I'm almost half way to paying off my immunization debt.  Thank you very much to those who have donated!  I have added an itemized list of all of my immunizations and how much they cost me.  I have also added a list of donations I've received so I can be as transparent as possible.  Thank you for your support and help.  Click here to learn more.

When my family arrived to Kenya last week they were carrying 3 extra bags that were full of treasures that my home church, First Presbyterian Church of Broken Arrow, had collected for me.  So, I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my family at First Presbyterian Church of Broken Arrow!  I want to especially thank Margaret Ann for heading up the collection process.  So, thank you Margaret Ann!  Merry CHRISTmas to you all and I love you.  Thank you!

From Family Visit

RTQ

Hello friends,
          Merry CHRISTmas!  Well, it was yesterday, but I still want to wish you all a very Merry CHRISTmas.  My parents and brother have been here for the past 10 days spending time with me in Kenya and I have absolutely loved the experience of having them here.  Furthermore, it was great to have them here for CHRISTmas.

Merry CHRISTmas from the Quirings:

From Family Visit

Merry CHRISTmas from the Kenyan YAVs:

From Family Visit

          Our spare Blair has finished her overtime as a YAV from last year and the beginning of this year and we had a going away party for her the night my family arrived.  May God bless you and keep you, Blair.

From Family Visit

          Below is a post from my mom and another from my dad.  Next week I will put up more post from them and my brother about our time in Kenya.  I felt like leaving the blogging about Kenya to them for the time being, but I still have a few insights to share.

Here is short video of my family arriving at the Kenyan airport:



          First, family.  Wow is family important which I have known for a long time, but this morning as I saw my family off at the airport I once again realized how amazingly blessed I am and that I wouldn't see them for 8 months.  I just started praying for them without the thought of, "I should pray" but it just happened.  Kind of cool.  Any who, I love my family and am glad we got to spend the last 10 days together.  May Jet Lag cause you many fun memories...

          I got pretty sick last week and am still getting over whatever it is.  It was nice to have my mom down the street instead of half way around the world during this.  The situation reminded me of a woman that I visited with several times this past summer during my hospital chaplaincy.  She was 83 and talked with me about how every time she gets sick she wants her mother to come and take care of her.  I had many other people tell me this in less direct ways, but I think it's true no matter how old you get you want your mom when your sick.  So, I was glad that I had mine readily available.

Mom cooking dinner after the power went out one night:

From Family Visit

          I have been thinking a lot...about my childhood, teenage years, college, and seminary.  The whole shabang.  Memories that I haven't thought of since they were formed and others for years have popped back in my head as I have been with Kenyan children and thought back on how my childhood was different and so on and so forth with teenage years, college, and seminary.  You get the picture.  Any who, there have been a lot of e-mails to parents and friends.  "Hey mom, thanks for taking me to swimming lessons when I was young."  You know, the typical e-mails you get from a 25 year old male...

          I've also been thinking a lot about a funny predicament.  When I am home on the couch in Broken Arrow (my happy place) watching Cash Cab or Man vs. Wild I want to be in NYC (where Cash Cab is) or whatever exotic place Man vs. Wild is taking place.  However, when I make it to NYC or the exotic place, I want to be back on my couch in Broken Arrow.  Make up your mind, Robert!  This goes along with my problem of not wanting money, but at the same time wanting money.  So, it has been fun to sit and ponder these predicamentss under African skies for the past 4 months.

Welp, that's enough for now.  Until next week with more family posts.  Have a relaxing break for those who get one and a good end of 2008!
RTQ

Hello from an internet café in Nairobi.  The lodging we are staying at doesn’t have internet access, so we have to go to an internet café to contact the outside world.  It charges 1 shilling per minute (75 shillings = $1).

From Family Visit

The weather is in the 70s.  Most of the buildings don’t have furnaces or air conditioners, so all the cooling and heating is done naturally.  You just have to add or take off blankets to stay comfortable in bed.

We had to sleep on the airplane twice on this trip.  Sleeping on the flight to London wasn’t too bad because we had enough legroom, but the legroom on the flight to Nairobi was very tight, which made it hard to sleep.  The dinner was good (three different meals to select from), and the Virgin Atlantic crew was very friendly.

In London the fire alarm went off, so we had to evacuate our part of the terminal.

When we arrived in Nairobi, it took a while for our passports and visas to be checked.  The traffic was bumper to bumper most of the way to our lodging.  The Kenyan’s like to drive very close to each other and honk their horns a lot.  The honking seems to work, since everyone was avoiding accidents as they merged in and out of traffic.

