Jeff's got something tropical and not so good.

Yup, first trip out and he contracted something not good. Fever, diarrhea (oh, he's so going to love me sharing that), intestinal cramping...yuck! The nurse practitioner here on compound says it could be a) malaria, b) giardia c) typhoid d) something else obtained through eating cut fruit. Pick one, they all sound good. Several people don't think it's malaria and most around here think it's option d). Apparently it's common knowledge (that we didn't have) that you shouldn't eat fruit that's been cut up. The food preparers slice raw meat and seafood and then cut up the fruit with the same knife, without cleaning it. Hmmmm...that'd break some FDA codes around the US, I'd guess.

Apparently, the gent Jeff went with wasn't affected, but then again, he's an MK (Missionary Kid) raised in rural Africa and has been a missionary here in some pretty remote places for years and years. He's probably got whatever in him that also keeps the Kenyans from getting sick.

Fortunately, prescriptions are not required for picking up drugs at our local pharmacy and 10 cipro cost him about $2.00. So, in five days he should be feeling good as new. If not, it's to the clinic for some blood tests. Please keep him in prayer!

It's awesome to have him back, though! I'll post pictures of the spider as soon as I can.

I DO NOT Like It, Sam I Am!

I do not like 220 volt power. I do not like the fact the plugs are different here. I do not like running at 50 hertz instead of 60 hertz, because my alarm clock wakes me up at 10:14 am instead of 6am. I do not like the fact that power converters, which are supposed to drop 220V to 110v, instead drop it to 160v or 180v. I do not like having to read the small print on every adapter to see what wattage it requires because I just might overload my power strip. I'm too old and my eyesight is too bad! I do not like blowing up my motherboard because a power surge happened at the exact moment I plugged it in. I do not like it that Dell doesn't do warranty work in Kenya, despite having a bazillion stores here. I do not like the fact that half of everything sold doesn't fit a standard Kenyan outlet, but instead uses some sort of two pronged European plug that doesn't work in a "grounded" Kenyan outlet unless you stick something into the ground socket to "unlock" the safety mechanism so you can plug the two-pronged thingy in without ground. Why doesn't Europe want grounded appliances anyway???? I do not like cheap Chinese multi-pronged adapters that don't plug securely into the wall, leaving exposed metal and in which those two-pronged European nightmare plugs fall out because for some bizarre reason, they put the two pronged part on the bottom of the adapter.

There. I feel better. Thanks for listening.

If anyone out there is coming to Kenya, DO NOT bring 110v appliances, curling irons and especially hair dryers!! Just buy the stuff here. It's more expensive, especially for a short trip, but less of a headache for sure.

And then the Lord said, "At least I gave you power so you could type all your grumblings into the computer and share them with people all over the world because of the technology I've given you as well." Sorry, God. Thanks for the power!

Week 2 reflections on Kenya

Jeff got us some rolly office chairs, which make me so comfy while I'm sitting here typing that it doesn't feel much different than my office in Colorado, except....


...when I look out my window, I see grey, cloudy skies most of the time.

...when I hear people talking and realize I can't understand any of it.

...when guards, grounds workers, and other missionaries walk past and wave in at me (one whole wall of my office is a window.

...when people come up to the door, yell "hodi!" and come right in.

...when I kill yet another silverfish, mosquito, or assorted other crawly thing sharing office space with me.

...when I look at all the receipts on my desk with names like "Uchumi," "Nakumatt", and a dozen hand-written receipts.

...when I look in my wallet and see "1000" denomination bills. (Yahoo!)

...when I smell smoke and realize it's just garbage burning day.


It's really beautiful here. The plants and flowers are in bloom year round; when the sun does choose to shine, the sky is blue and the sun is warm; and friendly smiles are always around to greet me. But, it's also awfully dirty here. Dust and grime get everywhere, so buildings look dingy, food packaging often looks like Goodwill throw-aways, and we've had to wash pots, pans, dishes, etc. that we just purchased from the store -- not because it's a good idea to do that with everyone handling it -- but because they are dirty with dust and grime. My hands were black after our first shopping trip to the store!

I'm starting to relax a bit within our four walls, but when I go outside the compound, I'm still unable to relax. Things are just so different. Driving is very scary what with people walking everywhere, matatus (local small buses) deciding to make new lanes whenver they feel like it, no stop lights or turn signals to help with traffic flow, cars just pulling out in front of oncoming traffic in order to turn, and three or four other cars pulling alongside to also make the turn! The smells are also very different. When walking downtown yesterday and waiting for our curtains to be loaded up, I could smell frying meat, deep fried chicken, curry, urine, and smoke all mixed together. Some of it tantalizing..some will turn your stomach. The other odd thing is the wires that hang everywhere. Most power lines, from what we can see, are above ground and each building downtown has power lines on its roof. From the roof, there are lines that run down to each apartment. Many of these look like they've been cut and new ones strung, so the resulting display looks like a tangled web of power lines, phone cables, data cables, and bare wires. If you look above the first floor, on any building, you see this tangled mass on building, after building, after building.


