Daylan in Kenya

2008-06-30T10:49:00.001-07:00

My childhood friend (and when I say childhood, I mean I’ve known her since I was but a few days old) Jessi Gates goes to school in Bath Spa in England. When Kendra and I were buying tickets to fly back to America, we decided it would be fun to stop somewhere along the way. Visiting Jessi sounded like a brilliant idea, so after we left Nairobi, we flew to England and stayed about 4 days.

The first day we took a bus to Bath and got to see the cute town in which Jessi currently resides. It was a fascinating, beautiful place, and we really enjoyed our time there. After Bath, we took a train to London where Kendra and I saw the musical The Lion King. It was an incredible show, and it ended up being a great way for me to say good bye to Kenya. The animals and colors reminded me so much of what has been my home for the last 2 years.

The next day we went to church in London with some of Jessi’s friends. I don’t think I’ve ever been to church in a building that old, and I really enjoyed the service. That afternoon we went to the Tower of London and had a tour there. Then we went to West Minster Abbey for the evening service. The pipe organ was incredible, and though the service was nothing exceptional, it gave us a great opportunity to see the abbey for free. Outside of the abbey are the Houses of Parliament. We were surprised to see a Bush demonstration going on there. Apparently he was in London that day.

That night we slept at one of Jessi’s friend’s houses and then left in the morning to see St. Paul’s Cathedral before we went to the airport. Just like Westminster Abbey, this cathedral was also beautiful and indescribable. I think my favorite thing about both St. Paul’s and Westminster is that there is a reverent awe that comes over everyone as they walk inside. Everyone is silent and looking up. Sadly, there are few things in this world that evoke such responses from multitudes of people. Perhaps this is why people find it hard to find God. There is an unwillingness to be silent and stand in awe.

That afternoon, Kendra and I hopped on a plane back to Seattle. We left London around 4:30 pm and landed in Seattle around 6 pm. I’ll let you do the math. Brother Dayn picked us up from the airport and drove us to Portland. The end.

2008-06-29T19:10:00.001-07:00

After crossing the border back into Kenya, Kendra and I tried to figure out how to get to Kakamega National Forest, the only rain forest in Kenya. Our goal was to make it to a campsite for the night, but after it started pouring down rain, and we realized that staying in a hotel was cheaper than finding a ride to the campsite, we opted for the hotel. But, of course, we still pretended like we were camping. The next day we took a matatu (public transport van) to the entrance to the park. We had a fun time hiking around the forest. When it was all done, we went back to the Kisumu airport to fly back to Nairobi.

2008-06-28T11:54:00.001-07:00

After school got out, my friends Kendra, Jen, Brent and I travelled to Uganda to raft the Nile and visit some friends in Kampala and Entebbe. We flew to a town in western Kenya and then took a bus over the border to Jinja, where we would raft the headwaters of the Nile. There were many adventures along the way, but eventually we met up with my friends Brad and Grant in Jinja. Rafting was an adventure to say the least. It was one of the most remarkable, amazing, and fun experiences of my life, and it was also one of the scariest! The rapids were unbelievable, the calm stretches were perfectly serene, and when it started to rain so hard that it felt like hail, well I was just glad the crocodiles didn’t get us. It was a great time!

After rafting, Brad and Grant drove us to their house in Kampala where we stayed overnight. The next day we took a taxi (public transport van) to a little town called Entebbe. Loretta, the lady who used to teach first grade at WNS, lives there with her husband, where they are serving as missionaries with AIM Air. Loretta was like a surrogate mother to me in Nairobi, so it was fun to visit her and see her life in Uganda. She lives in a beautiful place – they have chickens, avocado trees, mango trees, papaya trees, three kinds of banana trees, and the list goes on. It was a little paradise! Kendra and I stayed the night there and then went back to Kampala the next day. We hung out with Brad and Grant some more and then took a bus back over the border into Kenya for the next adventure. But I won’t tell you about that adventure just yet. Enjoy the pictures of Uganda, which, by the way is BEAUTIFUL. I think this is the next place I want to live…or at least dream about living.

2008-06-27T10:54:00.001-07:00

The last days of school were full of mixed feelings, as I was busy grading finals and finishing up all my responsibilities at school. When it came to saying good bye to students, especially the 7th grade girls who I have taught for 2 years, I thought my tear ducts were going to run dry. You’ll notice my face is a little red and puffy in some of these pictures!

During finals week, the girls in my Bible class put together skits from various passages in the book of Acts. The 8th graders in my science class had to invent something or improve on an invention that already exists. As you can see from the pictures, the 8th graders worked really hard and made some pretty amazing things!

The other pictures are from the end of the year staff dinner that we had. Kayla, Craig, and I are all leaving the school, so we got these Masai clubs as a going away gift. On the last day of school, there was a closing ceremony where I led worship (one song), and the school prayed for people who were leaving. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

2008-06-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

All year the 8th grade class at West Nairobi School has been raising money to go towards a rafting trip in May. This trip not only included rafting, but also kayaking, rock climbing, and other team building games. We went through a company called Savage Wilderness. Savage came and picked us up in their buses on Friday, May 9th, and then they brought us back to Nairobi on that Sunday.

The program started out with Chris, the main instructor, laying down the law, splitting the kids into 2 teams, and starting them off on various team building games. As you will see in the pictures, he split them up by using a marker to draw either a moustache or eyebrows on their faces. This was quite entertaining for all of us teachers to watch, considering I could name several kids whose faces I would have liked to draw on at some point (sorry to all my students who are reading this, but it’s true, and you probably would have liked to do the same to mine!).

The second day was spent kayaking for half a day and then rock climbing for the other half. The location of the camp is on the Tana River, and it was just outside the town of Embu, making it about a 2 ½ hour drive from Nairobi. The landscape was gorgeous, and I enjoyed the mix of rural Kenya with all these outdoor activities. While we were rock climbing, we had a herd of cows and goats pass through the place we were climbing, and then local kids from the farms surrounding would come watch, probably wondering what in the world we were doing.

The last day, we went rafting. For obvious reasons, I don’t have any pictures of us rafting, but we all had a great time, and the 8th grade trip was well worth all the time we spent fund raising. Thank God! Check out the slide show beneath this post.

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-06-26T10:04:00.001-07:00

2008-06-25T07:54:00.001-07:00

In my 7th grade biology class, we studied about conservation and wildlife protection programs. To see wildlife protection programs in place in Kenya, we took a field trip to the David Sheldrick Orphanage. It's a center for lost or orphaned elephants and rhinos in which the animals are nursed back to health and then released back into secure sanctuaries. We got to see the elephants up close, but due to their aggressive behavior, the rhinos stayed behind their fence.

2008-06-24T15:54:00.001-07:00

I have about 8 or 9 different sets of pictures to put on the blog, and here is the first set. The pictures of the hike take place in the Ngong Hills. In Kiswahili, ngong means knuckles. There are five of these hills, and the third one is the tallest, just like a human hand. So a group of teachers, friends, and one student hiked these 5 knuckles on a chilly (it warmed up, of course) Saturday morning. The other set of pictures take place at the World Hope soccer field. One of my good friends in Nairobi, Steve, plays soccer for World Hope, which is a team whose field is located just outside the Kawangware slum. I really enjoyed watching his games and being a part of the crowd.

2008-06-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
For the past 2 months, my computer has been out of commission, and for the past 3 weeks I have been doing some travelling. This means that I have not been able to put any pictures on my blog, and let's be honest, blogs without pictures are a bit dull. Now you may be thinking, surely this post means that Daylan is about to post a whole slough of pictures about her adventures on the Nile, hiking a rainforest in Kenya, and seeing "The Lion King" in London. But you would be wrong. Today I am leaving for the wedding of my dear friends Kayla and Craig, and thus I will have to put off the posting of pictures for another day. But I will leave you with a list of some highlights over the past few weeks.

1. 8th grade rafting trip was amazing!
2. Kendra came to visit. She helped me close up everything at school, helped me move back to the states, and was the best travel companion ever!
3. I cried a lot on the last day of school. The tear ducts are dry now, I think.
4. The 8th grade promotion ceremony was a lot of fun, and you will love the pictures!
5. Kendra and I went to Uganda, visited some friends, rafted the Nile, and DIDN'T DIE!
6. Kendra and I saw giraffe, elephants, lions, and other critters at Meru National Park. Oh, and the baboons took Kendra's shoe!
7. Kendra and I visited my good friend Jessi Gates in England.
8. "The Lion King" was incredible.
9. Brother Dayn picked Kendra and me up at the airport in Seattle. We went to Portland and saw my sister Denee's pregnant belly!!!!
10. I got to hug all my family members.
11. I drank water straight from the tap.

Pictures will come in the next few weeks, I promise.

2008-05-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have to apologize for not posting on my blog for so long. This time I have a good reason. My computer has been in repair for several weeks, and it looks like I won't be able to use it until I go back the the states. So getting pictures online becomes more complicated. A lot has happened in the past month! At the very end of April, I went to Egypt for about 5 days. My friends and I spend most of our time in Cairo. We saw the Pyramids, which were slightly anti-climactic. Very cool, but definitely not the best part of the trip. I had a wonderful time with my friends Hannah and Rachel, and I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Me and Hannah...and one of the Pyramids

Hannah, Rachel, me, and the Sphinx

We spent a lot of time at Khan el Khalili Market. This is our friend Said and his glass shop. He had the most beautiful glass, and we had to get really creative with packing all our fragile purchases.

Entering the Khan el Khalili Market. I'm not in this picture...

They sold all kinds of beautiful crafts and antiques

Don't wake him up, Hannah!

Some women going into the amazing, huge library in Alexandria.

Rachel taking a picture in the citadel in Alexandria

Us in the catacombs

I'm not sure why I decided to bend over like this...

Me, Rachel, and Hannah at El Fishawy, the best place to hang out and people watch in the entire world. Oh, and the Turkish coffee isn't half bad either.

2008-04-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long few weeks, but there have been many adventures along the way. Hopefully you saw the pictures I posted of my parents’ visit to Kenya. They had a wonderful time, and so did I. It was such a blessing to be able to show my parents my life here, and I was so proud to see the way they embraced the culture and the rhythm of life. So if the person who anonymously donated the money for them to come visit is reading this, thank you a thousand times over. We all had the time of our lives.

Last weekend (April 12 & 13), my friend Astrid asked if I wanted to go camping in Amboseli National Park. Well, it wasn’t a hard decision since Amboseli is on my list of places to go before I leave Kenya. This park is known for its large elephant populations as well as its location on the Tanzanian border, giving it a striking view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I had an amazing time, and I even saw the mountain! I hope you enjoy the pictures

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-04-19T06:59:00.001-07:00

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-04-05T01:15:00.001-07:00

2008-03-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

Those of you who are avid readers of my blog (all 3 of you) may remember me writing about my hiking adventure at Mt. Suswa back in November. A large group of us came to this mountain to hike and explore, and things turned out a little differently than we had expected. Going into the park, some of us riding on top of the Land Cruisers, we were chased by a group of Masai men who wanted money from us. We had a Masai women with us, and she said we didn't need to pay them, so we continued to drive. After bush wacking and hiking in the heat, we came back to our vehicles and drove back toward the road. We were greeted by a road block created by the men who had been chasing our vehicles. They made a barricade with rocks and wouldn't let us through until we paid them a ridiculous amount of money. Somewhere in the midst of this adventure, my camera was stolen or lost, which is why you have never seen pictures of this trip. My good friend and hiking partner, Astrid, recently gave me a CD of her pictures from this trip. So now, 5 months later, you can look and enjoy.

These are the some of the Masai Plains we drove through to get to the mountain.

Some Masai people with their cows. Normally they get very upset if you take their pictures, so this shot was a rare treat.

Some children we saw along the way.

Some of us rode on top of our friend's Land Cruiser to get to the mountain. It was a bumpy and dusty ride!

We went to Suswa with several other families, but when it came time for hiking, we split up.

I still have scars on my legs from the bush wacking. But it was beautiful!

Speaking of beautiful, this is my friend Astrid.

Scott led the way down into the valley. It was a challenge to say the least.

Descending down the Cliffs of Insanity. Anyone know what movie that's from?

Ah nature.

I had a bag of cookies. Soon it was empty. How could you say no to these faces?

Here's the rock barricade that the men blocked our cars with. Sometimes you just have to laugh at things like that. Most people wait until afterwards, but I decided to do it in the midst of the scary mishap. TIA.

We did eventually get out. Here are some stressed out moms and restless kids.

2008-03-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, March 22nd, one of the teachers from my school got married. The wedding was in a town called Thika, about an hour away from where I live in Nairobi. Here are some pictures.

We were thankful to be hreaded in the opposite direction of this traffic.

Beth, the one on the left =), married Kefa. Beth teaches special ed. at our school.

This is Nancy and me. Nancy is the secretary in the office at school, and without her, West Nairobi School would fall apart. The buildings would literally crumble to the ground. She also makes me laugh really hard, so it's good to keep her around.

Joan (on the right) works hard on our school's accreditation process. Her friend, whose name escapes me, is visiting from Ghana. For those of you who are wondering, yes, Joan's hat is from J.Crew. She's the best dresser at our school.

This is one of the boys who lives in my apartment complex. He came over for a visit and sat down to read this book my sister sent me for my birthday. Thanks Denee!

These are my friends Kinyash (sorry if I butchered the spelling), Ian, Anne, Steve, and Momo. Steve and Ian are here doing soccer ministry with Ambassadors in Sport. Ian left to go back to the states on Monday - the first in a long series of good byes. Sniff...

2008-03-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I hiked Mt. Longonot a few weeks ago.

Here is Kate (one of my students), me, Anna (Kate's sister), Amanda, and Becca (both teachers). (I'm done with the parentheses). (For now).

Kayla, me, and the girls soccer team. We got first place in the league!

In order to better study the concepts of momentum and acceleration, I took my 8th grade science class on a field trip to go bowling. Here are some of us on the bus ride to the bowling alley.

Here are some of the boys in between turns. Chang Hwan, Joe, Hanbeen, Max, Mr. T, and Clay

From left to right we have Heidi, Kate, me, Amanda, and Rachel. We bowled with bumpers, ha!

Luis and Chang Hwan are in front, and from left to right in the back are Austin, Sam, and Hanbeen

JiYeon has amazing form.

2008-02-09T06:14:00.001-08:00

For the second year, I am helping my friend Kayla coach the girls’ soccer team. She does most of the work, and I just stand around and cheer the team on. Last season we didn’t win a single game, and we didn’t even score until the very end of the season. We had our first game of the season on Thursday, and though we tied 1-1, I was thrilled that they had scored a goal in their first game!

This Saturday we played in our first tournament at a school called Brookhouse. If any of you have read the Harry Potter series or seen the movies, this school was designed after Hogwarts. Their main building is like a castle, drawbridge and all, and I felt like I should be walking around with a cape and a wand. I didn’t need any sort of magic, though, because the girls played so well. Out of 8 teams, they ended up getting second place. In the final game, the score was tied at 0 with 2 minutes left. The ref made a bad call, giving the other team a penalty kick. Our goalie blocked it, but then the ref let her shoot again since he hadn’t blown the whistle before she kicked it. The other team had kicked it too early, so for some reason, our team was penalized for it. So really, the other team won because of some crappy reffing. But the exciting thing is that our girls still got second place, worlds better than they would have done last season. Way to go West Nairobi School!

