Going to Tumaini Tomorrow

hiiiieeeeee!



I'm finally traveling to the orphanage tomorrow! Normally, on-field orientation in Nairobi only lasts about 4 days, but mine was longer because everyone came in for Thanksgiving. It's been great, I'm so thankful to have gotten to spend time with the girls in my house. It's a blessing to have instant community here. They cook together all the time, they took me shopping, taught me all about living in Kenya. They work in the slums here as teachers. I want to go visit them! It sounds so neat!



We had a Thanksgiving here, everyone brought different foods. It was wonderful. =) yummmy pumpkin pie. On Saturday, a group was visiting an animal orphanage so I went with them. Ya know, I'm not really into animals. haha! except for dogs. But I was glad I went for sure! I got to pet a baby cheetah. There was no way I was holding it, and I only pet it for about 2 seconds, long enough for a picture. What was more enjoyable to me, actually, was driving on the matatus (taxis) & taking in all my surroundings. I just love geography. I had to come home & take a nap so that all my new images & intakes of Nairobi could sort into their own compartments in my brain...there's so much NEW here! A lot of the buildings downtown reminded me of buildings you'd see in London, probably because Nairobi was founded by the British. It's just like another normal downtown, only there's more dirt than cement. There's big buildings, restaurants & shops, crazy traffic, round-abouts, statues, smog, ya know, typical downtown. It's really a neat city. I like Nairobi. =)



I've been sleeping in a mosquito net, I can't remember if I already mentioned that. The first day, I was super scared of mosquitos & basically any flying bug. Haha, it's silly. I'm over it now. The mosquitos in Nairobi don't generally carry malaria because the elevation is too high. It's rare here. Just in case you wondered. =]



There's a lot for me to process in only 6 days here, and actually in 10 days since leaving Texas. I'm thankful to see the LORD's character in new ways, I prayed that I would. He is my Friend. Nobody here knows me very well yet, they don't know my background or where I've come from, they don't know what I did in college or high school, nor do they know my family and friends. But the LORD does. =) It's not bad that they don't know, it's just one of those things to process. The LORD understands what I'm feeling here, why I'm here, He knows what I'm doing here & He knows my heart...it's so true when Paul says in the book of Ephesians, "For He Himself is our peace." He is so sweet.



Tonight a bunch of the SIMPacters got together to decorate for Christmas, then we watched Elf (one of my favorites!). We listened to Christmas music. The Germans who live here thought it was so strange to decorate for Christmas this early. They wait until a few days before Christmas. It was fun learning about what they do for Christmas. They make a lot of their Christmas tree decorations, and they're not as "shiny" as ours. It sounds nice. I love the Germans, they're so sweet, sort of soft-spoken.

I'm headed to Tumaini tomorrow, I'm looking forward to meeting the kids. Everyone here says it's a really neat place & that I'll just love the kids.

Thanks so much for your prayers, I really can feel them!

kt

pic-chas

a major street in Nairobi

me & Lindsey at Thanksgiving dinner

happy in africa!

i'm here!!!! my flights were all smooth, yay! i don't feel jetlagged yet, i don't know that i will. i landed at night & then slept until this morning. i woke up to the muslim prayer call outside. that was weird. then i fell asleep & woke up at 6:40 am to something squawking outside my window. then i did not fall back asleep. i tried, but i felt very rested, just like my Sleepy Time medicine said i would. =]

i'll be here in nairobi until next monday. lindsey is coming in town today, i'm so excited to finally meet her! a lot of SIMers are coming for thanskgiving, we're all gonna have a potluck. i'll have time to go shopping here & get some things i need. my orientation here in nairobi is spread out through the week so i don't get overloaded. isn't that nice? i think it's a good idea.

my flights here were cool...i watched mamma mia with the swiss guy next to me on the way to zurich. then on the way to nairobi, i was surrounded by some other young people from italy who are coming to live here for a year. they were so nice! guess what!?? i got to see some desert! we flew of the deserts of sudan, it was wild....nothing but sand for miles & miles & miles. i mean it was just sand. there were sand dunes, sand dune shadows, & more sand. every now & then was a little river or a dried up river bed. we did see a little town near a river! maybe of about 30 buildings, but there was nothing green. there were 3 little patches of agriculture we could tell, but it wasn't green. it was very strange. reminded me of the movie "far from home." we did see one road. it was suuuuper long, & just vanished into the distant sand. why on earth was there a super long road in the middle of the desert? those kinds of places make me wonder, "why would God make hundreds of miles of sand?" it also made me think of the people we read about in the bible, how they traveled through these lands! places like that for so long, i can't imagine. it was really cool. we flew over the mediterranean sea, the adriatic sea, sudan, it was so cool! on the "in-flight map" on the airplane, just to know that i was sort of near places like the "lybian desert" or the "darfur mountains" was crazy. can you tell i like geography?