However, I must say that Nairobi is very metropolitan and extremely international. It's not uncommon to see people from the middle east, people from India, people from Korea or Taiwan or China, people from America or Canada or Great Britain. Even our taxi driver was commenting on how many people from other African countries have moved in. Each has their own culture, dress, food, and language. And, you see it all. It can be quite overwhelming.

I took my first walk down the road, by myself, today! I realize that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but the roads are thronged with people and the cars don't really care if you are a pedestrian or not. If you are in their way, you lose. I passed several dukas (corner stores) with picnic tables packed with people. Right up the street from us at a major intersection are three dukas -- one on each of three corners. One sells food and cooks lunch. One sells fried fish (whole fried fish) and one sells clothes. You could pretty much do your grocery shopping, have lunch, take home fish for dinner and get a new suit for work without walking more than 10 steps!

I'm trying to adjust to having house help come every day. With Jeff not here, I don't have enough for her to do. She takes care of all my laundry, preps any food I ask her to, made a strawberry pie the other day, hand sweeps and mops the whole house and brushes the rugs (who needs a vacuum???), makes our beds, washes the dishes and is helping me with Kiswahili. I'm so spoiled!! So, now I can say I live in tropical city, thriving with lush foliage, within a gated community, have someone to do all the time-consuming, labor intensive, repetitive work, and have a gardner and a guard. I know that ministry work will kick in soon here, but for now, I'm praising God for the respite before the storm. Can I hear an "Amen!"?

Busy Week

Hey all! It's been a busy week, so I haven't posted. Ashley started school and found what 5th grade homework is like in an MK (missionary kid) school. Lots of it! She starts doing it when she gets home, takes a break for dinner, and does it until she drops into bed at 8:30. On Friday, I had to get her up early to finish! She's met a few friends, but hasn't clicked with anyone yet. Her teacher, Miss Porcieaux (Por see oh), is a young woman from Louisianna. The real delight for us is the hot lunch program. On it are things like beef curry, chapati (a type of tortilla), braised carrots and ice cream. Another is meat samosas, sweet corn, tomato/egg/cucumber salad with dressing on the side, and yogurt. All this for $2.70 a day. Good deal, eh? They eat outside in a banda (open air structure with a grass roof).

Ashley had to write a pen pal letter to someone back in the States. I'm going to copy what she's got started of it (verbatim) here to give you an idea of her perspective of Kenya.

My name is Ashley Vigil. I'm 10 years old and born in Colorado. I've lived in Kenya for about 2 weeks. I loke alot about Kenya it's not cold here all the time you see camillions alot and it's verry warm here.

Yes, we're working on spelling and run on sentences! :) Jeff & I had more orientations this week. They've been waiting to put in my work visa application in the hopes that SIM's "status" would change. SIM has been registered as a foreign business, but the visas that come through that are really expensive, so they re-applied to change to a "society", aka religious organization, and the visas through that are much less expensive. That hasn't come through yet, so they are going to file
my application next week. I can't officially work in the office until I have a business visa, so I just spent time sitting in on meetings and digging around on the server and in the accounting package trying to get my bearings. Jeff's been busy getting his
briefings on the ministry areas he's going to be involved in as well as spending a lot of time in Rosetta Stone Kiswahili. He gets lot of opportunity to practice with the nationals and they are very willing to help him. He left this morning for Malindi, a city on the coast. Here's a link to a map if you want to look.
http://www.blissites.com/kenya/map.html

He said it's really hot and humid there and the place he's staying is pretty
basic compared to Nairobi. A bus ride would have taken 12 hours, so they opted
to fly. I'm glad, since his knee has been acting up lately. I think a 12 hour
bus ride would have put him in a lot of pain. Please pray for that to settle
down and for him to get in a lot of practice with Kiswahili while he's there.
They don't speak much English in that part of Kenya, but I think the immersion
will do him good! He went with a new friend who's also involved in the same ministry. The two of them are a lot alike!

We got our new curtains up, but we still don't have our furniture. We've been sitting on someone's patio furniture that they loaned us until ours came in. We did get a call from the company making it, though. They didn't have enough fabric to do the couch..only the pillows. So, we had to pick a different color. I opted for a lighter one, but I'm really hoping that wasn't a bad choice. The dirt here is red and really hard to get out of cloths!

Here on the compound, once a month, we have a vendor who comes with fresh strawberries and English muffins, and another who comes with cheese and yogurt.
Our director buys coffee direct from Java House at a discount and resells it for
that discount. He also makes runs into town for soda. So, today I am eating gouda
cheese and strawberries and drinking coke!:) The favorite soda flavor amongst my
two is Fanta's Black Currant. It actually is really good. I made some strawberry jam with half the strawberries. Took me all day, but it turned out quite tasty. The
strawberries are smaller than at home, and more tart, but they make for good jam!

