Titus

This is Titus.

He only makes weird faces and hilarious faces.

                                                   
Even when he was a teeny tiny baby.

Like his faces, Titus is a little weird and a lot goofy. Which is why I love him. Titus has new parents coming very soon, and I hope they love his quirkiness as much as all of us at the baby house do!

P.S. He’s actually really handsome when you catch him not being so silly.

Trip to Luo land!

I realize that when people hear that I live in Africa, it’s legitimately often assumed that I live in a hut in a village with no electricity, walk around in hiking sandals and long skirts, and have no idea what’s going on in the rest of the world. Well, it’s not true. While there are many areas and people like this just a matter of minutes from my neighborhood, I actually live a very cush life compared to so many missionaries on this continent. I have an apartment in a city with running water and electricity, I wear normal clothes, and I have fairly reliable internet. I don’t consider myself high-maintenance, but praise the Lord that I am not called to live a village life. One of our babies, Collins, on the other hand, will be living the village life when he permanently reunites with his family in just a couple months. He was born in a village in Western Kenya, predominantly inhabited by the Luo tribe, into the same family my friend and HCO social worker, Tracy, was born and raised. I joined baby Collins, Tracy, my friend Caitlin, my director Trena, her daughter Julia, and another baby from the baby house (just for fun) on a quick two-day visit there earlier this week. Here are a few photos I caught during my stay.

Sugar cane farms surrounded the homesteads we were visiting.

Collins' future homestead.

I loved this house and how it was decorated. A little tacky, but kind of eccentric for a Kenyan home.

Caitlin and Malaika being sweet.

Excuse my hot mess hair.

Collins was fed constantly on our visit AKA he had the best time.

Love is enough, you guys.

Breakfast of mandazi and chai

I thought this was gonna be a quick picture of just me and Tracy...

Collins with his soon-to-be Auntie Milka. She LOVED him.

People of the Luo tribe are AWESOME at carrying things on their heads. Maureen demonstrated.

Home.

Baby in a bucket!

Mama Brian's kids look exactly like her.

Walter was teaching Julia how to play tire games. Why do all kids in all developing nations know how to play stick and tire games?!

Walter loves kids. He was one of the nicest people I've met.

Lunch on Lake Kisumu

You pick which fish you want.

Before

And after. This fish was DELICIOUS! I miss seafood.

Mama Brian is so fun, and her smile is so beautiful.

Although I’m very grateful that I’m not called to village life, I’m also grateful to be able to experience it. I like seeing that despite not having modern conveniences and technology, these people are not deprived, they don’t feel sorry for themselves, and they live healthy and normal-for-them lives.

Banana gifts and Dolly Parton

This...

is Mama Lois! She is one of our two sewing teachers in the new-ish sewing project I’ve been managing. She was hired at the beginning of our sewing project in March to help the other ladies learn some skills and techniques that they would need to start producing beautiful hand-crafted products (more on that later). Mama Lois is a tough teacher, but she is also very silly and fun and out-spoken (not the norm for Kenyan women). I love her.

Okay, I’m not going to pretend that this happened today or even in the past week, because it was actually just a day or two before I went to Mombasa... in the beginning of May. Oops. I wrote this a few weeks ago, but decided to post it now, after hearing Mama Lois’ new ringtone this morning and giving me another reason to love her: Mama Say a Prayer by Dolly Parton, my most admired living lady! Anyway, before my trip, Mama Lois brought us all bananas that she grew herself in her own garden.

I love gifts like this. The bananas were delicious and even more sweet knowing what a sacrifice it surely was for her to give away so much of her home-grown fruits.

Market Monday

I’ve decided that Mondays are Mondays wherever in the world you are. Mondays around here are very busy and very unpredictable. But I actually really enjoy the meetings, getting back into a routine after the weekend, seeing people who hadn’t been around the few days before, etc. It’s nice. One of my favorite things about Mondays, though, is that it’s Market Day! Every Monday morning, our baby house cook, Christine, goes to the vegetable market in town and brings back a huge sackful of beautiful fruits and vegetables. Gigantic carrots, bunches of kale, pretty mangoes, potatoes right out of the ground. It’s beautiful and all locally grown. Kenya has awesome produce. 

This morning, I spent some time on the kitchen floor, peeling plantains and potatoes with two of the aunties (we may or may not have spent more time singing and laughing and talking than actually working... but really, what’s new?) 

I LOVE Market Mondays. And so the toddlers - who doesn't want extra snacks?!

P.S. Is Deli not the most beautiful girl you've ever seen?

Happy Monday!

