Thursday, May 7, 2009

These past few days have been such a blast! Although, they started with a little bit of a hiccup…aka, a fever. On Sunday, Kyle started feeling under the weather as we traveled to a church two hours away down some bumpy roads. We had both been fighting a cold for a few days, but his continued on and by the time we got back to town, Kyle was hurtin. He went straight to bed and we took his temperature. It started at 99.5 and then crept on up to 101.7 at which time we decided that a visit to the chemist was in order.

So, at about 8:30 pm we took a walk to the local doc that closed at 9. Just so you can get your bearings, the chemist is sandwiched in between a beauty salon and a meat market. We walked up to a lady behind bars and explained Kyle’s symptoms. She immediately said that a malaria and typhoid test would have to be done. We entered into the “office” where she proceeded to take blood. If you are thinking tvs and magazines, you are wrong. This was a closet room with cement floors, solutions and needles. We went back to the holding cell to wait with our African momma while the tests were processed. Just a few minutes later, we were relieved to hear that it was neither malaria nor typhoid, but that it was a bad bacterial infection. We were scheduled to leave for our safari the next morning very early, so we were contemplating canceling or changing dates.

It turns out that there was an injection of medication that would knock the infection right out, so we went for it. A man came walking around to get us as he apologized for just waking up from a nap. This man, in a t-shirt and jeans, continued back to the office where he injected Kyle’s arm with some sort of tranquilizer. It was a miracle worker medicine. He passed right on out while I packed for our early morning excursion. All throughout the night, we woke up to check his temperature. It rose at first, but then broke. Kyle woke up feeling like a million and we were on our merry way to Masai Mara!

About five and a half hours later, we arrived to our game lodge where we grubbed on some dank African food and then headed out for our first evening game drive. It was breathtaking! We immediately saw zebras, impalas, buffalo, warthogs, wildebeests, lions, cheetahs, hippos, crocodiles and even some giraffes…you name it. Speaking of naming it, we will have to name the rest tomorrow…still recovering from our journey ; ) Nakupenda!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Today was bittersweet as we ended our Vacation Bible Study. It is hard to believe that we have finished our two week teaching stint – time is flying and we are doing our best to slow it on down.

We decided that it would be more efficient to teach all 97 children together this morning since we had certificates of achievement awards to present as well. It was cool to see how Kyle’s older kids carried out their lessons, versus the way that the younger ones…eh, er do it. I think he got a good dose of my little kiddies today as they were squirming around in the front three rows! After our final lesson and ending our two-week “Camp Kahuna” story, (quite a thriller we must say) there were songs to be sung! The kids have really enjoyed learning some of our old camp songs such as, “I am a C – I am a C-H – I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N and I have C-H-R-I-S-T in my H-E-A-R-T and I will L-I-V-E-E-T-E-R-N-A-L-L-Y!” That one usually ends in “ayayayaayyyaaaayayyyayaayyaa.” Some others that we have taught them: Light the Fire, Sanctuary, The Lord’s Army and Isaiah 43. These kids LOVE to sing, so we fit right in.

Once we conducted our oh-so-official certificate presentation for the VBS, we gave out some more special awards to the children that behaved well or excelled. They were really pumped about their small tokens that we gave them, and then there were some that got that jealous look in their eyes…don’t know why because we definitely taught them about SIN! So for about an hour after the presentation it was “Tomorrow can you bring me a toy car? Will you bring me a baby doll tomorrow?” We are finding out just how much we have in common across borders. Kenyan kids = American kids. The same problems exist all over the world…as does the same love.

The only thing left to do was introduce them to an American graduation tradition. We were graciously donated several toys which included a giant inflatable beach ball. We told the kids how students sneak such things into graduations to throw around during the certification process. They went to TOWN with that thing. Kyle had bet that it would last an hour. The first puncture came within 29 seconds. Although, it was nothing that a little electrical tape couldn’t handle so the madness continued.