Awards ceremony - 2nd place!

See what I mean about Hogwarts?

Resting between matches

The girls resting before the semi-finals

Some of the boys came to cheer on the team.

My two favorite Australians - Anna and Kate Radkovic

2008-02-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

Hello readers of my blog.

I understand if you have given up on me and lost all faith in this blog. I have callously neglected if as of late, and I apologize. The situation in the nation is not one where I should be staying out of touch, so let me fill you in on all the happenings in Nairobi.

Since the elections on December 27^th, the nation of Kenya has been in an uproar. Politics in Kenya are heavily based on tribes. The candidate who won (Kibaki – part of the Kikuyu tribe) has been accused of rigging the votes, and the candidate who lost (Odinga– part of the Luo tribe) has encouraged the members of his political party to protest violently. Throughout the nation of Kenya, people are being killed, raped, and driven from their homes, all because of tribal lines. Some politicians are even paying young men to continue causing violence. Since many young Kenyan men are unemployed, this is a great opportunity for them to make some money.

School was delayed opening for about a week because of alleged rallies which didn’t really end up happening. We ended up opening school on January 21^st. The first week went pretty well, though it was tiring knowing that at any moment, things might become unstable, and we might all be sent home. Things felt normal at school, but that didn’t reflect the situation in the rest of the nation.

Last week (January 28 – February 1) felt like an eternity. One of the MPs was assassinated, and we had to leave school early in order to get everyone home safely in case rallies started. Two days later another MP was shot, and I had to send my chemistry class home 5 minutes into the lab that I had spent 2 hours preparing. I think I cried. None of the students or teachers have been harmed, but the whole situation is harrowing. You never know when something will break out, and we will all be sent home. Some students have had to leave town for a while because of threats to their family or tribe. Please keep them in your prayers.

The situation in Kenya continues to be unstable. The U.S. ambassador says that American citizens have no reason to worry about being targeted in this violence, but it may be months before things go back to normal. The media makes it sound like Kenya is going through something similar to the Rwandan genocide. Please do not believe these reports. I live in a safe area, and most of the violence is happening either in the slums or in western Kenya. Please continue to pray for the people of Kenya. There are a lot of heartbreaking things going on lately, and I find myself feeling heavy and burdened.

I am still keeping busy at school with teaching science, math, and Bible. Just like last year, I am the assistant coach of the girls’ soccer team, and we have our first game on Thursday. I have also begun helping the 8^th grade class put on fund raisers for their end-of-the year rafting trip. Please pray for me as I have plenty of things on my plate and live in a country with much bigger burdens than these.

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-01-09T06:26:00.001-08:00

2008-01-09T01:08:00.000-08:00

Pictures will be coming soon!! For now, if you have the stamina, you can read about the trip.

Zanzibar

Day 1 – December 26
We woke up at about 5:30 in order to get to the bus station by 6:30. I was pleased to see that the ride from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) was going to be a comfortable one. The bus was similar to the motor coaches I used to ride when I gave tours in Alaska. 16 hours later I was no longer marveling at the comfort of the bus, but it was a good start to the journey. Those aboard the bus with me are as follows: Kayla (roommate and close friend), Criag (Kayla’s fiancé), Becca (art and French teacher), and Steven (math, computer, Bible teacher). It was a great group to travel with.

As we drove through southern Kenya, the terrain gradually changed into rolling, green hills. Women wrapped in scarves and blankets carried their babies on their backs, and soon our bus came to a stop. The driver didn’t say anything, but someone in the back of the bus, sensing our confusion said, “Border.” So we went on our wild goose chase to enter the country of Tanzania. After shoving our way through the chaotic lines, we finally got our visas to enter the country. Then we hopped back on the bus for the rest of our really long bus ride.

The rest of the ride was beautiful. We even saw the base of Kilimanjaro when we were in the town of Moshi. One day I hope to see the top of that mountain! We arrived in Dar es Salaam at about 10:00 that night. One of the families who went to our school last year now lives in Dar, so we waited for Mr. Kim to come pick us up from the bus station. Because of English-Korean language barriers, it was quite an ordeal to communicate to Mr. Kim exactly where we were. Eventually we made it to their house, slept a few hours, and then…

Day 2 – December 27
Went to the ferry terminal to get our tickets to Zanzibar. The ferry ride was about 2 hours, and then we were in Stonetown, on the island of Zanzibar. Our next task was to find a ride to Nungwi, a beach on the northern part of the island where some other friends were staying. Through a series of complicated transactions, we finally made it to the Nungwi Guest House, where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. The five of us weary travelers met our friends Brad and Grant there. And finally we were at the beach and could rest. Ah…

The beach was amazing. Bright turquoise blue as far as the eye could see with old, rugged fishing boats scattered throughout the expanse of water. There were plenty of people lying out and swimming, and this being my second trip to the Indian Ocean (I went to Mombasa in Kenya last Christmas), I knew that the water would be warm and pleasant to swim in. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I have vivid memories of dedicating my first 10 minutes of swimming to getting numb. Once that point was reached I had a great time in the water! Needless to say, the Indian Ocean is nice.

Days 3-7 (December 28 – January 1)

We spent these days in Nungwi hanging out on the beach. Here are some highlights.
*the beach (obviously)
*breakfast with mango, pineapple, banana, chapati, tea
*going for walks in the morning, discovering hermit crabs
*watching the beautiful people of Zanzibar fishing, swimming
*shade
*swimming
*dinners that lasted for hours
*moving to a new, cleaner hotel
*feeding sea turtles
*homemade mango ice cream
*walking back to our hotel along the beach by the light of the moon
*getting stung by a jelly fish
*riding on the back of my friend’s motorcycle at sunset
*practicing my Kiswahili and failing miserably
*talking to interesting people from around the world
*sunscreen applied at least thrice a day
*the slow pace of things
*sunsets
*the Tanzanian shilling to U.S. dollar exchange rate: 1,150 to 1
*Kayla, Craig, Becca, Steven, Brad, Grant
*huddling with above company inside the little, air-conditioned liquor store drinking cold Coke in a glass bottle
*ushering in the New Year on the beach

Day 7 – January 1
Things grew a little tricky once we heard about the election results in Kenya. Since Kibaki was elected, those opposing Kibaki got upset and started rioting around the country. This made it unsafe to travel to Kenya, making us refugees in Tanzania. Now, life on the beach certainly isn’t rough, but we were getting worried about when we should head back to our home in Nairobi. Today we packed up our stuff and headed to Stonetown, the place we would ride the ferry from. We took a daladala, which is like a big truck with a roof and benches in the back for people to ride on. It was a beautiful, fun ride, but my back end was definitely ready to stand up once we arrived.

By this time, Grant had already left to go back to Sudan, where he works for Samaritan’s Purse, and Brad showed us to the hostel where we would be staying. The hostel was an old Anglican church, and it was an interesting place to stay. It had a lot of character and also a lot of mosquitoes. We walked around town for a bit, looking at the shops and all the little souvenirs that strongly resembled the ones we can buy in Kenya. Stonetown has narrow roads and high buildings rising up along the sides. Walking along the roads is like walking through a maze, and it definitely has a really neat, historical feeling to it, almost like I would imagine small towns in Italy. On these narrow roads, vehicles don’t exactly watch out for you, and I had a couple close encounters.

Day 8 – January 2
Awoken at about 4:45 A.M. by the call to prayer right outside my window, I managed to fall back asleep for a couple more hours. This was our day to hang out in Stonetown. Becca and I spent the day walking around and exploring. We found an old castle that used to be a fort, and when we climbed the stairs we found an art gallery. There were men painting and men trying to sell their paintings, which were all beautifully done. After exploring there, we went to the museum and learned a little of the history of the island. In the evening vendors line the streets selling all kinds of local food, fresh seafood, and drinks. The smells are fantastic, and Becca and I enjoyed eating as we watched the sunset over the water. One more night of sleeping, then on to Dar es Salaam.

Day 9 – January 3

We woke up early to get a start on the madness of our morning, but even then travel was a bit of a scramble. Because of the turmoil in Kenya, the buses from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi were no longer running, which meant that we needed to fly. When we went to the travel agent, we found out that we could only pay in cash for our plane tickets. I mentioned the exchange rater earlier, and I’m sure you can only imagine how much money I had to carry to pay for a plane ticket that cost roughly 300,000 Tanzanian shillings, paid in 5,000 bills. It was crazy. But God is gracious, even to those who are pressed for time, and we made it to the ferry with plenty of time to hop on board.

Arriving in Dar es Salaam about 2 hours later, we once again had no idea where we were going. I knew the Safari Inn was a cheap place to stay, so I stopped in at the Chamber of Commerce to enquire about directions. I’ve found that when people in East Africa do not know where something is, instead of saying “I don’t know”, they will give you directions anyway. I could tell this lady didn’t know where the Safari Inn was, so I thanked her for the directions and followed the sign that said “Tourist Information”. The lady there drew me a map, and after navigating through the unfamiliar streets, we found the Safari Inn.

The first and last thing we did at this cheap hotel was watch the news. Things weren’t looking good, but we also knew that the media could be over-dramatizing things. We found a grocery store and stocked up on rice, beans, bread, and other essentials in case grocery stores in Kenya were still closed. We headed back to the hotel for our last sleep in Tanzania.

Day 4 – January 10

We found a couple taxi drivers to give us a ride to the airport. Everything was fine until I heard metal scraping on the road and noticed our driver pulling off to the side. Instead of telling us we had a flat tire, he got out, opened my door for me, and pointed. I squinted into the distance and realized he was pointing at the airport. I thought to myself, of course we got a flat tire! Of course we get to walk the rest of the way! It made me laugh. I should have expected something like this to happen. Fortunately, it was only about a 10 minute walk to the airport, so Felix (our driver) did get us pretty close.

The flight was nice because it got us to Nairobi in an hour instead of 16 hours. Despite the extra cost, flying instead of taking the bus was a huge blessing. After asking around at the airport, everyone said the roads were clear and we would be fine to go home. We got a ride from a taxi, and as we drove past Uhuru Park (the location of the alleged rally), we saw at least 100 police men, lying around looking bored. The rally had been cancelled, but the police were still out in full force. We got home and found everything pretty much back to normal. The roads were calm, people were walking around, and we were all glad to be home.

2008-01-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone.

Thanks again for your prayers. After spending the last 10 days in Tanzania, my friends and I are finally “safe” in Nairobi. We had an amazing time in Zanzibar, an island off of Tanzania, but our last few days were a little harrowing as we watched the news and the growing tension in Kenya following the elections. It was hard for us to decide when we should go back to Nairobi, so we bought tickets to fly today, January 4^th, with the intention of spending the night in the Nairobi airport if things were too dangerous on the roads. Plus, after traveling around and staying in various hotels and hostels, a night in the Nairobi airport sounded ok because it was free of cost and mosquitoes. Upon our arrival in Nairobi this afternoon, the report was that the roads were clear and we would be safe to go home. We took a taxi and found things to be surprisingly calm. As we drove past Uhuru Park, the location of the alleged rally that has not happened yet, we saw at least 100 police men if not more. It was an eerie sight, but I was glad to see them sitting around, looking bored. I would love it if they remained bored for the next few days, but there are still threats of rallies and violence in the city.

I live in an apartment complex that is tucked way back in the city. It is quite a distance from Kibera, the slum where a lot of violence is taking place, and I know that my roommates and I will be safe here. As with most people in Nairobi, we live behind a gate, and we have guards during all hours of the day. You can thank the Lord that my friends and I arrived here safely. He has provided safety in all our travels, and that is quite a miracle when you are white people traveling around Africa. Please continue to pray for the situation in

Kenya

. The violence continues in many areas, and we are all just holding our breath until both sides are willing to meet peacefully and find some sort of compromise. School is supposed to start on January 15^th, and we are all hoping things will have calmed down by then. Thank you so much for all your encouraging words and prayers. It means so much to me knowing that you are praying for this situation.

2008-01-02T01:24:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone.

Many of you may have been following the news and hearing about all the violence following the presidential elections in Kenya. I just wanted to let you all know that up until this point I have been safe. I have been in Zanzibar, which is an island off the coast of Tanzania. It is beautiful and amazing here, but now my friends and I are wondering when we should go back to Nairobi, our home. We picked a perfect time to leave the country, and now we are wondering what the perfect time would be to go back. As of today, we are thinking of leaving on Jan. 4th. We are taking a bus from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, which is about a 14 hour trip. Please continue to pray for us as we travel and especially for the nation of Kenya and its people. Politics are very tribal in Kenya. The presidential candidate who was re-elected, Kibaki, is a Kikuyu, and the candidate who was defeated, Odinga, is Luo (I'm not sure how to spell it). I won't go into all the details, but BBC is a good source for news. Please continue to pray. I will let you know when I get back to Nairobi, that is, if the internet is working there!

2007-12-13T06:10:00.001-08:00

thanks to mr. craig gilley, i now have a camera again! hooray! here are some random pictures...

we went for a walk at the arboretum. here is craig (kayla's boyfriend), me, steve, and momo (weekend friends...not teachers).

notice anything weird about this monkey? sorry if i've offended anyone, but i couldn't resist.

loretta weeks teaches first grade at the school. all of us younger lady teachers call her mama, and every once in a while, if i'm really lucky, she tells me i am her favorite daughter. that changes from day to day. loretta and her husband are leaving after this semester to move to uganda. i'm really going to miss her, and so is the school!

our little christmas tree

when kay and i are coming home from school, the boys in our neighborhood often ask for a ride down the long, winding hill that is our driveway. i think we piled 10 of them into our little car once. it's always a noisy ride!

2007-11-22T21:37:00.000-08:00

Since I have lost my camera, I thought I would put some pictures of past adventures on my blog. Some other teacher friends and I went to a place called Paradise lost over a month ago. With a name like "Paradise Lost", I was expecting a lot out of this place. Let's just say that I was underwhelmed. It took us about an hour to get there, and there are basically five things to do. Here are the pictures.

Activity 1: ride a camel

Activity 2: feed an ostrich

Activity 3: explore a well-lit cave

Activity 4: walk behind a waterfall

Activity 5: go for a boat ride

Conclusion: Paradise Lost is a fun place with random things to do. I think the paradise is still lost, though. Let me know if any of you know where it went.

2007-11-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

When I asked Bill and Jan Bevins if they would be interested in hiking Mt. Suswa, they jumped at the possibility. So did I! Jan and Bill were two of the people I climbed Mt. Kenya with in April, and I knew they would be up for an outdoor adventure. I was feeling like I had been in the city too long, and being an Alaskan and all, the need to be in the outdoors practically runs in my blood. The hike was mentioned to a few other people at school, and before we knew it, 2 more families were coming as well as some more friends. The number of people in our caravan totaled more than 20, and since there were children ages 10 and under, I figured (and was hoping) we would not all be hiking together.

