Learning lots.

We arrived to our compound two days ago; we packed the land crusier and trailer and headed two hours SW of Nairobi. When we arrived I was in shock by how nice our little duplex looked. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I thought it would be way worse. The house is built out of cement and is nicely furnished inside. The kitchen is small but there is a sink with a stove and oven. The oven has to be bungeed-corded shut but at least we have one. There is no running water so we have two huge buckets in the house that we have to fill for washing dishes and such. The water we get is rain water, so when it rains the water falls on the roof and runs down the gutter into a big tank outside. We also have a big bucket in the bathrooms for showers, I warm up a kettle on the stove in the morning and we mix the cold and hot water together for our baths. The toilet is an outhouse behind the duplex, it doesn't smell...yet...and is one of the nicest that I've seen. Yay!

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Our team and Chris

This week we are in our "intensive language and culture" study. We were placed with a Maasai man, Christopher. He is really sweet and helpful. I am excited to learn about his culture. I am trying my best to learn the language but I am more intrigued with their culture, ceremonies specifically. I get to see a wedding ceremony on Friday-yippee!!!!
I am rather traumatized because I found out that female circumcision still occurs among the Maasai. I thought this type of ceremony was banned but I guess not. I returned from a walk yesterday and I noticed a group of six women huddled together, I asked a worker at the clinic what was going on and he proceeded to tell me that these women were "leaders" from surrounding villages. I was confused at what he was telling me and he went on to say that these women were "leaders" in their villages because they were the ones who could perform the female circumcision; I guess they had come in to the clinic to discuss with the medical personnel about not using the same knife for each women but to use different ones so that disease is not spread? In my mind this ceremony should be stopped-I am trying to gather more information concerning this topic but I guess it is inappropriate to discuss this with men so I need to chat with a woman. My heart aches as I know many young girls go through this painful right of passage...

Female Circumcisers

Our language teacher was discussing how his village was set up-he drew a diagram explaining where and why houses were positioned. The animals are situated in the middle of the village so when wild animals come they are able to protect them. "If lions come in we take our spears and we go kill, we don't fear! If an elephant come though...we do fear! Spears do nothing." I thought this was hilarious yet extremely scary. How thrilling would that be to wake up in the middle of the night and chase a lion down with a spear? Wow!

When night comes we are not allowed outside the compound due to wild animals attacking, luckily I brought lots of books with me...6 or so? Ha! I read Francis Chan's book "Fogotten God," he put my thoughts into words: "Life is too short. I don't want to speak about Jesus; I want to know Jesus. I want to be Jesus to people....I want to experience His presence in my life in a profound way."

I have so much more to tell...I don't have time or space though. Ha!

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Functioning...sorta.

Nairobi: pic from the car

I am finally rested and feel like I am on the correct time schedule. I didn't realize how much jet-lag would affect me. I was not acting like myself at all but now I am my happy self- Yes!

We have internet the first couple days because we are still in Nairobi with the missionaries. We leave for Maasai-land tomorrow morning. The missionaries just moved into a new home, it is beautiful! It hasn't been too difficult to adjust here yet just because things aren't that different. The food is very similar to Indian cuisine, which I love. The shower has been harder for me to get used to...the water is really low pressure and I'm pretty sure it just doesn't work right. If I lift the shower head above my head it totally stops working, so I sit down while taking a shower and even than the water just drips out. Ha!

Nairobi: Boy selling peanuts in the middle of a busy street.

I am ready to be out in the bush with my team. The missionaries will be two hours away from us in Nairobi, I was worried about this at first but I feel we will learn the most out on our own. We went grocery shopping yesterday and today, we are getting enough stuff for the next two weeks but after that we will be walking to the nearest town (Narok-20min walk) for our groceries. I am so ready for the challenge of being out on our own....or so I think. We were told that there might not be bathrooms everywhere we go so we will have to get used to going behind bushes and such. Also, us girls might have to carry our feminine products after we use them and disgard them at the end of the day. Super gross, I know. I will have to get used to aiming when I go...I'm afraid I will be smelling like urine most of the day-ugh! Lol.

I do wish we had more time to be in the cities and work in the slums...there are so many poor people that it is insane! Fact: Nairobi has 4 million people and the infrastructure should only hold 100,000 people.

Another congested street

I am so happy to serve alongside my team. They are a wonderful bunch. I have had so much fun getting to know each of them and I can't wait to know them even more as we go out on this little adventure.

We need the Spirit in order to live faithfully. But we also need one another as we work out our faith.
-Francis Chan

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