Kenya 08

Open House

2008-08-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that we have our open house this Sunday, Aug 3 at our house. The video is done and we are setting aside the afternoon to talk about Kenya with anyone who wants to hear more! If you need directions, let me know, my e-mail is SOler1218@aol.com.

message in church

2008-07-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

I'm sure there is some cool way to make a link, but if you go to www.fvcc.com and click on sermon archives, you can hear what we said on Sunday. The sermon is called Pass it On. There is an introduction by Dan Fields, our pastor, and then a prayer session at the end. They taped the second service version. You'll have to imagine the photos that were showing, but there you go!

2008-07-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the prayers if you're still reading this and praying. We spoke at church yesterday and it went well. We were able to communicate a little bit of our experience and I think it got some people interested in the work, missions, etc. At any rate, we didn't mess up, choke up or flounder badly, so we're considering it a success! There was also an extended time of prayer for the Crums and the mission to the Maasai, so that was great!

most beautiful things we saw

2008-07-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

here's the next one of our lists...

Breathtaking

Blue Lagoon- this beach was just a short walk from Turtle Bay and one of the most beautiful beaches I've been on

Rift Vally- the first view of this huge valley is breathtaking. You come out of Nairobi and then there it is! I wish I knew how many miles you can see.

360 around Salepu’s- it felt like we were on top of the world, no other human dwellings in sight.

Loan acacia tree’s- I kept finding one more picture perfect trees that were just beautiful against the blue sky

Single Maasai in red- we didn't get a good picture to some out of this. The Maasai herdsmen wear bright red and they stand out against the yellows of the grasses.

Out of Africa view point- no wonder they made the movie here!

Traditional housing- these huts are dark and smoky, but they sure are pretty from the outside.

Most significant moments

2008-07-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here's another list, these are things that really were emotionally meaningful to us

Significant moments

Meeting the cow named "Helper" at Ole' Salepu's home. We had helped in a cattle replacement program in 1999, and then we actually "met" one of the cows that was purchased with that money.

Meeting people in Kajiado who didn’t starve- the FVCC Easter offering was for drought relief in 2006. We met women and children who were helped, some of those kids might not have made it without the relief from the American churches. Wow.

Bracelet from Daniel Tuke’s arm- our host took his bracelet off his arm, it took a lot of soap and water to get it off, then put it on Kevin's arm, which also wasn't easy, as a thank you /friendship gesture.

Getting to know the Maasai team personally- Now Jeff and Tami Brown and the Cazier family are not just names on a newsletter, we know them, know their voices, parts of their stories, have been in some of their homes, etc. What a neat group of people committed to serving God in Kenya!

Big World/Small world at Turtle Bay- people from many nations/Wheaton connection- see Thursday for the Wheaton story, but it was so cool to be with people from Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Scotland, etc. and hear their stories, and compare our lives and our experiences in Kenya.

Augustin and Lister’s hospitality- They were such gracious hosts, gave us lunch and friendship, opened up their home and allowed us into their lives for a short time. Agustin was such a blessing, his smiling face was so fun to see each morning at the Crum's house and we loved listening to him talk.

Conversation with Salepu looking at pictures- listening to his comments, his questions about the US, making connections with someone who lives a very different lifestyle from ours, but is a brother in Christ.

Call to Worship- these 4 or 5 women started singing REALLY LOUD, and it really was the call to worship, people started coming from all over and it was the sound of the singing that let them know it was time for church under that tree.

Guy at Gate knowing Dan- we were out in the middle of the plains, not exactly sure where we were , stopped at a gate and when Dan introduced himself as Ole Kijabe, the guy's face lit up. This man had been at a seminar at the CMF training facility and knew Dan or knew of Dan.

Connie’s prayer at Kawai- We stopped for a time of prayer before we left the area where Dan and Connie had raised their kids and where one of the churches is now located. Lots of emotions surround that area, hope, fond memories, loss, etc.

Flat tire- when we were near the Mara river, one of the tires went flat. Dan travels with 2 spares, thankfully, and while he and Kevin changed it, the girls all walked down to the river. It was a beautiful area and it was interesting to see how this one boy just sat and watched them change the tire. It was also an illustration of the many skills a missionary must have!

Pulling everyone into the back of the Land cruiser on the way to church- we picked up a number of women and children, who just piled in with Paige and Rachel, everyone on their way to church and they were just as curious about Paige as she was about them.

