Imaginary Line

While in Kenya, we traveled from Nairobi to Kitale, This is me and my friend Hannah. Hannah is standing in the southern hemisphere and I am standing in the northern hemisphere of our great planet, Earth.

The equator, is just an imaginary line that divides the northern from the southern hemisphere, but when I was there with my left foot in winter and my right foot in summer, all those days of grade school science seemed worthwhile. Real life application makes all the difference.

Back from Kenya

Hi everyone!

I got back into St. Louis last night at about 5:30. It was a long ride home, but I was ready to be back and see Tim and my puppy! Kenya was amazing! Everything was a contrast. In Nairobi everything is in English. The menus, posters, shop signs, the billboards, (all advertising for cell phones and internet service), most of the people seemed to speak English there too. But then you have a skyscraper right next to a guy leading a donkey and a woman selling carrots on the side of the road. Their a bike taxis that will take you to the mall, and roadside stands full of flowers, vegetables and nick-knacks right by a shoe store that has a cardboard cut out of Christina Aguilera advertising for Sketchers. Street children who haven’t eaten in days or bathed in months, standing outside the Mercedes dealership. Our hosts, the Kindergor family made sure we had awesome places to stay, and

The colors? Totally amazing! The transportation? Completely crazy. The people? Extremely welcoming. Promptness? Nonexistent.

We had one day in Karaokot, helping some nurses on a medical mission. It took us 5 hours to drive 60km up into the mountains to see the home of one of our dear friends who had made it her mission to take in all the orphans of the village. Right now they have 6 of their own children and 10 orphans. We were driving on what they call roads which are more like dried up river beds, and bushwhacked animal paths. The dirt is unbelievable. After 5 hours there and back you could shake your hair out and get a hand full of dirt. Occasionally, some guy in all his tribal gear would step out of the wilderness on either side of the road. We were a million miles from no where, and there would be a random guy there with his goats. Karapokot is like going back in time 1000 years. No electricity, no running water, but it is there home. The boys all wear miniskirts and hoop earrings and hold staves and their own little sitting stool, that they have carved themselves. They all manage, and the children seemed to be as happy as any kid Ive met in the States. There is a school there now, but many of the children choose not to attend. Samson gave Pat and Gabe, two of the kids that were in our group lambs. They named them and next year they are supposed to go back and eat them. Everyone was welcoming and all the kids love the video camera! Becca and I managed to teach the kids stupid American dances and they taught us some of their dance, which consisted mostly of jumping up and down in rhythm to a beat. We spoke no Pocot and they spoke no English, but they learned the Macarena in no time. Becca and I got laughed at a lot. We were there well after dark and you could see the whole universe in the sky.

Broken struts, flat tires 14 people in one Land Curser, some how we made it back to Kitale at about 2:30 in the morning. We had to leave our Kenyan friends who were with us with the broken car. They fixed it and made it back to Kapenguria around 8:30 A.M, ready to take on the peace rally with no sleep. On the way home they hit a dear, by accident. They threw it in the back of their van, (with the 10 people) and skinned it, cooked it and ate it for breakfast. I cant believe I missed that!

Tuesday we went to Turkwel for the first peace rally and we went to Tot for the second peace rally. (By the way, these places aren’t on very many maps of Kenya, but they are all near Lodwar. At one point on the way to Karapokot, we were 4 Km from the Ugandan border.) You couldn’t pay to go to the random, furthest corners of the earth places they took us. It was like everything you see on National Geographic, right in front of your face, but you cant believe it. There was always lots of singing and dancing. Some of the guys that were jumping up and down had a 24 inch vertical.

We handed out Bibles to the pastors of the churches there and Andrew spoke to the people about if they cant have peace in their own homes, if they are beating their wives and continuing to have forced marriage, how can they expect to have peace among their neighboring tribes. We were well received everywhere we went. People were constantly surrounding us to claustrophobic degrees. Between the 10 of us that were on the U.S. group we probably went through 18 bottles of hand sanitizer. Showers have never felt so good. My comfort addiction has never been so evident and yet every time I started to get tired or thought about complaining I was filled by the smiles of all the kids who wanted to walk with you hand in hand or touch our hair or skin. Babies often started screaming if we were within 10 feet of their mothers who were holding them. I was told they feared our skin. It makes sense. Wazoongo, White people, are just as common to them as three-headed aliens would be to us. ..