the other SIMPact girls i'm staying with are so fun. 2 german girls, & 2 from the west coast. speaking of, "they have "california girls" by the beach boys on repeat right now while i'm writing this...haha! they're painting a room. they work in the Kabera slums, the largest slum in Nairobi. but, the kids are out of school for a month until after christmas. sarah, from oregon, came with daniel, a SIM driver, to pick me up last night. they were so sweet & smiley & said "welcome home!" i haven't said "what am i doing??" or "where am i??" since i got here. being here feels totally normal. praise the LORD. =) laura & i said that ALL the time in canada, probably because it was so different (when do i EVER drive through snow?)

sarah told me she is currently an "art teacher." she took on the role herself. here's why.....
one of the 4 year olds she was with came & sat in her lap while she was writing or drawing something. she gave the 4 year old her pen, & he didn't know what it was or what to do with it. so, now she's an art teacher. =) i learned in my educ. classes that art & creativity plays a HUGE part in children's cognitive development. it's so good for them to discover, create, build, paint whatever they want, etc. i bet sarah's making such a big difference for those kids!

stuart in charlotte told me in his deep carolina accent, "now, katie, i gotta warn ya....africa can git in yur blood." i'll let you know when it does............ =)

Blogger isn't real reliable here, not sure why...i'll update when i can! pictures later!

kt

Orientation

yayyyyy! i'm in Charlotte, NC for orientation. well, actually, we finished yesterday & i leave for africa tomorrow. the lodge where i'm staying has wireless internet, so i've been using that all week, & i couldn't connect to my blog. so today i thought i'd try it on the desktop computer at the lodge, & lo & behold! =]

i feel SO MUCH MORE prepared to live in africa after this week. i learned a lot about the kenyan culture & the differences between it & american culture. for example, it's okay to ask other people for their stuff: "i like your earrings, can i have them?" here, that might be kind of weird. but to a kenyan, it's a completely normal thing. it is, also, very acceptable to reply with a "no." haha. i like it that one person explained it to me this way: every culture thinks their's has the best ideas & ways of doing things. the canadians think so, the peruvians think so, the australians think so, the kenyans think so. i think it's great to have that perspective. my opinion regarding that perspective and how it relates to the FDA, ...now that i'm still working on.

orientation made me really excited to live in africa! before, i was excited about the journey with the LORD i've embarked upon, but now i'm really excited about discovering & experiencing all these new things! i'm looking forward to getting to use the gifts the LORD has given me by serving people in need. i get energized thinking about it.

north carolina is very pretty, i heard people say that, but i didn't know what they meant! the trees are different colors here (like the Fall you see on tv), & they're really tall. the houses are super cute, too. the nice man i sat by on the airplane pointed out that all the houses we flew over didn't have fences (he was from amarillo). once i started thinking about it, i realized, jon & kate gosselin don't have the privacy fence i'm used to, neither does a lot of georgia, & neither did the canadians whose houses i visited. hm.

overview of my past 3 days
my flight was smooth, exactly on time, & my bags were the first ones out. stuart from SIM picked me up & had calming piano music playing in his car. =) a blessing. he pointed out some places on the SIM campus, then gave me instructions & a little tour of my residence. it's really nice! there's a greatroom in the middle with 2 living areas, a computer, cable tv, & rocking chairs. there's 4 little bedrooms off of this greatroom, all with a kitchen, dining, area, bathroom, & then bedroom. it's so nice! the refrigerator is stocked with food, the freezer has frozen dinners that stuart's wife cooks, & there's fresh fruit on the tables. it makes me feel so taken care of! they have missionaries going in & out of this campus ALL the time, so they have anything you could possibly need. it's wonderful.

i arrived here around 3:30 wednesday, & then stuart left. there was nothing on the schedule for me that day, & i was all alone in the residence. i was lonely already. =/ i checked the place out, then prayed that i wouldn't feel so lonely because i had only been away from texas for 5 hours... i checked my email, & praise the LORD! - my friend janette who just moved to england sent me a google chat message! then amy, my old roommate did, & then michaela got online! i was so thankful! after i talked to them for awhile, i took a nap in my room. i woke up around 6:15 to 2 girls laughing in the greatroom. i walked in thinking, "yay, people!" haha. sheila was here for debriefing after a year stay in west africa, & rachel has been here for 3 weeks (she's a SIM videographer). we watched tv for the evening, they are funny people. it was very nice & an answer to prayer. =)

turns out.....the reason nothing was scheduled for me on wednesday is because they didn't expect me to get there so early. it ended up being great because i got a lot of rest. the last week in texas was so busy, so it was nice to not have anything to do.

sheesh....not all my posts will be this long.....i think....

i'm the only person here for orientation. some other people were supposed to come, but they didn't, i'm not sure why. anthony, one of the persons who trained me here, said it's only the 2nd time he's only had one STA (short term associate) for orientation in the 6 yrs that he's been here. we had chik-fil-a for lunch (blessing...it's my fave). that night anthony & his wife (and their 2 yr old) took me to an ethiopian restaurant in downtown charlotte, yummy! he said it was part of my "cultural experience training." =] then we went to target so i could get more lactaid.

....

at 10AM on thursday, anthony made me kenyan tea because i will most likely have this "tea time" everyday in kenya (maybe not since i'll be at an orphanage). i tasted it & went, "mm, is this made with milk?" it is. i thought i only needed 40 lactaid tablets for the whole 5 months because i knew i wouldn't be drinking milk or eating dairy (no refrigeration at Tumaini). at least now i know i'll be getting my daily calcium! i might have the option to have tea without milk, but i'll have to find out when i get there!

last night, rachel & i watched an old black & white 40's movie called "i know where i'm going." it was cute, a romantic comedy. today i've been packing & resting again! stuart brought me a bbq sandwich for lunch. =) not quite like texas...but it was still bbq.

SUPER LONG THANKS FOR READING!

kt

preparing to go

packing for a 5 month stay in a foreign country takes a long time...

i have no idea who's gonna win Dancing with the Stars. i'm voting for codi & julianne though because i think they're just so entertaining.

so anyways...i had no idea there was so much to do to prepare to go overseas for longer than a few weeks! i'm learning so much though, it's great. people have been so sweet, too! thank you! i really can tell people have been praying for me! i've gotten to spend time with people, i've gotten a lot done, and i've had peace about going. i've received advice from people that have lived in Kenya, visited Kenya, lived in other African countries, served in missions in other nations...i just feel so blessed! the LORD is totally preparing me! & my parents! i only get nervous when people ask "so are you nervous?" haha. my parents say the same goes for them. so don't ask them if they're worrying...they probably aren't thinking about it until somebody asks... when i remember that i'm going to the nations though, & that the LORD has given me passion for loving on those kids, i get so excited! i'm also really looking foward to seeing Africa, i've heard kenya is beautiful.

my mom made a Thanksgiving dinner for me tonight! what a sweet mommy! it was served on our Christmas plates & there was a Christmas tree bread basket. =) so i got to experience some of our regular holidays traditions! matt, krista, jadrien, & mccall came. it was lots of fun.

I NEED HELP ---> ok the picture at the top of my post was supposed to be right underneath the previous paragraph. the caption should have been "jadrien was really excited about our food," but i can't get my pictures to go where i want them to! what do i do?? i also can't cut pictures or remove them from my post...how do i do that?? i had to super minimize the first picture i posted because it was in the wrong place. strange. please help me. =]

i'll post more when i figure out how...hopefully sometime tomorrow since i leave wednesday morning & tomorrow's tuesday....

[EDIT] OK, thanks for letting me know how to post pictures! Here are some!

me & my parents at pre-Thanksgiving

Turns out that only the first one worked. ^ That one. ::sigh:: Until I can figure this out, I'll just post pictures & caption them first. The picture at the top is me & Krista at pre-Thanksgiving (old roommate & one of my favorite persons ever!)

mmk, i fly to Charlotte for orientation tomorrow morning! i don't know when i'll post again...i fly to nairobi on sunday, i'll post as soon as i can to let you know i'm there!!!

kt

Worse than a frog

[EDIT] Thanks for your prayers! My voice was back just enough to speak, and sometimes ya just have to praise the LORD for microphones. =) Although, not having much voice did make a big difference while I was teaching 6th graders on Friday... =) Some kids said to their classmates, "SHH!!! you have to be quiet because we can't hear her!" haha! a blessing in disguise.

Also, didn't you expect me to find & figure out how to add music to my blog? I'm still working on it, but I hope you enjoy the current songs for your reading enhancement. :0]
[END EDIT]


So to quickly explain my title, my voice sounds worse than a frog. It went away today, and I am talking about my ministry to my parents' church tomorrow morning. It's only a 5-minute deal, but still, I'd like to have more voice than I do now so I can communicate. Please say a prayer that it comes back! It always seems to go away when I think I really need it....but it does always come back, by prayer. =) Thank you!

On some other notes, the LORD is blessing me in preparation to go. At Christ Fellowship on Sunday, a guy named Drew & I made the connection that we are both SIMpacters! He went to Kenya in 2006 and did nutritional education. What are the odds? We've been going to church together & had no idea until after lunch on Sunday, haha! He knows the people I'll be meeting in Kenya!

Also, I went to a prayer night at my church, and we broke in to small groups of 3 to pray for something, & I was with 2 other 20-something girls. One sounded African, so I asked where she was from and she said, "The Congo," so the other girl in the group said, "Oh cool! I'm leaving for Mozambique in like 10 days!" So then of course I chimed in, so Denise from The Congo gave me her English/Swahili dictionary to take with me! Isn't that cool?

Speaking of Swahili, it's the kids' 2nd language. 1st is Kikuyu, 2nd is Swahili, 3rd is English...all their schooling is in English, so these kids are gonna be tri-lingual. COOL.

Speaking of Kikuyu....haha, Matt's brother-in-law was at a book fair & found this old book called "Missionaries Heroes of Africa," so he bought it for me - again, super nice. it's an original from 1923. I read through some of it & realized there's a story about a man who ventured into the Great Rift Valley (mountains where I'll be) and began work with the KIKUYU people! of all the stories & people groups in Africa, there was a story in this book about the Kikuyu. cool.

catchya later ~
kt

GOING!

I'M GOING!!!! yay!!!

Departure: November 19

Return: April 24


Details...
In late July, I applied to SIM (Serving in Mission), an organization that ministers to human need while sharing the love of Christ. I will be working at an orphanage called "Tumaini," which means "hope" in Swahili. Tumaini is in Kinangop, Kenya, north of Nairobi. My official title is "orphanage worker," so whatever you think an orphanage worker might do, that's what I'll be doing. =) I do know that I will be taking care of and loving on God's precious kiddos who have been left without someone to care for them. I am joining another SIMpacter (people that go through SIM short-term are called SIMpacters) from North Carolina named Lindsey, who has been there since July. She said that her & some other SIMpacters started teaching the older kids how to facilitate bible studies, so that they could lead for the younger kids! (woo hoo, discipleship!) She also informed me that I'll be doing a lot of laundry...but when I think about it, these kids don't have parents to do the regular stuff parents do, such as laundry. I'm so excited. I'm gonna delight in doing laundry like I never have before. Literally. I usually prefer the dishes at home. =)

Tumaini has only been open for 6 years. GOA (Glory Outreach Assembly) actually founded it. This past January, GOA opened a school for Tumaini. I'm hoping to get some time the classrooms, even though I'm not going as a "teacher." I figure out of 86 kids, somebody must need a little extra help, right?

Most of the kids at Tumaini have come from the streets or homes where they were left without someone to care for them. Can you imagine? I didn't have to be on my own until I went to college, and even then, I didn't have to find or grow my own food, The Main did it and Albertson's was next door.

Why Kenya?
One neat thing about SIM is that I could choose (in approximation) when to leave & where to go, sort of... I told them I want to leave around October (pretty close!) and that I want to be with orphans, it didn't matter where. Tumaini in Kenya had availability! Plus, the LORD saw me there already. I smiled big when I read that Tumaini's mission is "to provide hope for the hopeless, orphans and destitute children." I know the LORD has purposed me to give hope to the hopeless, so talk about exciting! Tumaini's founders' vision is "To build a Godly heritage of orphans and to develop them to take responsibilities in the global village." Awesome. Raisin' up leaders who love the LORD!

Didn't she have a job teaching?
Yes, I did. But I longed to be overseas. I tried to get excited about teaching, and I probably will teach someday, but I just didn't want to yet. About 4 years ago, I felt compelled to go overseas and do something among the unreached; my passion for the hopeless and hurting has been developed from different experiences & further understanding about what the LORD has planned for His Kingdom globally. So, I didn't get a job & then decide I wanted to move to Africa. I got a job because everyone else got a job, I needed income, and I had a good offer. I was really uneasy about it & praying for something, I don't know what, just for God's hand I guess, when my apartment deal in Fort Worth fell through. I used that as an opportunity to re-route my steps. I got on http://www.rightnow.org/ which is a giant network of mission organizations, sending agencies, etc. (ps: i can't count how many times i had to re-type "agencies" - isn't that weird.). That's how I found SIM. I called my Special Ed. director and told her "um, I have a possible opportunity to work in Africa," and she practically gave me her blessing!!! Whoa! Praise the LORD! So, I was able to cancel my contract over the summer, before I even began. I told my mom & dad about it before I made any moves like officially cancelling my contract with Castleberry ISD or actually sending in my SIM application. I think they're embracing it pretty well. They let me move home. =p

To my amazing supporters -
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! SIM got a brand new really cool accounting system for finances at the beginning of October, so if you donated online, they have it, it just hasn't been electronically transferred to the bank yet. That's why you may have had some difficulty with the online giving system. And, that's why you haven't heard back from me...I haven't received an October report. I apologize, they are working super hard to get it all running. =)

Okay this post is getting kinda long, my udpates will be more frequent before I go, & after that, I'm not sure. There's a cable modem at the orphanage, but I don't know how often I'll be able to get online.


kt