It is taking a while to get used to traffic driving on the other side of the road.  The first time I thought that we were going to have an accident.  Now the problem is walking, because you have to look the other way to avoid traffic.  We are mostly walking in the city (along with a lot of other people).

The best channels here are CNBC Africa and Aljazeera.  From what I had heard about Aljazeera in the States, I thought that it would have a slanted view about the world.  But from what I have seen, it appears very balanced and also gives news about the other side that we may not get in the States.

Thursday

The compound Robert works in is very nice.  It is a rural area of Karen.  There are many flowers and open spaces.  He has a room in a Quonset hut that is divided into several rooms.  Robert’s room is next to Cosmos' room.  The walls don’t go all the way to the top of the hut, so they can talk back and forth.

From Family Visit

From Family Visit

Robert forgot his room key, so he had to climb over the wall to get into his room.  He tried to open the door from the inside, but was unsuccessful.  We were able to see the inside of the room by standing on a bed in Cosmos’s room and looking over the wall, or looking though the outside window into Robert’s room.  Because Robert is so tall, as compared to the average Kenyan (or average American, I guess), they have supplied him with two beds that he has placed next to each other.

From Family Visit

From Family Visit

Robert showed me the network wiring he installed, with the help of Rodgers, an employee at the compound.  The wire goes from the administration office, through the attic, along a fence (using twist ties to attach the wire to the fence), then up to a tree (again using twist ties to attach it to the tree), then into his room.  Robert then has internet access to the world.


Friday

Because Robert wasn’t feeling well and could not make it into Nairobi until Friday afternoon, Helen and I decided to explore the city.  We walked to the Sarit Centre, a large enclosed Kenyan mall.  We wanted to see what Kenyan stores were like.  It took us 30 minutes to walk to the general vicinity of the mall, and then another 20 minutes to find it.  Robert had taken me there earlier in the week, and I thought that I could easily find it, but all the other stores surrounding it made it difficult to locate.

There were a lot of Kenyan’s walking on the road from our room to the mall.  It was interesting to be among the general public.  When we did make it to the mall, there were many cars trying to find parking spaces, so it was easier to get around on foot.

The mall was four stories tall.  It had ramps between floors, instead of escalators, and wasn’t air conditioned, with the temperature in the mall being very pleasant.  We went to the food court and had lunch at “The Southern Fried Chicken” restaurant.  They also had several other restaurants there, including Chicago Pizza and Chinese food.  They had Santa Claus, having his picture taken with children.  After checking out several stores, we went to the super market in the mall.  The cashiers at the super market were allowed to sit down as they checked you out.  We found this at several stores, and they seemed to be as efficient at their jobs as cashiers in America, who are required to stand up to do their job.

After receiving a cell phone call from Robert and Patrick for food from the food court and baguettes from the Shell service station, we walked back to our room to find a sick Robert.  He was able to eat lunch, and then I showed him a video tape that his friends at the church had made wishing him a very merry Christmas, which he really enjoyed.  He rested some more after that, but was still feeling sick.

We all walked over to Henry’s apartment, where Patrick and Robert are spending their nights.  Helen made subway sandwiches from the food we had purchased.  Robert was still feeling sick.  He was starting to have chills and was shaking.  We had to leave because it was starting to get dark.  Robert thought that walking would make him feel better, so he walked with us back to our room and then went back to the apartment.

At 7:30 pm we received a call from Robert saying that he had chills, trembling, joint ache, and a fever.  He said that he was going to the emergency room to be tested for malaria.  His supervisor was going to drive him.  They said that they might stop by and take one of us along for moral support, but decided that that wasn’t necessary.  Luckily, after running a blood test, they found that he didn’t have malaria, but just a severe throat infection.

Well, we are off now.  Today (Saturday) we are going out with Robert’s host parents for a drive around Nairobi.

From Family Visit

Tom

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Robert had requested at least one morning of his usual breakfast in Broken Arrow, so I had brought blueberry muffin mix and baking cup papers.  Robert borrowed a muffin tin from his boss and went around the corner to buy some milk from a street vendor.  We thought we were all set until we realized that the oven in the apartment did not seem in the mood to attain the required 400 degrees.  We ended up baking the muffins under the broiler.  I was surprised when the muffins disappeared without a complaint as I knew they were not baked that well.  Robert and Patrick said I had made worse back in Broken Arrow!!!??

From Family Visit

Around 11 a.m., Robert’s boss appeared in a Volkswagen Golf to take us around for the day.  William is a charming 28 year-old who attends college part-time and works for African Evangelistic Enterprise full-time.  The first thing we wanted to do, of course, was see where Robert is spending the majority of his time during his year in Africa, the grounds of AEE.  After what seemed to me a harrowing drive through thick traffic, William made a hit with me by saying he wanted to buy us Americans a coke.  What a nice gesture!

