Test Week 3: Sami

Ok you get 2 Pictures of the Day today. Today was our family Christmas.

The Official Pic of the Day: Sami in the Presents


The Unofficial Pic of the Day: Sami Wants Communion Too. My family all took Communion together before we dove into the Christmas festivities. Sami wanted in too. She didn't get any but that didn't stop her from begging as Pastor Dad blessed the sacraments.

Test Week 2: Under the Tree

Hmmmmm

I'm intrigued. My mom was telling me about a guy who decided to post a photo a day of his life, every day over the course of a year. That sounds like fun. And a challenge. I love challenges. I also love to take pictures. And some of mine turn out halfway decent. I think it would be interesting to daily examine my life in East Africa and try to explain it in one picture each day. The question is can I commit to taking a half way decent picture EVERY SINGLE DAY for a year? Because if I start- I'll hate it if I quit half way through (I HATE quitting- I'm such a goody-two-shoes). The other major challenge is I can't post pics I take a work (which are some of my best). But I do love a challenge. And I do love to take pics. And it would be pretty cool to have 365 days of life in East Africa. Will they all be quality? Probably not. But it could be cool.

So I'm thinking. Maybe I'll try a pic a day for the week and see if I can manage to find a post-worthy pic each day this week.

To start the trial off, here's today's pic (obviously not in East Africa yet):
My Dad's famous Special Recipe Chex Mix for the masses (yummy!!!). You know its Christmas when this stuff appears!! By the way, I know that TECHNICALLY Christmas was a few days ago but my fam is celebrating it together later this week so we are dragging the whole season out.

Christmas Off-Road Snow Shoeing

I love love love snow shoeing!


My dad and I went out Christmas day- down their property to the river, along the river to the railroad crossing, over into some unknown property, fording the Roaring Brook (in snow shoes) and back home.


I love this pic- its like winter and spring in the same picture- the left bank is snowy and wintery, the right bank is green and not very winter-like at all.


We came across this random kiddie chair in the woods under a tree. Maybe someone hunts from it. Or they just like to hide in a tree. Regardless, it wasn't as strange as the old school chair/desk combo that we found farther up that hill. THAT was just strange!

I HEART Snow Shoeing

The lunar eclipse on the night of the winter solstice wasn't as exciting as I anticipated. It was so cloudy that you could hardly see the moon at all. I went out a few times to check it out but it if I didn't KNOW there was an eclipse, I wouldn't have noticed a thing.


But today I went snow shoeing and I LOVED it!!! I didn't go far- just around my parent's property but it was a blast! I don't think that I've ever been snow shoeing before- I used to cross country ski but I never did snow shoeing.


I miss snow! And fun snow stuff!!

Eclipse Tonight!

We'll see if the clouds will hold off for some cool eclipse viewing but even if we miss the eclipse, the rising moon tonight was amazing!!

The Wedding!!!!

The Big Day was this weekend! And it was wonderful. It was full of fun, family, hilarity.

It was beautiful.

Here's some shots from the rehearsal dinner:




Pastor Dad conducted the ceremony- gotta love the sermon when you're dad is the pastor- you never know WHAT'S going to come back to haunt you!
I love it- they are so happy!

Ok this was one of my favorite parts of the wedding reception: DJ and his buddies have a tradition of serenading any military bride with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" - just like Goose and Maverick in Top Gun. The video is hilarious but too long to upload :(

The newest Mr. and Mrs. Dan Clise:

DJ and Kel dancin'

And of us kids

There were so many great moments- when someone, who shall remain nameless, busted out some serious 90's Boy Band moves on the dance floor! Spending time with so much of our family and friends. And even though the storm of the century blew in late that night- we all had a blast.

A Weekend in Indiana

This weekend I got to go down and spend time with 2 of my greatest friends. We went to college together, lived together in India. These are the friends who literally know everything about you and still like you- so you know you will be friends for life.

It was a great time of talking, laughing, playing with 2 of the cutest kids in the world and just catching up on life now that we are scattered all over the globe.

We ended up driving through Amish country on one of the snowiest days I've seen in a while.


This sure looks like one cold ride!!


Now I'm off again for the wedding!! Lots to do but it will be a great day!!!

Home in MI

I'm back in MI. And back in the freezing cold. Complete with snow and everything!!!


Right now we are all a flurry of wedding prep, and I'm visiting friends, eating all my local favorite foods (Schubergs Caesar Chicken Salad Burger= amazing!!!! SOOOOO miss that!) and enjoying the fact that I'm on vacation.