Conversations Paige saying “this is legit”- in the morning after we had stayed at Salepu's home, the girls were walking back from finding a "bush" and Paige made the observation that this wasn't a living diorama, a weekend outing of camping or put on for tourists.. this is how these people live their lives everyday of the year.

Chatting with the Chief- we met William Karose, who is now chief over 1000s of Maasai. He speaks very good English and is a Christian. What an opportunity for spreading the gospel!

explaining the links

2008-07-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

I'll explain the links I"ve added. Amani Ya Juu is a place that works with women who have been in difficult circumstances. They use fabric arts as both a way to heal and a way to make an income. The website tells it better. We met Rachel who works for them in the US. She and her husband are Wheaton College grads and were at Turtle Bay when we stayed there. (here we were having dinner by the Indian Ocean, we are sitting with the Bells, he's from Canada and she's from the US, they lived in Japan for the past 12 years, and now live in Kenya, they start talking about their days at Wheaton, and Rachel and her husband overhear us and introduce themselves. People are here from all over the world, and the 6 of us have all lived in Chicago's western suburbs) We went there to shop, actually the girls shopped and they have a nice place to have coffee for the husbands. They had some wonderful fabric kids books that I would have gotten if I was buying for a toddler!

The Sudan Project is a medical mission. We met Charity, who is working in Sudan setting up a hospital, also at Turtle Bay. Her stories of the need, the complications of trying to work through the Sudanese bureaucracy, etc. were really fascinating. She's an amazing young woman, who is also a fun water polo player.

The Nest Halfway House is the orphanage we went to visit. They have a few different kinds of ministry there, some with women who are in prison or are recently released and need some time to bond with their children. They also have orphans who are available for adoption. Again, the site explains it better if you're curious.

I also included a link to Olare Safari camp, which is where we stayed. It's kind of a middle of the road camp as luxury goes. It was way nicer than I was anticipating, the food was great and I really enjoyed having my own bathroom in the tent, but one near Ole Salepu's called Kichwa Tembo has an option of having a private butler who comes with the tent. Now, that's a luxury camp!

church report

2008-07-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have asked when they can see more photos, here's an answer! Kevin, Paige and I will be speaking in church this Sunday, July 20. We will talk at both services, the 8:45 am and the 10 am. I think we have 12 minutes, the whole service will be missions focused. We will report on some specific projects that Fox Valley Christian Church gave money for in Kenya, report on the mission in general and show some more photos. I'm not sure if we're going to show video yet.

On Sunday, August 3, we will be talking to the older children in their Sunday School class, during the 10 am hour. I think that's first through fifth grades.

Sunday, August 3, we will have an open house at our home, with LOTS of pictures, things we brought back, etc. By that point I'll have finished the final edit on the video. I have it down to about 35 minutes now. I'm not sure yet on the times for the open house, check here later or contact us and ask or just show up sometime in the afternoon/early evening. If you show up early, we will put you to work and if you're late, we may have you help clean up.

I have a Kodak Gallery slide show online now, but it's got 250 photos on it, including captions. I'm putting together a shorter version, but it's not quite ready. If you really want to see all 25o, let me know and I'll send you the link.

So, EVERYONE who is interested is welcome to come to the church service or our open house!!! Kids, adults, friends, co-workers, whoever. We are not going to ask anyone for donations, so don't worry about that, we just would love to tell anyone who is interested more about what we learned and experienced in Kenya.

Things that surprised us

2008-07-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

We were surprised by some things on our trip. This list is things we didn't expect, or at least one of us was surprised by.

Surprises

Kikoy tailoring- it was less expensive to have custom pants made for Paige at the beach than to buy them in a store in Nairobi. We took a Kikoy, basically a large piece of fabric with a fringed edge, and the lady at the beach had that made into really cute capris for Paige, for about $4.50 labor cost. Since it was so affordable, she got shorts too!

Jungle in Nairobi- there is a downtown part with tall buildings and parking lots, but there is a LOT of Nairobi that is very green, wooded, etc. You wouldn't know you were in a major city.

Cell phones everywhere- even the people out in the bush, with no electricity or running water had cell phones. They go into town to charge them.

Cool mall (village market)- it would be a big hit in St. Charles!

Airport and mall security- by the end of the trip, we were used to all the guys with AK47s, but it surprised us at first!

How bad the roads really were- even major roads were VERY bumpy

Security in Malindi- that tiny airport had a big X-ray machine for our bags, etc. but if you just walked about the building, you were out on the runway, along with the dogs, chickens, etc. and could walk right into the departure lounge.

