A New Week a New Project

Well we have been officially reunited with Robbie AND OUR BAGS!! I must admit, as happy as I genuinely was to see Robbie, I was a hundred times more happy to no longer have to live out of a backpack. Wearing the same shirt, shorts, and other stuff for nearly a week is only so fun, for so long... When we got home I nearly embraced my suitcase. Opening it up was like winning a shopping spree at your favorite clothes store! Two weeks away and I had nearly forgot all I could now wear, lol. We then went with Elizabeth to Maasai land to help build the chicken coops. It was ALOT of work. We hit a small snag when we realized the prices of some of our necessary materials had doubled thus extremely limiting us on what we thought we could use for the coops. We ended up following through with another idea to utilize a pre-existing wooden framed shack on the compound. The shack was leaning to one side so we all pushed it straight and nailed support beams to keep it strong and sturdy. Oh! I used a pick and a ho for the first time in my life. It was tough, strenuous work but the type of work that leaves you feeling stronger and purpose-filled. At one point early on, while swinging the ho into the rocky ground, I realized I was getting tired fast. One Kenyan guy, Dennis, noticed and asked if what I was doing was "hard." He along with me, noticed it was taking alot of effort on my part. It was a slight blow to my pride seeing as he was 1/3 my size but it was more than true. I was using alot of wasted effort. The fact was I didn't know what I was doing, lol. It wasn't long before another Kenyan named Christopher came along and did my same job but with a million times less energy. Watching him swing away was so nostalgic of the countless times I've observed someone experienced or skilled do a job so much easier than me. As if every swing was effortless and smooth. All around it was a learning and growing experience. We laid down a layer of sediment to act as a preliminary layer before the cement. All this was done with many wheel barrels full of dirt which I was blessed enough to fill nearly single-handedly, lol. It was LOADS of joy with every shovel-full, haha. Once again we had good time working, putting forth our best effort in the African sun, came home and relaxed. Today was another reminder that in the midst of hard work its rarely easy to smile, but deep down you know its good and even fun to a degree. And at the end of the day nothing beats that feeling of completeness. Accomplishment feels great.

The Caterpillars from Hell

Oh man, I have to write this down before I forget, but last night just as we were winding down for sleep Nathan saw something in his net. The power was out and he didn't have a flashlight so he asked me to come over and shine my light on his net so he could make sure it was nothing. I walked on over, turned on the light, and to our surprise crawling on the inside of his mosquito net--right next to his pillow--was the furry red caterpillar I saw in my bed the night prior. Nathan had teased me for not killing mine and merely shaking it off in my room. But now that he was suspicious of the same survivor now crawling in his bed he was pissed, lol. After further examination I told Nathan that I wasn't so sure it was the same one. Mine was a little bigger and furry-er. Nathan didn't want to agree necessarily cause that would mean there was more than one of these "demon caterpillars" in our rooms. A feeling that did not bode well with either of us... Nathan quickly killed his furry interloper and continued with a thorough check of his bed and sheets, all the while joking that if he were to find one more he was seriously going to share my bed that night, lol. Well, to his horror, he did find more--2 in fact. One was nestled comfortably in his blankets while the third tried to make a get-away under his bed frame. Nathan was shaken up for sure. Needless to say I took the same mission with my sheets and found nothing, praise the Lord. I don't know what it is about Nathan but trouble seems to follow him, haha. He decided to sleep in his bed anyways (what a man!) and asked me to pray for the night because psychologically he was feeling a crawling sensation all over his body from the thought of all the caterpillars he found. We slept with the door separating our rooms wide open that night, lest Nathan be consumed by the vicious beasts while we slumbered. What a night!

On a side note, later that week we discovered through numerous Kenyans that those exact caterpillars are quite painful. Though not extremely dangerous, they are notorious for pricking people with their sharp, furry hairs, causing an intense itching sensation that is very hard to negate. They also bite AND pinch with their pincer-like rear ends cause notable pain and lasting discomfort. Once we heard this, Nathan was even MORE upset that I didn't kill the one I found in my bed claiming it SOMEHOW had SOMETHING to do with his particular invasion the night to follow, lol. What can I say, TIA = This Is Africa...

The Close of a Chapter

It was an amazing week serving at Imani B. It was truly hard work of a different breed. This time Nathan and I got to serve as manual day-laborers. Our original purpose behind being sent to Imani B was to aid in the moving of heavy stones for some large project going on there. They had dug a giant hole about 20 feet in diameter and 25 feet deep to act as the coming location of a massive Bio-Gas Chamber. I didn't know what on earth that was so it was explained to me. Basically they will take their huge surplus of cow poop and store in the enormous container underground where it will ferment for about 20 days. The gases which continuously rise from the poop will be routed via pipes and tubes to the kitchens where it will fuel the stoves and ovens... Soooooo, in short, our food will be cooked with cow farts... I can hardly wait! Hahaha. ANYWAYS! None of this miraculousness could occur until we first drained the hole of all its ground water and overlaid the floor with cement. This was to be where Nathan and I would come in. Unfortunately we only got about 1 full day of work devoted to the project before running into continual snags and obstacles. At this time we were relocated to the farm area where we worked with two young Kenyan men named Ryan and Vinny. It wasn't long before we all became good friends and were laughing and joking with each other regularly.

We did many various jobs including feeding the 6 female cows and 2 bulls, feeding the geese and ducks, and one particular day we had hours devoted to shoveling the cow poop and pee out of their cement field. We had a few reoccurring tasks but many of our jobs arose with the spur of the moment and often led us all over the compound. It was quite the experience. Oh! Nathan and I even got our shot at milking a cow! Now that was strange. Vinny showed us how to do it multiple times but it seemed like no matter how closely we mimicked his movements it was never quite the same outcome, lol. This was intrinsic of many of our tasks. Both Ryan and Vinny were both very experienced and skilled in their trades and as hard as we would try to help or serve, they would often step into the situation--using only a fraction of the effort--and show us how much more efficiently the job could be done. Darn farm boys! Haha.

Towards the end of the trip our chance to rise above them finally arose. On our last day there, the four of us got into a tiny, MAN-competition. I think it began with a comment from Vinny about how surprisingly strong daily farm work made him. I in no way disagreed with him. Watching what those two did all day, I would expect them to be exceptionally strong. Then he followed up that statement by saying he was stronger than me, and well... we can't have that, haha. So he challenged me to arm wrestling and before we knew it Nathan saw what was going on and came over, and just as we were about to get started Ryan strolled by with his wheel barrel. Then the games began! It was so much fun messing around and arm wrestling each other. I got it all on tape and its hilarious! It was a prideful series of arm wrestling matches, followed by some various push up exercises, and then quickly accompanied with more matches. All around it was a bunch of goofy guys strutting their stuff, trying to prove who was the strongest. Tons O' fun, lol. When it was all said and done the Americans rose victorious. It was a grueling battle, but entertaining every step of the way. We finally were able to step out of their shadow as the inept farmhands, lol. I was quite happy about that. :)

It was an amazing week of more back-breaking work, sweat and effort, all for our glorious Father. Except for the Man-Matches of course, that was pretty much our playful flesh, haha. When we had finished out the week it was pretty tough saying goodbye. Making new friends is always a blast until you have to part ways. We gave them our FB profile names and told them to look us up, as well as challenged them to make it to the states and come say hi sometime. Yet another adventurous experience under our belts. The Christian life is truly a gift!