Just Getting Started

Our sleep cycles are still a bit wonky from the time change. In fact, we were both up at 1am after only 4 hours of sleep – wide awake - and it took nearly two hours for our internal clocks to reset and for us to fall asleep again. Later that morning, Taryn was quickly woken from her sleepy state when she closed the door of the bathroom and prepared to have a shower. Falling into the toilet has a whole new meaning here! Let us explain: the bathroom in our current residence is, in essence, a cubicle with a shower hanging overhead (hot water switch just outside of bathroom) and a “toilet” (really, it’s a urinal in the floor) just a few inches behind. So, as you can imagine, Taryn was worried she’d accidentally put a foot through the toilet or drop her bar of soap down it (which she was not willing to dive in after). Please pray that a foot or bar of soap never slip into the abyss.... :) P.S. Though we "joke" about the state of our bathroom, we in fact are VERY thankful for the amenities we have as they are considered extravagant by most of the locals.

Yesterday was also our first full day at PACE. We got a call at 9am that we needed to get over to PACE pronto – Wachira had some work for me to do on his PDA – which is basically his lifeline to the world. As I was sorting out the issues with this difficult device (or should I say not sorting anything out and banging my head against the wall for 3 hours), Taryn attended a meeting with the teachers where they were discussing the details of next week’s youth camp. She also received a guided tour through PACE from Wachira’s eldest son.

This is an exciting and busy week at PACE. Pastors from around Kenya are here for a week long intensive course on church leadership, and there are around 50 twelve to fourteen year old boys that are partaking in a right to passage into manhood. We joined the latter group as they went down to a nearby lake to do some rafting, which is really paddling around a small lake in a rubber raft. Nonetheless, many of the boys had never seen the lake nor been in a raft, so it was a fun time for all! It seemed like most of the locals around the lake had never seen such a sight either, since a dozen children, women and men gathered to watch the boys paddle and splash about. The ride to and from the lake was slow and bumpy, but it gave us the opportunity to appreciate the rolling hills and tall pine trees all around. Kenya really is a beautiful country and we enjoy sharing our appreciation of it with the locals, whom have so much love for their country – so much so that our words light up their eyes and make them smile from ear to ear. It’s wonderful!

Speaking of bumpy rides, fifteen of us went for dinner at Wachira’s – the van we took was so low to the ground that every last bump we hit, the van bottomed out. By the time we arrived at Wachira’s place there were several new sounds coming from the van, one of which was a grinding gear shift. I think we will take some pictures of the road and post them so you might appreciate just how bad the roads are. But in contrast to the roads you have incredible food … and Glenda (Wachira’s wife) knows how to cook with the best of them and somehow (miraculously) pulled off dinner for 15 in a little over an hour! After dinner, we lounged in front of a fire, sipping fresh Chai and chatting with other PACE staff and pastors that are taking the course. During this fellowship time, we also made a new discovery – the young teens that were pointing at us earlier that afternoon were not shocked by a female wearing trousers (we can no longer call them pants, as that is how Kenya’s refer to their underwear) as we had originally thought, but were shocked to see a couple showing affection – through the holding of hands – in public. Our initial reaction was to do as the locals do, but Wachira said he would have none of that! For one, he said we shouldn’t go through withdrawals from each other just because the locals don’t hold hands. Plus, he said he hoped we would encourage locals to do the same; however, the local fellow sitting across from us said that is something he will never do.

As for today, we didn’t spend much time at PACE. I started the day by doing some odds and ends around the office while Taryn helped organize some games for next week’s camp – scavenger hunts and dress-up relay races are completely foreign here, but the locals are intrigued! Then we spent a couple hours in the afternoon purchasing some groceries for ourselves and for the group leaving for Maralal tomorrow (short term trip to help build a church). Visiting a local supermarket, Spears, and the local markets were definitely the highlights of the day! Like Central America, the streets overflowed with pedestrians, bicycle taxis and stalls selling absolutely everything under the sun. There’s never a dull moment in Nyahururu - that’s for sure!

As a final note, we just wanted to forewarn our mothers (and others) that we won’t have internet access while we’re in Maralal, but hopefully we’ll get a chance to give a brief update on Sunday evening before we head off Monday morning to Nivasha for a pastors retreat.