We left Nairobi at about 8:30, headed in the right direction but all-together uncertain of where exactly we were going. Mt. Suswa is not a national park, and according to the Lonely Planet guide, it isn’t so easy to access. So we drove in what turned out to be the right direction after all. The road started to get a bit rough, so those people in station wagons decided to park their cars and hop on board the two Land Cruisers. 8 passengers inside and 4 on top of each. I am still sore from that ride on top. Add to the equation a few Masai men and women who needed rides up the mountain, and you’ve got yourself some full Land Cruisers. I don’t think that even the soccer moms carry this many people in one vehicle. This is what SUV’s are made for, right?

The ride on top was beautiful. As we drove further up the mountain to get to the trail head, it became apparent that we were inside a huge crater. The giant rock walls rising up beside us provided a nice shelter from the wind. When we arrived at the trailhead, we were all kicking ourselves (not literally) for not bringing tents and sleeping bags. It would be the perfect place to camp. Oh, I forgot some crucial plot exposition for this story. As we were driving up the mountains, some Masai men started chasing after us with what looked like a receipt book. The Masai woman who was with us in the car, told us to ignore him, so we just kept on driving.

When we finally made it to the trailhead, those of us who were more serious about hiking separated from the families. As we began to hike, it became apparent that there was no definite trail. Some Masai boys showed us to a nice view off the side of a cliff. We looked for a trail but found none. Instead of giving up, we decided to descend down this cliff and climb back up the other side. 4 days later, my quads still regret that decision. The challenge was great, the adventure was great, but as the sun got hotter and the amount of water in my bag got smaller, my mood began to swing. As we climbed back up the cliff, we knew the general direction we needed to go in, but for a while we walked in circles. After whacking through bushes, growing weary from the early stages of dehydration, bleeding from all the thorns we walked through, we finally spotted the cars.

We hopped in the Land Cruiser, and began driving down the mountain to meet the other families who had left 30 minutes earlier. As we drove, we got a phone call saying some of the Masai people had barricaded the road so that we couldn’t get back to the road. When we met up with the rest of the group, some of the men who knew Swahili were talking to these men who blocked the road. Now if you recall back in the third paragraph I wrote about a man chasing us with a receipt book. Apparently we were supposed to stop and pay this man, and since we didn’t they decided to block the road. They were demanding a ridiculous amount of money, but it was going to be dark soon. As much as I would love to bring justice to Kenya, I knew I wasn’t the person to bring about that kind of change in this circumstance. I was all for paying and getting out of there! Eventually, that is what we had to do. After we paid, the men “kindly” moved all the rocks so we could get through.

I left town on Saturday ready for an adventure, and that’s what I got. I was expecting one kind of adventure and got a completely unexpected one. I still haven’t climbed Suswa, though! And after all that, my camera is now lost…

2007-11-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing is perfect. I began this school year intimidated, nervous, and unsure of myself. I think there are many teachers who begin the school year this way, and I was always told to fake it until you feel it. If you act confident, your students have no idea that you are terrified, and let’s just say I’ve become a pretty good actor. It didn’t take me long to “ease” into the comfort of the routine and realize that teaching middle school math, science, and Bible was something I could do. As with most situations, I sought out the comfortable place. This meant I would do everything in my power to work quickly, efficiently (this one doesn’t always go so well for a forgetful person like me), and to do the amount of work necessary but nothing beyond that. The problem with being so comfortable in my teaching is that I was no longer using my gifts of creativity to make my lessons unique and meaningful. My job became a job, and I don’t want it to be that way. My prayer is that God would help me find creative ideas to use in the classroom. He cares about what goes on, and I don’t think He wants me to be happy with teaching at a level of mediocrity.

In high school I was generally a straight-A student. In fact, the only class I got a B in was chemistry. It seems a bit ironic that I am now the middle school chemistry teacher (see paragraph above about being intimidated). I have often felt inadequate in this role, and oftentimes I spend a better part of my day trying to understand the concepts before I teach them. (I do need to give a little shout out to Eric Gibson, the high school science teacher who provides all the tutorials I need before I teach.) I like learning, and I love exploring the intelligent world that God has created. But there are some days when I wish I was teaching something I knew about and felt confident in. I’ve been reading a book called “An Arrow Pointing to Heaven”, which is Rich Mullins biography. Rich Mullins believed that life is a struggle, that there is no way to avoid difficult times. I am realizing that this applies to teaching as well. Teaching is not an easy job, and it is not about finding a comfortable way to do things. Sometimes God asks you to do things that stretch you, and I think this is one of those times. Rich Mullings says, “Don’t resist the work of God by asking for an easy life.” If I were not able to teach chemistry, God would not have put me in the position. Please pray for me as I continue to learn and teach in an area that is not my forte.

If you think of it, be praying also about the decision I need to make about next school year. I am on a 2-year contract at school, this being my second year. In December I have to decide whether or not I wish to renew that contract for another year. I am completely torn and would appreciate your prayers in this area. Perhaps my next blog will be dedicated to my thoughts of staying and going. I have many thoughts about it! Thanks for taking this journey with me, gentle reader.

2007-10-20T00:17:00.001-07:00

I went on a game drive into Nairobi National Park a couple weeks ago with some friends. Here are a few pictures. I have a couple pictures of us getting stuck in the mud, but it takes about a decade to load each one, and I have grown weary. So for now you can just enjoy the cool animals.

I think this one was posing for me, displaying the freshly curled eyelashes.

Apparently this giraffe is used to seeing people. And weird vans with holes in the top.

Zebra. I don't know what else to say about them.

Mama Ostrich was not very happy with us driving so closely behind her babies. It was quite a feat trying to overtake them in our Land Cruiser without hurting them. Eventually we succeeded.

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-10-18T07:58:00.001-07:00

2007-10-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

To say the place was bazaar or wacky would be an understatment. When Kayla, Scarlett, Hannah, Rachel, and I decided to go to Kitengela Glass for the day, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I've seen the glassware in stores and always admired its homemade perfection. The prices of the glasses, bowls, vases, and other sorts of glassware have always been out of my price range. After visiting the factory, I can see why. After we had gawked at the wacky statues and eclectic artistry on display, we went into the room with the furnaces. The fire was blazing hot, and we watched these men put the red-hot glowing glass on the end of a pipe and blow air into it. I have never seen anyone blow glass before, and it was amazing. I now understand why Kitengela charges so much for their products. The care and craftsmanship that goes into making just one glass or bowl is amazing.

Besides the glass-blowing, the rest of the Kitengela Glass is simply wacky. I wonder if Dr. Seuss helped create the place because it resembles the worlds you would find in one of his books. There are all kinds of crazy statues and buildings made of glass, bottle lids, and other random objects. Peacocks, camels, pigs, ducks, roosters, and horses roam free throughout the place. There is a pool and a guest house. The guest house overlooks a gorge that separates Kitengela from Nairobi National Park (I think). There is a rope bridge that goes across the gorge, and we decided to be brave and go across. Anyone with a fear of heights would not have embarked on such an endeavor. It was a bit scary, but the view was amazing, and it was a lot of fun. After we had crossed the bridge, we spotted babboons on the other side headed towards Scarlett's purse. As much as I wanted to save her purse, I also didn't want to get attacked by the babboons. They can be quite viscious. Rachel and I decided to cross the bridge as fast as we could (definitely not running) and scare the babboons off. We yelled and screamed at them as we approached, and they decided that the purse wan't that interesting and went away. Phew! I really didn't want a close encounter with one of those animals.

My conclusion: Kitengela is an amazing place, but it really doesn't seem like such a place should exist in Kenya. If you come visit me, I will take you there. Otherwise, enjoy the slide show and imagine what it must be like in the land of Dr. Seuss.

2007-10-13T07:52:00.001-07:00

Friday, October 5^th was my 25^th birthday. On Thursday, my roommates took me out to dinner, and when I got home a bunch of my friends were waiting at my apartment to throw me a surprise party. It was so fun! Some of them felt bad for not bringing a gift, so they went into my room (before I was home of course) and wrapped up some of my belongings. So for my birthday I got a pair of flannel pants, strangely similar to the ones my mother sent me last year. I also got a framed picture of my sister and me when I was 16, then another framed picture of my best friend and me in front of Mt. McKinley.

On my birthday, one of my students made me a cake, and we had a little celebration in my biology class. Everyone at school was wishing me happy birthday, and after school Heather, Kayla, and headed out to Mayers’ Ranch to hang out with friends for the weekend. My parents called me as we were driving out to the ranch, and that was when I got the best birthday gift ever. But in order to understand the true significance of this gift, you have to understand a little about my family.

When I moved to Kenya, a little over a year ago now, my parents moved from their home in Anchorage, to Bend, Oregon. My dad took a pastor job there. My mom had a temporary job with the school district in Bend, but it ended in April. She has been looking for a job ever since. She finally got hired just a couple weeks ago, but that hasn’t left my parents with a few thousand extra dollars to come visit their daughter in Kenya. When my parents called me on Friday, they told me that a man from my dad’s church gave them $3000 so that they can come visit me. Unbelievable. That knocked my socks off. And thus concludes my story of the best birthday gift ever. Ever. Ever.

On Sunday (October 7^th) my friend Astrid invited me to go on a game drive in Nairobi National Park. She borrowed a big Land Cruiser, and we left in the early morning hours to look for animals in the park. We (well, Astrid really) drove for about 20 minutes and then got stuck in the mud. She called the emergency number that one of the rangers had given us in case of such emergencies, and, in typical Kenyan fashion, no one answered. We waited for an hour, maybe longer, sipped coffee, and enjoyed each other’s company. Once we were “rescued” (see pictures below), we didn’t get stuck again. We saw giraffe, zebra, buffalo, gazelle, impala, and even a rhino. All in all, it was a great day. Had we seen a lion or a leopard, it would have been a grand slam day, but a great day was good enough.

I am trying to upload pictures for you, but the internet is too slow. This blog entry will have to suffice for now.

2007-10-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some random pictures of random things from the past few weeks. Enjoy! I hiked Mt. Longonot with some friends, and Astrid (right) made us pancakes at the top. They were delicious!!

Casa (I don't know how to spell her name) took lots of pictures while we hiked.

This is my beautiful roommate Heather with our beautiful little neighbor, Michelle.

This shows the international flavor of our school. Joel (left), is German, Meitamei (top) is Masai (a native tribe in Kenya), Adam (middle) is British, and Illam (right) is Kenyan.

The boys soccer team warming up for their first game

Some members of our girls basketball team just before their game.

2007-09-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

Life moves fast. That could be the theme for my past two weeks that have left me with little or no time to update this blog of mine. I apologize to the 3, maybe 4, people out there who check my blog religiously. Sometimes I just set myself up to fail. But anyway, these weeks have been full and tiring. The school year is in full swing with sports practices and games and fun get-togethers on the weekends. This last week was good in the sense that I was able to stay on top of my grading, planning, labs, and communication with parents. The week before, however, left me thinking that I needed to figure out how to organize myself in a new way. Those of you who know me well can attest to the fact that organization is not my greatest strength. I have trouble coming up with a good system for how to do things, so usually I have 3 or 4 different systems that work, and since I can't decide which one I like best, I use all 3 (or 4) at any given time. But because I also suffer from short term memory loss, I can never remember which system I chose to employ at any given time. Are you exhausted just reading this? This week, after meeting with my amazing mentor, I decided I just needed to choose one system and go for it. I even made myself a list that says something like, "Put things back right after you are done with them; graded papers go in this basket; copied papers go in these folders; papers that need to be graded go in this basket". I stuck to my list pretty well, and it's amazing how much stress was relieved because of this. One of my professors once told me that I needed to "work smarter, not harder", so I am trying to do that. So far so good.

As far as general life here in Kenya, it's always an adventure. Between dodging potholes, bicycles, and crazy matatu drivers on the roads, I am amazed we can make it to school on time. It's kind of scary how comfortable I have become on these chaotic roads. I would never drive this way in America. We have really cute little boys in our apartment complex who like to come visit us. The other day I went running, and when I came back, Jerome-Dwayne asked me where I had gone. I told him I went running, and he says, "Ah! And your face is pink!" He thinks my pasty, pale skin is fascinating, and I think his dark brown, almost black, skin is beautiful.

I have always enjoyed people-watching, and I think the best place to people watch is here in Nairobi. There is such a diverse mix of people here. Most people imagine Africa as a place with dirt roads, people living in huts, and bare-breasted women with children hanging all over them. This isn't realistic. In Nairobi there is everything from the rural, Kikuyu women with their hear wrapped in scarves and their long, bright-colored skirts. There are men in 3-piece suits riding their bicycles through the muddy streets. Then there are the more urbanized men and women. The women are wearing suits and high heals, the men are wearing neatly pressed, starch white dress shirts. And cell phones abound. There is a diverse ethnic population here. We see Indian people (people from India, not Native Americans) everywhere, along with Koreans, Americans, Europeans, and you name it, it's probably here. The same diversity is reflected at this school. And one day, when the internet connections are better, I will be able to post some pictures.

2007-09-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had our West Nairobi School Staff Retreat at a place called Lukenya. It's kind of like a resort, outside of Nairobi and away from all the fumes which I despise. Last year we chased giraffes at this retreat, but we had no such luck this year. We looked for them, but it was to no avail. I did enjoy haning out with some of the new staff members as well as some of the old ones. I really am blessed to work with so many wonderful people. We had worship and communion on top of a mountain. After we caught raindrops in our communion cups, we decided maybe we should get off the mountain. Kayla, Heather, and I hopped in the back of our friend Mark's truck. As soon as we got in, it started to hail on us. Here we are, laughing our way down the bumpy road.

Amanda (left) teachers social studies, and Jen (right) teachers 3rd grade. Jen was one of my housemates last year.

my feet

Becca, Kayla, Jen, and Olivia (my principal's daughter). We were looking for giraffes here, but we never found them.

2007-09-13T07:26:00.001-07:00

I am giving these pictures a second attempt. About two weekends ago, Heather, Kayla, and I joined a bunch of friends at Heather's brother, Bryan's house. He lives and works at a place called Mayers Ranch. It is a beautiful place, as close to paradise as I have ever been, perhaps!

Kayla and me beneath the acacia trees

The pond. They bottle water at the ranch.

me, Kelly, Kayla, Heather, and Hannah

Bryan, Hannah, Chris, me, and Heather about to have lunch

Kayla and me in the ginormous fig tree

My roommies (Kayla and Heather) and me in the fig tree

Heather beneath the fig tree. Told you it was ginormous!

2007-09-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

TIA... I just spent an hour putting pictures on my blog and writing about all my wonderful adventures this weekend, and now I have lost it all. Bah! So while I figure out what to do about my predicament, check out Kayla's blog. The link is on the right side of this page.

2007-08-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

I have no pictures and no exciting adventures to report. Wow, that is a horrible way to begin a blog. Why would anyone keep reading after I wrote that? Maybe if I set your expectations low, then you will be thrilled to find out that life in Kenya is not as drab as it could be. I am almost finished with my third week teaching. Teaching middle school is different than elementary, and though I miss having my own classroom, it is nice to have frequent breaks throughout the day that are longer than 30 minutes. I find I don't have to bring work home all the time like I did last year. I can even read books in the evening if I want to! Imagine what a world this is opening up for me. Oh goodness it's exciting.

