All in a day's work

After staff devotions today, I headed to town to a) take a visiting couple to transfer to Ilula, b) take the intern for his shopping day, c) sell my wreck, and d) buy a car.

The day was full of surprises, but bottom line, my Land Rover is no longer my Land Rover. It now belongs to a colleague in Ilula who has the courage to fix it. And I now have a 22-year-old Peugeot station wagon. The engine's good. The body's OK (just a few rust spots). The brakes need fixing (which is something I discovered when I went to test drive it), and due to hiccups along the way, I couldn't get insurance this afternoon, so I left the car at our office for the night.

I hope to take it to the mechanic tomorrow to have the brakes fixed, but don't think I can drive it back here yet. Not in the mud. It won't handle our roads in the rain... But it'll do fine during the dry season, which is around the corner. It is what it is. It's what I could afford, and I'm trusting it'll work just fine!



When I finally got home, I found blood spots around my house, and discovered that Toulouse (my cat that's not really my cat - she used to belong to colleagues who gave her to another colleague who gave her to other colleagues but then she decided she wanted to be a wild cat and finally decided she's moving in with me, just basically to eat, hide in a corner, and growl at her former BFF, Flannel) was bleeding.

I Googled the condition, and first thought it might be pyometra, a uterine infection. But the symptoms didn't all line up, and after I had thrown her out the door and she did a very uncharacteristic thing by crying at the window to come in, I let her back in. She made herself at home on a duffel bag (her favorite sleeping spot) and kept licking herself... She was now bleeding more and more, and soon started producing more than blood. In fact, she had a miscarriage. She delivered 3 fetuses, one of which was still perfectly in its little sac! They're all of an inch long. (Don't worry, I don't post the photos. And of course I took photos before discarding them, just in case.)

Unfortunately, there aren't vets around that can spay the cats. I've been giving Flannel hormone shots which I got from a vet in South Africa for birth control. But the shots are incredibly painful and sends her into stress for days.

As for Toulouse, I hope she'll do OK... She seems at peace right now. It's almost 10 pm. I was planning on reading a book tonight, but am wiped. Hopefully I can skim at least a chapter or four before calling it the night.

In memory of . . .

Two summers ago, God blessed me with an amazing vehicle.

Yesterday, I received news yesterday from Kenya that the car had been totaled. Friends at ELI were taking care of the vehicle while I'm in the US. They were heading back from the AA rehab graduation at Ilula when they hit a pothole which led to several overcorrections and finally to the car rolling.

There were eight people in the car. One person had to get just a few stitches. Everyone else got out with only bruises and very sore bodies. They tell me that they do not believe anyone would've survived had they not been in a vehicle as incredible as this one. Looking at the pictures, I believe them.

My car had served me very, very well. It has made me and others laugh. It's sent me on amazing adventures. It has carried me through deep mud. It has carried a corpse, but more than anything, it carried Hope to families like Hannah's and the Sifunas. It brought orphans to new homes. It took groups of recovering alcoholics to share the news to others. It was strong enough to withstand the attack of a mob during the riots*. It wasn't strong enough to survive rolling. But it saved the lives of the eight inside. For that, I am thankful.

I will always have fond memories of this car. I'm sad to say good-bye to it. God knows why this happened. I don't.

In the words of my friend Ellie, "Rest in peace, great metal beast!"

Before




After






* I just realized: I didn't blog about that. The story will follow in another entry later this week.

Friday in Nairobi

So I spent all week in the city. Didn't get to go to a movie, get a haircut or any of the things I like to do in the city. But I got lots of work done. I sat in Nairobi Java House for four straight days and worked on photo projects. It feels good to have gotten some of the projects done! It feels so good that it really doesn't matter that I didn't see a movie. :) I got to do some things though that I like, like soak in the bath tub every evening. And visit with missionaries at Mayfield whom I've gotten to know from times when our paths cross. Like the girls who are on a TIMO team in Sudan. It's fun to visit with friends like these when I'm here. It makes me feel normal.

