saying goodbye to Kipkaren!

today is sunday, our last day in the village. we depart tomorrow morning at 7am to go safari for the day at Nakuru park and then on to Nairobi to start our journey home at midnight when we take off for london...we will (hopefully) make it back to california tuesday afternoon!! power is out so i gota go cuz im using michelle's laptop. cant wait to see all of you!! pray for safe and timely travel back to america!! see you all in 54 hours:) not that im counting;)

somerlyn

"Population of Kenya...plus 1! ...+3 actually..."

Yes, the above is true...in a strange way...ill get to that in the following nonsense...

So i left off in eldoret, on our way to a place called Kerio View to celebrate William's birthday and my 21st birthday!! It was a fabulous place!! one of the most gorgeous, breathtaking places i have ever been...and ive seen some glorious parts of creation. the place is a little resort/restaurant. a very kenyan sort of resort but very classy. it is located on one of the highest cliffs in the rift valley, over looking miles and miles and miles of valley and cliffs...there were several of layers of earth, the plates. on each level, there were beautiful green valleys with farms and villages and rivers. my words just do not do it justice...maybe my pictures will help. i only took like 200. so we ordered our food (waaayy too much of it haha) and then, since they take an hour to cook it, we hiked all around the property, venturing down little trails right along the cliff, holding our breath as we climbed out on some rocks that hang out over a few thousand foot drop. it was glorious. i would have loved to have a hang glider or a giant zipline to just jump off and soar over it all. like soarin over california at disneyland...but instead, soaring over the great rift valley of africa...i think im on to something Dave Scott:) so anyway, we enjoyed an incredible lunch, ate waaayyy too much food but loved every second of it. we finished it off with a slice of vanilla chocolate marble cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and fudge on top. for a kenya dessert, it was really really good! no offense to kenyan desserts, but theyre usually not very sweet, but this one definitely surpassed my expetations. it was a great 21st birthday outting:)

On sunday, my actual birthday, we went to church and enjoyed several sermons in swahili and tons of singing and dancing. the rest of the day was great...i got everything i could possibly want on my 21st birthday in kenya...a hot shower, a nap, another incredible thunder storm, a nice long walk to a bridge that crossed the river with my kenyan brothers and sisters, 96 children sang me happy birthday (i filmed it!), didnt have to eat ugali, instead got to have chipatti!! (my favorite kenyan food...im gunna get the recipe so i can make it at home...its that good! and, i got to call home and talk to the fam and davis:) so it was a great day! before we went to bed, alie and i opened the stale, heart shaped birthday cake that she bought for me 2 weeks ago...it was rock hard when we bought it so you can imagine that 2 weeks later, it was a fossil. but for photo purposes, we opened it and bit into it and took some pictures...and then we spit it out and i thoroughly enjoyed a twix and a coke that i had bought from the grocery store.

On monday, we went with the social workers on some more home visits...similar to last week. this time we were prepared for the long muddy walk...we visited 3 different patients throughout the course of the day. all were wonderful, strong, inspiring people...we sat in their homes, chatted with them and prayed with them. on our walk, we happened upon "pride rock" from the lion king so we had to hike up it and enjoy the view and take some pictures. it was pretty cool...we saw simba and rafiki up there and they say jambo!! another ridiculous thunderstorm escourted us back to our hut just in time for it to dump...the power has been on and off (alot more off than on) the past couple of days and i am crossing my fingers right now that it will stay on long enough for me to post this blog!

so about my peculiar title for this blog...kenya, like the usa, does a census every 10 years, and we just so happened to be here right when they are conducting their census. since we are clearly white and clearly visitors, we didnt think much of it...until the census people were at the training center last night when we were walking back from the childrens home and the lady got to talking with us and followed us down to our hut, came inside and whipped out her "census taking book", looked just like a baseball score keeping book. we census-ed us...we were counted...as foreigners of course, but we were thoroughly counted...she stayed for a good 20 minutes and asked us tons of questions...how many children weve had, how many cows we have, etc...it was crazy!! she seemed very suspicious of us...like she knew that we were hiding 3 sheep under our bed and chickends in our shower..,.good think she didnt go look! so then she wrote on our glass door with chalk to show that we had been counted. wierd. so that is why "population of kenya...+2" is fitting.