Primitive kitchens- in the training centers, the kitchen was a counter, a sink (not necessarily with running water) and drain and a few open shelves.

Dressed up and dignity- People in Nairobi wear suits and dresses, very dressed up in their best clothing, even if they live in a slum, they dress up for work or going to town

Friendliness - the passport people, the security checkers, the cab drivers, all wanted to know how we liked their country and hoped we would come back. The Crum's friends welcomed us into their homes, just a gracious as could be.

Turning on water heaters and electric outlets- there are switches on the outlets to turn them on, and the water heaters have switches, like light switches on the wall, to turn them on and off.

Paige found monkeys creepy- they were on the roof at the Crums, at the tent camp, at the resort, kind of all over.

The # of Kenyan men who live far away from families- many men work in Nairobi, but their families live "up country" and they only go visit occasionally

Milk comes in plastic bags at the grocery, you clip off the corner and pour it and soda was very inexpensive

Birds sounds - there was a bird that sounds just like an alarm clock

RED dirt- it was everywhere!

Amount of corn, and number of goats and cows

Quantity and mixture of animals- zebras, baboons, warthogs, wildebeest, all hang around together.

Animals inside vs outside the park- we saw more animals out in the wild before we were on the Maasai Mara property. The animals don't know or care where the boundaries are, they just roam

Paying the park fee’s, there was great confusion over paying to go into the parks- one guy came to the tent camp and got us out of bed to pay some park fees, but then another guy came in the morning and said we should pay him, not the guy from the night before. They need a better system there.

70 churches 20 buildings in the CCC, Maasai church.

No paid pastors, they serve as volunteers

CMF helps with 50% of church building costs, that way the local church has ownership of the building, they have invested in it.

Some of our lists

2008-07-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

Jet lag really caught up with me, and then I spent 3 days sorting photos and video. I managed to narrow it down to our favorite 250 pictures - thank you Kodak for timing your print sale for us.. and then edited the video down to much less than an hour. Nobody needs to see it all, even us! That's the first cut, we will continue to make it shorter so we can share our experiences without boring people!

Top 10 +1 (no particular order)

1. Lion (see Monday's post)

2. Our stay with Ole Salepu

3. Listening to Dan Speak Maa

4. Landscape - Kenya is so beautiful!

5. Getting to know the CMF Maasai Team ( including getting to know the Crums better!)

6. Listening to hippos and lions while we slept

7. Going to lunch at Augustin's Home

8. The Nest, orphanage in Nairobi

9. Turtle Bay

10. Giraffe Farm

11. Church Under the tree

And then here's our list of interesting facts....

Facts

70% of Nairobi's population live in slums; there are over 1million in one particular slum.

Cultural difficulties exist for adoption in Kenya- there is no socially acceptable way for a mother to safely give her baby up for adoption, so many are just abandoned.

We saw first hand the importance of infrastructure-roads, water, electricity, communication.

Cheap labor leads to short term thinking- why buy a jackhammer when for less money you can hire 30 guys to break up the old road with sledgehammers.

Everybody was selling something-our favorite was the guy on the road to the airport that was always there selling wall sized world maps.... like you're just going to be sitting in traffic and decide... HEY, I need a HUGE map.

The traffic in Nairobi is chaos. After a certain hour, everyone just ignores red lights, round abouts might not be the answer, speed bumps really do slow down traffic, but they are painful if you don't see them in time, there are no lane markings so you just make a lane wherever, and they don't seem to have rules of the road, more like suggestions...Cars have the right of way over people- so watch out!

Intelligent and happy people can live in very primitive conditions and be content.

Africa can be quite chilly during the US summer.

The CDC in Atlanta provided blood chemistry machines at a little rural clinic - our tax dollars at work actually saving lives in Africa!

first two of top 10 (plus one)

2008-07-07T02:15:00.000-07:00

We have our top 10 (plus 1) list and I think I'll just write about a couple each day. Here are the first two, in no particular order.

