So lately...

...we have been doing "portrait" style pictures of all of the children. The first pictures we took of all of them (the brick wall mugshots) served their purpose, but we wanted something that showed a bit more of their personality, hence the 315 new pictures on our flickr account. What's flickr you ask? Well silly, look to the right of your screen. That's where we have been putting all of our pictures, check it out!

We have also been putting some of our videos to music, the result has been, well, entertaining to say the least. I hope you enjoy them.

The child pictured above is Loise. She is a forty year old woman trapped in a three year olds body. She has a wicked smokers cough, seriously.

Here is the House of Hope Dance Party with Ken, Jane, Hannah, Waithara, Jose (pronounced Joe-Say, I know, it is hard to believe, we still have trouble with it!), and Nico. Keep in mind, there was no music playing when the video was shot:



No play by play with Tammi this week.

Please

Spiritual Warfare, Storytelling, The Goat is Got (Literally), and My Dreams of a Short Order Cook

In the "We Should Have Thought of That" Department:


It will be taken care of today!


Spiritual Warfare

I have always somewhat scoffed at the term spiritual warfare. It seemed dramatic, a bit crazy even. But in this past week Tammi and I have been struggling through our daily lives and we have come to the conclusion that there is only one reason for our hardships, mostly mine though: spiritual warfare.
I have been spending to much time being homesick and finding reasons to complain about, for a time this was fine, natural even. But you reach a point where you look at yourself and wonder “Is it really always everyone else’s fault or could I, maybe, have something to do with this?” Of course I had something to do with it! Prior to our departure I felt confident in many things: I felt my marriage was strong, better than most, even, I felt I was finally becoming a spiritually mature Christian; I felt good about my life, I felt in control, and that is where the problem lies: we are never truly in control.
When you begin trusting yourself too much, you begin not trusting other beings, namely God. Confidence is spectacular when you are in your comfort zone, but when EVERYTHING around you changes you kinda have to throw that confidence you had become accustomed to out the window, and start fresh, trusting in God to provide for you the new tools you need to function in your new environment.
I did not do this.
I did not trust God to do this for me, and it showed. I could not be a truly good husband to Tammi, as a teacher, in both the classroom and the fellowship/church room, as depended on myself alone to speak for God, instead of allowing him to speak through me, I was not giving all of myself to any of these things because half of me was still in Texas.
This past weekend was rough. I was convicted of many things. Most importantly, I need to trust God for everything to be provided for me. It is not my show---it is His, and I keep forgetting that. I am not here for personal glory, but to be an instrument of his will. Whatever He convicts me of, I NEED to do, and not think about it so much.
Pray for this humility in me.

Storytelling

Once a week each class has a storytelling lesson. This sometimes means that children read a short story and then retell it to the class (which is completely bogus, in my honest opinion) but in my class, Standard One, made up of 6 and 7 year olds, Teacher Njagi (enter Patton Oswalt routine here) allows the children to get up in front of the class and freestyle, that’s right: OPEN MIC!!! Like most open mic stand up comics, the stories are ultimately unimaginative. Most of the stories follow one of two formulas: 1) There was a hare and a hyena and something happens to them, usually a race, or 2) There was a boy/girl (depending on who is telling the story) who goes into the forest to search for meat, and in the forest they encounter any number of wild animals who have the sought after meat and something else happens. Each story lasts about 3-4 minutes and is performed in either English (the older ones) or Swahili (the younger ones). But Tuesday Fedrick, one of the neighborhood children, got up to tell his story and it was, well, *expletive deleted* crazy!
It started: “There was once a mother and a pussy cat...”
Njagi: “A pussy cat?”
Fedrick: “Yes, a pussy cat.”
Njagi: “Go ahead then”
Fedrick: “There was a mother and a pussy cat and one day the mother told the pussy cat to go and dig in the shamba (the garden) but the pussy cat did not want to so the mother made him leave, so he left. The pussy cat found a, umm, dog eating meat (everytime Fedrick says ”meat“ he really emphasizes the word, for example: ”mEEat“) and the pussy cat wanted some meat so he started eating the meat and the dog got mad and started chasing the pussy cat for eating his meat and and the pussy cat ran away...”
Here he abandons the pussy cat and begins introducing character after character, including lions, giraffes, elephants, leopards, and even rabbits and hyenas all in search of “mEEat” (and yes it did not escape me that giraffes, elephants, and rabbits are, indeed, herbivores, this adds to the magic of the story). This goes on for about 6-7 minutes.
Njagi interrupts: “Could we wrap this up Fedrick?”
So Fedrick indeed wraps it up: “There were some leopards who found some goats eating meat (yes, goats too are herbivores) so they killed them and ate their meat (I am assuming the meat the goat’s had as well as the goats themselves). In the morning the farmer came out and could not find his goats but he found the leopards and he began chasing them and some lions began chasing the man and they caught him and ate him. And the pussy cat was at the farmers house because the pussy cat had two homes and my story ends there”.
About 10 minutes total. It was beautiful and completely loony all at the same time.
Good show, Fedrick!
I told a story involving a boy who was bad and had to work in the shamba and miss a trip to Mombasa with his school mates, a mole he finds in a hole in the shamba who shows him an underground world and eventually introduces the boy to an old giraffe who takes the boy to Mombasa, weaving through a hundred mile traffic jam and passing his school bus and getting to Mombasa first.
The kids seemed to really like it. Tammi and I are going to make a book out of it and have the children illustrate it. I’m pretty excited!
I still have nothing on Fedrick, though.