We got carried away and realized that Helen was waiting on us at a nearby restaurant called Nyamu Villa. She waited an hour. This is what happens when you are taking care of 97 little lives! We walked up the street to meet her and ate and ate and ate. We ate a whole chicken, two whole fish, ugali, mukimwa and sukuma wiki. We stumbled out of there feeling drowsy and drunk. We only had a mix of apple and orange juice. We came home and passed out for two hours before showering and…eating again! Tonight we have been enjoying time with Helen and Naomi watching TV and laughing – which we do plenty of around here : )

Helen and Amos (her middle son) have gone to attend an all-night prayer “Kesha” tonight at their church, which occurs the last Friday of each month. They promised to pray for us and we promised to sleep for them.
We must get some good rest before hitting up the Masai Market and African Jazz sesh tomorrow night!
XOXO to all

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Once again, we are on Kenyan time. Today we had an “arrangement” to be picked up early at 8 am, but that turned into a cool 10:30. No sweat! Poa Poa, guy.

We had an awesome morning with the kids. With every lesson we try and manipulate a game to tie into our bible verses in an attempt to keep the kids excited. We hit the mother load today.

Bible verse: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Romans 8: something

Game: Coca-Cola drinking contest. I mean, we have to prepare them for college right?

Rules: The first contestant to lap up the coke out of a bowl with their hands behind their back is declared champ. Boys vs. Girls.

The idea came from a book we bought to help us incorporate the games with our lessons. It suggested pretending to play a baseball game while asking everyone to cheer on the make believe baseball players. As if getting them to understand the great American pastime wouldn’t be hard enough, getting them to actually get excited about what most Americans fall asleep watching would end in nothing short of disaster. That said, we went to the drawing board. Thank goodness we didn’t think about using a funnel until now.

Our moral of the story was to illustrate the importance of the cheering. Most people would say the people in the contest made the contest so much fun, but it’s actually the cheering that gets everyone so pumped. In our life, we feel like we are the most important part of what’s going on around us, but if we allow it, God cheering us on and supporting us is what makes life exciting. Here are some of the action shots:

Mental Prep

After our morning lesson, everyone moved on to the ritualistic futbol game. We decided to mingle/let the kids play on us like a giant ant hill instead. The novelty of the mazungus has really begun to wear off, opening up the opportunity to really get to know the children individually. There are so many incredible personalities, one of which was hit by a car today!

Cedric calls Alvin his little soldier. He’s five years old, and he can probably bend steel with his exploding smile. All the kids were helping push a car up a mound of dirt so it could roll down while popping the clutch to get it started. It took two tries before the amateur driver got it puttering again. He probably didn’t even know he had it in reverse, because out of no where it pops into gear and starts flying backwards. On the other end was our little soldier. Kyle went running to him after he jumped up wide-eyed and holding his mouth. Typical Alvin style, he was back to pushing the limits of his supernatural powers after a quick swish of salt water. MEUNGA!

We had a relaxing evening with our Kenyan family. Helen cracked us up as usual in between bouts of throwing food in our face. We ate a healthy helping of Chipati, mashed beans with potatoes and chicken. African and awesome.

After dinner, we had some laughs over the photos from today, sang a few songs and prayed. Praying as a family is a big deal in their culture. There’s so much to learn from each other.

Wish we could have stayed awake long enough to update last night! Missing everyone tons, sending out our love to all, and to all a good night!!!

Tuesday, April 27, 2009

Pouring rain all night long gave us good, deep sleep so today we woke up fresh and the sun was shining! Rewind – Anna woke up fresh, two hours before our ride was scheduled to pick us up. Kyle, on the other hand, stayed in bed until 9:20. Ride scheduled at 9:30. Typical Slugbait. Anywho, the responsible Kusterer had her breakfast and coffee and planned for today’s lesson. Kyle finally rolled on out of our little netted haven and slowly started his day. Cedric came to pick us up and came in for a cup of tea. Time is irrelevant in Kenya. (I think I will sleep in tomorrow). Do you know Cedric yet?! He is only the most amazing person that we feel blessed to know. We both aspire to have half of the heart that he gives so selflessly. Cedric is the lifeline, support and shepard for the kids at AHC…and now for the two of us as well. We wish you all could have the opportunity to meet him. Who knows!

