Tammi Has Become Wicked Domesticated and a Little Blue Material

So Tammi has adopted some new hobbies since arriving to Kenya. On of the main one is sewing. It all began with her work with the children in teaching them to sew pillows and dolls. Then in the room we were staying in when first got her, Tammi spent much time looking at the quilt in the room saying "I can do this!". Soon I found her sketching a pattern for the quilt and wanting to find a fabric shop. We found a shop in the Sarit Centre (Center!) and Tammi purchased her fabric. The fabric sat dormant for about another month until we got our own place. Then the dam broke and over about a week and half, everytime she had free time she sowed and sowed until we had what is pictured above: a 40" by 40" blanket. I was really surprised how well it turned out. It was completely done by hand! She has wicked talent! At this moment she is purchasing more fabric, for her next sewing project. She has also decided to conquer basket weaving! No joke, BASKET WEAVING! It is on our nightstand as I type!

There is nothing this woman can't do!

Now for a reason why this blog isn't linked to the Starfish Kenya website:

At school yesterday Joshua walked up to me on the playground and asked how many balls I have. I was shocked, but I couldn't help but laugh at him. He said, "You have two don't you?" Words could not express my discomfort, but I kept laughing. "Could you bring them down here?" At this point I realized he was speaking of the three footballs (SOCCER!) that Kelly had brought, one of which we had already given them. I was relieved and humored all at the same time!

I know we promised Tammi's journal on our last entry, and she did write tons of stuff, but I did not think to put it on our flash drive before we left for town. It is all my fault and I apologize.

We love you all!

Mount Kenya, Lake Nakuru, "Happy" Baboons, and so many pieces of Goat.

Such a strange week. We apologize for being late with our weekly updates but we have a good excuse. On Friday we were leaving, or we thought we were leaving, for the Sarit Centre (CENTER!), when we unexpectedly took an alternate route. Margaret had said she wanted to show us some villages, so we figured this was going to be it. Little did we know that almost four hours later we would be in the small village where Margaret grew up near Mount Kenya, to visit her father and family. It was really beautiful! Her father is a coffee farmer (who only drinks tea, by the way) so we got to see coffee trees. Everything was so green. That's really all I can think to say. It was full of differnt kinds of plants that all offered nutrition. They slaughtered a chicken for our arrival and since we ended up spending the night, they slaughtered a goat for our departure. I can only speak for myself, but I don't think my appearance warrants a chicken to slaughtered, not to mention a goat. But we were greatful, and it was good. On a side note, goat and Kelly's stomach do not mix! The reason for the celebration was because white people have NEVER visited their village and some of them had never saw one. Margaret's father, Wilson, last saw a white person when he was fighting for Kenya's independence from the British. So yeah, I didn't praise colonialism by any means (because everyone knows how I rave about colonialism!). We had a great time with Margaret's family and are invited back for Christmas for which they promised to slaughter two goats! Whew!

We got home late Saturday and rested Sunday. Then Monday we left for a "planned" field trip with all 44 children! We piled into a large bus at about 8 am and left House of Hope. No one, except maybe Margaret and the driver knew where we were going. We heard Great Rift Valley, but then we were informed by Njagi that the Rift Valley runs from Jordan to Mozambique, not to specific. So everyone was in the bus, heading northwest for many, many hours when we reached Nakuru, home of Lake Nakuru National Park. After some arguements with park security about admission prices for white people, we entered. It was breathtaking. We saw many animals, the children loved it! The baboons were crazy near the picnic area. The baboons were easily my favorite because they are always, ALWAYS, ummm, shall I say, excited. Anyone who was ever a thirteen year old boy will know what I am talking about, and will know that it is impossible not to find it hilarious.

It was really a great weekend, which is ending now at our beloved Sarit Centre (CENTER!) with it's glorious internet connections. Tammi was working on her journal when we were told we had to leave now or wait for some other time, so we decided to go ahead and go. She promises next time she will have something. Her updates will also be more specific.

Please go to our flickr account and enjoy the photos of this past week including a party for the kids, Mount Kenya, and Lake Nakuru!

