2nd week in the field

Greetings all,

I hope that this is finding all of you in good spirits and Gods grace. You know the only thing that will prevent that from happening is you, just in case you were wondering. I saw a beautiful rainbow this week. I was in Naibor driving back to Nanyuki and there was rain at the base of Mt. Kenya. It made a beautiful rainbow that reminded me of the promise that God made to Noah that He would never again flood the earth. He sure isn’t practicing to do it here. Unfortunately the drought is getting much worse. You can drive to Doldol and see dead cattle all over the side of the road due to the drought. Cattle and people are dying due to starvation and lack of water. Did you know that the Sahara Dessert is growing considerably every year due to the cattle industry in South America. I wonder if that has anything to do with the drought here.

It blows me away how the decisions that we make on one side of the world effect the rest of the world so much. You wouldn’t believe how many Obama things you can see over here. Pastor Jerry and I were having lunch in Nairobi and this semi flat bed trailer went by with a huge Obama banner and people dancing and blaring “the roof is on fire”. So don’t forget that your decisions do impact not just you but our world.

Monday I delivered a goat to the orphanage in Naibor. I don’t know if any of you have ever slaughtered a goat but it is a lot of work. Just killing the poor thing is difficult. John Chirchir said that I am the first wazungu (white guy) to ever slaughter a goat with him. The last Americans ran off crying before they even cut it’s throat. The kids love it!!! It’s a feast for the next few days. They can’t wait to see who gets the goats testicles or head first. The Masai believe in drinking the blood of the animal, they’ll even use it to survive in drought situations by just taking a little at a time so the cow stays alive. Well there are a few Masai kids at the orphanage who ran off with the bucket of goats blood for the dogs and came back with dried blood around their mouths. This was a shocking thing for to see Mariamo, a 3 year old girl who has become very dear to me, return with a big smile and some dried goat blood around her mouth. Before we had even finished cutting it up Mary (John’s wife) had cooked up some delicious goat ribs for us. It was a real treat but kind of hard to think that I had taken the life of the animal that I was now eating.

The moon is coming up later and later and the stars are incredible!!!! I’m under them right now!!! I was walking home last night from a friends house that I had dinner at and looked up and my breath was almost taken away. I was walking with Esther and she said that they get even brighter. I can’t wait to see that. I was going to sleep outside tonight but it might rain so I think I’ll stay in. The temperatures are perfect for camping.

We started laying out a house on campus, that I’ll be living in as soon as it is done, today. It will be the first house built here made from the interlocking bricks that we are trying to get going her in Kenya. I look forward to it’s completion. Unfortunately the big hang up will be getting the blocks made quickly enough. I don’t think that they will all be ready in time.

The culture still has a lot to teach me but I’m a willing student. My Swahili is improving. I can get the basics of a conversation sometimes and can communicate certain things. I try to make it to Swahili devotional as much as possible because the hymns sound better in Swahili and it helps to be around it a lot. I did find myself getting frustrated with it last night so please pray for me and my patience in this.

So far this has been a great experience and I know that I have already had an impact here. I feel like I really am right where I need to be. It is hard and I miss many of you but I think that I could live here. It’s much more simple and people tend to be less hung up on crap and focus more on relationships. I am disappointed at how much TV is still watched and that there really isn’t anything good on TV to watch. It really is the “boob tube”. I look forward to hearing from you all and seeing you when that time comes. Please pray for all of us here.

Love and Blessings
Caleb