Arriving at the orphanage today was an atypical experience. They were all seated in place ready to learn, as opposed to out in the “yard” playing futbol or knitting. (“yard” because it’s a dirt filled cul-de-sac) Although, Anna’s class took a turn for the worse. It seems that everyone wants to sit on everyone’s lap. They want to pick each other’s noses, ears and hair. If they aren’t doing any of those things, they are chewing on a hairspray bottle top or something else that they found outside, and they become completely intrigued by it. In addition, part of our problem is the language barrier. The majority of the younger children speak only Swahili or Kiswahili as the natives call it. Therefore, Cedric translates the lessons everyday for the little guys. It’s really cool to see them learning about God in two languages. They are incredibly smart and practically already know every memory verse before it is taught.

Directly after teaching each day, we combine our groups and sing songs with them. It is great because we teach them our songs and they teach us theirs. So far we have learned “Doctor Jesus” – Doctor Jesus, He is here to meet our needs, and to heal our sickness, Oh Doctor Jesus, Just allow Him to touch you and you’ll never be the same again, Just allow Him – Just allow Him to touch you and you’ll never be the same again! We love hearing the kids sing it because their accents make it sound so much cooler than ours. Doctah Jesus, He is heah to meet ouah needs! We have also learned another song in Swahili…Nitagulie buana natamani kufika, Katika mesomo yangu natamani kushinda, katika maisha yangu natamnai kushinda – it is beautiful and we really don’t even know what it means. Something about “lead me father, I want to reach Heaven…even in my education and even in my life I want to win”. Everything sounds extraordinary when the kids sing it. Even Paul Simon’s enchanting ballad entitled, “Cecelia.” Surprise surprise, the kids are now obsessed with Kyle’s obsession. We save it until the end of our singing time, but about half way through, they’re already trying to interrupt with CECELIA! You’re breaking my heart!

Some things to be praying about: Beatrice (an aswesome caretaker/mother) found out her brother-in-law passed away yesterday. He was diagnosed with diabetes too late. She just came back from a week off, so she was rested and ready to go when this hit her. Because this week is Monicah’s break (the other awesome caretaker/mother), everyday life is a little hectic with Beatrice now gone until Friday night. However, the kids are more responsible than most adults we know (no need to point fingers and possibly open doors for hypocrisy).

Other than that today went smooth. A little power failure was fixed by none other than the terrible two, Kyle and Cedric. You can guess who is Batman and who is Robin. We also had a chance to play our daily dose of futbol in which Anna finally decided to stop faking like she wanted to learn how to knit and join in on. She of course left all the boys with jaws dropped at her steamrolling style of play.

When we arrived home, we were happy to find the water had been turned on. Anna didn’t hesitate at the opportunity to try and hand wash some clothes but she was caught by Naomi (Helen’s niece that lives with us). Helen and Naomi just about died laughing at her valiant effort to become not only a good wife, but most importantly a good African wife. From there, we went out back to learn the proper way to hand wash while enjoying some quality hang time. K24 News, “All Kenyan, All the Time” traditionally followed suit. This guy Jeff Koinange cracks us up. We would try and find you something on youtube, but we are about to hit the SACK. Right now, we are going to talk about some more very important things, a little later. This is Jeff… Koinange…. signing off…………. with…………… The Big……………………………………………… Story. And YOU…….. are watching………… it…………….. right here………………….

Mazungu, stay at home!

Africa at last-

We arrived in the Kenyatta International Airport late Wednesday night to three smiling faces holding poster boards with our names, accompanied by our mother church (spelled correctly!) and Africa Hope Center colorfully written on it. Our flight was late, but thanks to some advice from a seasoned Kenyan traveler, we were able to shimmy on through the visa line and get to our new friends. Joseph Kibe, Peter and of course our African mother Helen could not have made us feel more at home. Helen held Anna’s hand all the way to the car and for about the next 15 minutes. Everyone was so welcoming and we already felt at home in the airport parking lot.