1. Lion- the first morning at the tent camp, we opted to skip breakfast, take boxed lunches and get out to look for wildlife at sunrise. We didn’t go immediately into the Maasai Mara park itself, but just across a small river behind our camp. Right away, there was a family of elephants! The baby was shy, but the others just kind of ignored us. We followed some tracks, not exactly roads, but obviously places where other vehicles had been. I hadn’t spotted much of the wildlife, the Crums had eyes trained to look for them and Kevin is always a great wildlife spotter, but I found the first lion. She was sitting on a little raised mound of dirt and staring intently into the distance. We watched her for a while, and then drove to a spot where we could be closer. I anticipated that animals would leave when they realized you were watching them, but some, like this lion, just pretty much ignore people and vehicles! At that moment I was SO glad we’d gotten the new video camera with the long zoom! After a while, she got up and started walking away. We followed her at a distance and when she settled down, we stopped to watch. She started to roar and eventually another lioness showed up.

They were so beautiful, and since they were active we decided to just stay, eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwich breakfast and see what happened. At one point, Rachel asked her parents if she could get out of the land cruiser and stand in the window on the opposite side of the vehicle from where the lions were. She slipped out the window and then could see over the top. The lioness turned to look at Rachel, licked her lips as if to say, “I could change my breakfast plans you know”, and Rachel slipped right back in.

A while later, the lioness got up and started walking straight at us. She just moved alongside the land cruiser, close enough that if we would have opened the door, we would probably have bumped her with it! They were tracking a wildebeest on the opposite ridge, Paige named him “Wilber” and we were kind of rooting for him to wise up and not come close, but we were also kind of thinking that it would be interesting to watch a kill. One of the lionesses went off into the distance and they roared back and forth for a while. Eventually the other one went off into an area that it would have been hard to follow and we moved on. We found another safari vehicle and we joined them to watch a male and female lion, and later some other lionesses, and while that was neat, the whole encounter with “our lioness” was about the most magical wildlife hour of our trip.

2. Listening to hippos and lions while we slept

When we traveled to the Maasai Mara area, we stayed in a tent camp called Olare. Finding the camp was an adventure as the “roads” are more like tracks through the grass and the signage consists of a rock now and then painted with a camp name and an arrow if you are lucky.

The tents were on a concrete platform and had complete bathrooms in each tent. The showers were great, but we had to wait until they turned the hot water on at 6:30 pm and the electricity was only on from 7-9:30 pm. The beds were like a 4 poster style with beautiful mosquito nets. The entire camp was surrounded by an electric fence, so the animals are free to roam wherever, but we were caged up. We stayed two nights and the second night, our party of 6 filled up the only 3 tents occupied in the entire camp. There were probably 30 tents total. The food was amazing, quite elaborate meals fixed out in the “middle of nowhere”. The dining tent faced the river and monkeys played in the area right outside, Paige was very creeped out by the monkeys! When we slept, we could hear the animals right outside, some of them were less than 100 yards from our beds. We came to recognize the voices of the hippo, and the lion and even though the elephants were less than ¼ mile away, we weren’t sure we heard them. The night was VERY
dark, and that night we were VERY aware that we were far from home!

reactions to re-entry

2008-07-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

Now that we've been home for a few days, it's starting to feel normal to be here, but we are all missing Africa. We find ourselves going on the Turtle Bay website to hear the sounds of singing in Swahili, (if you go to the Turtle Bay link and then look for videos people have posted, there is one called Chuck the Duck visits Turtle Bay and the music is great!) we have had trouble explaining to people how different life in Kenya was for us and we are rather overwhelmed with all there is to do to catch up here. Grant did a great job keeping the house together, so we didn't have to deal with lawn mowing, cleaning or buying groceries immediately, but now I have a "to do list" again that kind of frightens me! ( I can't figure out how to turn off the underline, sorry!)

Reactions to re-entry

We have to look for toilet handles again-opposite side

The showers are hot, strong and immediate

The beds are soft

The bird sounds are different

Yogurt and cereal taste “normal”

Driving is weird- we'd gone 3 weeks without being behind the wheel

Almost everyone is white and speaks “American English”- we really miss the diversity!

The medicine is stronger, fixing my itchy skin

The internet is FAST

we have independence, we can go where we want, when we want

there is lots of media NOISE

our alert level went way down

we have lots of space

we can be out of each other’s sight for more than a few minutes

lightening bugs

blueberries and strawberries taste delicious

toilet paper is soft

back to the states...

2008-07-05T02:23:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it home and British Airways assures us that the remaining two pieces of our luggage will be right behind us and come to our house by 6 on Saturday If you're going to lose luggage, that last flight is the one you can afford to lose them on, so we're all good. During our 5 hours in London's Heathrow airport, we sat at Starbucks and debriefed. We made lists.... The top 10 things (actually, we had to make it 11 as we couldn't leave any of those out) funniest moments, interesting things we learned, most beautiful things we saw, most significant moments, frustrating things, surprising things, random wonderful things, etc. Once those are edited, we will post some of them.

