Refreshed

Last night marked my one month of being in Kenya. It was a good month, although it definitely brought its struggles. I feel at times, that I started off on the wrong foot here. I've been comparing things to home a little too much, and feeling a bit upset when people do things differently than what I'm used to. I need to embrace the fact that I'm a far ways from home, and things will be different! That includes many things such as going out all the time. I'm so used to being busy all the time, staying out late, constantly socializing, and stuff like that. Its not like that here though... we're in the middle of the bush! haha. I know God brought me here, so I'd take more time for Him. He took me out of my busy schedule, and is allowing me to see beauty in simplicity. This past weekend was really good for me. I kept to myself for the most part, and spent a lot of quiet time with God. He made a lot of things clear for me, and filled me with so much peace and joy. We had monday morning worship with the entire base earlier today, and it was such a good start to the week. The speaker was talking about how its time for us to mature in our faith. God wants to take us to the next level. I feel thats exactly where I am right now. It's time for me to step out more. Go beyond what I've been doing. So... thats what I've been challenged in, now its time to live it out. I need to stop expecting to be served, and ministered to all the time, but rather do that for others as well!

My First Dose of Kenya

Kenya has been great so far! Many differences, but also many similarities to Thailand. I've been here about 2.5 weeks now, so I'm all settled in and calling it home. It's a way different way of life then I'm used to, although the outreach part of my DTS in Thailand has really prepared me for this. At the YWAM base here, we take bucket showers outside, cook over the fire, get our water from big tanks cause we don't have running water, experience MANY power cuts cause of the drought going on, get our milk from the cows on the base, wash our laundry by hand (during which we usually get visited by the cows and goats that roam around, and they try drinking our laundry water), and I'll also add that we experience beautiful sunsets and are blanketed by bright starry skies! Internet is very different, and wireless hasn't hit here yet. Therefore, I use a modem which carries a sim card that has to be topped up, so it gets quite costly when I try downloading or uploading anything.

I've seen many many animals already while being around the base. For example... giraffe, zebra, gazelle, wildebeests, monkeys, cheetahs, lions (although they were in a cage – still touched them though). The cheetahs were also actually in a cage, but I was allowed inside, and got to pet them for awhile.

The people here are amazing, and are incredibly hospitable. They've definitely made me feel welcome. During the time I've been here, there's also been an outreach team from YWAM New Zealand. Having some more westerners around has really been great during this transition time!

Work in the office has been going really well too. I'm beginning to grasp the big picture of the way the accounting and finances work here, so I'm glad for that.

Today was my first day of kitchen duty, so its been interesting. At least I don't have to cook on my own though... who knows what we'd be eating then with the ingredients I'm given haha. Here we eat a lot of rice, beans, corn and some other vegetables. Meat here at the base is very scarce, so we really don't have it that often at all. When we do, its usually some tough beef thats been minced.

Well, that concludes my nutshell write up of Kenya so far, and off to the Kitchen I go....

Nothing Short of a Nightmare

I was so excited to finally be able to head to Kenya. Things seemed to go smoothly at the airport in Bangkok. My bags weighed 6kg less then what they were the previous time (I packed all my heavy stuff in my carryon, and left a bunch of shampoo and stuff behind), so therefore they ended up only being 6kg over the baggage allowance amount. On top of that, for some reason they charged me less per Kg then they initially quoted me on. So I was pretty happy, cause the initial amount was ridiculous!! My first flight to Mumbai was with Jet Airways, so thats who I was dealing with in Bangkok. My connecting flights to Dubai and then to Nairobi were with Emirates. In Thailand, they printed all my boarding cards, so they were printed on Jet Airways boarding cards. Little did I know this would cause me major grief in the near future. The girl at the counter said I was all set, I had all my boarding cards, and my bags were checked straight through to Nairobi, so I didn't need to worry about anything.

I got to Mumbai, and the first thing I did was make a little bit of a fool of myself. I followed the crowd and went to the Indian Immigration counter... cause I thought that's just where I had to get through to proceed to my next gate. First of all, I hadn't received the right form, so I went back and filled out a form. Went back to the counter, they looked through my passport and asked where my Indian visa was. I told them I wasn't leaving the airport, and was getting a connecting flight. They told me that a different form was required then, and to make a different turn right before the immigration counter. For some reason I was just getting so confused, and couldn't figure out where to go. It was quite humorous actually, and I ended up trying to get through that immigration counter about 3 times. All the guys there started laughing, and finally they directed me and told me exactly where I needed to go. After that was all said and done, I went to the area my gate was at. I had an 11 hour layover though, so it was a long wait. (and there wasn't even wireless internet I could use!!) When those 11 hours finally passed, I was happy to finally get in line to board. They took one look at my boarding pass, and denied me the flight!!! I was at the correct gate and everything, but because of the simple fact that it was printed on a Jet Airways boarding card, and didn't have the Emirates logo on it, I couldn't even get on this flight. I got pretty frustrated, but a guy from Jet Airways came and told me that I could get on the next flight which was in about 4.5 hours, and I'd still make my connecting flight to Nairobi. I was ok with that, but I had to wait forever in one particular spot without my passport and boarding passes while they cleared it up and made arrangements for that flight. Every so often they'd come back with a tiny bit of information, but it always took them forever each time they left. I was really running out of patience!! All of a sudden I looked at the clock, and realized the flight I was supposed to be taking was departing in half an hour and I still hadn't heard back about a finalized flight! This made me really angry!! I had no clue what to do, there was no where I could go cause I didn't know where they were or even where the gate was for this flight I was supposed to be taking. After a long time later, they came back, and said... so you missed this next flight, but we have another option for you. They told me first of all that I'd have to PAY to change my flight!!! None of it was even my fault!! I don't think I've ever been as frustrated as I was then. I was persistent with them though, and told them I wouldn't pay, and they needed to go talk Emirates Airline again. After they left, I just about fell apart. I kept asking God why I was running into so many problems just to get to Nairobi! Right then, all I wanted was a hot shower back home and my own bed... I didn't want to think about the cold bucket shower and accommodations that would greet me at the YWAM base in the bush somewhere in Kenya (whenever it was that I would finally arrive there!) When they returned quite some time later, they told me I had no choice but to pay if I expected to leave. I also found out that I also had to repay my excess baggage , because it was only valid for the flight I 'missed'. I just didn't care anymore, I handed over my MasterCard and told them I just wanted to get there already. They got me on a flight that was 4 hours from then. After that, some other guy came up to me and took me somewhere, but he didn't even tell me what was going on. He took me on some elevators that were only meant for staff, and then I had to go through this security check to get outside the airport. Here I'm thinking where is he taking me??? I realized I was where they pack up all the baggage, but he still hadn't told me why I was there. Finally once we got to a particular baggage belt, he told me to identify my baggage. I told him which were mine, and he said they needed to be retagged and stuff cause of the new flight. It felt weird being there cause everyone was giving me strange looks. I asked him if these workers ever got to see passengers in this area, and he said no, very very few. It was finally time to head to my gate though, so I was happy!! I just hoped I wouldn't encounter anymore problems. I really needed to contact Karin in Kenya though, because I wouldn't be at the airport at the time I'd given her. Alone with there being no wireless, there were also no internet cafe's. I figured I'd worry about that once I got to Dubai. Once I settled into my seat on that plane, it was smooth sailing from there! I loved flying into Dubai, its a pretty cool city! The airport was also extremely nice... and even had free wireless internet so I was able to contact Karin like I needed to. Once I arrived in Kenya, I found Karin waiting for me, and breathed a huge sigh of relief! I had FINALLY made it. Those 40 hours from Bangkok to Nairobi had exhausted me, but needless to say, after my bucket shower, I hit the pillow and pretty much instantly fell asleep.