Finally a Post from Janine

So I live in Africa. Isebania, Kenya. It’s really close to the Tanzanian boarder, in fact a few weeks ago I went on a girls day out with the 3 other ladies here on my team (Rebecca, Jessica, and Jennifer) and we went for brunch and then crossed the border to buy fabric. Tanzanian fabric is better quality and different prints than Kenyan fabrics, we all bought fabric to have clothes made while we’re here.

When we crossed we walk thru the customs area, “no man’s land” is what we call it, and then we pass a lot of big cargo trucks and tourist buses. We had split up into 2 groups in the attempt to cross without being stopped. This usually works, but not that day. Jessica and I were walking and were literally 15 feet from the Tanzanian side, and we got stopped. Praise God it was a really nice customs officer – and we were respectful and apologetic. He walked us all the way back to the customs office, and there explained that we are supposed to bring our passport (we didn’t on purpose) and LEAVE it there, and then get it on the way back. WHAT?! Why would anyone ever do that? They could charge ANYTHING for us to get it back, or it could go missing. Seriously… why would anyone ever do that. Anyways, he was nice and let us go across to buy our fabric and said “next time” to bring our passport. So that was an adventure ;)

How about we have purchased turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner – as in living breathing turkeys – we met ‘em. One of the Nuru employees who is awesome had us to his house and shamba last weekend. It was SO relaxing. It was honestly one of the only times I’ve just been able to sit outside in the beautiful creation here and not be yelled at “Mzungu”. We had a potluck – delicious food. And we played wiffle ball and ultimate frisbee. It was such a relaxing day. The house that we live in doesn’t have trees or shade on the compound – luckily we do have some plants – but no trees. So, it was sooooooo nice just to lay under the shade of a big mango tree and just relax!

We had an incredible hail storm here! I mean TONS of HAIL! It was unreal! Our plants that we do have are honestly riddled with holes. It was insane. It was a constant downpour of hail for like 10-15 minutes. CRAZY! And even crazier 2 of our team mates (Matt Lee and Matt Lineal) were coming home from the market and got caught in it! They made a run for it, and showed up at the house just when the hail finished. They were DRENCHED and had gotten some hits to the head, but were fine.

We eat SOOO well here! We had a delicious chocolate cake with coffee flavored icing the other night. We had a mango cobbler, banana cake, popcorn with truffle salt, ice cream, frozen chocolate covered banana bites, popsicles, and that’s just the dessert! We eat amazing dinners too. We have team meals, and every night another person cooks. It’s a big task – at least 2 hrs – and we only have 2 burners in one house and 2 in the other. And there is no oven – but they’ve figured out how to make one out of suferias (what we cook in), rocks, more suferias, and water. A cake can take 4 hrs to bake. Lot of effort, but so worth it. ;) David and I cook one night a week, and it’s our signature to do breakfast for dinner. Everybody likes it – I hope to make a hashbrown casserole one of these days. Wish me luck.

David and I are doing well, we were just reflecting this morning that it’s been 6 weeks since we got here, and we only have 6 more weeks left before we go to India for our 3 week break. We’ll be in India for a total of 5 weeks- we’ll work from there for 2 weeks due to visa dates and us having to come back to Kenya exactly 3 months before we leave in April. We hope to spend some time today planning our itinerary more.

Well, this is some of our life. Please write us and tell us what’s going on with you and your families! We’d love to keep up with you too! Grace and Peace to you!

The Transition

So I startred a post over a week ago and never got back to finishing it.  This is not it.  However, I will continue to tell you about life in Kenya.


So not sure if I have mentioned it yet, but right now, Nuru has 17 western staff on the ground here.  That is made up of FT6 and FT7.  FT stands for foundation team.  We are on FT7.  We spend a month transitioning in our positions with the other team, while they intern transition out.  FT7 is made up of 9 individuals.  This is the last week of transition.
This week FT7 took over running the show.  Our counterparts just sit back, watch, and give a correcting hand if needed, and will soon give a wave as they sporadically head off to Nairobi in the very wee hours of the morning.  I won't lie, being responsible as a program manager, which Janine and I both are is kind of a big deal.  A big deal in the sense that there is so much responsibility  so much to do, and so small of an amount of time to do it in.  We've laid in bed at night and talked about the pressures of it all.  


I keep talking so much about Nuru and what's going on, but I just haven't said much about how we are doing.  Janine and I are doing well.  Janine was sick for a bit, but nothing serious and she has seemed to kick it.  I haven't felt sick at all, praise!


Mentally, we are both well but the work here is stressful.  There is just so much work to do, and even though half a year seems like a long time, its not when you have so much to do.  


We have had church every Sunday here.  We get together with 4 other people right now and listen to a sermon via computer, and then talk about God and pray together.  Sunday we also usually take a walk, which has always been so great.  