It was great to see the boys again!!! They both met us a the airport with a surprise...new haircuts. They said that since the house was intact, they didn't damage the cars, Grant didn't spend all the money we left, etc. they needed some way to shock us.

Now we're just trying to get sorted out and back on the Central time zone. We managed to head over to the Harks house for a 4th of July get together and we even stayed up for fireworks, but now I'm awake in the middle of the night, sorting through the volumes of e-mails, etc. that have been ignored while we were gone.

Thanks so much for your prayers for our safety. We are very thankful to be home and together with all 5 of us here! more later...I'm going to try to get back to sleep before the sun comes up!

almost ready to leave

2008-07-03T04:17:00.000-07:00

Our time at the coast was so relaxing and fun. We switched over to a beach schedule, woke to put on our swim suits and only really got dressed for dinner. We met so many interesting people from all over the world! Some favorite moments included Paige playing water polo, watching a group of acrobats who presented the evening entertainment at Turtle Bay, and the last morning we had a group of Kenyan young men took us on a walk on the reef at low tide. They showed us star fish, crabs, jellyfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and the highlight was the family of eels. If you put a piece of sausage on a stick, you can entice them out of their holes; that was SO fun to see. We went snorkeling in a marine park too! We worked on our Swahili phrases and just enjoyed this beautiful part of Kenya.

For our last full day in Nairobi, we did the more typical tourist things; we went to the Giraffe Farm, the Elephant orphanage and then ate lunch at the Carnivore.

This has really been a “trip of a lifetime” and when we look at the pictures from 21 days ago, it seems like ages, so much has happened. We’ve learned so much, met so many wonderful people, seen things that are beautiful, sad, thrilling, life affirming, fun and shocking. Condensing it into any kind of a manageable way to communicate it is going to be a real trick! We’ve taken over 2000 photos, hours of video and purchased a good number of things to remember our visit by. Somehow we will clip it down so we can share it with other people and not have them fall asleep or zone out. We do have our 109 favorite photos selected, so that’s a start!

We leave late on July 3 and arrive home the afternoon of July 4. It’s a trip of about 30 hours door to door, so we probably won’t be in very good shape to visit with for a few days!

Turtle Bay

2008-06-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

We are at Turtle Bay, it's a beautiful all inclusive resort on the Indian Ocean. Ironically we just met the Crum's neighbors, the Bell family. They are staying here too. This picture is Saturday morning on a beach walk.

Indian Ocean now

2008-06-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of the three of us with some children at “The Nest”. It’s a home for children run by a German woman and it’s just outside the Crum’s neighborhood entrance. Kevin is holding Paul, I’m holding Kate and Paige has Cynthia. There were 9 babies the first day we were there and 10 or 11 the second time we went. Most of them are available for adoption, the stories of their young lives were very sad, but they are happy well cared for babies now. Faith, the woman who takes care of the babies is amazing and obviously loves them very much. We had a long conversation with Salome, the nurse in the facility, about adoption laws and practices in Kenya and the US. It was fun to play with them in the sunshine and just love them for a while. It was also hard to leave!

This is a photo at the Ethiopian restaurant that is the Crum’s favorite. It was a new cuisine for all of us and I don’t know the correct names for everything we ate. You have this huge tray with lots of delicious food, and you use rolls of a bread like substance, tear off little pieces of it and then use it to pick up a bite of goat meat, or beef or a humus like mixtures, etc. It was interesting, filling and I’d eat it again.

We made it to Turtle Bay on the Indian Ocean. We had a flight scheduled to Malindi, which is very close, but they canceled that and put us on a flight to Mombassa. Then Kenya Airways put 14 of us on a bus to the Malindi, but dropped us off at the resort, it took about two hours and Paige learned that pineapples grow in plants instead of on trees! It's pretty here and we're getting oriented. The food is good, the people friendly, but we're starting to miss American English!

2008-06-24T04:37:00.000-07:00

ok, a few more pictures.. the African night

This is one of the houses where we stayed overnight in the bush. It was full of goats, children, women, dogs, a kitten while dinner was cooking!