AEE is located on a very pleasant expanse of grass with lots of colorful plants.  The office building looks kind of like a Midwestern ranch house, and then there are the two Quonset huts, one of which has been made into a dormitory.  Robert lives in one end of it, but he had forgotten the key to the door so we had to make do with peeking though the window.

From Family Visit

Since William was making a special effort to drive us around, we wanted to take him to lunch.  He suggested a restaurant called The Rusty Nail and our Midwestern minds conjured visions of horseshoes on the wall and peanuts underfoot.  However, the restaurant turned out to be one of the most charming spots in which I have ever dined.  Our table was on the verandah and the weather was perfect.  Stretching out in front of the restaurant was a large expanse of lawns, gardens, and exotic trees.  The whole meal was just a lovely occasion.

From Family Visit

If anyone asks me what my favorite movie is, I always respond Out of Africa.  I first saw the movie in 1987 while recovering from my broken right arm.  The story of Karen Blixen’s life has fascinated me since then.  Flash forward to 2008:  Robert decided to go to Kenya as a Young Adult Volunteer.  After about a month, he announced that he is living in Karen.  I immediately made the connection that the Karen he is mentioning must have something to do with Karen Blixen.

Somehow Tom, Patrick, and I were able to travel to Kenya to spend Christmas with Robert.  Seeing and being with Robert was of course my first priority for our time in Kenya, but I couldn’t resist the idea of actually seeing the location of the events which have interested me so much for so long.  So, of course, when Robert typed up his plan for our ten days in Kenya, he put Mom’s trip to Blixen museum at the top of the list.

After lunch, William drove us to the museum, and it was very satisfying to find that the house and grounds looked exactly as I had thought they would.  Apparently when the movie was made, the house was restored and has been maintained as part of the National Museum of Kenya.

From Family Visit

From Family Visit

Well, we're off to dinner and more Kenyan experiences.

Helen

I have learned that Internet Explorer and my blog do not get along.  Therefore, if you would like to see what my blog is supposed to look like use Firefox or another program besides Internet Explorer.  I will look into these problems, but am not sure if I will be able to fix them without serious revamping.  Thanks.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Preface:  I have many friends who have come to Uganda and loved their experience and the country.  I hope that I can go back to Uganda one day because my time there this time around wasn’t great.  However, I have heard people talk about places I love negatively and know how upsetting it is.  I usually just think to myself, “they really don’t understand.”  Therefore, I will try to refrain from being one of those people "who just doesn’t understand" in this post and look forward to returning to Uganda one day hopefully.

Cosmas and I got up Thursday morning and headed toward the Kenya and Uganda border. I checked the Uganda website and it said that Kenya residents (which I am) do not have to pay anything, but normal US citizens must pay $50. Thus, I made it to the immigration desk and was asked where my money was. I told them I was a resident of Kenya, the man asked where my money was and eventually I got to meet with the supervisor. The supervisor explained to me that although I am a resident of Kenya I am a US citizen and would have to pay the $50. After making a fuss, I budged and got out $50 in Kenya Shillings. The supervisor said that they do not accept Kenya Shillings. Luckily, I thought this might happen and had already gotten some Uganda shillings, so I got out $50 in Uganda Shillings, but the supervisor told me that they don’t accept Uganda Shillings either, only US dollars. This is the point where I asked, “you don’t accept your own currency?” No, they don’t. Therefore, if you are ever entering Uganda make sure you have dollars. So, Cosmas ran ahead and exchanged $50 of Shillings for Dollars at a painful exchange rate and everything was squared away. We got on another matatu for Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and I was grumpy for half an hour before I got over myself and my small problems.

Kampala is a bustling city that is extremely busy with people going every which direction and reminded me of ants marching.

From Mfangano

There are fewer wazungu in Uganda and so I was stared at from the moment most people laid eyes on me until I was out of their sight. In Kenya, the children will all run out and yell “mzungu!” as I walk along, but in Uganda the adults do it more than the children which I found odd. Cosmas remarked that “everyone was staring at me" which I found odd because on Mfangano I would have 10-20 children following me down the road whenever we went somewhere.  Thus, there were A LOT of eyes on me. On a cute note, most people don’t speak Swahili in Uganda, but the word Mzungu is Swahili, so some kids were a bit mixed up and called me “chachungu,” “watungu,” and anything else that kind of sounds like mzungu.  This spiced things up a bit and made me smile.

