Just for you all to see, here is a picture of me in Kenya with one of the lovely children I met there……
debriefing July 4, 2007
So we are over half way through our debriefing week, with our school graduation looming near in the future this Friday morning. Obviously, the realities of returning home are becoming very real indeed for most of us and I for one am very thankful for the wonderful job that our teacher this week, Dave Strout, is doing to prepare us for home. That sounds strange, but the reality is that we have all changed and grown more than most of us ever thought we would. I learned and grew more than I ever thought I would, and mostly in ways that I didn’t expect. One thing I can tell you for sure is that I loved my time spent in Kenya and South Africa and want deeply to return……. but don’t worry, I am looking forward to seeing you all!
Happy Early Mother’s Day! May 4, 2007
Hey Mamasita!
This is your early Mother’s Day greeting! I don’t know that I’ll be able to email or call on Mother’s Day, so if I can’t know that I am thinking of you! And thank you for being such a great mom and trusting me enough to let me go to Africa! Love you Mum!
a little taste of Africa May 2, 2007
So I was reading online and found that the Woodland Park Zoo is doing a special exhibit through September 30th about the Maasiland people and the Savanna, both of which are in Kenya. So if you’d like a little taste of my life for the next 8 weeks, this might be kinda cool! I think I will try to check it out when I get home, to bring back memories! So here ya go, a little taste of African in the beautiful NorthWest!
New exhibit explores African savanna
Woodland Park Zoo’s new African savanna exhibit, the Maasai Journey, opens today, offering visitors a glimpse of the wildlife and people of Africa’s Maasai region.
For $5 each, visitors can feed giraffes or get an up-close view of the savanna from a watchtower platform. New to the exhibit are ostriches, African birds, goats, guinea fowl and reptiles.
Cultural interpreters and storytellers from rural Maasailand in Kenya will share personal experiences about life on the savanna, interactions with wildlife, and their attempt to keep their cultural heritage alive.
From May 1 to Sept. 30, daily zoo hours are 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; admission for adults (13-64) is $15, children (3-12) $10, toddlers (0-2) free. Seniors, people with disabilities and zoo members receive discounted or free admission. A schedule of giraffe feeding times and public programs is online at www.zoo.org; click on “Activities and Exhibits.”
packing…… April 19, 2007
So i am almost finished packing up my room to head on outreach…. it is a strange feeling, kinda like i am leaving home again. It makes me sad, in two days i’ll be leaving most of these people i have grown so close too and don’t know that I’ll see again after this is all over. Don’t get me wrong i am super excited to go on outreach, and have been getting more and more excited for as it is has gotten down to the single digits for days. I can’t wait for the adventures but i will miss the simple fun of being at Lower Crossroads.
my nappie! April 14, 2007
So Thursday morning I was getting ready to do my morning devotions and work on my book report and spend some time relaxing before class…. I had my journal and Bible and my hot cup of tea! As I was waking out of the dorm and trying to close the door, I dumped my scolding hot tea on my side! OH THE BURNING! I hurried into the kitchen to get cold water on it…. I kept hoping it would get better then the pain got so bad I couldn’t sit anymore so I went and layed down. That is when my lovely roommates came to my rescue… they went and got one of our leaders, Carrieanne, who is a nurse. So Carrieanne bandaged me up with a big big bandage…….. hence the name of this post! It felt like I had a huge diaper on my side for two days! (In South Africa, they call a diaper a nappie… it that helps make anymore sense!). Today I am fine- the bandage is off, it doesn’t hurt unless something rubs it wrong, and I have a very cool burn mark…. It spells my initials! I have a big L and B on my side from the burn! Weird huh….. It looks pretty cool so I am okay with it!
christmas in africa April 14, 2007
Two Fridays ago, we celebrated Christmas for no other reason than it would be fun! So some girls painted a big Christmas tree to hang in the classroom and made snowflakes and paperchains….. and some other girls baked cookies, and I helped make the frosting! And we even had a fireplace with stockings! Okay, not a real fire put Jenny had the brilliant idea to use the projector and her laptop to make a fireplace on the wall and we put our “stockings” (aka our socks!) under it with stuff in them. We did a gift exchange and I got Nougant…. not an american things but I liked it. Then we ate cookies and drank milk….. it was lovely! Oh, and of course an enthausiastic singing of Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer by all the Americans!
malaria medicine April 11, 2007
I got my malaria medicine yesterday. It will be the first time I will have had to take medicine on a mission trip…. aside from the time I stepped on a nail and had to take antibiotics which made me car sick. So it will be exciting. Fortunately we all have to take them so we’re going to have “pill parties” to remind ourseleves to take them…. so that is good! But, it apparently makes your skin extra sensitive to the sun. So here is the equation I came up with for my time in Kenya: Malaria Pills + Equator Sun + Me = A Bad Burn! So I am going to have to be extra careful to wear my sunblock! Which as most of you have discovered I am NOT good at remembering….. but fortunately for me Chiye won’t let me forget so I think that will be a blessing on outreach! I promised I’d remind him to take his pills and he’ll remind me to wear sunblock. Sounds like a good deal to me!
10 days April 11, 2007
I am down to ten days now before I leave for outreach to go to Johannasberg and Kenya…… it is making me a bit sad though. I am sad to leave all the kids here because I really won’t get to see them again. Today we had base worship and everyone prayed for our teams. Afterwards some of the older kids were coming up and giving us hugs and tell us to have a good trip and the younger ones just wanted to climb all over us and play with us. It was sad. I love these kids…………..
out of sync ;) April 11, 2007
A couple of weeks ago we had a talent show……. so a few of us girls decided we’d do a dance. At first we had no inspiration what so ever! So we started to give up….. than we heard the song….. the perfect song for a dance…. the most wonderfully awesome, no doubt about it song for a dance (I do hope you are all catching my sarcasism)…… “Shape of my heart” by the Backstreet Boys! Okay, not the greatest song by a long shot, but it WAS to perfect to give up the opportunity to be a boy band our selves! So we put together a rather nice dance I must admit, put on our white tank tops, our bandanas, our rolled up jeans, and headed out to the “stage” aka the chapel floor. We were “Out Of Sync”…. if you don’t get the joke there ask anyone in there late teens or early twenties and they can probably tell you. And actually we were a hit and performed an encore of the song after the talent show so our friends could video tape us…. so maybe you’ll all get to see my five minutes of fan in DTS 
