He who promises is faithful.

Update

2010-05-08T17:29:00.003-05:00

Unbelievable.

I've been home 10 days, and I have a job, roommates, and a possible place to live for the next year.

We serve a really, really great God. As of Friday morning, I am the proudest new math teacher in Bryan, TX!

Through a random series of events and timings that only the Lord could orchestrate, I've got a job teaching math at my number one choice for schools. After a 15 minute interview.

FIFTEEN. MINUTES. He alone deserves the praise for this.

And I could NOT be more excited :)

Well, I'm out of shampoo...

2010-04-27T00:42:00.006-05:00

...so it must be time to head home.

Tutaonana badi Kenya.

It's been real swell.

We've had our share of differences, yes...like that time that I had dysentery or when I had to watch hunting spiders battle to the death while perched atop a chair yelling in Rendille the only expression I knew to show how much I hated it - "MADOONO!" (I don't like!). Or how we ate mutton for a straight month because we ran out of food, or when I thought I was going to die out in the bush from a growling hyena that actually turned out to be a wild dog. Also...I'm just saying, Kenya, but your so-called roads? They need just a little bit of work. I have the bruises to prove it.

But it's been so, so worth it. A GIANT blessing, actually...to be here in this crazy country with the amazing privilege of serving the Lord in a place only He, in His infinite ways, could call me to.

If you'd told me last year that I would be living in a place like Korr when I came to Africa I would've told you that you were straight-up crazy.

Except, I wouldn't trade the last 8 months for anything.

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,

we wait for you;

Your name and renown

are the desire of our hearts.

[Isaiah 26:8]

It's not a big deal, but..

2010-04-26T03:03:00.000-05:00

In the last 3 weeks I have:

- kissed a giraffe (Allen the giraffe and I are good friends now)

- pet 3 baby cheetahs at Nairobi Animal Orphanage (we were let inside the cages...while they were feeding...oops?)

- snorkeled in the Indian Ocean (we saw 3 sting rays and lots of pretty fish, but our boat driver and crew were, shall we say, shady?)

- ridden a camel (they're much taller than they look)

- rafted the Nile River (not to mention that I choked and swallowed quite a bit of it)

- seen Lake Victoria (but refused to swim in it for a variety of health reasons...)

- been on safari and seen lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, rhinos, flamingos, hippos, hyenas, jackals, water buffaloes, giraffes...

- spent some sweet time with fellow short-termers serving all over Africa and had opportunities to encourage and pray for each other

And tomorrow, I head home to a country full of properly paved roads, high speed internet access, diet dr. pepper, and more fish tacos than I could ever want to eat.

Yeah...that's going to be a weird contrast.

Saying goodbyes, Part 2

2010-04-06T16:13:00.007-05:00

I'm going to go ahead and apologize now for how scatterbrained this post will probably be.

I was doing okay. I've been saying goodbyes for the last week. So as we sat perched atop White Hill to watch the sun rise this morning - departure day - I figured I would be okay.

Ha.

We were sitting down to eat lunch today with Nick & Lynne when we heard the plane overhead. The plane that was coming to come pick us up and bring us down to Nairobi for the school holiday....the plane that I would be leaving Korr on. What to do? Solution: grab food and go. So we grab bowls, some rice, and some stew that's literally still cooking on the stove, and climb into the back of the Land Cruiser. About 10 more people jump in the back with us. I was perched on the tailgate, holding on to the side with my elbow, balancing my bowl in hand and tried to eat as we drove over the bumpy desert road to the airstrip...gives new meaning to the phrase "fast food."

We arrive at the airstrip to find that we are the only passengers on this 6-seater plane. The pilot weighs our bags and manages to fit it all as everyone who has come out to the airstrip crowds around to watch. Random Rendille kids show up. Still more people arrive, wanting to say their goodbyes to the four white women - one of whom is leaving for good.

I cannot even begin to describe how hard saying all of those goodbyes was. Students are hugging me and Rendille mamas are kissing my cheeks and showering Rendille blessings over me and I'm fine...or at least I tell myself that. Nick & Lynne embrace me in a long hug, say some things to me that I cannot remember, and suddenly it hits me that I may never see these two amazing, amazing people again and that means I may never see ANY of these people again and suddenly I'm trying to hold back my tears so that no one will see my emotions. We climb into the airplane, the pilot buckles us in and adjusts our seats according to weight so that the plane can take off. It feels like everything is in a haze. A few of our students have their faces pressed up against the glass, watching our every move and waving goodbye over and over again. I can't do this. I pull out my camera to take some last minute photos of them - it's as much of a distraction as I can come up with. Then the pilot shuts the door, starts up the engine like we're driving a car or something, and then we're taxiing down the airstrip, and everyone is waving and blowing kisses and I'm waving back and then suddenly

We're gone.

And I'm bawling.

I don't know why, but I didn't expect that. I didn't expect that I would cry for the first 20 minutes of our flight. I didn't expect that my heart would be so heavy - so heavy at the thought of never seeing any of these people again. So heavy at the reality of so many students who still don't know Jesus. And so heavy at knowing that for whatever reason, God is calling me home...and that even now, I do not understand why He has done this.

For about a week now I've been saying goodbyes. I had to say goodbye to 3/4 of my students on my birthday. I've been saying goodbyes to everyone in town for the last few days. I guess I thought that today would be no different - it hasn't felt real yet, because even though I was saying goodbye, I was still in Korr.

It's real now.

And now I'm in Nairobi and it all feels like a dream. It feels like a 7 month long dream that I was living in this desert corner of the world...because being in Nairobi surrounded by other short-termers feels so normal.

But Korr was my normal. Walking 6 miles a day through the desert heat just to get to school and back, eating mutton for every meal, wearing the same 3 ankle-length skirts every day, responding to "Madam" like it was my real name was my normal.

And in three weeks' time, I will leave Africa - maybe, for good this time - and I will find myself back in Texas. Adjusting to a new normal again.

But my heart will be forever changed. It's been imprinted by my time here. My students, my Rendille family, the missionaries I've served alongside - they've all left an imprint on my heart. An imprint that has forever changed how I view the Lord and how He is moving through the nations. An imprint that has left me feeling so burdened to pray for the Rendille. Because despite their pride and their stubbornness, He WILL reign in their hearts. He will humble them, because He loves them so much that He humbled himself to die for them. He continues to humble me by removing my own pride and stubbornness.

Trust in him at ALL times, O people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our REFUGE.

[Psalm 62:8]

Saying goodbyes.

2010-04-02T04:52:00.002-05:00

Our last night with our students before they left for the holidays was, needless to say, an emotion-filled one. Alicia wrote a fantastic blog about it, so I'm just going to refer you to it because I honestly don't know that I could write about it and not cry.

Enjoy!

Day 90

Happy 24th

2010-04-02T04:43:00.001-05:00

It's physics, Madam.

2010-03-29T06:56:00.004-05:00

Esther: "Madam, in physics we learned that the color white reflects light and the color black absorbs light. So that means that your skin reflects light."

Me: [takes of shoe to show the world's worst Chaco tan - seriously - and rolls up sleeve to show hilarious, ridiculous farmer's tan] "No, Esther. My skin absorbs light. Just like yours. See?"

Esther: "But Madam. It's Physics!"

The Rendille are an incredibly proud people. They walk with their backs straight and their heads held high. They also believe they are ALWAYS right - even when they aren't. Esther really, really believed that my white skin reflects the sun.

[Duh, Madam. It's physics.]

I've never read Twilight, but I saw/was forced to see New Moon in theaters in Nairobi last December. You know the scene where what's-her-face - Bella? - goes to tackle Edward from exposing his sparkly skin to the world, which would apparently kill him if he actually does it? And how is skin makes rainbows all around him because it reflects so much sunlight?

That's what I think of when Esther tells me my skin reflects sunlight.

AWESOME.

That means my students think I'm a vampire.

I can't bow low enough...

2010-03-28T07:19:00.002-05:00

There's this song by Phil Wickham called "Cielo" - if you've never heard it before I highly suggest that you download it.

Here are the lyrics:

I'm walking through the bright white gates

breathing in and out your grace

all around me melodies rise
that echo with the joy inside
so I start to sing

but I cant sing loud enough

I can't sing loud enough

when I'm singing for You my God
I can't sing loud enough
I can't sing loud enough
when I'm singing for You my God

with a thunder roll and a brilliant light

your glory boasts and the heavens shine

the saints and angels stand in awe
captured by the beauty of it all
so I fall to my knees

but I can't bow low enough

I can't bow low enough

at the vision of You my God
I can't bow low enough
I can't bow low enough
at the vision of You my God

I can't hold it all inside

I'm reaching for the One who brought me out of death and into life

but I can't lift my hands high enough
life my hands high enough
when I'm reaching for You my God
I can't lift my hands high enough
life my hands high enough
when I'm reaching for You my God
oh I'm reaching for You my God

I'm reaching for You

I'm reaching for You my God

This song has been on repeat on my ipod for the last few days.

I can't believe I'm leaving Korr. I'm in straight up denial about it - the thought of never seeing so many people here again makes me want to cry. No...scratch that. I already have cried quite a few times - and I've barely begun saying my goodbyes.

But at the same time, my God is so, so good. He has given me a perfect peace about leaving - I am fully confident that my impending departure is as He's always planned it would be. I haven't always been able to see that, but the Lord is so faithful to provide everything in His own perfect timing.

I could never worship the Lord enough for what He has done in the past 7 months. Never. I could never bow low enough, sing loud enough, or lift my hands high enough to express it. It's just not possible. Yes, He has dragged me through fire on about a million (that's a rough estimate) different levels. Yes, it has not always been easy. But above all else, HE is good. He is worthy of ALL the honor and ALL of the praise. Because I would not be here today without His never-ending love and grace.

He has loved, rebuked, moved, revealed, blessed, and disciplined me. He has removed so much of my pride - pride in my own abilities, pride in my plans, pride in the control I laughingly assume I have over my own life. He's still working on replacing it all with Him. He's created in me a desire to know Him more...more than I ever thought possible.

If you ask any Rendille which is worse: hunger or thirst, they will ALWAYS say thirst. The Rendille are so thirsty for Christ in their lives. Some don't even realize what they're thirsting for is Jesus. But He is moving here and revealing Himself in more ways than anybody dreamed possible.

I want to be thirsty for Christ like that. I want to need Him like I need water. For mere survival. You won't get far out here in the desert without water. And I pray that as I am returning to a nation with more abundance than this world has ever known that I won't forget this valuable lesson learned out here in the desert.

My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
[Psalm 62:1-2]

Musings of a nomad

2010-03-26T08:34:00.002-05:00

I cannot believe that in just 10 days I will be hopping on a plane and leaving Korr for good.

There are days where I think that I could do this forever - days where, even if I've been sweating since 6 AM and I'm eating mutton for the fifth time that week, that I am reminded of just how blessed and lucky I am to be here. My students...I will never, ever have a class as special, as hardworking, or as inspiring as them again. Ever. I feel like I'm finally, after six months, beginning to really get somewhere in relationships with them. That I'm finally settling in and getting comfortable with my surroundings and acclimating to the desert heat. That maybe, just maybe, my knowledge of Rendille is finally reaching a point where people don't laugh at me when I try to talk to them. Days where my heart feels so full from living here that it could burst.

I have family here. I have friends here - friends I dearly love and admire. Friends that inspire me to pursue Jesus more passionately and more faithfully. Family like my Rendille mama that invites us over for Sunday dinner and cooks us fried chicken because she knows mzungus love chicken. I have friends here that don't speak the same heart language as me - but we share a passion and a love for Jesus, and that is all that really matters.

To the Rendille, I am not Jamie Bauknight. When they ask me, "ati ah goobah?" or "ako keyya?" (what clan are you?/ who is your family?) I respond with "Ani a Sibiiryan Labarakwe" - my given Rendille first name with my adoptive family's last name. The point has been reached where the sight of me walking through town to and from school doesn't make people do double-takes anymore. Where instead of children shouting "Mzungu!" at me, they shout "Sibiiryan!"

This has become my home. And with that, I think, "this is where I belong."

But then I have these moments where the Lord reminds me that I don't actually belong here. Moments where, as I'm sitting in a classroom proctoring a midterm exam, I look around at all of my students and think to myself, "oh, right. They're AFRICANS." Moments where I am reminded that I am one of six Westerners living among these 20,000+ Rendille. Times when cross-cultural clashes happen and I want to bang my head against a wall in frustration. Days where, as I'm walking through the desert heat in the afternoons to go back and teach my afternoon class, I understand all too well why God didn't put light-skinned people to live in the desert along the equator.

In a sense, I don't belong here.

Yet God has placed me here...with His purpose and in His perfect timing. He also never said that following Him would be easy. "Denying myself to take up my cross and follow Him" doesn't breed feelings of relief or ease. There have been times where I've felt so out of my element it's comical. Days where I have literally felt like I'm being dragged across hot coals. He has changed me, stretched me, refined me, and then repeated the whole process over. Over, and over, and over again.

I'm not coming home the same person I was when I left. I may not belong here, but I certainly don't fully belong back in the culture I left either.

I've become something of a nomad. Just like the Rendille.

But here's the thing: none of us belong here. This world is not our home...it was never meant to be. The Gospel isn't comfortable: it's radical, life-altering, and involves a complete transformation of self. Because as you accept this gift of eternal life through Christ, you must completely die to your old self and old ways. It shouldn't be comfortable. Even after salvation. As Christians, we should never. be. comfortable. Because we are called to be lights in a dark world. As followers of Christ, we should be standing out because of the faith and hope that we proclaim....and that means being uncomfortable for the sake of the Gospel.

Christ never said it would be easy. But He does promise that our reward is to be sons and daughters of the Most High. As I'm preparing to leave one home to head back to another, it is a comfort to know that it's okay that I don't fully fit in anywhere this side of heaven.

May your unfailing love be my comfort,
according to your promise to your servant.

[Psalm 119:76]

2010-03-18T12:28:00.004-05:00

We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest "well-pleased." To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labor to make us lovable.

[C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain]

Reign down on us.

2010-03-16T09:46:00.006-05:00

I remember having a conversation with Kakume, our principal, last September about what happens in Korr after the rainy season.

"Korr is so much green!" he told me. "Everything, it all turns green. Korr becomes very beautiful after the rains."

To be honest, I didn't believe him. After all, this was what I saw every day:

Barren, rocky desert. Everything was dead or dying. We were in the middle of one of the worst droughts northern Kenya has seen in the past 20 years...and it wasn't just the plants that were dying. Hundreds of people showed up on Nick & Lynne's doorstep every morning, begging for a few shillings to buy tea leaves for chai...anything to fill an empty stomach. Many herds dwindled down from dozens of animals to a mere handful. The previous "long" rainy season had produced a mere 30 minute shower. Waking up to this sight every morning for the first 7 weeks we were in Korr did not exactly get me too excited about the upcoming "short" rainy season. "How green can it possibly get with just a few showers?" I thought. "What good will that honestly do?"

