Mfangano

Hillary and I finished our finals last Thursday, which is 9 days before our flight back to the US. It would have been VERY boring to stay at Daystar with everyone studying for their finals, so we went to Lake Victoria. I guy we met here is from one of the islands in the lake called Mfangano. They run a school and his mom is a nurse.
To get to this island, we first had to take a bus. The bus was suppose to leave at 9pm, but of course it didn't leave until 1030pm. Then, instead of a 7-8 hour bus ride, it was more like 12 hours. And this bus was very crowded. Every single seat was taken and there were children sitting on their parents laps. I'm pretty sure we had some live chickens along with us as well.
Finally we made it to the lake and had to take a 45 minute boat ride to one island and then another 90 minute ride to Mfangano. It was direct sunlight and I forgot to put sunscreen on...I wore a shirt on my head. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but at least it kept me from getting too burned!
We finally made it to the island and we were instantly crowed by children. They followed us everywhere and always wanted to hold our hands. I think they were fascinated by my hairy arms. We ate fish and stayed in a little house that reminded me of a hobbit house. One day we hiked to the top of one of the hills and looked out over the island. It was really pretty!
People there live in the traditional homestead style. They have a house for each wife (yes they still practice polygamy) one where they cook and one for each grown male child. They are all in a little cluster. There was also no electricity on this island, which means no running water either and all the cooking was done over a fire.
It was a good experience to have. There are so many different lifestyles all over Kenya. There are the people in Nairobi who lives just about the same as people in the US and then there are those who live like the people on Mfangano and everything in between.
I wish I could add pictures, but it isn't letting me right now. If you really care, ask me when I get home (which is Sunday) and I'd be happy to show them to you!I also learned how to cook chapati and I would love to cook some for you too : )
Please pray for safe travels back and a smooth transition into American life. Also pray that there are no snowstorms while we are traveling so we don't have any delays.
See you soon!!!

Sunsets

I know I haven't posted in a while... please forgive me. I'll try to give an update on what I've been up to for the last month.
Women's soccer has officially ended for the semester. Hopefully they start again in January (here they have the luxury of practicing year round). This is a little bit sad. It was the thing that I looked forward to all day. Not only did  I get to be outside doing something that I enjoy, but I got to meet a bunch of great girls doing it! We never had any official games, but it was content with just playing for fun. Actually I preferred that. To make soccer practice even better, the sunset each evening was AMAZING! Here are some pictures so you can see what I mean:

There is a place here that students go to a lot called "the rocks". I have heard about it all semester and everyone says we should go, but no one has taken us yet. The other weekend, some of the Korean international students here invited us to go with them. They didn't actually know where these rocks were either, and I don't think we went to the rocks, but it was fun hiking with them anyway.

On the way down, we found a lake. And again, it was a beautiful sunset!
Last weekend Hillary and I and two friends of our went to Mombasa. This is a coastal city where many tourists and Kenyans like to go on holiday. Sheila's (our friend) family is from the coast, so she was our guide. We had a great time relaxing in the sunshine before we had to come back for finals.

This one is actually a sunrise, but it's basically the same thing...

Now I have to study for finals because they are worth more of my grade than any one test should ever be. 60-70%! That's like cruel and unusual punishment.
Hopefully I'll make one more post before I'm back in the States...so stay tuned.

My Birthday

I know this is a little late, but here is a picture re-enactment of the first events of my birthday. Read the post titled "Washing" if you haven't yet and this will make more sense.

We were going "running" that morning. The moment I stepped out the door I knew that wasn't happening...

Me thinking "alright, get on with it. Just throw the water and be done."

Here we go...

Yes, that is a garbage can full of water.

Scolding Nick.

Everyone, except Goodness who is taking the picture.

Me and the FOUR buckets of water and one water bottle that was poured on me

Later that night we had ice cream :)

That week I got many beautiful cards from people here and from home and a few packages as well. It was a good birthday. (If you can't tell, I'm holding a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup)

Side note: Last week I ate a dried caterpillar. It didn't have much taste, it was just really crunchy. I also ate goat intestines...that was the last time I will ever do that. 

