Changing Tastes

No caption needed!

I saw it all in slow motion. I had just poured the last of my M&M’s into a cup to savor the pretty colors and smell the chocolate. I reached in for a few and carelessly brought them out of the cup when the unthinkable happened. Two of those marvelous little treats tumbled downward.  I watched in disbelief as yellow and blue hit the floor. In a split second I choose to do something I never could have imagined doing. I picked them both up and ate them.  This was serious and those little bits of chocolate goodness are rare here. OK, maybe that story is a little exaggerated. I can’t actually remember what color they were, but there were two and I ate them off a Kenyan floor!

Who is this stranger "mgeni" that you thought you knew? What has happened to me? How could I change this much in only 4 months? I have been adapting and changing in ways I never imagined possible. I have been learning and growing, hurting and crying, laughing and celebrating. Some days I excel in school and feel like I have it all figured out and other days I cannot even correctly say “Jina langu ni Shannon- My name is Shannon”. Sometimes, I have so many emotions wrapped up in one event that I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. 

Let me give you an example. I have been here at language school for 10 weeks. During that time

My friend sporting her new Kenyan skirt. 

another family has been here finishing school. They befriended me, taught me about cooking, shopping and life in Kenya. They shared tasty treats with me and showed me where to buy cheap movies. They were there for a chat when I needed someone to talk to and their 12 and 13 year old sons are some of the most polite and helpful young men I have ever met. Their 4-year-old son always had some exciting story to tell me or just wanted to kick the soccer ball around and play with me. They are a wonderful family who is serving the Lord and He blessed me by allowing me to know them.

Saturday they left for their new home, where they will serve for 3 years. The vehicles were loaded, we said our good-byes and as they drove away, I began to cry. Saying good-bye is something missionaries do a lot and not only when they leave their home countries. This was the first real good-bye I have had here in Kenya. I was excited for my friends "rafiki zangu" to be heading to the place where they will settle in and begin their ministry. I was jealous, because I’m not at that point yet. I was sad for myself because of the loss of missionary friends who get what I am going through and will no longer be here to talk to every day.

As I walked back up the hill to my house, I said a prayer for them for safe travels and a wonderful start in their new home. Then, my thoughts drifted to the box that they had brought me earlier that morning. It was full of left over food items that they weren’t going to take with them and all I could think about was one item in that box, a partial bag of pepperoni. I had commented that I didn’t know you could get pepperoni here and I was told: “It was brought from America.” Those are words that bring a smile to any missionaries face. Something from home, something familiar, something that you understand. Sometimes you just need that.

"Christmas in June" came in the form of a suitcase from home.  Thanks to those involved in getting it to me!

As tears fell from my eyes, my mouth began to water. I needed some atropine (sorry for the medical reference- just google it). I dug through the box and saw slices of different types of cheese (some I have never tried), real butter (I haven’t splurged on that yet), homemade mango jelly (it’s great and I get to keep the little jar) and the ½ full bag of pepperoni. It was like Christmas in July!

I cooked the pepperoni in the microwave and used it to top some oven-toasted bread with cheese and tomato slices. A quick version of pizza that tasted so wonderful it is making my mouth water again just thinking about it. I was still sad that my friends had left, but I found comfort in their generosity and their left over food.  

At this point all my friends in the mental health professions (who I know are always analyzing everything I say and do) are having a field day with this whole blog. Let me just spell it out for you, whether good or bad, missionaries tend to turn to food for comfort. That has become my reality.  

Today's Chai time snack- Fried Termites of course!

Before leaving America I always asked missionaries 2 basic questions. “What is your most interesting story from (insert wherever they served)?” and “What did you miss the most?” In answer to the first question I usually got some pauses and some interesting stories. Then one missionary explained that after awhile things became so routine and normal that you forget that they are different and interesting to people back home. Animals running through church services and eating bugs aren’t “weird” anymore and the things in American are what shock you (but more on the topic of reverse culture shock in my newsletter).

The answers to the second question surprised me at first. They always involved food items, whether spices, dressings, barbeque sauce, candy, pop tarts or favorite dishes at American restaurants. The missionaries would drift off and almost drool as they recounted what they had missed the most. When I began asking that question, I had suspected the answers would be the reliable electric power, running hot water at the tap all the time, clean floors, clothes that smelled like home, or a firm mattress and a roof that doesn’t leak on that mattress when it rains.