Boy, was I wrong.

About a week after it rained here, green stuff started to sprout up everywhere.

I mean, everywhere.

Where growth had been seemingly nonexistent before, sprouts were springing up. Life was beginning where it had once seemed impossible to exist. Plants and bushes that had once looked dead now had green leaves sprouting out all over the place. Even the thorn bushes turned a beautiful shade of green!

This picture was taken a week after it rained. It's the SAME shot as the one above it!

It is absolutely astounding what happens out here in the desert with 5 hours' worth of rain showers.

The Rendille are a proud people. They walk with their heads held high. They know what they believe. And they are always right - whether it be about religion or the color of the sky or cell phones - they are always, always right.

So when Nick & Lynne showed up 30 years ago and began to introduce the Gospel to a people who had previously never heard of Jesus Christ, you can guess what happened. They resisted. Their pride would simply not allow them to believe in such a thing. Elders and warriors would not even listen to the evangelists speak. It's been this way for 30 years.

Until now. There is a revival going on here in Korr. For the last few months, church has been full to the point of overflowing every Sunday. Evangelists are going out to the goobs and the elders are listening. Warriors are coming to know Christ...something that Nick, Lynne, and the few believers here have been praying for for THIRTY YEARS. People are standing on their doorstep and begging for literacy classes to come to their goobs. "Please!" they beg. "We want to learn! We have somebody here who says he will be our teacher...teach him and he will teach us!"

Life is being born - in a place where it once seemed impossible. This barren, rocky desert is seeing growth like it's never, ever seen before. Seeds that have lain dormant for years are now sprouting up for all to see. Seeds in a ground that seemed utterly impossible to foster growth are suddenly blossoming into beautiful green flowers and plants.

He is raining down here on these people in the desert. The Gospel is beginning to take root. Where there was once pride, there is humility. Where there was once utter barrenness, there is vibrant life peeking through. Where there was once hopelessness, there is Hope. Hope in a God who saves. Hope in a God who provides. Hope in a God who loves them so much he would humble himself to death on a cross.

Praise the Lord that He will reign here. Pray for hearts to continue to be changed. Pray for those seeds that have been planted. Pray for growth.

Pray for the Rendille.

Snapshots of a bush missionary

2010-03-07T04:02:00.003-06:00

*SNAP*

As I collect donation money during Tirrim Secondary School's fundraiser, traditional Rendille church members hand me handfuls of change - literally, all of the money they have to their name - to help these nomadic children receive a better education.

*SNAP*

It's the evening, and I am sitting inside of a truck tire that is perched on top of a lorry. The teachers and students all around me are singing praises to our God as we drive underneath the starlit Kenyan night sky.

*SNAP*

One of my students: "Madam! When you arrived in Korr you did not have those red bumps on your face. Now, you have many?"

"Yes, Elias. Those 'red bumps' are called acne. It's because all I ever do here is sweat."

*SNAP*

I feel like a proud parent when one of my students, who historically has struggled in math class, finally grasps the concept we are learning about that day. "Madam! Another one!" the rest of my students enthusiastically shout - 'another one' meaning they want me to give them another math problem to work out in class. I will never have students this eager to learn or grateful for their education as my students are now, ever again.

*SNAP*

I watch as traditional Rendille women during church slide from their seats down to squat on the floor, where they are more comfortable. It's all they've ever known - squatting on the hard, dusty ground.

*SNAP*

It's 2:oo PM and I'm walking back to school to teach my lone afternoon class for the week. It's the hottest time of the day, and even the Rendille are doing their best to move as little as possible and stay in the shade. I get many funny looks as I truck it up to school through the heat of the afternoon.

*SNAP*

We all feel frustrated yet again with our struggles to communicate in Rendille to our night guard Essimbassele. He speaks no English, and we only understand limited Rendille. What we thought was a spider bite turns out to be just a bad bump from running his leg into our table.

*SNAP*

As I'm taking what my students call "singles" (pictures of them individually), their serious faces quickly turn into ridiculous, crazy poses that even Tyra Banks would be proud of.

*SNAP*

Walking home from school means I will be fist-bumping along the way a minimum of 25 kids' fists. It's taken 6 months, but they're finally calling me by my Rendille name ("Siberyan!") instead of the generic "Mzungu!" I am followed by choruses of "How are YOUUUU?" and "bye byeeee!" nearly everywhere I walk.

*SNAP*

Two of our students come over on their outing time and we offer them refrigerated water to drink. They struggle to drink it, making pained faces as they do, because the water is simply too cold for them to put in their mouth.

*SNAP*

It's a beautiful evening and we decide to walk to the top of White Hill, which is a hill right on the edge of Korr. A parade of Korr kids follows us to the top. One boy, Anitommo, grabs a hold of my hand with the biggest ear-to-ear grin I have ever seen. He absolutely refuses to let go of my hand for the rest of the evening - even going so far as to assault another little boy who tried to sneak his hand in while he wasn't looking.

*SNAP*

I'm teaching Bible class and I ask for a volunteer to read a few verses from Exodus. 3 of our Muslim students get their hands in the air faster than anything I've ever seen. My heart breaks for them - are they simply excited to read out loud in class or is God stirring their hearts to a more intimate knowledge of Him?

*SNAP*

We're sleeping out in the goobs - sleepover with Khasso? Doesn't get much better than that. As Nick reads from the book of Mark in Rendille, I lie back on the ground, stare up at the millions of twinkling stars, and am reminded of just how small I really am and how magnificent our God truly is. Goob kids surround me, trying to (not so) subtlety touch my skin and hair. Life here is so simple...just how it was intended to be.

*SNAP*

It's 30 minutes later and Claire and I sneak out of the goob to go, as the Kenyans say it, "take a short call." As I'm squatting in the pitch dark next to a bush, I hear a low guttural growl not 50 feet to my left. It sounds just like a hyena...and all that is racing through my mind is 'I'm going to die out in the bush mid-pee?' I fumble for my flashlight...it's just a sick Rendille dog. Praise. The. Lord.

*SNAP*

Sunday afternoon and we're sitting in Claire & Alicia's Rendille mama Nariyo's min, sipping chai and joking about marrying Alicia off to a warrior for a dowry of 8 camels. I tell Nariyo that I am leaving to go back home to America at the end of the term and that I don't know when I will see her again after that. "Do you love Jesus?" she asks. "Yes." "Well I love Jesus too, so we will always be together in our hearts." She then asks me to not forget the Rendille...to tell everyone in American about them and to be praying for them. "There are so few believers here...pray that God will move in their hearts. We still have so much work left to do."

"Do not forget us."

No, Nariyo. I will never forget the Rendille.

30 days.

30 days is all that I have left here in Korr. 30 days to take as many snapshots and make as many memories as possible...30 days left with 64 students who have managed to capture my heart in ways I never imagined possible. 30 days until I head down country and become a tourist for 3 weeks. 30 days until I have to worry about the "real world"...although I'm pretty sure that this is more "real" than anything else I'll ever experience.

Can I be so honest? I don't have a clue what I'm doing when I get home. I have my desires for what I want to do, yes...but only the Lord knows what to do with them. Right now, all I do know is I have 30 days here in Korr to be used as the Lord sees fit.

Right now, that is more than enough.

My life has now come full circle.

2010-02-26T12:52:00.003-06:00

Favorite student quote from student teaching last spring:

[Talking about me teaching in Africa for the next year]

Student 1: "Naw, but for real, Miss, you gon' come back changed."

Student 2: "No, she's gonna come back BLACK!"

Yesterday:

Student: [after looking at my ridiculous chaco tan and seeing the skin color my feet were before coming to Korr] "MADAM! Your skin is turning black like ours!"

Yessssssssss.

"Take care!" or "How I Spent my Midterm Break"

2010-02-22T05:46:00.008-06:00

Well, if you were guessing what how I spent my Sunday, and you guessed that I spent 12 hours riding precariously perched atop of the African equivalent of an 18-wheeler with 65 other people, you guessed correctly.

Every midterm break we take our students on a retreat of sorts. In Kenya, "retreat" means "get out of Korr for a day, make a ridiculous amount of food, and play lots of games." Last term we went to Ngurunit, which is a tiny town in the mountains about an hour southwest of Korr. This time, we decided to go to South Horr instead (google it! IT'S ON THE MAP!).

Now, don't get me wrong - South Horr was SO fun (and GORGEOUS), but it's about a 5-6 hour drive away from Korr. This wouldn't be so bad...if this were America. But this is Africa, and here in Korr we are about 4 hours in the opposite direction away from "paved roads." (I use that term VERY loosely...these paved roads are historically known as some of the worst in Africa. And that's saying something.) So 12 hours in a car, bumping along as our driver follows two tire tracks in the sand, driving over rocks, through dried river beds, and around hairpin curves in the mountains does not make for a relaxing drive.

We rented a lorry for our trip. We needed to get 64 students, 12 teachers, and 2 cooks to South Horr/Kurungu - and although Africans can squeeze into cars better than clowns in a circus car, taking two pickups like we did last term was NOT an option.

So we took this instead:

[Don't worry Mom...I'm alive, just a little more bruised than usual. I didn't tell you about this part until now because I figured you would worry :) ]

Typically on one of these things, the back is used for storing and transporting animals, while anybody who hops on for a ride sits perched up where I'm sitting in the picture. You sit across one bar and hold on tight with one or both hands to the bars around you - because once the lorry starts driving, it gets pretty bumpy up there!

We left Korr at 4 AM on Sunday. Alicia and I sat down in the back while Ruth rode in the cab and Claire rode up top. The students brought mattresses and laid them down in the back to sit and sleep on, but as the sun rose they all wanted to sit up top on the bars instead.

By the time we arrived in South Horr just after 9 AM nearly all of our 64 students were riding up top (gives the term "top-heavy" a WHOLE new meaning). Alicia and I had hopped up there a few hours before because we wanted to feel the breeze and see the GORGEOUS view as we drove through the Ndoto mountains. We had a LOT of carsick students along the trip - I'd go as far to say that half of them threw up at some point on the journey. Poor guys...they almost never ride in cars, and this bumpy lorry ride was almost too much for their stomachs to handle. But OH how much they loved hanging (literally) out on top of the lorry!

The only bad thing about riding on top? Having to duck to avoid low-hanging thorn bushes and trees. There were two or three times that the thorns were so bad that EVERYBODY on top of the lorry had to get off and walk while the lorry drove through. John, one of the teachers at school with us, had a giant hole ripped in his shirt and his back pretty badly mangled by these nasty thorns. Even with everyone shouting "take care!" (that's Kenyan for "watch out!") to warn everyone else that an acacia tree branch was quickly approaching, we all got decently scratched up and cut. Oh well...this IS Africa!

Hangin' out on top of the lorry...and talking on our cells. Just another day in north Kenya!

As we pulled into South Horr, any teacher or student who owned a cell phone immediately whipped it out and began talking on it. South Horr has a cell phone tower...glorious! I was back on the grid for 7 hours and managed to text my parents and Kendall...all of the numbers I really had in my phone.

I could get used to waking up to views like this every day...

All of the green everywhere against a backdrop of beautiful mountains was a sight for our tired desert eyes. Did I mention it was in the mid-70's here? During the DAY!? After sweating it out in Korr this was a much welcomed break!

We spent the morning attending church at AIC Kurungu. We were in Samburu country, so the service was conducted in Samburu. Our students REALLY enjoyed it - most speak Samburu and not Rendille, so they're about as keyed in at church here in Korr (where the service is conducted in Rendille) as I am. They even sang a few songs for the congregation in Samburu! I may be a little biased, but I think TSS's choir is just about one of the best around :)

After church, we headed back to the AIM missionary's compound in Kurungu and drank a lot of chai, cooked a delicious lunch of rice, camel stew, and chipattis, and played quite a few games. Claire found a tree with these beautiful flowers on it, and gave one to each of the girls with us. The girls LOVED them!

Ann was creative in how she wore her flower.

You WOULD have two flowers.

Alicia and I taught our students again how to play "This is so much fun." (which they loooooove...thank you, Impact) and "Down by the Banks," which is a hand-clapping game we played back in elementary school.

There was also a rope swing on the compound - created literally hours of fun for everybody. Whoever was on the swing was surrounded by students trying to push you as high as you could possibly go...which is pretty darn high.

After cleaning up and a quick group picture, we hopped back on the lorry and drove back to Korr. I spent most of the ride back perched on top of the spare tire that was lashed to the top of the lorry.

It was a LONG day, but SO fun. Our students really enjoyed getting to see a new place - no one had been to South Horr/Kurungu before. I would definitely go back to South Horr, but hopefully won't need to ride a lorry anywhere again any time in the near future :)

Ministry Update

2010-02-20T12:13:00.003-06:00

I sent out an email about this, but for those of you who aren't on my email update list - here is an update on some of the details of the length of my stay here in Korr:

About six weeks before Alicia and I were to leave for Kenya, I began to seriously question my length of commitment to teach three terms of school in Korr. (Kenya's school system operates on a trimester basis - students spend three months in school, then have a month off. Alicia and I originally committed to teach three terms, beginning in September 2009 and ending in July 2010 with the months of December and April being school vacation months.) But, to be completely honest, when I signed up with AIM I never seriously prayed to ask the Lord how long He wanted me to serve in Africa; I just signed up for the longest time that AIM would allow us to go.

12 days before Alicia and I left for Kenya, we discovered that our budget had been miscalculated by almost $6,000. Even though I had raised well over my original budget, I still only had enough funds to stay for two terms of school instead of three. That is, I only had enough funds to stay through the end of April instead of through the end of August as I'd originally committed to. I've been praying ever since about what all of this means and about how long the Lord truly has me in Kenya.

About a month ago God finally made His will known to me - and it was the last thing I expected. I am coming home at the end of April, when my funds run out. This has been confirmed through a ton of prayer and Scripture, as well as by the missionaries here in Korr, my supervisor in Nairobi, and the AIM office in New York.

It's not a matter of "wanting" to leave...I REALLY love it here. Tirrim Secondary School is a really special place - God is moving in big, big ways here and I've been so humbled to be used by Christ here. At the same time, I am confident that this is the Lord's will for me - and I trust Him enough to know that I will try to be obedient to His plan for me, even if I don't fully understand it. God doesn't "need" me here in Kenya to accomplish His will and purpose for His kingdom, but He has chosen to bless me with the opportunity to BE used. Whether I'm here or not, Christ's name WILL be glorified here among the Rendille. I have no idea if I'll ever be back to Africa - I am completely open to coming back if God calls me back, but right now I don't see that in the near future. It's strange - the last 2 1/2 years of my life it's like there's been this neon sign pointing towards Africa. As this chapter comes to a close, I can honestly say I haven't a CLUE what is next - but I know He knows and that He is faithful, and that is more than enough.

I have six weeks left in Korr before I head down country to do some traveling and debriefing before I head back to the States, and I cannot BELIEVE how the time has flown by. If you would like, please pray for the remainder of my time here in Korr - may the Lord use me how He sees fit, and may I be willing to do whatever He asks of me. And, if you have any questions about this or anything else that's the Lord is doing here in Korr and how you could play a part in it, please don't hesitate to email me.