I have really been enjoying my students lately. The school has such a rich international flavor, and I enjoy seeing so many different colors represented in my classroom. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post of them, but I will try to do that soon. They're beautiful, trust me. The other day in Bible class I was writing prayer requests on the board, and I wrote down one of my own. I asked them to pray that my mom would be able to find a job soon. One of my studens raised her hand and said, "Why does you mom need a job? Shouldn't your mom be retired or something?" I lauged really hard and then responded with, "How old do you think I am?" Then we got into the discussion of how old I am, and to my surprise, most of them thought I was older than I am. That rarely happens to me since I look young.

At school I do most of my teaching in the science classroom, which I share with the high school science teacher. I have a very small office, which doubles as the high school book room. It smells like old books in there, but I don't mind. I have a desk,, some shelves, and a white board. It's been so nice to have my own little space. Plus, who doesn't like to say things like, "It's in my office," or, "If you need me, I'll be in my office." Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks that's cool...

This weekend I am going out of town with my roommates Heather and Kayla. Heather's brother works at a ranch that's about a 45 minute drive from Nairobi. We are all looking forward to getting out of the fume-infested city. Then next week we have our West Nairobi School staff retreat. This means I will be getting out of Nairobi two weekends in a row. And it is in times like these that life simply can't get any better. I will post pictures when I get back. My giraffe-chasing pictures from last year were taken at the staff retreat, so I'm sure I will have some good ones after that is over.

2007-08-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

Good bye family! My parents drove me up to Seattle so I could catch my flight to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi. We stayed with some friends there, and here is the front of their lovely house.

Back at our new apartment in Nairobi, my roommate's brother, Brian, and I were sitting on this bed that he brought back from Sudan. It served as a nice piece of furniture in our living room, until Brian made too sudden of a gesture, and the thing broke.

There were bugs inside eating away at the wood, so it's not all our fault!

Kayla and me on the first day of school - we are so excited to be going to school!!!

It’s been just over a week since my plane landed on Nairobi. With the jet lag gone and school in full swing, it feels like I never left.

The first day of school was Tuesday, August 14^th, and as I write this, I am officially done with my first two days of teaching middle school. This year I decided to move up with the 6^th grade class, which is now the 7^th grade class. I am teaching 7^th and 8^th grade science, pre-algebra, and girls Bible. So far it has been going pretty well. I feel a little inadequate when it comes to teaching science, but the high school science teacher left me detailed lesson plans to teach. It’s nice having everything planned out for me, I just have to work at making these lessons my own. The Bible curriculum leaves something to be desired, and it’s another opportunity to get creative. Bible curriculum usually gives me that opportunity =).

I am living in an apartment with my good friends Kayla and Heather. Kayla and I moved out of the house we lived in this past school year, and now we are enjoying our new place. It’s very cozy inside, and I am very content there. Kayla and I are also sharing a car – a little Toyota Starlet. I have adjusted to driving on the left side of the road, and now I am pretty good at shifting with my left hand as well. The hardest adjustment was getting used to Kenyan roads, Kenyan traffic, and Kenyan drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. Now I am used to it, and I drive in an aggressively cautious manner. Most other drivers are just aggressive.

All in all, it’s good to be back here. Thinking about teaching brand new things is still a little overwhelming, but I love the students here. They make all the work worth it. Please pray that all the little first-week-of-school glitches would smooth out. I’m sure many of the new teachers are feeling overwhelmed, so be praying for them as well.

2007-07-31T21:46:00.001-07:00

Sister Denee, their dog Kinzie, Brother-in-law Steve

the whole fam

Kendra joined us for our family weekend. She fits right in, except for her red hair =).

Mom and Dad at our family picnic on Sunday

Kayla is a fellow teacher in Kenya and also one of my closest friends. She and her boyfriend, sister, and nephews and niece came for a visit. This is her boyfriend, Craig, not her nephew.

My mom and I made these quilts for Katy and Kendra's graduation gifts. It was a lot of work!

This may very well be my last post before I head back to Kenya. That means that this is the last time I will be able to publish large picture files. Once I hit the home of slow internet connections (that would be Kenya, or anywhere in Africa really), I can only give you small ones. I'm sure this will be the cause of much heartache in the U.S. of A. Since I have been very consistent about not posting updates on my blog, I thought I would begin now. But where to begin...

I have spent the last few weeks in Bend, Oregon where my parents live now. My mom and I went to see my sister and brother-in-law (Denee and Steve) in Portland one weekend so we could help them paint their house. Well, in typical Portland fashion, it was rainy and humid all weekend, so there was no painting to be done. We did clean up their yard and enjoyed each other's company. And for anyone who cares, I enjoyed Burgerville's seasonal milkshake, which is raspberry right now. Delicious. You Oregonians out there know what I'm talking about. I thank God daily that I can tolerate lactose. Well, maybe not daily...

Last week I worked on getting my newsletters written and acquiring the addresses that I lost when my computer was stolen (Danielle Cornelius and Keri Ann Rumrey, if you're reading this, can I get your address?). I was able to do some other fun things, like play frisbee golf with my brothers and go rafting on the Deschutes River. Both were quite fun, though one was a but more thrilling than the other. I think rafting is probably the best activity you can do in the summer in central Oregon. It's too hot to do most anything else. But I'm a wimp because I've grown up with summers that reached 70 degrees max, and on the rare occasion that it did hit 80 degrees, we all wished we had air conditioners in our houses. I remember well those 50-degree spring days when we were finally allowed to throw on our swimming suits and run through the sprinkler. Oh Alaska, look what you have done to people.

This past weekend Denee and Steve came to Bend. It was the first time our whole family had been together since about this time last summer. Everything feels complete when we're all there. Things are going to change soon, however, since Wrecks, the dog we have had since I was 10 years old, is finally going to be put to sleep. His body isn't working very well anymore, and he's in so much pain that it is time to let him go. I know fellow dog lovers will understand that this is almost like the death of a family member. I drained my tear ducts today. My mom and I shared tissues.

The summer seems to have gotten away from me, and I don't know where it went. This Sunday I leave for Kenya. My parents are going to drive me to Seattle. From there I will fly to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi. I am looking forward to the school year and all that it holds for me, but as always, it is hard to say good bye to my family and friends. It has been so wonderful to be in the northwest and to enjoy all these people who are so much a part of who I am.

2007-07-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the contiguous United States. I ended up extended my stay in Anchorage for a few extra days as I was having far too much fun visiting friends and gallavanting around my home town. It was wonderful to be able to catch up with the friends and family I haven't seen for a year. Now I am back in Bend, Oregon where my parents live. My brothers, Dayn and Drew, are here as well, and it feels so nice to have at least part of the family together. I have missed them so much. I hope you like these pictures. They aren't in chronological order.

Dayn and I went spelunking today in Boyd Cave here in Bend. It was incredible! This is Dayn crawling out of one of many small holes. We were pretty dirty afterwards.

This is us toward the back of the cave. We used the flash on the camera.

On my last day in Anchorage, some of my best friends and I went out to breakfast at Snow City Cafe. From left to right we have Debra, Jannell, Emily, me, Rachel, and Jessi.

Dayn and I had a really cold, windy hike back to Rabbit Lake. Hooray for Alaskan summers!

This is at the Alyeska Ski Resort. Jessi had a free night's stay at the Alyeska Prince Hotel, so the 5 of us got to spend the night there for free (the hotel is not pictured, just God's creation). Left to right - me, Jannell, Jessi, Lauralee, and Melody.

Dayn and I went backpacking at Williwaw Lakes with some friends. I love the Chugach.

P.S. After putting all these pictures online, I noticed that my brother Dayn appears in more than a few of these pictures. This is because Dayn and I do a lot of things together, and we are both not working this summer. Perhaps you are wishing you appeared in more. If you weren't working this summer and lived near me, I would probably include you in a lot of pictures as well.

2007-07-06T00:36:00.001-07:00

One of the best parts of being at camp was counseling with my brothers! Dayn and I were twins this day, on accident.

Kids playing in the mud. We didn't have much water in our swimming whole.

This is one of the boats that brought kids from villages down river. We had two boats like this completely full of campers. Then one boat came from up river, and some kids arrived by float plane.

My friend Becca and I, in Anchorage, were pretending to be speed skaters.

Colleen (right) just finished running a marathon, and Jannell (left) and I (behind the camera) cheered her on.

Mt. Hood at sunrise

This is the group of us who attempted to climb Mt. Hood.

It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks. I am in Alaska now, visiting friends and unwinding a bit after my last week at Kokrine Hills Bible Camp. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a little bit. I left for Alaska on June 22nd, but before that I got to have a few adventures. On the night of June 20th I attempted to climb Mt. Hood. Due to some difficulties with weather and the health of my fellow climbers, we were unable to summit. I was disappointed to not go to the top, but also a bit relieved as the conditions were quite miserable. It was windy, I was freezing cold, and we were hiking in the middle of the night in order to avoid the warm part of the afternoon that is more avalanche-prone. Someday I will try again, but for now, I am glad I got to have this opportunity. After the climbing attempt, I got to spend some time with my dear friend Kendra Crosby in Portland. We had a really nice day walking around downtown, visiting Powell's Books and Whole Foods. I also got to spend some time with my sister, Denee, in Portland. We made some delicious food and enjoyed a warm, sunny evening in her backyard. This was quite a contrast to the cold, windy, snowy night I spent climbing the mountain.

I left for Alaska on June 22nd and was met at the airport by my good friend Jannell. And my friend Jessi also came to the airport, which was a complete surprise. I cried when I hugged them. Sometimes life just can't get any better, and this was one of those times. We made all the rounds - lunch at the Moose's Tooth, a trip to Kaladi Brothers Coffee, and plenty of hanging out and telling stories about our year apart. And considering my friends are the most funny, witty people in the world, I had a sore stomach the next day. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not as much as you may think. The next day Jannell and I cheered on her friend, Colleen, as she ran the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon. It was fun to watch, to join with the Anchorage community which I have missed so much. I ran into some friends who I had wanted to see, and I had a wonderful time hanging out with them and, of course, laughing some more.

On Sunday morning, I went to the church I grew up in, Anchorage Evangelical Free Church, which is now called Trailside Community Church. I showed them a short video of my year at West Nairobi School and then told them about my time in Kenya. Some of the people gave me money toward a new laptop, and with all the money people have given towards that, I have a new laptop that didn't cost me anything (for those of you who don't know, my computer was stolen last November in Nairobi). It's pretty humbling when people are that generous, but it's a beautiful picture of how the body of Christ works. I'm so blessed, and blessed doesn't feel like a good enough word to describe this feeling.

I spent a little more time in Anchorage on June 24th and 25th, and then I drove up to Palmer to visit Grandma and Grandpa Arnold. Thanks to a friend, Kevin Martin, I have a car to drive while I'm in Anchorage. I stayed the night with my grandparents, and we left early in the morning so I could drive to Fairbanks and they could get a ride to a town called Nenana, which is a couple hours south of Fairbanks. I was driving to Fairbanks so that I could fly to the village of Tanana, then take a boat to Kokrine Hills Bible Camp. This is the camp my grandpa started for the Native kids in the villages on the Yukon River in interior Alaska. I actually went as the guest speaker/teacher for the younger kids. The only access to the camp is by boat or floatplane, since the river is like a highway between villages. When I flew into Tanana (an Athabascan village), I was met by my cousin, Brian, and my brother, Drew. If you want to know more about the camp, the website is http://www.kokrinehills.org/. There is a blog where you can see updates from each day of camp.

I spent about a week at camp and really enjoyed teaching these kids. There were 57 of them, and many of them had never opened a Bible before. It was so thrilling to make the Word of God come alive for these kids and to teach them how to look things up in their Bibles. God was so faithful in helping them understand Jesus. I think sometimes we worry that kids this age (8-10 year olds) are too young to really understand the gospel. But I think we underestimate the faith of a child. Though they may not understand all the deep theological concepts that many of us are trying to figure out, their simplicity is exactly what God wants from us. They just believe, and they ask the most fabulous questions. In Psalm 8 it says, "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise." And this is so beautiful and so true.

I got back from camp yesterday (July 4th) and spent the night with the grandparents again and then with some of my cousins and other family members in Palmer. Now I am in Anchorage again, at my friend Jessi's. If you don't quite understand the chronology of events contained in this blog, I think you are not alone. But know that I am alive and well, enjoying Alaska for a few more days before I got back to Oregon on July 10th.

2007-06-13T15:36:00.001-07:00

I've been back in the United States of America for just over a week now, and so far I have driven on the right (and correct) side of the road and have been enjoying the exhaust of cars that have to pass an emissions test. Quite lovely. Here are some pictures so far.

Two of my dearest friends in the world, Kendra Crosby and Katy Rogers, came to visit last week. They spent the night with me in Bend, and then we went hiking here, at Smith Rock.

Katy is on the left, and Kendra is on the right. I met Kendra my junior year of college when she was a freshman, and I was her R.A. Katy was inherited through my friendship with Kendra. And a rich interitance at that.

Kendra, Daylan, Katy

I visited Drew for a couple days at his school, Oregon State University. The mechanical engineering classes were a bit above my head, but it was really fun to hang out with him! I missed my little (or maybe I should say younger) brother.

This is my friends Michael and Debby's little girl, Ellie. We were fast friends.

Brother Dayn, brother-in-law Steve, sister Denee, and me eating at Kell's. It is ranked the number one Irish pub in the U.S.

Mom and me at Crater Lake

Crater Lake in all its glory.

My mom's sister Kathie is visiting, and her friend Cathy Dunham from Alaska is also visiting. From left to right is Mom, Aunt Kathie, and Cathy Dunham standing in front of Smith Rock.

2007-06-06T08:37:00.001-07:00

One thing I will miss about my house in Nairobi is my neighbor, Miriam.

My future roommates, Heather (left) and Kayla (right)

Me and some of the girls from my class

They cleaned their desks with shaving cream...and their bodies too.

Adrian, Kelly, Amy, and Priscilla reading to the class on reading day.

One part of the Amazing Race involved sticking faces in a plate of flower to find a jelly bean. This is Christian after he was victorious in said endeavor.

Joseph having the same success as Christian (see picture above).

Muthoni, J.T., and Harriet waiting in line for lunch.

Well I am back in the Unites States now, and it is about time for me to write about my last few weeks in Kenya. After the Mt. Longonot field trip, things slowed down a little in my classroom. The problem was that, though things had slowed down, my stress level was still somewhat high, making for a cranky 6th grade teacher. The week before school got out (May 21-25), my class was in charge of chapel. They had wonderful ideas of how we could communicate James 1:19-21 to the rest of the school, but there were so many things going on on top of that. Unfortunately, when my stress level goes up, so does my level of sarcasm, while the patience goes out the window. I found myself saying things to my students that were unkind, and I would go home a miserable person because I felt so terrible about the fiery words I had let fly from my mouth. One morning I woke up and these words were going through me head. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness, Oh Lord.” Being the non-Bible scholar that I am, I can’t remember where this verse if found (though I do know the song), but these words were ringing through my head, and I knew that it was time to change. I thanked the Lord that that morning was fresh, new with no mistakes. I thanked Him for His mercies that never run out. And when I gathered my class together at school, I apologized for my unkind words and was able to share what God had done in my heart. It was a precious time, and though I would like to think I will never get to that point again, that’s probably not realistic. I will always be wrestling with the things that come out of my mouth, but I am so thankful to serve a God who gives me another chance and loves me through it.

