Oh yes. I live here.

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!

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

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...

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

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

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!

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.