so today started off great...got to open another card from dad:) always puts a smile on my face and encourages me! thanks dad! ur the BEST!!! today is a public holiday for the census so the clinic was really slow this morning. we had like 2 patients. so we just hungout and enjoyed a beautiful morning. since it was so slow, michelle gave us the afternoon off...but of course, we told her and kipto to call us if anything exciting like a delivery came in, not expecting anything at all. we went and happily (insert sarcasm) ate our corn and beans at the children's home. as i was eating, i felt my phone vibrate in my bag and immediate got excited, knowing that it had to be michelle calling! and michelle it was..."we have a delivery!! she's only 6cm tho so come around 4..." YAY!! so we took our time, came back to our hut, and listened to another raging thunderstorm roll in...not too long after that however, the phone rang...Kipto (the other nurse)...i couldnt quite understand him but i heard (contractions, fast, pushing, and soon...) so that was enough to tell me that we needed to book it over there once again! so we grabbed our bags, threw on our skirts and took off into one of the heaviest down pours ive ever seen!! 30 seconds in, we were SOAKED! we were sprinting, slipping and sliding the entire way! a muddy mess!! and not just mud but all those lovely cow pies that we avoid like death, were now all mixed into the muddy mess, getting all up in our tevas and exfoliating our feet...african style. so so sick!! our trail that we hike to the clinic had turned into a small river and we trecked on through it, our adrenaline keeping us going. we made it to the clinic, looking as if we had been swimming in a pool and kipto looked at us like we were crazy as we stood there, trying to wring out skirts out. it was a sight to see...we looked terrible!! and we were freezing! thank God, mom hadnt delivered yet but she was close...9cm. we gloved up, ready to help kipto deliver the baby...i got out the fetal heart doppler and found the baby's heart beat...nice and strong. the mom pushed twice and the kid popped right out!! he let out a nice strong cry to let us know his lungs were healthy and then he started peeing everywhere to let us know that he was a boy! i cut the cord and then alie and i began drying him off and cleaning him up while kipto worked on delivering the placenta...we moved the baby to another bed, finished drying him off and then swaddled him in 2 blankets and a bonnet. then we weighed him and took him to see his mommy:) holding a baby, 60 seconds after it has taken its first breath is absolutely incredible. i think every person needs to experience that!! i got a picture of the adorable little bundle. so precious. it was a perfect smooth delivery..."text book" as we would say in america. since we were still soaking wet and now shivering, we didnt stay long...we trecked back through the mud and the cow poo...the stream we always have to cross was now a raging river...we carefully walked through it, holding our skirts up as the water came up to our knees!! the brown, poop colored water!! lovely. we got back to our hut, stripped off all our drenched clothes and hopped into the cold shower...no power, remember...so we just rinsed our legs off and i scrubbed the heck out of my feet...trying to undo the cow poo exfoliation that the earth had so generously given me. we crawled into bed and were still shivering 2 hours later!! i have to say, it was ALL worth it tho, to get to witness another birth, african style. such an incredible miracle:) wow.

we are enjoying another wonderful american night at michelle and william's...spaghetti and green beans and hot cocoa!! michelle makes the most incredible hot cocoa with fresh milk from her goats...just kidding...her cows. i dont think goats milk hot cocoa would be very good. no, definitely not. so, this could very possibly be my last blog from kipkaren as we only have 5 days left here and probably wont be going to town again. so the next you'll hear from me will likely be from the nairobi airport on monday! hopefully ill have some great stories about our safari:)

I love you all and miss you tons!! thanks for all the continued support and comments on here...they are so encouraging!! cant wait to be at home and share all of africa with you. pray that alie and i have the strength to finish strong and stay healthy! sending my love home!!

love,
somerlyn

ps...sigalert update...things are moving...slowly...wreckage is mostly cleared. expect delays. stay tuned for more information.

"Breaking news...massive sigalert on the 110 freeway..."

Jambo sana!! (hi...very much hi?!) my swahili is terrible! its a craqzy language...i think when ppl speak in tongues, theyre actually just speakinn swahili. anyway, it has been an eventful few deays since my last blog...not surprising. never a dull moment in africa!

so in coming to kenya and working at the clinic, one of the things i was really hoping to get to witness is a delivery (no, not a dominoes delivery, although that sounds delectable right now)...a baby delivery. michelle said they deliver 2-6 babies per month so i figured i had a pretty good chance but with only 1 week to go, i was losing hope.well, that all changed early thursday morning the 20th (ems birthday!!) with a call from michelle..."we have a delivery! shes 8 cm so book it over here!!"and so book it we did! we threw on the nearest skirt and shirt and dashed out the door, sprinting the whole mile uphill to the clinic...our adre3naline kept us going. we got there and sure enough she was in labor. this aint to huntington memorial or hoag...just a bed with an iv of pitocin hanging from the window. no epidural (no pain killer at all), no fancy fetal heart monitor, no sterile field, no room service, no incubator, no ultrasound, no option of emergency c-section, no technology hardly at all. just the bare essentials. the mom's pelvis was narrow so they were a bit worried about the baby fitting out. in childbirth, the women dont make much noise here. she said "seesta, seesta!" and "jesus, oh jesus!" a bunch of times but that was it. it got re3ally intense when she had been pushing hard for awhile...the baby's head finally came out...but the body was firmly stuck inside. it stayed like that for what felt like 30 mins. i was horrified cuz i thot the baby was dead. my eyes began to well up with tears and i began to pray silently, "Lord, get thsi baby out and let her be alive, fill her lungs and let her cry please God dont let this baby die." my mind was spinning when finally the baby came out. oh, wat a relief...now if this were a white baby, it would have been blue and would have totally failed it's APGARS. but you couldnt tell her color. she looked flaccid and floppy. after michelle suctioned here, cut the cord, stimulated her and wrapped her up, she began to cry!! oh wat a sweet sweet sound it was...the sound of new life. a miracle. i was so relieved but still a bit traumatized. a 3rd world delivery is an eye opening experience. mom and baby napped for a few hours and thne got up and walked on home. wow.

