Return to Kenya

We’ve been back in Kenya for over 2-months.  The time has been going by very quickly.  So much has happened since we've been back.  The big difference I feel on this second half of our rotation is rhythm.  Janine and I have gotten into a rhythm in a number of ways.  We both have been really good about exercising.  The girls work out weekday mornings at 6:30 am to Jillian.  Silently they lift rocks and run in place while the guys have better sense to stay in a bed a few more minutes.

I work out with two other guys every other day, and we have a routine that includes lots of pushups, pull-ups and using a bucket of rocks in place of a kettle bell.  We’ve both only had minimal times where we have had to “phone it in” as we say when we don’t work out.

I've developed some good spiritual discipline as well.  Every morning at 7:15 I meet up with one of my teammates, Matt Lee, and have a prayer time.  We’ve been reading through Psalms together during that time, then we pray.  It’s been really amazing.

We also have had a very intentional pray time one Tuesday nights with several of our teammates and I’ve really felt God during that time using it to minister to us and for us to minister to each other.


One of of our best friends, Brittany Girle, had the chance to come visit us in early February.

It was really awesome the Britt got to come visit and see our life here.  Janine has never had a visitor in her 4 rotations here, so finally having one of her best friends come was amazing.  Beside seeing our daily life we got to take a trip to the Masi Mara, and witnessed some amazing creation.

Thats a pride of lions behind us feasting on a kill.

Work has been really busy.  We only have been working 5 days a week, instead of 6 which has been relaxing.  But work days still are between 10-12 hours and pretty intense.  


Two of our teammates had birthdays one day apart.  Janine and Thomas worked on game night called "Reindeer Games."  Rebecca and Jess went head to head with the help of selected teams.  Everybody dressed up crazy like, as you could expect knowing Janine planned it.

We only have about a month here in Kenya, before we go on break for 3 weeks.  We will spend a night in Amsterdam on April 25th, celebrating our 2 yr. wedding anniversary.  We will spend our actual wedding anniversary on an 8 hr. bus ride to Nairobi to catch the plane.  At the beginning of May we will fly to Peru to spend 4 days hiking the Inca Trail with 14 close friends, including my brother and Brittany.  The Inca Trail starts in Cuzco and ends at Machu Pichu on the 4th day at Sunrise!  After that we fly back to Kenya for six more weeks, and transition our programs to the new team, Foundation Team 8.  
We leave Kenya to move back to the US on June 30th.  We are not flying straight home though.  We will spend two weeks traveling around Ireland with two of our teammates, Matt and Jenn Lee.  We are super excited about that trip.  Janine and I have talked about traveling to Ireland for some time, and we are happy to be doing it with some close friends.


God has really blessed Janine and I in travel and experiencing many different cultures and meeting many different people.  We enjoy it so much to see the creativity that exists across the world, even in every human face.


We miss home alot these days, mainly because of friends and family, although I'd be lying if I said Chick-fil-A didn't factor slightly into the reasoning as well.


See you all in a month or so!

Going...Going...Goa!

So our last 9 days in India was spent in it’s smallest state, Goa.  This state was ruled by the Portuguese for many years as opposed to the British.  Goans didn’t gain there independence until 1961, and did not become an official Indian state until 1987!

This portion of our trip was all about relaxation and doing nothing, which was in pretty stark contrast to the rest of our trip.  We were able to use my hotel points to get us 9 nights at The Holiday Inn Resort Goa, which is a 5-star luxury resort located directly on the beach.  Because I’m a Priority Club Platinum member (shwee shwa shwee) we were given a complimentary room upgrade, on-top of our free room, where we got a bigger room, and a balcony with a view of the pool, and a very slight view of the ocean.

This is a pic looking at the main hotel from the pool area.

The hotel had 4 different restaurants. Most mornings though we actually ordered room service because it was the same food, and it was cheaper!  We went to a special buffet dinner one night at the restaurant which was located by the beach.  They had a live Rajastani band playing and a traditional dancer.

Oh and Janine’s favorite, at the end of every night they had fireworks.

 

For some reason Goa and possibly the area we were in Mobor Beach in particular had become a favorite vacation spot for Russians over the past few years.  Janine had several people speak Russian to her while she was at the breakfast bar or some other random place.  I guess I looked completely American cause no one said a word to me J.

We had several candle light dinners on the beach.  It was ridiculously legit, like they just put a table in the middle of a very empty beach, no lights around, just stars and seafood!  One night we decided to have a White Russian and Black Russian with dinner, thinking they would likely be particularly tasty given the clientele they were serving.  However, to our surprise their White Russian was made from a lemonade base, and the Black Russian tasted somewhat like a weird Cherry Coke.

Janine and I saw 3 puppies wandering around on the beach each day.  Obviously between fireworks every night, and an assortment of beach puppies this place was one of Janine’s favorites.

We spent a good bit of time hanging in the room relaxing, and an equal amount of time hanging out on the beach.  It was a great end to the trip and we were so happy this was the way we decided to see the sun set if you will to our time in India.

This is a pic Janine took of me walking on a sandbar that was really far out.