We love all of you!

Now, a video with baboons!

A New Place, A New Friend, and A Permanent Position(for now)

So this is the living room of our new home at the House of Hope. It is really nice. More nice than what we expected or even deserved, I think. We are able to cook (first meal: spaghetti and salad, second: eggy in the basket...simply beautiful!). Things are strange in the new place. First off: There are not 44 children just around the corner asking for cards or a new movie. We miss that, strangely enough. They do still come and stand outside our door and holler requests. Next: There are noises that come with a new place. The first night we kept thinking there was someone knocking. Last night Tammi swore there was a small rodent in our rubbish (GARBAGE!), there was not. We feel weird living in such luxury when millions of children have been orphaned and living alone on the streets, begging for food. But we will make the most of it.

Kelly arrived on Tuesday. She was also really surprised by the accomodations! The children seem to have really taken to her and she already has a set position in the community. We were worried about that, since all of the trouble finding a place for myself, but things appear to be going great thus far. I think she will really be an asset.

I appear to have a permanent position for myself as well. I will be moving from class to class offering "insight" on the days lessons. I might use materials or just offer a new perspective. But I have a schedule, and that is great!

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Some play by play:

10/11/06
No more waking up to whispers of our name from around the corner

No longer in the big house and we are a little sad. We moved to our own space that is really close to the house however it is not in it. We knew the first morning would be a little weird to not hear 44 children all getting ready for school or church or playing, and it was hard and weird. We could hear them in the distance but it was not the same as waking up to screaming, laughing, singing, and crying. I will miss it very much.
Our space surpasses anything we ever expected to find here or in Africa for that matter. I am still not sure what I think of this. I want everyone to know that I feel honored of such a space and I am very grateful to everyone who made this possible, however it is hard being white hear, we are learning that people have a very hard time seeing past our color and the money they think we have. So moving into a space that is very large by anyone standards is a hard to swallow when many of these workers will never have a space like this. We watched as a strong team of men worked day and night to have this space ready for us and we were humbled and felt very much not worthy of their hard labor. They are workers and we are still not sure if we are even in the same ballpark as them. I completely realize that this space and Kelly’s space will be used when there are teams here and that it will save them team lots of money, however, we were ready to give up everything to be here so all this is a little weird and hard at times.



Kelly makes her way to House of Hope

As most of you know a friend from Ecclesia named Kelly has come to join us for a few months. She is here to work with the children with art therapy. I am very excited about this I think this will be really good for the children and getting them to be more creative. She seems to be really excited and ready to work with the children. It will be nice to have more hands when we are working with the children. Please keep her in your prayers!

Going to the airport was very exciting for us, we were allowed with Margaret to greet Kelly at the gate, so that she would see our faces when she got off the plane. This is how we were greeted when we arrived so we thought it only right. This is really not suppose to happen but Margaret is a very important person here and the men who work security at the airport are from the same village as her late husband, so when she walked into their office to ask and said her name the men stood up to greet her. So you guessed it, we all got backstage passes! So we picked her up and came home to find the older children just as quite as when we came. Many of the younger children had gone to bed already so it was just the older children who were waiting for her. She let them ask her questions and they started to open up but it was really late and they needed to go sleep. It was weird to see myself in many of Kelly’s reactions. I could see how far I had come. I could see how much I have changed already. I could also see this for Michael. He is different now also, he is a leader and a helper here. All who knew him would be blow away and so proud. I know I am.

I forgot to tell you about my birthday celebration!

As you have already see, I got the best song sang on my birthday by some of the best kids ever! Hearing Happy birthday from family is amazing, but hearing it from 44 kids that are truly grateful every year they live, will bring tears to your eyes and that it did. It was very unexpected because it was the day after my birthday. Margaret came home with a large box of biscuits and the kids knew something great was about to happen. So she told them that the day before was my birthday and that they should sing to me and that they did! Then I got to pass out lots of biscuits to all of them, a birthday gift I am sure to never forget!

