Home Sweet Ikotos

Yesterday, I returned safely to Ikotos from my two-month, tri-country excursion. After being in Kenya for so long with modern conveniences like running water and flush toilets, along with fresh vegetables and fruit, it will be some getting used to the rustic living once again.
The last time I blogged, I told you all that I was sick. Well, I am much better now and I thank you all for praying and thinking about me. I’m not sure what all I had, but the symptoms seemed like malaria at first and then after going through a round of malaria treatment and not getting better, I was tested for an infection or an ameba. It turned out that I did have a bacterial infection for sure, but we don’t know if I also had malaria. Anyway, that is in the past and I’m moving forward with a clean bill of health. It was just in time too, that I got better, for I was only well for about 5 days before I re-entered Sudan.
The Africa-Based Orientation (ABO) that I was attending for the children’s ministry went well. There were 14 children, not including the babies which made Kelly, Carolyn, and I have our hands full. The children were great, but rambunctious. Most of them had never been to Africa before and were leaving their friends and family behind, and were definitely not used to having to walk everywhere. We took them on walks to the shops, the pre-school, around the campus, and to swim in a pool at a near-by boarding school. Inside, we taught them about Africa: the people, the cultures, religions, animals, and Kiswahili.
On our day off, a few of us went to a game ranch to see some wildlife. I was still sick when we went but I managed to stick out the ride on the first evening. Overnight I became violently ill and slept the entire next day. Fortunately, the rest of the group took some amazing pictures, which I hope to upload here for you.
So, the 3 weeks in Machakos went by very quickly. We lived in a dorm with 2 sets of bunk-beds, 2 closets, 2 desks, and horrible cafeteria food. Not to discredit the hardworking cooks at Scott Theological College, but I think most people were tired of cabbage, rice, Ungali (corn-maze mush), and beans by the first week. Those were our options for lunch and dinner everyday. Because I was sick, eventually I went into town and bought pasta, cheese, crackers, bread, tuna, mayo, and yogurt. Kelly and I started making tuna sandwiches everyday for lunch and pasta or grilled cheese for dinner (well, actually I made tuna and Kelly ate PB&J).
On the 5th of February, we left Machakos and drove to Nairobi, staying with Carolyn, for 3 days. The first thing we did there was get pizza! Fortunately for us the Pizza Inn has a 2-for-1 deal on Tuesday, which helped me to devour most of a veggie pizza—I had to make up for lost time of eating ;). Then, we drove to a mall and looked around a real book store for a couple hours and then went to a coffee house called Java House, which we had wanted to go to since we first arrived in Nairobi. At Java House, there is wireless internet and American-style food. Because we were still so full from lunch, we just ate salads, which was actually pretty great since we don’t get salads in Sudan. The next day, we went to Java House again for breakfast, and then to the movies to see Atonement. The movie was great cinematography-wise, and intense.
After doing some mega grocery shopping for the next leg of Sudanese living, we prepared to organize everything for the plane ride to Loki. We are only allowed 20 kilos of luggage and I had a total of 47ks! Fortunately, I was able to pay a little extra and get on the plane. Any one of you would have laughed to see my duffle bag, along with 4 gigantic grocery bags—tied off at the top— a huge pillow, and my extremely full backpack. I don’t think that any regular airline would have ever allowed such an arrangement. So, we made it safely to loki, spent the night at the Carpenter’s house, who then flew us out to Sudan the next morning (If you follow along in the last couple emails, you might see that we stayed with the Carpenters in Uganda, but recently they moved to Loki last week). Now, I am back and will start teaching again on Monday. Apparently, last week the teachers went on strike for money, but this week they will be back. We will see.
A verse that I enjoyed last night was 2 Corinthians 8:13-15: “Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, and so that in their turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much and he who gathered little did not have too little.’” I think that we could all apply that to our lives in some way. For me, it is all about being generous with my Sudanese friends—not just with money, but with my time.
**p.s.- the pictures of the town, the landscape, and the children are from my hike in Machakos the first week. The animal pictures are from the safari. Doesn't the landscape picture look like Napa Valley CA? Click on the images to enlarge them.