1st week in the field

In all honesty there is so much to write about and my head is full so hear is a quick summary from an email that I sent out a few days ago.

Today was good. They say good different here and now I am saying it the same. They same names different as well. I am Bwana Calebu. Today I was off on my own. It was very freeing to take off in the Landcruiser and make my way through town to a number of shops and then out to the Naibor area. I am getting ahead of myself. I woke up and was so refreshed and feeling so at home. It was so nice because the mosquitoes didn't keep me up all night like the night before. I got some great time in with God and then went off to devotional with the school staff at 8. It was in english so it was easy to understand. After that i went to the devotional with the grounds workers. I like this one more because they do it in swahili. We start out with tea (everything starts with tea!) and then sing a song in swahili. I think this is how I will learn swahili. It is beautiful listening to all of the men sing in swahili. I can read it and pronounce it but I don't really know what they are saying. It is more informal and there is more friendship at this one.

I ended up packing up all of the welding stuff and spending the day trying to fox electrical gremlins at the shop in Naibor. We did go to the orphanage at lunch and it was GREAT!!! It was only the little kids and they couldn't get enough of me and the camera. There was one little girl who sat next to me and kept petting my arm. None of the people here have hair on their arms so it was so funny to her. When she was done she sat there holding my finger. She won my heart. I really enjoyed my time there but I am realizing what a handicap it is not knowing swahili. I'm working on it with little forward momentum.

Unfortunately I have had little time to read and write. I love my home here. It is to big for me but it is just me living here and I enjoy the quiet. I have giant herds of kids walking by and they love to stare at the the "mazungu" in the headmasters house. Jerry Sherry and I are the only mazungu around so it is very different. All of the kids speak swahili and english but I try to just use swahili with them. I am the only one here aloud to because I am learning it. They have to use english because that is what all of their testing is in.

We need to make a test house for the blocks to market it and we need to make a bunch of buildings around campus after that so I think we'll be making a house for my new friend Noah and his family on their shamba (farm) so that they can move off campus and live on their own land. This would be a huge blessing for Noah and then I could move into his home on campus to make room for other visitors that will be here at the end of the month.

They brought in a little girl to the orphanage who had passed out from starvation. This was heart breaking. I wish that you could be here to see it and feel it because it is so overwhelming. It is not just this girl but more than you can even fathom and you can't save them all. She ate today.

I tried teaching baseball in the evening after moving 4,000 pounds of corn and rice from Nanyuki to the orphanage in Naibor. Monday I take a goat out and slaughter it. Baseball is more difficult to teach than I would have thought mostly due to me not speaking Swahili.

It's amazing how these children have never seen a battery operated toy, a video game, a cement floor in their home, a toilet, or even a sink and they are so happy. They are filled with joy and love because of John Chirchir and his wife Mary. They are well behaved and a delight to be around.

I need some sleep so keep on praying for me. Best of wishes to all of you.