Last thing on this blow by blow, is that we hired Violet as our house help. She's a little older than I am and comes in every afternoon. She's a Christian and has raised four children. Her youngest is still in high school. She's wonderful! She made chapati and tortillas for us, prepped all the strawberries (here you have to put all your fruit and veggies in bleach water to kill the bacteria on everything), did laundry, ironed yesterdays laundry, peeled and sliced potatoes for scalloped potatoes last night and rocked with me to Third Day and some South African Gospel music! Please pray for her, however, as she's got diabetes that isn't well managed and is living with her brother and his family right now.

Sorry this is a long litany of stuff, but I wanted to catch you all up on what's happening. I'll blog again about my reflections on Kenya in another post. Kwaheri
(good bye!) for now.

Giraffe Sanctuary

After visiting Ashley's new school on Friday, we visited Laura and Daisy (two of the giraffes) at the Giraffe Sanctuary.

Both the school and the sanctuary are located in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi, but not too far from where we live near City Centre.

The sanctuary has an associated hotel on the grounds. The giraffes can come and dine with you if you stay there. Isn't it a pretty sight?

The sanctuary has a feeding station that you take the stairs up to so that you are face-height with the giraffes. The attendants give you food to feed the animals and they take the pellets right out of your hand...or wherever else you put the food! Ashley didn't hit if off right away with the giraffes as you can see.

But things did get better when I asked them to smile for the camera!

By the end of the day, Daisy was eating out of both Ashley's and my hands.

Always looking for affection, I opted for a kiss from Daisy. It doesn't really look like anyone enjoyed this, does it?

Oh well, how many people can say they've been French kissed by a giraffe????

West Nairobi School

Friday was a busy day for us. We first went downtown to go shopping for curtains. For those of you who will eventually come and visit, let me apologize. I'm decoration-impaired. I think the curtains will look ok. They seemed to in my head. What they'll actually look like when hung on curtain rods in rooms with furniture remains to be seen.

After the shopping route, we headed out to West Nairobi School to confirm Ashley's place in 5th grade. What a beautiful campus!!!

This first picture is a shot from the parking lot looking down at just a part of the campus. In the distance, you can see a light green area. This is the athletic field. It's probably the size of three to four football fields.

The shot to the left is taken from a different angle, but still facing the athletic field.

Below, is the corner of Ashley's classroom building. It's a two story building and she's on the 2nd floor toward the back.

Apparently, the campus is so big they need signage! :)

Ashley is student #23 in a class of 24. About 1/2 of the students are Kenyan. The rest are from all over the place. I think there are about 3 or 4 that are American. The curriculum is American and the school year is based on an American standard. They are looking for teachers and pay nearly 1/2 their salary (the rest needs to be raised by the teacher as support.) Any takers out there???? Pssst...Judy G??? :)

School starts with a half day on Tuesday. We'll take her (by taxi) to school and the bus will take her home. Following that, she'll be taking the bus each day from just outside our compound.

After the school visit, we headed to the Giraffe Sanctuary. More on that in another blog.

Orienting

For the last two days, we've been "oriented" in many, many different ways! Yesterday, we spent the day with the director who showed us around the compound and gave us the history of SIM in Kenya. He also introduced us to the SIM schedule: Prayers and/or Bible Study from 8:00 to 8:30 or sometimes 9:00. Work for an hour. Chai in the foyer at 10:00 to 10:15 or 10:30. Work to 12:15 or 12:30. Lunch until 2:00. Work until 4:30. Go home. Now, I'm sure that lunch won't always be that long..at least I hope not, or this girl won't get anything done!

We have also been oriented to food. Yesterday we were also introduced to authentic Indian food. Yummmmmmmm! Today was authentic Ethiopian food. Ashley really loved this, and even ate a bite of goat. Very chewy, but a pretty mild flavor. A couple days ago, we had lunch in the Nakumatt food court. Here, you sit at a table and a representative from each food booth in the food court brings you a menu and waits for you to order. You pick the menu you want to order from and the rest of the servers go away. At our table, we tried Kenyan, Indian, and American (pizza for Ashley.) Each server then brings your food and when you are done, the bill. Talk about service!!

Today, we were photographed, photocopied, and got the low down on finances and crisis procedures. Sort of scary to think we've got to have a crisis management team, but I'm glad that something is in place just in case of a problem. I also got the briefing on how to avoid assault. Look people in the eye, look confident, walk confidently. Hard to look people in the eye and walk confidently when you are walking on a road that has no flat surface in high heeled sandals! I could look them in the eye, but then they would have to catch me as I tripped and fell into them! :) I'm going to have to look like a dorky American making this daily walk to the office. Tennis shoes and socks with a dress/suit. Whatever. I guess I'll just have to come across as a confident dork!