Waakh ki gargaaro! (May God cover you)

Jamie

Rooma...it wasn't built in a day.

2010-02-17T12:54:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday night Nick & Lynne were over at our house visiting with us when some people showed up to talk to them.

In walks Indubayyo (in-dew-BYE-oh), one of the ladies from church. She begins talking rather animatedly to Nick. Lynne tells us that she's asking Nick about how the translation of Romans is coming. Nick and his team have been working on the translation of Romans for over a year now, and for the next 3 weeks Nick will be down in Nairobi working with a consultant, revising and editing what we are all praying is the final draft of Romans.

Indubayyo is a stunningly beautiful woman with an even more beautiful testimony. This woman cannot help but beam as she talks about Jesus. Indubayyo can tell you the exact verse in Mark that she read from the Rendille translation that led her to a relationship with Jesus Christ. It had such an impact on her that she named one of her children Marko..."Mark" in Rendille. Indubayyo's job as an evangelist for the church is to walk from goob to goob, sharing with them who Jesus Christ is and what it means to be a Christian. There couldn't be a more perfect job for this amazing woman.

(To read more about Indubayyo, PLEASE read this)

(Photo credit: Andy Brown, AIM On Field Media)

Everywhere Indubayyo goes she carries with her the Rendille Scriptures. I wish I had a picture of this bag and the pages she keeps tucked away inside. Her Rendille New Testament books - the ones Nick and his team have finished translating - are worn to pieces. Tattered pages, worn covers. These books have been well-loved and used often. Lynne told us she refuses to accept new books...she says that these books are too precious to replace.

Indubayyo asked Nick how Romans is coming. She cannot WAIT to for the book to be complete! A few months ago, Nick was in Nick gave her a photocopy of Romans to use when she evangelizes. Saturday night, as she was talking to Nick about the translation of Romans, I was convicted of how much I really take for granted.

Indubayyo reached into her bag and pulled out this same photocopy Nick gave her months ago. The several pages she has are tattered and falling to pieces. Indubayyo carefully and tenderly unfolded it. She treated it as if it was the most precious thing she owned.

Indubayyo, like the rest of the Rendille, is thirsty for God's word. Thirsty doesn't begin to describe what these men and women feel when they think of the Bible. Traditional Rendille culture is very much like the Old Testament. A group of people wandering around in the desert? Hello, Rendille. Sacrifices? They have those. Clean and unclean animals? Yep, they have those too. Camels? Herds of animals? Pastoralists? Check, check, and check. In fact, two of the very first books ever translated into Rendille were Genesis and Exodus chapters 1-20...because the Rendille can relate to them very easily.

But, unlike you and me, they don't have access to the entire Bible in their mother tongue. They don't have access to everything the Bible has to say about Jesus Christ being the ultimate sacrifice. Traditional Rendille like Indubayyo only speak one language - Rendille. A Bible in any other language is worthless to them. Nick and his team have been working almost thirty years on translating the Scriptures into Rendille, and it hasn't been an easy process. Before translation even began, Nick had to write down Rendille as a language. Because before Nick and Lynne came, Rendille was purely a spoken language - no one had ever written it down before.

In 30 years they've just finished 86% of the New Testament. But because it is so expensive to print, only a few books are actually available until they complete the NT and bind it all in one book.

Can you imagine your life without your Bible? In the West we have about 18 million options for our Bible. NIV? ESV? NASB? The list of acronyms could go on for days. The Message? Study Bible? Backpack Bible? Red letter Bible? Student Bible? What color do you want the cover to be? What kind of material? How about the pages? That's not even asking how many Bibles we all own. I mean, me personally, I own about 5. I don't really need 5, nor do I even know where some of them are.

Can you imagine your Bible without Romans? What a rich, heavy book. How about without the entire Old Testament? I can't even imagine. Psalms, Isaiah, Deuteronomy...gone. Ecclesiastes, Job, and Daniel are a figment of your imagination. Jeremiah doesn't even exist.

For the Rendille, anyway. Or for 2,392 other languages spoken in the world without access to ANY of the Bible in their mother tongue. The number of people that affects? 200 million.

I wish I had as much thirst for the Word as Indubayyo does.

Pray for the translation project. Pray for Nick and his team...they left for Nairobi yesterday to work with a consultant to finalize the book of Romans, or "Rooma" in Rendille. Pray for funding to continue the translation project. They are SO close to completing the New Testament!

Pray for the Rendille.

Living in Korr is...

2010-02-13T23:40:00.000-06:00

Needing to speak 3 languages on any given day to be able to communicate. (Rendille, English, AND Swahili)

Walking past herds of camels in the morning as they wait for water at the well.

Being woken up every morning at 5:00 AM by the mosque's call to prayer.

Meeting Rendille warriors in town who are dressed up in the most manliest clothes they own - pink kangas with fake flowers on their headpieces. (Don't worry...they carry mirrors with them so they can preen themselves before they come into town!)

Having to throw rocks at the goats who've broken through your fence to graze in your yard. (Not to hurt them, but to scare them out!)

Being called "Mzungu!" (white person) in town by everybody because they don't know your name.

Being called "Siberyan" (my given Rendille name) by all of the Rendille I know because "Jamie" is too hard to pronounce.

Drinking chai prepared with camel's milk during tea time at school.

Experiencing flip-flopped seasons. It's snowing in Texas? It's 100 degrees outside here.

Donkeys and goats wandering through the school yard (or trying to come into your classroom!) don't distract your students, but a car driving by has them out of their seats and peering through the window to see who's driving. (We don't have too many cars driving through Korr!)

Buying sugar in town and having to fish out the GIANT sugar ants before you can use it.

Living in a culture where wealth is not judged by how much money you have but rather by how many animals are in your herd.

Fist-bumping every child I see as I walk to and from school to say hello (because they think it's HILARIOUS, and shaking hands spreads some pretty nasty germs around here...which I may or may not have learned the hard way.)

Learning to cook sheep meat in ways I never thought were possible.

Where eating fruit or fresh vegetables is like Christmas! (The freshest vegetable we can buy in town is tomato paste, and the nearest place to buy fresh produce is a three hour drive away.)

Having students who beg you to give them more homework or quizzes because they're so excited and eager to learn.

Responding to "Madam" like it's my real first name.

Teaching mathematics and geography in somebody's old living room that's been turned into a classroom.

Being covered in chalk dust from leaning against the chalkboard too much as I teach in class - no Smart Boards here!

Teaching at a school where students are so thankful for an education that they come to school at 5 AM to study before school starts at 7:30...and study until the lights are turned out each night at 10:00 PM.

Sweating every day from 10 AM to 7 PM because it's so gosh darn HOT outside.

Having to wear ankle length skirts every day because, while toplessness is culturally acceptable among the traditional Rendille, showing your knees is most definitely not.

Having the most ridiculous Chaco tan line ever. You have one from your summer as a camp counselor? I promise it's not as bad as mine.

Knowing what fields in town will have sheep for sale in the afternoons, and how much to pay for a "good" sheep. (About $13.)

Where hunting spiders and lizards are normal wall decorations.

Waking up to the most breathtaking sunrise I've ever seen...since yesterday, that is.

Walking outside in the evening and seeing every single twinkling star in the night sky. No light pollution here...we're so far from the power grid it's comical.

Learning true selflessness from older, more experienced missionaries, who have given literally everything they have to the Rendille people.

Seeing God move through a people group that has been stubbornly resistant to the Gospel for SO long, and now suddenly is literally begging to hear more about Jesus is...and knowing that their change of heart is only from Him and in His timing alone.

Being reminded every time the wind blows and cools us down that God loves us, jealously yet sacrificially, and will provide for our every need.

Living in Korr is waking up every morning to the desert splendor of God's beautiful creation, and witnessing God moving and changing an entire generation of Rendille to live for Him instead of clinging to proud religious traditions. Where you rejoice when it rains because it brings life and abundance to the Rendille after years of harsh droughts. Where slowly, after reading through Genesis and Exodus, the Bible comes to life in the people around you and just makes so much more sense. It's being challenged and humbled by the faith of Rendille believers, who can tell you the exact verse they read in the Rendille Bible that led them to a saving knowledge of who Christ is and what He did for them on the cross. It's truly appreciating that I can read any book of the Bible I want in my own language...something millions of people across the world - including the Rendille - cannot do because the Bible has not been fully translated for them.

Living in Korr has its fair share of challenges. But those challenges fade away in knowing I have the humbling privilege of being a tool for Jesus to use however He sees fit to further His kingdom here in north Kenya. No matter the cost.

In his name the nations will put their hope.

[Matthew 12:21]

The things we take for granted

2010-02-09T10:34:00.008-06:00

After living here in Korr for almost 5 months, there are some things that I will never take for granted again.

Like electricity, for example.

In Korr we're so far off the power grid it's ridiculous. Praise the Lord for solar panels - we are so fortunate to have electricity in Korr because of them.

However, the batteries that our solar panels charge up need lots of distilled water. LOTS. But what do 4 twenty-something girls know about solar panels and batteries and keeping them healthy and fully functioning? Next to nothing. I mean, we didn't even know we should be checking these things! Thank goodness Intebessyie thought to come over and check them for us. ALL of our batteries were stone dry. Which, apparently means they could quit working at any time.

Yikes. These batteries are EXPENSIVE. That, and you have to buy them down country and bring them up yourselves. The next time we head down south? April. So tonight, Alicia and I with the help of Bagajo (our night guard) topped off our batteries.

Thank you Jesus for providing us with electricity, and this stunning view out our front door every evening:

Apology Letters, Part 2

2010-02-08T04:24:00.003-06:00

RE: APOLOGY FOR COMING TO CLASS LATE:

The main aim of righting this piece of paper is to argue your forgiveness by not coming to class on time. Please Madam I will never repeat to do that search mistake. I kindly wait for your sweet reply.

Yours faithfully,

Geoffrey L.

----------------------------------------------

And, my favorite thus far:

To Madam Jammie,

I apologize for coming late in your lesson. Please in your cordial heart forgive me. I reckon that you will going to forgive me.

And I will never do like that until when I have a heavy circumstance. I apologize profusely.

Thank you.

"Dear Maadam Jimmy"

2010-02-02T12:06:00.004-06:00

Here at Tirrim Secondary we only have two classrooms - one classroom for Form 1 and one classroom for Form 2. As a result, students stay in the same classroom all day - instead of students switching classrooms for each class, the teachers rotate into the single classroom when it's their time to teach. The kids get two breaks each morning before lunch - one 5 minute break after period 3 and one 25 minute break after period 5 for chai.

Lately, most of the teachers have been having some trouble with students showing up late to class. (Side note: we have a student prefect who is in charge of ringing an actual bell to signal the end/start of class. A real bell! Love. It.) My rule has always been this: if I beat you in the door to the classroom, you are late. Since we don't have tardy sweep or d-halls at Tirrim, it's up to the teacher to decide on acceptable punishment for being late to his/her own class.

Alicia, Claire and I have all adopted pretty much the same policy for tardiness: if a student is late, they have two choices: they can either sit outside the classroom for the remainder of the class, or they may come into class and write me one paragraph on why it is disrespectful to me, their teacher, and the rest of their fellow classmates, to be tardy to class.

Last week was a hum-dinger: I had at least TEN students run past me into math class on Wednesday well after the bell had rung - and then THREE more students late on Thursday to geography class. Seeing as there are only 32 students in each class...I had a LOT of students late! I told everybody who was tardy that they owed me one paragraph on respectfulness - however, since Claire had just taught them the proper format for a letter in English class, I received 10 well-intentioned letters instead.

But, this is rural Kenya: our students don't have access to computers, let alone extra paper. We have to carefully ration exercise books out to them because we don't want to excessively waste paper when it is so hard (and expensive!) to get more. So most of my apology letters were written on carefully folded scrap notebook paper they tore out of the back of their exercise book.

One letter from Elias, a Form 1 student:

-------------------------------------------------------

Jimmie Backnight

APOLOGY FOR LATE COMING

I am hoply here by writing to you this apology letter on the behave of the mistake I have done to you. Madaam please forgive for what I have done to you and entire school rules. I didn't have intension to break your heart is all about the time of short break and I have to ran to the toilet. Please madaam I do promise that you will never and ever see me doing such mistake in front of you and entire school rules. I will alway respect you and follow your class rule. But madaam I know that I have done a mistake but mistake is not a mistake but when repeated. I will alway follow you rule to the day you will fly back to loving home (TEXAS)

Yours kindly,

Student Ne-yo Elias

-------------------------------------------------------

Elias (or Ne-yo, as he likes to be called...yes, after the American R&B singer that he loves) is a good student, and although you can't tell from his apology letter, his English is quite good. Most of our students can speak it pretty well, but writing it down is something they are still perfecting.

The next apology letter is from Jonathan, a Form 2 student. I LOVE Jonathan...he's smart, kindhearted, and very respectful. If you can picture Alicia as a male Kenyan...that's Jonathan. Meaning, while he is all of these things, he's got a bit of sass to him as well :)

(The address he used is the actual address for the Tirrim Project up here in Korr - and our mailing address. Really, it's the mailing address for anybody who lives in Korr...even though it's in Nairobi.)

-------------------------------------------------------

Tirrim Secondary School

P.O. Box 21028

Nairobi 00505

Kenya

Madam Jamie B

P.O. Box 21028

Nairobi 00505

Kenya

Dear Madam

RE: APOLOGY FOR COMING LATE TO YOUR CLASS

I would like to apologise to you for coming late to your class. I never intended to come late. It was not something that I deed intentionally but I was talking to a teacher when the bell rang.

Surely Madam I am very sorry for what I did. I know that you will not be happy when students come to your class late. Please Madam forgive me for what I did and I promise that I will not come late to your class unless with a strong reason that you can understand. Thank you for considering my apology.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan

R.S.V.P. (Please Reply)

Jonathan M.

P.O. Box 21028

Nairobi 00505

Kenya

-------------------------------------------------------

Ahahahahaha...besides the fact that he asked me to RSVP, this is my favorite part: "I promise that I will not come late to your class unless with a strong reason that you can understand."Not, "I promise it will never happen again," but "I promise it won't happen unless I've got a really REALLY good reason."

Eh, well...at least I know that he's being honest and that he'll keep that promise!

(Also...I've been here over 4 months and Jonathan is the ONLY student who spelled my name correctly. Hmm...)

Thank you, Lion King, for explaining the circle of life.

2010-02-02T07:17:00.007-06:00

Last Saturday we bought a sheep for Ksh1000 - about $13.

Today, we had mutton stir fry for lunch.

How did we get from the first picture to the second?

Well.