Insofar wor goes: The photos I keep on my external hard drive is down to 15,000 now. That's 8,000 fewer than when I began working on this project. Plus the 5,000 I deleted from my computer, and you can imagine why I've not been blogging this week. It seems like every time I picked up my computer, it was to work on the photos and related projects. Which is good.

I got to pick up my car at the end of the day today, too. The turbo's been fixed, and I have new tires. The mechanics were asking, "Where do you drive that your tires look like this??" They pointed out several deep cuts to every single tire. That's from the rocks: When the roads are really muddy, they fix our road by breaking rocks and putting them into the worst parts. Sharp rocks + heavy car + soft, muddy surroundings = deep cuts.

This year, I spent more on my car than I ever want to again! The gearbox had to be overhauled. The shocks and lots of other expensive stuff had to be replaced. Now the turbo and the tires. Let's trust it'll all last till the car retires. It's still a great car, and I wouldn't want to drive our roads with anything less!

So tomorrow, I get to drive back to Eldoret. I met a couple from Michigan this week at Mayfield who work in Sudan, but due to the new tension there, they can't go into the country. So they asked if they could ride to Eldoret with me and see what we're doing there. They'll take a matatu back on Monday or Tuesday. I'm glad I don't have to make the drive alone. It's OK, but it's just safer having other people in the car, too.

In just a week, I'll fly back to Nairobi to meet the team from Iowa! I can't wait! Just eight days, and counting... :)

All in a Day's Work

Above the hum of the city traffic, above the chatter of the birds and visitors outside my window and the buzzing of the mosquitoes in my room, I can hear the call to prayer at the nearby mosque.

I'm (still) in Nairobi. It was a good day. Got lots done. I literally sat at Java House from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. Yes, sitting got uncomfortable after a while... But I'm making progress on purging and sorting through my collection of 23,000 photos. Once that's done, I can order photo books for work. I am determined to sort and purge every time I download photos from my camera from now on... It'd be easier that way!

I was tempted to treat myself to a movie this evening, but couldn't imagine having to sit still for another 2 hours. Not today. Maybe another evening.

I was at the mechanics early this morning. My car's turbo is indeed in desperate need of help. It may sound like a luxury, this turbo business. Fear not. It's what helps my car go uphill faster than 30km/h. Which helps, considering that I live in the hilly part of Kenya. And I need new tires. My tires have deep gouges in them from our road in Ilula. When the mud is really bad, they fill in the holes with freshly broken rocks. Considering that's what people used in the Stone Age as axes etc, broken rocks happen to be sharp enough to cut through my heavy-duty tires. The rest of the car is fine. They'll put back the wandering nuts and bolts and screws so my car doesn't fall apart on me.

There's a group here at Mayfield who's from a church in Hong Kong. I had breakfast with a bunch of them, and it was fun to speak Chinese again. It feels funny speaking Chinese in Kenya. It confuses my mind a bit. Makes me want to address the Kenyans in Mandarin, too.

Time for dinner. And then, a hot bath, one of the luxuries of being at Mayfield. I think I'm going to read tonight rather than spend another several hours on my computer. That way, I'd be ready for the next 10,000 photos tomorrow...

In One Piece

I'm in Nairobi and in one piece. So is my car. At least, for the most part. Try driving on really bad roads for four hours at high speed and you, too, would understand why mysterious nuts and bolts are found rolling around on the floor. It makes you wonder what may have fallen off/out of the engine... These are the type of roads where you regret it if you forgot to wear a sports bra. (Sorry guys if that's TMI for you. It's reality.)

The last time I drove to Nairobi (en route to Rwanda) my car's turbo gave in. Or does it give out? Not sure. But it's no longer working. Which means that when I even just drive up the 30-degree hill to the top of our training center, I have to engage low 4WD. Which I don't think is too good for the car. Well, maybe having to use low 4WD isn't too bad, but you know it can't be good for the engine when there's a constant high-pitched buzz when you're driving more than 40kmh.

The best time to make the trip to the city is now, since I also have a slew of year-end projects to work on for the office. Projects that would happen much faster if I can plant myself and my computer in a booth at Nairobi Java House, and work uninterruptedly.