All the answers I got were about food. Wow, that’s not what I expected, but now I understand. Food brings us comfort and reminds us of home. We do get frustrated when “stima imepotea”, the electric is lost, and it was wonderful to pull out a pair of socks that had not been worn yet and smelled like “home”. However, when we get together at "chai" tea time and begin talking we almost always end up on the subject of food.

At one point this week when starting to write this post I wondered if I should just change my blog to “Cooking in Kenya”, since all I wanted to talk about was food. Most of you realize that I didn’t like to cook and didn’t cook much in America. The people who bought my house got a 9 year old almost brand new stove thanks to that fact!

Peanut butter cookies with chocolate!

Being single I learned how to get by with a few basic dishes and did some baking, but most things I could buy or acquire with little effort and little cost. Not the case here. If I am craving something I probably can’t get it here. So what do you do? Consult other missionaries and the Internet and figure out if its something you can make or adapt from other things.  I knew technology would be wonderful for communicating with family and friends, but didn’t realize I would use it in so many other ways, like in the kitchen. I can find recipes for the ingredients I have and read comments and search for how to make substitutions. Did you know you could make sour cream from heavy cream and vinegar? Streaky bacon is like American bacon? Brown sugar can be made from sugar and molasses? There are apps to help convert temperatures from Fahenheit to Celcius and charts to help adapt to cooking at high altitudes. Cooking here is like a science experiment and I like science! Cooking in America was boring!

I have made pizza (on the stove top- see my last blog for that story), onion rings (finally got them perfect this week), cake doughnuts with icing (didn't think it was warm enough that day for the dough to rise for yeast doughnuts), 

Apple crisp, baking pan made of foil, the adaptations abound. 

peanut butter cookies with cadbury's chocolate on top (just as good as a hershey's kiss), and an apple crisp (in honor of July 4th).

I have to admit that some of these items are made with a lot of substitutions and to me they taste wonderful, but I’m not sure how you all might rate them. When I tell people here that I like a certain item, I now qualify my answer with “but I have been here for 4 months and my tastes have changed”. It’s true and surprising to me. I think the Kenyan green-yellow oranges are so sweet and wonderful and another missionary reminded me that other "Wazungu" white foreigners, would probably call them too sour. I am now drinking the UHT (ultra high temp pasteurized) milk from the box and loving it (my teammates are all shaking their heads because I said I would never be able to drink it).

Someone asked for my salsa recipe and I have to admit, all I did was chop up tomatoes, green peppers, red onions and cilantro. Then I added a little pepper and garlic and it was wonderful. Sweets here are a lot less sweet than the American versions and right now I don’t always like them, but it will be interesting to see how I feel in 3 years. Will I think American sweets are “too sweet”? I was warned by a friend to learn to make Kenyan foods that I really like, because that’s what I will crave when I return to America and no one there will know how to make them.

Four months here and it really is amazing to think about all I have learned, what I have done and the ways I have changed. Each day is a gift from God and an adventure.  From using a few words of Swahili to help me get my visitors visa renewed quickly, to learning how to cook termites and actually eating some. From dealing with the bad days at school, when nothing seems to make sense, to appreciating my language helpers sense of humor when she tells me people will not laugh because I said it wrong they will laugh because of my accent. Thanks! Putting all my public health knowledge into practice as I spend hours cleaning and then disinfecting my fruits and vegetables. Then praying that I did everything correctly so I will not get sick. Being thankful for sunny laundry days so sheets will dry and you can actually remake your bed that same day.

Adapting to the cold by using the fashion trend of layering!

Life is full of change no matter where you are and it is not always easy or fun. I know that I will continue to learn and grow, hurt and cry, laugh and celebrate and God will be with me through it all. He is my strength through it all and I spend a lot of time each day talking to him. 

So now I say another prayer for my friends, as they should have arrived at their new home tonight. I thank them for their friendship and for the wonderful Godly example of a family that they share with others. I thank God for new students at the language school and the chance to make more friends who I will also have to say good bye to in another 5-6 weeks. That’s the life of a missionary, full of emotion and many wonderful hellos and tearful good byes. I would not trade it for anything and would not want to be anywhere else right now. God has me right where I need to be. Bwana Asifiwe. Bwana Asifiwe tena. Praise God. Praise God again.