The Goat is Got, Literally.

Those who have known me for a while know that my internet handle is “the goat is got”, after a song from one of my favorite bands. Well this past weekend, Margaret, after much talk about it, had one of the goats slaughtered for everyone’s enjoyment. I was a little scared. I had been a vegetarian for about the past eight years until we began planning for our move to the House of Hope and now GOAT! Tammi will tell you a bit about the uncooked goat further down the post. But upon arriving home from town Saturday, first we noticed that it was unusually quiet which is strange for 44 children, but then I noticed a strangely familiar aroma: Long John Silvers. It was unmistakable and really, really surreal.
Barbecued goat, is pretty good. The kids go bonkers for it. They all appeared to be in a goat coma. Allow me to imitate Will Ferrell’s sleazy professor character from Saturday Night Live: Their faces and hands glistened with fat while there bellies pulsated with still warm goat meat.
Sorry, but I have never, never had the urge to say “goat meat” but after hearing 44 Kenyan say it repeatedly, I cannot, for the life of me stop saying it.
Say it with me once more, with feeling. Emphasize “meat” like Fedrick would:
Goat mEEat!
On a sad note, Tammi and I spoke to Peter, the herdsman, a few days later and he said the goat’s name was “Germany” and he was sad that he was gone. We’re not sure if he ate any or not. He really loves these animals, it’s inspiring.
Also, before the cooking we were told the goat was supposed to last the family a month. It didn’t even last the night, save for a few pieces. The children are already lobbying for two goats to be slaughtered for Christmas, rather than the one already planned.

My Dreams of a Short Order Cook

The cook we have had since we came here, Teresa, recently had to leave because of some family problems (we are unsure if it is permanent or not), and Margaret brought in a new lady named Elizabeth. I confided in Tammi that I was hoping she was previously employed as a short order cook in Nairobi’s best all night diner.
I longed to able to holler “Denver Omelet!” and have her yell back a few moments later “Denver Omelet up!” But I think she is just a regular cook, which is fine, the food is growing on me more and more everyday. She does have big shoes to fill if she is replacing Teresa, however.
“Goat mEEat Omelet!”

----
Here's Tammi:

The week of 9/16/06 – 9/22/06

I find I am not sure where to start, I did not do a nightly journal like I should have and now I have a weeks full of memories all rushing though my mind. I think everyone likes the run down of a day- to- day life, but well that did not happen this week. However if I had to give the week a theme it would be “a good week of humility”. Something I think we were way over due for. First off we needed to humble ourselves before God and we had not. We thought and I am being completely honest here, that we were above reproach. We were quick to blame others for what was really going on in our hearts. We were not feeling God because we really did not want to. We knew what he would say and well we just did not want to hear it. Maybe I am speaking just for myself, so I will do that from now on. I heard different people say you just need to take it to God, and at first I thought I was, but when I examined my prayers I realized all I was doing was complaining and not really asking or telling Him much of anything. Everything changed coming back home from town. I looked out the window and was thinking some thought that were far from glorifying Christ and I finally just said in a whisper “Satan I rebuke you in the name of Christ” and in that moment something unlike anything I have ever experienced happened. The thoughts left me and I was before my God, talking about everything and feeling completely comfortable and at peace. That moment my heart changed and so did everything else here for me. The next day we went to church and Margaret preached and I felt convicted about a lot of things and at first I wanted to be mad, but God would not let that happen, he convicted me but gave me peace about it. That afternoon we went in the direction of Mombasa and Margaret told us we were going to where she goes to get most of the supplies and so we were taken to a village, a real African village, it looked right and it felt just like Mexico (Michael’s words), however you get my point. All the people looked busy and happy, we went to buy more coal for the house. On the way to there Margaret begin to really open up about the lose of Naftali, we have not heard much about him up to this point. She began to tell me about her feeling about his one year anniversary coming up and how much she thinks about him and misses him. I just told her that I was so sorry and if there was anything we could do on that day to help we would. She showed me the clinic he was taken to on the day of his death and how she has never be able to return. She also told us about the tribal differences that happened after he died regarding how he gets buried. She told me about the way people responded and how much it all hurt her feelings. So everything seemed to change on the way to Mombasa, when I would look out the windows I could see sights only seen on TV or in magazines and it was beautiful. The sun was breaking though the sky and the rays were hitting the valley, which was below us, just right. Margaret showed us the school the children use to go to (it was very far from home), she told us about how Naftali would take and pick up her and the children every day, she just started to tell us everything Naftali did. He was a great man that loved his family very much. I felt so blessed for getting to learn more about him. Margaret did not have to open up, but she did and I don’t think it would have happened if I was harvesting ill feeling toward her. I felted honored and humbled.