It just also happened that Zack and Wendy, two guests to Kipkaren were going to take a matatu to Nakuru and hire a driver to take them on a game drive. "Here's a deal," I told them. "I need to go to Nairobi by car. And the road to Nairobi takes me right through Nakuru. You can catch a ride with me."

We left Kipkaren around 10 am, just as the crowds started approaching our center for Sunday morning service. It was 3:30, maybe 4, when we finally rolled into Nakuru. I've driven that route in three hours -- an hour to town, and two to Nakuru. But the shortest road is so full of potholes that it is not good for any car to drive that way. So we took the longer way, through Kerio Valley, stopping along the way only briefly to bananas fruit from Esther, and to enquire about her husband's health.

This morning, we were inside the park by 7 am. And no sooner had we started our game drive, the morning fog still hanging thick in the air, than a vehicle stopped and suggested we go the other way around the lake. "There's a leopard on the road to Lion Hills."

I swung around as fast as you can with a car like mine on a narrow road, and gunned it. She was still there when we joined the party of about 10 vehicles under the tree. There were no fewer than 100 cameras pointing at this beauty (one of the vehicles was a large overland truck with probably 40 young adults poking their heads through the roof), and somehow, we seemed to have the perfect spot for some great photos. (I didn't bring my camera cable with me, so I'll upload photos from Kipkaren. Sorry!)

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful God's creation is! I sat on the roof of my car for the longest time, just staring at the leopard. And then, the journey continued.

We saw many more amazing sights. A baby white rhino with its mom, the little one nursing happily. Good thing baby rhinos don't have horns yet, I figured, or the mom won't be too happy about the little one poking its nose in under her belly! We saw several Rothschild giraffes. Twelve more white rhinos. A hyena. Lots and lots of cape buffaloes. An amazing number of birds of prey. Tens of thousands of flamingos, and hundreds of pelicans. And then, just as we were heading out of the park, thankful for an amazing four hours of game viewing, Wendy yelled, "Lions!" There were two beautiful lionesses just lounging around this huge dead tree stump on the side of the road! Another 100 photos later, we left the park, thoroughly aware of what an amazing God we serve.

We braved the next part of the journey, bouncing over roads that have more potholes than there are patches of black top. The stretch from Nakuru to Nairobi used to be all of a two-hour drive. Almost four hours later, I rolled into Nairobi. I had dropped Zack and Wendy along the way with a driver who's taking them elsewhere for the next few days.

Tomorrow morning, I'm dropping off my car, trusting and believing that the repairs will be minor. I don't want to have to replace the turbo! It's time, however, to replace my tires. They're all badly cut by the rocks used to fill in our mud roads.

All this to say, I am honestly grateful for life the way it is, that I do get to drive to Nairobi, albeit over bumpy roads, that I got to stop along the way and enjoy God's creation, that unlike most of the Kenyan women around me, I do have the ability to drive, even make decisions about things like tires and turbos, though I know little about it.

And I'm infinitely thankful for places like Java House, where I can go and work tomorrow on the projects on my plate while the fundi figure out how to put my car back together in one piece.

Red Tape

For the past two months, I've been having frequent phone conversations with an office in Nairobi regarding a document which Kenyans simply refer to as a log book. It's not your typical log book; it's more like registration papers. Without your log book, your car cannot leave the country.

When I bought my car, I was told that the papers were still being processed to change the log book from two owners ago's name to the name of the person from whom I had purchased it. "We should have the new log book within a month," I was told by a guy at the admin office of the ministry from whom the previous car owner worked. "Then we can send off the paperwork to have it changed from the Callaghans' name to yours."

That was a year ago.

Since I'm hoping to drive to our site in Tanzania later this summer, I need the log book. So I turned up the heat, calling the said missions office regularly. "Any news on the log book?"

Last week, I was told that the log book did finally arrive, but it's still in the name of 2 owners ago! I'm told it would not be good for me to go to the actual government office to enquire about the case, since I'd be asked for a bribe. With a bribe, the paperwork will most definitely be done much faster!

I don't want to pay bribes.

Will you please join me in praying for a miracle, that the new log books (first in the Callaghans' name, then in mine) will be issued in record time?