We bought Sheepy from our friend/old night guard Obeyle's herd of adi (Rendille for a herd of sheep and goats). Obeyle slaughtered Sheepy (we named him for the 15 minutes we owned him before he became our lunch) in our backyard with a panga - or handheld machete. I'll spare you the details, but it was morbidly fascinating to see how it's done. He handed us a bucket (literally) full of raw sheep meat (including the liver!) about an hour later, and after carefully washing each piece, we now we have a deep freezer full of various parts of Sheepy.

Just another day in the deserts of Africa.

No one on the corner has swagga like us

2010-02-02T05:12:00.004-06:00

This is Abednego. He's a Form 2 student here at Tirrim. Last weekend Abednego was playing football and collided head-first with another player. He's got a pretty nasty bump above his left eyebrow, but fortunately the nurse here says it's nothing too serious.

I don't know if the accident correlates with this hoodie, but he's been wearing it ever since. Not even just wearing it - nooooo. He wears the hood up, pulled down low over his left eye. And every time Alicia, Claire or I see him walking, we start singing "No one on the corner has swagga like us" under our breaths. Because this Kenyan has got some serious swagger when he walks.

Too bad he has no idea who Kanye is.

Great is thy faithfulness

2010-01-31T04:52:00.008-06:00

O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?

You are mighty, O LORD, and your

faithfulness surrounds you.

[Psalm 89:8]

It's been a difficult couple of weeks.

I think that everything that could have possibly gone wrong has done so. Even more than that, it's done so in style. I mean, really...it's almost comical.

But praise the LORD! He is SO much bigger than a "difficult couple of weeks." I've watched our mighty God answer prayers in some big, humbling ways. I've learned more about the my Jehovah Jireh in the last few weeks than I ever dreamed was possible. He has provided for my every need.

Really. Every single one.

God promises to NEVER give us more than we can handle in him and he is SO faithful to his promises! I'm writing this blog on my brand new laptop. My brand new, fully-loaded-with-everything-I-need, came-all-the-way-from-America laptop. I could really write an entire blog entry about how this laptop made its way to Kenya from my parent's house in Houston, but really, all that matters is that the Lord made it possible. And then He did it.

Want to know how intimately our Savior knows us? He knows every single hair on our heads...and He knows how to provide for even the most minute or silliest of our needs. Check out what I'm having for dinner tonight:

That's right. GUACAMOLE. The ONE thing I knew I would miss the most when I left the States. We have it here. In Korr. We literally had a wheelbarrow full of fresh fruits and vegetables arrive at our house at 7:30 AM this morning. Included was about a dozen fresh avocados the size of my face...not even exaggerating. Along with enough carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, mangoes, pineapples, and bananas to last us a long, long time. Fresh stuff is HARD to come by up here - mainly because when you pack everything you'll need for 3 months, your fruits and veggies will only last so long before they rot. But we're a month in to those 3 months and we have a fresh supply of EVERYTHING!

He is faithful. He is FAITHFUL. And while I wouldn't wish upon anyone everything that's happened recently, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Because the lessons He has taught me about His love and faithfulness are completely, completely worth every bit of it.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is FAITHFUL.

[Hebrews 10:23]

January 13th

2010-01-13T07:30:00.003-06:00

Yeah...these have been my two best friends the past few days.

I'm a sick girl right now.

The irony is not lost on me that I lived in Korr for 3 months without getting sick, managed to not get sick going home for four weeks (talk about a climate change!), and then BAM! 3 days after getting here I'm in bed all day.

I didn't even go to school today! THAT makes me sad. This term I'm getting to teach math (which I LOVE!), AND geography. I hate missing school!

Typically, on Wednesday afternoons we have mentoring time with our students. Each teacher has 3-4 students in their small group that they meet with weekly to pray with and for. The goal was to not only get to know our students better, but to be able to guide them in their walk with the Lord and create opportunities for conversations one-on-one.

But, since I was sick, I couldn't handle the 2 km walk up to school. BUT...

My girls came to the house to surprise me! They wanted to see how their "Madam" was doing. So, I gave them cold water (which two of them so sweetly asked for "warmer" water. Refrigerated water is too cold for them!) and we sat in the living room and laughed at the antics of the two ridiculous cats that live with us. The picture is of Lucy sitting in our rocking chair - they were FASCINATED by how it moved.

"Madam," they asked. "Will it break?"

"No!" I reassured them. "In fact, you can put your feet up on THIS part of it too!"

That was almost too much for them to handle. They ALL wanted pictures of themselves sitting in the rocking chair.

After praying for them, they asked if they could pray for me. Um, yes! This is a BIG deal...we've been meeting once a week since September and every time I ask them if they would like to pray, they always ask me to do it. So the fact that they wanted to pray today...

The Lord is SO good.

Oh yes. I live here.

2010-01-12T09:02:00.002-06:00

New term, new house.

Grant & Loki, a missionary family that live here in Korr, are on furlough for the next year down in South Africa. Grant & Loki - we miss you tons!

However...

that means that the four of us got to move in to this nice, BIG, house!

Here is the bedroom Ruth and I share. It's Caity and Abby's room - Caity and Abby are 3, so that explains the bright pretty yellow with flowers painted everywhere! Alicia and Claire are sharing the master bedroom.

One of the best parts about this house...

...is the running water.

Oh, yes. You read that right. Here in Korr, where we are so far from the power grid that the only electricity comes from solar panels, we have running water. Grant & Loki's house has this elaborate set up of tanks and pumps and pipes that allows us to have sinks.

What else does that mean?

Well...

It means we have SHOWERS. Yes, that IS plural - not one, but TWO showers. This is the outdoor shower...we have another one inside too!

The Lord is so so good :)

Puppies! Inspired by...puppies!

2010-01-12T08:28:00.002-06:00

January 11th -

There is no way to say no to a face like this.

Matope, one of Nick & Lynne's giant heifers they lovingly call "dogs," had 13(!) puppies the day Alicia and Claire arrived in Korr. We didn't even know she was pregnant!

There are several guesses as to who the baby daddy is...but for now, the 10 remaining puppies are holed up in Nick & Lynne's guest house, free to play with at any time :) The Rendille ALL want them as guard dogs (as in, there are 22 people who want 10 puppies), which is comical to me, because Tigger and Matope are about the friendliest and silliest dogs you'll ever meet. Case in point: on a walk we took last Sunday evening, Tigger came across a Rendille puppy that was literally the size of his face - and when the puppy tried to play with him, Tigger BOLTED the opposite direction with his tail between his legs.

Eh well. At least if Tigger's the father we know they'll all be lovable...

Perspective

2010-01-12T05:16:00.006-06:00

ALL of you should stop and go read this girl's blog:

Kisses from Katie

This post explains what she's doing in Uganda.

An excerpt from last August, which explains so much better how I feel right now than anything I could write:

Do not forget in the darkness what you have been promised in the light.

It happens all too easily. A rough day (or several in a row this week...) and I forget. We all do. It becomes to easy to look around and think. "Why? Why do I do this?" "Why take one more child, why live with less so we can give to others more, why leave family and friends to go to a land of strangers, WHAT am I doing here?" I do not usually forget the answer, "For Jesus. Because He called me to this." But far to often I repeat that over and over to myself and forget what it MEANS. It means that it has been granted to me, it is my PRIVILEDGE, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. (Philippians 1:29) That suffering is not alone, but is with Him, and oh what a priviledge it is just to be able to be in His presence, to share that with my sweet Savior. That I do it for JESUS, "who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself NOTHING taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!" (Liking Philippians today 2:5-11)

It is so simple, and yet this weekend it seemed hard to remember.

The anger of Friday melted into grief, into crying out to the Lord and asking Him how I could more effectively serve His people. As God would have it, the day after Friday is Saturday, and there really is no better affirmation than 350 children flooding through my gate to worship the Lord and eat chicken together. As satan would have it, later that night I found that several people who I have grwon to love and trust have cheated and lied to and stolen from me. The details are not important, but needless to say, I ended the day feeling betrayed and alone, again questioning, "What is it all for." I woke up (did I ever sleep?) Sunday morning to diahreah all over EVERYTHING in Grace and Jane's bed. (I know that is kind of a gross thing to share, but I am trying to paint a picture of my destparation for you here ;) ). The girls had decided to make the best of the situation and proceed to pain everything in the room with poop. Great. After deciding that church was more important than poop, I threw all the sheets in the bathtub and rounded up the gang, but only after packing up all Michael's clothes, lots of long-life milk and multivitamins for him. He was going home.

I cried through the service at the thought of having to take him back. This precious child that I had so fallen in love with going back to a place where there was no garuntee that his mother would not simply sell the milk we sent with Him. And God spoke so plainly. He did not appologize for my heartache, even better, He shared it. He KNEW. Because the pain in my heart at having to give up a little boy that I have loved for a month did not even come close to the pain it cause Him to give up His only Son. And He did that for me. The pain in my hear that felt so unbearable was just a fraction of what he felt when He sent His ONE AND ONLY CHILD to save us, to allow us to spend eternity with Him. Wow.

That is what it means that I do this for Jesus. HE loved me first. I love Him back. And sometimes it hurts. But even then it is pure joy to even be considered worthy to share in His suffering. That is the promise. Not that He is sorry that it hurts. But that He sees. That He knows. That He is here with us.

I want to be more of Christ to the Rendille and less of myself.

More of Him and less of me.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

[Colossians 1:9-14]

One year. One picture a day. So it begins...

2010-01-10T08:55:00.006-06:00

So recently I've been challenged by several people to jump on the "picture a day" bandwagon. Never heard of it? It's pretty self-explanatory: take one picture a day, every day, for one year. In the end, it's 365 pictures, chronicling a year of your life in photos.

Well, I'm a few days late. So it's going to be more like 358 photos by the time I've done. But hey, better late than never!

So here, without further adieu, are the last two day's photographs.

January 9th - Ruth's 19th birthday! We made her a scrumptious breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage, as well as some of Claire's homemade rolls. We sang "Happy Birthday" and Alicia even found some candles for Ruth to blow out. AND, Alicia and Claire woke up early and made a huge sign out of rocks that said "Happy B-day Ruth" right outside of our front door. (Check out Alicia's blog for that photo) Ruth loved it! Her first full day in Korr was her birthday - what a special way to start your life in the bushlands of Kenya :)

January 10th - You know, just another typical day in Korr - a herd of goats wanders through our yard (and through our fence) to graze as their herder looks on. You can't see it, but there is actually barbed wire strung between the fence posts...clearly, it's doing a lot of good. Don't worry, Mom - the barbed wire is far enough apart that goats seem to get through without a struggle, but hyenas are much, much bigger than goats ;)

Travel Diary, Take 2

2010-01-08T11:32:00.004-06:00

Well, I arrived back safely in Korr this afternoon...though it was quite an interesting journey! Korr does not have a paved airstrip - all we have is a cleared runway-shaped area for pilots to land. With all of the rain that northern Kenya has been having, our pilot flew over the airstrip five times before deciding it wasn't safe to land because it was too muddy and our plane was too heavy. We were flying in a 16-seat aircraft - the largest I've seen fly this far north in all my time in Kenya! He then flew on to Marsabit - a big town in north Kenya that's about a 20 minute flight from Korr - and dropped off the remaining passengers before flyingback to Korr a second time, flying over the airstrip two more times to check it out, and THEN finally landing the plane. Whew! We were greeted at the airstrip by half of Korr...well, maybe not half, but there were a ton of people there. Alicia started to give me 31 hugs - one from each student! After about the ninth we just agreed that I had been well enough hugged to suffice for them...31 hugs is a LOT of hugs.

I've mentioned this before, but starting this term Alicia and I are being joined by two more short termers. Their names are Claire and Ruth - Claire is from California and will be teaching at the secondary school with us, and Ruth is from North Ireland and is teaching at the upper primary school. I actually met up with Ruth in Nairobi and we flew up to Korr together today...thus the picture above. We took it about 3 minutes before we boarded the plane for a rather bumpy ride! This afternoon we were walking back to the house and Intebessie, one of the guys on the project here, got the chance to give Ruth her Rendille name - Robeya. It means "green." The Rendille say that Ruth coming has brought the "green" with her that's come from all the rain. It's a perfect fit, seeing as Ruth is Irish!

This afternoon we walked up to the secondary school and I got to see all of my students again! Alicia told me they've been asking about me since they all arrived last weekend to begin school this last Tuesday - the entire class even begged her today to give them "permission" to leave school to come to the airstrip to greet me today! They're too sweet...they're definitely spoiling me. Whenever I do begin teaching in the States I will never have students as polite and kindhearted as my students here are! We've also had a pretty steady stream of visitors this afternoon - apparently it's quite big news that "Siberyan" (my Rendille name..."Jamie" is too hard for many of them to say) has arrived back in Korr. I guess I'm pretty easy to miss though when I'm one of six white faces in all of Korr!

It's really good to be back, although it certainly is hot here...I'm a little jealous of the cold in Texas right now. We're getting all moved in and settled to Grant & Loki's house, and WOW is it a step up in life in Korr. We have running water now! Which means...(dum dum dum) we have functioning showers. Don't get me wrong, the bucket baths weren't bad, but they can't compare to a nice warm shower.

All for now - we might watch a movie tonight before turning in to bed. That's right - a movie. Because we have a television now :)

Travel Diary, Take 1

2010-01-06T23:21:00.004-06:00

Monday, 4:30 PM: Another tearful goodbye at the Houston airport with my mom and sister. I'm terrible at goodbyes.

5:30 PM: Watch my last Texas sunset for a while as I wait to board the plane. No telling when I'll be back to witness another...

6:30 PM: Plane taxis down the runway and off to Dubai I go. Another long flight...15 hours to be exact. Somehow I manage to sit between the two loudest snorers on the aircraft. Awesome. I didn't really want to sleep anyway...riiiight.

Tuesday, 7:30 PM Dubai time: Lost an entire day in the air and the Dubai airport, while stunningly beautiful, is terribly confusing. Everything is in Arabic. Flying Emirates back to Kenya was the cheapest choice, but it has certainly been an experience. Everything is in Arabic first, then English - the captain would come over the loudspeaker, speak for 5 minutes in Arabic and then say 3 sentences in English. Something's getting lost in translation here...

I somehow make it to Customs and then pick up all of my luggage.

8:30 PM: Arrive at the hotel. Plus for flying Emirates: they put you up for free overnight in Dubai. With free food! Dubai is 10 hours ahead of Houston, and after being stuck between Sleepy #1 and Sleepy #2, I'm a wee bit tired. They have some delicious-smelling if strange-looking Middle Eastern food at the buffet for dinner, but my severely sleep-deprived brain is not in a place where I can handle "trying new things." I had a slice of watermelon and half of a baked potato instead. How...filling?

11:45 PM: Collapse into bed after showering and talking to my mom. I hate jet lag, because...

Wednesday, 4:45 AM: I'm officially up for the day.

7:30 AM: On my way to the airport. I see the Burj Khalifa tower through the bus window - it's kind of impossible to miss. Here's a grainy picture I took from the airport (the window had stuff all over it and you can see the reflection of the inside of the airport, but hey, it proves I saw it!):

9:30 AM: Enjoy my last cup of Starbucks coffee for a while as I take advantage of Dubai's free wifi. Seriously, nicest airport ever - so open and airy. Oh, and the five star restaurants and gardens every 15 feet don't hurt either. Only downside: Dubai is EXPENSIVE. A Time magazine would've cost me $15, and I paid $5 for a grande Starbucks latte...