The day before Church:
We were going into town that day, however before we could leave Charles had to come back. Margaret told us that Charles had taken a goat to be slaughtered, we had know this day would come but we still thought it may not happen until Christmas. So I thought no big thing, Charles will come back, the meat will get removed and then they will tell us we can go now, or so I thought. I did not even hear Charles come home: Margaret called me to her room, just me, this has happened before but it had just been to talk about a member of staff that she was thinking about letting go, however I still get nervous. So I walk into her room and I am speechless for a split moment because for as far as the eye can see there is meat everywhere, meat in bags, in bowls in trash can, meat and more meat and all raw! So I think, please God keep Michael in the other room. I realize quickly that Margaret just wants to show off all the meat to me and that she is very excited about us getting to be a part of this, but all I can think of is wow this is one goat! (oh and I see his tail, it still had fir on it). I also see how it is the same as going to some ones house that just got back from hunting deer and they take you to their freezer to show you all the meat. Either way I begin to see the pride that she had in being able to offer this to us.
That night when we return from town we don’t hear much and that is never the case when we come back from town, the kids are all over the van and all over us, like we just got their all over again. But this night we heard very little. As we walked around to the back of the house all was explained. The goat was now being cooked over fire outside and all the children were eating and were very peaceful. They cooked the goat in oil and lots of good flavor. So all the kids had shinny faces with big smiles on them. They quickly got us chairs to join in on the fun. Before long we had a plate in front of us with the goat on it. We ate and it was very good. Sam came and sat in my lap and we gave him a piece or two and he fell asleep with a tight belly and a smile on his face. The kids played and waited for more goat to be cooked. Near the end Margaret told us that almost all the goat was gone, this was a goat that was suppose to last a month or so. She said it with joy, she was so happy to see all the kids so happy. It was really something, one day you see a goat and the next day you eat him and go to bed happy.

Another school meeting:
We had another meeting with Margaret regarding the school situation, she told us that she had a meeting with the head of the education ministry and told them about the new time table (the one with Michael and I working with the level one for an hour a day with Montessori material) and well they did not say “no” but they did not care to much for it. So in the end we are going to try to work with the kids in every level using the Montessori material as practicals (classroom aids) rather then as integrating Montessori into the system. I am not sure what to think of this, however I do know it takes a huge strain off of us. We were not a part of this decision, we told her we were open to whatever she thinks maybe best for the whole system. Her fear is that the people from the education ministry may drop by (and they can at any time) and they will not like the way things are ran and that can mean bad things for the school. So we will try to work with a handful of children on Saturdays to see how they might do with the Montessori material, since the kids go to school on Saturday (they do fun things, however it is at school). So we will be going into town on Friday instead of Saturday from now on. We are also noticing that some of the subjects that are covered are lacking to say the least. We know it is not our place to say that the text books that are just little paperback books that are about 50 pages long are not that good, they are poorly written and they say very little about anything. We are also noticing that the textbooks for level 1 is not all that different from level 4 books, maybe a little bit more info. for level 4 but not much. So we are not sure what to do about this, because we think many of the older children are staving for new information, harder information, things that will challenge them to dig deeper into themselves. We also found out that all the material for the year has already been covered. They just spend from Sept. to Dec. going over it all over again so that they will be able to pass an exam. So pray that we can challenge the children at home to think about harder things, and to seek things and questions them.

When it rains it pours:
It rained hard the other day while we were at school. It sounds so loud in the classroom because the roof is large sheets of tin. So it rained all during lunch and that meant no playing outside, so you know what that means, yes you guessed it, 55ish (44 of ours and 11 outside kids) all going crazy in the early childhood classroom. Sounds fun huh? Not as much fun as walking home in the mud is! The walk home seems so far away when you are walking in mud and not just oh a puddle here and a puddle their, I mean crazy kind of mud that gets on everything. So we walk home and take off our shoes at the door and don’t think about them again until the next day. Oh quick side note, the only way to make it during the rain season is to have boots, so we will be getting boots soon, because the rain is coming! So the next day we come home and we see our shoes out and we take the hint and get to work to start to clean them. So we look awkwardly for soap, a bucket, water and anything else we may need to get our shoes looking half way decent. All this is happening while 4 of the ladies sit around and watch. One of the ladies is a new worker to help in the kitchen while Teresa is out sorting out things with her family. So all the women are watching and working at the same time and we begin to work the best we know how, then we hear the women start to laugh and talking in Kiswahili and looking at us. We think no big thing, we have had that happen to us every day since we came here, so we keep trying. Then Joseph the house manager who does lots of things around the house came over and said let me help, we thought ok he is going to show us how to do this and then he will let us finish, not the case, he washed all 4 shoes and they looked amazing. We sat their getting laughed at the whole time and being humbled by having a man that works his butt off clean our shoes. Michael said we would have been out here for hours and they would not have looked half as good, and I knew Michael was right. The most amazing part was that he had a scrub brush but he used a corn cob to clean the sides of the shoes and it worked great, he also used a part of the coal bag to clean the inside of our shoes, again amazing and unexpected. They use everything in the environment and so do the kids. We were a little upset that they women kept talking about us in Kiswahili and kept laughing but we thought we must have looked rather spoiled to say the least. So we walked inside with a wounded spirit and a humbled heart.

This Week in Kenya...

Before we came to Kenya I searched far and wide for a Swahili Bible with both Old and New Testament and when we were buying Swahili Bibles last week for Friday Fellowship we found this nifty half English half Swahili Bible. I was very excited! One catch: it's stamped defective because it hapens to be missing four random verses. I don't know which ones, and neither does the publisher! It's a fun item to have but I can never give it an athiest that I hope to convert. What can you do?