The last couple of days in Kenya we took it easy. We went to Nakuru to go on Safari, and spent some last precious moments with the Kindergor family. There were a lot of tearful good-byes. After all the mess that we saw and after all the poverty that we witnessed, what will stand out is their beauty. We were welcomed into every home, We were made part of every village.. We were ushered into a family that loves without bounds. I will be forever changed, forever grateful and always believe in the redemption story for Kenya.

To see pictures you can link to my photograrphy blog, or just goto:
http://www.beautifulmessphotography.blogspot.com/

The Biggest Surprise

What is the biggest thing that has surprised you about marriage? One of my biggest surprise was how sleeping next to another person who is 98 degrees, makes sleeping a much warmer experience. I usually kick off all the covers, and go find my own blanket, just to separate myself from having direct contact with the heater named, Tim.

Another note worthy thing, that is a good surprise, is that I never expected the relief that I have, knowing Tim is in the trenches fighting next to me. It makes sense, but I hadn’t expected the feeling of security and peace that came with combining hearts. It goes beyond just someone helping pay the bills or reaching things on the top shelf. It is something in the neighborhood of knowing there is someone who is an extension of me, providing balance to and complimenting all my prayers, goals, hopes, and perspective. And I, being just who God made me, am his.

I am so excited to go home to him every night, and wake up with him every morning. I can't wait to hear what he'll say next. Everything that I do, I want to share with him, because it isn't enough to just tell him about it later, I want to experience everything with him. I know that is what marriage is supposed to be about, but when you've never gone through something, and you have lived your life without that "oneness", when it actually happens, the feeling you get when it hits you, is like, "Wow, that is something I've never felt before."

Yeah, that's what I find surprising.

Starbucks

11-11-05
My friend, Kent, once said something to the extent of, “We are all jr. high kids on the inside, adults just hide it better.”

I find that concept to be more true all the time. I find that I learn more about myself, the more time I spend with jr. high and high school students. So lately I was just wondering if anyone else has noticed the phenomenon of 12+ year olds drinking Starbucks coffee on a daily basis. They don’t just drink a cup of Folgers, it has to be Starbucks, the brand name. I was working at a youth conference this summer, and four to five times a day I would hear these students gasp, with moans of desperation, as though their brain would shut down and their social life fall dead on the spot, “I NEED A STARBUCKS!” What is that?

A friend of mine, who is a teacher at a local middle school, reports three girls walking into the crowded, social arena, before school, in their matching, pink, North Face, fleece jackets, and matching Starbucks coffee cups. Now, you might want to look at the fact that Starbucks has more caffeine, an addictive drug, than any over the counter brand of joe. And with the mass intake I’ve been witness to of 12-18 year olds that can’t be good for their health. I found this quote to back up just how much caffeine Starbucks coffee has in it.

“In a survey last year conducted by the Wall Street Journal, a 16-ounce house blend served at Starbucks was found to have 223 grams of caffeine, about a third more caffeine than a same-sized cup served by Dunkin' Donuts and nearly twice as much as a 7-Eleven serving. Starbucks says other coffee drinks contain even more caffeine -- 320 milligrams in a medium cup. That's nearly double the amount found in Folgers, the leading grocery-store brand.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/15/
ING0TCN4721.DTL

But I normally wouldn’t mention the North Face coats or probably even care that teenagers are drinking coffee. I don’t have anything against either of these brands, and there are a lot worse things that they can be spending their money on, but the fact that not any old cup of coffee will do, and highlighted by the North Face jackets, and the fact that they brought the Starbucks with them to school, into a crowded room says one very important thing. Starbucks is a status symbol. Not only are they seen carrying a cup of coffee, that if you open any copy of US weekly, or People, you will see a nice paparazzi shot of Britney Spears or Mary-Kate Olsen carrying, but it also has the subtext of, “I have enough money to buy a $4 mocha frappuchino latte with extra foam, every day? Can you?”

This cup of coffee makes them seem important, superior. Might I even dare say, valid in their social environment. It gives them a false confidence that they are “cooler” than those who aren’t holding a Starbucks cup of coffee. Now this might not seem like that bad of a pressure, and there might even be an upside to a 80 pound, 14 year old girl who won’t eat lunch, sucking down 1200 calories in one Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino Blended Crème, but this Starbucks obsession points to a need. A need to have a positive identity, so they will be accepted and seen as an important individual. And the Starbucks will only fill that need for so long. When it gets the point that everyone in the room is holding Starbucks, so they could all achieve the “Starbucks is cool” identity, there will still be the jeans that are cooler, or the internet provider that is speedier, and the gaming system with the better games, graphic, music.

What is your need? What is your Starbucks?