Kelly’s first day

Kelly and I got our day started at around 9ish. We did not get up until 2ish pm our first day here, so we were quite impressed. She came over and we were off! I took her all around the house and then we went to the school just as the children were about to have tea time, so we partook in a nice glass of tea. The children were very excited to see Kelly and they could not wait to play with her. She jumped in with both feet. We stayed for circle time in the nursery and she got to hear all the great songs the children know including my favorite,10 green bottles dancing on the wall. Then we were off back to the house to go though all the things she brought. We separated all the things that were for the children and all the art supplies she brought and most importantly our stuff! We were so excited to see all our goodies!! THANK YOU EVERYONE most importantly GARY and CAROL! But no special thanks to HEATHER TAYLOR because of the pictures of the family enjoying themselves at Chuy’s and then the chocolate bar, made our mouths water and you know we are not drinking to much water these days. Just kidding, we love you all!

Funny story

So we were all in the TV room watching a movie and Mbau farted pretty loudly and Isaac got upset (he was sitting next to Mbau) and he started to complain in Swahili to him and Mbau said something back that seemed like he was saying it was not him. So Isaac decided to smell Mbau’s butt and low and behold it was Mbau because Isaac stared to wave his hands over his nose and say some harsh words to Mbau in Swahilli

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Sorry, no videos this week. The internet at the Nakumatt is just too slow. Maybe next week fi we make our way to the Sarit Centre (CENTER!)

Bye.

Ps. Good luck, Dave.

My African Hand, A Birthday, A Teacher, Baptism, the Moving on of Some Beloved Staff and a Modest Request...

This photo of me was taken by Morgan. It appears that I am trying to cover my face with a rather, umm, "ethnic" hand. I have not begun to change colors, yet. The hand is from Mary Anna. I don't know what it is about these kids and wanting to put hands in front of a camera lense, it's crazy. Some kind of nervous tick I guess. It would be amusing if not so annoying! But I will forgive them. The picture made me laugh.

So this last Tuesday was dear Tammi's birthday, our girls all growed up! Twenty-six! Can you believe it?! It was like just like week she twenty five. Where does the time go? It was weird being away from home for her birthday, and I am sure it will be even weirder being away for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. If Yom Kippur is any indication, we have a hard road ahead of us! We thought we had slid under the radar of any kind of celebration in the house. We were going to have a party with hot dogs and chips (FRIES!), but opted to wait for Kelly's arrival. So the third came and went, oh well. The next evening Margaret came home with a tin of biscuits (COOKIES!) and we thought they were just a prize for the children, but no, it was all for Tammi (and the kids, too)! Everyone sang Happy Birthday, it was fun! Here, we had witnessed an extra verse to the song when it was Margaret's birthday which goes "Happy birthday to you, I went to the zoo, saw a fat monkey and thought it was you!" We thought it was hilarious, and were expecting it for Tammi's song but all we got was "I saw a (awkward pause) monkey and thought it was you". Still funny. Enjoy a partial video of the event:



So we found out last Saturday that one of the primary teachers, Purity, had quit. I, of course volunteered to fill in until they could find a replacment. So starting last Monday, I taught full time, for the first time, ever! It felt good. I didn't get to use too much Montessori materials, but I think I offered something different to the everyday classroom routine (including high fives, trash talk, and using heads to lean on). Call it unprofessional, I think the majority of the enjoyed it. They brought in a replacement teacher on Friday, and they wanted me to show her the ropes, go figure! I will probably teach full time for a few more days next week until the new teacher gets her assignments. I taught mainly English, CRE (Christian Religous Education [talk about hard to stretch into an hour long lesson!] and Creative Arts (Tammi helped me in this class. We had two rules: you can't use a ruler and you can't draw a damn house! [omit the damn]). It was fun.