10:45 AM: Plane is supposed to be taking off, but we have to wait for a flight from Delhi to arrive because half of our plane is on that flight. 65 Indian men come streaming on to our plane, and who manages to sit by me? The loudest snorer EVER. Seriously...I could hear this guy over my ipod. How does this even HAPPEN two flights in a row?

3:30 PM: KENYA! Customs is a breeze - I proudly showed the guy my multi-entry visa (I'm a resident now! Was fingerprinted and everything) and walked right out into the waiting area! George from Mayfield Guest House was there to pick me up. He points out the giraffes and zebras on the side of the road as we leave Kenyatta airport. NBD.

The drive to Mayfield is just as I remember Kenya being. Lanes are merely a suggestion - really, all traffic laws are. Anytime traffic stops there are men and women looking to sell you anything - and I mean ANYTHING - through your car window. Want fruit? Flowers? Flags of the world? Lamps? Hair nets? No need to worry - you can buy them while you wait in a traffic jam! I even saw a guy selling pillows. They were the same Ikea pattern that I have on my bed in Houston. Only in Africa...

They recently installed traffic lights in Nairobi. For anybody who's ever been on the road in Africa, you know how laughable this is. I asked George if people actually used the traffic lights. His response? "Well, when the police are there we do!" He tells me this as he maneuvers the bus onto the sidewalk to act as another lane of traffic. It doesn't even faze me anymore. We turn onto Ngong Road and while there is only one official lane of traffic, there are two lanes driving: one where there is supposed to be a lane, and another in oncoming traffic. Oh Africa.

We arrive back at Mayfield just in time to meet Ruth. RUTH! She's just arrived in Nairobi Tuesday and we're flying up to Korr on Friday. Ruth is joining Alicia, Claire, and me up in Korr to teach at the secondary school. FOUR SHORT TERM VOLUNTEERS! This seriously unheard of.

5:00 PM: I fall into bed for a quick nap before dinner.

It's good to be back.

Update!

2009-12-29T17:01:00.003-06:00

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

[Hebrews 10:23]

Sometime along in my (first) senior year at Texas A&M this verse came to fruition in my life in more ways that I can fathom. The last year-ish of my life - since Alicia and I began this journey towards missions in Africa together - God has shown over and over and over again just how faithful He truly is.

Where do I even begin?

I've been TERRIBLE at blogging...my sincerest apologies. There was SO much going on in Korr in November, and then December got cray cray. I'll try to summarize November in another blog post, because...

Long story short, I was blessed to get to come back to the States for the holidays. Four whole weeks at home! Eating Panera Bread almost every day (literally...my goal is to be SICK of it by the time I leave on Monday!), spending sweet, sweet time with my family, and getting to catch up with so many wonderful dear friends. The Lord has been SO faithful to provide in my time home...I've been learning SO much about so many things in this time of rest, all the while trying to process my first 3 1/2 months in Kenya.

Surprisingly enough, no culture shock...none at all! There have been many moments where I've stopped to think about how differently "this" (being whatever situation I'm in) would have played out in Kenya, however. Like the time I was meeting a friend for dinner and she called to apologize profusely because she would be five minutes late (that's practically early in Kenya!), or how when I drive anywhere in the States I know that people will at least pretend to obey traffic laws (traffic laws in Kenya? WHAT traffic laws in Kenya?). How chai lattes at Starbucks just confuse me (real chai in Kenya is just tea steeped in hot milk with a whole lot of sugar). More than anything, how life on this side of the Atlantic Ocean is so much more...fast-paced than I remember.

One thing is for certain...I can't wait to be back there. For however long the Lord has me in northern Kenya, my desire is to trust in His infinitely perfect plan and not my own finite views. Because He has and always will be faithful to provide.

Life has been crazy around here...

2009-11-09T11:59:00.002-06:00

We're winding down the term so that means reviews must be given, exams have to be written (covering the curriculum for the entire year! I've only been here two months!) and with all of the other stuff that's been going on around here, I've hardly had any time to blog! But, be looking out soon for posts on...

RAIN! (we've had SO MUCH!)

Game Night at TSS! (We taught them the Cupid Shuffle and the Electric Slide!)

And my favorite...

The progressive dinner Christmas party we put on for our students last weekend, complete with gifts for everybody!

Check back soon :)

"Mzungu! Mzungu!" or "A day in the life of Jamie"

2009-11-05T08:06:00.004-06:00

5:40 AM - Alarm goes off.

6:00 AM - Time to get out of bed. Every day is a race to see who will reach the light switch first...lately Alicia has been winning quite a bit.

6:00-6:30 AM - Get dressed, eat breakfast, plug in computer. There's a high chance I'll put on the same clothes I wore yesterday no matter how nasty they are...nearly everyone around here wears the same thing a few days in a row. Not because they're lazy, but because for many of them they don't own much else...

In Korr it's culturally unacceptable for women to show their knees...really to show any leg above your calf is seen as inappropriate. So, we wear long skirts. I have three I rotate through depending on their cleanliness.

Breakfast each morning usually consists of a cup of coffee (very needed) and a slice of homemade bread with peanut butter on it (Lynne makes the BEST bread...I'm learning to make it too!). Find keys to Lynne's office among the many keys hanging on the hooks in the kitchen. Unlock office and plug in computer to power strip so it will be charged when I get home in the afternoon. (Power is a bit of an issue here - we run mainly off solar power. We don't have any plugs in the wall in our house. Lynne runs her computer off of a generator, so we plug in each morning to get all juiced up for the evening.)

6:30 AM - Laura (another missionary who lives in Korr) meets us as the front gate of the house and we depart for school. This is my favorite part of the day - the sun has just come up over the horizon and the air is still cool for our 2 km walk to school. The center of town is still quiet - no one is shouting at us...yet.

6:50 AM - Arrive at school just in time for teacher devotions. Each morning a teacher shares a Bible verse and we pray together as a staff before we meet with the students at...

7:10 AM - Meet with the students before classes. This time looks different every day - sometimes it's class assembly, sometimes it's class devotions, sometimes it's a class meeting.

7:30 AM - Classes begin. Since we only have Form 1 this year at TSS (equivalent of 9th grade) and 8 teachers, we all only have 1-2 periods a day. (This all changes in January when we add Form 2 - hooray!) Most of the morning is spent reading, preparing lessons, etc.

12:00ish PM - After teaching my one or two classes a day I begin the 20 minute walk home.

Here's where it can get interesting.

There's a pack of Rendille children (yes, a pack) that practically assaults me on the way home every day. "Mzungu! Mzungu!" they shout. I'm using all the Rendille I know (which still isn't much) to try to teach them my name so they can shout that at me instead. Them shouting "mzungu" at me is roughly the equivalent of someone shouting "white person!" at you over and over as you walk down the street back home. It's cute for about the first day and a half.

The pack catches up to me and holds out their hands for me to shake. Sometimes they demand I give them "sweets"...I never have any. (I wouldn't give them on demand anyway!) The kids are precious in a slightly obnoxious way. Yet all of them are too cute for words - a few don't have pants on and all of them are snot-nosed. "How are you? How are you?" they say in unison...one of two English phrases they know. "Fine," I reply...the only response they understand. "Nebeybariteen?" I venture (it means "good morning?"...actually the literal translation is "do you have peace this morning?" The Rendille are very big on wanting to know whether or not you have peace.). They all giggle at my Rendille pronounciation and respond "nebey!" ("I am fine!"..."I have peace!") They'll tail me for a hundred meters more giggling (cute) and offering their hands and demanding I shake them (not so cute once you get sick from it). After some time they'll stop following me and shout "Bye bye!" - the only other English phrase they know.

The rest of my greetings on the way home will hopefully be less demanding. Rendille greet every single person they pass...every single one. I've gotten quite good at greeting in Rendille but after that I still get lost...

12:15ish-5:00 PM. Afternoons look different every day. Staff meetings, language lessons, mentoring time with our students...they fill up rather quickly. By 5:00 every day I'm exhausted and ready to shower.

5:15 PM - It's bath time. Since we have no running water (really not as bad as it sounds) we bathe in a (rather large) bucket. Use the one of buckets by our drums of water to pour water into the bigger bucket to bathe in. Heat up a kettle on the stove if you're feeling like a hot bath. Pour kettle in big bucket of water and step in. Use pitcher to dump water over your head and lather up. Repeat until clean.

Make sure to watch out for the spiders :)

6:30 PM - Sunset. Life here revolves around the sun - when it's dark things come to a standstill. No street lights here in Korr!

6:45 PM - Dinner time. We eat our big meal at lunch time so that Lynne is not sitting over a hot stove in the afternoon. (Contrary to America, our hottest hour here is somewhere between 2-4 PM...and believe me, it's hot!)

7:45 PM - Time to get ready for bed. Wash face in basin in the room (that we refill from a bucket of water we keep in the corner), brush teeth (we spit outside...cute, huh?), change in to pajamas. (This is the only time it's okay for us to wear shorts!) Get on the computer, pray the internet is working, email friends and family.

9:30 PM - Bedtime! The desert sun zaps your energy faster than you think. Tuck your mosquito net underneath your mattress to keep the all the bugs off your face while sleeping. Make sure your windows are open to catch the night breezes (Korr's very own version of air conditioning...the wind almost never stops blowing here). It will be time to wake up again before you know it...

Nguru-what?

2009-10-19T02:01:00.007-05:00

Last Saturday was the student's fall "retreat." In Kenya, "retreat" means "get out of Korr for the day," "go somewhere cooler," and "cook lots of food." We did all three of those things...in Ngurunit!

Ngurunit (In-goo-roo-nit) is a small town in the mountains about 45 km south of Korr. Alicia and I have actually been there before to visit the Knowles, one of the missionary families that live there. The students worked really hard to raise the funds to go for the day and they wanted to go here, so the teachers got in touch with the Knowles and the AIC church in Ngurunit, found the supplies we needed, and we were off!

Reason #1 of many why I knew this was going to be a wonderful day: we were allowed to wear trousers. PANTS! I haven't worn pants since we left Nairobi over six weeks ago. Seriously...I will never take pants for granted again.

We met up at school at 5:30 AM. Most of our students had been up since FOUR...they were so excited they couldn't get back to sleep! We packed 32 students, 7 teachers, 1 baby, 2 cooks, several other students we were giving a ride home to (they're on mid-term break), enough food for 45 people, and two bicycles (two of our students biked home to Ilaut, a town maybe 15 km south of Ngurunit) into the backs of two trucks.

Two. Trucks.

Amazingly, it all fit.

We were off! It has been raining in northern Kenya, and it had rained in Ngurunit the night before. We were pretty worried about making it there safely - up here, there are no paved roads and no bridges. Driving through dry riverbeds when they're dry is one thing, but when they have water in them...it can get pretty hairy. Fortunately, we only encountered one riverbed with water in it, and it wasn't enough to be worried about.

We arrived in Ngurunit safe and sound, and headed up to our site for the day - right along a stream of water that was actually flowing! The students quickly went to work with their assigned jobs - collecting firewood, getting water from the stream, etc. As the cooks built a fire to make chai, our principal Kakume calls us all over and announces we're going hiking...to see a waterfall!

"Wonderful!" I thought. "Surely it's just right around the bend in the stream. It can't be too far away!"

No. It was probably 3 km away, uphill. Over rocks. LOTS and LOTS of wet, slippery, muddy rocks. Maybe rocks isn't the best way to describe it...they were more like boulders. Slippery, muddy boulders.

For Kenyans this was no problem at all. Half of our class was in flip flops yet they are bounding like gazelles between rocks - jumping and leaping like they do this every day. Hike 3 km uphill over muddy, slippery boulders? Noooooo problem.

Alicia, Laura, and I, meanwhile, are not Kenyan. Nor are we gazelles. Quickly we get left behind to struggle. While are students are jumping (Literally. Jumping. All the way up the rocks) Alicia and I are making our way up slowly, testing out rocks first to make sure they're safe to step on, not too slippery, etc. It doesn't take long for our students to notice all the wazungu lagging behind.

"Madam! Let me help you" they say, as they grab our hands and try to guide us. Like we are 87 year old women trying to cross the street. Kakume even makes a point to say loudly for all the students to hear: "Let us make sure we are helping our three sisters out." "The three white ones," he added...as if it wasn't clear who was struggling to keep up with the Kenyan pace.

The "three white ones." I almost fell over laughing. John, our math teacher, thought it was hilarious. "Come," he would say - no, commanded - as he grabbed our arms and led us back down from the waterfall at breakneck speed. "Lucy, you need help?" (Lucy is one of our three female students.) "No, sorry, cannot help you. You're black!"

Kenyans calling each other black...what? Maybe that's one of those culture things I don't understand yet.

The waterfall was beautiful - it was so refreshing to see. Some of our students jumped in to swim...something they never get to do! We spent about an hour at the waterfall - swimming, splashing, taking tons of pictures. Then, it was time to head back down to our campsite.

After much "Madam, come this way", "Madam, give me your hand", or - my favorite - "Madam, jump on this rock" (with this rock always being IMPOSSIBLE to get to) we made it back to our campsite for chai. We played some games with the students - Alicia and I taught them "This is so much fun" (they LOVED it) and several hand clapping games. Then, lunchtime!

Let me say this first: our students rarely get to eat meat...the school can't afford it. They eat a lot of ugali and beans...a lot of it. But THIS meal...this meal was fit for a Kenyan king.

Camel meat, potatoes, onions, rice, chiapattis (Kenyan tortillas-ish)...oh boy. It was delicious, and all of our students looked satisfied and full.

We spent the afternoon playing more games and drinking more chai. (Kenyans take their chai VERY seriously...twice a day, every day. No exceptions!) It was cloudy and overcast all day long - which was wonderful because it kept the temperature WAY down. I even wore a long sleeved shirt for part of the day! It drizzled on and off...enough to keep us cool but never too much that would ruin our trip.

After our last cup of chai we went to pack up the car and head on home.

But this is Africa...it's never that easy! One of the trucks managed to get water in the fuel tank during the day. It was making TERRIBLE noises. We made it to the Knowles' house and they checked out the car while we waited. Fortunately, they were able to lend us enough fuel to make it home.

We arrived back at Tirrim Secondary as the sun was setting. Our students sang the WHOLE way home as they hung off all sides of the trucks. We dropped them off exhausted and satisfied...their faces bright and bellies full.

It was a good day...one that they will probably remember for a long time. John (the student, not the teacher) came up to me as we were taking our afternoon chai.

"Madam," he said with a smile on his face. "I have enjoyed today very much."

"Wonderful!" I replied. "I'm so glad to hear that!"

"Yes, Madam," he responded. "I think I will write a composition about it!"

That's one composition I can't WAIT to read.