I miss all of you. I have been feeling a little under the weather lately.

Here's Tammi:

Friday 9/8/06
Since Margaret was going to be out of town all weekend we all thought it best if we just went into town on Friday rather then going on Saturday, because it would be better to be at home with the kids all weekend. So off to town we went. We first went to the bible store to get some Kiswahili bibles to share with the community. It was very nice to go somewhere different, the whole time we have been here we have only gone to a town really far away that we could not find again to save our lives and the Nakumatt the Nakumatt is off the same road we are off of, Mombasa road, it is the road that will take you to the airport or the downtown. So needless to say we were very excited to go though a neighborhood. It was neat to see houses with gates around them and to see how they protect their homes. They line the tope of the brick walls with broken glass or barbwire, the broken glass made for something scary yet very colorful and beautiful. So we made it to the store only to be told they only take cash, we did not have that much cash on us so off to the bank we go, PAYPAL is amazing and Heather B. is too. So we got money and went back to the store, we got 20 Kiswahili bibles and 5 bibles that were in English and Kiswahili so that we could use them to follow along with others when they read. So now we were ready to go spend 4 hours at the nakumatt. It never seems to fail that when we want to go into town we should know we are going to be in town all day. So we are getting more and more use to it. Also side note, the whole time we have been going to the Nakumatt we also eat lunch there, they have a café that serves America dishes and other good stuff, so we eat and we tip. We found out that you do not tip in Kenya and if you do, it is much smaller then we have been. So we have been the stupid Americas at the Nakumatt, stupid or rich, I am thinking more stupid then rich. Also we found out that we were doing about 10% of our bill and that is like a days rages here in Kenya. It is just so hard for us to wrap our minds around how a bill can be like 1000/= and so we leave about 100/= which is like a little over a $1 and that is about ½ days wage. How could anyone that makes that much ever eat at that café? I guess they don’t and that would explain all the beans and corn dishes that are so popular here. Oh a quick side note, we saw at the café a note that read, if the service is good then tip us (this made us feel a little better).
So fellowship night: First off thank you all that prayed for us, we felt it! It was a slow start that was made much more dramatic by the load and I mean LOAD crickets in the background, but as the night went on everyone started to open up more. We still have a long way to go but things look very hopeful. It was very nice, our cookies and tea were a big hit (we found out that the cookies were worth about $10 and well according to our calculation that is about a weeks worth or work in cookie form) so no wonder they were such a huge hit! The bibles were also a huge hit, at first no one took them then someone was brave enough to take one and they all went! We saw them again in church on Sunday! So over all we felt Jesus in that place and may said at the end as we all took our second cup of tea that many have wanted the fellowship to be like this and that they were very excited about what was to come. Thank you again everyone who prayed for this; please make it a point to pray for us on Friday mornings (it is the afternoon here when it is morning there).

Saturday 9/9/06
Today seemed much like every other weekday here at house of hope; all the kids go to school except they don’t take it seriously, no uniforms and no real agenda. My class just colored for ½ the morning and then after tea we all went for an hr walk. It was nice to see the neighborhood so to speak. Michael’s class just played indoor games all morning. Then off to the house for lunch at 1230 except they never eat at 1230 they don’t eat until like 1ish so that makes for a crazy 30min or so. Then they don’t go outside until 2ish and well they are the quickest bunch of eaters they world has ever seen. So they just run around like chicken with there hear cut offs for about an hour and a half. Also we have found out that it is a competition with the kids to eat the quickest, everything here is a competition, that when they go into the other room we hear them say “ I am number one” and “I am number 2” and so forth. So lunch and then a nap for us and the kids go off to God only knows but for 2 hours we don’t really care (wink, wink). Then we got up when the kids came home and we went out side to start to wash our cloths with the rest of the kids. We washed and hung all of our dirty cloths and then it was dinner for the house and we played Indian Jones after dinner and it was a huge hit! So over all the day was nice and the kids handled Margaret not being here very well.

Sunday 9/10/06
Off to church we go. When we were leaving out the back gate we saw the sweetest sight ever. A new baby sheep, she was born the night before and still had her umbilical cord and everything, and Peter the herds man, named her Shallow. She is too cute for words hope you enjoy the photos. So church was very nice, Michael did not have the pressure to teach (because of the fellowship night) so that made it something we could just sit back and learn. It was about Zacchaeus and his faith, it was very powerful to hear about a man of great status turning from it all and following Jesus. You realize here how weird it is to turn from your corrupt life and turning to Jesus and giving everything back to those you took from. Not just turning your life over to Jesus but climbing a tree to see him. No one who was rich here, or anywhere for that matter, would climb a tree to see Jesus unless they knew who he was. Also something I had not though of until I heard it was that Jesus called Zacchaeus by name out of the tree. Jesus knew him by name, and called to him over the crowd and out of a tree and told him that He (Jesus) was going to be staying at him house, no question on if that would be ok or not, just straight up “Hey you up in the tree I am calling you out and I am telling you it is time for you to turn away from your sin and I am going to come and stay in you heart forever, get it” and well Zacchaeus got it and turn from the sin he had done. It was very powerful. What made it more powerful was the fact that we get to hear this sermon in Kiswahili and then in English, so our spirit is hearing it two times to make sure we really get it. After church we went back to the house to have a late lunch and by late we mean 2 in the afternoon and then we went for a long walk with the kids around the area and talk about everything we saw. The kids really love getting out of the house and so do we. We get to wave at the few cars that go by and they give us all weird looks and we get to say hi to all the neighbors and all the animals that are wondering about. So then we went back to the house for all the night time activities which are baths, washing shoes, polishing shoes, washing cloths, preparing dinner and eating dinner, all in which leaves everyone tired and ready for a movie and you know we love movies. So we put in a movie and let something else entertain the children other then us for a few hours.