The last week of school was filled with games and closing activities. On Tuesday, May 29th, one of the moms in my class put together our end-of-the-year class party. We had a barbecue and then played the Amazing Race. These kids were running all over the school doing crazy things, and it was a lot of fun. After that, we watched a video one of the dads from my class had put together of the various field trips and fun things we have done this year. It was quite the video! If you watched it, you would think that all we did this year was have fun and never work. If only that were the case! I’m only kidding, of course, but the video was awesome. Then I handed out awards to all my students. They all really enjoyed being recognized for their various talents and quirks.

In a lot of ways, it was hard to watch this year come to a close. This has been one of the hardest years of my life, and also one of the best years of my life. I have absolutely loved teaching these 6th graders, and though it was more work than I could handle at times, it was worth every moment. I have grown so attached to these kids, which is why I am moving up to teach middle school this next school year. The sad part is that some of my students are leaving Kenya, and some of them won’t be coming back. There were a lot of tears shed on that last day of school as many of my students were facing the reality that they may never see each other again. That’s the way it goes with missionary kids.

The last day of school was May 31st. I finished packing up my classroom that afternoon and then headed back to my house to pack things up there. Kayla and I are moving to a new apartment in August, so we began moving some of our things this past weekend. It’s amazing how everything has worked out. A few weeks ago we didn’t have a place to live, and we didn’t have a car. Literally within two days of each other, we had found a place to live and a car. We will be living with another teacher, Heather Adkins, and we will be buying a car from a family who is leaving Kenya. It’s so amazing how God literally placed these things into our laps. We are so thankful!

I left Kenya on the night of June 3rd. It was quite a process to get home, as I had a long layover in Amsterdam and then an even longer layover in Seattle before finally flying “home” to Bend, Oregon. I am with my mom in Bend now. It felt strange to not go to Alaska right away because that has always been my home, but I’ve learned that home is where your family is. This is where my family is, so it is home for now. I’m still getting used to seeing white people and SUV’s everywhere, but it is nice to have fast internet connections! I realize this post is getting quite long, so I will sign off for now. Thanks for reading!

2007-06-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

The time has come for me to leave this African soil. I have so much to write about the past 2 weeks, but unfortunately there are empty suitcases at home calling my name. Since my final destination is Bend, Oregon where my mom is and none of my friends are, I will have plenty of time to update this blog upon my arrival. Until then, I hope you can wait a few days to hear about everything. I know you're just itching to hear it all. Toodle-oo!

2007-05-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

We did it! After weeks of planning and stress (for me, not them), West Nairobi School's 6th grade class finally climbed Mt. Longonot. After studying volcanoes, it was great to climb one. This one happens to have a huge crater in the middle because its top blew a while ago. We left school Friday morning (May 18th) in the pouring rain. We just kept praying that it wouldn't rain while we were hiking, and it didn't! It was cloudy the whole time, but that made for ideal hiking conditions. No one got too hot, so we were quite thankful for the cool weather. After the hike, we went back to school for a sleepover. We had a water balloon fight (I think I still have welts on my back from the boys throwing at point blank), ate pizza, had a campfire, made smores, and then slept as much as we could in our big chapel room. It was a lot of fun, and now I am quite tired. Here are some pictures that I hope you will enjoy.

This is my class at the bottom of the mountain before we started climbing.

Jack and Caleb were my faithful hiking buddies. They stayed with me the whole time. Of the steep parts, Caleb said, "I am happy and terrified all at the same time."

Naomi and some others taking a rest

Of 26 kids, 16 made it to the very top, and this is not an easy climb! I am so proud of them. Notice how many girls made it!

Some of the most beautiful smiles in Kenya

the class and me

Jack and Alec are enjoying the amazing view from the top. Well, as much of it as they can see through the fog.

Harriet, David, and Jack

Amy and Priscilla were a little tired. I don't know if they'd be happy knowing I put this picture on the internet for the whole world to see...

Michael and Wendy Burner have a daughter, Julia, in my class. Without their help and presence, this trip wouldn't have been possible. They helped me out so much!

J.T., Meitamei, and Teddy are ready to go home.

The boys are back at the school, playing basketball.

2007-05-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

Some of you have been asking, and the answer is yes, I will be setting foot on American soil this summer. I will fly into Seattle on June 4th at exactly 2:15 P.M. I will spend a few weeks in Oregon, then I will be up in Alaska from June 22nd until July 10th. Then I will be back down in Oregon again until the beginning of August. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

2007-05-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

I apologize for being so long in the writing. I have been waiting for life to slow down a little, and it hasn’t yet. So I may as well stop waiting. The week flew by this week with the entire school doing standardized testing. The students are glad it is over, though I enjoyed having a little extra time to grade papers and things.

About a year ago, before I came to this school, one of the 5^th grade students died in an accident at home. His name was Ben Mosby, and he was quite influential in the lives of my students. I talked with his mother and some of the other parents from my classroom to see what we could do to honor Ben’s life. He would have been in my class, after all. We decided that we would plant three trees in his honor. Those who knew him wrote about what they remembered about Ben. I never knew him, but as I read what they wrote, I started to cry. One boy in my class talked about how Ben was more than just a friend, he was a brother. It was really beautiful to read all the things they had to say about Ben. And I pray that the trees will flourish in their new soil.

Right now I am in the process of getting approved to take my class on a field trip to Mt. Longonott, which is a volcano. We studied volcanoes in science, and I thought this would be a great opportunity for them to hike. Unfortunately, it has been quite a headache to get all the logistics in order. We want to camp there over night, but it has all turned into a huge ordeal, too many hoops to jump through. Please pray that something would work out and that I would stop being stressed about it. I have an amazing “room mom” who has helped me out in more ways than I can count. I am so thankful for that.

2007-04-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

I am back from Mt. Kenya and thought you might like to see some pictures and hear a few stories…

We left on Monday, April 9^th early in the morning. There were six of us on the trip. Bill and Jan Bevins are a married couple who organized the whole trip. Kayla is my bosom friend and fellow teacher who was brave enough to come along. We were also joined by a couple other friends, Simon and Megan. We loaded all our things into the Bevins’ Land Cruiser and headed for the town of Chagoria. The drive was gorgeous, and this picture is of some of the tea fields we saw along the way.

The first night we stayed in the Bandas, which are these buildings that we are standing in front of. They had beds, toilets, a kitchen area, and a fireplace. It was quite nice. After eating dinner, Kayla, Megan, Simon, and I played speed Scrabble and then headed to bed. The next morning we packed up our things and began our journey up Mt. Kenya. This picture is me, Kayla, and Megan just before we began to hike. Notice how dry and happy we look!

The hike on the first day (Tuesday) was only 2 or 3 hours long and fairly gradual. It began to pour down rain part way through, and this trend continued throughout the day. When we made it to our camp, we frantically pitched our tents in the rain. This picture is Kayla and me trying to get dry inside our tent. Three girls trying to get dry in a 2-man tent was quite the endeavor! The Lord was gracious, however, and gave us some sunshine later in the afternoon.

Our guides were wonderful and started a fire for us. When they saw us trying to dry our wet clothes, they made these little stick-clothes lines for us. One of them even sat in front of the fire with Megan’s socks for an hour to try and get them dry. It rained again while we slept, but the Lord gave us just enough dry weather to get things reasonable dry.

The next morning (Wednesday) things were wet again, and none of us girls had slept very well. We were a little squished in the 2-man tent, and we also had to cram all our gear under the rain fly to keep it dry. We ate a wet breakfast and were really looking forward to hiking so that we could warm up. The hike this day was incredible. At some points we all felt like we were on the set of Lord of the Rings. This picture is Kayla and me in front of this amazing waterfall. Of course, since the weather changes every 7 minutes, you can’t see the waterfall. Had we waited 7 minutes to take the picture, you may have been able to see it.

This is me, Kayla, and Simon. We are so happy that we are climbing!

As we continued our hike, it began to pour down rain once again. I started to feel that cold dampness again and dreaded the cold temperatures we would have to face at our next camp. After the rain, it started to hail. After the hail it started to snow. We hiked for a while in these conditions and then came to the place we would camp, called Minto’s. The only sort of building here was what Lonely Planet calls “a nasty hut”. This hut is for the guides, porters, and cooks to cook and sleep in. We were soaking wet. And cold. We stood in the hut probably for 30 minutes in our wet, cold misery, trying to figure out what we should do. There were probably about 20 people crammed in this tiny building, and eventually Kayla, Megan and I decided we would try to change into dry clothes. We created a sort of changing room, surrounded by 20 men in a dark, damp room. It wasn’t exactly the high point of the trip. Eventually it stopped snowing, and we went out and pitched out tent. Once again, God gave us a small window of sunshine so that we could put our wet clothes out for about an hour. The clouds rolled back in, and we were happy to have clothes that were damp rather than soaked.

This is me, Kayla, Simon, and Megan at Minto’s. That night we hardly slept at all. The altitude was affecting all of us, and we were all very uncomfortable in our tents. We were supposed to get up at 2:30 so that we would be on top of the mountain for sunrise. I thought 2:30 couldn’t come soon enough as I lay there with little hope of sleeping. At 2:30 (on Thursday) we all got ready to begin our hike up to the summit of Mt. Kenya. This summit is called Point Lenana, and it is about 16,000 feet high. We put on our warmest clothes, headlamps, and began our journey in the dark. The beginning wasn’t bad, but as we got higher, many of us began to feel nauseous. When our guide said we still had 2 hours left to hike, it was only will power that kept me going. I felt light-headed and weak, and as the comedian Brain Regan says, “I felt like everything on my inside wanted to be on my outside.” It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I made it.

Here are Kayla and me at the top. The smiles are completely fake because we were sick, freezing cold, and completely miserable. But it was totally worth it – the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I forgot to mention that as we hiked, we watched the sunrise above the clouds. The cool part was that we were above the clouds already, so we got to see the sun rise to meet us. I have never seen such rich shades of pink and orange, and the reflection off the snow on the mountain was indescribable.

After admiring the view, we hiked back down the mountain. When we got to level ground and turned around to see the peak we had just summitted, we couldn’t believe how far away it was! I’m so glad we were hiking in the dark and had no idea how far we needed to go. The peak in the center of this picture is the peak we summitted, called Point Lenana.

The rest of this day was spent hiking all the way back to the Bandas where we started from. It was a loooonnnnggg day. We spent probably 10 or 11 hours hiking, and though it was incredibly beautiful once again, we couldn’t wait to be done. Pounding feet going downhill is hard on the joints after a while. Here is a picture of Jeff, our guide, and some others as we hiked down.

This is the forest we hiked through. You can see Bill Bevins on the left.

There was elephant and buffalo poop everywhere at the Bandas, and this sign explains why. Apparently on our first night (Monday), a guy got chased by an elephant. We saw both elephants and buffalo, but we were fortunate to see them from a distance. When we finished hiking, we were able to take hot showers and sit by the fireplace in the Bandas. It was so nice to hear the rain outside and know that we would be completely dry and completely warm.
The next morning (Friday), we ate breakfast and headed for home. This is Dunston tying our bags to the top of the land rover. We fit 12 people inside! Pretty amazing. The hike was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, but as I look back on it, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I hope you all get the opportunity to do something like this one day.

2007-04-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

After our trip to New Life Home, the orphanage for abandoned babies, my class took a field trip to a larger orphanage called Dagoretti Children's Home (or something like that). This place takes in kids from infancy all the way up through age 18. Many children with disabilities come here. We spent the afternoon touring the beautiful facility and playing with the children there. Here are a few pictures.

2007-04-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

2007-04-04T23:05:00.000-07:00

Last week at school was busy as usual, and I found myself left with little energy for the grading of papers, the planning of lessons, and the typing of blogs and e-mails. When Saturday rolled around, I faced the reality of going to school on a Saturday. Again. So as Megan and I drove the ever-familiar Miotoni Road towards West Nairobi School, I managed to see beyond my fatigue into a world of beauty.

When we leave our apartment in Nairobi (I know you may be disappointed that I don’t live in a hut. Sometimes I am too.) and drive toward Karen, where our school is located, the traffic and exhaust fumes are horrendous. As are the drivers. And the potholes... We spend about 15 minutes navigating around these aforementioned obstacles, and then we turn onto Miotoni Road. This is where the drive becomes utter bliss. The road is calm, almost deserted, and the brilliant, green trees form a sort of canopy, framing the strikingly blue sky. It is a beautiful sight, only to become more beautiful as we head toward the campus of West Nairobi School. Seated atop a hill, overlooking the Ngong Forest, the campus is absolutely serene, the prettiest place in Nairobi, if you ask me.

As Megan and I pulled into the parking lot of school on that Saturday afternoon, my eyes that sometimes have trouble seeing beyond the end of my nose, were open. The birds were singing, the light breeze was blowing the acacia trees ever so delicately, and I was thankful. Thankful that I can come to such a place on a Saturday, thankful that I can work in an environment where God’s glory is so evident, thankful that the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind brings such reassurance. Reassurance of God’s sovereignty, of His beauty, of His ability to make a magnificent tree grow out of a pile of dirt. With the satisfaction that can only come when the Lord’s voice is heard and heeded, I got to work in my classroom.

2007-03-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I took my class on a field trip to New Life Home. We went there back in November, so some of you may remember that this is an orphanage for abandoned babies. We spent the morning holding babies and running around with the toddlers. Some of them are just learning to walk and others are hard to keep up with. It was a well-spent morning. The kids in my class absolutely love playing with all these chocolate-skinned beauties. And we decided that as a classroom, we could adopt 3 or 4 of them and then we can add "baby duty" to our class jobs list. Oh it's fun to imagine. And I have some imaginative students. My internet connection isn't very good, so I'm only able to post this one picture. At a later date, I will try to post some more of the students in my class because they are much cuter than me.

Not only did we have a great field trip, but we also had parent-teacher conferences this week. It was good to talk with parents and see how they feel about the class and their child. The most encouraging thing was looking at all the progress they have made throughout the year. Several students came from Kenyan schools, which are quite different than American schools that accommodate different learning styles and abilities. For many of these students, the first semester was an adjustment period to this new system of school. And now many of them are beginning to thrive. It's so encouraging to see that! I realized, however, that I am not used to talking to adults all day, and when I got home from conferences on Wednesday, I couldn't stay awake past 8:00.

Aside from school, I don't have much to report because, well, school seems to be my life. I love it, but I am definitely ready for a break, some much-needed reprieve. Spring break is coming up in about two weeks. So to take full advantage of my break, I am going to climb Mt. Kenya again. This time I hope to make it to the summit, but mostly I'm looking forward to the journey, being in the outdoors, being with Kayla and other friends, and not being in Nairobi! The city begins to wear on you after a while.

