working with a lady by the name of Lisa who runs all the visiting guest coordinating; she described to me all that her job entails and what she does everyday and WOW. So, I did different just following things today, helped with some filing, helped to sort through "application" type packets for future doctors-small tasks to help her be [hopefully] more efficient. Tomorrow I am going out with Community Health to fairly far away village and be gone all day. I may be organizing vaccines or holding screaming babies while they are given immunization, but I am excited to see what tomorrow brings. The next few days I will be doing a lot with community health and just see from there when they have need for more people; starting the 8th a group of student nurses will be around helping in that area. Other tasks I will be doing will be making rounds with chaplains (probably what I am most nervous about because being in the hospital and around all the medical is not my strong point at all, just getting the tour today was somewhat difficult) and I may be doing some just excel type number entry things for one of the permanent staff surgone. A lot of my schedule is just day to day though, which we will have to just figure out as time goes on :)
So yes, sorry for this not being thought out or profound in any way, but we are doing well. Evenings are the roughest for me with feeling the time difference. Anna and Michael are struggling with sleep deprevation, but for the most part everyone has been healthy and happy.
Hopefully I will be able to write on here again soon, but the internet is unpredictable...so hope to hear from you, feel free to comment and email.
Adios and God bless :)
Psalm 145!!!

Open our eyes...to reality.

While reading in 2 Kings 6 today, I came across a story from Elisha's life that really struck me. Some men were searching for him to capture him and had surrounded the city of Dothan (where he was) during the night; his servant woke up early the next morning and basically freaked out [definately the natural thing to do, freak out and say, what are we going to do?!?] Soo 2 Kings 6:16-17 is Elisha's response, "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
After this, the passage goes on to Elisha asking God to take away all the men's sight and he makes them think they are in the wrong city ect, -just read the chapter from the Word, it's sweet!-
One random thought about this passage: I thought it fit purdy well to the theme/title of my blog, "Abre mis ojos"
But this passage is just so cool, because it shows the reality of the super-natural and God's abiding presence. The theme at camp this summer is Stand, based off of Ephesians 6:10-20. We need to put on the armor of God to stand against the devil's schemes and need to remember "our struggle is not against flesh and blood". Elisha knew that crisis he was encountering was not only what it appeared to be from a physical point of view. He saw the larger picture and prayed that his servant's eyes would be opened to those who were with them! Remembering our struggle is not against flesh and blood can go both ways of seeking the Lord's super-natural help [maybe it won't be hills full of horses and chariots of fire, but He is in control], but we also need to remember that Satan is alive and roaming, looking for every opportunity to make us Christians ineffective in the Lord's work.
p.s. I love that Elisha is almost always referred to as "the man of God", and yes, I realize this was in the OT times and was a prophet of God...but I still think it's ok to ask, what do I need to do to stand out and be referred to as, "a woman of God"?

Here I go...and here I come!

I love the Senior Staff this year! Everyone moved in a couple weeks ago, and I have loved the community developing already. Our first day of the real camp season begins tomorrow, so that is very exciting, but the awesome part of training and guest group weeks are that we are all living in the staff house together still :)
I have loved the evenings of swimming at the lake, fishing, worship times, and lots of talking and prayer. Two things that strike me and excite me the most about our staff is commitment to prayer and a steadfastness to the Word. Last summer I grew a lot and thought according to the Bible and through an eternal perspective more than any time in my life, but this year I am learning a ton about the power of pray and about community. This past semester at school I was really lacking community and felt like a part of myself died a bit, the past few weeks have brought a lot of healing. Another thing that made me feel so much more alive in the past week was going to work in downtown South Bend last weekend at a ministry for people trying to get a new start to life. I have missed Lizzy and the other kids in Grand Rapids and missed going downtown to meet with the homeless in GR also, so serving in South Bend with our staff was an awesome opportunity. I played with a little girl and little boy who did my hair, played with action figures, and just made my week! There was karaoke going on a lot of the time we were inside which was a ton of fun to sing along and dance with the kids too.

Ok, well I rambled there a lot, but the title of this is "Here I go...and here I come!"
I have been at camp and loving that (other than some long, stressful days lol), but a week from today I fly out! I am going to Kenya and cannot wait to see God working and to witness the church fully alive in Africa. I will write updates on here often and would love for your support through many and constant prayers! God [through the awesome body of Christ] has already fully provided for my financial support!!!!!! I will be working in the business office at Tenwek Hospital compound assisting the lady who organizing everything having to do with the guests coming to serve at the compound. I will also be working with the community help group, the local school and orphanage, and helping to teach a Sunday School once or twice too. There are many opportunities presented within the hospital that I may encounter that I could really use extra prayers for... I will have the opportunity to make rounds with a chaplian, sit with individuals while they pass from this life into the next, and may even have to do small tasks to help out if there is a large accident while I am there(bus accidents are common there). Needless to say, it is uncertain what I will experience and can only rely on Christ for strength for everything. Also, a very basic thing to know in my head but when working through it, the language barrier I know will be very frustrating when I just want to be able to connect with the Kipigis and other local people in Kenya.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the blah blah blahness of anything I write on this blog. Have a great day. Keep smiling and strive to be blameless until the day of Christ's return!