I believe the main issue we had in Uganda was that our contact in Kampala was on a retreat so could not help us.  Therefore, everyone we interacted with was a business interaction. On Saturday after we arrived at the bus stop to take us back to Nairobi, our contact called and ran over and took us out for sodas and was a delightful man. He has invited me back and I really hope that I have the opportunity to return to Uganda as a friend and not a customer.
Cosmas and I then embarked on a 17 hour bus ride from Kampala to Nairobi which left at 3 PM Saturday afternoon and arrived in town at 8 AM Sunday morning. I chose the seat in the very back row with the aisle for leg room (again) which was a good choice for my legs, but a bad choice for trying to sleep. At one point I dozed off for a few minutes, but quickly found myself 3-4 ft off my seat from a big bump which taught me it was a better idea just to stay awake the rest of the ride. We arrived back to Nairobi after being away for exactly 2 weeks and for the first time Nairobi/AEE really felt like home for me which was really nice.

First Sighting of the Nile River

From Mfangano

Wednesday morning Cosmas and I woke up very early at his sister’s house on the other side of Mfangano Island. We went around and said our goodbyes which take longer than your usual US goodbyes and even longer than your average Kenyan goodbyes. We hopped on a boat and were off…for a 3 hour boat ride to the mainland. Then we walked about 50 ft across the mainland and hopped on another boat to take us to the main-mainland. Apparently our first mainland was a peninsula so it was quicker to take a boat to the main-mainland. It took Cosmas a while to explain that one to me. Once on the main-mainland there was a matatu waiting to take all of the people from the boat. I hid so that Cosmas could find out what the price was without my whiteness making it 3-4 times higher than it usually is. When I did pop up from behind where I was hiding the driver yelled, “Mzungu, come here, come sit in front,” so I did. Cosmas had to sit in the back which made me sad because I was being treated differently because of my skin color, but they assumed they were going to charge me 3-4 times the normal price so the least they could do is give me a front seat. The matatu kept picking up people until the small van was bulging out. At one point we had 5 people with their standing with the sliding door open outside the van as we went down the road. We had around 20 people in a van made for 9.  Eventually, the driver asked Cosmas for his money. Cosmas paid the man for 2 and pointed at me. Then they started talking in Luo and I hadn’t a clue what they were saying, but I knew it was about me and how I should pay more. I asked Cosmas after we got out what all had been said.  He said that he told the driver that everyone should pay the same price, but the driver said that wazungu should pay more. I felt bad for Cosmas sticking up for me, but was very happy to have a Luo friend who did. After an hour and a half ride we got to a small town and I hid while Cosmas found us motorcycle drivers. After a few minutes he came around the corner with 2 motorcycles and we were driven down back roads to Grandma Sarah Obama’s house.

Note: Sarah Obama is Barack Obama's paternal step-grandmother.  In Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, the last section of the book is about his first trip to Kenya where he visits Kogelo, meets his grandmother, and sees where his father and grandfather are buried.

It was about 10 km (4.5 miles) outside the city. It was fun and interesting riding on the back of the motorcycle because when kids would see me I would hear, “Mzungu! Mzungu!” as they frantically waved their arms at me. I waved back when I could see where they were yelling from. We finally turned off the main road (if you could call it that) and went down the drive until we came upon a large gate and fencing. As we pulled up there was a van that had just pulled up before us that contained a couple from India, an old man from Switzerland, and a man from England. They were in Kenya for a farming conference and wanted to meet Grandma Obama and give her letters. However, we were told that Grandma Obama was not home, but one of her grandkids was coming out to meet us. Her grandkid was extremely polite and graceful. He met with the others and received their letters. The old Swiss gentleman very genuinely asked the grandkid to apologize to his grandma for everything that the Europeans had done to Africa and I could tell he meant it and it had been haunting him. As I was waiting by the gate one of our motorcycle drivers came over and started talking to the grandkid in Swahili. My Swahili is not great yet, but I understood him say that Sarah was home, but didn’t want to come out which made sense. If she came out every time someone stopped by she would spend all day every day greeting people. So, we sat there outside the gate for half an hour and talked amongst ourselves. Sarah’s grandkid came over right before we left and thanked me for coming to visit. I apologized for being annoying and for all the visitors that they are receiving now and he again said, “no, we appreciate you coming and I want to thank you again.”  And with that we were off. The motorcycles took us another 10 km in the same direction to a new town where we caught a bus to Busia, a border town in Kenya.

