The (Kenyan) Christmas Song

If The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) had been written in Kenya:

Cashews roasting on an open fire
Hot sun scorching all the rest
Christian songs being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up in Sunday best

Ev'rybody knows some freshly made treats
Help to start the day off right
Tiny tots with their tummies full of meat
Will all sleep in peace tonight

Because the pilau is on its way
Baked with a goat slaughtered today
And ev'ry mother's child is gonna try
To sneak some extra bites on the sly

And so I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from 1 to 92
Although it's been said many times, many ways
Merry Christmas to you!

And Merry Christmas from the MKKs:

2014

January

Nate turned 4 in January, and we pondered over how it was possible that 4

years had passed since that very eventful day when he came into the world.

My parents also made their second trip to Kenya in January. We took them
several new places, including Arabuko-Sokoke forest and Sabaki River.
And of course, we took some trips to the beach!

February

The highlight of February was Nate's half-term break.
We headed to Malindi for a long weekend. We spent our time in the pool,
on the beach, and at ice cream and pizza parlors, per Nate and Ben's request.

March

March is hot. While coping with the heat, we got ready for our trip to the US!

April

We went to Texas! It was a longer visit this time than the last time we went,
with break time worked in throughout the weeks we were there.
We started our trip with a real vacation - fun family time with no work on the side!

May

It seems (from the outside) that our time in the US should betotally relaxing -
after all, we aren't home cleaning our house, cooking for ourselves, keeping up
with the daily grind, and we're in the most comfortable place on earth (the US).
But, we are on the go all the time. We took a few days off here
and there, but it was still a tiring month of travel and visits.
Nate and Ben really, really love Texas.

 June

The end of our US trip. At one point I calculated the number
of miles we traveled, excluding trips within the towns we were staying in
at different times, just from one stop to another around the state.
I don't remember what it was anymore. Thousands. Texas is big,
and we didn't even make it to west Texas, the panhandle, the valley...
Nate got back to school almost as soon as we were home. He missed it so much!

July 

We got back in to the swing of life here.
The Maisha Kamili Transition Home became fully functional,
eventually housing 4 transitioners.

August

Kenya's school breaks are in April, August, and November-December.
While Nate was on break, we took a family trip to Nairobi to
renew his passport. We stayed an extra day or two to take
advantage of time in the Big City.

September

This was the beginning of the last school term in which
Ben would not be in school yet. We also celebrated him turning 3!

October

We started going to church in Malindi this year. It is quite a drive to make
(several times a week), but we feel it is a place we can
serve usefully. We are all making new friends, which is
something we really needed (especially me!).

 November

We celebrated Thanksgiving with great friends!
It was the best Thanksgiving I've ever had outside of the US.

December

With schools closed and many people on leave, December has
brought a lot of visits with friends!
We will spend Christmas with Rodgers' family, followed by a
Skype with my family during their Christmas celebration. 

It's hot, we haven't had running water for weeks,
Nate and Ben have spent way too much time with each other since schools
let out last month and they are getting on each other's (and my) nerves,
people disappoint us, we disappoint ourselves, but God is here.
He has brought us a long way this year, and he continues to
mold and shape us into the likeness of Jesus.
The year was good because God is. 

Lamu

Lamu from a boat

Liz and me in a boat taxi

Since becoming parents, I have done many an overnight with the kids without Rodgers. I have spent some nights away from the kids, with Rodgers. But I have never left them with him overnight. It's not that I didn't want to, I just had no reason to - nowhere to go without them. Until...

My friend said she wanted to take me to Lamu, where she grew up, and we actually put it on the calendar and started planning it. And did it! My very first ladies' getaway for 4 days and 3 nights, and it was everything I dreamed it would be. The boys called me at least twice a day, and Rodgers and I texted pictures back and forth to each other. I did miss them, but the break was extremely welcome!

boats

donkeys hauling sand from the Indian Ocean side of the
island to a construction site in town

We took a bus. It takes about 7 hours from Kilifi. The road is not paved the whole way, but actually the unpaved part of the road is smoother than some of the "paved" part! The bus takes you all the way to Mokowe. Then, you hop on a boat to cross to Lamu Island.