2007-03-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

The fatigue is setting in quite heavily, as Kayla and I had a lock-in at the school with the middle school girls on Friday night. We had a great time, but even after two naps on Saturday afternoon, I still went to bed at 10:00 Saturday night. We used one of the classrooms to watch movies, and then we slept in the library. After the movie started, Kayla and I snuck outside to lie on the ground and get a glimpse of the stars that I so often ignore. It was noisy night. Not noisy with cars and sirens but monkeys and birds. Monkeys and birds. A year ago, the wildlife consisted of the moose in my yard and the bears in the woods. And now I live with the monkeys.

Some things I love about my life in Kenya.
1. The smell of tempera paint on my classroom
2. The hugs and high fives from my students at the end of the day
3. Kayla
4. the tall, skinny 8th grade boys who pretend they are really tough but still like me
5. acacia trees
6. sunrises
7. power outages at night when i get to use my candle. did you know they make a sound when they burn?
8. mangos
9. the men who wear Bill Cosby sweaters when it is 90 degrees outside
10. the community of people I teach with
11. the families who send their kids to West Nairobi School
12. children who teach me how to believe
13. learning to trust God's sovereignty
14. learning what the word "sovereignty" really means
15. e-mails
16. letters
17. Psalm 139:5
18. my tiny, L-shaped bedroom
19. and many more, too many to tell...

2007-03-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

Written on Thursday, March 1, 2007...

It was a year ago today that he died. He was outside on the field, teaching P.E., when suddenly he collapsed. A heart attack. An unexpected death. And the innocent eyes of children standing by, watching, knowing they will never forget the day that their teacher, Mr. Stauffer, died.

As I sat down to finish reading the book Walk Two Moons with the 6th graders, I was a little nervous about the ending. I remember spending a weekend in college reading this book, barely able to put it down, choked with tears at the end of the story when the main character realizes her mother is dead and her grandmother dies shortly thereafter (sorry if you haven’t read it and were planning on it...). Reading this part of the story out loud, I managed to maintain my composure as best I could. But there was an eerie silence when I finished the story, and then I remembered that a year ago these students had tasted death, many for the first time. I looked across at the beautiful eyes gazing up at me, many starting to turn puffy and red.

It was time for lunch, so I told my class that if any wanted to stay in the classroom and cry or think or pray or whatever, that they were welcome to. I took the rest of the class to lunch and came back to the sniffling sounds of every girl in my class but one. I got them some tissue, and we all sat on the rug in my classroom together. We just sat there. They cried, they sniffed, I cried a little, and we soaked in the silence of sorrow, knowing that there were no words. What mattered was that we were together. I kept praying, asking the Lord for the right words to say, if there were any. And I felt strongly that it was important for all of them to sit. To sit and cry. The Native people in Alaska will often sit together for hours and never speak a word, and I felt this was one of those times where being together was what we needed to do.

Eventually the girls were able to choke down the sobs and talk a little. I read Psalm 116 to them, emphasizing verse 15 where it says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints”. I was so thankful the Lord brought me to this Psalm last week. It was as if this was the moment for which the Psalm was written. So we talked about heaven and eternity and people and God and all those other things that somehow we never get to in our academics. And when it was time for recess, they all wanted to stay.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing. In my mind, I am thinking about the lessons I will teach and how much I will get accomplished on my breaks. It’s like a game. How many tasks can I get done, and will I go home tonight with no papers to grade? It’s a fast-paced job, and every minute is filled. God tries to remind me of the opportunities I have with people, the students that need to see Christ in my life. And I probably put on a pretty good show for them, but do I really care about them, or do I just care about getting my job done? As the Lord tries to remind me, knowing that I can be a little dense, He brings a day like today. A day when I had planned on grading two stacks of papers on my lunch break. And instead I spend it with pre-pubescent girls draining their tear ducts. I did not get my grading done, I was not ready to teach math at 1:00. But what I walked away with was a feeling of deep satisfaction. When I recount the events of my day, I grin from ear to ear because I know that the Lord met me in my busy-ness and that He met these girls in their sorrow, and though not many words were shared, the fellowship was some of the sweetest I have known. I know why I teach, I know why I prepare all these lessons, grade all these papers, discipline these students. It is because I have been seized by the power of a great affection. This affection moves me beyond my tasks and gives me the power to bring others to this same affection. May the Lord give me the strength to do this with my whole heart.

2007-02-16T20:34:00.000-08:00

Well happy post-Valentine’s Day to you all! I don’t have anything monumental to report, but just some of the day to day things that some of you may find interesting while others will wait until I can report on something of significance. But significance is in the in the eye of the beholder, so here I go.

Right now I am typing away on my old laptop which I have christened the Beast. I’ve had it since 2001 and had loaned it to a friend while I came to Kenya. When my newer computer (a hand-me-down from my dad) got stolen, my brother brought me this one when he came to visit. It is nice to have, but I look forward to the day when I can carry a laptop around and not feel like I have just been to the gym and back. I am sitting in the living room of the house I share with my 4 roommates. The middle schoolers were over for youth group again (it’s Friday night), and we just finished cleaning up after their mess. It was so much fun to have them here again. We played mafia and then had a little worship and a time in the Word. I’m reminded of the way God uses all our little talents that we think are insignificant. In my family, my two brothers are amazing guitar players, and I would consider myself to be proficient. In college, I was only asked to lead worship if everyone else fell through and they needed someone at the last minute. And I was just fine with that. I am not known for my mad guitar playing skills, and I am happy about this fact. But at this school, I am the only person who plays guitar, or at least can play and sing at the same time. So I often end up playing for chapel, and I have been playing for youth group on Friday nights. Anyway, all that to say that I have little talent in this area, but my God is big enough to use my little talent in a big way. “Neglect not the gift that is in thee” as they say.

So to continue in my trivial meanderings... I came to Kenya with a few of my favorite DVDs. One such disc is a live broadcast of the 30th anniversary of Prairie Home Companion. I knew I couldn’t go a whole year without my Garrison Keillor and Lake Wobegon fix. Yes it’s folksy, and yes I love it. So here I sit, laptop in place, feeling all nostalgic and thinking fond thoughts of my Saturday afternoons back in Alaska that used to be spent listening to my favorite radio show.

This week was teacher appreciation week at school, and let’s just say that I feel appreciated. And fat. I was given so many cookies and candy that I think my sweet tooth will be satisfied for the next year. But the best part was the notes my students wrote me. They were so sweet, and I will treasure their words forever. I got the cutest note from one of my Korean ESL students. She doesn’t know English very well yet, but she is the sweetest girl in the world. Here are her words to me:
Hi Miss Arnold. I’m Jenny (Min Kyung)
I came Kenya and out West Nairobi School. So I’m 6th so I can meet you. I”m not well English first time I very worryed. But you’re always good teach for me. So I think I meet good teacher. So I feel peace of mind. And you’re always smile. Look like-good. You teach me easily and many time do consideration. I happy always thanks. I stay here very short time. But you good to me so I stay here very comfortable. I think you’re good teach student. You have humor and nice personality you go anywhere many people like you. You’re Christian always God help you. I pray for you everyday. God love you and you too love God so you success after. I trust you. I meet good teacher I until school life. Thank you very much! You meet good people and help them. So you givft a lot of prize in kingdom of Heaven you make you’re life comfortable, ok? I expectation. You teach tribe student so very many trouble. So thank you I don’t forgot you. You sped good valentineday.

From. Jenny!

Isn’t that the most precious thing you’ve ever read? I was laughing and crying all at the same time. I never imagined I would love teaching 6th grade this much, but in so many ways I feel that I’ve really come alive with this class. It’s not all perfect, of course. I have been dealing with a lot of social issues in my class lately. Kids make fun of other kids and gang up on them, and I have been working out discipline issues with a few students. The cool part is that discipline is also spiritual. We have been learning about the mind of Christ, and the Lord has allowed me to use this to challenge my students. When they are drawing dirty pictures or writing mean notes, is that really showing the mind of Christ? I know that some 6th graders really don’t care about this, but my job is to challenge them, and they can choose to accept the challenge or learn it later on in life. I’m thankful for these opportunities to deal with things because, without mistakes, how will they ever learn? And if they are going to “rebel”, it is better for them to do it now when they are around so many people who care about them and will help them through it. It’s an opportunity for me to love them through discipline. I just pray I don’t do this on my own strength because I always seem to fail miserably when I do.

This is the first weekend where I have not brought any planning or grading home with me. I am quite excited about this, though I still brought one textbook home because it just didn’t feel right to come home empty-handed. I’m finally to the point where I can stay on top of things and work efficiently. I feel like I spent the first semester just figuring out how to be a 6th grade teacher. It was so much work, and now I can actually have a life outside of school, though if you ask my students they say I don’t have one since I spend time with them at soccer practice and on Friday nights. Now that I know how to keep my classroom in order, I feel like I can have more of a ministry with my students. I can focus on the spiritual issues that need to be dealt with instead of worrying about what I should be teaching in reading. I’m so thankful the Lord has brought me to this place.

Soccer is going well. If you didn’t know, I am an assistant soccer coach for the middle school girls. My good friend and roommate, Kayla, is the head coach, and she’s amazing. I’m just along for the ride. We’ve had three games so far. We’ve lost 2 and tied 1, and we have a game on Saturday. I’m hoping the girls will play more aggressively than they have been. And it would be great if they scored some goals! They are improving, and hopefully one day they will win a game. And now I will sign off. Thanks for reading.

2007-02-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

Hello to you all once again!

On Wednesday, West Nairobi School had cultural day. So all the kids (those who participated) wore their culture's special clothing. The Koreans wore their beautiful dresses, the Kenyans wore their Masai blankets or Kikuyu wraps, and people like me, the Alaskans, wore a t-shirt ( my Alaska Grown one), shorts, wool socks, sandals, and a bandana. It was fun to see everyone dressed up.

2007-02-03T22:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this is kind of an old post, but I didn't have time to publish it before. Enjoy!

Hello to you again!

I'm trying to post a few pictures, but my signal strength is not very good at the moment. On Friday night, my roommate and dear friend Kayla and I hosted the 6-8th grade youth group at our school. It is mostly kids from our school, but there were a few kids who were not. We don't have the largest living room, and with 35 (that's right, thirty-five) middle schoolers in that room, it was a little cozy. And noisy. But we had such a good time. It's such a blessing to be able to have a ministry with them outside of school. You can pray that Kayla and I would be able to really challenge them and make them think. The youth group is every Friday night, and we are hosting it for the month of February. We are blessed to have such awesome kids at our school, and I think they enjoyed "crashing" their teachers' house. They left quite a mess for us to clean up.

On Saturday (Feb. 3) Kayla and I went hiking up Mt. Longonot with our principal and his family. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people out hiking this dormant volcano. Kayla and I hiked to the rim of the giant crater, and then we hiked around the crater a ways to get to the highest peak. It was so beautiful, and so nice to get out of the city. The pictures I am posting are from the hike. It was a simply gorgeous spot and so worth every minute of the challenging hike. It was impossible to make it to the top without some scrambling, and our hands and knees suffered a little on the descent. All and all I we came out with just a little blood, and a whole lot of dirt. And I like dirt =).

2007-02-01T07:52:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

I apologize for not writing for such a long time, but I haven't felt like I had anything blog-worthy, not to mention the fact that I haven't had much time on the internet lately. I forgot what a blessing it was to have internet available at home, in my college dorm room, etc. Things have been going quite well the past few weeks. It feels like school has been in session for a long time, but in reality it's only been 4 weeks. It's going by quickly, and I have a feeling that this year is going to slip between my fingers without me being aware of it.

All the new students in my class have settled in quickly, and it's hard to remember what things were like without them. The ESL students are improving each day, and I am growing in my ability to modify my lessons for them. It's still hard, but I'm getting used to it. Starting this Friday, my roommate Kayla and I will be having the 6-8th grade youth group at our house. You can pray for that ministry as it is an opportunity for us to connect with students outside of school. We are both really looking forward to this opportunity. It meets at our house every Friday night in February. I'm not sure how we will squeeze all these kids into our house, but I'm sure we'll manage. It will be fun.

The other exciting thing that Kayla and I are doing is coaching the middle school girls' soccer team. Kayla is a P.E. teacher and also the athletic director. It's really fun to be able to help her out, though it has been a long time since I've played soccer. The girls are so wonderful and cute...and out of shape. We had our first game on Tuesday, and even though we lost, we were the first team to score any goals against the team we played. We'll take our victories where we can. The loss was good because now the girls realize that you really do have to run all the time in soccer. They've been doing a lot of walking in practice, so I'm glad they're aware of what a game is like now. This is the first your that our school has had inter-school sports (thanks to Kayla), so it's just exciting for the kids to be out playing at all. The parents are so thrilled, and so are the girls. It is such a joy to be able to coach them. This picture is the team with Kayla and me on the edges. That's about all I have to report from Kenya. Thanks for reading!

2007-01-08T05:08:00.000-08:00

Well Dayn and I are finally back from our last round of big adventures. In case you haven’t been keeping track of my travels (and I wouldn’t expect you to be keeping track), Dayn and I ushered in the new year by climbing Mt. Kenya. We left Nairobi on Sunday, December 31st and drove for about 3 hours. We stopped at Batian’s View, where we would camp for the night before beginning our journey up the mountain. Batian’s View used to be the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) base for Kenya. It closed down in 2003, but the camp is still running. It was a beautiful place to stay, and in the morning we even got a view of the very top of the mountain.

On Monday (Jan. 1), we packed up all our gear and drove up to the gate of Mt. Kenya National Park. We went up the mountain with two guides (Patterson and Kamau) and a cook (Joseph), which was something I have never done before. The trip wouldn’t have been the same without them, and I’m so glad we did it this way. Apparently most people climb the mountain and have porters carry their stuff. This seemed an unnecessary extravagance to me. I mean, I thought having a cook was extravagant enough. There were 4 of us climbers - Dayn, a fellow teacher Stephanie, her fiancé Kungu, and myself. Kamau (one of the guides) said that normally a group of 4 people will bring 8 porters to carry all their stuff. I felt like my bag was pretty light since I wasn’t carrying food, a tent, or a sleeping pad.

Our trip was laid out so that we would take 4 days. The hike on Monday was a nice, gradual uphill. The forests surrounding us were beautiful, and things weren’t too muddy despite all the rains we have been having. We arrived at Old Moses camp in the early evening. The camp had two buildings with bunk beds for hikers to sleep in. It sat atop a hill overlooking part of the Rift Valley (I think). Whatever we were looking at, it was gorgeous. Joseph and Kamau got to work cooking our dinner, and we enjoyed some nice hot rice and a vegetable beef concoction that tasted so good. We went to bed early to prepare for the long day ahead of us on Tuesday.

After we ate our hot breakfast on Tuesday morning, we began our hike toward Shipton’s camp. This was to be the longest and probably the most challenging day of our climb. The 4 of us came prepared with gaiters, which went over our pants and our boots to keep the mud out of our boots. It’s a good thing we had these because it was a very wet and muddy day. Dayn and I stayed with Patterson (our head guide) for the first part of the day, and as we hiked he gave me Swahili lessons. I can’t say I was the best student, but I’m glad I learned a little more.