This past Sunday we were walking after church and walked to a lake.  It's the only one I know about around here.  There was a baptism going on.  We stood on hill overlooking the lake and watched God's called walk one by one into the water, they were buried in the water, and then rose with Christ.  After each person rose from the water, the group of people gathered on the side of the lake would start to sing.  They were singing in swahili, but I could pick up on words, and I knew they were praising God.  It was such an amazing sight to wonder upon.

It made it a bit easier to think what baptism must have been like a couple thousand years ago.  One thing that I think hasn't changed a bit, is the amount of Joy that is created by one of God's people turning to him, and embracing him.  


Sorry it took a while to find some time to write.  I'll write again soon and we love you all and hope each of you is doing fantastic.

So this will be somewhat of a short post since it is late and it has been a very long day.  But it gives me an opportunity to tell you a bit what a day looks like here in Kenya.

This morning the alarm went off at 6:30AM.  But I wasn't on my feet till 7.  What man can role out of bed when he has the most beautiful woman on earth laying beside him? :)  Janine was soon to follow.
Breakfast was french-pressed coffee, toast that was made on the stove, a banana, and this morning we had a treat. A pop-tart packed in from the states!

We have an 8AM team check-in every morning to talk about the happenings of the day.  From there I had a meeting here at the Nuru house at 9AM.  I then had some computer work to do, had some pasta with avocado, parmesan cheese, and siracha. Then I walked to the RTC for a 1 on 1 meeting with my Kenyan counter-part.  I was there till 3:30PM and walked the 30 mins home in a rush to beat the rain.  It started pouring not to long after I was in my room.

Here's a picture of our bedroom on the day we moved in.

Janine got home and we worked out for about 30 mins in our room and then I got a shower.  Then I started prepping for my 6PM skype call back to the states with my director, which occurs twice, weekly.  That lasted an hour, which lead right into dinner at 7PM.  We have team dinners, where we all eat together here at the house 6 times a week.  3 people help to cook each night.

I ate, did a bit more work, then we had a special team-wide call back to the states at 9PM which lasted and hour.  So at 10PM I finally was able to brush my teeth, sweep our bedroom floor, put the mosquito net around the bed, listen to PJ sing a few songs on iTunes and get ready for bed.

So that is pretty close to a typical day for us, only a bit slower than normal :)

So let me first begin by introducing ourselves and telling you just what this blog is all about!

My name is David Brown and I now live with my amazing wife Janine in Isebania, Kenya.  We are here working with Nuru International (Nuru).  The goal of Nuru International is to End Poverty in Remote, and Rural Areas.  The model Nuru uses is something totally new and different; we never give a handout, we work beside our Kenyan staff to train community members with knowledge and tools that allow them to have a choice to determine their future.  There really is nothing else like Nuru International and we fully believe in and support the goal and methodology, so we decided to give our lives, our time, and our expertise. And here we are!

I named our blog "Turning the World Upside Down" based on one of the charges against early Christian's recorded in Acts 17:6.  Janine and I hope to live in a way that we too are accused of that.  We hate the evil, death, and destruction that we see in the world, and we will continue to invest our lives in the Upside Down Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.  Nuru International is not a religious organization.  But we feel like they do the kind of work that God is involved in; redeeming, restoring, and totally changing people's lives.  We get to partner with people and turn their world upside down.

Janine is familiar with the circumstances we find ourselves in; this her fourth trip here.  She has been with Nuru since the beginning (Sept 2008).  I'm a first timer here in Kenya.  I've spent some time Africa before this, but I've never been this embedded in a community here before.  Part of Nuru's ideals, is that we become part of the community, so we live as closely as possible to how the people around us.  This isn't the norm with many African NGOs.  So we do simple actions like walk everywhere, or take motorcycles taxis (bodas) to our meetings or field visits, as opposed to having a big white Land Rover.  

The land here is beautiful and bountiful.  Most everyone is a farmer.  Here is a typical view in our area.  A maize field on rolling hills, with boulder outcroppings scattered around. BEAUTIFUL!

Nuru started by teaching farmers how to employee better farming techniques, and giving input loans of seed and fertilizer.  After the first growing season most farmers had doubled or even tripled the amount of maize per acre.  This enabled the farmers to pay back their input loans, have enough food to eat for the rest of the year, and for some to sell excess maize so they could invest in farming tools, like a plow cow or pay school fees for their children. Nuru's model is holistic and we have a foundation of servant leadership that grounds and upholds all our other program areas - Healthcare (for which Janine works), Water and Sanitation, Education, Community Economic Development, Agriculture, and Monitoring and Evaluation (making sure we are making an impact in all our program areas - this is my position while I'm here.)

So this is part of the story of Nuru, and now part of our lives.  Next, we will tell you more about why we decided to be here, what out life looks like, and maybe some of what we can can expect in the months to come.

Thanks for reading! Love and miss you all!