 

Kingereza (English)

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything, through him who gives me strength.

Kiswahili (Swahili)

Wafilipi 4:13 Nayaweza mambo yote katika yeye anitiaye nguvu.

Kiturkana (Turkana)

Ngipilipi 4:13 Eyei ayong ationis na asubea ngakiro daang kotere agogongu naketaanyuni Kiristo.

Expectations and "Twangs" in Kenya!

I felt like a child as I met my teachers and classmates. I didn't understand anything being said. I watched what my classmates did and I did the same.  I was shown to my classroom and I learned the words for stand up, sit down, let's pray, let's sing and basic greetings....and that was the easy part on my first morning of Swahili school!  

At my culture training in January one of the first things we learned about was the “Twang” that we would likely be experiencing when our expectations were so far away from the reality of our new lives. They illustrated this by having kids hold stretchy cords around an adult and “Twang” said adult by pulling the cord out and letting it go. The further apart the kids stood, the larger the “Twang”. 

Here is the picture from our book. Sorry I don’t have a picture of the kids and adults, my pictures are stuck in iphoto, which has been trying to update, relentlessly, for hours, but due to the slow and poor connection here, that's just another example of my expectations being rather far from reality.

Anyway, one kid represented our “expectations” and the other “reality”. The key here is that the reality doesn’t change, but if the “expectations” kid moved closer to the adult and in turn closer to the kid representing “reality” the cord was much looser and the “Twang” hitting the adult didn't feel as bad. I hope this makes sense to everyone. Just know that during my second week of class here I was feeling a lot of hard "Twangs" and I was not very happy about it!

Let me share a few of my expectations and how things were different than reality.

SWAHILI: I honestly expected to pick up Swahili much quicker than I am.  The reality that has also become apparent is that I knew a lot more Portuguese than I thought I did, because that is what my brain goes to when I know I shouldn’t say something in English, but the Swahili isn’t there. Portuguese starts coming out and it kind of confuses the teachers, but has been good for a laugh now and then.

They need to make a Kiswahili bananagrams version with no Q or X and more K, J, V, etc.

I am at the Kenyan Southern Baptist Seminary in Tigoni, Kenya. There is also a retreat/conference center and the language school that I am attending. I have been very blessed with other students taking me to town for shopping at various times and other events, but I have chosen to go to church up here at the Baptist Church so I can learn more Swahili and get to know people from here a little better.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but in Turkana it was strange to be only one of  3 white people in church and the only vehicle in the “parking lot”. Well, now I am walking to church with the Kenyans and for 2 weeks I was THE ONLY white person there. Praise God for an American team visiting this week. I was now one of about 25 white people there.

The Baptist Church in Tigoni

However, that first week, odds were not in my favor that they would not notice me or skip me when it was time for the visitors to introduce themselves. It also didn’t help that one of my teachers goes to that church and she was staring me down. I tried to give a greeting in Swahili and say my name and where I was from, but I choked and it was a pretty big disaster. I am pretty sure the pastor was praying for the crazy visitor to sit down soon! However, it made for lots of laughs that just kept going when my teacher relived it for everyone in class on Monday morning.  She did assure me that they were not laughing at me, they were laughing with me. Thanks!

Only part of the hill up to the church 

So, the next Sunday I traipsed back up the hill. Oh, did I mention the size of that hill? I can’t even speak to anyone in English when I get in the church due to that hill and the altitude here? So I sat and hide by the wall again and actually picked up a few more words that day. At the end of the service a lady started talking to me and asked if I was from Indiana. Wow they had understood what I said in Swahili the week before. Turns out this was the pastors wife and they had lived in Indiana for 3 years while he went to Baptist seminary there. I believe she said it was in Elkhart. What a great connection. She introduced me to some other people and they were all very happy to have me visiting again. This was looking up.

Outside the Baptist Church.