Lamu's biggest industry has been tourism, but recently, that industry has been suffering tremendously. Until two weeks ago, they had been under a 6 pm curfew enforcement. No one wants to go on vacation and be stuck in their hotel room for the night starting at 6 pm. The curfew has now been pushed back to 10 pm.

empty mkokoteni on the seaside road

around 4 o'clock every day, they roll out the mats and play bao

Everyone told me how happy they were to see a tourist in Lamu again. Restaurants have only been keeping the basics stocked so that they don't waste money on ingredients that won't be used. Artisans are selling other things in their shops because there aren't any tourists to buy souvenirs. The economy is really suffering from the lack of tourists. We did our part to stimulate the economy: stayed in a hotel, ate in restaurants, shopped, went to the museum, used boat taxis, and shopped some more.

Lamu is famous for having no cars on the island. The only way to get to the island is by boat. There are no bridges. There is only one road that can accommodate a car, anyway (we saw 2 cars and a tractor using it). The other streets are narrow corridors between buildings. This trait, probably more than anything else, has caused ancient culture to be preserved. They say Mombasa and Zanzibar started much like Lamu, but because they've made way for roads and cars, much of the old culture of the town is lost. Walking the streets of Lamu today is not much different than walking the streets of Lamu 400 years ago. The main differences being that now there are power lines overhead and everyone carries a cell phone. Also, within the main part of town, all of the streets are paved and there is a drainage system in place.

This one's actually not so narrow.

The main method for getting around town is walking. If you have a load, there are mkokotenis (the cart in the picture above), but they don't navigate the streets quite as smoothly as the donkeys. Lamu claims the highest number of donkeys per capita in the world. They use them to transport loads of sand or whatever else they need carried, including themselves! It's not uncommon to see donkeys roaming around unattended when they are off-duty.

off-duty donkeys

donkeys bringing the sand through town
The street wasn't wide enough for us and them, so we hopped
up on someone's front stoop. They all have benches outside
their front doors, where they sit in the evenings.

There are 3 cities on the island, all along the coast. The center of the island is orchards of mangoes and coconuts. You might be able to walk through the orchards to get from one town to the next, but why do that when you can get a boat taxi? This is the fastest mode of transport on the island. My friend's parents live on the outskirts of town, and we were staying in a hotel right in the middle of town. We walked to and from a couple of times, but it is far. Our last visit with them, we were so tired when we left, we just walked to the beach and got a boat taxi to take us back to town center. Much better!

our captain for the time we stayed
We called him any time we needed a ride.

My cultural experiences included: labania (a sort of cardamom praline made in Witu, on the road to Lamu), kahawa tamu (local spiced coffee that has more sugar than coffee in it) mixed with kahawa tungu (unsweetened local coffee, which they didn't think I could handle, but which I had the following day without the tamu mixed in because good gracious! the sugar!), and henna. Also we walked all over town one day, with a guide who pointed out some of the old architectural traits like door carvings and coral facades. He took us to some of the historic homes that have been converted to guest houses and past an old, but still-functioning water well (the kind you draw with a bucket, rope, and pulley).

henna in progress

posing in the street/corridor

Rodgers is a little jealous because this is part of his own country he has never visited. I have an invitation from our friend's parents to bring my family to visit them. The dad actually asked me to bring my family for Christmas this year, which is not possible. Maybe we can try for a family visit to Lamu next year.

Monthly Musings [a linkup]

Spending Thanksgiving as an American expat is weird. Christmas is different - it's hard being away from our family in the US, but at least the holiday is celebrated, and some familiar things like nativity scenes and Christmas carols help make me feel more homey. Thanksgiving is kind of like Independence Day. The day comes and goes like any other. No one is off work. No one is celebrating. I had a very hard time my first Thanksgiving outside of the US, during which our Thanksgiving dinner had to be postponed for about 7 weeks.

Thanksgiving dinner in the dining room of a ship in the Philippines, 2006

Since then, with help from Rodgers, I try to introduce the holiday to my non-American friends. It is a lot of work for me in the kitchen, but so much fun! We get to teach a tiny bit of American history and introduce our friends to some super yummy American foods. It helps that I make cornbread dressing and the staple food here is corn (as in maize). The dressing and turkey are always eaten up very quickly. Not so much the veggies, but that's ok with me - I can eat creamy green beans for days!

Our first Thanksgiving in Kenya, 2012

As Christians, it is important to us to have a day set aside to particularly focus on giving thanks to God for providing for us. Of course, we give thanks every day, every time we pray. But we have holidays to pay special attention. We celebrate Christmas to pay special attention to the coming of Christ. We celebrate Easter to pay special attention to Jesus' death and resurrection, even though we worship on Sundays every week for the same reason. In Deuteronomy, the Hebrews were commanded to celebrate God's provision for seven days! (The Feast of Tabernacles) We don't personally celebrate the Jewish feasts, but I believe Thanksgiving Day serves the same purpose to us as the Feast of Tabernacles.

Our second Thanksgiving in Kenya, 2013

We invite Christian friends to celebrate with us. We thank God for what he has done for us, for the ways he has worked in all of our lives, for the ways he has made his presence known in the world around us. We eat before the Lord our God, and we rejoice! (Deut 12:7)

This is a monthly linkup. Check it out for more musings about thankfulness:

end of year!

Today was the first kindergarten graduation ceremony for Nate's school. They did presentations/performances and gave awards certificates for each class before the actual graduation. It was actually lots of fun! The kids had learned a lot of songs and poems to present, and Nate recited a Bible verse all by himself, as well as participating in several of the group poetry recitations. 

We spent a lot of time waiting between different parts of the program.
Here we're keeping Ben occupied with chewing gum and taking pictures.

Teacher Leah gave him a balloon.

And Rodgers read the newspaper

During one of the waiting times, they started up a game of Musical Chairs
for the parents! Rodgers was selected to play in the first group.
He did not win, unfortunately.

Nate's 3rd from the left in this pic, getting set up to recite a poem together!

Nate was not in this one - it was a very cool Giryama folk song and dance.

I was called on to present award certificates for "Best in Language"
for each class. Nate got the award for his class! Rodgers was not
fast enough to take a picture of us, but there we are from a
distance, while they were still getting all of the kids on stage. 

Nate used to go to dance class on Wednesday afternoons, but one day they told us, "Nate says his body won't dance right for dance class. He's in chorale now instead." I thought 'choir,' singing. But actually they memorize and recite poetry as a group. In addition to the chorale verses, each class recited something as a group and sang a song. Also, some of the kids recited poems or Bible verses on their own.

They begin each presentation by saying "On the stage is [either the class, the individual's name, or "Bright Beginnings Kindergarten" if it's the chorale group], ready to recite a poem, entitled ________. Welcome (with a bow)." Then they recite. At the end, and this is my favorite part, they bow again and say, "Pleasure!"

Chorale (with some extras, I think!) learned "I Will Forget" to recite at a music festival in June. We were in Texas, so Nate missed it. However, he got to recite it with the group today! Nate's by the microphone on the left side. The poem talks about letting students learn at their own pace, in their own style, rather than forcing them to learn by rote.



A smaller chorale group (I think this may be the Wednesday group?) presented "6 O'clock," which is a cute poem about a bedtime routine.



KG2 class presented "Education." Education is like an orange situated in a desert, and I am a traveler. Those are oranges they're holding, and even though they're green, they are ripe.



Towards the end of the presentations, Nate got to recite John 1:1. He didn't even seem nervous. I'm so impressed. There were about 100 people watching him.

last minute

That's a matatu, not a bus,
but I took this pic while sitting on a bus...

A little disclaimer first: I am not writing this in any kind of judgement, it's just an observation.

The phrase "last minute culture" is used frequently in Kenya - by Kenyans - to describe Kenyan culture. For example, (1) when there were new laws passed requiring public transport vehicles to have speed governors installed (again), those who work in the industry asked for more time to comply, suggesting a new deadline, and it was granted. The new deadline came, but it wasn't until the next morning (after another suggested deadline was denied) that owners of the vehicles started trying to get the speed governors installed. They were out of stock for weeks after that because of the rush, and many vehicles were parked for those weeks. (2) There have recently been new requirements for those who are licensed to officiate weddings. Only a fraction of officiants have gotten the new licensing, and the deadline is fast approaching. No one really expects the rest of them to work on the new license until the deadline arrives. (3) We know countless people who have the money to pay their bills, but they don't actually pay the electric bill until they are being disconnected. They don't actually pay their kids' school fees until the kid is sent home from school for failure to pay fees. They don't want to pay until they absolutely must.

They say, "This is last minute culture."

One experience I had on my first trip to Kenya illustrated this even better. Rodgers and I were traveling from Malindi to Mombasa. He had no car, and we hadn't borrowed one (which we did on our next trip to Kenya), so we were at the mercy of public transportation. We got on a bus. It was to leave in 20 minutes, and there were already a few other people seated.

After we took our seats, Rodgers told me to look out the window. There were tons of people standing near the buses.

He said, "They are all going to Mombasa today."

I asked why they weren't getting on a bus yet - there were 2 currently loading passengers.

"They will only get on when the bus is leaving."

So I watched, expecting them to line up and get on board in 20 minutes. They did not.