Monday 9/11/06
Half days are so great! We were only going to be at school until about 11 because we were going into town to pick up our first package! It was from the Rice’s and we were beyond excited and nervous. Our first package we knew would be hard but we were still none the less excited. So to the post office we go at around noon (because everything is always an hour or so later then when you think it will be) so we get to the post off and find out that everyone that handles the packages goes to lunch between 1 and 2. So we thought hey we are close to the bank and we still have not gotten our ATM cards so we will go to the bank and kill and hour standing in lines and that we did, 3 lines to be exact and about 1 hour, so good timing huh? And we got our ATM cards and our pin numbers. So back to the post office we go and we find out that we are at the wrong post office and we need to do to the Westlands post office. So we go and it is a great ride with new things to look at and we always thought that the Westlands was so far (because Margaret always tells us it is) but it is not, it was really close and really neat looking, we think we will go back one day and look around more. So we go and we were thinking that the duty fee was going to be like $50 dollars (again because Margaret told us it would be) and we were super blessed with it only being $6 what a big difference huh! So we get our package and we do not have to open it (it had already been open for us and gone through and resealed). However I am super hungry and we are really close to a place called fish and chips and that sounded really good so we go and Michael and I get a hot dog (no fish at a place called Fish and chips), and Cyrus and Charles get chicken and chips and we all get a drink for 425/= which is only like $5, so we all eat and feel good and get back into the van! Oh the crazy bumpy Van! We go to the Nakumatt to pick up some things while Cyrus and Charles go to pick up Margaret we all meet up and Margaret tells us that British Airways has called and they have Michael’s guitar, WHAT but we already said our goodbyes to it, and we were already seeing it as Gods will and it was a blessing! So Michael was already feeling stressed. I think it was the combo of getting the guitar and going back to the airport and not getting on a plane to go back home, that was part of the stress. So we go and it all feels very weird and hard to swallow, but we get though it the best we can and pick up the guitar and head back to the house to find 44 children all whispering “guitar” and we went straight to the room to hide! We open our package and cry for about 15 min. or so over our goodies, the knife, astros cap, the space pen, and shirts were all a nice surprise to Michael, I was very excited over the Tums (I just looked for some at the store today), and our letters about how everyone is doing including our CAT!! Michael could not read the letter once it go to the part about Fletch and well I could barley get through it myself. We finally pulled ourselves together long enough to go and play with the kids for a few minutes. Michael played his guitar for a few minutes and I gave Mary her letter from Tina, she was very excited and seemed to be really moved by the whole thing, THANK YOU TINA for making Mary’s day!
Now we sit in bed, I typing away, and Michael playing his guitar, it is really comforting to hear, reminds me of home, I think it does him too. Over all a very emotional day for us both and we are quite tired.
Oh a side note, HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY ARABELLA GRACE! We love you and miss you very much, don’t grow to fast while we are away!

Tuesday 9/12/06
Yesterday I told Olivia that we could run together on Tuesday (she wants to be a long distance runner). So all day I was a little excited about running with her and anyone else who wanted to join us. We also found out in the morning that the staff meeting that was canceled on Saturday was now going to happen at 4pm right after school got out. I told everyone that I was going to run then I would be back before the meeting stated. So off to run I went only to have all the kids pass me up and run so fast and for so long, they really showed me up! However Ben at some point decided that he was going to run in the opposite direction as everyone else and that was a little frustrating and scary. As I was running I begin to feel my throat getting sore, like the day I worked in the garden, and I thought it must be the dust in the air and the dirt roads that is getting to me. However I never got better just worse and by that night after one of the longest and hardest meeting yet I hade a bad fever and my whole body hurt like I had the flu. So I went to bed crying because I did not feel well and because again we got told that we were not meeting expectation and that I had hurt some feelings and had my feeling hurt also. So Michael was amazing and support the whole time and just let me cry and got me everything I would need to feel better.

Wednesday 9/13/06
I still was not close to feeling better but thought it would not look good if I did not go to school. So I went to school and felt like a zombie all day. So at lunch time I went home and went to sleep, I did not really wake up until Michael came home and I did not eat breakfast or lunch and did not really want to get up for dinner but I did and had a few bits of food and back to bed I went. I really missed the kids a lot but knew I would be no fun or use if I were still not feeling well.