Ugali, cow parts, corn...it just keeps coming! coming in...but not coming out. see, thats where the real problem exists. its like a sigalert on the 110 freeway. if you have good drivers (healthy good food) traffic flows smoothly, but if you have bad drivers (the ugali) like most of LA they come in and cause a huge wreck and stop up the entire frweeway (the intestines) for hours (more like days!) and if youre not from LA (Africa) and arent used to the traffic (ugali, corn etc)you get pretty uncomfortable witht he traffic jam (constipation) and its time to call for backup...or help for your "backup" some "towtrucks" (laxatives) to come in and clear the freeway for thru traffic to again, flow smoothly. so the sigalert is bad, fatalities involved, backup (yes "body drain-o") has been called and the wreckage is being cleared. but its a mess, all 5 lanes blocked. stay tuned for more3 traffic updates...reporting live from kipkaren, kenya.

on a different note, the afternoon storms have been raging! thursday afternoon it POURED harder than we have ever seen for a solid 2 hours! it came with huge, booming crackling bursts of thunder that make u sit in awe of the one who created it. we sat in our hut with the windows open and soaked it all in. along those lines, i electricuted myself twice on thrusday...i touched the shower head (which is electric to heat the water) and got zapped. then, an hour later, i went to turn the lamp on and grabbed a part of the cord with wires hanging out that i didnt see and man, i really got hit ahrd that time...it went all the way to my toes! my body wasw still tiwtching 7 hours later when i went to bed. im such an idiot. note to self...dont tuch anything electric.

at the children's home, the kids are nuts!! i tried teaching some of the boyd how to make string bracelets the other night...FAIL! theyre boys. theyre good at killing chickens and innocent birds (RIP Kidogo) they are3 so much fun tho!! ive taken hundreds of pix of them. they love life and each other and really really love Jesus. it is incredibly inspiring.

Friday came fast this week. I went with the "Tumaini Na Afia" (hope and health) team to take people with AIDS to a treatment center. its run by an organization called Ampath and is all free!! on the drive home, we had 16 people cramme3d in the "ambulance" (land rover with a light on top). oh, africa!

today, saturday, we are on a fun little outing with michelle and william...we drive thru eldoret to do a few things (blog, buy more chocolate, etc) and we are heading now to "Kario-view"...im sure i butchered the spelling but its a famour location in the heart of the rift valley where two of the earths techtonic plates are shifting and apparently is really beautiful and theres a great restaurant at the top that we will eat at. were celebrating williams birthday (next friday) and my 21st, TOMORROW!! yaaayyyyy! so fun to get to celebrate in Africa...but cant wait to celebrate back in America!! tamely of course... ;)

we have just 1 week left here before we come home to america. pray that i have the strength to finish strong!! and pray for the sigalert too. haha:) cant wait for an exciting homecoming and to share all my crazy stories and thousands of pictures with all of you!! love you all TONS!! thanks for the great comments...they are SO fun to read! see you soon!!

love, Somey

"Goodbye leaky Mud Hut, Hello Luxury Guest Hut!"

Yes, the above is true...today, we said our goodbyes to our humble little mud hut with its leaky roof and many bugs...we packed our bags and dragged them across the compound to a luxury guest hut that looks like a 5 star hotel room inside! its amazing!! we are obsessed! we slowly have worked our way up...after 5 living locations in kenya, we arrive in paradise, right along the river. So, no need for further pity for us in our accomodations...running water, shower, toilet, big giant bed, windows...its glorious!!

So, back to Saturday, after my last blog in eldoret...t'was in interesting day...first, we had a near death experience while driving...oh kenyan driving haha...but really, we should be dead. it was a miracle, an act of God...it's safe to say that God perfomed a move, much like the one Edward did to save Bella's life in Twilight...i cant go into a ton of detail right now but just know that we are safe and alive and still very terrified of kenyan driving!! So keep praying for us cuz we need it! eldoret was great...we got awesome chocolate milkshakes...comparable to in n out! did some grocery shopping, bout waaaayyy to much chocolate...i think you can live off of the stuff! they even have twix and snickers here!! my sanity after a long day! we dropped a wad of cash (like 4 bucks with the exchange rate) at a little bakery with yummy pastries...take the word "yummy" lightly...they dont do much sugar here in kenya so its all pretty bland but none the less, ill take a bland cinnamon roll over ugali any day! On our way home, it started to pour, typical of every afternoon and usually my favorite part of the day. One of our night-watchman Benjamin appeared out of nowhere and hopped in the car with us and then a little while later down the road, there was a random man standing on the side of the road waving his arms...so we pulled over, exchanged a few words with him and he hopped in the car too....turns out he is the camp speaker for the youth camp in kipkaren and was to be on in 30 mins...WHAT?! i dunno...that kinda stuff happens all the time in kenya, i am realizing. so 4 butts crammed in the back of the pajero (indiana jones style african safari jeep)...3 butts is rare and with 4, the lack of a seatbelt isnt too bad since ur all crammed together. The fun really started when we hit the 4 km dirt (now thick wet slippery deadly mud) road...again, i have about 6 pages written about this experience in my journal and wish i could spill it all on here but there isnt the time or space or bandwidth for that matter so ill save the details for when i get home but, we slipped and slidded our way down the road, zero traction, im hanging on for dear life, terrified, for the second time that day and all the sudden, we pick up some speed and spin out of control into a 360 (i thot the car was gunna flip!) and end up with our butt in the mud...no, not our flesh butts, but the butt of the pajero...somewhere around the 40 degree part of the spin, i let out a few "Oh Sh*t!!"'s, later regretting that, as the camp speaker was sitting right next to me, oops, my bad! couldn't help it. so somehow, William, (who would make an excellent Nascar driver!) threw the clutch around and managed to get us out of the ditch and back, slipping our way down the road...that man is a champion behind the wheel, let me tell you. i really wanted to kiss the muddy ground when we finally arrived at the village tho. Thanks to the skilled driving, we made it back just in time for dinner at the childrens home...(insert sarcasm here)...ugali and cabbage with cow parts mixed into it...i say cow parts cuz they use the WHOLE cow...the kids fight over the big bones so they can suck the bone marrow out of them...i get nauseated as i watch them stick there tongues in there and slurp it out...a delicacy?? that cant possibly taste good. come on now. but no, they didnt stop there...huge, dragonfly lookin bugs that they called termites (??) were flying around the gazebo...they were huge, had some serious girth to them...and the kids started grabbing them outa the air and eating them!! alive! looked delicious so i grabbed one too and chowed on down...WHAT?! absolutely not! ugh, so disgusting. im not judging, but really...i think they were just showing off cuz i had my camera out and was taking pics of the maddness. Back in our hut that night, debriefing our CRAZY day, we decided to push our beds together to make one huge king sized bed...looked like a fort with the mosquito nets over it. so we snuggled, ate some chocolate and went to sleep...

Sunday...im going day by day cuz thats how my journal is written and if i dont, i know i will forget something and i wouldnt want to deprive you all of any of the crazy details...so, sunday morning before church, alie and i sat out at our favorite location in kipkaren, this little gazebo right on the river, semi-secluded and absolutely gorgeous, and watched as 40 kids from the youth camp got baptized right there in the "willie wonka river" (it looks like a river of milk chocolate)...it was an awesome thing to witness. a huge crowd of people gathered around the riverside, as kid after kid, jumped in the water, proclaimed their faith in Jesus (some for the very first time) and got dunked in the water and brought back up again, a new person. i had chills watching it...i feel like that's alot what it looked like when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river. WOW. so, since the youth camp is going on, the community had 300 extra people in it and therefore we could not all fit in the church building...so, quick solution to the problem (thats the kenyan way), everyone just picked up their chairs and carried them down to the riverside and just set up camp there and had an amazing, 3 hour long church service under the trees...singing, dancing, peaching, dancing, singing, preaching, singing, dancing...you get the picture. it was awesome. can you imagine if that happened in so cal...too may people to fit in the auditorium so everyone just picks up their chairs and parks it outside?! oh, africa. Shoved down some more corn for lunch...it's coming out my ears...and, not to give you too much detail, but we all know how our stomachs deal with corn...ya, they kinda just dont. so its made for some interesting trips to the squattie. not fun. Enjoyed an amazing afternoon nap in our hut, lulled to sleep by the sound of a roaring thunderstorm outside...so peaceful...well, until our grass roof gave way and began to lead all over our beds...bummer. oh, africa. Got to open another card from Dad on sunday...i look forward to it every time! this one said "It's what we do in the here and now, that makes the difference in the then and there"...so encouraging and inspiring and just the perfect reminder to me right now, in this crazy place that God has me. Thanks Dad!! your the best! (ps...heard you rocked ur sermon on sunday...not surprising in the least...bummed i missed it! lookin forward to the podcast!) Sunday night...the all night youth camp revival worship hoopla...prasie the lord, "bwana asifiwe!" do ur thang really, but we had to shove in the ear plugs and concoct a little sleepytime recipe (tylenol pm, benadryl, melatonin...the works) in order to get some sleep. mud walls dont really keep out the sound, ya know?! they were still goin at it when my ear plugs fell out at 6am. they sure know how to praise the lord!!

Monday, oh monday. but in a good way! we got to go along with 2 of the social workers from "Tumaini Na Afia" (Hope and Health...a group here at ELI that works with AIDS patients in the area)...we went on several home visits with them which included abouta 7 mile round trip trek through mud, corn fields, pirhana infested rivers, cow pies, etc...it was hot and exhausting!! but so amazing and very worth it. we visited three different patients at their homes...their tiny little mud huts. we sat with them and listened to them tell us their stories, their struggles, their hopes for the future...we prayed with them and then moved on to the next. it was a powerful experience. All of the patience we saw were HIV positive and were being treated with ARV's which make living with the disease very possible. AIDS is now considered a chronic illness instead of a terminal disease, which is a huge improvement and brings SO much hope to these people and this nation! yay God. The last man we visited was the most memorable...we spent about an hour with him in his unique little hut...all the walls, from floor to ceiling, are covered with magazine cut outs...very cool. so we sat with him and listened to his amazing story (refer to alies blog for details cuz im running out of time here) and were so encouraged and inspired by this man who has so much hope and is working to bring that hope to others with the disease. A truely amazing person.

Ok, this is a random tid bit but i have to put it in here cuz its just crazy...so ive been chowing down on chocolate in bed every night b4 i go to sleep cuz im usually hungry from avoiding corn and ugali all day. so, like my mother says, chocolate makes you dream...well the woman is right!! i have been having the craziest dreams! so the most noteworthy of them all so far...mom and i were in bermuda (who knows why...)and we were trying to get home but all the airplanes were broken...so all the sudden, appears Jake from the bachelorette, ya the pilot, the very nice looking gentleman who we all adored on the show...well, in my dream, he fell in love with me (calm down davis, it was just a dream) on the tarmac and came to our rescue with his southwest airplane and flew us back to california...i know, nuts right?!?! so, needless to say, i have kept up my chocolate feast before bed, out of sheet curiousity of what my mind will come up with next...

Tuesday...back in the clinic...mama baby clinic...gave a ton of shots...i hate poking those poor babies with these huge needles and making them scream but im getting some great practice! The kenyans had a big goodbye service for the CA team which was really great...its amazing how the kenyans welcome and say goodbye to visitors...they are so genuine and sincere and loving and appreciative. americans could learn a thing or two from them about that. its wonderful. We all went over to the childrens home and played some soccer and frisbee with them...dang, those kids are amazing athletes! they can play a mean soccer game too! and they run around bare foot on their "field" (a huge dirt/rock flat area) and it doesnt even phase them!! man, my white feet would bleed if i did that! they are so tough! we got to eat dinner with the team, as it was their last night here...fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried kale (basically grass). so i felt like a fat lard after that meal, but again, ill take fried anything over ugali and cabbage!

Today, wednesday...back in the clinic, in the treatment room today, seeing all sorts of patients. it was a pretty busy day, with tons of malaria, typhoid, upper respiratory infections and even 2 emergency cases...one woman who came in with a full body rash and swelling like iv never seen before...like the guy in hitch except over her whole body! her eyes were even swollen shut...it was so intense. the poor lady...so since her face was swollen, we were seriously concerned that her throat would swell shut so we sent her off to the ER. the other emergency case was a woman that came in with extreme abdominal pain...after running some tests, we found that she was pregnant. so obviously pain is never a good sign...maybe ectopic pragnancy?? but she was showing the classic signs of appenidcitis in the right lower quadrant so we sent her off to the ER as well. Her husband was amazing and was taking such good care of her...he told us she was precious to him and that he would do anything to make sure she got the care she needed. it was sweet to watch. good man. we had some interesting visitors at the clinic today in our down time as well...one man, who has come several times, arrives everytime wearing the same t-shirt which just says, in huge bold letters, "F**K"...hmmmm...dont think he knows what it means. so we decided that we wana buy him a new shirt and just trade him and bring his f-word shirt back to america as a souvenir. haha...oh, africa. the other visitor was a local drunk who wandered up for a chat...you could smell the alcohol a mile away. he was drunker than a skunk! michelle told us that his swahili name translates to "Animal" in english...quite fitting for this classy human being. i think he spoke some decent english but he was slurring the heck out of it, i cudnt distinguish between the english and swahili...it didnt sound like either. we chatted with him for awhile and got a picture with him. he told alie and i that he was our father and that he would be back to visit us soon. then off he went, stumbling down the hill into the corn field. bless his heart:)

We just had American night at Michelle and William's house by the clinic...we had an awesome mexican dinner...burittos with home made tortillas and guacamole and pico de gallo and fresh grated cheese...oh it was glorious!! my tummy is soooo happy!! :) so now, we are off to hike back, under the stunning kenyan night sky of a billion stars, back to our luxury hut on the river. The time is starting to really fly by...we only have 11 days left here before we leave (with 1 more american night to go and a birtday dinner outting this coming weekend, that means we only have to eat ugali 8 more times!!!) I am really trying to soak up every last bit of the amazing place, these amazing people and or amazing God who has grabbed ahold of my heart in so many ways this month. I am still being challenged and stretched every single day but i am learning so so much and am seeing our God in such a different way. i cant wait to share this experience with all of you once i get home, in more than just scattered words on a blog. i know it will be hard to say goodbye to this place but i am so excited to come home and see you all!!! i miss you all so so so much! thank you for your continued prayers and great comments on my blog! its fun to know that you are reading them and enjoying them and are thinking of my, half way across the world! See you all soooooooon!!!

Love,
Somey

ps. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EM!! IT'S UR B-DAY IN KENYA IN 4 HOURS!! LOVE YOU SIS!!

Jambo my lovely family and friends!!!

Jambo family and friends!! We are in eldoret (the main town that we flew into here...about an hour form kipkaren) for the day, saturday. we just had milkshakes and are now sitting here enjoying a little internet cafe for 1 shilling per min. its a great deal! It's been like 4 days since my last blog so im gunna have to really jog my memory to try and fill you all in on all the crazy details of this adventure!! it wont be the novel like last time cuz its costing me this time but ill do my best...and once again...it will be all over the place to bear with me!!

So after American night on tuesday, william, michelles husband walked us home through hte pitch black dark valley. It was beautiful to look at the sky...you havent experienced the stars until youve seen the kenyan sky in hte dark of night in hte heart of the great rift valley. WOW. so as we are walking and enjoying the night...alie manages to fully submerge her entire left foot (in her teva sandals) into a warm fresh gooey smelly cow pie!!! ahhhh!! oh man it was horrible...the poor girl was so very traumatized. so that made for an uncomfortable walk back. When we got back to our room, we were shown a little mud hut across the way that would be our new home starting in the morning!! so off to our 4th living quarters of the trip! i enjoy the chnage of scenery:) A 5 day youth camp started on wed so thats why we had to move out of the dorm rooms.so in the am, we packed up and moved all our stuff over into our little mud hut, with a grass roof...oh how i wish you could all see it...it is the real kenyan experience! iv taken alot of pics of it for you all to see when i get home...ive taken over 1000 already!! so get excited to see them all!! i can hardly wait to show you them!

The thunderstorms just keep coming and they are by far my favorite part of the day...in the afternoon at the clinic, i find myself peeking out the window, watchin the clouds and thunder roll in! its soooo great! The clinic has been great this week...we have seem tons of patients. its like an er cuz they get a lil bit of everything and you never know wat to expect!! we have been giving tons of injections during mama/baby clinic on tues and thurs which has been great practice. but i just hate making those poor lil babies cry! ahh i just feel so bad...but im gunna be a nurse so sometimes, in making ppl feel better, you gota hurt them a lil bit first i guess. we have gotten to see many more pregnant moms and feel their bellies and listen to the babies heart beat which i am reminded every time, is just a miracle in itself how that all works. God is so creative in the way her designed these crazy bodies of ours! We have seen tons of malaria cases this week and have learned how to assess their signs and symptoms to figure out a diagnosis and what treatment they need!! gosh, i really am learning SO much! Michelle is a wonderful teacher and deals so great with our loads of questions everyday! its been great to watch her and how she works with the patients and even is able to use some of her swahili skills to communicate....alie and i, not so much haha. we try tho. i know "pole sana" (So Sorry!) which i repeat numerous times after giving an injection! We have seen lots of typhoid and tb, upper respiratory infections in little kids, dehydration, UTIs, etc. We have given tons of polio injections and tetanus too...i even gave one right in the butt! ouch! pole sana to that patient! But, the climax of the excitement in the clinic this week came when a little boy about 10 years old came in with his family and he had been running and fell onto a stick which impaled his thigh above his left knee...went in about 4 or 5 inches and then broke off!!!!!!! ahhhh pole sana!! the poor kid! so michelle went to work and injected the heck out of his leg with lidocaine (if you remember from my last blog about the tooth extraction, they love their lidocaine and use it well!) to numb it up before she performed a lil surgery to get that stick out. she used a scalpel that for some reason was a bit dull so she had to saw back a forth a bit to make the incision to open up the tissue to get to the stick...it was quite deeply wedged in there. OWCH!! so after making the opening, she grabbed big metal sweezers and gripped the stick and after muttering under her breath "please Lord let this stick come out in 1 piece", she gave a few good smooth yanks and it gave way and slid right out in 1 piece!! wow, the relief in the room was tangible...such a relief...the procedure went as good as it could possibly have gone! she stitched the boy up and sent him on his way with a lil ibuprofen in hand for later when the lidocaine wore off. the kid was sucha trooper:) and s0o was michelle with her awesome surgical skills! we were all impressed. Other than seeing patients, we finished up the giant job of organizing and cleaning up the entire clinic! it is finished!! "Tetelestai!!" (thats 4 u Davis!) We looked at the wonderfully organized, clean clinic and we saw that it was good!!! We are loving our days in the clinic and the experience we are getting with 3rd world medicine and health care! So thats basically the update on the clinic:)

The children's home...the other part of our internship has been interesting. It has had its ups and its d0wn and has definitely been much more of a challenge than the clinic, where we feel like we fit in and have a distinct purpose. The children our wonderful...the just love alie and i so much and just want to be close and climb all over you all the time!! they have so much energy and just this zest for life that i wish that i could capture in a bottle and bring home with me. the way they play, the way they sing, the way they love each other and the way the truely, sincerely love the Lord is astounding. gives me chills just to think about it. talk about "faith like a child"...that phrase has a whole new meaning to me now. they are truely inspiring. they are alot like american children in some ways tho...like the boys will be boys...the other day, they set a trap by propping up a box with a stick that had a long string tied to it and placing food under it and then running to hide with the other end of the string...then, when a bird would come eat, they would pull the string and catch the bird. so, needless to say, it worked and they now have a pet bird of which they "play with"...i would call it torture. they have tied a string around its foot and it flies around trying, hopelessly to escape. its pretty darn sad. i named the bird "kidogo" which means small in swahili. so at least now it has a name. it lives in a little hole in their room and they feed it ugali and it poops everywhere...see, even the birds get diarrhea from eating that stuff! on that subject...the food is still a daily struggle. we have eaten more corn that any person shud have in a year and well, not to go into too much detail, but we all know how our body digests corn...right, it doesnt! so when thats all ur giving it...it makes for frequent and unpleasant trips to the squattie!! also, for lunch most days we have white rice...much different than wat ur thinking tho...it tastes like dirt/earth. but i can handle that. remember the scene from how to lose a guy in 10 days...where he is sitting in that vegan restaurant trying to choke down that horrible food that he says "is for cows" and he is just covering it in loads of salt...ya, thats me with the ugali and cabbage and rice etc. hahaha. so, we have just been pushing on thru and sucking it up and choking it down. i have decided that im guna bag some ugali up and bring it home so you can try it...be excited! not. devotions at the CH have been fun...we are slowly learning some songs in swahili and will be purchasing their self made album of all them singing b4 we come home so you can all listen to it. it sounds awesome!

It has been fun to have the Christian Assembly team here, who are running the youth camp. we get kinda lonely here, just al and i, so its been fun to take part in some of their meals and their devotions and worship and prayer time at night. oh, and the girls have been so kind to let us use their shower every few days so thats been awesome. on a random note, on our walk back from the clinic yesterday, we saw the immdediate aftermath of the birth of a calf! it was awesome! we got to see it stand up for the first time and take a few shaky steps and the mom was cleaning it, with the placenta still hanging out of her...sorry for the gory details but it was really cool to get to see. again, my camera is catching every moment of this adventure so anything i forget in the blog you will get to see in pics when i get home...16 days!

i am loving this crazy adventure and anbeing challenged and stretched in a ton of ways. please keep praying for me...for strength and encouragement and that i would ultimately finish strong, the work that God sent me here to do. I am so so blessed to get to be here and be a tool for God's work in this amazing place in this world! i love you all TONS and cant wait to be home and hug you allllll!!!!! til next blog.....

Love you!!!!

Somey

You know you've been in Africa a while when you dream of cows and cry out to them in your sleep...

The above statement is actually true...verified by Alie. I would yell out "Cow!!" in my sleep. Ok, first, i must give a disclaimer about this blog...it is going to all over the place cuz its been an eventful few days and i have ALOT to say and you know me, i can't stand to leave anything out! So, bear with me and try to follow along!

I last left off on our last day in Illula...we had a great night of playing mexican train dominoes and eating chocolate and gummy worms:) On saturday, after a great breakfast of pancakes, we piled into a van and headed off to eldoret, before going on to kipkaren. In eldoret, we stopped at the kenyan version of a target to pick up a few things...more minutes for my kenyan cell phone, lots of chocolate and another journal since the one i brought is just about full...ya know, just the essentials. Back in kipkaren, alie and i settled into our new home in the "dormitory"...a small room with not one, not two but six beds! well, 3 bunkbeds. and a shelf and a light...a very simple, humble room but plenty to meet our needs. concrete floor, beds and a roof. were talkin kenyan 4star here. we have come to love it and have made it home with pictures up and the encouraging/funny cards dad sent with me...thanks for those dad...they really make my day! Due to the fact that we are staying in the dormitory, we have the delightful privledge of getting to use to squatty-potties and the "splash on, splash off" shower (a bucket of warm water and a cup gets the job done!) I have to say, there is an art to learning how to use the squatties...to be able to tense up your body so you can balance, while relaxing all the right muscles so you can...well, ill stop there and let your mind finish the rest but, needless to say, its been a challenge of which we have faced together. Sunday afternoon, we had some downtime to relax in our rooms which was nice, however, its in the quiet, restful moments that i have felt satan trying ceaselessly to tear me down and tell me i shouldn't be here etc...so i layed in bed for awhile and battled that...i prayed for a bit, that God would encourage me and make me brave and remind me that i am here for a great purpose and to surrender it all to Him...then, i reached into my backpack and pulled out the envelope full of all the letters and cards sent with me from everyone at home. I spent the next 45 minutes reading through each one of them, meditating on the wonderful encouragement and prayers and love...I felt so filled up and encouraged and loved and empowered. I quickly realized that that was one very fast answer to my prayer...yay God:) I know that God put it in all your hearts, exactly what He knew I would need to hear over here. I am so thankful for that and have been so blessed and encouraged by your words. Asante sana! (thank you SO much!)

Before dinner, Alie and i decided it was time to wash some clothes...long story short, we ended up turning all our undies blue cuz we apparently used WAY too much laundry soap...so domesticated we are. they are now hanging all over our room on the bunkbeds, trying to dry. Ugali, Ugali, Ugali...it's coming out my ears! I decided im gunna put a bunch in a ziplock back and bring it home so you can try it! That's been one of the biggest challenges, the food. I get through it tho and usually one of my lovely brothers or sisters will finish it for me. bless their hearts. I got out my stack of photos i had brought from home to show my kids...they were glued to them for the rest of the night, so fascinated by the ocean and the snow and "the man who would have to pay 8 cows, 6 goats and 10 chickens to have my hand in marriage"...yepp, thats you Davis. See, they dont have "boyfriends or girlfriends" in Kenya...so for it to make sense to them, I just tell them that you want to marry me and they all shout out how many cows you will have to pay...its lookin like ur gunna need to start a farm haha. They also say that mom is beautiful and looks way too young to be my mom...that em must be my twin, and dad...well, i cant say what they said about you cuz they exclaimed something in swahili??? Anyway, the cant get enough of the pictures, its great. Saturday night was movie night...all 96 kids in one hut with a tiny 12 inch tv....awesome! we watched Apocolypto in swahili...a bit too gory for me but it was a funny experience to try and follow along. On a side note, the stars here and incredible...as good or better than at Woodleaf! you can see the milkyway! im obsessed.

