Signing Off From Africa

I cant believe this is my last post from Africa.  Tomorrow Katie and I will take shuttle to Nairobi and then hop on a plane back to the good 'ole USA via London.  Im not sure how to begin this blog or even what to say to bring this chapter to a close.  Honestly, I dont have the right words to describe this trip and all of the things I've learned and experienced about myself, Africa, and God.  I hope though that I've written honestly in these last posts to give a sense of the things I've seen and felt while I was here, although I'm pretty confident that my words have come up short.  What I can say is that this trip has forever changed me and to all who supported me in this endeavor I am eternally grateful. Grateful for the things that I learned, the friendships I began, the miracles I saw happen, the continual laughter and joy I felt, the work we were able to accomplish, the energy that I got from working with kids, the humbling experience of working in a different culture, for finding a new family abroad, and for the peace of God I experienced for the first time here.   Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your support, prayers, and encouragement.  I could not have done this trip without those things- I'm sure of it.

Intern Post

  So this pic is of all the Wild Hope interns.  The two goofy looking guys are Steve and Tom.  Just kidding. they are both very nice, awesome, cute guys who we have had a really great time getting to know.  Its been so nice to have a community of people here who are about at the same place in life as us.  We all get together at least once a week for an intern night that usually involves a very safi dinner and a movie or random game  (plus I even got a free haircut out of this deal!).  Sidenote- Apples to Apples is just as incredible in Africa and prison style Apples to Apples is genius.  Steve is officially the king of this game, although every week is a bit of a battle.  These guys have been a huge blessing to us and watching them work with the soccer academy here has been great.  The intern clan has become one of my favorite things about Tanzania and I am just really grateful for the time we have all had together, whether its been telling stupid stories, dancing, movies with the projector, or counting a million beads.  Its all been very fun and I'm sad to leave this crew behind.

Different Country.... Same Tribe

I love the Maasai!  I have heard a mixed bag of things said about the Maasai stateside and in Africa, but I’ve lived with these people for a little while now and they are just incredible people.  I’ve talked about their intentional community and hospitality before, and this is still one of the best thing about them.  Not living in community is not even an option for them because they know that’s how we were created to live.  They know that life is richer with honest, vulnerable, loving friendships, and its also necessary for their survival at times to live in community.  I just wonder what it would be like in America if we lived with a more intentional community.  I think it would completely revolutionize the nation and issues that divide us and the intolerance we have would seem just stupid (sidenote- Shane Claiborne’s book “Irresistible Revolution” is incredible and addresses this).  They also treat everyone as family and you always feel welcome.  I now have about 4 sets of parents and 80 brothers and sisters, and it always feels like the best family reunion you’ve ever been to.  Not the type of family reunion that you fear because that crazy aunt is going to kiss you right on the lips and your second cousin will tell embarrassing stories and your grandma will make you eat that green jello whether or not you want to.  No, it’s the type of family reunion that you look forward to all year because you know that there will be an insurmountable amount of love and laughter there with your favorite people.

 So yes the Maasai are incredibly loving and kind, but the truly astounding part about this tribe is their rock solid faith.  If I didn’t have any of the amenities I was used to in life I think I could find a hundred reasons to doubt God (I say this because I have everything I need and still find reasons to doubt God).  If I struggled for food, had major health issues, struggled to keep my family safe from other tribes and animals, etc, I would probably think that God had left me and I was on my own.  But these people don’t think that at all.  In fact they praise God for the little that they have and have faith that God can do anything and is not limited by this world at all.  I think its because of this faith too that they see more miracles happen in their tribe than I have ever seen in America.  I do think that miracles happen, but I don’t see them often and honestly I don’t really have faith that they will happen most of the time.   I pray for things, but I pray like “Hey, God that’s a million miles away, if you wouldn’t mind helping with this that would be cool”.  The Maasai pray for things like God is right in front of them and they are desperate for Him to answer their prayers.   Sometimes we pray for things and God says no, but for the Maasai that doesn’t stop them from asking because they have faith that anything is possible. 