Living out the Gospel

2009-10-16T10:41:00.005-05:00

A passage from Tom Davis's Red Letters:

(ALL of you should stop reading right now and go buy this book...seriously)

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. "When you come looking for me, you'll find me. "Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed."
[Jeremiah 29:11-14, The Message]
As I've come to recognize the diversity of living conditions and circumstances in our world, I've had to ask myself some tough questions: Does this Jeremiah passage apply to everyone or just to those of us who live in wealthy countries? Does it pack the same kind of meaning to people in developing countries; do they get to look forward to a hope and a future? Does it apply to the infant who was just infected with HIV through her mother's breast milk? Do children who have no other option but to sell their bodies for money for food get to claim this promise of a God-ordained destiny?
God says, "I will not abandon you." Put yourself in the figurative shoes (she has no real ones) of a five-year-old girl somewhere in the middle of Africa. Your father has died of AIDS and, after you've watched your mother cough up blood and shrivel to nothing for the last month and a half, she, too, is gone. How do you make sense of this passage? How do you not feel abandoned?
What do you set your hopes in? You set your hopes in people. People who might show up and offer a refuge, a safe place, a home. People who are the living embodiment of Christ himself. People like you and me. People who can show, with the actions of their heart, that God has not abandoned you at all.
God created every human being in his image, including people like this five year old girl whom the rest of the world has thrown away because of cruelty or neglect or ignorance. God has plans for each of them to have hope and a future too. Here's what I'm getting at - God does not abandon us. But sometimes, it takes the touch of God-with-skin-on to remind us of that. Perhaps you've had seasons when the silence of God echoed loudly in your heart. How did you find your way back? I expect the encouragement and prayers of others helped. And that's who we are to be to the poor and hurting in Africa - others. God's others. God has given us the tools and the resources to give hope to the hopeless. But unless we take those tools out of the closet, millions of innocent men, women, and children will continue to die without knowing that hope.

-----------------------------------------------------------

A lot of people have told me, once they found out I was going to do missions in Africa for a year, that I was doing "such a good thing" or that "they could never do what I'm doing."

Here's the thing though: I'm not doing anything special. I'm a sinner just like you. There is nothing good in me except of that that comes from Christ. Not a single thing. I am doing nothing extraordinary here in Kenya, and if you'd told me that I would be here three years ago I would have laughed you out of the room. I am only here because God has called me to Kenya to be His hands and feet to the Rendille people and here's the thing: He's calling you to be His hands and feet too.

We as Christians are called to care for the orphan, the widow, the homeless. The lowest of the low. Our King died on the cross for the millions of Africans infected with HIV/AIDS and preventable diseases like malaria just like He died for you and me.

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." [Matthew 25:40]

Jesus even goes as far to say that how we treat these very people - the ones the world neglects and is cruelly indifferent to - is how we treat Him.

Yikes. Anybody feeling uncomfortable yet? I certainly am. How many homeless people on street corners have I avoided making eye contact with? How much do I love my Starbucks and spend my money on things I don't need but want instead of giving it to somebody who truly needs it? You don’t have to go to the other side of the world to find poverty and suffering.

I'm not trying to make you feel guilty for drinking your frappachinos...promise. What I'm saying is you don't have to come to Africa to help bring justice to the millions who, by no fault of their own, were born in Africa and not America. You can help from where you are.

Those of us in the Western world cannot sit by any longer and watch this. We are equipped with more than we could ever need; we have the very tools that can end needless suffering for millions of people - not just in Africa, but over the entire world. We have more money than the vast majority of the world can even dream of. Why don’t we stop talking about helping and actually start helping?

Did you know that 1.2 billion people in the world are estimated to live on less than $1 per day and almost 3 billion people on less than $2 a day? That's 3.9 billion people out of a world population of almost 7 billion. Did you know that 2.5 million children die every year from malaria...a disease that is preventable?

Overwhelmed yet? That's okay. I am too. Statistics like these upset me because it’s not fair. It’s not fair that I was born into a loving, healthy family and have never had to worry about whether or not I would have a roof over my head as I slept that evening. It’s not fair that I’ve never gone to sleep hungry while literally billions of people around the world do every single night.

But instead of getting upset and stopping there let's DO something about it.

“We, as Christ followers, are called to continue the work Jesus began. What does this mean? It means we have to embody the good news. It means we have to do all we can to end poverty, to feed the hungry, and to find homes for the homeless. It means we have to listen to that inner voice crying for justice and act on it.”
[Tom Davis, Red Letters]

Let’s pray together. But let's not use prayer as an excuse to not actually go out and serve.

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
[James 2:15-17]

Let’s serve together…it doesn’t have to be overseas. Serve your community. Serve your neighbors that you don’t like. Serve the homeless guy you see every morning as you drive to work. Jesus didn't tell us to love the people that are easy to love, he told us to love everybody. We can't just sit back and expect somebody else to serve for us. WE, as the Church, are called to be His hands and feet to the orphan, to the widow, to the oppressed. God holds these people in a special place in His infinite heart. We have more than the means to actually provide for people in addition to praying for them. We should be the ones on the front lines instead of waiting around for governments or even NGO’s to get there first.

Let’s give together…give our time, our efforts, and our money. If you can’t go across the world, give support to somebody who can. God calls some of us to go and he calls some of us to support. Serve the millions of orphans of Africa by donating to any number of worthwhile charitable organizations that are already on the ground there. Donate to missions organizations. Sponsor a child in need through Compassion International, Family Legacy, HopeChest, or any other Christian sponsorship program.

There is so much sin in our world…so much evil. AIDS, poverty, child trafficking, slavery…the list is never-ending. But we have Hope. Hope in Christ, and the grace to receive that hope freely. We as Christians should be loving as Christ did by bringing that hope to everyone...

Everyone.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
[Edmund Burke]

What's in a clan?

2009-10-16T08:30:00.005-05:00

I’ve been given a new name. An African name, to be exact.

You ready for this?

From now on, you may refer to me as Siberyan Labarakwe.

Some of you are probably thinking, 'Yes, Jamie. We KNOW you’ve been given a Rendille name. Siberyan. What else is new?'

Yes. But NOW I have a last name too!

Because I’VE BEEN ADOPTED BY A RENDILLE CLAN!

The Rendille tribe is further broken down into eight clans. I could try and name them all for you, but I don’t know them all yet.

BUT…I do know one clan name. Roongummo.

MY clan.

For six weeks now Alicia and I have just been wazungu here in Korr– two crazy white girls who can’t really speak the language that are here to teach. Which would seem like enough, but here it’s not. The Rendille culture is one that strongly identifies with family. Your clan is your extended family…the ones you can always count on. It’s a HUGE part of your identity! People have asked us many times: “Ati a goobah?” (What clan are you?) We have never had answers…until now.

Amina, our Rendille language teacher, adopted me on Friday into her family. Her last name is Labarakwe – which is now my Rendille last name too! Alicia was adopted earlier in the day by Nariyo, a woman from our church. She’s now a Dubsahai.

“Ani a Roongummo!” I now proudly say. This elicits multiple responses from many people – especially other Roongummo clan members!

Rendille relations get confusing after that. Amina is my Rendille mother, but everybody else seems to skip cousin and aunt or uncle and just go to brother and sister. I now have dozens of new brothers and sisters....AND. Guess who I'm now related to!

KHASSO!

Then, some people technically have TWO clans - they were born into one but married into another. Alicia and I sat down and tried to figure out if we're now related through our Rendille families. Nick is a Salle (another clan) but Lynne is a Roongummo - she's my sister. Alicia's Rendille mama Nariyo was born a Salle but married into Dubsahai. Nick is Nariyo's "father" (not really) and therefore Alicia's grandfather. (Confused yet?) But because Lynne is married to Nick and Lynne is my "sister," I am now...

Alicia's great-aunt.

Ridiculous.

Kenyan-isms

2009-10-14T12:28:00.004-05:00

I love Kenyan English.

Today, after school Alicia and I were talking about American rap with some of our students. (If you're wondering why we were talking about rap, I am too...) Somehow we arrived at 50 Cent.

Let me stop for a second and clarify something: my students may be black, but they are the farthest thing from hood you've ever met. They haven't a clue what "hood" even means. They've heard of Soulja Boy, Brandy(...), 2pac, and 50 Cent, but they have no idea about the culture that comes with rap music.

Nevertheless, I uttered the phrase (in my best hood impression) "Fiddy! He's been shot fo' times!" (You can go ahead and judge me. I won't be offended.)

To which Ismail enthusiastically responded, "YES, Madam! He HAS been shot four times!"

Okay, it's not as funny when it's typed out in a blog post, but I'm STILL laughing. He was so proper in the way he said it!

I'm still getting used to Kenyan English. Example: Alicia is pointing out to Jonathan where he is in a picture she took:

Jonathan: "Yes, Madam! I am seeing!"

Not "I see"..."I am seeing." Love it.

The only problem with understanding Kenyan English is how quietly they speak it. Kenyans are SO soft-spoken, and then half of the time they try to convey what they want to say without using words and instead using facial expressions and hand gestures. Most of the times my students try to talk to me I have to respond with a "HUH?" "WHAT?" "Could you repeat that, please?"

But it's getting better. Slowly. (VERY slowly!) But slowly is better than not at all!

(On a complete side note, can you guess which famous action hero all of my students have heard of? That's right...Chuck Norris. Walker, Texas Ranger plays every Saturday afternoon here in Kenya!)

It's official...

2009-10-10T09:27:00.003-05:00

I've gone national.

I *may* or may not have incredulously uttered the words, "Where did all these WHITE PEOPLE come from?" today.

I'm turning into a Rendille.

Today is a national holiday in Kenya - it's Moi Day. Moi was the second president of Kenya - he was actually a HUGE supporter of AIM missionaries, but that's a topic for a whole other post. Point is, each fall Tirrim Primary and Secondary schools hold a Culture Day on Moi Day. It's an opportunity for the kids to show off their Rendille culture to the community! (Which is all Rendille too, but that's beside the point...)

Over a THOUSAND people were there. Traditional Rendille who walked up to 20 kilometers to come watch their son or daughter perform. We saw traditional prayers, a wedding ceremony acted out by the Class 1 kids, several different tribal dances, and even a rap performed in Swahili!

Our kids at the Secondary School performed three Samburu dances - 3/4 of our class is Samburu and not Rendille. (The Samburu are cattle herders while the Rendille are camel herders, and because of this they get along as their animals graze at different levels - grass for cattle vs. eye-level for camels.)

I think I'm beginning to understand why my mom took so many pictures at all of my dance competitions and volleyball games growing up. Alicia and I were straight up OBNOXIOUS trying to get pictures of our students...we defined the term "Mamarazzi" that Kendall so lovingly coined. I've never been so proud of a group of people in my entire life. They were the highlight of the day!

Seriously. They are WARRIORS! I forget that sometime. In school, all I seem them as are students - teenagers who have fought through every hardship imaginable just to have a chance at a real secondary education. They inspire me in more ways than I could ever, ever express. But all the while I still forget sometimes that we are in Africa, that they are African, that they belong to a tribe, and that these tribes have their own distinctive, unique cultures.

Until today!

Needless to say, Alicia and I LOOOOOOVED Culture DAY :) I think we took, what...1000 pictures between the two of us? No big.

But back to the beginning of my post - there were twelve Dutch people at Culture Day today. TWELVE. All looked very out of place in their trousers -women don't wear trousers in Korr- and REI shirts. (They were guests of honor as they are building a Primary School in Ngurunit, a neighboring town.)

They tripled the wazungu population today in Korr.

It was as soon as I finished saying it that I realized I've grown more comfortable here than I thought. We are (slowly) learning the language; we have met and made friends with some of the women at church - both traditional and English-speaking. People are slowly less and less acting shocked to see a mzungu wandering through town at midday as we make our way home from school. I looked at the date today and realized we've been here over FIVE WEEKS! Time really has flown by.

Despite the cultural barriers and lack of comforts from home I took for granted, this place is really starting to feel like a home away from home.

Kenyan School of Thought

2009-10-05T10:55:00.002-05:00

Picture a pick up truck. There's nothing special about it...a regular-sized pickup with a regular-sized bed.

Got that picture in your head?

How many people you figure you can fit comfortably in the bed of this imaginary pickup?

If you're like me, you said something around 8. Maybe 9 or 10, if they're good friends and don't mind snuggling and your destination is a short distance away.

Now if you're Kenyan, you'd say 20 without any hesitation in your voice.

I'm serious. Today at our staff meeting we were talking about a retreat the students are hoping to go on next weekend. (In Kenya, "retreat" means "get out of Korr, eat something, and then drive back.")

Only problem is, we're in the desert. Middle-of-nowhere, there-are-no-paved-roads-for-MILES, desert. So when we leave Korr, we have to go far. Ngurunit is a town about 45 kilometers away from Korr, and where the students want to go for this retreat.

Keep in mind we don't have school buses here - the Rendille don't even know what that is. Rendille walk. They walk EVERYWHERE. Alicia and I have already been made fun of by our students for this.

"Madam, you cannot run 5 kilometers?" (We had been talking about charity 5ks back in the States) They all snicker amongst themselves.

God bless Jonathan: "It's okay Madam. If you can run 5 kilometers, you can surely walk 10!" Even Kakume, our principal, had this nonchalant response when he heard there is a missionary family in Ngurunit that wants us to come visit except we have no means of transportation: "Just walk there!" (Oh, yeah....a 45 kilometer stroll through the harsh desert where lions have been known to roam. NBD.)

The Rendille are straight up crazy sometimes. Case in point: we have no cell phone towers in Korr...but if you're desperate to talk on the phone, fear not! There's a mountain near Korr that if you climb to the very top of it - over the boulder-sized lava rocks and past all the puff adders, scorpions, and cobras - you can get a cell phone signal. People walk to it "all the time," we've been told. "It's not far, Madam!" our students say.

This mountain is 17 kilometers away from Korr.

Would you walk 17 kilometers and taunt death (or severe injury) just to talk on the phone? Would you walk for an hour and forty minutes under the beating, harsh desert sun just to use your cell?

Heck. No.

Some of the Rendille do it regularly!

But I digress.

20 people in the back of a pickup. No problem! It was comical to think about for me....the differences in Kenyan and American rationalities. All I could think about: How unsafe is this? How could we even FIT 20 people in one pickup bed? It's not a paved road we'll be driving on...it's a bumpy desert road. What if people fall out? Ngurunit is at least an hour's drive away! What if something happens in between Korr and Ngurunit? Will the truck be able to handle the weight of 20 people who will surely be standing in the bed and not sitting?

Every Kenyan teacher: "Yeah. 20 is not a problem. There are 43 of us...so we only need two cars!" End. Of. Story.

TWO CARS FOR FORTY THREE PEOPLE.

One thing's for sure: I'm calling shotgun.