Beautifully Terrible: My trip to Mt. Kenya

Monday to Wednesday this last week we had what they call "mid semester recess". This means that we had no class from Friday afternoon until Wednesday and almost everyone leaves campus. Probably about 2/3 of the school goes to the coast to a place called Mombasa and hangs out at the beach. We too this opportunity to climb the second highest mountain in Kenya, Mt. Kenya. It would be an experience we would never forget. Here is a little song that I made up on our final hike down the mountain:

[to the tune of Gillagan's Island] "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful climb that started from Kenya's sunny plains on a day just past its prime. The group, they were all from Daystar U. Six students brave and true. With one to lead the way for them. These adventurers brave and true."

That's all the farther I got. I can't tell you the complete story here because it took my 24 notebook pages to recount it in my journal...I don't want to write that much and I don't think anyone wants to read that much. I'll try to give the brief highlighted version here. Our group was made up of me, Hillary, Nick (both from Bethel too), James (Nick's friend from Daystar), Songii, and Agata (other Daystar students) and Mr. Masiga was the leader of the group.

We left on Friday afternoon and after going through the worst traffic I have ever seen, we finally arrived at the mountain at midnight only to find that our tents were not complete. None of them had stakes or tarps, some were missing poles, and many had small holes patched with duct tape. We managed to get 3 of the four tents put up enough to sleep in. Luckily it didn't rain that night, so we stayed dry. 

It is common practice here to hire porters to go up the mountain with you and have them carry things for you. I am SO glad we had them! I saw the food that we were bringing and was like "WHAT! I would never want to carry that!" We brought up milk for tea (the milk here doesn't have to be refrigerated), fresh produce like tomatoes, carrots, and cabbage, bread rolls, huge glass jars of Tang (yep they use it for camping here too), flour to make Ugali, rice and beef (it was so cold it was like it was refrigerated)! I don't know how they managed to get it up the mountain, but I'm glad they did!

I'm not really sure that I can call the trails we took trails. One was a waterfall. It was a very steep incline with many rocks that when it rained all the water flowed down. It rained. The next part was a huge bog. The closest visual that I can give you is the bog thing that Smeagle brought Frodo and Sam through in Lord of the Rings that had the dead people in it. This one had no dead people,  but i felt dead by the time I was out of it. We had to jump from one "dry" part of ground to the next and sometimes a part that looked dry was really just a huge mud hole covered by what looked like nice green plants, but really gave away under your foot covering it in mud. Then my feet got wet. This whole time I just kept thinking "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand." It was a very good direct application to this verse. 

On the 3rd and 4th nights we got to stay in a cabin! This was amazing! It was very cold up this high-about 10,000 feet- and we would have been frozen and miserable had we slept in the tents, and probably wet too. 

The day that we went up to the top was the worst. I think we were all feeling a little altitude sickness and it was only supposed to take us about 3.5 hours to get up there and back down. We were going to have lunch back at the cabin when we were finished. It took us 8 hours. It was terrible. My water had a hair in it that was not mine and made it VERY unappetizing to drink, but I knew that I had to drink it anyway. There was snow up this high, but luckily the rain help off until we were almost done. However, it had rained the day before and all of our clothes were still very wet, especially our shoes and socks. That was dumb. The peak that we climbed to was at about 15,000 feet and it was so cloudy at the top we couldn't see anything...but on the way up we got some good views. This whole day I had a song stuck in my head called "Desert Song" by Hillsong. It was my theme song for the trip:

This is my prayer in the desert

When all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

And I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

And this is my prayer in the battle

When triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
This seed I've received I will sow

We all made it to the top and back down again. Our only injuries were sore and blistered feet, so that is a blessing. I can't say that I wish I hadn't climbed this mountain, now that I'm done I feel very accomplished. But I don't think I will ever need to do it again...at least not in the near future. For our credit, we did take the hardest route up. I'm not really sure why we did that. We students had no choice in the matter, but it's done now and we made it.

The scenery was really pretty! That was by far the best part. Here are some pictures, which of course don't even come close to the true beauty that we saw.

Hiking on the first day through the rain. 

Sunrise over our first campsite (this was before it started raining that day)

The view from half way up. We are level with the clouds (that later rained on us...)

The mountain we conquered. It may look innocent now...

Kenyan flag at the peak

Agata and Hillary on the rainy, waterfall trail on the long trek down.

 

Fires, motorcycles, giraffes...Oh my!