Last night we had Friday Fellowship. Tammi and I had both been fighting fevers all week, and frankly, we just wanted to go to sleep. But we went, and thank goodness we did. We discussed 1 Peter 3:13-22, and ended up focusing on the baptism aspect of it. We feared awkwardness, and of course there was a little (no more than being in a room full of people who are tired and don't wish to talk), but there were some serious questions about baptism, how we feel about it, what the Bible says about it, and what it is like in America. This went on to a conversation about what it means to be saved. Really incredible stuff. We told everyone if they wished to discuss baptism more that we could talk with them and see what we could do. We were told by Margaret after the meeting that most of the people in attendance had indeed given their lives to God, but not yet been baptised. Big things are in store!

In the past couple of weeks we have been losing a lot of the staff that was here when we arrived here and it has been a little hard. First Teresa, our cook, left with family problems, but now she gets to live with her children, whom she had to live away from before for the sake of her job. She was replaced with Elizabeth, whom I am convinced makes fun of me. Then Carol, the auntie who had replaced another auntie we only knew for a few days, left. She was twenty, and related closely to her. She was replaced by Little Agnes (since we already have an Agnes, everyone calls her by her African name, which we can NEVER remember, hence the "Little"), she is nice. Then, unexpectedly last week Catherine, the lady who washed the dishes, left to take care of her six month old baby that no one knew about. She was really funny. She liked Tammi a lot, and I know Tammi really liked her. Her replacement, Lillian, is now here, and I, so far, don't have an opinion on her. It's difficult for us, at least, to have all of these new faces, but it appears the children are handling it well. It's good that all of the new people started at the same time, hopefully they will all bond and not get too annoyed by the white people in the house.

As mentioned above, Purity also left, and her replacement is named Catherine. She is quiet.

A modest proposal:
Whoever would wanted to by me an 80 GB Black iPod, I would be eternally greatful. If you founded just 100 people to give $3.50, it could be mine! Just think about it.

note: I don't really expect this, it was done in god humor.

note 2: but it would be cool, and by cool I mean totally sweet.

Extra Videos!

They girls doing their hair. The scratchiness was intended:


ZEBRAS!!! (These were seen on the way out of the neighborhood/village:


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A bit of play by play...
10/2/06-
I went to the washroom (aka restroom) earlier today and found a large black cricket, I asked Michael if he thought it was important to take care of it or not and by taking care of I mean killing it. He said “no I saw him earlier and he is fast and well I just did my business with him in the room and he was fine”. So we thought that was then end to the story of the rather large black cricket but it was not, we came to get in bed for the night and Michael wanted to go wash his feet, so I go to get in the bed and guess who was all curled up under the blankets with just his head sticking out? The large black cricket! I asked Michael to come into the room that he had made a new friend and we both could not help but to the think it was cute and it reminded me of Fletch a little. So Michael put him in a glass and took him outside.

I keep forgetting to tell you all about spending the night with the nuns, it was so much fun. They were so welcoming and so excited to have us over, they wanted to show us everything and tell us about everything. They live in a city called Karen and it is where all the rich Kenyans live and we do mean rich by anyones standards. The houses were huge and the land was very beautiful. We stayed up really late, just sitting in a room playing with laptops and sharing music and pictures. It felt so good to have something to offer someone. Michael was afraid that he would feel weird being the only male but that was not the case at all, they teased him and quickly put him to work on the main computer in the house. One of the nuns named Sister Ester told us all about a people group that she lives with now (she was just home for a visit) and we are really going to try to go visit in November. They live in another part of Kenya about 4-5 hours away and they are called the Pokot people. The sister also told us about the project they have in Tanzania that again we may try to go visit in December. We will keep you posted on all the details about the nuns. Just wanted everyone to know that we have a great time and it felt a little like a slumber party all the time. They all work so wonderful together and they have a true sense of community. It was very beautiful to see and to be a part of even for just a day. Also forgot to tell you we took our first ride in the public transportation. It is called the city hoppa and it was very exciting. We took it from Karen back to the downtown Nairobi. We did not take it alone, Sister Jennifer took it with us, but I think we can take it alone now that we understand it.


I promise I will get Tammi to be more consistent with her journal. We have been sick and busy this week sorry!

Next week: KELLY! It will be good to be sarcastic to someone other than Tammi again. Sarcasm does not really exist in Kenya and as most of you know, it is my bread and butter.

BYE!