Things To Look Forward To

Things I'm looking forward to in the next month:

1. Have almost a full week to indulge my Martha Stewart side decorating my apartment

2. See Matt!

He's fun to bring to parties AND he cleans up real good.  

He's my favorite.  

3. See my lovely friends 

4. See my family.  Is my brother cute or what?

 

5. Eat a really big burrito 

Women

I am feeling very grateful to be a woman in the time and place that I am.  Being an American woman has undeniable privilege attached to it, even if there are things in our culture I don't like.  Some of the only times I come close to losing my patience here are when a man is being pushy with me or dismissive and I can tell it is because I'm a woman.

I was at a health training and was talking to some women and they said they do not get to decide their physical relationships, if protection is used, or how many children they will have.  These are all men's decisions.  In a world of HIV/AIDs not being able to use protection is frightening.  In another case, I heard about a group of women saying that men will rape and then tell the women if they drink an Orange Fanta they will not get HIV.  Not sure where to start on that one.  One other sad case was a teacher saying that when she discussed the concept of love with her class of girls it was universally accepted that if he loves you, he will beat you.

It's very hard for me, as an outsider, to fully understand another culture.  I can't help but look through an American woman's eyes and I know I miss nuances and complexities and I feel a bit silly trying to interpret what's going on here at all when I've only been here a few months.  But when I see these wonderful women I want them to be able to say no when they want to, decide if and when they will marry, when they are ready to have children and how many they would like to have, and enjoy educational and work opportunities.   

Necessities

Living in Kenya shows you what is necessary.  Turns out electricity and running water are relatively easy to live without.  A few days ago I was whining a lot because I wouldn't have running water for a while.  But two hours in to not having running water I hardly noticed anymore, it just takes a little bit of extra work and getting up 10 minutes earlier to boil water for a bath ;).  My beloved Mexican food is not necessary and neither are my pretty clothes.  I am still very attached to my phone and internet.  Water and electricity I can live without, but when the phone lines go down I feel a little bit of panic.  But the only thing that is irreplaceable are my wonderful friends and family.  It's such a blessing to get to see people in person and spend time together having a meal or playing a game or just sitting together, I'm so excited to be able to do that soon!

Last August

A year ago I was ...

...hanging out with this dog:

Me: Jack, have you been digging in the backyard again?

Jack: What?  No, of course not!  How dare you accuse me of such a thing!  Let's go play ball!

...Going to the beach a lot

...Going to the San Luis farmers market every week and making extravagant meals

....Picking fruit from the backyard and baking yummy things

....Making these lovely curtains, if I do say so myself

....And getting ready to move here

Now I live in Africa.  This is amazing but I miss a lazy California August.

Grateful

Kenya is kicking my butt.  Mentally, spiritually, physically, it requires me to build a new skill or deeper persistence every day.  Last week our housekeeper’s grandchild died.  It is a challenge to me when I see people suffering and I’m crying out to God for a miracle and it doesn’t come.  But it is not fair to blame God.  Most of what I see here are human caused problems.  Government officials pocket money instead of investing it in education, health, or new roads.  But I still want a divine solution!  Can’t He just snap his fingers and make all this go away?  Preferably immediately, preferably yesterday in fact.  It is not my place to know God’s ways and not my place to judge them.  My only job is to express gratitude and try to use my hands, eyes, ears, words, and life to do the acts I want Him to do.  People are hungry so I should try to feed them instead of asking God why He hasn’t done so.  God helps those who help themselves.

 I’m reading a book on gratitude.  Gratitude is the only cure-all pill I know.   The sounds of church music on Sundays filling the streets, little kids screaming “Mzungu, how are you?!” at me on the street and a crowd of 10 of them all wanting to shake my hand, people who care deeply about others, beautiful maize fields, awesome afternoon thundershowers, the amazing stars here at night, encouraging notes from friends at home, chapatti and sikuma and beans.  These are all beautiful things.  And I also have to express my gratitude to Kenya for completely kicking my butt.  Now I know I can survive without electricity, without running water, in a house on my own, that I have ways I can contribute to the world that are meaningful, that you can throw what you want at me and I can handle it, that I can live in another culture, that I can keep my spiritual hunger through hard times instead of turning away in despair.  Life is good. 

Sipi Falls

See that cabin to the right of the waterfall?  That's where we stayed.

I had a wonderful weekend.  I went to Sipi Falls, Uganda with some great people and it was beautiful and peaceful and I loved it.  Sipi Falls are a series of waterfalls that all feed into each other.  We went hiking and had leisurely two hour dinners and played games and enjoyed being in a really beautiful place.  It is cold enough that there are no mosquitos, hallelujah!  The place was fairly rustic with no electricity so at night everything was lit with kerosene lamps which was beautiful.

Monkeys playing outside our front door.

Hiking!  We walked to the top of this waterfall, and then to the next one.  That stick came in really handy when I started slipping in the mud from the recent rains.  I came back just a little bit dirty and completely exhausted.

Ndere Island

I went to Ndere Island, a Kenyan National Park in the middle of Lake Victoria, close to the city of Kisumu.  I don't think it is one of the more popular national parks because the park rangers seemed so happy to see us and excited to share their place with us.  You could smell Lake Victoria before you could see it as all the villages we drove past on the way there smelled of drying fish.  To get there you take a little boat, that seemed about 2,000 years old, from the mainland and then you're on an island with literally no one else.  We spent a few hours hiking up from the shore to the top of the hills and the views were beautiful.  We were told stories about wildlife but all we saw were a few lizards and a few antelope in the distance that ran away from us.  Later we heard mysterious rustling as we were walking through the forested part of the island and then I was happy not to see anything!  We also didn't see the Nile crocodiles I keep hearing about, which I kind of do want to see, but preferably at a distance.