Thursday 9/14/06
Had a rough night the night before because I had a bad fever all night so I was cold then hot all night long. I did not sleep well so I did not go to school I just stayed at the house and sleep and took a hot shower and watched a movie and did not leave unless to go to the bathroom. Margaret called to ask if I wanted to go to the clinic but I think I am getting better but still weak and running a fever. Michael came home at lunch time and help me eat a little bit and then we both went back to sleep. We woke and I thought a walk may help me, so we walked made a few phone calls and came back for dinner and all the kids wanted to read, so we got lots of books out for the kids to read. We went in the room to read for a few minutes but I started to feel weak again so I went back to bed.
I found out that my family’s dog got hit by a car and died and that my sister got rear-ended the next day and that she was a little scared and that my mom was a little overwhelmed. Mika (the family dog) was very sweet. I went with Kimberly to pick up the dog when she got her. She was so small and cute, I remember that at first it was just going to be Kimberly’s dog, but that did not take long to change and she was everyone’s dog and she even sleep with my parents (who would have ever thought) she was a good smart dog who did not deserve to get hit by a car right in front of her house. John also did not deserve to watch a dog that he had grown to love get hit by a man that he knew and have that man not really show any real emotion. My mom told me that the neighborhood came over and helped to pick up Mika and but her in a bag and prayed over her. It is hard to ever write this because I know how hard that must have been for my family. But also how beautiful is it to know that most families in neighborhood hardly speak to each other but when it really counts they come together and pray together and help each other to love on each other. Thank you to all who came to my family when they needed it the most. I know this will be really hard on my sister, she is very loving and I know that she loved Mika very much, please let her know you are there for her and that she is loved, please pray that God will ease her pain and the rest of my families pain.

Friday 9/15/06
Fridays are always long, but good. The reason they are long is because we have fellowship on Friday nights from 9ish to 10ish. So we always tell ourselves that at some point in the day we will rest a little but that never seems to happen on Fridays (every other day we don’t have a problem resting). We took Stanley to school to show him how thing are ran. For those who do not know who Stanley is, let me feel you in. Stanley is a paper man that Paige, Michael’s niece, sent to come stay with us for a few days. He needed to have his picture taken with some of the kids and he needed to learn a few things about Kenya in the process. So Stanley played with all the kids, ate some sugar cane, played in the shamba, and seemed to have a nice time over all. Be sure to check out Stanley in the photos. So we stayed at school until 2pm and then came home to work on fellowship things. We worked and watched Sports night (a TV show that Michael’s parents mailed us), then we heard all the kids come home so we went off to take more pictures with the kids and Stanley and to get a group photo of us with the kids. So we played and then went for our walk and by the time we came back, Michael was not feeling to hot. He is doing much better now. We had a long talk about everything and I think we are both feeling better about things. So I ate dinner (Michael did not feel well enough for ugali) and I got out lots of books for the kids to read. Well Michael and I do most of the reading but hey we don’t mind. They just keep bringing us books and we just keep reading. They all sit around us and listen to us read about some pretty crazy things that I am sure they don’t fully understand, but it makes me feel good that they just want to listen to us read. However Michael and I both had to draw the line when we got asked to read a book about Thanksgiving, we really knew they would not fully get that one. So Margaret came in to do evening prayers and I went to the kitchen to start making tea for fellowship. They have a fire going with a large pot with boiling water in it and you add un-pasteurized milk, that has already began to separate, to the hot boiling water, then you wait for the milk and the water to boil and than you add tea leaves to it. You don’t let it sit for to long and then you drain it all (by putting a pitcher on the ground and picking up the large pot and poring it into the pitcher), put it in a thermos and serve it up, when you add biscuits aka cookies with you tea it makes the tea a lot better. So fellowship was nice and people shared and they seemed to really like it. At the end we asked them if there were any prayer request and people had some, it was really nice to know what we could pray for. Many had asked for a spiritual gift to return to them and two asked for more ways to share their musical gift with others. All in all, a very nice time of sharing and learning.

The Patron Saint of Completely Legal DVDs, Updates, and Cursed Cravings

Completely Legal DVD’s:
Outside the store we go to do our internet business, buy sodas, and eat glorious masala chips (fries) there are numerous men screaming for you to look at their merchandise: power strips, traffic cones, hammers, pillows, and the much fabled, and extremely sought after, completely legal DVDs. The first several times we went to Nakumatt, the store’s name, we were accompanied by Margaret, and I longingly looked at the salesmen as the van slowly passed by. This last time, however, Tammi and I were able to sneak away and peruse the goodies. We were handed a stack of movies and on top I saw Superman Returns. How the completely legal DVDs work here is that they put 7 movies on one disc. How do they do that you ask? Two words: lackluster quality. After some haggling the disc we purchased included Superman Returns, Click, The Break Up, Waist Deep, 10th & Wolf, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, and Shooting Dogs.
We rushed home to check our purchase. I was eager to see Superman because I was unable to see it before we left the states and was really looking forward to it. Yeah, it was a movie theater recording, big surprise. We could hear seats creaking and people laughing throughout the film. We watched it though. I enjoyed it despite the quality.
We waited a few nights for the sting to die down, before we watched the next movie. We wanted something light after a long day so we watched Adam Sandler’s Click, another movie I wanted to see but never had the chance to. It was great (shut your mouth DVC), as an Adam Sandler fan I was completely satisfied, and the quality wasn’t horrible, probably because it wasn’t a theater recording. But as the credits began to role the screen faded into the beginning of the next film.
A black screen with the words “Rwanda, 1994” appeared. Tammi and I both knew that any movie beginning with those words would not be the lighthearted fair we had begun the night wanting to see, but being five hundred miles from the country, we were interested. The film was entitled Shooting Dogs, staring John Hurt (I had never heard of it, DVC?). Of course it was about the genocide that occurred in the nineties, and it took place at a technical school in Kigali ran by a priest, John Hurt, and a volunteer teacher played by Hugh Darcy. The story-line was much like the well-known Hotel Rwanda, except even more hopeless. It was difficult to watch, even more so with us living so close to the event and being volunteer teachers.
Afterwards we were worn out. We were completely not prepared for the film, but it was really well done and I suggest you check it out, unless you have loved ones living near Rwanda.
The next day, as Tammi and I were walking to school, Tammi commented that the film made our kids and their actions easy to deal with as long as they aren’t committing mass genocide. I tend to agree, although sometimes it’s questionable...I KEED, I KEED!
So in conclusion: I am not quite ready to give up on completely legal DVDs. I think as long as we buy older movies that have already made it to DVD in the states, or were released in 2005 or earlier, we should be fine. I see the DVD we purchased (ksh 300, or $4 US) as a mix-tape made for us by someone didn’t quite know our taste in songs. There are some duds, some gems, and some songs you would like to have in better quality. It was an experience.