I went into the bush last weekend and went to the most spirit-filled church I have ever been to.  These people are loving life and loving God and loving their community.  They have a faith that is alive to them.  They pray for all things, but for me the craziest thing I saw was how they pray for healing.  In America I think we pray to be healed from sickness, and of course we still go to doctors because that’s just smart, but for these people the doctor isn’t always an option and even if it is they pray for healing and go to the doctor.  They believe God will heal them with all their hearts.  I have heard too many stories to recount about healing since I got here but I want to tell you a few we were close to.  There was one woman here from Germany who has MS and wanted to come serve in Africa with the Maasai.  Her doctors told her no because of her sickness (she hasn’t had feeling in her right hand for 2 years because of MS), but she felt she was supposed to go.  So she came here, and while she was here, her group prayed for healing fervently.  They prayed often.  Then during this trip that woman was talking to everyone about how she hasn’t had feeling in her right hand and as she went to show how she couldn’t feel her fingertips she froze because she had feeling back in her hand.  It was crazy!  I wish I could see the look on her doctors face when she goes back to Germany next week.  There is also this wonderful Maasai boy Siparrino who was healed in an unexplainable way.  He had been very sick so they took him to the hospital and the doctors did a procedure to fix his sickness but in the process severed his spinal cord and he was paralyzed.  Can you imagine?  You are healthy, but now you cant walk.  So again the Maasai and their friends prayed.  One group in particular prayed for 3 hours one day and 4 hours the next.  Nothing happened.  They were discouraged but knew that maybe this was one of those times God says no for some reason.  Then the next day when they came back home after running an errand, Siparrino ran out to greet them.  The kid who had a severed spinal cord ran out to greet them and he has been fine ever since.  There is no logic to these stories, and that’s why they are amazing.  I don’t know why we don’t see this stuff in the US like they do here, but I think it might be because the fervent, inexcusable faith these people have.  My mind is still spinning to be honest because these are just 2 stories we heard/experienced of about 20 instances, but its incredible.  Its just really incredible.

Termites and Bruises and Bats, Oh My!

Ok so I realize I haven’t sent any info out about the animals we’ve come across here or the injuries or bites we’ve gotten and that’s not fun at all.  I mean I know these things aren’t the meat of the story but they are definitely the comic relief.

We will start with the creatures and critters:  First of all let me just say I really don’t like spiders or snakes but I really really don’t like bats.  I mean when you get down to it they are rats that fly.  Honestly, who thought “Hey rats are cute cuddly creatures, why don’t we throw wings on them and really have a good time”?  Say it with me (in your best church-lady Dana Carvey voice)- “Could it be Satan”?  Yes, Im going with that answer right now.  And of course we had plenty of bats in Kenya.  They really would just fly around outside and that was ok, but then 1 week before we left as I sat up writing an email, one of those flying rats made a special appearance in my room.  Awesome.  So I woke Katie up and she couldn’t catch it (although she’s a good friend and really tried), and then we woke our Kenyan father Joseph up and the bat got scared and hid.  I thought it was over but 2 nights later as we enjoyed our dinner Sylar showed up again (yes, I named him after Heroes), and that was it.  Joseph, Immanuel, and Michael all trapped him in the ceiling, and Joseph sang him a song about his impending doom, but he snuck out and we never saw him again.  He got lucky, for now.

Other creature stories: So the bat was the most traumatizing, but we’ve seen other crazy stuff too.  We saw a camel spider when we were cooking our food at the campsite (look these things up if you don’t know what they are because they are HUGE).  Then while we were hiking up a mountain in the bush, and already halfway up the mountain, the kid who is taking us tells us that there are often buffalo at the top of the hill, so if we see any we should just climb up a tree as fast as we can.  Oh sure not a problem.  Let me use my awesome height of 5’3” to quickly scale a tree to avoid being impaled by the wild buffalo.  So to comfort us he then says if we cant climb a tree to lie on the ground and pretend we are dead.  Again another stellar idea.  Thank goodness we run into any buffalo and it was ridiculously beautiful from the top of the mountain.  We have also been told multiple stories about snakes (coming out of the shower drain, cobras in the pantry, that the snake who kills the most humans lives right where we were camping), but luckily (knock on wood) we haven’t seen any yet.  We have also seen incredible creatures here, especially in the game park.  Lions, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, hippos, buffalo, cheetahs, hyena, gazelles, and elephants were all so close to us when we were in the park and it was the best!   Sometimes we see very cool animals outside the parks too.  Like, since coming to Tanzania I have seen many monkeys hanging around in the trees by our house which makes for some amazing sights on a morning run. 