Oh and making about 40 lbs of rock candy!


Tomorrow I'm off to spend the weekend with some friends from college!!! And meet the newest addition to my friends' family!!

Operation Covert Thanksgiving Surprise was a sucess!!!

A few of you might have known about a super secret plan to surprise my family this Thanksgiving. I had already planned to come home this holiday season because my brother is getting married and I was NOT going to miss that. My family was lead to believe that I wasn't going to arrive until AFTER Thanksgiving. What they weren't aware of was the fact that I had changed my ticket before I purchased it- arriving in Detroit the night BEFORE Thanksgiving. Kel and Gavin would pick me up, I'd get a few hours of sleep at their house, we'd drive to my grandfathers on Thanksgiving morning and surprise my parents who were still expecting me to arrive the day after Turkey Day.

Of course this entire plan depended on Kel keeping this whole plan a secret (which she did EXCEEDINGLY well!)

I had some ridiculous travel delays but after about 38 hours of travel, I got to Detroit, met up with Kel and Gavin, went back to their place for a few hours of sleep, we got up, drove up north to our grandfather's house.

I hid in the back seat while Kel and Gavin, DJ and Alicia tried to get my mom and dad to come out of the house and "help them bring in some stuff". Mom came over to the car, I popped out and surprised them all. It was the best Thanksgiving surprise ever!!

I had a wonderful time with my family, stayed up all night to brave the Black Friday shopping insanity, and now I'm ready for some serious sleep (I haven't slept more then an hour here and there for the past 60 some hours-I'm sure I'm a REAL joy to be around!)

Here we are, leaving at midnight to start our Black Friday shopping! Welcome to the insanity Alicia!!

Termites

My teammates and I love to get this great Kenyan Kitchen magazine- it has great recipes with locally available ingredients (a HUGE plus as there is nothing worse then seeing recipes online and realizing you can't find half of the necessary ingredients. I'm getting really good at substituting stuff but its wonderful to read a recipe and know you can find all the needed ingredients without too much trouble!)

We look forward to the new issues, and yesterday my roommate came home with the latest edition- the Christmas edition. We starting paging through it, anticipating some fun holiday recipes. But this is the first recipe we found:


And while it is true that termites ARE a locally available ingredient, and they ARE a traditional food from Western Province, this was the LAST recipe I expected to see in this cooking magazine. Its quite timely, as this is the season for flying termites. The guards at my gate collect the termites whenever they swarm out after a rain (these are the bugs that come out by the thousands after a good evening rain). Maybe I should pass the recipe on to them!

It's Possible I Take Matatus Too Often...

I take public transport (matatus and buses) everywhere- or I walk. I've become quite accustomed to Nairobi traffic (which is absolutely insane) and I'm used to the matatu driver's interesting interpretations of traffic law. (Let me put this in perspective, most people who come to visit end up just shutting their eyes in the matatu- especially if they end up in the front seat- where they can see all the passing on blind curves and wrong side of the road driving at insane speeds with oncoming traffic).

So today I was taking a matatu home, I was in the front seat and the driver was being extra creative in his driving. The Kenyan woman next to me was freaking out. I was sitting there thinking "eh- we had PLENTY of space" and she keeps gasping at the oncoming cars and our driver's aggressive progress through the uncontrolled intersections.

I think it may be possible that I am TOO used to traffic here and I will probably scare my family and everyone else when I drive in the States!

The Party

Here's some of our party hats! Too bad I can't upload the pics of all of us wearing them- they are hilarious- I guess you'll have to check my next newsletter for those. The drawings on the hats are the pictures I use each week to illustrate the stories (a friend from college draws them for me each week).

But our party went great. We all had a blast, had cake and soda, played games, wore our hats (which the little kids promptly stole after class) and it was great.

Happy Birthday Youth Group

They Youth Group I lead turns 1 tomorrow!

Wait till you see the party hats!

Pepsi Project

Here's a link to a project some friends of mine in Asia are involved in. The plan is to revamp old shipping containers to use as schools in Liberia (and possibly other parts of Africa). They have registered their project with Pepsi Refresh- its a competition where the 2 best ideas (voted on by the public) will receive funding from Pepsi Co.

All you have to do is vote for their project! Its free and just takes a second! Even you Diet Coke lovers can get behind a project that builds schools for kids! :P So here's the link- http://www.refresheverything.ca/containerschools just click on in, scroll to the bottom of the page, and vote

We use an old shipping container for an office/sewing room at our sewing program- hey you use what you've got!!

What Every Michigan Girl Needs!

A friend of mine brought this back for me! Who wouldn't love Michigan cookies??

Oh and Happy Reformation Day!!

Lite-Brite

Here's a great video by David Crowder Band (I love their music- especially their last CD Church Music) and this is just really really cool. Its all stop-motion photography with a Lite-Brite and origami.

A Day at the Hospital

Before anyone freaks (MOM) I was not the one admitted to the hospital. We got a call today that one of my teens collapsed today and was unresponsive. The medical system here is considerably more complicated then the one back home. Since my teen doesn't have the money to GO to the hospital, I ran over there to help out (we have a fund set aside to help with medical costs and they won't receive treatment unless you can pay upfront. Plus nothing will get done if you don't push it along). I gotta say, this experience makes my trips to the Post Office to pick up a package look like a walk in the park.

First, we get there and have to figure out where Emergency is. I met them at the hospital but I'd never been to this one before so I had no clue where anything was. The teen was now responsive but we were still very concerned about her sudden collapse (and other symptoms). We get her into Emergency, and then have to find Reception to pay for the consultation. That involved running to several rooms/windows but that was finally sorted. Then we go back and wait. A friend who came with the girl came out with the prescription for the IV meds they would give her and a list of labs. I was like "ok what do I do with this?" My friend tells me to take it to the cashier (and not the one I had to pay the initial fee to). I line up at the cashier (after I find it hidden around a corner and under a tree) but she tells me I have to go to both the Pharmacy and the Lab. So I go to the Pharmacy. They write the prescription costs on the form and say go back to the cashier. So I do that. I pay the cashier and try to get directions to the Lab. I get the cost of the labs, go to the cashier YET again and pay for the Labs. Then I take the receipts back to the nurse in the Emergency.

The nurse says I need to take the paid forms BACK to the Pharmacy and BACK to the Lab to get the meds and I guess the needed lab equipment?? Not so sure what I was supposed to get from the Lab because an orderly took it for me. I got the meds and they started the IV. (this has now been at least an hour and the girls is just now getting an IV??)

So we wait some more. This time we break into the Emergency and hang out with the girl. Another 2 hours go by as we wait for the Lab reports to come back but we passed it my laughing at my Swahili and rocking out to the Glee soundtrack on my headphones. I keep checking with the nurses, trying to figure out the plan. They said the Doc wouldn't see her until the Labs are back. I asked when that would be- the nurse says "You go check on the Labs".

So I go to the Lab to wait for the results. This involves sticking your head through the back curtain and asking the Lab Tech, who is currently taking blood from another patient, when your labs would be done. So I wait, and wait. Finally get the Lab results and I deliver them to the nurses in Emergency. And nothing happens

I finally ask if they have called the Doc, they do that, the doc finally comes, gives the diagnosis and a script for meds. The girl and my friend go back to the taxi. I go to the Pharmacy to get the med prices, go to the cashier to pay yet again, and then go back to the Pharmacy to get the script filled. Then I pick up the meds (which are really just little paper bags with pills inside with 1x2 and 2x1 and 3x1 on them (meaning take 1 pill 2times a day, take 2 pills 1 time a day and take 3 pills 1 time a day). No drug names. No side effects. NNAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Anyways, we have a diagnosis and meds. The teen is looking considerably better and I got her and her friend into a taxi to get home. What a day.

Passion Fruit Flower

Sometimes I look around and think "did Dr Seuss get his ideas from East African plants??"

Oh, and the fruit that comes off of this plant is just as strange- it looks normal enough on the outside but the inside is gooey and slimy and brain-like. But its yummy!!

Why I Speak Swahili

Today I was in a taxi (and I love it when I walk up to a taxi and bust out my Swahili- its hilarious to watch the driver's face as he tries to figure out how those swahili words are coming from my very white face). So I tell him in Swahili where I'm going, negotiate a price and we go. After a few minutes, he turns to me and asks me "Why do you speak Swahili?"

Its so sad that many of the expats living and working here don't speak Swahili. English is often used here (especially in Nairobi), schools are taught in English and there is an entire generation of young Nairobi Kenyans who don't speak Swahili as their first language. So a lot of expats living here don't take the time to learn. But if you get away from the tourist spots, you need to know some Swa. If nothing more then its respectful of the culture and the people here.

But back to my taxi driver, he asked "Why do you speak Swahili?" and I answered "because I work here." He just looked at me, probably thinking about all the other americans he's driven who haven't bothered to learn. I told him "I live here, I work here, of course I learned Swahili. If you went to America, you'd learn English. If you went to France, you'd learn French."

Now my Swahili leaves a lot to be desired. I'm conversant but far from fluent. But this taxi driver just said "Its good that you learned Swahili". And he's right. It is good that I learned Swa. Not just because I'm able to do my job more effectively, or because I can negotiate a decent taxi price but because I live here. How do you live somewhere and not try to understand what's going on around you?

CUTIE!!!!

Isn't he a cutie??? This weekend, after work on Saturday, some of my teammates and I decided to spend the weekend at another teammates house. We spend so much time together working, and we always have fun, but it was great to hang out with absolutely NO work to discuss or plan for. Just enjoy each others' company. One of my teammates is married and I haven't been able to hang out with his wife and son for AGES!!!

We cooked, ate a ton, watched movies, laughed at all the hilarious stories of how the couples got together, and did an impromptu photo shoot with 9 month old Mbola! Such a great and relaxing time with some of my favorite people.

I gave the blog a bit of a face lift- what do you think?

Work has been absolutely insane lately so no fun updates but the biggest prayer request I have right now is for wisdom. We need lots of it.

Who Knew?

Windex gets red nail polish out of a beige sofa.

Never knew that. But it works!!

Yup- I'm a klutz.

I Love Fall (or Spring Actually) In Nairobi!

This is as close as we get to Fall Colors- not quite the same as a maple tree but you guys don't get a purple fall!

So I Haven't Posted Anything New In Weeks.

Sorry!! Things are kinda busy and yet there hasn't been anything particularly blog-worthy to report. No crazy stories, no real adventures, nothing. And our internet has had problems for weeks so even if there WAS a great story to tell- I couldn't.

I've just been working and keeping up with kids as the new school term starts. And getting some presentation stuff prepped for my boss as he leaves for a conference.

But I'm doing well. I think the most exciting thing this week was when I was out with some friends for lunch and I ordered an Acacia Salad not knowing what to expect and ended up with a salad that really looked like an acacia tree. Not sure if it TASTED like at acacia tree since I've never eaten one, and I have no idea what greens they used in it to look like acacia but it was cool. And yummy!! Acacias are my absolute favorite tree. Here's what the real ones look like:


I know- what an exciting week its been!! But I'll take a few slow weeks every once in a while. Slow is nice sometimes.

Kids Around The World Can't Resist A Leaf Pile!

Homemade Spring Rolls

Ok I miss Asian food here- a lot. I've really REALLY been wanting to make spring rolls or dumplings or pot stickers or anything like that but you can't buy the skins/wrappers in the stores here like you can in the US. My Filipina co-worker has been craving spring rolls too so we decided to set out on the adventure of making spring rolls from scratch- and by scratch I mean making the wrappers, making the inside stuff, assembling them, frying and eating. And this week we had a public holiday- the perfect day for cooking experiments! Ami found the recipe for the spring roll wrapper. My problem with this entire endever was that I would never have the patience to roll out dough that thin. Its just not going to happen. But Ami found a recipe where you make a really oozy, goopy dough that you wipe on a hot pan creating a thin film that cooks into the spring roll wrapper and you just peel it off the pan. Sounds great in theory!

So Attempt (Day) 1: made the dough the night before (as per recipe instructions- I hate when you have to make something ahead of time and let it sit- it leaves no room for error and quick correction while you are trying to cook). Flour, water, little bit of corn starch- this is easy! I watched the nifty how-to video online again and started to try to make the wrappers. NOT as easy as it looks on the video! The dough is like ooze and you have to keep it contained in one hand and try to get the cooking wrapper peeled off the hot pan with your non-dominant hand. This might be easier if I were ambidextrous! And you really do need a non-stick pan! The first pan I tried was non-stick but the wrapper wouldn't come off. Tried a few other pans (and a cookie sheet) but it wasn't working.

Attempt 2: The next day, I tried a different pan (recommended by a friend) and that actually worked!! It still took some coordination to get the dough in the pan, the excess dough out of the pan and then peel the finished wrapper out but it was working!! I had things remotely resembling spring roll wrapper!! Cool! But I had used up so much dough trying to figure this entire process out, I only ended up with about 5 usable wrappers. So I decided to try this again with new dough the next day.Attempt 3: Ok new dough, a pan that works- this should be easy!!! After I figured out that the dough was too thick, it went pretty well. I still tore quite a few of the wrappers but it was working out! After cooking all the wrappers, I filled, rolled, fried and then we ate them!! SOOOO good. WAY better then Chinese take out! Slightly more labor intensive but really really yummy!! I think next time I need to make a ton of them and then freeze them. It should be easier now that I have all the kinks worked out!

So that was my adventure for this public holiday. Good thing we had a long weekend- 1 day off was not enough to figure this one out!!

New Skills

I love acquiring new skills. The world is huge and there are about a bazillion things I don't know and I love learning new things! There is new food to cook, new languages to learn, there's always something new. So this week's new skill: web design!!

A couple months ago, my boss asked me to start working on a web page for a group of women who are making purses, bags, jewlery, etc. I was intriged but told him I'd never even attempted to design a web page. Never. Nada.I know literally nothing about it. I post this blog but that requires no real computer skills (type in the box, add the pictures, hit the "publish" button and you're done!). This project seemed slightly more involved (considering that it involves multiple linked pages, a scary html portion, etc) but I told him I'd give it a try.

But life got busy. My friend didn't get the pictures to me right away, I procrastinated, Theresa came (look at how I'm throwing you under the bus for my lack of planning Therese!) but today I was finally in possession of the needed pictures, didn't have a guest, was ahead with my regular work and acutally had some time to play around with this program.

It's REALLY fun!! I love it! It's not nearly as complicated as I imagined (although my site is pretty basic). I got the bulk of it done today but I still have some work to do on it before it goes live but I'll post the link when I get it up! I love learning something new!

SAD!!!!

Theresa's on her way home. Its been so fun to have a friend from home visit!! Its fun to show someone else around. We've had a blast and a bunch of random adventures. So everyone at Good Shepherd, get ready for some hilarious stories and great pictures!! Be sure to ask her what her favorite meat at Carnivore was...

Thanks for coming Theres!! Its been great!

Yesterday

So yesterday (monday) was a really fun day for me. Theresa really wanted to see tea fields (tea is one of our biggest exports) and what better place to see them then my old home! My first house in Kenya was in the middle of the tea fields! So we grabbed a friend of mine and left for the fields. Its quite a trek out to my old place (it takes around 2 hours to get there by matatus- thus the reason we moved to Town) but there is great scenery on the way.

We ended up going up to my old compound, seeing tons of old friends, then we went for a hike in the fields. I love how the tea just goes on forever- the hills are massive but the ladies are climbing up and down them harvesting the tea. Its great.

Then we went into the town where I used to shop/buy veggies and spend my time. I even ran into some of my ladies in the market. I used to buy from these women twice a week every week for a year but I hadn't been back for almost 2 years so I wasn't sure they'd know me. But they sure did!! We chatted and caught up and they kept telling me how fat I was (don't worry- its a complement!) One of my ladies even gave me a big bag of oranges for free. So sweet!!

It was so fun to see my old places and my old people- I don't get out there as much as I should but its fun to know I still have friends out there!

More of the safari

I forgot to put this pic in with the rest. Its a view of the lake from this massive overlook- all the little dots in the water are flamingos and you can see waterbucks in the shallows near the shore.
Click on this pic (or any of my pics) for a bigger picture.

Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru Safari

 So Theresa and I went on Safari to Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha (both are in the middle of the Rift Valley).  It was great.  I LOVE safari- there are always new things to see (this time it was hippos and hyrax) but even the stuff I've seen is so much fun to see again!! We ended up going on safari with this youth group from the UK (friends of some friends of mine- its always cheaper to do safari in a group!)  So we had a blast with these teens and their leaders (we even passed for university students! HAHAHAHA!!)  and here are the pics:

 Hippos in Lake Naivasha- gotta love boating in a lake 15 yards from hippos.  Lots and lots of hippos!  They would randomly resurface until we realized there were at least 14 in this  big group!!

 Flamingos in Lake Nakuru- thousands and thousands of flamingos.  The entire lake shore looked hot pink from a distance.

 Baby warthogs

 Zebra

 Baboons (lots of babies on this safari!)

 Giraffe

 Thompson Gazelle and Zebra

 Lions- chillin' by the road- 10 yards from our car. 

 Waterbuck

 For perspective- this is how close we were to the waterbuck

 Baby monkey

More monkeys

So in the end- Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru were amazing.  Hippos, lions, tons of flamingos.  

2 days well spent.