Updates:
~ Last Saturday we sent out our latest newsletter via my mother, it’s pretty sweet, if I do say so myself. If you didn’t receive one and would like one, email us at mwilliamrice@gmail.com, and we will get you put on the list, or better yet comment to this post with your address, and I sure my mom might send you one, she would probably be faster than us.
~ For the last week Tammi and I have been silently observing the classes at the House of Hope School to try and find were Montessori could fit in to there already packed timetable. I have some ideas, but it will taken some flexibility on the teachers parts, but I think we can make some of work rather well. We will be introducing some materials at the home in the evening in the meantime.
~ The kids at Gateway Community Church in Clear Lake a few months ago raised money to go towards the building of a football field (or for those in the United States: SOCCER!) for the children at the House of Hope. Well the building began today, IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASSES! What the hell is it with children and heavy machinery? They see a back-hoe and they lose the ability to do the simplest mathematics. Crazy! It should be great though. It will be huge and have a track around it. The children are wicked excited.
~ At the House of Hope, every Friday evening, Margaret hosts a fellowship evening for the adults in the compound. Tonight Tammi and I are trying out more of a “small group” setting rather than the usual worship-pray-message-worship format. We are trying to have the group dialogue more rather than passively participating. We will be discussing Romans 6:1-14. Join us if you are in the neighborhood. If not, pray, please pray.

Top Ten Cravings That Can In No Way Be Satiated Until We Return To Houston, No Order:
-Chuychanga from Chuy’s...yes, this includes the full set up, salsa, and the blessed Creamy Jalapeno
-Mai’s General Tso’s Chicken, Garlic Tofu, and Tofu Spring Rolls
-Chinese Buffet, I know it’s not authentic, but I don’t care
-Bombay Sweets Vegetarian Indian Buffet
-Friends at Onion Creek, or anywhere for that matter
-Luby’s...yes Luby’s, crazy, huh?
-Batting Cages
-An Astros Game...expensive seats
-Wall Ball
-Fletch

We love all of you and wish you were here, really.

Waithara, Ken, Hannah, and Jane relieving some "stress":



Now, here’s Tammi...

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Monday 9/4/06
First day of real school, it was not too different but the things that were different makes a big impact. We decided at the teachers meeting that we would just watch and take notes for the first week then we would have another meeting on Fri. and Sat. to discuss all the things we noted. They wear uniforms to school and they all look so cute. My teacher was back and ready to go and she was much nicer to me. She said on our walk back to the school after the meeting that she had no idea that I was here a year, so that would explain her not really being all that warm to someone that she thought would be gone when she got back from holiday. So I think that helped her understand that we should work together. I think it will be ok with us. ALL the kids have tea time and lunch in the preschool class which is crazy over whelming for everyone involved but mostly for the kids that our in the preschool class because their sense of order every day 2 times a day gets all turned upside down. So that was some of the first things we noted. However I noticed the kids did very well working and they seemed to take regular term time a little bit more seriously. I took good notes on how I think the classroom should be set up and what things need to be removed and what things need to be added, so I felt like for a first day I was able to sit back and see a lot, I am sure we are going to be sharing with Margaret soon.

Tuesday and Wednesday 9/5-9/6
Well these two days were a blur because we were sitting at school all day and then coming home to prepare for activities! We made a multiplication BINGO game that Michael was going to use with a few children to help with multiplication! We did too much these two days, we are still learning how to better manage our time.

Thur. 9/7/06
We left one month ago today. Crazy to think this, I still find myself not fully understanding that we are in AFRICA!! It still sounds weird to say. Everyday it becomes more real but yea it is still weird. I have been able to hear more from God, it has been really nice. I hear him in my dreams and on my walks and well all around. I have missed him and was worried that I would not hear from him the same way I used to, I know I had to just stop to listen but he has always been here.
Margaret told us today that she was going to be out of town until maybe Sunday. So party in Nairobi and you are all invited! Kids are welcomed, wink wink! However please keep us in your prayers, we don’t want the children to be upset by this.

These boots...