As I mentioned before, I was nice to have fellow Americans here at church this week. They are here on a short term trip. They sang some songs in English and their leaders gave 2 short messages that were translated to Swahili for the Kenyans. It helped me to hear it in English first and then think about what words would be used. Once again I was picking up more and more of the Swahili. What a blessing they had experiencing the Swahili parts of the service and what a blessing to me to have them here. It was also nice to not be the total minority, but I realize that will usually be the case for the next 3 years. I also realize that while Swahili is the “easy language” I get to learn, that doesn’t mean I will know it all in one month. So I will just keep studying and picking up a little more each day.  Ninajifunza Kiswahili polepole! I am learning Swahili slowly!

BUGS: I expected there to be fewer bugs here than in Turkana. I was wrong.  I am getting used to the spiders and ants that are everywhere. I notice something on my jacket, leg, the counter, etc... I brush it off and think "Oh look another ant, spider, whatever." I have also been warned about not dragging my skirt through a trail of fire ants and so far have avoided them.  I am using my Mossi chips to help repel mosquitos and there is less risk of malaria up here. In general, I try to reason with the spiders that they shouldn’t build webs near my bed or across the doorways. That’s fair right? They don't always seem to agree. 

TERMITES! AARRGGHH!!

BUT, THESE TERMITES that invade every time it rains at night are getting on my nerves! The first time I saw them I thought it was a plague. It looked like thousands of the maple tree seed “helicopters” had blown onto my porch. Then I realized they were moving and had bodies. I quickly got in the house and shut the door so they wouldn’t get in. No worries. Hundreds of them were already in there!!! They were attracted to the porch light and another small light I had left on inside the house. I learned that they are harmless and I could just sweep them out, which was hard to do, since they kept coming in and I needed the light on to see to sweep them. It was a 30-minute process that resulted in about a 95% clean up rate. So I was happy. Then the next morning as I swept the remaining few out, I realized that I could barely get out because the birds were having a feast on the little termite bodies that covered the porch. Then I was just left with wings to clean up. 

Termites are a part of my new reality for the next 3 months. We are just at the beginning of the rainy season and winter. The termites are not leaving. So, I am adapting and have learned to fool those critters. If I study, wash dishes and read by flashlight on those rainy nights there are fewer trying to get into my house. Ha! (On a side note, I have been told that I should collect them; blow off their wings and sauté the bodies.  They are a good source of protein and taste like bacon. I will let you know when/if I get desperate enough to try that!)

NAIROBI FLIES:  This one is not as harmless. Their blood or lymph or whatever kind of bug juice they excrete, will cause chemical burns on skin. It is like the Podo bug we had experience with on some of our Amazon boat trips in Brazil. When I was shown one here and warned about it, I knew to take the warning seriously. I have seen the burns. So, I had been watching for them and had not seen any in my house until yesterday. Luckily, I looked at my cup before taking a drink of water, Here was my very own Nairobi Fly and I’m sure it would have been terrible to have this on my face or in my mouth. At least I was paying attention and not still dazed and sick feeling from the gas leak. Oh yeah, did I mention that I also had the expectation that the rubber tubing from my gas tank to my stove wouldn’t continually keep splitting and cause a gas leak for a few hours yesterday before I discovered it. Oh well, getting some new tubing soon and the Nairobi Fly is gone. 

FOOD: Now for the worst of my expectation twangs. I reached that point where all I was thinking about was food I was missing and craving. I am blessed to be close to Nairobi and to get to shop where there are processed foods and American type foods. However, they can be deceiving. Most of these are not actually made in America and so they can taste very different. You learn that if you see something you want you better buy it, because likely it won’t be there next week. (Or they may decide to remodel the store, take out many shelves and move items so you can’t find them. I have decided this is a universal plot by retailers to “Twang” customers and keep reminding us about this expectation and reality thing!)

The contrast to” if you see it buy it now” is “have you tried it yet or do you have a reputable source letting you know how close to the American version it really is?” For instance I was warned about the Snickers bars, made in another African country, different, but not bad. I experienced for myself the Frosted Flakes from England, really good and the Cheerios from England, a step below cardboard. Ok, you may argue that the American ones aren’t much above that, but for me it was just too far from my expectations. That was also the day the saran wrap almost caused me to have a melt down.

The state of my "Stat Wrap" after opening. 