Then of course they have been some bumps, bruises, bites, and “tasty” snacks since we got here too.  In case any of you were wondering, termites toasted and then dipped in a little bit of honey actually makes a decent snack.  Sidenote- not so decent is when you have something tickling the back of your throat hours later and it’s a termite leg.  Also have gotten some awesome insect bites, mostly mosquitoes, but I got this one bite on my elbow while we were camping that swelled to about the size of golf ball.  They said as long as pain didn’t shoot up my arm I was good, and so far so good.  Oh and then on our way home from camping Katie found a tick on her leg and she couldn’t get it off because the head was in there, so she freaked a little and I proceeded to pull the tick off her leg… ah friendship.  The best injury though was this sweet bruise I got after I crashed and backward somersaulted my paragliding landing (there is video of this that may surface at some point. All to say its never boring here and I love it!

Blog #2- TZ

Holiday is over and now we are getting into our groove here in TZ.  It feels really good to work again, and even though the work is a bit different than the work in Kenya, its cool to see how a different organization does things.  We are working more with computers and working mostly with ex-pats here so in some ways its easier than the work we were doing before.  In other ways though its kind of tough to make myself get back into a bit more of the American mindset.  The work we are doing here still feels very purposeful (just put together a proposal to build the kids in the Unga community a new soccer field), but its just a different type of work.  The main thing I miss is the kids back in Kenya.  They killed me with how precious they were and I was inspired on a daily basis by them.  I hope its not tool long before I see them again.

            The Russell’s have been extremely good to us though, and its been really interesting to see how an American missionary family lives in East Africa.  The obstacles they have overcome, and the ways in the which they’ve been able to be a part of the community here.  They have done some incredible work here with the community in Arusha and Unga Limited without making the people here feel like the “westerners” have come and taken over.  They really know how to partner with the people here and create working environments that produce a strong sense of dignity.  Plus they are really fun.  Other than the beach, we’ve watched Euro soccer, gone to some movies, and went to these hot springs where you can find hippo bones on an underground water cave.  It looked like it was right out of The Jungle Book.  So yes we are still working, but these guys know how to work hard and play hard for sure (and I have many bruises right now to prove it).  Oh and the picture above is of Kilimanjaro (it looks like its a cloud but its the snowy top behind that cell phone tower), but its beautiful. It would be incredible to climb this someday!

Blog #1- TZ

Well we made it to Tanzania.  Its very weird to think that our time in Africa is halfway over but when I think back at all the stuff that has happened I guess it makes sense.  I’m going through a little culture shock though right now.  We are living with a missionary family the Russell’s in Arusha, Tanzania and it just feels strange to be around Americans full time again.  Plus we are eating American food, we have running water, a washing machine, flushing toilets, and electricity all the time again.  I was actually getting used to living without these things and although its very nice to have them again, it feels weird.  But the family we are living with is extremely welcoming and kind, and we have been treating amazingly so far (see attached picture of the Indian Ocean).

            So our first week here is a training week and, since the Russell’s kids are on Spring Break, they decided that we could do our training week at Peponi Beach on the Indian Ocean.  Yeah pretty incredible!  It was also really nice to get a break after 6 pretty intense work weeks in Kenya.  We had a really wonderful week getting to know the Russell’s and their heart for East Africa, and also the type of work we will be doing here.  It sounds like we will be working a lot with their Artisan Massai group and also with their soccer league.  Plus there was just some fun stuff to do too.  We went with another family from Denmark and the father in that family is an extreme sports enthusiast (he paraglided off a 14000 mountain) so he came up with some crazy stuff for us to do.  We went paragliding, snorkeling in the Indian Ocean, and bunji cord swimming (there are hilarious videos of these things which may involve me crashing with a backward somersault).  So yeah our first week here was not too rough, but it was nice to get a little R and R too.

Last Days in Kenya

  Here’s just a quick glimpse at life in Kenya and all the beautiful kids we got to hang out with while we were there.  It was completely life-changing and thanks to all of you who believed in this trip and are praying for us!  Hope you enjoy!