Ben has by far the best style of all children. I know you are saying "Michael, their clothes are primarily donated to them, they wear what they have!" I agree, but he has a couple of pairs of shoes...the boots were his choice, and his choice alone! The next day he wore the same thing plus a yellow down vest. The boy has style!

The has been pretty great. We have been left alone with kids quite a bit and, I believe, it's been fruitful. The kids are really starting to like us! Thank God!

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Tammi Time:
The week of 8/26/06 – 9/1/06

Sorry to all the fans of the every night journal entries, I did not do so well this week, maybe next week. The week in general has been one of the best and one of the worst. I will start with the hard part first because well, it is short and the amazing moments far surpass all the hard junk.
Everything was going pretty good, or so we thought, until Thursday. I am not sure of how much to say or not to say. I think for the first time in my life I am feeling like I might not meet some ones expectations, or many people’s expectations for that matter. I mean my whole life I have done well for myself. I have worked hard to be where I am today. I feel, if I maybe so bold to say, I am a hard worker, I am trust worthy and, well, Michael and I make a great team, we are not afraid to say how we feel and confess when we are having hard times. All this to say, when all that is questioned or we feel like we are not meeting expectations, we get upset and start to struggle when we were just getting on track. I know everyone means well but really, we did a lot to be here and I repeat A LOT. We felt the calling from God and He gave us compassion for these children way before the picture of House of Hope was painted for us. Everyday we take into account the children’s background and everyday we think about how far they have come to be here and to be alive. They have met our expectations. Ok well enough of that, this all sounds like a rant, when in fact I think it all comes down to communicating and we are hoping all the parties involved, including us, get better at it.

So I will now move on to all the great moments!
The week has been much better then we could have imaged. We went in it thinking this is going to be a crazy and hard week, but in fact it was very nice and peaceful. All but two teachers were off this week, so that meant we had to take over and help lead a group of 11 a day. Margaret had a talk about us to the children and the next day they were all listening and respecting us a lot better. It was a huge blessing that I know played the largest role in this being a good week.
So now is a run down of something nice for every day of the week:

Saturday 8/26
After a hard day of being in town longer then we would have liked we came home to find all the kids sitting around a pit roasting corn, eating and looking at the stars. A few of the boys that had worked on the solar system project started to ask us more questions. We think we were able to point out Mars (brightest star in the sty). We ate lots of roasted corn and had a good time of laughing and enjoying our time with the kids.

Sunday 8/27
Going for a walk with a group of kids (and some other adults) to the camel farm that is off in the distance here at the house. Michael stayed at the house and watched a movie with the other group. I thought that the farm is bound to have a fence around it but nope, we all got super close to the huge camels. They were very old looking but still very neat to say the least. We walked for a while and the kids were having a great time exploring. They kept saying they wanted to find a mtoto (baby) camel. We looked for quite a while but to no avail, I guess they keep them somewhere else.

Monday 8/28/06
Teaching sewing for the first time in my life and it going well, and the kids making pillows and dolls and cloths for the dolls. On the way home we saw a girl put the doll on her back, I could not stop smiling.

Tuesday 8/29/06
Michael and I sat outside and washed our close with all the other girls. Michael said that the boys were never going to listen to him again but I said you have strong hands and can wring out the cloths much better then me.

Wednesday 8/30/06
Helping Ken sew a nice doll and pillow, he is such a ladies man.
Having Nicholas take a nap on me.
Having Lois speak to Michael in Kiswahili and Michael saying “oh Lois you know I don’t speak Spanish” (an Anchor Man joke)

Thursday 8/31/06
Having Ben arrive at school with a pink shirt and cut off shorts and you guessed it cowboy boots on! (Be sure to check out the photo)
Roy (the name of the boy calf here), who gets feed by humans, was getting hungry so he was running around and mooing like crazy, he tried to suck a mans elbow! Way cute!
Getting KISSES for the first time from Lois, and it was not just one kiss, it was too many to count it was a little weird but really really nice, all the other boys were watching and laughing, but she did not care she just grabbed both my cheeks and went in for it, on the lip kisses! Too sweet, she was being a cutie pie all night. We are both growing very fond of her. (She is the little girl in the video with Michael).
During prayer time we were learning about Noah and Margaret asked if anyone wanted to share what they knew about Noah so a few spoke up but Ben’s stuck out the most because he put the story of Lot and the story of Noah together and it made for something amazingly funny that lasted a good while until Margaret said are you telling about Lot or about Noah and Ben said “Lot”. What made Michael and I both laugh the hardest was Ben said something about Lot or Noah, who knows, going to drink a soda before going home to his family. Ben is one funny boy!

Friday 9/1/06
Watching The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe with all the children and having them all cheer when Aslan came back from being dead. Also having Caroline get upset that we could not keep sewing, she asked if we could do it on Saturday.
After fellowship time, Michael went into the living room where the boys had decided to stay up late watching Narnia again, and he found that the main menu was on the screen and the boys asked him really nicely “can you play the last thing”, Michael said “what thing” and they said “snake picks” and he realized after much confusion that they were asking to play “sneak peeks” , he went ahead and played it for them knowing that they would be a little disappointed. All we could think of was, I wonder how long it took them to read that and come up with “snake picks”. Oh and when I asked “who asked you to play it”, he said, you guessed it, Ben and Peter.

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And now a video of Tammi in the kitchen: