Saturday 26 March 2016

A Robber! An a renewed Trust in God!

(Monday March 21st)
Monday morning starts with a crash, after a long tiring weekend of "first's!"
Dad was to be at the compound pastors meeting by 7:30 a.m. an the twins were assigned to be at the weld shop at 8:30 a.m. an so we all tried to assume our new routines...i worked on laundry, which was another one of those "firsts," as far as how they do things here in Kenya, i washed all the shirts an dresses by hand, simply because they have one tiny front loader, an it took to long to run them through there, in my opinion anyway, i enjoyed the work, even though my back got pretty tired, an i was sopping wet till i got done...i kept telling myself, i might as well face the music, an toughen up sometime! an the washer!?! yeah it is certainly a "missionaries washer!" you have to push the knobs terrible hard before they work, an i kept taking lunges at the door handle, an propelling my weight backwards, in order to get the door open, but i soon learned how to operate the buttons on the washer, an after the washer door, an i have our little game of "tug of war" things usually progress quite normally from there! :)

So the twins usually have an hour lunch break, an then work till 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening.
so far they have done mostly odd jobs, running errands, running to town, becoming oriented with were everything is in town, knowing were to buy things to keep the weld shop running smoothly, an according to their stories over lunch time, they are also learning how to bargain with the locals, which should prove to be an interesting part of their lives for me to eaves drop on, on occasion! :)
they also said they took some welding lessons from Jadon an Lavonn who have been running this weld/maintenance shop for the last 4+ years.
Mom took Dad his lunch at the pastors meeting, which they have on the compound here, an it usually lasts from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening.

Monday afternoon, i got some chicken out of the freezer an made a marinade, an grilled some chicken for supper, that was a new experience for me... to grill with charcoal, i was used to grilling with propane, but it went fine, an when Dad came home he was so tickled, since he said he was thinking of grilled chicken all afternoon, an almost texted Mom several times to tell her to make some! so i was glad our minds had been traveling the same! ;) we ate out in our carport, an enjoyed talk of what each one had done an experienced that first Monday in Kenya! an also very much enjoyed that the approaching dusk brought temps down to a more suitable temperature, but what we didn't know is that the approaching dusk also brought some curious, an unwelcome visitors!!

As most of you know by now, we had a robbery on Monday evening, we went to bed as normal, an were just getting over our jet lag, an enjoying our new home...dad usually locks up the weld shop around 8 p.m. an then just before we go to bed he locks our yard gate, as well as all the doors to the house, (which if you know our family, you know this is a foreign thing for us, since our house in the states very rarely got locked when we left, on extended trips we would maybe lock the front door!)
so anyway, is it any wonder that with a whole ring full of keys Dad happened to forget to lock the back door? which also happens to be the kitchen door.
So we all slept soundly till about 1:30 a.m. when Dad woke up to a beeping noise, which just happened to be me trying to find the highest setting on my fan, i woke up an was SO very warm an the fan had stopped, so i had just found my setting on my fan, an went to lay down again, an Dad had gotten up, because he was so warm too, an couldn't sleep anymore, so he was on his way to the office to check up on emails, when he was just ready to step into the hall, from his bedroom, a short slinky little black figure goes zipping past him, at high speed, scaring poor Dad completely out of his wits!! Dad lets out a loud shout! an that is what the rest of us woke up to, i woke up to shuffling feet an sounded like people running, then i heard Dad shout out in dutch! "there's someone in here!", then i knew we were having a robbery, i slipped of the back side of my bed with the covers over top of me, shaking like a leaf! praying hard, an in my fright basically repeating two phrases over an over...then i heard dad set off the alarm which sounds like a tornado whistle back home...i still didn't know if Dad had gotten hurt or not, an i didn't know if the robber was still in the house, so i got up trying to find a more reasonable hiding place, i started for the closet, but my arms an legs felt like jelly, i honestly could not walk! then just as i was finally reaching my closet, my bedroom door slowly opens up, an there was Stan, checking to see if i was OK, an assured me that the robber was gone an that no one was hurt! praise the Lord!! we then saw that he left both of moms purses laying in the yard with the contents dumped out, he took here iPhone, but didn't get the Kenyan money that she had just put in the inside zipper of her purse the evening before! he also left most of our chargers for our electronics.
he had obviously made several trips before we woke up, since he had stolen our laptop, iPad, iPhone,tablet, two iPod, and a camera! what a haul! that leaves us with one iPhone an a camera. but like Dad said "things are replaceable, People are not!" so as you can imagine there was very little sleep for us the rest of the night, an has been a struggle for some of us since! keep praying for us in that!

(Tuesday March 22nd)
I slept in late because of, late hours the evening before, then i got up an did quite a bit of ironing.
the twins came home for lunch, an Dad was out doing odd jobs with Tommy, trying his best to glean all the wisdom from Tommy that he can before Tommy leaves.
Dad an Tommy also visited the neighbors challenging then a little on why that the robbers have come over the wall from their side to ours 3-4 times already, an have stolen things from our compound, but they have not encountered a robbery yet!? they said that they don't have anything that a robber would want to steal, who can you believe an trust in Kenya!? Dad seems to think that they are some how connected with the robbery we had, but we also, don't want to falsely accuse our new neighbors, an we want to leave the judging up to God.

In the afternoon i went to visit Carolyn Rodes, which lives right behind our house, a alleyway connects our houses, she is one of the teachers here at Kisumu, we chatted for a while, an i looked around her cute little apartment.

later in the late afternoon, Dad had come home a little early, an so him an mom an I went  on a drive through Kisumu, just seeing all the strange an new sites, an getting a acquainted with our home town, it proved to be an exciting trip, with Dad trying out his skills of driving a stick shift, with sitting on the right side of the vehicle, an shifting with his left hand, an driving on the "wrong" side of the road, he did exceptionally well for one of his first times!
all the people!! Wow! an the smell!? incredible! only the bad sort of incredible! cows lumbering around on the road,chickens, roosters, goats, sheep, an donkeys scattered everywhere! seems everyone is selling something, an first you smell frying chips (french fries) an then you smell animals, an then sewer, an over ripened fruit all mixed together! it reminded me a lot of when i was in Nicaragua several years ago, also seems they deep fat fry anything that holds still long enough! one comfort with that is that, there probably are not as many germs on food if it is deep fat fried like that!
we got home from our little trek an had supper, an went to bed early, slept several hours from 9:30 to 11:30 then i was awake from 11:30 to 3:30 :/ sigh!!
Jadon an the twins had worked on setting up motion detectors that set off a very loud alarm when motion is detected, the one back in the alley behind our house went off 5 times that first night. we didn't see anyone an assumed that it was just false alarms, since it was getting very windy over the time they went off, an then soon after that a huge tropical rain storm came through an knocked out our power, so we didn't have ANY motion detectors, so we comforted ourselves with the fact that generally robbers probably don't want to get wet, just to steal something, an went to bed leaving the protection entirely up to God! but the detectors going off sure didn't help the frazzled nerves any, but we are learning to trust God on a deeper level through all of this.

(Wednesday March 23rd)
Dad an Mom were gone all day today, along with Tommy an Margi, visiting people, an getting marriage licences to legalize a couple from church, that was living together without a legal marriage.

I made lunch for the twins an Whane (Shannon) they had been doing some painting on the outside of several of the guest houses here on the compound.
In the afternoon i sent Whane to deliver eggs to the allotted family. (each day a family gets all the eggs.) then after that i got him to round up all our empty water jugs, an take them to whane an Clara Yoder to fill them back up with filtered water.

I cleaned up the house, an voxed a little with Gretchen Miller.

the twins came home from the shop an said that we are meeting several families from the compound, an Mom an Dad an Tommy's down at the Yacht Club for supper, which is a beautiful place right on lake Victoria, about 5 min. from the compound, they have a well kept grounds, with outdoor pergolas, for their seating area, then that they carry all your food quite some distance out to your group.
The wind off of the lake felt so good an refreshing, it cooled off nicely then. I really missed my camera that night, as i would have loved to take pictures, an put then on the blog! I had to forgive again...
We got home around 9 p.m. an headed out for bed.

(Thursday March 24th) 
Dad an Mom, Whane, an Tommy's went to visit people again today, (Tommy's are visiting all the people from their church yet before they leave for the states.) they say that Kenyan people would take great offence if the "pasta" didn't come to visit them before he leaves for America.
Dad an Mom came home with wild stories of them riding on the back of little dirt bikes,(piki-piki's)  i so wished i would have been along, not only to experience the thrill, but to get a picture of my mom on a dirt bike! i cannot imagine this! :) the people they were going to visit, were not accessible by vehicle, so they rented five Piki-piki's an had drivers take each one separately. poor mom had blisters on her hands from hanging on so tightly, for several hours!
Dad brought home a report on the food, he said they were served soup at this one place, with the "favorite parts" of a chicken, floating around in it, an as you can guess Kenyan's "favorite parts" of chicken an our's very quite a bit!! he said that whole chicken feet were bobbing up an down in their soup! I was glad i had stayed at home that day!

About 10 a.m. i went an cleaned the guest house, as there was a guy from Pa. (Lyndale) staying there i believe. there are more visitors coming Friday, lots of visitors! an hopefully lots more!! hint hint!
after that i came home to make lunch, but the twins said that they are going out to eat with jadon, Lavonn an Lyndale, and that was fine with me since the electric was off when i got back from cleaning, an i wasn't sure what to make for lunch, the eletric came back on a hour or so later, an i did some baking, an other odd jobs, an took a short nap, since sleep is still hard to come by at night with hearing every little noise...Dad an Mom came home around 5 p.m. an we borrowed Marlins laptop an checked up on our emails, our favorite part of the day! ;) we then got ready for staff prayer meeting, which was at Tommy's at 7 p.m. we all sat in their carport as the rain fell in torrents an the temps dropped, cooling us "newcomers" off, an making the "seasoned Kenyans" shiver running for their shawls, etc. they had a little snack afterward to officially welcome our family to the Kisumu Compound, we then sat around an visited till 9-10 an came home, to once again "try" to sleep.

(Friday March 25th)
after yet another fitful night of rest, we got up Friday morning.
Dad was off with Tommy to do baptismal interviews, Mom was at home today, which was nice, she was doing laundry, an cleaning, i did some outside work, an caught up on emailing, then by 5:30 all us single girls, an the teachers from Kisumu, an Nakuru  all went out for supper, at a very pretty resort, it was also right on Lake Victoria, an their food was top of the line, very good, i had chicken filled with butter an garlic sauce, an sukuma-wiki greens was very delectable! we sat by the lake till our food was ready, (takes a long time till your food is ready here in Kenya) but the strong breeze by the lake was nice an we didn't mind waiting outside till our food came.
we got back to the compound at 7:30 an the youth guys were setting up the vball net in the street. (the main street inside the compound.) where we usually play vball, we had to stop playing twice to step off to the side an lift the net to that the Asian people that live in the compound here could pass through. there were also two guys from Nakuru along, so we had quite a tribe to play vball, usually there are only two teams with 4 on each, but we had 19 players tonight, we had some great games, an even got extended curfew!! yippee!

Dad an mom an the three boys went to Joseph an Becky Hostetler's house  for supper.
 an everyone watched the youth group play vball later in the evening.
i came home an had a long voxer conversation with Kate Yoder from home, was so good to hear her voice...an that wrapped up a great Friday!! an our first week in Kenya!
love an prayers,
Sylvia (for the Miller's)

P.S. sorry for no pictures this time, i am hoping i can get a camera an laptop sometime soon! 

Sunday 20 March 2016

Some of our firsts in kenya, Africa!

(Saturday March 19th)
After our exhausting trip, we all slept in on Saturday morning, with jet lag I usually wake up around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning I didn't sleep again after that, I got up around 8:30 an helped mom cook up some brunch, then we as a family got oriented with various tasks around the compound here, anything from welding, cooking, laundry, and cleaning.
I  took a long nap in the afternoon.

the three boys and Jadon went to a motel several minutes from the compound here, where they have a nice in-ground pool.

Tommy's once again brought in supper, which is SO helpful in this transition of change...
while we were eating supper, a native guy was washing our vehicle for a $1.50 inside an out! almost gave me a guilty feeling, how hard he worked he scrubbed, an scrubbed, an shined, an cleaned those vehicles till they shone, and for a $1.50! wow! he said he is saving up to be a doctor some day, amazing what an inspiration of, "where there is a will there is a way!"

often in the evenings it cools off, pretty much as soon as the sun goes down, before then it is usually very, very WARM!
so tonight after the sun dipped west, Dad, Mom an I went on a walk outside the compound, milling about with the locals an striking up some conversation, the Kenyan people are very friendly, an are always welcoming us an letting us know they are privileged that we moved to Kenya.

this AMA compound is not like CAM compounds that I have been to, most CAM compounds are only Mennonites, living on the compound, but here it is a big sized compound with local natives living in the compound too, also there are some Asians, an often in the evenings we can smell them burning their incense, which adds to the whole cultural experience,  there is a big wall all around the entire compound, then each house has a wall/bush surrounding the house, each house has a gate so it seems kinda like little cells, but we are learning to like our little "lot" on the compound here, the weld shop, where the twins are planning on working at is right beside our house, an then there is a big chicken coop with about 100 chickens also beside our house, so that gives for some "pleasant" breezes in the evenings! :) believe me! when your so desperate for any little puff of a breeze you tend not to care anymore what scent it is carrying! ;)

Another thing that is something for us to get used to, (there are lots!) is that there is a Muslim Temple close to the compound here, so three times a day, we can hear their mournful wails and cries, it always gives me the chills, but in another way I really like the sound of it! I guess it brings back memories of when I was Amish, an the way they would sing.

we are planning to go to Nycocoa for church tomorrow, this is the church where daddy will be the pastor.
Also, we are invited with Tommy's to one of the church peoples houses for lunch so that should be interesting, we are trying to learn all we can from Tommy's since they will be leaving us to ourselves, along with the church in Nycocoa in about three weeks!

(Sunday March 20th)
I woke up around 4:30 a.m. Sunday Morning, was awake from 4:30 to about 6:30, then I hear mom an dad talking in the other room, an heard my brothers laughing an talking in their bedroom, I had to grin as we are all facing this thing called jet lag! then there is nothing to do but listen to the early morning traffic driving on the main road right behind our wall, an the amazing morning bird sounds! I am finding out that early mornings can in fact be sort of nice! an for those of you that know me well, will know what amount of "denying the flesh" that it took for me to say that!!

Anyway, so we woke up to no electric this morning, an just sticky, an sweaty, enough to remind us that we had in fact moved to Kenya.
Dad and Tommy left several hours earlier for church this morning, as Tommy is teaching a group in instruction class right now, an wanted to show Dad how he does things, so the rest of us left around 8:50 as it takes about an hour to get to church, Charity Yoder drove, Margi (Tommy's Wife) an family an the rest of our family, along with a native friend of hers ( Leah) to church, oh! by the way it takes a certain measure of skill to drive in Kenya, a skill that I am pretty sure I don't have!

 Tommy had a message on nonconformity an how we show the unbelievers around us that we are from Gods kingdom.
I was in the the youth Sunday school class, we sat on backless benches out in the lawn of the church, where we sang songs, some in Lou an several in English, most of the younger ones an several of the older ones can speak English, but it is with such a British accent, that it is very hard to understand, While we had sunday school the rest of the church had prep. services in prep. for communion.

the usher took his job very seriously, he went up near to the front to vigorously rouse an elderly lady from her slumbering, an made the children walk a straight line, an when they were whispering too much up on the front bench, his long limbs carried him swiftly to the front where, he said not a word, but with a very, very stern face, shook his long black finger at their noses, needless to say they crumbled in submission under his stern stare, children here in Kenya have a great respect for their elders. I was sitting way on the back bench, an saw him stride back to his seat, an what was funniest of all was that once he almost reached his seat, his face had this smirk of satisfaction on it! :)

after church we stood at the back where everyone shook our hands an thanked us for coming, once everyone had spoken with "bishop Tommy" an shook hands with the "new Pasta" we left for one of the families from church to eat lunch, which I can honestly say I was slightly apprehensive about!
we drove about 10-15 minutes an got to this modest mud house, were they were waiting for us outside the mud hut with a water basin an warm water, they washed our hands an escorted us inside where the food was spread out in a feast! two kinds of ugali, rice, chicken, beef, coloured greens, and soda very tasty, for the most part, an eating with my hands took things to a new level, as far as cultural experience was concerned, you took the ugali which is the texture of corn meal, only more thick, then you roll it in a ball, an press your thumb in the center an that is your eatable spoon, a thin dog wondered in the hut to see if there were any left overs, but the owner quickly shewed him away, it was very warm in the hut, an I kept telling myself to just take slow even breaths, with this warm weather, often times, you can feel light headed an dizzy. after much conversation, we asked the host if we had eaten enough to satisfy them, an if we could be released an dismissed, an after yet another prayer of blessing we left for home.
we got home around 3:30 an found that the electric was still not on, so that meant sweaty naps.
we got up again several hours later, an took cold showers in an attempt to cool down, we found that is was cooling of a little, an so we made pop corn an sat outside, Whane an Clara Yoder stopped by for a visit, an ate pop corn with us, an identified with us about all the new things a person faces in the first several months...they were the new ones on the compound before we got here, so they could relate very well!
so now darkness has fallen an I am sitting out side on our porch, listening to traffic an enjoying the comfortable temps!! PTL for the coolness of the day!
keep praying for us, no sickness yet! praise the Lord!
ladies washing clothes, driving to church.

Maria an a little friend

the church at Nycocoa, the church we will attend.

Tommy preaching his heart out (interpreter)

Dad in all his relational glory! ;)

Fellowshipping after church

The little walk back in to the mud hut for lunch

The feast! their very best, for the white man!

The food! very important to our family! ;)
A special processional for palm Sunday!

Their humble abode...


Friday 18 March 2016

Our journey to Kenya!

Hello Friends an family! from warm an sunny Kenya Africa!
Wow! what a trip!
we left for the Cincinnati airport around 9:30 an had one last lunch together with Dads brother Dave and family, Andre an Sharon an Angela, along with Kate Yoder an Jenn Bortregar two of my very good friends that volunteered to take me to the airport!

^
(beautiful scenery!)
So our flight out of Cincinnati left around 4 p.m. so we flew for NJ which was about an hour an a half flight, all went smooth, an we boarded the next plane, after an hour layover in NJ for Amsterdam, that flight was 7 hr, I believe, we were all So tired an most of the family slept, in-be-tween interruptions from the flight attendants trying to serve their "card-boardy" meals, I think I could safely say that I got little, to no, sleep on Wednesday, of course, with flying through time changes  I was never quite sure if it was in the morning or the evening...another thing I learned is that my former idea of what I thought was, "complimentary" was completely, an utterly incorrect! so they handed out these "complimentary" pillows which consist of several pieces of fabric sewn together with 2-3 cotton balls floating around in the depths!:( and the "complimentary blankets?" yep! you guessed it, I had goose-bumps all the way to Amsterdam! oh well! bless Deltas heart, its the thought that counts! :)  we arrived in Amsterdam around 9:30 Thursday morning, we all looked, an felt, like zombies! an we had about an hour till our next flight left for Nairobi, an this plane was the biggest I had ever seen! it was a double decker, an basically filled to the brim...as we were in the LONG line to board the plane I suddenly realized that I had left my hair net, hair pins, an my veiling all on the other plane!! (No I wasn't wondering through the airport without a covering on.) but rather, I had my hood up, an that is how come I had forgotten it! well, there was no turning back I had to proceed with my coat hood for my covering!  So we boarded the plane an I was determined to get some sleep, I was just falling asleep when I felt my self lurching like I usually do before a seizure, also I told mom that she should wake up dad that I think I'm gonna have a seizure...and that is one of the last things I remember, an I had a mild seizure on the plane, but, all's well that ends well I guess, I feel ok, other then being really sore an having smashed up my one knee.


so we got to Nairobi around 9:30 p.m. an Tommy an Margi Wagler along with their two youngest (Chris and Miria) where there at the airport to pick us up. we drove several minutes to a very nice guest house there in Nairobi, where we all slept very good from 12 to 6-7 in the morning.
the next morning we left the guest house at 9, an started our long drive from Nairobi to Kisumu, which is about 5 an a half to 6 hour drive, the roads where actually all paved, one thing to get used to is that the driver sits on the right side of the vehicle, an they drive on the left side of the road. and
Youth Volley ball
other then weaving in an out through traffic, an keeping out a sharp eye for stray donkeys, cattle, and sheep, and even sometimes people. we had very good travels. about half way we stopped for lunch at the Java house, which they say is a fairly Americanized restaurant with sandwiches an chips(fries) milk shakes an lattes an coffee, so that was nice, so far it seemed like we were in wealthy Nairobi, where Mercedes vehicles are surprisingly common, an things seem fairly westernized, but I'm sure, and Margi told us that the church where we will be attending, an where Dad will be the pastor, is one of the more remote churches so we wont always have good food, and sanitary water closets I'm sure! living back here in Kisumu with the Lou tribe we will not always have it as modernized as we did today.
Supper on the front porch
  also along the way, We Got to See wild Zebra, monkey's, an Impala beside the road as we sucked on the passion fruit that Tommy's introduced to us, along with star fruit, plums, finger bananas
Our home In Kenya!
Our Back yard
 an sugar cane still in the stalk form. yummy!
we got to the compound at around 4:30 an Marlin an his wife an dau
Monkey eating passion fruit
ghter showed us around the house that used to be theirs for the last 4 years.
Dad an Tommy
they all helped each other bring in supper, which was so nice after just getting there, an boxes sitting all around with things that need unpacking! so we unpacked a little, an then we ate supper on our front porch, as a tropical storm blew in an it actually rained some, an cooled off nicely for the youth to have several great games of vball yet!
the guest house we stayed at in Nairobi


well, it is late so i'll leave it at this for this time!
thanks for your prayers for our family!
waiting at the airport! All excited!!
continue to pray!
-Sylvia