Let me start by saying, I am happy there is a saran wrap type product here. However, it is deceptive also. It is called “Stat Wrap”, but there is nothing “Stat” about using it. I had experienced a little of this using some left behind in my Turkana house. If the wind blows it has sand stuck on it and it balls up and might get to the dish before I give up and start over, but I had never had a brand new roll that you have to get started before that fateful day.

So, in another grand expectation moment, I bought banana pudding and pasteurized milk and made it that afternoon. It smelled so good and looked so creamy I almost couldn’t wait to eat it, but I wanted it to set up and be cold. So I poured it into cups and went to cover them with the stat wrap to avoid the afore mentioned ants that end up everywhere. (I wasn't taking any chances, even in the refrigerator). Let me tell you that I was almost in tears 20 minutes later when I finally had my pudding secured and in the frig. Getting that darn wrap started was the hardest thing I have experienced since being in Kenya. It came off in small pieces.....and then I couldn’t get the next piece..... and then the next..... and then the first was stuck somewhere else.....none of the pieces coming off were big enough to cover my pudding cups..... and all this is after I finally got the box opened....and so much for those easy close tabs....they were destroyed in the process of opening them.....so there’s no easy closing to them now! Ah....Deep breath!

It seemed that everything about my life and my expectations were far from reality and I was being "Twanged" a lot that week. But I am thankful for all the prayers and for the sweet friends who emailed, messaged me and called to check on me. Life isn't that bad and I know I am still so blessed.

In the midst of all those "Twangs" I even got to have some new experiences here in Kenya. I watched my first rugby match. It is a rough game, but I really enjoyed learning about the game and think the kindest part is when they throw the ball in and teammates lift up certain players for them to try to catch the ball. I won’t tell you what that position is called. You will have to look it up yourself and then get a good laugh, just like I did!

Riding with a new friend. 

Waterfall, over the horses left ear.

Then I got to go horseback riding through the tea fields and past a waterfall. As we started and our guide was telling me how I should lean backward as we went down the hill, I realized I had never ridden on hills before. My horse liked going down and would get a little spunky as we got to the bottom, but going up was another story. Poor old thing was huffing and puffing just like me on my way up that hill to church.  She probably wished the skinny 16 year old were on her back not me! The weather was beautiful that day and it was such a fun experience.

Oh and I almost forgot about the pizza. Since my oven takes 2 people and an act of congress to light and where I am moving next only has 2 burners and no oven, I decided that I was going to make a stovetop skillet pizza. I was determined. Never mind that I have never bought yeast or made dough from scratch ever in my life (Chef Boyardee is my friend!). Nor have I ever talked to anyone who has actually made a pizza in a skillet on the stovetop. So, now you are thinking….”What was she thinking? We just read about the almost melt down over saran wrap.”

I adjusted my expectations from the beginning. I felt good that I was at least trying and that was ok, even if it didn’t work or tasted terrible.  I did a lot of research online and got the ingredients I needed. I want to thank Martha Stewart for the easy pizza dough recipe and the pizza sauce company for sauce in a jar. Yes, the sauce was store bought. It was too much to consider making the sauce also. That’s for next time, so send me your favorite “easy recipes” for pizza sauce!  I also prayed a little as I was waiting for the dough to rise. Well guess what, my expectations were rising as the dough did. It smelled good and it looked and felt like the Chef Boyardee dough I like so much.

More missionary flexibility!

This was all looking up. I kneaded the dough and got the skillet ready, realizing that there was so much dough, this crust was going to be over 1” thick, but I didn’t care. I stretched it out as much as I could and started with low heat, since my expectations for this pizza were sky rocketing now and from past experience I have been know to burn any bread products I try to “toast” in the skillet. So, I started slowly and when I was ready for the first flip of the dough the bottom was such a lovely crispy tan I almost cried. It smelled so good I also thought about just finishing the other side and eating only the dough, so I could end this on a good note.

But I kept going and after a good brown on that side I turned it again and took it off to add the toppings. It was at this point I found the main flaw in my plan. I had no lid for this skillet and the point was to put the toppings on and leave it on a low flame with the lid on until the toppings warmed and the cheese melted. I was not quitting now, this smelled too good. So I adapted and used my other skillet as a lid. It worked ok, but eventually I was afraid of burning the crust so I put the pizza on a plate and microwaved it for about 2 minutes to further melt the cheese and warm the toppings.

