Asante sana

"Asante sana"...means "thank you very much." Thanks for all of your prayers and words of encouragement. They mean so much and are such a vital part of our time here :)

The past few days have been a whirlwind of emotions: eye-opening, encouraging, heartbreaking, fulfilling. It is difficult to put into words how I feel right now. I know without a doubt that I belong here - that God has called me here with a purpose and a promise - but, I don't "belong" here. The Kenyan culture is so different from our brash American one, and I am learning that it will require many adjustments on my part for me to fit in so as not to hinder our ministry here. During our first orientation time Murray (the short-term coordinator for the East Regional office here in Nairobi...aka the guy who's in charge of our assignments in Kenya) and his wife Diana warned us that our actions really do speak larger than words here. The last thing we want as missionaries is to be lumped into the "tourist" crowd - loud, brash, and immodest "wazungus" (white people).

Staying here at Mayfield has been so surreal. For those of you who've never heard of it, Mayfield Guest House is a sort of sanctuary for AIM missionaries and other missionaries here in Nairobi. Missionaries come and stay here on their way into their assignment, on breaks, or as they are leaving. It's a hotel of sorts run by Kenyans who love the Lord and desire to "serve those who serve." Meals are served family-style here and the food is quite delicious. There are people from everywhere heading everywhere - I've met missionaries from South Africa, England, Holland, Canada, America heading to Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, the Comoro Islands, unnamed North African countries (they won't even tell us), South Africa...the list goes on. Most of the people here are career missionaries. I'm still getting used to the idea that for them staying here is totally normal - whether it's so they can drop their kids off at RVA (the MK school about an hour north of Nairobi) or they're stopping through on the way home (home being in Africa somewhere) from a conference in another African country. Conversations about their assignments are so interesting to listen to - people here live lives that are so out of the ordinary in Western eyes. This isn't temporary like it is for Alicia and me. This is normal for them. This is SO not normal for Alicia and me...at least not yet.

Speaking of meals, yesterday we walked into lunch late and had to sit at a table by ourselves. The array of food on the table quite confused me: rice, some sort of beef soup, what looked like really large tortilla chips, and a tray full of tomatoes, red onions, dried bananas, several other kinds of fruits, honey, and nuts. NO idea what to do with it or how to eat it. I asked one of the guys serving us the food to explain to me how we were supposed to eat the food. "You put it on your plate and you eat it!" was his reply.

Duh, Jamie.

Alicia and I just stared at each other. What to dried bananas and beef soup have in common? Everything, apparently. Some other people arrived late and sat down at our table and began to put everything I just listed in one big pile on their plates. Beef stew and mango with your rice? How about some honey too?

One last thing for now - most Kenyans I talk to have never heard of Korr. They're from Kenya...and they've never heard of Korr. We've been told that about "2,000 people get their water in Korr." Still unsure exactly what that means...guess we'll find out soon enough. We depart next Friday, September 4th from Nairobi for Korr.