Coastin'

Last week, a few friends and I took a short trip to the coast. Two are starting grad school soon, another was going home for a not-so-fun visit, and I just needed a break and a tan (priorities, am I right?) So we decided very last-minute to head to Mombasa for a few days, and we left literally the next day. Our trip was low-key, but still really fun. We stayed in Ukunda, maybe 100 meters from the beach and just a ferry-ride away from Mombasa town. We swam in the Indian Ocean, rode camels on the shore, gave up on having cute hair and just wore top-knots (the humidity over there is brutal... I forgot how much I DON’T miss humidity), toured and shopped around Mombasa town, laid by the pool, got sunburnt, visited friends and their new house, ate a lot of dark chocolate, and did absolutely no work. It was so nice to have a mini-getaway in such a beautiful place with good friends. Unfortunately, I got very few pictures from this trip. I had my camera out for maybe 30 seconds on the beach and got sand in every crevice (and really didn't want it getting stolen or wet on the rainy days), and my phone doesn't take the best photos :( But here are a few:

We flew on a teeny tiny 12-passenger plane

Praise the Lord for beaches

Old Town shopping

Thrift find. Anthopologie rip-off?

Camel ride! Not comfortable, but still really cool

Thank you to everyone who donated money specifically for fun and breaks. Here’s to feeling refreshed!

Elections

Monday is a big day for Kenya -- election day! I don't care for politics in general, and yes, American election season is dreadful, but the potential problems and outcomes of this particular presidential election is much more serious than the typical frustrations of candidate commercials and overly-opinionated political ramblings on social media (which, let's be honest, is pretty terrible).

The last election in 2007 resulted in brutal violence and tribal clashes. It is often mentioned in conversations and referred to as the "burning of Kenya". The way the clashes are talked about here reminds me a lot of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, how "The Storm", as it's called, is the reference point for every event that has happened since then. It's the same here. There was a lot that went into the post-election violence in '07, and I'll spare you the details here, but it was very real and very scary and could have EASILY resulted in the deaths of many people I love. I shot a video of my sweet friend, Christine, sharing her experiences and what she witnessed as she was running from a terrorist group the morning after the election. The video is refusing to load (which doesn't surprise me at all because it's long... because Christine is so long-winded. I love her.), but I'll just have you know that her awful experience included witnessing a decapitation, a machete circumcision, and lying about her tribe so that SHE and her daughters did not have to endure the same torture... all right in the streets of town. Pretty serious, huh?

I'm not writing this to spark fear or worry in you, but more-so to stress how real and raw things were last time and could potentially be (though unlikely) just days from now. I pray and hope and believe that it will not be the same as the last elections, but I would be naive to think that nothing at all will happen and that elections will be completely peaceful. In fact, there have already been signs of threats and unrest in town. While where I live is pretty removed from town and very safe as far as the building and security goes, it would be irresponsible for me to pass up an opportunity to keep myself (and the Kenyans here who would, for all intensive purposes, be "hiding" me) as safe as possible. My director decided for all the Americans on the team to stay in a guest house in a very safe area of Nairobi. The US Embassy also suggests we migrate to the capital. Though extremely unlikely, if we were required to evacuate the country, we would have to be in Nairobi anyway. So I'm leaving Nakuru and my friends and my babies in about 12 hours to be holed up in a flat for the next few days. All HCO staff will be staying at the baby house for several days (or longer, if things get rough) for their safety. I'm not excited at all about leaving so many people I love, but the several of us that are going are determined to make our "trip" fun! Lots of movies, good food, and maybe even a game or two if we decide to get wild. Ha.

Because of the guest house boarding, transportation, and purchased food, I will be spending much more money this month than what I had anticipated and budgeted for. Anything you are willing to donate for this "evacuation fund" would be so greatly helpful and appreciated! :)

And guys, please please PLEASE pray for this country I love so much. Pray for peaceful elections, for humble and gracious hearts, and for everyone's safety. I have several wonderful friends who could easily be targets for tribalistic violence. Please pray for them. I have a houseful of babies and friends that I'm leaving behind that I love so much, it almost aches my heart. Please pray for them, too. And please pray for me and the others I am traveling with, that our journey is safe and our stay is short.

Sewing project!

This was the first week of our new sewing project at HCO! All of our ladies are single mothers in need. They are learning how to sew and make cute aprons and accessories to sell. 

This week (and the next several weeks) was just about learning the machines and simple sewing techniques. I’m definitely no sewing expert, but I’ll be handling some of the business side of things. 

Plus I’m really excited to get to spend some time with these ladies and get to know them better!