Happy New Year!!!

Well hey there! Happy New Year! Well its NewYears here anyway, hehe. It is currently 2:15am on Jan. 1st 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya! (I need to go to bed, haha!)

Today was a VERY long day, hehe. I think it was just a combination of jet lag and lack of sleep the night before but its all good, I'm slowly getting on this time schedule. :)

I woke up around 6:45am this morning and found out that my roommate, Rebekah, was missing her camera.. Now when we first got here she realized she was missing her phone and has looked everywhere for it, so when she realized she couldn't find her camera either she was kinda freakin out, to say the least. hehe. (Btw, we still haven't found it and she is kinda really worried about it, she thinks she MAY have decided not to take it at al and unpacked it from her suitcase before she left. Please pray for her, as some other things have gone missing in her luggage and she just hasn't had a good start. Thanks.) Anyway, went down for breakfast at 8:15am and it was pretty good (I have a picture of it, that I will upload later). It consisted of bacon, a FRESH omelet and some really fresh pineapple! yumm... soo good. :)

After breakfast we all had a meeting upstairs to collect our money and passports and put into a safe box here in the hotel, and then to pray before we started our day! (Btw, it was sunny and in the 70's today!! Not to make or jealous or anything.. ;) hehe). We left the guest house and started on our way to go exchange our money for shillings. (FUN FACT: $100.00 dollars = $8,300.00 shillings. Isn't that crazy!?) Once we finished exchanging our money we headed into the shopping center, which was a lot like Wal-mart, surprisingly (gma, you would like it.. :) hehe)! There we bought bottled water and I got some Orange Juice, Bread, and Strawberry Jelly (which is used for making PB&J sandwiches, I brought my own peanut butter ;), for lunch while we're in the village.). When we got done in there, we went to the Java House, which is their equivalent to a Starbucks I guess and got a coffee, which was supposedly the best one they made. I thought it was pretty good. We then proceeded to travel to another store to buy more supplies for the village, such things as plastic bowls and cups, and we ordered some medicine for the clinic we will be offering in the village, aka "The Escarpment."

After we finished our supply shopping we traveled to the village to drop some of our stuff there so we would be ready the next morning. Its a long drive there. It took us about 45 min. to get there but it was awesome scenery and people watching while we were driving, Yes. I'm a bit of a creeper... haha. :) In order to get to the village you have to basically drive down the side of a mountain, on a dirt road that had mostly been eroded away by rain.. talk about a scary ride.. I freaked out a little bit on the way down, but we arrived safely. The landscape was BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't even believe I was actually there. I felt like I was in a movie! It was really cool. (I WILL put up pictures soon, I'm sorry its taken me so long.. the internet is REALLY slow.) I got to meet some of the locals while we were there and they were really sweet. There is a certain way you have to greet them too, which is interesting, a culture thing.. You do a firm handshake with your right hand and then a bring in to a hug on both sides. :)

We got organzined a bit and then went to go look at the school that was there. It was undergoing some new construction and a kitchen/cafeteria is in the works so we got to check that out as well. News traveled fast that there were "Mzungus" in the village.. thats Swahili for "white person" hehe. And soon lots of villagers were roaming the dirt streets to welcome us. :) It was a lot of fun to see little kids and just the people. We only stayed for a couple of hours and then we needed to leave to go eat dinner. But before I change the subject, I had a VERY interesting experience while in the village.. You see, I had drank a lot of water earlier in the day and as soon as we got to the village, I HAD to use thebathroom. Now, Rebekah told me about this bathroom and suggested I should bring toilet paper and hand sanitizer but I figured we weren't gonna be there long enough so it would just be extra things to carry around. I kinda wished I had listened to Rebekah.. haha. This bathroom was kinda like an outhouse.. only thing is, there is no seat. Its just a hole cut out of pavement with two raised slabs for both your feet to stand on. hahahaha! Oh! and no lights except for what would peak through the cracks in the ceiling.. It was definitely an experience. Needless to say, Rebekah let me borrow her toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I did my business and survived! haha!!! It was great! Tomorrow, I will DEFINITELY be more prepared. haha. ;)

We left the village and grabbed a bite to eat in the shopping area we went to earlier (at this point my camera had died, so no pictures in the evening, sorry). And then drove back to the guest house. Btw, if you think traffic is bad in America or even Europe, guess again!! Traffic is crazy! Half the traffic lights work, not all the lanes are marked at all, and people literally get about 5 inches from the car in front of them when stopped or in slow traffic. Not to mention the POTHOLES! Soo many.. people have to merge into oncoming traffic sometimes in order to avoid them haha! Luckily though, we have a really good, safe driver.

We got back to the guest house and passed the time by reading or checking email etc. until it was time to go to bed. Me and Rebekah stayed up for New Years and yelled it to each other, while making positive affirmation signs to decorate our room with, but that's all we really did. We talked for a little while and just shared God moments in our lives. God really used me to give her encouragement, it was cool. We then decided to get ready for bed. :) So thats what I did for New Year's, it was simple but very special and something I will probably never forget. (FUN FACT: Fireworks are banned in Kenya.. so no fireworks.. but thats ok. I could do without all the banging through out all the night like back home, haha).

Alright! Well tomorrow is 7:30am wakeup call and then going to the village for church. ITs gonna be a cool service. I cant wait. We will stay at the village until about 4pm in the afternoon and then leave to come back for supper. Okay, well that's about all for now. I will let you know what all happens tomorrow and hopefully get my pictures up!! hehe Again, have a Happy New Year and I'll talk to you soon! :) Thank you for all the prayers! Please pray that God will show me how to be a light to others as well as give me energy and strength to get through the day. I feel like I'm runnin on Jesus Juice at the moment. (That was for you Tay. ;) hehe), and its amazing but i'd like to be at my best in order to serve God with ALL that I have. ;) Again, thank you for our prayers and will talk to you soon!

View from one of the other rooms.

Breakfast! yumm! :)

Ok these next few pictures are of our room. :)

(From left to right) Nathan, Brenda, Ellen, Bekah

These next pics are of the city and our errand runs. :)

They DO have a KFC!! 

There was a dancing, singing, Santa! :)