We did not leave at the scheduled departure time because the bus wasn't full. There were enough people waiting for the bus that we could have left on time if they would have gotten on board.

It's a stalemate: The bus won't leave until it's full. The driver's "last minute" is when the last seat is occupied. The people won't get on until the bus is leaving. Their "last minute" is the bus pulling out of the parking lot. But it won't pull out of the parking lot because they aren't on board. But they won't get on board.

When we should have been leaving for Mombasa, the driver simply rolled forward about 10 feet, then stopped when a wave of people rushed to board. The bus was not yet full, thus we still did not leave. The bus driver plays this game every single day, and wins. He has to bluff and trick the passengers into thinking that he is leaving so that they will think it's the "last minute" and get on board. But some of them are not fooled by the first, second, third, or fourth bluffs. We did the roll-forward-and-stop-for-passengers bit several times, reached the end of the parking lot, backed up and started again.

Eventually the last seat was filled. I think we ended up leaving close to an hour late. I would not be a good bus driver. I have no patience for that kind of game; I would have left with a half-empty bus.

advertising in Kenya

We have many of the same products here that exist in the US. But the advertising is very different. It is culturally appropriate.

In the US, advertisers often compare their products to "the other leading brand." There are some here which follow that method. However some products aren't competing against another brand but a completely different way of doing things. For example, Pampers are compared to old-fashioned flat cloth diapers without waterproof covers. Always are compared to using folded up toilet paper.

Not many people have washing machines. The vast majority of laundry detergents are hand washing powders. They do compare to other brands, are a little too obvious about to which brand they are comparing, and get in trouble all the time. The commercials are quite different to what we would have in the US, yet they use the same elements.

OLX is like craigslist in Kenya. Most of their ads show people living in flats in Nairobi. They have house help putting away groceries and advising the woman of the house to sell some stuff so she can buy a bigger refrigerator. Or a couple is preparing for the birth of their first baby, selling stuff from the husband's bachelor days to make room and get money for baby gear. But one is such a great juxtaposition of traditional Kenya and modern technology - a country boy using a smart phone to sell stuff on OLX so that he can buy a cow.

I'm hoping that these commercials are available worldwide, and you can watch them. Enjoy!

coping with frequent power outages

I feel I've blogged at length about how we combat the unreliable water supply — and about how sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Especially in Kilifi, water is a huge challenge.

Our tiny freezer, stocked with ice pops, spare coffee,
a small container of bone broth, and a bag of chicken bones

But living with unpredictable electricity is a challenge, too. We have a small refrigerator, by American standards. With the exception of the micro-fridge in my college dorm room, it is the smallest refrigerator I've ever had. And it's rarely full.

It took us a few months to adjust our grocery habits to unreliable refrigeration. We lost fridge-fuls of food due to power being out for too long, and have saved some by moving everything to the freezer and driving all over town to find a bag of ice to keep it all cold. Now, we're usually ok if the power is out for a whole day, but it's because of our changed shopping habits. We have not yet acquired solar backup for the fridge. It will be a momentous day when that happens! I'd be able to keep the fridge stocked like I used to!

Obviously, we can't use the microwave when the power is out, but our stove is gas and lights with a match, so I can cook without power, as long as I can see! We keep flashlights in every room of the house, in case it is already dark when the power goes out. We don't have to stumble through the whole house searching in the dark. And we also had a solar powered lantern, which could light up a room.

But it broke.

When we went to replace it, we tried to find a solar lantern with a USB plug in it so that I could also charge my phone from it. Rodgers usually has the car during the day, so he can always charge his phone there, but my only option is to hope that the laptop battery is fully charged and drain it into my phone.

We looked at various options and settled on something way more awesome than we were shopping for. We haven't mounted the solar panel yet, it just sits on the edge of the veranda for now, with the cord going through a window (always open anyway).

The battery is slightly smaller than a riding lawn mower battery. It has a USB plug, and I was able to charge my phone with it the last time we had no power during the day. We haven't lost power at night since we bought it, so we haven't tested the lights yet. (We could just turn off the lights one evening and test them, but we haven't done that either.) There are 4 lights with long cords. We can keep the battery in the middle of the house and mount lights in 4 different rooms! It also came with all manner of plug converters. How does your cell phone plug in? I bet I have a converter for that. I can also plug in a car charger. I can plug almost anything into this battery, except for actual electric plugs.

I think we'd need a bigger battery for the fridge anyway. Next on the solar power list: bigger battery and bigger solar panel so that I can plug in the fridge. After that maybe a solar water heater...