We stopped at a nice cliff area for lunch, and while we sat I think the weather changed at least 18 times. The sun would come out, the clouds would move in, the wind would blow, then it would all stop. And this kept going and going. I’ve never seen the weather change so quickly and so often. When we started hiking again, the clouds had fully rolled in and it began to rain on us. Luckily, it wasn’t a torrential downpour, but it was consistent for about an hour and a half. The trail was already muddy, and this only made the hiking more challenging. I tried my best to just watch where Kamau placed his feet. If I followed his footsteps I was fine. At some point, of course, I had to use the little girl’s room. The guys kept walking and I caught up with them. Since I was so focused on catching up, I didn’t pay attention to where I was putting my feet. I stepped in some unsuspicious-looking mud and ended up sinking past my knee. I thought I was going to be stuck for a while, but luckily my other foot only sank a little, and I was able to pull myself out. I laughed so hard at my baggy, balloon-like pants, now covered in mud. This accident came at just the right time because I was starting to feel nauseous and achy from the fatigue and the elevation. But when I fell like this, it took my mind off the way I was feeling, and I was fine after that. I thank the Lord that He can use my clumsiness to help me get up a mountain.

The vegetation changed drastically on this second day of climbing. As we got higher, there were no more trees. Instead there were huge tufts of long, tough, multi-colored grass sticking out. And there were these lobelia plants that had huge green leaves sticking up in a circular pattern kind of like a cabbage. But so much more beautiful than a cabbage. Then where were these weird looking trees that were kind of like joshua trees except they had big green leaves sticking up. They were so cool. The plant-life was like nothing I have ever seen.

We finally made it to Shipton’s camp early in the evening. We could easily tell the difference in elevation where we were. We began the day at 11,000 ft and ended the day at 14,000 ft. Dayn and I could both feel our hearts beating faster than normal, and it was quite a bit chillier here. We waited a little while for Stephanie and Kungu to catch up, and as we waited, we could hear all the Kenyans chattering away in the kitchen. It was the most amazing sound. They were busy cooking for all of us, and I’m pretty sure they were having way more fun than those of us who were resting. They were speaking Swahili and Kikuyu (a native dialect), and it was this amazing symphony of sound. I wish I could describe it better. The word loud comes to mind.

There were a lot of climbers at Shipton’s Camp, and it was fun to talk with all of them. One couples we met was form Yorkshire, and we had a lot of fun talking to them. After eating another warm meal, we headed to bed. The rooms here were bigger and had more beds in them, so we shared the room with a lot of the climbers. Dayn and I decided that we would like to summit Point Lenana in the morning, which was supposed to be about a 4-hour hike in the snow to get to the 15,000 foot mark. I was nervous about this, but was looking forward to the challenge.

It was probably just below freezing when Dayn and I woke up in the morning. We put on our cold, damp hiking clothes to get ready for the climb. Dayn had not slept at all the night before because of the elevation. His heart kept racing, and for the first time since he was 5 he felt like he was going to throw up. I did not feel well either. I kept waking up feeling dehydrated, and it was hard to go back to the sleep. By the time we began climbing, I felt OK. Unfortunately, Dayn did not. Each step he took made his heart race, and altitude sickness began setting in. We made it about a quarter of the way up to Point Lenana and then decided to turn back. Patterson said, “Better to come down on your feet than on a stretcher.” And with all the fog and moisture, it was hard to see anything. I was disappointed to not make it to the top, but the people who did make it said that they could not see anything because of the clouds. And it took them over 7 hours to reach the summit and come back. Dayn and I still had an entire day of hiking ahead of us, so though we were sad to not make it to the top, we were glad to have more energy for the hike back to Old Moses.

Dayn, Stephanie, Kungu, Patterson, Kamau, Joseph and I all left Shipton’s Camp around 9 in the morning. As if to smack us in the face for not making it up to the top, the clouds cleared and we could see the very top of the mountain. It was so beautiful, and I was so glad to have the sun shining down on my face as we left. My pack felt so much lighter going downhill instead of uphill. Plus, I happened to be wearing most of my clothes to keep warm, so there wasn’t much left in my bag anyway.

In case you’ve lost track of the days, we are now on day 3 of the hike, which was Wednesday. This day was not quite as eventful as the previous day. I had told Patterson about my fall in the mud, so all morning he was trying to get me to reenact the scene, telling me to step in piles of mud. But I didn’t grant him the pleasure of seeing me fall. Too bad he missed it the first time. I managed to stay fairly clean all day.

We had the best dinner of our lives at Old Moses, and that left our tummies very full and our bodies ready to sleep. That night we all slept so well. We were warm, we were exhausted, our hearts were beating almost at a normal rate. It was lovely. Simply lovely.

The next morning (day 4, Thursday), it was pouring down rain when we woke up. It was sort of a good omen for our last day of hiking in Mt. Kenya National Park. We ate a quick breakfast and then began our hike to the park gate. It wasn’t the most difficult hike, but because it rained all day, it was extremely slippery on the path. I am quite proud to say that I did not fall the entire time, but I can’t say everyone had the same luck. I can say, though, that everyone was soaking wet. No matter how much waterproof gear you may have, no matter what REI tells you about waterproof-ness and breathability, at some point you are just going to be wet. And wet we were.

It was a relief to make it back to the parking lot. The climb was beautiful, incredible, beyond words, but we were all tired, stinky, ready for some warmth and dry-ness. After we packed up all our gear and crawled into Stephanie’s car, we headed to the Trout Tree Restaurant for lunch. It was delicious. After dropping Kamau off at Batian’s View, the place we began the trip, we began our drive back to Nairobi. Coming back to the polluted city was a little more on the depressing side. It still is a little more on the depressing side, but when my mind starts to think about the pollution, the dirty city, I go back to the beautiful landscapes of Mt. Kenya where the Lord revealed His glory through His creation. I am thankful for this experience, and I am thankful for the beauty of my everyday existence in Nairobi. It’s a different kind of beauty, and I will continue to adjust to it. Thank you for reading. May God reveal His glory in your everyday existence as well.

2007-01-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

Well Dayn and I are back from Mt. Kenya. I will post a more detailed blog in a few days, but i wanted to post a picture from our safari. The picture files are so big that I can only post this one for the time being. See the elephants in the background? More to come later...

2006-12-27T00:59:00.000-08:00

Hello friends!

I thought I would update you on the Adventure Kenya 2006. Dayn (my brother) and I got back from the coast on Wednesday, Dec. 20th. We had a day in Nairobi to gather ourselves, find enough sleeping bags for everyone, and then we headed out for our safari on Friday, Dec. 22nd. Dayn and I joined up with one of my roommates, Jen, 4 of her family members who are visiting, and another teacher named Esther. We met our driver at a shopping center near our house, and after “settling the bill” we began our journey to the Maasai Mara.

We loaded up in a 10-seater safari van, fully-equipped with rear wheel drive. It was practically a full day’s journey just to get to the Mara. As soon as we got on the dirt road to go to the park, we knew we were in for an adventure. It had been raining for several days prior to our arrival, and the road that was bad to begin with was nearly impossible to drive on. But our driver was amazing. There were countless places where I thought we would need a helicopter to rescue us (and I was pretty sure those weren’t very accessible in Kenya), but somehow, with a lot of jostling of the vehicle, we would get through. It was a amazing. There was one part of the road that had actually been washed away, and we had to drive through the river. We had a great caravan going on. There were about 8 of these safari vans driving the “road” and we would all get through one tough spot, wait for the others to get through, and the move on to the next. When we would stop and wait, all the little Maasai children would come up to us and say, “sweet?” or “pen?” or “picture book?” or “watch?” I’m assuming these are all things that other people have given them in the past. I tried to explain that sweets were bad for them and that they wouldn’t have such nice teeth if they ate them, but for some reason they didn’t understand what I was saying to them. Go figure.

As soon as we got to the park, we went for our first game drive. It was a beautiful landscape with rolling green hills and abundant wildlife. We saw the usual gazelles, antelope, impala, and zebras. And as we proceeded further into the park, we saw our first lion from a distance. It reminded me of a song... Anyway, it was quite thrilling to see it attacking something in the bushes. We didn’t have much time in the park before dark, so after watching the lion for a while, we went back to our campsite. We stayed in canvas tents that had tin roofs over the top. The camp is run by a group of Maasai people, and they cooked delicious food for us. We met a bunch of other young travelers, and it was fun to hear how everyone ended up in Kenya, and how we all ended up camping together. That night there was a thunder storm, and it rained all night.

In the morning, it was still raining. We had to delay our departure time because with the roads that wet, we weren’t going to go much of anywhere. After waiting for an hour or so, the rain let up and we began our drive into the park. We saw many of the same animals we had seen the previous day. On top of those animals, we saw a large herd of elephants. They were so close that we could see all the wrinkles on their thick skin, and I didn’t have to zoom in with the video camera. It was an awesome sight to behold at least 10 of them altogether - some old, some young. Later on we saw the awkwardly beautiful giraffes. They are by far my favorite animals to watch because they are so unique-looking.

After eating lunch, we spotted a male lion fairly close to the road. We drove up close to him, and he got up and moved. So our driver turned the van around and drove up next to him again. The lion got up and moved again, and we proceeded this way for a good 15 minutes. I took video of a lot of it, and there were times where the lion could easily have jumped up and knocked the camera right out of my hands. It was quite a thrilling experience and rivaled my giraffe-chasing adventure. What a beautiful creature!

We spent the entire day in the park, seeing animal after animal. After my two summers of guiding tours in Alaska, I had grown accustomed to seeing a few bears, a moose, some caribou, and considering that a pretty good day. But the wildlife here was just abundant. I could hardly believe it. In Denali, sometimes we just had bad days in the park where we saw practically nothing. I don’t think you could have a bad day in the Mara. We didn’t see leopards, cheetahs, or hippos, but we saw almost everything else. I’m hoping to be able to post some pictures later on, but because I am now working with a computer from the stone age, Dayn and I are having some technical difficulties getting his pictures on here. But we will find a way. For now you just get to imagine all these things I am trying to describe.

Day 3 of our safari (Christmas Eve), we took a short drive into the park and then packed up camp. We left the camp around 10:30 A.M. and got stuck within the first 5 minutes of our drive. We tried pushing, but we were too deep in the mud to get ourselves out. Our driver called someone to come pull us out, and after about 40 minutes we were back on the road again. We got stuck a few other times, which meant we would get out, push, get back in, and then keep going. We went about 24 miles in 2 ½ hours. Eventually we came to a place where about 10 vans were waiting in line to pass through mud that came up to our knees. Some of our fellow campers had left at 8:00 that morning. Our van had left at 10:30, and we caught up with them at this place. Dayn and I helped push our van. We were knee deep in mud, surrounded by other Kenyans and Maasai people, rocking this van, pushing it, rocking it some more. And then its wheels finally started to roll. What a team effort it was! Dayn and I were filthy, and we still had quite a distance ahead of us. Hooray for Charles, our amazing driver.

We finally made it back to Nairobi at 7 P.M. Dayn and I headed back to my house, and I slept like a rock on our first Christmas Eve in Kenya.

2006-12-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I apologize for not updating my blog for so long. These last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I'm sure a lot of you are wondering about the robbery. We now have more bars on our windows and a huge metal wall in our backyard. I'm glad for the safety they provide, and I try my best not to feel like a prisoner. People have been so generous with opening up their homes to us and offering us comfort foods and other nice things like that. We are still so thankful that no one was hurt, and of course, Alison and I miss our things. The Lord always provides, though, and my dear friend Katy Rogers offered to give me my old computer that she had been borrowing. Since my brother Dayn was coming to visit, she gave it to him. It is old and heavy, but it is a computer, and I am thankful for it.

Dayn arrived last Friday, and Kenya Airways did not have his bags. Unfortunately, we were leaving for the coast on Sunday (the 17th), and that wasn't enough time to get his bags. So we got a couple shirts and pairs of shorts at the market, and he made do with what he had. We went to Tiwi Beach for 4 days, which is just south of Mombasa. It was my first time at the Indian Ocean, and it was beautiful. It's nice to be in water that doesn't require a certain degree of numbness before it can be enjoyed. We learned to wind surf one day, and we were able to go to a national wildlife preserve another day. I saw my first wild elephants! That was quite exciting. We got back from the coast yesterday (Wednesday) and today we are relaxing, doing laundry, and e-mailing. Tomorrow we go on safari for three days, and hopefully I will be able to post some pictures after that. Oh, and we did get Dayn's bags yesterday. Hooray!

I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support in everything that has been happening here. I don't have time to write to everyone individually, but please know what a blessing it is to hear from all of you and to see the answers to all your prayers. I am so grateful for them. I wish you all a merry Christmas!

2006-12-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

Hello to you all once again!

It has been a great week here in Kenya, except for the incessant rain. The drainage system on the roads is virtually non-existent, so with these heavy rains, the roads are terrible. One of my roommates and I have been house-sitting for a family that is visiting the U.S. for a few months. They have a nice house, but with these heavy rains, the road to their house is like a series of little lakes. One day I was pretty sure I was going to have to get out of the car in my skirt and push. Luckily, we were able to get out of that muddy situation unscathed.

On Thursday my class and I went on a field trip to the New Life Home. It is a home for babies who have been abandoned. We went there to play with the toddlers and hold the babies. It was such a good time! These wee ones are so precious and beautiful. One of the girls in my class said, “How could someone abandon something so cute?” She is so right. It’s hard to imagine leaving such an adorable little bundle of life. The kids were so cute, and I have a hard time deciding who was cuter, the little babies or the 6th graders playing with them. All the kids in my class had so much fun and were really sad when it was time leave. It warmed my heart watching them play with these little ones. I can already see what wonderful moms and dads they are going to be one day. It almost makes me cry! What a sappy teacher I am. But I am just so proud of them.

We have only two more weeks until Christmas break, and that means less than two weeks until my brother, Dayn, comes to visit. We are planning on going to Mombasa, which is on the coast, for a few days. I was finally able to find a place for us to stay. After our visit to the beach, we will go on safari to the Maasai Mara. I can’t wait to see all the animals and have a real African adventure! We might do a little traveling after that, but the big plan on New Year’s is to climb Mt. Kenya. We will be going up with another teacher from my school and also her fiancé, Kungu. He is a Kenyan and has climbed the mountain a few times before. I am so excited about all these plans! And even if I weren’t doing anything exciting, I am so glad my brother will be here with me. He is one of my dearest friends in the whole world. With that, I think I will bid you a fond farewell. May you enjoy whatever form of precipitation that this season brings you. I am trying my best not to dream of a white Christmas. Toodles!

2006-11-24T23:42:00.000-08:00

Greetings to you all!

Today you will actually be getting 2 (yes, two) updates from me. I wrote one last week and never had the chance to publish it, and now I am about due for another. My apologies for being so long in the writing. This morning I woke up early and walked to a café that happens to have wireless internet. I did this in hopes that I would be able to chat with my family on their Friday night, my Saturday morning. So far the internet has not been turned on. And here I sit, sipping my coffee, alone in a booth, waiting. Waiting. At least I have my computer and can type while I wait.