We loaded up our five suitcases into the car (only two fit in the trunk) and were on our way to… traffic…in the parking lot. After a 20-minute, 50-foot long chess match, we hit the road. Our three new friends were a riot, we laughed all the way through a flat tire. Helen had a great (enormous) meal waiting for us that we were able to muscle through our fatigue. We slept in our little twin bed like babies.

The next day, Joseph Kibe came to the house around 10:30 to wait with us for our trusted driver (Frances) to come. He ended up getting arrested on the way to pick us up, so we got a later start than expected ; ) Once he freed himself, we were off to see the city! Joseph wanted us to see downtown, the Kenyan International Conference Center (where the president had a meeting that day), parliament etc. We also got to stop by the insurance/health care office where Helen works. We were in the car for about 5 hours that day…Anna took three different naps while Kyle champed through at only 1.5. We were still on US time…eyes bloodshot. Through the exhaustion, we still couldn’t wait to get to the orphanage, so we headed over that way for the first meet.

As we drove through the neighborhood, we began to realize the extent of poverty surrounding the kids. We honked and bobbled on through the dusty, unpaved roads until we reached the cul-de-sac of the Africa Hope Center. Immediately, the children began to multiply. They could see our bright (aka, white) faces through the tinted car windows. They knew the Mazungus had arrived. Many faces were smiling, but several had an indifferent look plastered across their smooth dark faces. We hopped out of the car and began to shake the hands of the children crowding around us. It turned out that some of those kids were not part of the orphanage, but neighbors that were caught up in all of the commotion. One in particular coined the phrase, “Mazungu, stay at home.” God reminded us early on that we had asked for the red carpet to be saved for Angelina.

One of the Kenyan (and I suppose other countries within Africa) customs is to serve tea when guests arrive. This doesn’t just mean “tea”. It means anything served hot – drinking chocolate, soy tea, coffee – you get it. If you don’t take “tea”, then you have automatically offended your hosts. I think it is safe to say that collectively, Kyle and I have together consumed 84 cups of “tea” since our arrival in Kenya, which in our case usually means coffee. I will have to say that we are not used to drinking WHOLE milk three to four times a day…but it’s delicious. Anyway, we reached the orphanage and had… tea. The kids were seated at their tables where they take breakfast, lunch and dinner. Kibe had the children introduce themselves to us with songs. We then said a few words about how happy we were to finally be with them and we told them how many people are praying for them in the US.

We left that evening a bit overwhelmed, yet ecstatic, wondering how we were going to remember 97 names and faces over the next few weeks. The next day we decided to group the kids within their “families” and arrange for a meet and greet. The children are divided into four families within the orphanage. The purpose is to create a feeling of family and unity within such a large number of people. We first met Family 1 and remembered all of their names when repeating them around the room. Well, as it turns out, the electricity was out that day and when we came out of the dark room each kid looked completely different. The next day we ended up then taking pictures of the kids from families 2, 3 and 4 as well as a name chart to coincide – and then back to Family 1. Needless to say, we did some face studying that night : )

Our first Sunday was actually spent at Deliverance, Helen’s church. With her graceful iron fist, we were indeed “delivered” onto the front row. We felt like a set of blinking buoys in a sea of Kenyans. Culture shock was setting in pretty deep, but the service was energetic and moving. The drummer was straight up jamming African style, so that pumped us up while serving as a suitable band-aid to the wound left after parting from our band at home. We later attended a youth concert that Helen’s son Amos helped lead. We’re proud to report that the new “missionaries” were known as the Mazungu’s that actually dance.

Our first week of VBS went incredibly well. The days have flown by as we are getting to know our kids better and better. As these 97 orphans become more like our own sons and daughters, we’re able to receive just a taste of their gifts and individualism. I think we’re beginning to grasp how God can know and love us all so uniquely. We honestly expected them to be quite a handful, but God’s love surrounds them through the workers and overflows from their personalities.

We can’t wait to post some more stories about our kids, but for now, this picture of Victor Ochien will have to tide you over.