The first week

There's so much to tell and so little time and space, but we'll give it a shot. Found a faster Internet connection here in Malindi today, so this will be easier. Really wish we could add photos right now, but the logistics are a bit of a challenge.

It's amazing how quickly you can settle into a different culture, even one as distant from American life as this environment in Tarasaa. Full from the latest hot, heavy meal, exhausted from a day of hard work (and some play) in the African sun, and sandy and dirty from head to toe, it's now routine to step over the dead cockroach next to the bed post, dodge the chicken that's hanging out in the corner of the steamy and stuffy room, climb into bed, tuck in the mosquito net, thank God for the good life at home and the enrichment of the experience here, and fall asleep for eight hours without even flinching.

Sometimes the scratchy call to prayer over the loudspeaker at the nearby mosque will wake you up at 4:30 a.m. Sometimes it's the giant bullfrog outside the window at 5. Sometimes it's the rat scattering across the tarp on the ceiling at 5:30. But sometimes you slumber right on through until 6.

Sleeping is a small part of the experience here, though. After breakfast with our host families (usually fruit, eggs, plenty of fried bread products, perhaps some porridge and of course chai tea), we meet to sing, pray and share in the morning before heading to work. The primary project so far has been to fortify the cement and stone church in the neighboring village of Furaha that serves the Sanye or Watu people there. They are very poor, living in straw huts and mostly illiterate, and few of them speak English. But the women have been delighted as they learn how to use the sewing machines we brought, and the kids swarm us every day with wide eyes and even wider smiles to watch the cement slinging and mixing. Outside, the older boys play volleyball and soccer on their crudely but remarkably constructed fields. They're good athletes, and we are slow white folks from Minnesota, but it's not all that hard to bump and set.

The other project that has taken a chunk of our time is outside the elementary school in the neighboring village of Egecumbe, where one of the outhouses recently collapsed into the 30-foot hole that was originally dug for it. We've been shoveling and hacking and grading so that the other one won't fall apart, too.

We pack into the matutu in the early afternoon and travel back to Samson's (the house of the local pastor here that serves as our headquarters) for lunch. Then it's usually back to one of the work sites, back to Samson's for more singing, praying and scripture, then back to our host families for dinner with some time for hanging out in between.

Blog posts are ineffective when they run too long, so this is a good place to stop. Continue to keep our safety, health, energy and emotions in your prayers. We'll check in again soon.

--Dave (for Steve, Shelby, Lauren, Madison, Morgan, Doug, Andrew, Becky, Alex, Randy, Paul, Anne, Howard, Lynne, J.J., Ryan, Sarah and Pete)

A few "postcards" to home ...

From PETE ...
The trip is going great!

From SARAH ...
Mom, Dad, Bethany, Pauly, Jacob, Johnny and Phil,
The trip has again been a very moving experience for me. I miss you all. Hug Jacob for me. Phil, H&0. Love, Sarah.

From RANDY ...
Dear Nikki, Tyson and Jenaye,
I was missing you guys dearly the other day, but God comforted me in my loneliness. We're having a great time, and I can't wait to tell you all about it when I get back. Love, Randy.

From BECKY ...
I'm doing great and enjoying every moment.

From ANNE ...
Dad and Mom, Elyse, Aaron and Meri,
Hello from Kenya! I love you all and miss you tons. Hope everything is well at home. I've settled in again with the Gwiyo family. They thoroughly enjoyed your letters and wish you could visit too some day. The Kenyan people again have broken and humbled my heart. Too many details to share over the Internet but our work relationally and physically is going well. More when I get home. I love you very much. Praying for you all daily. Love always, Anne.

From the JOHNSONS ...
Greetings from Tarasaa, friends and family. While we ache to hold our new grandbaby we are filled joy. Our time here has been more than we could ask. Our hero J.J. killed a black mamba snake at the worksite yesterday, and we share our room with a packrat and many lizards (hipam)! It is wonderful. The people are kind and welcoming. The land is beatiful. We miss you all. Take care. Love, HJ and LJ.

"You leave bags here, and you come eat"

The rest of us all made it safely to Kenya, too, without any complications. Back-to-back eight-hour flights are not easy, but we were well-fed and the seats have those cool neck roll things that you can adjust to keep your sleepy head from rolling sharply one way or the other. The 10 of us in the main group arrived in Mombasa around midnight Sunday (local time, which is all relative when you're in Africa) and Howard, Lynne, J.J. and Alex came together Monday morning.