Happy post-Thanksgiving to all of you! I had a nice one despite the fact that the only break we got was a half-day on Thursday. I’m thankful we had that, but I’ve never gone to school on Thanksgiving, much less the Friday after Thanksgiving. There’s a first time for everything, I suppose. Some of the other single white female teachers and I went over to a family’s house (the Ernisse’s) for dinner. They are missionaries with SIL (Wycliffe), and they have a daughter at the school. They are wonderful people, and we had a really nice time. Dave Ernisse has become like a father to our roommates and I. He helped us buy our car and hook up gas to our stove. Today he’s going to clean our leaky faucet.

Well, now it is a little later, and I have been talking to my family online for over an hour. My hands are shaking from my 2 cups of coffee. Yesterday was crazy hair day at school. I was tired of teaching, so in the afternoon we watched a rather boring science video. I took a picture of my class. There were about 6 kids absent, so this picture has almost everyone. I told them to do something silly, like pick their friends’ nose, and this was the result. Oh I love 6th grade.

I think the rainy season may be almost over. On Thanksgiving, it was pouring down and the streets were flooded everywhere. I was soaking wet after walking from my classroom to the middle school side where I teach pre-algebra. The good news is both today and yesterday, it has been reasonably dry. And as I sit here writing, I realize I don’t really have much else to say. Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend!

2006-11-24T22:47:00.000-08:00

I wrote this on Nov. 18th! Sorry I'm a little late in publishing it! These pictures were taken at our school bazaar about 3 weeks ago. The picture on the top left is of Naomi, Rachel, me and Adrian. Then girl in the red in the next picture is Priscilla. Then the picture of the bottom is Heather, me, and Shel Arendsen. Notice his Kokrine Hills Bible Camp hat! He has some connections with my family, and he wore his hat just for me. I was so excited!

Hello Everyone!

Sorry that it has been a couple weeks since I’ve written, but there is a very good reason for it. Actually, the only reason is that I’ve been busy and haven’t had the energy to sit down and write. Lately my time has been consumed with the usual planning, grading, teaching, and all that. I also have a few students who are in serious need of remedial help, not to mention my 5 ESL students. God is so faithful in providing, though, because I now have an aide in my classroom as well as someone to take these students out of the classroom to work on reading and math. It’s such a relief. With 27 students in my class, I was unable to give them the attention they needed. I am so thrilled that they are receiving the one-on-one help that they need.

We are still heavy into the rainy season in Kenya. It usually pours down rain at night and in the morning, and we have been fortunate to have it clear up for a few hours around lunch time and later into the afternoon. It’s like God is saying that He loves us so much, He doesn’t want us to have to suffer through indoor recess. I really appreciate that. As much as I love my students, I love for them to have recess outside where they can run, scream, bounce balls, argue, and all those other things pre-pubescent pre-teens need to do. The rain makes for interesting running conditions. I usually have to slide around in the mud. In fact, one of my little neighbors saw me after I went running one day, and in his thick East African accent says, “Why are your legs all dirty?” I explained it to him and then asked if it looked funny. He thought for a good 30 seconds and then grinned and said yes. Driving is also an adventure in this season. The heavy rains dig the pot holes even deeper, so we can’t help but have a bumpy ride to school.

Every Friday night there is a youth group of sorts called King’s Kids for the 6-8th graders at West Nairobi School. The meeting place rotates between different missionary family’s houses. This month it has been at a house just down the road from me. Last week I was asked if I would be willing to play guitar for their singing/worship time. I was delighted, and I had such a good time that they asked me to do it this week as well. We sing for about half an hour, have a Bible discussion time, and then play and eat. Most of the kids are either in my 6th grade class or in my 7th and 8th grade pre-algebra class. It is so much fun to spend time with them outside of school. Sometimes I get so busy with the school side of things that I forget about the ministry side, the relationships. This is the perfect opportunity, and I feel like the Lord just placed it in my lap. In February my roommates and I are going to have them meet at our house. It will be an adventure. Just imagine between 20 and 30 middle schoolers in one room together. It’s chaos and an absolute blast. They are such wonderful kids! I absolutely love it.

Second quarter is just flying by! We only have 4 weeks left before Christmas break. I am definitely feeling the need for a break as my patience with certain students is not what it used to be. You can be praying that God would grant me the patience and tenacity to love these little darlings who have the potential to drive me insane. I don’t want my general fatigue to affect the way I treat them. At the same time, there are times when they take things too far and need me to be hard on them. Pray that I would be discerning rather than moody. Continue to pray for the students who don’t know the Lord and even for the ones who do. Many of my students know all the answers to the Sunday school-type questions, but I don’t know if the love of Christ has truly pierced their hearts yet. Of course, I know it has not fully pierced mine either! Prayer in that area would be appreciated. Thank you for reading this very lllloooonnnnngggg update. I hope all is well with you and yours.

2006-10-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

Well it’s been another quiet week here in Nairobi… Actually that’s a lie. It’s been another crazy one! This week my class was in charge on chapel. That means we had to plan out skits, make props, practice, and all that other stuff that goes into a performance. We decided to do a rock n roll theme. We had a band called Jesus and the Disciples. They would lip sync to songs and then other kids performed skits of modern interpretation of Bible stories. One example was Jesus washing his disciples’ cars instead of their feet. Of course, he washed their cars so they could go to the disco party. We did a modern version of the parable of the lost coin. The band followed up with Abba’s “Money Money Money. It was pretty funny. After our first dress rehearsal on Wednesday, I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. We practiced a lot on Thursday, and when it came time for chapel on Friday, everything went smoothly. These kids are so amazing, and they were hilarious too. I am so proud of them. I included a few pictures, though you can tell we have very poor lighting in that room. Aren’t they cute? I love my job. Everything else is going well here. This evening I was invited to a barbecue at a missionary family’s house. They are hosting some people from a church in Alaska, so I’m wondering if I will know any of them. We will probably at least know some of the same people. I hope you have a great week!

2006-10-24T02:32:00.000-07:00

the pictures from left to right are 1. a babboon, 2. the trout tree restaurant 3. my roommates and i at the lusoi farm, 4. some monkeys, 5. the lusoi farm house where we stayed, 6. kayla (my roommate) and i at the equator, and 7. a cute little boy (or maybe girl) we saw on the drive down from mt. kenya.

Well it’s been quite an exhausting week and weekend, but it’s all been quite good. I finished up parent-teacher conferences last week. I met with over 30 parents, which sounded quite daunting at first, but it ended up being an energizing time. Everyone was so encouraging and supportive of what is happening in the classroom. All of the new students in my class have adjusted quickly, and none of them want to go back to their old school. I have a couple boys who struggled a lot last year and are really beginning to excel this year. It’s nice to know that the Lord is blessing my efforts. I certainly feel inadequate for this job at times, but He is helping all these kids along as He helps me. Thank you so much for your prayers.

This past weekend a group of us teachers went up-country to the Lusoi Farm. Our friend Kungu’s aunt runs a sort a bed and breakfast at a house that used a British-colonist house. It was about a 3-hour drive to get to the farm, and there were several large rooms for us to stay in. We had such a good time! On Friday we explored around the farm. I went running in some of the fields nearby. I greeted the locals with “sasa”, which means “what’s up”, but unfortunately I don’t know much Swahili beyond that. One man took my little greeting to mean that I was a fluent speaker, so when he started talking to me in Swahili, I smiled, nodded, and ran past. Maybe I should just stick to English. Or better yet, I should learn some more Swahili. In all my spare time…

On Saturday we went to the equator. It sounded so exciting, but it was actually quite anti-climactic. There was a sign. We took pictures underneath the sign. We took some more pictures underneath the sign. Then we got hassled to buy a bunch of souvenirs that I can get for cheaper at the market near my house. But even when I say I have no money, they say, “Come look at what I have. Looking is free.” They never believe me when I say I have no money. After the equator, we went to the base of Mt. Kenya. I thought our poor little car wasn’t going to make it up that horrible road. It was a beautiful drive, of course, but we scraped bottom more times than I care to count. The drive back was awesome because the sun came out, and there were little kids everywhere chasing our car, smiling at us, waving at us shouting, “How are you! How are you!” in their cute little Kenyan accents. It was so beautiful. I felt like I was in Kenya! Nairobi kind of wears on you after a while.

On Sunday we went to church…for 3 hours. Then we went to the Trout Tree Restaurant. At this restaurant, they serve trout. In a tree. Hence the name. It’s probably the coolest dining experience I’ve ever had. We sat in a tree, we ate good food, and we watched the monkeys. It was quite nice. The drive back was fine until we got a flat tire. It was bound to happen. We had been over so many rough spots in our car, but the neat part is that we didn’t get the flat tire in the middle of nowhere. We got it about 10 minutes from our house, right by a gas station. We pulled into the gas station, and one of the attendants put on our little spare donut for us. We also had friends in a car in front of us who helped out. I felt like God really protected us.

That about wraps up my exciting weekend. Thanks for reading this incredibly long update. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures too. Good bye!

2006-10-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I am having issues with my internet connection, so this will be short. Last weekend some friends and I went to a town called Naivasha to hang out. The scenic picture is of the Rift Valley, and the girls in the tree are me, Kayla, Jen, and Alison. We had a really fun time, and I will post more pictures later. Things are going well at school. Report cards are due on Monday, and conferences are next week as well. You can pray that those would go well. I am a little nervous about them. Also, if you want to see pictures from my birthday party, you can go to my roommate Kayla's blog. www. kayla-in-kenya.blogspot.com. Her blog is way better than mine, so I hope you don't grow dissatisfied with mine. I hope you have a great week! Thanks for your prayers, e-mails, and support.

2006-10-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

The picture on the left is of one of my roommates, Jen and I. We were kind of twins that day. The picture on the right is Kayla, Heather, Megan, and I at Rift Valley Academy.

I hope you all had a good week. While you are beginning your Sunday, I am finishing mine. I went to church with some friends this morning. I have learned not to have high expectations of church, and I have not been disappointed since. Church in Nairobi is a lot different than church in America. The sermons are mostly life skills sermons, teaching people that they need to eat well, exercise, take care of finances. It's been interesting, but it is always good to gather with a large group of believers. That is never disappointing. Today I'll do a little shopping at the Maasai market, the place where they sell all the cool Kenyan goods. They like to yell, "Sistah, sistah, come see what I have. For you, I give my best price." And it's never a very good price, but I've gotten good at talking them down. Once guy last week told me he would grade papers for me. He says, "When will you bring the papers? When?" They're probably expecting some sort of pay. I will grade my own papers, thank you very much.

My week at school went quite well. We finished up our first unit in reading, so I had them do projects on the stories we read. It was fun to see how creative they can be and how much talent I have sitting in my classroom. I have a few pictures from that that I will have to post at another time. I have one group of girls who went well above and beyond what I had asked for. The managed to have a Colgate commercial in the little talk show they created.

Yesterday I played frisbee with a few friends. It was the first time I've thrown around a disc since being here. It felt really good! Apparently I don't know my own strength because I ended up hitting my friend in the nose with the frisbee. It bled quite profusely for a while, and I felt terrible. I don't think I've ever done that to anyone. Luckily, when he wears his glasses the scab isn't that noticeable. And he's tall, so not everyone will see that nice scratch I placed there. He likes to pretend he got the injury in a bar fight.

Well, I must be going now. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

2006-09-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a good week. Mine was tiring and long, but it was quite good. I'm getting to the point in my classroom where I can start doing more creative things, more projects, and I can set my standards higher now. That's nice. We have had 6 weeks of school now. There are times when I get overwhelmed with all the extra work I have to do since our school is in the accreditation process. I also have 5 ESL kids in my class, and it's hard to know what to do with them at times. I hit a low point on Thursday when everything felt like too much for me to handle, but that was the time the Lord shifted my perspective. I have a girl in my class who is not a Christian and whose mother is not either. Her grandmother was just diagnosed with cancer, which has been really hard for her family. When I heard this news, I realized that there is a very good reason she is at our school this year. My classroom of 6th graders can use this time to be an encouragment to that family and show them the love of Christ. I went in and told my principal what was going on, and he is encouraging our class to take a field trip to visit this student's grandmother, write her letters, and do everything we can to encourage her. So now I am realizing that my purpose here is much bigger than simply helping my students succeed academically. Be praying for this family, that they may come to Christ. I don't have time to write anymore, but I wanted to let you know about that. We have had no water in our house for the past couple days, which is a bit of a challenge. But luckily we were able to shower at a friend's house today. That will get us through for another 3 days... Love you all. Have a great week!

2006-09-17T03:10:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I just wrote a wonderful update on my week, and then the internet went down and it was all lost. So I will sum-up. Things are going well in my classroom. Probably the highlight of the week was making crystal structures out of toothpicks and popcorn. I originally wanted to use marshmallows, and when I asked the man at the store of they had them, he said, "Yes." So naturally I asked where I could find them, and the man said, "We don't have any right now." I laughed. The experiment was a little more difficult with popcorn, but everyone enjoyed being able to eat their structures at the end.

Yesterday my friend, Heather, took some of us out to Rift Valley Academy to visit for the day. This is the huge missionary kid boarding school that is about a 45 minute drive out of Nairobi. It was beautiful, and we had a really good time. We took our new car too! It is a Nissan Sunny, which is like a Sentra but with the steering wheel on the other side. It drives great, and we paid cash for it. 580,000 shillings, split 4 ways. That's about all the news I have for now. Hope you all enjoy your week!

2006-09-10T04:37:00.000-07:00

I thought I would send along some pictures of the people in my life here in Kenya. As you can see, my students are the most beautiful in the world and at varying stages of development. Caleb is a whole head taller than Mark! The two girls with contrasting colors of hair are Priscilla (blond) and Stella (black-haired). Christine, Harriet, Naomi, and Muthoni are in the other one. The chap with the funny hat is my principal, Trevor Maxwell. And the lady wearing two sets of glasses would be Margo, our school librarian. She is the most wonderful lady, and she comes from Australia. I wish you could all hear her laugh. It's such a lovely sound.

2006-09-10T04:29:00.000-07:00

I got this picture from one of my roommates last night. I thought you might like some actual footage of us chasing the giraffe. I am the one in the light yellow on the left. The one with the long neck and brown spots is the giraffe. The other picture is of Jen, Alison, me, and Kayla (3 of my roommates) hiding in the grass.

2006-09-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from West Nairobi School's retreat to Lukenya. The picture on top is at the top of the hill where we had lunch. Jen and Heather are in the back, and Kaylan and Alison are in the front. Jen, Kayla, and Alison are 3 of my 4 housemates. If you look in the background of the second picture, you can see the giraffes we were chasing. That is Kayla with me in the picture. The next picture is of some more of us teachers on the hill, and the picture on the bottom is of Kayla and me in a cashew tree.

The first entry

2006-08-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

I tried this about a month ago and was unsuccessful in my attempt. Now I'm going to try again. Since it's my first entry, I decided to post the picture of the ostrich egg one of my students gave me. I must thank the Kim family for the generous gift and omelets to feed the five thousand. Love you all!