Now I was faced with a decision. It looked good. It looked really good. It was about 2 inches thick, with crust and too many toppings in such a small area. It smelled good. It smelled really good. The fresh baked bread smell infiltrated the house. At this moment my expectations were so high, I was actually afraid to eat it, but I was hungry. It had taken almost 2 hours to make, including the hour for the dough to rise, while sitting in a bowl in the one sunny/warm spot on my porch covered in “Stat wrap” again to keep the ants out!

But, I had to eat it! I had to know if it was all worth it. Guess what? It was wonderful. It was not the best pizza ever, but it met and exceeded my inflated expectations at that moment. I guess that I had began to adjust my expectations and now even my inflated expectations were still much closer to my Kenyan reality than they might have been a month or two ago.

The mozzarella cheese actually melted and the Italian sausage slices I had microwaved first to remove the grease almost tasted like pepperoni. The pepper, onion and tomato were all crisp and fresh. The runny, watery not so good sauce soaked into the dough, so I was glad the dough was so thick. The whole experience was totally worth it and I felt so accomplished that it wasn’t until the next day when I started to not feel good that I began to wonder, as I often do “Did I wash and rinse my vegetables enough, they didn’t get much real cooking in that skillet covered skillet?”

I was going to be so disappointed if I got sick from that wonderful pizza. So, as I started to feel queasier and my head began to hurt worse I went to the kitchen to get some water. That’s when I smelled the gas leak. Praise God, it was just a gas leak (remember that gas leak from my earlier expectations failure!).

See it’s all about where your expectations are in relation to your reality. I know I am not done being “Twanged”, but hopefully those "Twangs" will hurt less and less as I continue to adapt to my new reality of life here in Kenya.

Two Weeks in Turkana

As I sit here in Nairobi, land of vibrant colors, clean vehicles and cool air, I am sad that I am not still in Turkana. After 3 weeks in Kenya, I made it up to Turkana with my stuff and began learning how to live life there. Since I begin my next transition tomorrow and my Turkana impressions will soon begin to fade I wanted to share them now.

Zebras by the road!

The first day of our drive up to Turkana was nice, with decent roads (even with the speed bumps), cool temperatures and wonderful scenery. The zebras were the best part by far. I just keep saying to myself "How cool to see real, live, wild African zebras." They were just grazing by the road.

The sign at the equator was pretty neat also. We stopped to take pictures from the car and this lady with her donkey tried to move him out of the way. I like the animals in the pictures.

It only took us about 6 hours to reach Eldoret. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant along the way and then dinner that night with friends of my teammate. It was great to visit with and meet other missionaries and hear their stories of life in Kenya. We stayed at a guesthouse there in Eldoret and had a nice breakfast. Then the not so fun part of the trip began.

The changing landscape.

We headed north and picked up one of the mission workers at another town. It was good to have him with us to speak Swahili and help if there were any problems. He had come down from Turkana, the day before on the bus. Poor guy had to endure those roads 2 days in a row! I don't even know how to describe those roads to you, or should I say lack of roads, since most of the trip was spent driving off the sides to avoid more of the potholes, but even that didn't really work and we shifted from side to side many times. There wasn't much traffic, but when someone did come along you just hoped that your side of the road was the good part at that point.

Camel welcoming committee. 

The entire trip took about 10 hours. That did include a stop along the road for lunch and a bathroom break. Literally both of those were along the road. No rest areas on this route! You could see the landscaping changing. The dirt was lighter brown and sandier. There were fewer trees and plants. You could also feel the change in temperature and the dust really began to fly. I should have taken a picture of what my hair and clothes looked like when we arrived.

Thanks for all your prayers during our trip. We made it safely with only 1 flat tire. That is improvement from my previous record of 2 in one day! Luckily we were in friendly Turkana territory when it went flat and the worker with us got the spare on quickly and then we were back on the road. We arrived in Lodwar before sunset and had a few camels to greet us along the way.

My home, lots of room for visitors!

I don't think I have ever been so happy to arrive anywhere. I spent a few hours assessing my new digs and doing some basic cleaning (shower, bathroom and bedroom) and slept well that night. The next few days were filled with more cleaning, unpacking and organizing, with a few trips into town for food and supplies. It was fun discovering the items left by other missionaries. A cow hide covered drum, a few walking sticks, a bow (no arrows found yet) and some Turkana baskets and trivets. I have used most of those items to help decorate the house.