We all speak the same language after all

2009-09-19T04:47:00.001-05:00

One of the first nights we were here a group came down from Kalacha – another mission station about 3-4 hours from here – to learn more about the literacy program Nick & Lynne started in Korr. Lynne figured that there’s no one better to hear from about how the literacy program can bring people to Christ than from someone who actually accepted Christ through the literacy program, so we trekked to a goob just outside of Korr to visit Nariyo.

Nariyo is a woman here in Korr that LOVES the Lord. I say that in capital letters because I have never met anyone who exemplifies Christ in every single one of her actions like Nariyo does. She is a passionate, humble, ardent follower of Jesus – she spends her time trekking out to many of the goobs surrounding Korr with other Rendille believers to share the Gospel and try to explain to the Rendille just how knowing Christ has completely changed her life.

We came upon Nariyo’s goob in Grant & Loki’s Land Rover at dusk – 9-10 people packed in to a 7 seat vehicle (you know, the African way). We parked the van and trekked across the lugga (a dried riverbed) to enter the goob so the Kalacha people could meet Nariyo. A group of wazungu can attract quite a crowd, so we decided to move outside the goob to talk to Nariyo; it was quickly decided that the lugga would be the best place to talk.

As the sun set, the stars came out in the sky and with a cool breeze at our backs, we listened to Nariyo speak with such passion and conviction of how the literacy program had led her to know the Lord and how much of a difference it made in her life. I couldn’t understand a WORD she was saying in Rendille – Nick was translating for the rest of us - but I clearly understood the message she was conveying to Nick.

Jesus saves.

Being here with the Rendille makes me feel like I’m back in the Old Testament. The Rendille still make sacrifices to their god; they refuse to eat many animals because they are ‘unclean.’ Many Rendille Christians are shunned by members of their families because they refuse to participate in these ritual sacrifices after they are saved. How do you explain to all of these lost people that Christ is the ultimate sacrifice?

Nariyo and I may not speak the same verbal language, but we most definitely speak the same heart language. It is a language that speaks of this understanding – that Jesus died for us so that we may truly live.

We came back to visit Nariyo a few nights ago. Her brother is very, very sick – just like many of the people are here. The drought in Kenya has completely devastated many of the Rendille – they have no food and many of their animals are dying. (The Rendille are herders – camels, goats, donkeys, etc.) To make matters worse, sickness is running rampant in Korr. A cholera epidemic came through northern Kenya earlier this year (but not Korr, praise the Lord. A HUGE answer to prayer) – one of our new students at school lost both parents and his sister to cholera this past summer.

Nariyo's brother is a new Christian. He is a Rendille warrior, and his job is to herd and keep his animals safe and fed. The Rendille are one of the only tribes in northern Kenya whose land does not cross international borders - many of the tribes have "their" land in Ethiopia. It is much easier to get weapons in Ethiopia too. As a result many of these neighboring tribes use AK-47s as weapons while the Rendille only have their spears.

The Turkana raided Nariyo's brother and his fellow warriors one day when he was out in the bush. He was the only survivor. He came home and told Nariyo that he felt the bullets flying by all around him, but none hit him. Nariyo told him that it was because she prayed for his safety. Her brother was so perplexed and confused by this statement that he went out into the bush and sat for two days. Two days! At the end of the second day he came back and said to Nariyo, "You must tell me more about your God."

It is this same brother who is now very, very sick. Out here, being sick is not a good thing at all. There is no hospital in Korr – just a small dispensary run by the Catholics. Nick & Lynne have been sending their car on medical runs nearly every day these past week – people here are desperate for medical attention and they have almost no access to it. We heard the dispensary has seen over 150 people this past week- that is an enormous amount of people to be seen when there is not much medicine that can be given to them.

Please pray for the Rendille. There are tentative plans in the works to build a hospital in Korr, but it will take years before it is possible – if funding even comes through. It is heartbreaking to see so many people sick with diseases and ailments that are treatable – that is, if they had adequate medical attention. Fuel costs are sky high up here and Nick & Lynne cannot afford to pay out of their own pockets the cost it takes to get these people adequate medical attention, but they do it anyway because if they don’t these people will die. There is essentially no government up here in the north – minimal funding ever makes it to these tribes. The people here are more scared of the police and the government – the ones who are supposed to be protecting them – than they are of neighboring tribes they are feuding with. There is no one up here to offer care to the Rendille…no one except the church.

How do we deny health care to people? What makes us “worthy” of medical attention? We complain about sky high health care costs in the States…at least we have access to doctors, even if it is expensive. At least we have hospitals that have qualified, trained doctors and nurses who can take care of their patients. I can’t even begin to share the atrocities I’ve heard about that occur in many “reputable” African hospitals. The entire situation is completely overwhelming.

Please pray for the Rendille.

How Bore-ing

2009-09-17T12:51:00.004-05:00

A lot of people have asked me about the drinking water situation here. No, we don’t have running water. I take a bucket bath every night and Alicia and I each have basins in our room that we use to wash our faces and brush our teeth. I promise it sounds worse than it is, but oh how I do miss running water sometimes!

We get our drinking water and everything-else water from boreholes. A borehole is a well that’s been drilled down way way deep into one of the dried riverbeds around here. The water comes from so far down that it’s perfectly safe to drink, but it has…a taste. It tastes like a mixture between salt and metal…mmm. Thank goodness for Crystal Light!

Life here revolves around the sun – it’s up by 6:30 AM and it sets by 7:00 PM. “Sleeping in” is 7:00 AM – by that point the sun is so bright you’re not going to get any more sleep anyway. It is DARK at night here – so dark that you can see all the stars in the sky. We can see the Milky Way! I don’t miss the city lights when I can see a sky like this one every single night. By “missionary midnight” every night (9:00 PM) we’re well on our ways to going to sleep.

But back to the title of the blog entry – we have these *lovely* bugs here that are carpenter bees…or the African version of a carpenter bee. They bore holes in wood. Guess what? All of the supporting beams in our little house are wood. These bees seem to think that our support beams are their home. Alicia and I strongly disagree.

It would be fine if these bugs weren’t so stinking loud. Every morning at 6:00 they come in our open windows and start buzzing around, trying to find a hole that we haven’t duct-taped over in our feeble effort to tell them they aren’t welcome. A single bee buzzing in my room will wake me from the deepest slumber – it’s like an African alarm clock but it leaves a mess behind. I’ve managed to kill quite a few of them (so THAT’S why I packed those other shoes!) but they STILL KEEP COMING BACK. You’d think they would get the message when all of their buddies quit buzzing around…nope. There are a few persistent ones that will be dead soon…that is a promise.

If you get a chance this week, say hello to flushing toilets, chocolate chips, fresh fruits & vegetables, pants & shorts, reliable power sources, and high speed internet for me J

Reflections

2009-09-15T13:36:00.002-05:00

The internet here is a little bit finicky. Meaning, if you don’t hear from me for a while, assume that no news is good news.

Warning: This post is allllll over the place. A few reflections on my first week in Korr:

In the past week I’ve managed to rip BOTH dresses I brought and one of my three skirts. Meaning, my students are going to see a whole lot of this stylish black and white skirt I bought from Ross that looks like it jumped straight out of the early 1980’s.

The only shoes I’ve really worn are my Chaco’s - the desert is ruthless and rough and will rip most shoes to shreds rather quickly. The other ones work well for killing bugs in our room, though.

We have a lizard that lives in our cho (toilet…latrine…whatever you want to call it. It doesn’t flush because it’s a hole in the ground. BUT we do have a toilet seat!). I’ve named her Bertha Junior – mainly because thinking that the giant lizard peering up at me from inside the cho or from behind the stack of toilet paper is a female somehow makes it less terrifying. I stopped trying to name the cockroaches and spiders a long time ago…too many to count. By “terrifying,” I mean I have this huge fear that one of the aforementioned creatures will crawl on me why I am trying to use the restroom. Most of the time this results in me using Nick & Lynne’s cho instead of taking the chance of a cockroach or spider crawling up my leg.

Some more shuffling of subjects occurred and now I’m teaching Geography instead of Chemistry…don’t worry though. I’m still teaching Kenyan History. I tried to explain the irony of an American teaching Kenyan History to my class the other day (because I find it HILARIOUS – they know more about it than I do) and they just stared at me blankly. Apparently American irony does not translate well into Kenyan irony.

Tirrim Secondary School – AIC’s first secondary school in the north. BIG deal – there aren’t that many secondary schools for kids to go to up here – especially Christian ones. Tirrim just opened in January, and we only have Form 1 (9th-ish grade) this year; we are hoping to add Form 2 this January. We have 32 students in Form 1 – 29 guys and 3 girls. They range in age from 14-27. They are the EXACT opposite of American students. Attentive…polite…studious…and they have SUCH a desire to learn. But the combination of soft Kenyan accents and too many eager students trying to answer my questions at once results in me saying a lot of “HUH?” “I’m sorry…WHAT did you say?” and “Whoa. Uh…could you say that again slower?”

Like for example – today we were talking about what the students eat for breakfast in the morning. “Kahawa!” they proudly told me.
“I’m sorry…kaha-what?”
“Coffee, Madam!”
A few exchanges later I figured out that kahawa is coffee in Swahili.
“Oh! Yes, Kenyan coffee is good. I drink Kenyan coffee back in the States!”
“Yes, Madam. Here we drink coffee from (soft mumbling)-opia.”
“Um…what?”
“Utopia!” (or so I heard)
(Me, trying to think fast and make sense of what I think I just heard) “You drink…Utopian coffee?”
“NO, Madam. ETHIOPIA! We have coffee from Ethiopia.”
(Cue me trying SO hard not to laugh and feeling like a complete fool) “OH. Ethiopia. Well, that makes sense.”
“YES, Madam. They are so near!” (The Ethiopian border is just a few hour’s north of Korr.)

I also catch myself using intelligent phrases like “between a rock and a hard place” and “a rule of thumb to go by,” as well as using the word “y’all” about every three sentences. None of my students understand what I’m saying, but they’re way too polite to tell me that.

There’s SO much more…I’ll be posting again soon. But for now, know this: the Lord is moving mightily here in this small desert town, and I am so humbled to be here to play a part in it.

I know what I'm teaching!

2009-09-05T14:13:00.002-05:00

Are you ready for this?

For this term of school...

I will be teaching...

Chemistry and History/Government.

KENYAN History & Government.

Can we all just stop and laugh at the irony here? I came all the way from America to teach a classroom full of nomadic Kenyans the history of their own country. A country I had never been to until 9 days ago.

9 days does not make me an expert on Kenyan history!

I just might be the most under qualified person for this class in the school…no. Make that the COUNTRY. Yes, there are Kenyan teachers at our school…no, they’re not teaching History. Hilarious.

Not to mention that I haven’t taken a Chemistry class since my freshman year in college. Yes…that was FIVE years ago.

Alicia is teaching Geography and Business Studies. To the secondary students. Yeah…we’re in the same boat here.

School starts Monday. It’s Saturday night here. Looks like we’ve got a TON of reading and learning to do in the next 36 hours.

Good news is…any learning my students do will certainly not be attributed to me. These next three months will ONLY be successful because the Lord desired them to be so. It’s certainly a humbling yet secure place to be in…even though teaching two subjects which I know next to nothing about is being ANYTHING but secure.

Tirrim Secondary School – the school we’re teaching at – just started this past January at the beginning of the first term of school. (Kenyan school starts in January and ends in December. Three terms: January-March, May-July, and September-November. April, August, and December are their months off). This year we only have Form 1 (equivalent to 9^th grade). We have 31 students and one classroom that the teachers rotate through. There will be 6-7 teachers this term.

Thankfully, each student at Tirrim has a textbook each for every class they’re in (almost unheard of in Africa!)…and they’re in class a lot. School starts at 7:10 and ends around 5:00 each day. Then, the students have mandatory study hours from 7:30-9:00 PM three nights a week. PLUS…they have class on Saturday from 9:30-12:30. Crazy!

Not to us, O LORD, not to us

but to YOUR name be the glory

because of YOUR love and faithfulness.

[Psalm 115:1]

Tutaonana Nairobi...

2009-09-03T13:05:00.002-05:00

A list of lasts that are happening tonight (at least, until the end of November when I come back down country):

- Last night in Nairobi

- Last time to wear pants for a while

- Last time to have running water and thus, a flushing toilet

- Last time to (possibly) eat veggies

- Last night to have a reliable power source for my laptop (and only connection to the "real world")

- Last time to have access to a cell phone

A list of firsts that are happening tomorrow:

- First time to fly on a small plane (I think it's an 8-seater...ish?)

- First time to ever step foot in Korr, a place that the Lord has been preparing me for since last October

- First time to hear Rendille spoken and meet a people I have grown to love without ever meeting in person

- First time to experience first-hand what God is doing in the desert of "Kenya B" (as it is lovingly referred to by the "Kenya A" people - south Kenya vs. north Kenya)

I'm excited, I'm terrified...I think I'm ready. Orientation has been overwhelming at times, but God has made it (yet again) abundantly clear we are completely in His will by being here. Just exactly how long, well...that hasn't been determined yet. But we are trusting that He will provide, just like He always has and will.

A few prayer requests:

- Safe travels tomorrow. The weather has been so temperamental in Nairobi since we've been here...70 degrees and sunny one day, 50s and rainy the next.

- That what the Lord has us bringing to Korr would make it there. (does that even make sense?) The plane tomorrow can only officially take 20kgs of luggage from each of us...I think we have upwards of 200kgs of luggage total. (Before you completely judge us...that's counting school supplies, supplies for us for a year, etc.) Thankfully there was another flight up to Korr yesterday that was able to take a good portion of our stuff, but we still have a decent amount left. I've been triaging my supplies for a few days now...figuring out what I won't need in the next three months, what I definitely need, etc.

- II Corinthians 5:7 - "For we walk by faith not by sight" has become true reality for us. We still don't know what we're teaching, or when school starts. Really the only details we know about the next four months is that we have a retreat in Kijabe November 27-December 1 that we'll probably go to. Other than that, we have no idea what our time will look like. Pray that we would trust God with ALL of the details - which really, isn't hard right now because we don't have any other choice :)

- Finally, for the new relationships that will be forming over the next few days - with the other missionaries, with the teachers in school, with our students, and with people in Korr.

Your prayers and support are SO appreciated. Please, please don't hesitate to call or email me - I would LOVE to hear what's going on in all of your lives! It's like having a piece of home with us here in Kenya...seriously. Call and leave me a voice mail if I don't answer, email me, facebook me, whatever. I will do my absolute best to respond to you as soon as I can :)

Kenya

2009-08-31T09:26:00.004-05:00

First off let me start off by saying that African church beats out American church every stinkin' time. (Those of you who've been to Zambia can attest to this truth. The rest of you will simply have to trust me!) Yesterday Alicia and I went with Murray and Diana to their church, AIC Ngong. (Africa Inland Church - Ngong.) AIM started AIC over 100 years ago. AIC Ngong is one of nearly 5000 churches AIM has helped establish across Kenya, boasting over 1,000,000 members and 2,000,000 affiliates.