These loan acacia trees are so beautiful. We kept taking photos of them.

did I ever say that Paige got better? She's fine now. I have little red spots all over me, the thought is that they are grass flea bites. I hope they get better before we get to the coast and I want to wear a swimsuit. I might frighten small children! :)

Today we are going to a place called "the nest" to rock babies.

2008-06-23T05:28:00.000-07:00

This is the church choir singing a special song

This is Paige and Rachel walking to the Mara river when we had a flat tire

The animals all showed up for this photo!

This is dinner at the tent camp outside the Mara

This lioness got REALLY close to our car, and yes... we all stayed inside the vehicle!

This is the landrover. We've spent LOTS of time in this vehicle! Dan can make it go anywhere, the roads here are REALLY rough, most you wouldn't even consider roads!

Sorry that the composition of this page is kind of weird, but we're always in a hurry with our internet time! I'll straighten it up when I get home! You don't realize what a luxury it is to have safe water to drink out of the tap, electricity that works and internet that is always available!

monday

2008-06-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

Photo captions.

1. Sandy, Kevin and Paige with Daniel Tuke, his wife Jennifer, three of his 11 children and another man named Daniel who is kind of training under Daniel Tuke. This is their home where we ate lunch after church

2.Church under a tree, Kevin and I were asked to speak and we brought greetings from our church to theirs.

3. Paige inside Nolkiraou’s house. It’s hard to tell how DARK it was in there because the flash lights it up. There were lots of children, women, goats, dogs and a cat in there while dinner was being cooked

Today, Monday, is a catch up day in Nairobi. We slept in late and Connie did some errands while we stayed home. Our weekend was very full. Saturday, we visited Augustin, who works as a house helper in the Crum’s home. He and his wife, Lister, and daughters, Sylvia and Lorna, live in Kangemi Centre. It’s a slum area of Nairobi and he lives in a three story building that houses 50 families. Each family had two rooms that open onto a central stairwell open area. It was laundry day so we walked under LOTS of laundry hung out to dry! The girls’ cousin Vivian, a neighbor, Enoch, another cousin and sister-in-law, and a few other people popped in to say hi. The little girls loved playing with Paige and Rachel’s long hair and playing with the digital camera and checking out their pictures. It was fun to get to know them in their home setting, to realize how hard their lives are, but how much they are trying to make a better life for their children. Both Augustin and Lister are hard workers, responsible parents, etc. but they have a struggle to pay the girls school fees and ever get ahead. The community supports each other, watching each other’s children, borrowing dishes when someone has company, etc. and they live near a lot of family, but they miss their extended family who live out in their home area of the country. We have been honored by the invitation into many homes of those who have very little, but are glad to share what they have and give visitors the best seat, the first food and their gift of friendship. I don’t think anyone can come away from an experience like this and not be changed. Check out Paige’s blog for her impression of our day on Sunday! I’ve resized a few of our favorite photos, so hopefully I can post those and you can get a better idea of what we’ve been doing!

nairobi

2008-06-21T02:17:00.000-07:00

We're back in Nairobi and having a quiet relaxed morning. Connie and Dan are meeting with some teammates and Rachel drove us over to Roslyn Academy where we ran on the track and worked with weights. That felt good, getting some exercise. Paige is helping with household chores. We have taken over 1000 photos, between our two cameras and some of the pictures look like encyclopedia pictures, but we really did take them!

I'm covered with little red spots at this point. Dan thinks it's grass fleas. He has some too. We got some antihistime ointment and I'm taking an antihistimine, so I'll survieve, but I'm glad I'm not wearing shorts and tank tops.

The weather is like camping in the summer on a cool day. It's like 65-68, drizzles and good bit and is overcast. The bush are was warm and sunny, but here things stay kind of damp and cool.

One thing we've noticed here is that there are people wandering all over at all times of day. Everyone is outside walking around or watching other people walking around. It's not like the suburbs in the states where you see houses but no people! We also noticed the guys in fatigues with machine guns over their shoulders at the mall, but we didn't take their pictures. They might not like that and I'm not going to clash with them!

The internet is on and off all day, so I'll try to send this now.

back from the bush

2008-06-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

If I wrote all my impressions of the last 5 days, I’d be here all day and no one could read it all!

