Greetings from Kipkaren

I'm in Kipkaren, my new second home. The kids welcomed me this afternoon in the pouring rain. Almost all the regulars were gone for the day, so I headed to my temporary room (I was later brought to my house) and then went to visit with people at the children's home as well as with my neighbors, the Davis family.

Their kitten, Duchess, had in the meantime adopted me. She followed me around like a shadow, and the Davises already agreed that we can borrow her so she can catch rodents at my place. (I know, the rodents idea sounds terrible, but it's more of a reality out here.) Plus I know she'll just come and visit sometimes.

I finally made myself at home in the gazebo by my house, overlooking the Kipkaren River, where I started working on The Patriarchs study. When David Tarus, Allison and some visitors came, and I took the visitors to see the bridge ELI had built years ago. Visited with the guests over dinner and then headed to my new home.

I am looking forward to connecting with a
contractor tomorrow so we can make the place my own. I'll definitely paint the ceiling white to get the place lighter. I may want to fill in all the holes with cement so no rodents can come in, and have outlets put in. We're supposed to get electricity by the end of this month. Right now, we have solar power for part of the evening.

Lots of work to be done, but at least I don't have to build an entire house, for which I'm grateful. And I'm especially thankful to move into a place where there's an indoor bathroom and kitchen. This was an unexpected blessing.

Tomorrow morning, I hope to head to prayer rock for my time with God (if it doesn't rain--else I'll be in the gazebo). Then head back for a quick shower, breakfast with the team, staff meeting, and then I'll be going to visit some pastors in the area.

As I'm sitting here writing, I can hear lots and lots of crickets, frogs, and the odd night bird. The bird life in this area is amazing! I've already noticed a number of birds I had never seen here before, and can't wait to look them up when I get my hands on my "Birds of East Africa" book.

Speaking of birds, I've decided to show the kids at Ilula a picture of one or two birds prior to every movie we see, and see if they can tell me what kind of bird it is. I'd love to create in them an awareness of the prolific bird life around them. Who knows, perhaps some of them will grow up to be wardens with Kenya Wildlife Services!

On that note, I'm heading to bed. I've been fighting jet lag and hope I can finally get a good night's rest.

Click here to see more pictures of my new place in Kipkaren.

Home, sweet home

I'll tell more about it all tomorrow, but I just wanted to say, I'm home. It was 54 hours from when I left home in Iowa till I walked into my home tonight after dinner. I lit a bunch of candles to get the smell of insect killer out (the person who cleaned the house must've emptied out a can on spiders...) and started unpacking. I'm about halfway done but can longer think straight.

It was pure delight to step out of the minibus tonight and go and hug every child. There was a team with me (they were supposed to be en route to Sudan but their trip is delayed till Friday) so I couldn't spend a lot of time hugging each kid, but afterwards, they all came and hugged me and told me things like,
Adele, I have my own kinyonga, Adele! (that's a chameleon)
Adele, did you bring the Jesus movie?
When will we see a movie? Tonight?
Adele, we really missed you.
Adele, will you give me the keys for your car so I can drive? (Yeah, right!)
Did you see my sponsor in America?
Will you read to us tonight?
How is your family?
We received your letters, Adele. Did you receive ours?
When will you come to visit us, Adele?

Some snuck back in line for another hug and grinned from ear to ear when I noticed! Others grinned just as big when I noticed their new "big kid teeth" all grown into a beautiful smile, or how much taller some have become.

Can't wait to hang out with them in the morning.

But right now, I need to call it the day and head to bed. During my travels, I slept very, very little. I am praying I won't wake up at an odd hour with jetlag.

Sushi

I was craving good sushi the other day and decided that it seems easy enough to make it myself. (Yes, you can find sushi in Iowa. It's just not as good as the stuff you can find in parts of the world where there really are more Asian people.)

Making sushi, it turns out, really isn't that hard at all. Amazingly, I found seaweed at Target and sticky rice at Hy-Vee. Those, I'd say, are the critical ingredients to making sushi. I guess I could've searched for some recipes, but what's the fun in that? So I just made it like I knew I'd like it: a thin layer of rice, just a touch of wasabi, some avocado, cucumber and crab, roll it nice and tight, cut into bit-size chunks, and voila! Sushi's on the table. Just add soy sauce and some friends to share it with!

Hmmm. I think I'm going to have friends bring some sticky rice to Kenya when they come to visit. And seaweed, of course. It'd be fun to share sushi with my Kenyan friends...

At home with the Clarks

About six years ago, a quiet high school graduate walked into my office in Taiwan and with it, walked into my life. Jessie was an intern for the summer, and returned the next 2 summers. Her family lived in California, and when I was in LA for a Folio conference, I got to meet some of the Clark family. When APU offered me the opportunity to come and earn a master's degree the next year, Jessie's family offered me a place to stay. We thought it would be a part-time arrangement, me living in their garage-turned-into-a-bedroom. But we all decided that it was a good arrangement, so for two years, I was the GD/"garage dweller" at the Clarks'.

Tonight, I returned home to spend the week at their house while in SoCal for meetings at the ELI office. How very blessed I am to have such amazing friends in my world. As we sat around the dinner table tonight, telling stories and laughing, my heart was warm with love for this, yet another of my "adopted families."

I can say much about them and how they've blessed my life, but it's 1 am here, which means it's 3 back in Iowa... I'm tired. Time to sleep. I'm falling asleep to a worship song, "You are good." God is good, indeed!