The pastor shared the following story in his sermon:

"I have heard that America has designed a machine...a machine that can catch thieves. They decided to test it out by taking it to various countries. America tested it out and in 20 minutes caught 30 thieves. Then they sent the machine to the U.K. to see how it would work there. In 20 minutes it caught 300 thieves. In Spain, 25 thieves after 20 minutes. The machine made its way to Africa. In Ghana it caught 600 thieves in 10 minutes. Then the machine came to Kenya. In the first 5 minutes...the machine was stolen."

Everybody laughed...it's a funny story! But it is a sad illustration of the culture here in Africa, specifically Kenya. Kenya boasts that 80% of its population calls themselves "Christians." But Kenya also continues to have one of the top 10 highest corruption rates in the world. How does that compute? if 80% of the population are self-proclaimed "Christians," shouldn't some of the Christian morals and values filter their way into the government and way of life here?

One would think that. There is a church on almost every corner here in Nairobi. A private Christian university down the street from where we're staying. The Lord has definitely blessed this country...there is a lot more money here than I expected. Like a LOT. In Zambia "downtown" was three buildings that had more than 5 floors. We spent 2 hours walking around downtown Nairobi today and didn't even see half of it. I see BMWs and Audis pretty regularly driving down the streets. There are lots of wazungu here - it's not abnormal to see white people here like it was in Zambia. I went to a 4 story mall on Friday. FOUR STORIES. With escalators and elevators. The crazy part? It's not even the nicest mall in Nairobi.

Yet even with all of this, I am reminded at every corner that I am in a "developing" country. Cell phones here require a pin number to be entered in when they are turned on - it helps prevent thieves from using them if they are stolen. Nearly all parking lots are gated and have guards on duty - you take a ticket when you enter the parking lot, and you must show the guard the ticket when you leave. (It's supposed to help prevent you car from being stolen beccause the thief wouldn't have the ticket when they tried to exit the parking lot.)

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There is a saying here in Africa that the Sub-Saharan church is "a mile wide, and an inch deep." The Gospel is so prevalent here - millions in Kenya have come to believe in Jesus. But after that, what? There has not been much done to invest in these millions of lives. We are learning that the grandparent's generation here has a deep knowledge of their faith in Christ, but the younger generations do not. It's becoming more shallow as the generations come. Even more so are the dozens of tribes in Kenya (there are 42 total) that have yet to be reached for Christ. The "majority" have heard and know, but what about the rest? There have been missionaries in Korr for over 25 years. They've only just finished translating 80% of the New Testament into Rendille. The Rendille tribe is still one of the most unreached in the world - and we've been sharing and showing Christ to them for 25 years! There are dozens of other tribes in Kenya alone who have no access to the Bible in their own language.

When God first started calling us to Kenya I was doubtful because of these statistics. 'Why would God call us to go where somebody has already done all of the work?' I thought. Now I see.

There still is much work to be done.

Asante sana

2009-08-29T04:14:00.003-05:00

"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.

Leavin' on a jet plane...

2009-08-28T09:06:00.002-05:00

Wednesday

8:00 AM. Wake up in Pearl River, NY. Our last day in the U.S. It is surreal to think about...it is a day full of "lasts." Last time I'd have a Diet Dr. Pepper for a long time. Last time I'd use an American toilet. (Trust me, there IS a difference.) Last time I'd be able to brush my teeth in the sink without worrying about the quality of water. We had several hours in the morning blocked off for prayer time, but the four of us spent most of it running around from office to office trying to get everything done last minute. Will my ATM card work? Can I have more information about my health insurance plan? Questions, questions, questions...

11:30 AM. All of the short-termers at training week come together and pray. It was good - there was a peace in the room that transcended above all else. We were leaving today for Africa. That statement still had no meaning to me simply because it didn't seem real.

1:30 PM. Leave for the airport. As we are unloading all of our suitcases from the van we find 4 luggage carts...one for each of us. The first time of many that day it was evident the Lord was ahead of us preparing a path to Africa. Luggage carts cost $5 each and we found the exact number we needed waiting for us right outside our parked van. At the ticket counter a kind British Airways employee named Patricia discovers we are all missionaries and bumps us up to business class as a special treat.

7:30 PM. Our plane takes off an hour late because our pilot assures us that he could make the seven hour flight in "five hours fifty minutes." (He does.) Plenty of tearful phone calls are made before they asked us to turn our phones off. Alicia, Danielle, Julie, and I are all tucked in our row in business class...except Julie and I don't have working televisions. The flight attendant's response? "Well, I could move you two ladies up to First Class if you'd like..." Heck. Yes. First Class is where the seats recline 180 degrees. Julie and I manage to get over 2 hours' solid rest before landing in London.

Thursday

7:00 AM. We land in London and it's morning. Our bodies tell us it's most definitely not. Exhausted, we sit around in Terminal 5 taking turns watching the luggage and going to the bathroom to wash our faces and brush our teeth. Last time to make use of a speedy internet connection.

8:30 AM. Alicia and I say our goodbyes to Danielle and Julie (they fly together to Uganda later that evening) and head to our gate. We grab sandwiches and drinks at a Boots in the airport - and quickly realize that British food has no flavor whatsoever. So much for a tasty "last meal..."

10:30 AM. We take off from the exact same gate we landed at four hours earlier. Sleep on and off the entire flight. Sitting next to a guy named Dan who was from Chicago and headed to Kenya for a 12 day safari. We banter about immunizations...Dan couldn't get the yellow fever shot because of some medication he was taking. Instead, the doctor gave him a note. "What am I supposed to do with this?" he jokes with us. "I'm gonna hold it up to all the mosquitoes and say 'Look. I've got a note from my doctor here that says all you mosquitoes with yellow fever can't bite me. Malaria mosquitoes...go right ahead.'"

9:00 PM. Land at the Nairobi airport. It's dark out. Somewhere in route we gained two more hours. Our bodies are now thoroughly confused as to what time zone we are standing in. We exit the aircraft to find a surprisingly robust airport. (To everyone who's been to Zambia: this was no Lusaka airport. More on that later...) Everyone rushes to the Port Health desk where we turn in our swine flu surveys. "Check the 'yes' box if you've had a fever, sore throat, or cough in the past two weeks." Who's actually going to check yes?

9:30 PM. Luggage time. Luggage carts are free here. Miraculously all 6 of our overweight bags made it to Nairobi. Thank you, Jesus. The two of us along with several students from RVA (Rift Valley Academy - the school for missionary kids) are picked up by Samuel, a quiet man who works at Mayfield Guest House. NO idea how all of our luggage is going to fit in the van, but it does. (Probably because we tied about 16 suitcases to the top of the van with bungee cords.) We all climb into the van, exhausted. Samuel starts the engine. Celine Dion is playing on the radio...somehow, I feel this is fitting. The 20 minute drive to Mayfield brings back a flood of memories from Zambia. Kenya and Zambia have so many similarities, but are so very different...

10:00 PM. Arrive at Mayfield Guest House. Alicia and I show up to our room to find schedules lying on the bed. We'll be in Nairobi until next Friday? Completely unexpected, although I'm sure it's the first of many plans that will be altered or changed. Tiny room+2 girls+6 overweight suitcases=a lot of climbing and tripping. Two words: shower time.

1:00 AM. Still completely unsure what time our bodies think it is. We both fall into bed anyway. We're in Kenya. We're in Kenya. Those words still don't register with me...not tonight anyway. Tomorrow is another day, and maybe tomorrow I won't feel like I'm moving through water. Either way...

We're in Kenya.

The last one.

2009-08-26T08:11:00.001-05:00

See this?

This is my last Diet Dr. Pepper for a long, long time. *Sniff sniff*

Today at 5:25 Houston time I'll be sitting on a plane taking off from Newark Airport. I get to London tomorrow morning 12:25 Houston time, and I leave for Nairobi four hours later.

As of 12:30 Thursday afternoon, I will be living in Kenya.

No idea on the length of time yet...we're still waiting on some information before that decision can be made. But no matter how long we are in Africa, God is still the same. He is faithful, never confusing, and loves us more than we can begin to comprehend. Only He knows how long we'll be there and what we'll be doing...isn't that all that really matters?

Prayer requests:

- Safe travel. Lots of planes, lots of opportunities for stuff to go wrong, and lots of time to lose luggage.

- That all of our luggage would make it to Nairobi safely and with nothing missing. British Airways is notorious for losing luggage, and African airports are notorious for taking whatever they want from suitcases.

- Quick adjustment to the time in Nairobi (Kenya is 8 hours ahead of Texas)

- For orientation in Nairobi to run smoothly, and for our transition to Korr to be smooth and safe as well.

Thank you for all of your prayers and encouraging notes, emails, and letters...they mean so much to me. I'm feeling your prayers in a very real way.

P.S. If you want to check out some neat blogs, check out Danielle's: http://www.daniellesafricandiscoveries.blogspot.com/

She's here at training with us and she'll be spending the next year teaching in Southern Sudan!

Or, if you want to read about where I'm going, check out Hillary's blog: http://hellohillary.blogspot.com/

Hillary has been in Korr for the last seven months and left just a few weeks ago. I've been reading (stalking) her blog all year...she has some truly wonderful things to say about what the Lord is doing in Korr.

Send me some love!

2009-08-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

A lot of people have been asking if/how they can send me packages while I'm in Korr. The following is what I pulled off of AIM's website. Hope it helps :)

Here are some helpful hints concerning sending packages to our AIM missionaries on the field.

1.) We have a system for sending packages through Pearl River to our mission family on the field. We do most of this by way of air freight. You can send a package to Pearl River, and we will forward it on by this method. Please address the package this way: Name of Missionary, Africa Inland Mission, 135 West Crooked Hill Rd., Pearl River, New York, 10965. Send the package to us by way of United Parcel Service (UPS) or through the regular post (USPS).

2.) We work on a first-in, first-out basis, with priority being given to ministry related items. Please be patient - we handle the things that arrive here as quickly as we can, but depending on how much comes in here, we can have a considerable back-log of things at certain times. However, it is still usually faster sending packages this way rather than through the post.

3.) When you send a package through Pearl River, the missionary receiving it will have to pay shipping charges on it if you don't cover it for them. In the case of sending things that the missionary requested, this if fine. However, if you are sending gifts, please send money to cover the shipping costs involved. The way to do this is to send a check made payable to Africa Inland Mission, under separate cover, to the attention of the shipping department. Please do not attach your check to the package. You can estimate that the missionary may have to pay about $7.00 per pound for air freight they receive. (This is an estimate as the charges are broken down in Africa). We deposit the check into the missionary's transmission account, which is their personal checking account. No allocations are taken from the money for home administration, and you will not receive a tax deductible receipt. It is not treated as a donation, but as a payment. This payment only gets the package to Nairobi - there could be additional charges to send it on to the actual station it is going to.

4.) Please bear in mind that we are serving about 800-900 missionaries this way. If you are sending packages, we cannot tell you how long it will take for them to be sent, or to arrive. If you are sending Christmas gifts, we cannot guarantee that they will reach their destination by Christmas. It is best to have them here in Pearl River by the end of September if you want them to have a good chance of getting there in time for Christmas. It is best to keep gifts small. We would also encourage you to please NOT wrap the individual gifts that you send in a package. We have to open each one here in order to create packing lists for each shipment. They may also be torn open to be searched through when going through Customs in Africa. If you want to send gift paper, a good tip is to buy those wrapped, flat sheets of paper, which can be easily packed along with the unwrapped gifts inside your package.

5.) If you have any questions we can be reached at 845-735-4014. Ask for Keith Barber or Sarah Carter and we will be happy to answer any questions you might think of.

Faithfulness is His very character.

2009-08-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

O LORD, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done marvelous things,
things planned long ago.
[Isaiah 25:1]

What an interesting 24 hours.

As I was sitting with Stephanie and my mom last night and working on addressing prayer cards/writing thank you notes/making lists of things to do/buy/order (I'm not busy...noooo), I pulled up the budget AIM sent me for my expenses while in Africa. It began to occur to me as I looked at it that something was very wrong...numbers weren't adding up properly. The spreadsheet said we needed $11,482 to cover all of our expenses - but adding up all of the subtotals for each category was giving me a much, much different number.

Like $5,500 different.

Turns out the spreadsheet is wrong. Turns out that to go serve for a year Alicia and I each need roughly $16,900 instead of the original $11,400. Turns out we only have money to go for 7 months instead of 12 - two terms of school instead of three.

[This is about the point when I wanted to throw up.]

Questions, questions, questions: How does a mistake like that happen? The spreadsheet's formula was correct in adding up the proper amounts, but the sum wasn't right. How the heck are we going to raise $5,500 in ELEVEN DAYS? Should we even try to raise the money, or is that interfering with His will for us? Is not raising the money being disobedient to His call to go? What does this all even mean?

It is comforting to know that despite these questions and the decisions that are facing us now that our God NEVER changes. He is steadfast, strong, never changing. He is mighty, and faithfulness is His very character. His plans certainly aren't our plans - and He's had this moment planned since the beginning of time. He knew this would happen.

Would you join us in praying for God's will to be done? The last thing I want is to let my emotions and feelings determine this decision. Whatever length of time the Lord has us serving Him in Kenya is about glorifying Him and not what's comfortable for me. It's not about me at all...it's all about Him. Pray that my selfishness would not influence or taint this decision in the slightest. Pray for the people in Korr that we'll be meeting, working with, teaching. Pray for the missionaries we'll be living with while we're there - Nick and Lynne. Pray for His name to be known!

I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and let your glory be over all the earth.

[Psalm 108:3-5]

Update

2009-07-20T11:00:00.000-05:00

Goodness.

We leave five weeks from TODAY! On August 24th Alicia and I fly to New York for two days of training, and then two days later we leave for NAIROBI!

The Lord has been SO faithful to provide...as of today, I have 74% of my funds in. In less than a month! God keeps confirming over and over again this is where we're supposed to be....which has been such a blessing this summer as obstacles get put in our path, preparations pick up, and stress levels rise. Packing everything I need for a year into just a few suitcases has proven to be no small feat. Stop for a second and think about everything you'll need or even might need for the next 12 months of your life. Clothes for every occasion (I know I'll be in the desert, but I'll be in other climates for at least two months of the year! It can get chilly in Nairobi), toiletries (For. A. Year.), electronics (my laptop is my only connection to the outside world! No cell phone towers in Korr), linens, medicine (there is no doctor anywhere near Korr...), books...you can see where it gets to be overwhelming. Throw in no running water and no air conditioning and things get a little hairy. There's not exactly a Wal-Mart in Korr we can run to if we forget anything - there's also not a bank in Korr, so I have to bring enough money from Nairobi to last for three months at a time.

Yikes.

It is comforting to know that despite all of the changes that are coming, God never changes. He is the same God we knew yesterday, today, and for forever.

One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
and that you, O Lord, are loving.
[Psalm 62:11-12]

If you're reading this and you'd like to be on my prayer list - you'll receive monthly emails with updates and prayer requests - shoot me an email at JamieBauknight@gmail.com.