The walk to work takes about 1/2 hr in sandals. I'm hoping to speed that up with the tennis shoe choice. Along the way are lots of guards sitting outside the compounds or homes they are watching. Word on the street is "make friends with the guards" so if any trouble comes, they know you and will be more likely to help. I'm good with that! Ashley made the walk today. That's the first time she's walked in Kenyan traffic. It's an experience for sure.

A little bit of heaven

Church on Sunday was like a little bit of heaven. We sang songs in English, Swahili, Hindi, and some other language. The tunes were familiar, the words..not so much. The church we went to has an emphasis on racial reconcilliation, so there were people from Africa, Europe, Asia, India, and America there. It was a beautiful sight!

Trying to settle in...

Twenty-six bags scattered over two floors and five rooms. I can't find anything! I spent 2 hours yesterday morning searching for ink cartridges for the printer...AAAARRRGGGHHH! I still haven't found them.

You see, my "beat the airline" strategy was to pack a little of everything in each bag, so if we lost a bag, we wouldn't have lost all of one item, like my clothes or all the kitchen stuff. I had an inkling it would be a little frustrating on the other end, but it's been more than a little frustrating. Part of the problem, I think is that we don't have enough recepticles to move items from bags to shelves, desks, closets, etc. We did buy some hangers, finally, and I do intend to use them sometime soon...really...once I get the motivation to wade through knee-high piles of clothes lying on the floor that we've dug through for the last week, and that I know has something living at the bottom of the pile because I saw it crawl there a couple days ago and it may have nested and had babies by now.

OK, on a more positive note, Ashley is loving Africa..as long as she isn't dragged along to go shopping. That was, in her words, "really, really boring." What??? This from my daughter who can spend hours just walking around in one Claire's boutique and not buying anything? :) She's got a friend on the compound who's visiting from "up country." She and Josie and brother Josh, all who are pretty close in age, have been inseparable. Little Rehema, Josh and Josie's 3 year old sister, tags along and keeps up pretty well. Here they are on the badminton court, practicing their game. In the background, with the grass roof is a "banda". It's sort of a covered patio that our director had built for his wife. It's a gathering place in the afternoon on weekends for anyone who wants to go hang out.

Shopping in Kenya is interesting. Our trip on Saturday was mainly to Nakumatt...sort of a Kenyan Super Walmart. You can buy anything from appliances to milk here. We bought a bed for Ashley and a foam mattress. We also bought a stove and a bunch of kitchen items. Yesterday, we visited the road-side furniture vendors on Ngong road. It's about a mile long stretch of road filled with side-by-side duka's (stores) that are all of 12 feet wide. The vendors put samples of their wares out on the roadside and you just walk along looking for what you want. They even have upholstered furniture vendors there, though most of their wares are inside under a tin roof. We ordered a seven-seat set (sofa, loveseat and two chairs), in a faux-suede forest green with 12 pillows of alternating forest and camel, and two footrests for about $1,200. Custom made, so I hope they'll turn out good. We also got Ashley a bureau and side table for her room for about $120. It has wrought iron and wood to match the bed we bought. I'm thinking those prices are pretty reasonable, considering just one rocker/recliner we parted with in the States cost us $1200. We also ended up buying a TV..mostly for movies.. and had a couple new friends over to watch Star Trek last night. For dinner? Pizza and ice cream. We're sooo roughing it! ;)

Today we go grocery shopping! Food here is more expensive than in the states. Gas is more expensive, cars are more expensive, and some furniture, like lights and office furniture are also more expensive. I wasn't expecting that.

Jet lag still a factor...

So much for overcoming jet lag. I hit a wall about 4:30pm yesterday, struggled through two hours doing head nods while people were trying to engage me in conversation and finally gave up. Came home and unloaded two bags, then fell into bed. Ashley and Jeff were the same. We all woke up about 4am and have been making a list of what we need to buy as we are going shopping today!

Oddly enough, we need to buy light coverings as we have a bunch of bare bulbs hanging in the rooms!

George has a friend, though George isn't overly fond of his friend. Did you know geckos make noise? We listened and watched as George chased the other and they made their squeaky-chatter this morning as we ate breakfast.

It's a very community-oriented compound. Lots of people walking around outside and having coffee or playing badminton or just chatting.

So far, the worst part has been the mosquitoes at night. Although we'd heard in the States that malaria was in Nairobi, no one here seems particularly worried and, in fact, are not on malaria meds. However, there are still an abundance of mosquitoes and no screens on the windows. Shopping today will include bed nets.

I took a quick video of downstairs and will attempt to upload it to Facebook. I'll post a link when I get it there. In the meantime, here are some pics: