Children's Home Photos

We had a six hour bus ride from Nairobi to Karicho, but there was a mix-up and we went an hour out of our way. Greg ('dad') was waiting to drive us to Litein when we arrived, so we kept him waiting for awhile, but he simply stayed with Mary Rose ('mom') at the Tea Hotel. She was pretty sick with a stomach bug. When we got to the right place, he introduced himself by saying "just call me dad; that's what everybody calls me."
This picture is a section of road where there's not really a guardrail, and we were up pretty high, so I was a little nervous at first (just because there aren't a lot of speed limits/traffic signs in Kenya, so the ride was quite an adventure. I took several short naps on the way, and we also saw herds of sheep, goats, donkeys an cows; and even a few zebras and impalas/ gazelles.

Mallory holding Faith Ann <3 

One of the classrooms.

Courtney and I stayed up late inventing chocolate and vanilla cakes for the birthday celebration, which we had yesterday. Hannah, Greg and Mary's youngest girl, is hiding behind me. She really loves sprinkles, and she's such a good helper, so she helped decorate the cake(s). The icing was tricky: we didn't have a mixer, shortening, or corn syrup; but we used Somo (vegetable fat), a little butter, cocoa, -we did have powdered sugar-, vanilla extract, and a little evaporated milk to make chocolate frosting. -and then we made another batch with a cherry drink mix packet instead of cocoa to make pink icing, too.

This is the most American birthday cake you'll ever see in Africa. 

Me with Sheila <3

Stirring the Ugali. 

Mallory stirring the Ugali ;)

This is Kathleen (isn't she adorable?) she has a crazy hairdo, but the sweetest face:
and she was even looking at the camera! :)

Beautiful vine archway from our yard to the Guest House lawn.

We learned all the Swahili we needed to know in Nairobi. It turns out that Lion King is the best way to learn it: and yes, rafiki (friend) and akuna mattata (no worries) are real words :) 

More pretty flowers <3

Guest house scenery

We stayed at missionary homes on the Guest House grounds, but this is the view from the actual Guest House where tea is served every morning at 10, and every afternoon at 4. 'Tea' usually consists of coffee and black tea, and a small sweet or savory something).

One of several beautiful plants outside. There are walls around the property and we post a guard during the night, so the yard was walled in securely. As 'muzungus' in Nairobi, we have to be very careful -not that it's a bad place, but because: "IN AFRICA, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AT ANY TIME: BUT MOST OF THE TIME IT DOESN'T."

The view from my bedroom window :)
we arrived at 11:55 PM (Kenya time) on Sunday, January 20. I was dark outside, so it was a little scary finding our way through Nairobi to EMM's Mennonite Guest House, but then the beautiful plants and everything outside were  such a pleasant surprise in the morning.

Kabariyako (hello/how are you) from Kenya :)

Hi everyone! Travis, Mallory and I made it to Kenya safely. ( Travis and Mallory are friends from training who are also serving in Kenya). We flew from Harrisburg to Detroit to Amsterdam to Nairobi; and we had a delay on the Amsterdam > Nairobi flight, but arrived at EMM's Mennonite Guest House location here at 11:55 PM on Sunday night (3:55 PM Pennsylvania time). Someone must be praying for us because we had absolutely no jet-lag whatsoever. Connecting to the internet is a lot easier than predicted, and we're already learning a lot about language and culture specific to Nairobi and Litein (pronounced Li-tane). I have some other events to catch up on, but I'll skip straight to today: we cooked breakfast at 8:00 (midnight in PA) with things we bought in Westlands yesterday: bananas, oranges, eggs, and tea.  We had a session on Spiritual Disciplines after breakfast, teatime at 10:00, and at 2:00 (6 AM in PA) we went to a baseball field on the other side of Nairobi to meet the kids involved in the Sports Ministry connected to EMM. Almost everyone here speaks English, but it's good manners to attempt Swahili, so we've learned pretty quickly, but it's good that for the most part, everyone understands what we're saying. The version of English here is not exactly the same: there are British words for a lot of things, and definitely different accents. We speak what Kenyan people refer to as "high English", which is different. Kenyan culture is more formal in every way, and more relationship-centered than task-oriented. Well this is pretty short and sweet, but hopefully you get an idea what it's like and what I'm attempting to learn so far. the Guest House is the most beautiful place i have ever been. I have pictures, and hopefully I'll have time to upload them soon.

Thank you for reading about my little adventure, and for praying for me!

Love and prayers,

-Olivia

P.S. The Guest House functions as a home base of sorts; and it's a very restful place ideal for quiet times and a little more training/language studying. Courtney, Mallory and I are staying here until Thursday morning (Wednesday afternoon in PA) when we head to the orphanage for the official start to our assignments. Courtney is so kind and welcoming, and Mallory is an excellent friend and set-apart   

example: I truly could not ask for better teammates.

What I'm learning

Well, my last official day of work was Saturday January 12th. Sunday the 13th was a great morning at Millport: I felt so loved and supported by my church family, and I was very happy to see that John and Becky Thompson from Green Meadow Farm came! They're becoming such great friends of mine because of their obvious love for and direct obedience to Jesus Christ. (The whole team at G. M.F. is pretty special, actually).
Kerry, my pastor, asked some commitment questions, which brought the entire process of going to Kenya into perspective. Daryl and Mary Martin led the commissioning prayers for me, and that was definitely the best thing :)
My mom also made it a really special day for me -in her usual way, which is telling me that she's happy for me and focusing on me and understanding how I'm feeling. She does so much for my whole family every day <3.
My first day of training was today, and it was so good to meet the EMM staff and the other GO! participants. There are six of us total, 4 girls and two guys.
It was an exellent time of learning about discipleship and what it means to follow Jesus and live for Him. I've been reading so many good books and miscellaneous quotes lately, and some of those really tied in. God has really been reaching out to me and showing me a whole new perspective on my life with Him through a little book called "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23" lately. It is an in-depth anaylsis of the Psalm and shows me paralells that mean so much more than I understood just within that one Psalm.