Sorry it took us so long to get this posted.  We are back and Kenya and have been super busy, but up next, what we’ve been up to since we have been back!

Week 4 (part 2) - Alleppey

After Munnar we headed back towards the coast to the town of Alleppey.  We stayed at a really great homestay in Alleppey.  Motty and Lali's house! AND OH MY GOSH! They had a PUPPY!!!!! I LOVE puppies – freak out about them really – and I have seriously missed being around animals I can pet (David usually forbids me to touch any dog we see when we are in Kenya – and here in India too - not cause he's mean - because they have worms, mange, and God only knows what else). But when I stepped onto their front porch and saw him – I was in love. David knew I wouldn’t be dragged away and he went in and took care of signing in while I stayed and played with the pup! ;)

They didn’t have a name for him yet, they’d only had him for 3 days. We took a nap after playing with the pup, and then walked to their beach, talked to a group of guys in their early/mid 20s about Nuru and our lives, and then went to dinner. It was awesome to see David encourage one of these guys in his faith and to serve God with his life. Really cool. We watched the sun set and ate at a beach side place that night. 

The next morning when we woke to have breakfast, we ate with another couple staying there at Motty and Lali’s. They were from Leeds, England and were so nice to talk with. Lali had made a nice breakfast, and after eating I asked if I could play with the puppy. So David and I did – for like 2 hrs. During that time we spoke with another couple staying there from London. They were very nice too.

Before David and I left to go have our 4 hr Houseboat tour on the backwaters of Allephy, Motty invited us all to have cocktails with them that night and to have a puppy naming ceremony. He asked me to be in charge. OH MAN! 

Allepey is famous for the "backwater tours" that are available.  There are a number of canals, lakes and other water bodies that you can cruise around on, aboard a luxurious houseboat.    It was super laid-back and very relaxing.  And the food!!!!!! ;) YUM!

These are some other houseboats on the water that is like the one we are on.

Everything was Delicious!

Even though the houseboat was relaxing, my mind was racing. I was thinking so much – how will we name this puppy? What kind of game can we play? What questions should I ask to get names out there? Should we all vote? Should only Lali and Motty vote? Motty said he'd invited his friends who knew nothing about the dog so not to say anything. ;) I came up with a plan: I’d do some type of intro – talking about the way we name things and then I’d get everyone to give some name ideas and then we’d vote. ;) I’d need a few things – like a collar and name tag and a gift ;) I wanted a squeaky toy. So, I had my plan!

David and I returned from the houseboat tour and went on a walking tour to get the things I needed – not as easy as running to Wal-mart. We ended up finding a toy that did in fact squeak. It was a Dalmatian dog ;) perfect. And I bought a small cake. We returned to Motty and Lali’s and started the 

Puppy Naming Ceremony! 

 

We had the most WONDERFUL night! There were 16 of us, 8 of us were guests of the homestay, and Motty and Lali and 6 of their closest friends. We had an AWESOME puppy naming party. We introduced the puppy to Motty’s friends – who didn’t even know he existed – and then we started the night. We had drinks, and rounds of puppy naming fun like passing the puppy around and offering up options, then having musical interludes and more drinks, then voting to narrow down the names, then more drinks and musical interludes and laughing and talking, then the final vote complete with singing happy birthday to JACK (with a huge candle in the cake) and giving him his collar, name tag, and squeaky toy ;) Motty and Lali had gone ALL OUT! Providing food and drinks all night. And it was so much fun. They named me God Mother to Jack, and gave me a beautiful golden gift ;) and asked me to give a speech.

I can’t remember it exactly, but I said something along the lines of…. “Thank you for allowing me to be God Mother to Jack. But thank you so much more for tonight. I’m so excited to have been a part of this night. Motty and Lali, you took something that could have been mundane – like naming a puppy – and created an event to bring friends together and celebrate life. It reminds me of a book I’ve read called “A million miles and a thousand years” by Donald Miller – and in the book he talks about making a good story with your life. And I think that’s exactly what we’ve done tonight. I would encourage all of you to do that with your lives. Tonight has been an amazing night and you have allowed us to be a part of it, and I’m so grateful. Thank you.”

At one point in the night, they said that I should just pick the name since I was the God Mother, but instead I asked that they would celebrate Jack’s birthday on January 8^th in remembrance of the puppy naming ceremony! They agreed. ;)

We were so blessed to be at Motty’s and Lali’s home for a few nights. It was a fantastic experience and so many new friendships were forged. We were grateful for the experience. 

Here's pictures from our night! Enjoy!

Paul and Clare from Leeds, England. This is the puppy being passed around to everyone there so they could look at him and give their ideas for his name. 

The puppy was named JACK! And he was soooo pooped out from his party!

David and I are with Jack standing next to his parents Motty and Lali, and then 3 of the 6 friends that came to the party!

Sophie and Matt from London! (with Motty)

The guy with the camera was AWESOME! He has such a love of photography and he and David talked for a long time about photos. He also has one of the BEST laughs ever! He is so full of joy. 

Motty with Arnold and Meryl from South Africa!

These guys have been friends for 20 years. Truly awesome. They sang a song together for one of our musical interludes.