A day in the home of Ole’Salepu was an experience I’ll never forget. His land is at the top of a ridge, with a view 360 degrees around. We arrived just before the cows started to come home, had a wonderful dinner of rice and potatoes and chatted with Salepu and his wife, through Dan and Connie as interpreters. Connie knows a lot of Maa, the local language, but Dan speaks it almost like a local. We enjoyed many cups of chai, the beverage of tea, whole milk straight from the cow, and sugar. As Paige says, we can say was spent the night in a Maasai home, but it wouldn’t be exactly accurate to say we slept in there. We shared beds, but in a different environment, with unusual sounds, smells, etc. our senses had a hard time turning off for sleep. It was SO worth losing a night of sleep to share this experience though!

Another highlight was our day of game viewing. We got up early, took our boxed lunches and headed out to look for wildlife. We found a family of elephants less than a ¼ mile from our camp. The baby was very shy and kind of hid from us. Not much farther away we found our first lioness. She was sitting on a small mound and watching intently into the distance. What amazed us the whole day was how unaffected the animals were by our presence. Other than the baby elephant and the hyena, most of the animals just went about their business. The lioness started calling to her friend, another lioness who arrived after a bit. We probably stayed to watch them for an hour and at one point they walked within 6 feet of the land rover! It was amazing to watch God's creatures in their natural habitat.

The tent camp was neat, we had full bathrooms in our tents, wonderful food and we could hear the lions roar and the hippos grunt or growl (Paige speaks fluent hippo now) while we were falling asleep. The camp had an electric fence around it that at least gives you the illusion of security!

We're paying a good bit for internet time, so no pictures until we return!

We have been negotiating in the marketplace, spending Kenyan shillings by the thousands. I have some vague idea of what things are costing!

We go tomorrow to a Kenyan home and then on Sunday to another Maasai area for worship. What a great culture, we're enjoying soaking it all in.

We are finally adjusted to the time zone and for the most part are sleeping well. What a difference that makes!

We will have great stories and pictures and video to share when we return. We think of our friends and family in the US often!!! HI to you all.

2008-06-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

London blog:

Hilton: best breakfast we’ve ever had, really, and we’ve had some nice ones!
Double Decker busses: great way to see London, cheap and manageable for us.
Sites we saw walked to: Piccadilly Circus, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Fountain, Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abby, The Mall, River Themes, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Horse Guards, Scotland Yard: rode past the London Eye, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, Notting Hill neighborhood, probably more but I can’t remember now.

Things that were interesting/fun to notice: London Black Taxis, Look Left signs on the street, Telephone booths, fashionable clothing, dogs off leash, everyone drinking a pint on the street outside the pub after work.

People we had conversations with were from Morocco, Brazil, Afghanistan.

Things we actually did: see Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Seurat, Cezanne and Turner paintings at the National Gallery, eat fish and chips in a wonderful old pub, ride the tube (subway), ride a double decker bus, walk, walk, get lost, walk, enjoy experiencing a brief taste of London and get a bit of the time adjustment and the jet lag out of the way.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Our first full day in Kenya. We had a good night’s rest and felt pretty good after a shower this morning. After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, yogurt, mango and granola, we went on errands with Connie. Our impressions of Nairobi, much more hilly and jungle like or tropical than we expected. It’s a huge city, but if you just plopped us down in the middle we might think we were on St. Croix with the mix of regular western style buildings, little places of business where people are selling baskets, bananas, carved art, etc. right next to the steet. Paige wanted to bring home some puppies a man was holding out for sale by the side of the road. There were cars on the left side of the road, a rather ill defined traffic pattern that looks like chaos to us. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here and we have to remember that! We also stopped at a mall that would fit in beautifully in St. Charles, lovely landscaping, outdoor ponds, stairways, tropical flowers and stores full of beautiful things! We ran into some of the CMF teammates there, the Browns and Caziers and Rachel saw some teachers from school, and it has a nice neighborhood market feeling. We changed money, went to a supermarket and enjoyed seeing similarities and differences there. The only thing we’ve purchased so far was medicine for Paige. She’s suffering from a sore throat, congestion, headache, etc. and we got “Day Nurse/Night Nurse”. It’s like a Nyquil day and night package that we can buy in the states and it was actually less expensive or about the same price as I’d expect to pay at home. Please pray that she feels better soon! She’s a trooper and hanging in there, but she’s not herself and wants to feel better! While Kevin and Paige took an afternoon nap, I woke up from a shorter nap and went for a walk with the Crum ladies in the neighborhood. One of the things we find amusing is the housing under construction. The houses in the neighborhood and big and beautiful, but while building these concrete structures, the “scaffolding” is made of what looks like sticks held together by twine.