Language learning.

I was learning how to live life in Turkana and learning that the heat seemed to slow my body and my mind. Language learning was difficult, but another missionary and I spent 3 mornings learning basic greetings, questions and responses and of course how to say "What is this?" A very important phrase when language any learning.

You learn a lot about a culture by learning the language also. Interestingly, I learned that the Turkana don't have words for "Thank you", "Please" or "Sorry". It is a hard for me to comprehend that they wouldn't need or want words like that.

The language helper also told us that they are "color deficient". They don't have words for orange and purple is just described as blue-black. However, we did discover that they have many words for all shades and variations of brown. That makes sense in this culture, where most things are brown or tan or chestnut or chocolate or....well see we technically have lots of words that could describe browns and versions of it also!

The language helper gave me a Turkana name, since Shannon is hard for them to understand and say. I am Apetet, which is a thorny tree. Which one? I couldn't even tell you, since there are many thorny trees everywhere. I will need to wait and see if that name sticks or if I get a new one from someone else.

Ladies at a farm sharing how thankful they are for the well and irrigation so they can grow food to feed their families and sell. 

The rest of my time in Turkana consisted of 3 days in the bush visiting farms, a nice Easter Turkana

Learning how to do a budget. 

church service, then Easter dinner with other missionaries, and lastly 3 days of meetings about accounting and budgeting with the Turkana church leaders and others involved with the ministry here. The days were long and hot, but the information was good and I learned a lot about Turkana and the people and churches here by listening to their discussions and seeing what they put in their personal and church budgets and what they didn't.

Did you know last Monday was a holiday. Apparently Kenya has lots of holidays and it was Easter Monday. I mention this, because I was so thankful for it, because they left the electricity on all day! It is typically off during the weekdays for 6-9 hours but you just never know which days it will be off or it they might leave it on all day. You might get excited when it is still on at 10:30 only to have it be shut off just after that.

Batman and Robin our guard dogs!

I know this is just life and I am adjusting so please don't think I am complaining. I am so thankful and blessed to have a house with concrete walls and floor. I have electricity and running water, with water tanks that I am learning to remember to fill when the electricity comes on. I have a washing machine, refrigerator and freezer. I even have an air conditioner in my bedroom. I enjoyed that more than I thought I would, I set it at 30 C and sleep well (yes that is 86 F and it is wonderfully cool compared to outside that room). I am very blessed and thankful to have furniture, like my dining room table that I can wipe the dust and sand from 3 (or more) times a day. I am thankful for the 2 dogs and the guards that help make me feel safe and protected at the house. I am thankful that the snake that tried to come in the house, only made it onto the porch, before my screaming and hysterics made him go out under the other porch door. I am thankful that I had 2 weeks in Turkana to begin to adjust and see how to live life there. It was rather tiring, but I was really sad to leave.

I got some good deals and useful items at this yard sale. 

I flew back to Nairobi yesterday and the 2 hour flight in a/c was much more pleasant than the drive. I am now ready for my next transition with a move tomorrow to the language school where I will live for 4 months.  Please pray for me during this next transition and for my language learning. The life of a missionary is full of transitions and right now I am ready for a routine and a place to unpack and stay for awhile. Please also pray that I continue to be healthy and stay warm. After being in the dessert heat Nairobi's 80's feels like natural air conditioning, but I am heading to higher elevation and this is the beginning of "winter" here, so it will be cool. I have my sweaters and fleece blankets ready. I even bought some Maasai blankets today at a big yard sale at one of the international schools. The lady who sold them to me said I should just wrap up in them when I go to class so I can stay warm. She was really sweet and even demonstrated for me. I enjoyed talking to her and buying from her.  It makes me even more motivated to learn Swahili and Turkana so I can speak to these people in their languages and begin to make real connections with them.  I am so thankful for my two weeks in Turkana and I wanted to share these thoughts while I had a little down time before my head begins to swim with Swahili. The adventure continues and I can't wait to see what else God has to show me and teach me during the next 4 months. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again for all your prayers and support.