Very Short Video of Sarah Obama's Home


Outside Home

From Mfangano

With Sarah Obama's Grandkid

From Mfangano

On Saturday, Cosmas took me around the rest of Mfangano Island. We first took a boat to the Wazungu camp (white people camp) as it is lovingly called here. We were shown around an extremely nice resort that cost $500 a night which made me feel sick to my stomach and I was glad when we were able to leave. (hard to explain in words unless you’ve been living in my shoes the past 3 months/25 years) We then continued walking along the beach through beautiful tropical forest paths. It was breathtaking and I kept trying to comprehend where I was and that it was December. We finally caught a boat which took us to another very small, very crowded island called Ringiti Island (it is part of Mfangano Island, but a separate island, I never fully grasped how this worked). As we pulled up it looked like a bald man’s head popping out of the water (because of lack of trees) that was covered in sheet metal houses. We walked all the way around the island. The problem with this wee island is that it is so small and so populated without plumbing, so people bathe and washe their dishes in the same water from which they drink. Cosmas told me that one of his hopes is to start an awareness program here so that people can understand the advantages of being more structured with where they bathe, drink from, and so on. It was an interesting experience I am glad that I had.

Ringiti Island


On Ringiti Island


Preachin' and Teachin'

The morning after arriving on Mfangano Island I was told that we were having devotion so I grabbed my bible and when I sat down the pastor said “welcome, Robert, would you lead devotion today?” So, I did a on the fly rendition of a devotion I had done previously. I then realized/learned that I would be preaching and teaching much more than I had anticipated (none had been the anticipation). I was asked to lead a few Bible Studies, speak to a few different groups, and preach on Sunday morning. Welp, no electricity so no old sermons or typing out a manuscript. So, I just went the good old fashion bullet point way and it turned out very good. I preached the lectionary text because I found great strength and comfort knowing that the same text would be read back in Broken Arrow, Sherman, Allen, and Austin. The sermon lasted for 35 minutes! Don’t worry, everything I said was translated into Luo so you can cut that in half which is still 17.5 minutes of preaching! The best part for me was that I went through 3 translators. I started out with Bill and then Samuel came up and finally Silas. I think if I would have gone 30 seconds longer I could have gotten 4 translators which would have been awesome!  Translating is tiresome, especially when the person you are translating from has an accent and speaks with a different word structure than they're used to.  I was still proud of my 3 translator record thus far.  Furthermore, during sermons here, preachers will say "Bwana Asifiwe" which means "Praise the Lord!" and everyone responds "Amen!"  My sermons are not usually interactive, but since it is very hot here and I wanted to make sure they understood what I was saying I through it in every now and again.  The only problem is a I would chuckle after saying it...  So, all in all, it was a good day!

Preaching


Bwana Asifiwe


We left the church we had stayed at for 10 days and went to the other side of the mountain to stay with Cosmas’ sister Tuesday morning. Cosmas had been invited to an open-air meeting. I didn’t know this until we were walking to it. It was very organized and impressive. Cosmas and I were the oldest, while the others were all highschoolers. They had a generator, speakers, and an amp which they set up right in the middle of this little town's center.  They sang some songs and then Cosmas preached. I was asked to introduce myself and give a sermonette so I did that as well.  Cosmas said that when he had taken another person from the states to an open-air meeting they had said if you were to do this in the states people would think you're crazy.  I looked at him and said, "Yep."

Cosmas Preaching

From Mfangano

Random Arnold Poster in a Diner on Mfangano Island

Thank you to those who have donated to my immunization debt fundraising! I really appreciate it! I have raised $225, with a goal of $750. If you want to learn more about donating click here.  Thank you again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cosmas and I are staying with his pastor, Pastor Felix, and sleeping in a new school that the church has built.  Monday morning, I awoke to Pastor Felix telling me that there was warm water ready for me to bathe with.  So, I practiced the art of bathing from a basin again.  This style is not made for the 6’5 I have determined, but I am getting better at it as time goes on.  Cosmas called a motorcycle which took us to the other end of the island so he could show me the shopping center and the other islands.  I tried to explain to him how he had grown up on a tropical paradise and he just laughed at me and said, “no, no, no.”




 -PLEASE DON'T READ UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE AFRAID OF YOUR TOILET-
I had kept telling everyone that I hadn't seen a snake yet and I thought that was weird.  Welp, I found one.  So, the most interesting part of my day was when I went to the bathroom and found a snake in the toilet.  I thought it might be dead so I spat on it and it moved so I went and got Cosmas.  I didn’t tell him what was in there just that he needed to come and see something.  When he saw it he jumped back and started screaming.  This resulted in them pouring boiling water in the toilet and sending the 6 ft. snake to heaven.  Cosmas couldn’t believe that I had taken a picture of it in the toilet, I just said, “I am my father’s child.”

 -CONTINUE READING WITHOUT FEAR-