We had our “opening of the suitcases” and brought out two huge laundry buckets of the things that people sent over with us. That was really fun. One of the things that I intended to do and didn’t was to bring a church directory. Connie and Dan remember a number of names from FVCC, but a photo directory would have been helpful. Rachel was delighted to have all the gum she will be able to enjoy, the treats from home will be much appreciated and I realized why the DVD’s are especially enjoyed, they don’t have TV service at home, so it’s just a VCR/DVD player if you want to watch something. I like the lower level of electronic entertainment, but I admit that I’d suffer from internet withdrawal! The connection speed here is slow and the service goes out frequently while you are online. We hope to stop by Java House, a near by coffee house, where the internet is wireless and free to load this blog entry.

When we were packing, Connie told me it would be cool. I believed her in my head, but I was still surprised by how cool it is. I’ve worn my light weight jacket almost constantly since I got here. I’ll be fine, but I wish I’d left in that other pair of long pants and skipped the other pair of shorts! I will be glad I brought my fleece vest, which seemed really silly to bring to Africa!

Connie made her tortillas and we had a delicious taco dinner complete with guacamole made from avocados from the avocado tree in their yard, as we watched Lord of the Rings on video, Kevin is the only Oler that managed to stay awake for the whole thing; we’re still adjusting to the time. I’m writing this at 1 am Sunday morning, 5 pm Saturday in the states. Daylight savings makes it 8 hours difference from St. Charles, rather than the 9 I thought it was. I slept for three hours, then fell awake, hopefully I’ll get back to sleep soon. My pattern at home is similar, so, I’m not too worried.

First Leg

2008-06-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

We made it to london. British airways was great, as good as flying coach over night can be. We managed to take the tube to our hotel, but check Paige's blog for the whole story. Its starting to seem more funny than tragic. After a nap we saw a lot of the major london sites, from dubble decker buses and a lot of walking. Fish and chips from Alberts was very authentic. Time for bed soon! Private car to the airport tomorrow, no more getting confused on public transport!

Things are coming together

2008-06-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

Eight days until we leave and things are coming together. It's been so encouraging for us to have the support of the church body at FVCC. Most of the things from Connie's list have been purchased and dropped off. I bought a luggage scale so we can check to be sure we stay within British Airways weight limits. We can each bring two 51 pound suitcases.

According to the internet, the time difference will be 9 hours from Chicago. Nairobi is in the same time zone as Moscow. It's easier for me to change am to pm and then subtract 3, for instance I'm typing this at 8 am, and it's 5 pm in Kenya.

All our immunizations are complete, we've notified our bank and credit card companies, we have cleared off our camera memory cards, now the biggest thing on the to-do list is updating our video camera. I tried to be economical and bought a reconditioned one on E-bay. Bad idea. So, figuring it out and making a decision on a new camcorder is today's project. I suffer from paralysis by analysis, I try so hard to make a good decision that I never get one made!

2008-04-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

The countdown stands at 42 days until we leave and we're getting excited. I realized what an international world we live in when I called a Chicago phone number and talked to a customer service agent in India about our flight from Nairobi to Malindi, Kenya. We plan to have a letter out to the church on May 18th with more details about our trip. Connie has sent a list of items that can't be purchased in Kenya and we plan to take those things over with us in our suitcases. If the bags are full of instant pudding, peanut butter, sunscreen, dental floss and gifts for the Maasai people on our way over, then we have room to bring home some Kenyan items! June 1st is the sending service and a day to take an offering from the church at FVCC to the Maasai church. If you get this blog link and want the church letter sent to you by e-mail, let me know at Olermom@aol.com.

2008-03-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, we went cross country skiing with the Crum family. We met where our friendship started, in Brownsburg, Indiana, and had a delightful weekend together. Paige and Rachel enjoyed a variety of adventures during her family's year long furlough, they canoed, camped, played paintball, went spelunking, played cards and laughed for hours. During each visit, they talked about the time when Paige would visit Rachel in her home, in Kenya. Now it seems we are about the realize that long discussed dream, a trip to Africa to meet the Maasai, to visit the Crum family in their home surroundings and to experience a culture very different from our own suburban St. Charles home. This blog is going to be a way to share our experience with family and friends at home. So, this is just the test and a hint of what's to come. We leave on June 11 and arrive back in the US July 4. I anticipate that we will be changed by this trip in ways we can only imagine! Come back and check it out!

Sandy