This week has been very eventful! It started on Sunday. We went to church with a guy named Lukas who is a part of the singing group Afrizo from Daystar. They are a group that tours around singing and promoting Daystar. They have some US tours too. They've been to Bethel a few times. Anyway, we went to a near by town called Athi River. The bus that goes to Nairobi dropped us off there. This town is on the smaller side, but still too big to walk everywhere. We had to take another form of transportation...motorcycle. They have a cool name here, but I can't remember it. This was the first time I ever rode a motorcycle and i was sitting behind a guy that I had never met and in front of one that I had only met a few minutes ago driving through gravel roads with huge pot holes. But surprisingly, it was fun. We never got above probably 20 mph, so it was just a nice drive. There was a lot of dust blowing that I could have done without, but all in all, it was an enjoyable ride.
The group Afrizo is amazing. They are all Daystar students, and I think they have a director, but she wasn't there with them on Sunday. Before the service, the church gave us tea, a very common practice everywhere here. While we were taking tea, the group started to warm up. They just said, ok lets sing this song ready, go...instant, beautiful harmony! I could have just sat there forever and listened to them. And I think most of the time they just make up parts and add them in and they always sound amazing. I love African singing.
On Monday, Hillary and I cooked an "American" dinner for some of the girls here who have cooked African meals for us. We made spaghetti, potatoes with pumpkin (what we would call squash), garlic bread, and fruit salad. It all turned out very good. I didn't think the sauce was as good as back home, but the rest was excellent. We don't have an oven here, so it's hard to think of truly American things that you can make with out an oven. I would love to bake something, but I can't :(
Then on Tuesday Bethel President Jay Barnes and his wife came to visit Daystar. He was here to officially sign exchange agreement between the 2 universities. Then we had lunch with him. It was kind of weird because I had never met him at Bethel, but then here in Africa i have lunch with him.
Later that day, there was a fire! Some background to this is that it is common to see fires around campus because they burn the garbage. On this particular day, we were in class and I could smell smoke. This was not that strange. I didn't think much of it. Then the smell started to get stronger. Finally, out teacher let us out a few minutes early because it was getting petty bad because the wind was blowing it it. We left the building to find men probably about 50 -20 feet way from the building trying to beat out a garbage fire that I'm assuming the wind caught and started the very dry grass arund it on fire too. Then there were students running with fire extinguishers to help out. But no one else seemed to care. They just looked and kept walking. They didn't even evacuate the building or anything. It's probably not the first time that something like that has happened. It is very common weather to be dry and windy here. It's just not how they would have handled it in the US. The fire trucks would have been on their way and the alarms would have been sounding and everyone would have to be at least 100 yards away.
One morning while Hillary and I were running, we looked up to see about 9 giraffes crossing the road about 50 feet in front of us. It was great. I will never get tired of seeing the wild life here on campus.

This is a matatu. I don't actually know how to spell that. This one is from Daystar, but the public ones are always super full and have yellow stripes on the sides.

Here are some of the girls I play soccer with :)

This is from when we went to Thika with the girl on the left and stayed with the woman on the right. That is one of her little boys behind me. I'm shaving coconut to make the Pilau.

I took this from a bus window

Just...life

Life here is starting to feel kind of normal. I say kind of because i don't think it could ever really feel normal, but I'm getting use to it. I eat the same meal for each day of the week (Tuesday is chipati and beans, Wednesday chips (fries) and meat, etc.). Sometimes the water runs out and I have to take a bucket bath, witch I don't mind so much. Classes are long and my hand sometimes feels like it is going to fall off from all the notes I was dictated, but it ends eventually. When the sun comes out it's really hot, but it's cloudy more often. I really enjoy washing all my clothes by hand. I get to be outside and listen to the birds and it's peaceful. Sometimes there are monkeys too! I go to soccer practice and hang out with some really sweet girls. I can't complain. It's pretty nice. 

The weekends are the time when more exciting things sometimes happen. This past weekend Hillary and I went home with a girl we met here. She is from a town about an hour away from Nairobi called Thika. It's a bigger city, but smaller than Nairobi. To get there, we had to take Matatous. They aren't really like buses or taxis because they have both of those here too. They are usually the cheaper form of transportation. They are like a van, probably the size of an Astro van with seats for 15 people including the driver. It's squished in there already with 15 people, but most of the time they manage to fit closer to 20 if not 25 if some of them are kids, into one. Needless to say, it is not the most comfortable way to travel. I feel like I'm in a clown car. 

We stayed in a house with a family that Lucy, the girl who took us, knows from here church. The woman has a shop in the market so we went and looked around there and went around the market for a while. Then we went back to her house and she taught us how to make an African meal. She is from Tanzania, but she said they make this meal a lot on the coast in Kenya. We wrote everything down, so I will attempt to make it when I get home. It was delicious!

*I tried to add pictures but they were loading super slow and I got tired of waiting. Sorry, I know that is 2 posts now with no photos. I will try again later. *

Washing

There is a tradition here is Kenya that I have learned. It is customary to pour water on a person on there Birthday. This symbolizes the washing away of the old year and starting off this one new and clean. It's also really fun to plan and catch the person off guard. It's kind of like a one sided water fight. It was one of my friends here, Goodness, birthday on Saturday and then in was Hillary's yesterday. Don't worry. We got them both pretty well. It involved garbage cans full of water. I think I may bring this tradition back with me to America...

This week has finally started to feel like school. I had 3 tests, they call them CATs here (continuous assessment test), and a paper due. It's been busy.

Last Sunday I went to church with the Korean exchange students to a Korean church in Nairobi. It just happened to be the day that they were celebrating what is like the Korean version of Thanksgiving, so we had lots of really good Korean food. I know I'm in Africa, but I figure I should get all the culture I can while I'm here, even if it's Korean and I'm not in Korea. I also learned how to informally say "Hi" in Korean. The formal way was too long...

That's all for now! 

ps. I was told the color was hard to read before. Is this better?

African Safari!!

Last weekend the exchange students all went on an African Safari. We left early Friday morning and then drove for about 6 hours to Masai Mara, which is a really big game reserve. The ride was by no means smooth. First we were on paved roads that were ok with a few bumps here and there. Then they turned into paved roads with massive pot holes all over the place. We spent most of the time driving with one side of the wheels on the road and the other in the ditch trying to avoid the pot holes. I think that was an impossible task though. We still hit many of them. Then we had to start not only dodging pot holes, but cattle in the road. I was amazed we never hit one. The driver did not slow down as quickly as I would have, so we came close a few time! Then the roads were no longer paved and really bumpy all the time, basically it felt like we weren't even on a road anymore.
We stayed at a really nice resort with tent cabins and a VERY delicious buffet.
We saw every kind of African animal that I can think of except a hyena. We saw lions, cheetah, zebra, giraffe, buffalo (the African kind not like in the US), hippos, elephants, some birds of some kind, gazelle, antelope of various sizes, a baboon, wilder-beast, and monkeys. The van that we drove to the place in was what we saw the animals from. The roof pops up and we just stood up and looked out. We got pretty close to most of the animals. It was great! Here are some photos.

  We saw the big males too, but these were cuter

Wilder-beast in the waning evening light.

The wilder-beast were migrating so there were a lot of them. We were helping them move along a little faster.

It was a very good weekend, as long as you don't get motion sick...thankfully none of us did.

Forgot to mention this.

If you send me something in the mail let me know. There is a place where they post who has mail and I won't check it unless I know something is coming. There's no pressure for you to send anything. I just don't want to miss anything.

These are some of the girls that I'v met here. The one on my left cooked us some food from her country of Cameroon.

This was last weekend. We made pancakes. SO good! no syrup, but peanut butter was just as good.

We went to this place called the Bomas of Kenya that has traditional dancing and "villages" (a few huts) from each of the tribes. It was cool to see, but I would rather visit a real village rather than a tourist attraction.

Kenyan Soccer and other such things.

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but I think I did. I joined the woman's soccer team here at Daystar. Actually, I helped start the team. This is the first year that it has existed. The first couple of days we had very few girls show up, but now we have about 14-16! Enough for a whole team! Hooray! I secretly hope we don't have too many games though because they are not very good. I think we would lose big time, but they assure me that girls teams here just aren't that good...I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
That is one thing that has surprised me here. I came expecting that everyone played soccer and had been for their whole life and they were all really good. Well maybe not that extreme, but you know what I mean. In reality, not that many people play, especially girls. I went to watch the guys Daystar team this weekend. They won, but they weren't that good. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact they these guys may have been playing for much of their lives, but they didn't  have access to the couches and equipment and camps, ect that we have in the states. I can't forget  how blesses I am. The guys field has almost no grass on it and it. It is like a huge dust bowl when they run, but they still manage to have fun and play hard. The fans have so much fun too. It is not at all unacceptable to run onto the field with the players after your team has scored a goal and made a really exciting play. There are no bleachers, so everyone just lines up right on the sideline and has to run out of the way when the ball or players come near. I'm not sure I'm at the point yet where I can being myself to run onto the field, but it was pretty fun watching!

In other news: my new favorite day of the week is Sunday, particularly the supper part of the day. We get spaghetti. Yes I am excited about spaghetti. The rest of the week we have a lot of rice and beans and stew and cabbage, but on Sunday we get spaghetti! It's the little things in life that matter.

One more random thing. Kenyans really like holidays. Whenever there is an excuse for a holiday they take it. The first week we were here, they were signing the new constitution that they passed, therefore, they had a holiday with no work or school. The next week Daystar had a prayer day. No school. This week is the end of Ramadan for the Muslims and rumor has it that Friday or Monday will be another holiday even though 83% of the population is Christian. I'm not complaining :)

I want to start out this post by giving you some very important information. My address here is:

Janna Huff
Daystar University
PO Box 17-90145
Daystar
Nairobi
Kenya

Now I will share some photos for your viewing pleasure!

This is from my brief outing in London. You can see Big Ben in the background and it is  approximately 3:17 pm.

  Typical tourist picture. Notice the other man taking the same picture at the booth behind us.

The dorm I stay in at Daystar. It's called Dupa. I think that means something, but I don't know what.

The four floors of Dupa after laundry day. I'm standing in my doorway to take this picture. There is a courtyard between the two sides.

My earthly possessions. I'm standing in the door to my room. You can see one side of the desk with one chair. There is another chair next to it and my roommates closet. The bunk bed is right beside me and that's it.

A sampling of the food I eat here. There is rice, fried chicken (this was a nice dinner so it usually isn't that and it's beans or stew), fries (we have these every Wednesday for lunch), greens that I have to mix with my rice to eat them because I don't like them but I think that they actually have nutrients so I try to eat them. And the triangle thing on top of the fries (or chips here) is chipati. Usually it is just round like a tortilla. I really like it.

This was taken from the steps of the library. It's a sunset over the 300 acres of beautiful bush country surrounding the university.

Read the last posts first.

I have been here for a little over 2 weeks now, but it seems like forever. Not because I don't like it, it just seems like I've been here a long time. We were supposed to start class last week, but apparently no one thinks anyone else will go to class the first week, so very few people go. The professors don't even go. I went. Only 2 of my professors came, and I think the biggest class had 6 in it. That was last week. It was very boring. I didn't even bring any books to read with me. Hillary and I hung out a lot, we are in the same suite, but different bed rooms. We got to know her roommate a little bit, mine was at home in Nairobi. We went to church with an American woman here who works at Daystar at the Nairobi Campus last Sunday. Then she took us to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was great to get off campus.

So far this week, I have had all of my classes. The classes are much bigger. One class that I had today was called "Theology in the African Context". It is a little bit challenging because I don't know much about the African context, but that also means that the teacher doesn't call on me. I'm interested to see what comes of this class because already today I could tell that the lecturer was trying to be careful about what he said about other countries influences on African so that he wouldn't offend my American-ness. He did ask me a few things about America, but I didn't really know the answer because it was about the economy and population. I know nothing about such things.

I met a girl here named Goodness who is from Cameroon and is trying to start a woman's soccer team here. She convinced me to come play with them. I told here I can't commit, but I'm excited to to just have something to do when I can that I enjoy! She and some other girls also go running together in the morning. Also so great! For the last two weeks I have felt so lazy and bored and I am so happy to do something active again.

We have also met some other people who have mentioned things like taking us to their villages or some other place in Kenya that I don't know. I hope they follow through because I want to see more than just Daystar and Nairobi! Nairobi is big and busy and dirty and I don't really like it, but maybe I haven't been to the good parts yet...

"Jana" means Yesterday

In Kenya, and I’m sure other countries in Africa, when people meet other people they greet everyone in the group at once. For instance, if some people and I were talking to a person and then someone new came up that knew one of the people; the new person will greet not only the person that he knows, but everyone in the group. This means that I have been doing a lot of hand-shaking and telling people my name since I have been here. This is where the title comes from. It turns out that in Kiswahili Jana (with one N) means yesterday. When I tell people my name and they speak Kiswahili they say, after some confusion, “Oh, jana, like yesterday”. I’ve heard that many times now.  I can’t just always say “Hi, my name is Janna, like yesterday” because not everyone is from Kenya or the surrounding countries that speak Kiswahili. If I said that to some one from Malawi, they would look it me with a weird look and think I was crazy. I just wait for them to react, or just say ok and still not really know what my name is. I do that to some people when I learn their name. It’s hard sometimes because of their accents to know what they are saying. If I have to ask more than 2 or 3 times, I just say Ok :) but really I have no idea what their name is. 

Hellos! (8/16/10)

I have arrived in Kenya! Sorry for the long delay in this, but this week has been really busy and I was not able to get internet on my computer until today. Posts will hopefully be more regular now, but I’m can’t make any promises, but I’m sure that you would like to know what I have been up too this week.

I will start by telling you about London. Yes, I went to London!! Our flight from MN had an 8 hour layover there, so we had a chance to see the city. It was really great because we met a woman on our flight who was also going on to Nairobi and whose daughter goes to Bethel! What a small world! She had never been to London either, so we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus (thanks Sarah!) and walked around for a while. We saw all the good stuff: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, statues, Big Ben, the London Eye… and other things that I didn’t know what they were. I really liked the city. It was old and had a lot of character. But then we left.

Our plane landed in Nairobi at 6:30 am their time after we had spent 2 nights “sleeping” on the plane. We took the university bus to the campus about an hour away. When we arrived, we were greeted by upper classman students singing and playing a vuvuzela (the horn from the world cup that was really loud and annoying). We went right into orientation and did stuff with that for the rest of the week. It was boring.  A lot of the things we learned we already knew because we have been to college already, but it was great to get to know some people.

All of the people that we have met so far a very friendly. We stick out like sore thumbs, so many people come a greet us. I have started to learn some Swahili words. Here they mix English and Swahili in the same sentence, so I think I’ll pick up some from just talking to people.

I’m also leaning a lot about South Korea while I’m here. There are 3 students from a school there who are here this semester too. The girl, Sarah, has been teaching us things about South Korea and shared some of her Korean food with us. This is definitely a multicultural experience. Oh and there are also a lot of students here from other African countries.

Some things that I don’t like to far: the food is always the same. We have rice, and stew and cabbage. Sometimes there are different things in the stew, but it always tastes the same. For breakfast we have 4 slices of bread with jelly and butter and an egg or sausage and we have lots of tea. Also, the toilets don’t flush well, and they run out of toilet paper a lot.

Things I like: everyone greets everyone in a group when they see them, usually with a handshake. There have been multiple people who have told us that if we need anything, just ask them. The weather is AMAZING! It is in the 70’s and sunny with a slight breeze everyday. It’s a lot like fall. The first few days were a bit chilly, but now they are great. They say it will heat up, but not much above 85 degrees or so. I am very happy about that! And it isn’t humid! There is a food called chipati (I have no idea how to spell that). I really like it. From what I can tell, it’s just fried maze flower and water, but it is surprisingly good. They only serve it sometimes, but it helps make the stew and rice better. We had some pineapple once that was really good too.

Let me explain the reason for the title. It is not a typo. In Swahili when you say hello to a group of people it is plural. When they translate to English, they also make it plural. We have heard many “Hellos” “Good Mornings” and “HIs” since we’ve been here.

This is a boring, but informative, post and I will try to do better in the future.

I haven't left yet.

I'm going to Africa, and being the efficient person that I am, I decided that the best use of my time would be spent typing only one letter/e-mail/blog that everyone can read instead of a million to everyone who will want to know about all of the great and amazing things that I'll be doing there! Or maybe not doing. Who knows?!
As the title of this post points out, I am still in the US. I leave in approximately 58 hours, or on Saturday August 7 at 9:40 pm if you prefer. I have not finished packing yet, but my cat keeps taking naps in my suitcase so it isn't entirely my fault. I have nothing much to say now. But I would love to hear from people while I'm away and your prayers are always appreciated and needed. Right now safe travel, peace of mind, and not forgetting anything important are some things you could pray for.
I'll see y'all when I return!
Peace, Hope, and Love