Right now, we're halfway through the matatu ride from Mombasa to Tarasaa, where we will spend the better part of the next three weeks. The Internet is painfully slow, so it will be difficult to provide daily updates, but we'll do our best. Pictures will probably have to wait until we get back.

We're all ready for some sleep, but it's safe to say that nobody is starving. An unofficial count had us eating 10 times in a span of 36 hours, thanks to that bizarre feeding schedule on international flights. Then when we showed up at the Presbyterian Guest House in Mombasa to stay the night, we had our first taste -- literally -- of Kenyan hospitality.

Though everyone preferred to check into the rooms and crash underneath the mosquito net, we had one more meal to eat. The friendly woman at the front desk didn't seem to mind that we were tired and full. They had food to share with us, so "hapana" was not an answer.

"You leave bags here; then you come eat," she said twice, the second time in response to the useless "we're fine, thanks" we mumbled through polite smiles. It's nice to be welcome.

--Dave

From the Petersons ...

We arrived safely and are all doing well. The house we are living in is truly a blessing. We have a Sanye woman who is a single mom we are paying to cook, clean and do our laundry for us. She is a very sweet lady. We have begun working on the sewing cooperative. Committees of women have been established and are training in the village of Fraha on Tuesdays and Thursdays and in the village of Tarasaa on Wednesdays and Fridays. More later. God bless all of you,

--Pastor Steve and family

What we're bringing

Each of us is checking two bags and carrying one on. One of our checked bags is full of items we're taking to Tarasaa (the name of the village where we will stay), including school supplies for the Pokomo children and sewing machines for the women. Part of the focus of the trip is not only to encourage the people there and help them create a stonger sense of self-sufficiency -- and not a unhealthy and unrealistic dependency on our help. Shelby will be helping organize a sewing co-op that the women there can continue and use for the betterment of the tribe once we're gone.

In our personal gear, we're carrying a modest amount of clothing (space is at a premium!) because our host families typically do our laundry (as well as feed us twice a day). There are the usual toiletries and reading material, but also some items necessary for survival in rural Africa: mosquito net, flash light, head lamp, batteries, more batteries, hand sanitizer, more hand sanitizer, mosquito spray, sunscreen.

Post questions if you have any. Otherwise, God bless and we will talk to you soon.

--Dave

Time to go!

Our flight leaves in six hours, so this morning is the last chance to cross those remaining items off the to-do list. Steve, Shelby and the girls made it safely, with only one apparent hiccup at the airport when they tried to exchange some "older" $20 bills in Nairobi for Kenyan shillings. The currency exchange people were concerned that these Andrew Jacksons were born before 2000. International travel -- never a dull moment.

Anyway, thanks for all your prayers and interest in the trip. We'll try to keep this updated as much as possible and if you're still interested when we get back hopefully we can add some photos.

--Dave

10 days to go ...

... and we can't wait to leave.

The departure time is 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, so I suppose it's about time to start thinking about getting those shots and requesting vacation time at work, huh?

(Pause for lesson on pitfalls of procrastination.)

Actually, we're all much further ahead of the game than that -- thanks to plenty of prayer, various meetings over the past several months, much-appreciated administrative efforts by Anne and Doug, some great stories told by trip participants from years past, that invaluable Swahili cheat sheet, and the magic of Western medicine.

My malaria medicine is safely packed, and I'm fully vaccinated. Hepatitis A, Hepatitis Z, typhoid, rheumatoid, yellow fever, pennant fever -- you name it, I'm ready for it.

As Howard and Lynne recently wrote in an e-mail reply, "We are really going to Kenya." Yes, we are, and to help keep our family, friends, colleagues and fellow members of the congregation at Peace Church and Cry of the Heart ministry in the know about the trip we plan to post regular updates before, during and after the trip. Ideally, with pictures, though those will likely not come until after we return on July 13.

If you're reading this, you've already logged on to the site. Feel free to write your own comments and questions, and we'll try to respond appropriately. I will probably be the primary author, but hopefully others will chime in from time to time, too.

--Dave (for Andrew, Doug, Becky, Alex, Randy, Paul, Anne, Howard, Lynne, J.J., Ryan, Sarah and Pete as well as Steve, Shelby, Lauren, Madison and Morgan)