Sunday...my first experience with church in Kenya...wow. I wish i just had it all on film so i could show it to you and not struggle to try and describe it for you in words, cuz there are no words sufficient. The kids sang and danced like only crazy little African kids can do...then they started pulling us Americans (us and the christian assembly team that is here) up to the front to join in with their dancing and singing...Im white and cannot even begin to move like them...so Alie and i, along with the whole team, got up there and just looked absolutely pitiful shaking around like idiots. They had us doing their craziest moves...at one point they had us down on our knees and were like lunging towards the ground and then back up again in this crazy swaying motion...and it didnt stop there, oh no...then we got back up on our feet again and they started to do this exotic full body shimmy!!! Ok, I dont know a whole lot about church ettiquite (yes, its likely spelled wrong) but i am for sure that shimmying in church should never be allowed...EVER. especially not in Africa, in a skirt, in front of a crowd of foreign kenyans. Boy was i glad when that was over!! I was mortified. Alie and i got a good laugh, discussing what it would be like if such a scene occured in an american church haha. Church was short on sunday (about 3 hours) cuz there was a burial service for a local man. After lunch we walked about a mile to go attend the burial service. I was curious to see it cuz Dad had told me that this was one of the most interesting, powerful things he witnessed while he was here in kipkaren. it was quite a cultural experience...women grieve quite differently here...they wail, loudly, and kinda sway around and usually fall to the ground and assume a catatonic, paralyzed state where they stay for a good while and no one seems to mind. At one point, a huge long time formed in which everyone present was to pass by and view the body in the casket...it was a very somber experience and i felt out of place but we were very welcomed and were told that our presence there ment alot to the family. Later that afternoon, a massive thunderstorm rolled in and Alie and I made it to the children's home, just before the clouds let loose their fury! it rained down hard for about an hour. so awesome. It was beautiful...for two reasons...1, because coming from socal, seeing rain is like seeing an eclipse...few and far between and usually only lasts a few minutes. and 2, because Kenya is experiencing a huge drought right now and so the crops are failing and they are predicting huge amounts of starvation in the coming months due to that. Devotions every night has been nuts...the kids sing and dance some more...ive been videoing little bits of it so you can see cuz like i said, words cannot describe it. its amazing. they are gifted. Back in the room, after making our nightly stop at the squatty (takes team work in the dark with a flast light) we layed in bed and let sarcasm and synicism take the edge off of a long day. We laughed really hard about alot of stuff...we thought seriously about moving the bunkbeds to arrange them into one huge kind size bunkbed, but we quickly realized they are bolted together. darn. We layed in bed for awhile chatting about life...the last thing i heard alie say before i fell asleep was, "Burn in hell misquito nets!!" bahahahaha!

Monday was a long day at the clinic...we are in the middle of inventory/organization 2009...its a HUGE job but its coming along great!! We counted pills all day...hours and hours worth! every color and size and shape...at the end of the day, we totaled up the whole spreadsheet to find we had counted a total of 60,120 pills! To make things interesting, id change it up and count by 2s or 3s or 5s or 25s or see how fast i could go...thers not a whole lot you can do to add excitement to pill counting. We were rewarded at the end of the day with another fabulous thunder storm...love it!! Then, to make the day even better, we were invited by the CA team to have dinner with them at the training center...um, YES please!! i mean, passing up the ugali was tough but man, the chibatti (best homemade tortilla youve ever had!) and guac and mango we had was incredible!! between the two of us, i think alie and i ate like 10 of them! so great! we got to debrief with them about the day and then enjoyed a time of worship with the guitar and some great songs. so uplifting and encouraging to worship God in the midst of a place where He is oh so present. One of the most powerful worship times ive ever experienced. I had no idea how hungry i was to just sit in the presence of God and praise Him for how amaing He is. Wow. Then it was off to our nightly squat before heading into bed. we layed in bed, discussing the books we are reading (captivating and wild at heart)...we decided that men are like dogs...you just gota feed them, pet them, walk them and give them an occasional treat and theyre happy...right?!

Today, tuesday, was another long but wonderfully fulfilling day at the clinic. In the morning we tied up the loose ends of the inventory and organizing etc...then, mama baby clinic began and we saw a series of patients...pregnant moms and babies. We met with one patient, a young girl who is due the 25th! so exciting...we are SO hoping to be able to be there for her delivery!! We got to feel the baby move and got to hear its heart beat with the fetal doppler. amazing. Then, the most noteworthy case of the day...a young boy who had a horrible rotten molar that had to be extracted...ya, yanked out!! its a long story...it was hard to watch. the dentist (who is also the optometrist!!) injected the kid with some serious lidocaine, like 4 vials worth and, unlike in america where we get one painful injection, the doc poked around in his mouth like 12 different spots! ooowwwhhhhhh!! the doc was really going to town with the lidocaine, numbing the heck outa the poor kid...well, we soon found out why he was numbing the heck outa the kid...first he used a scalpul to pry the gums away from the necrotic tooth while blood pooled in his mouth. All of this was taking place in a ricketty old chair, as the doc stood over him, using only the light from the window to see. The doc then grabbed a huge pair of scary tooth-taker-outer pliars and grabbed onto the tooth, as he grabbed the kids head, holding it tight as he braced his body against the wall...now he began to yank, i mean really YANK with enough force to pull a freight train! his arm muscles were shaking as he continued to pull with all his might!! i was just cringing...after what seemed like 15 minutes of gnarly pulling, we heard a loud crack/pop as the tooth finally gave in and came out. it was HUGE!! and gross!! icky! by the end of it, my palms were sweaty, i was biting a hole in my lip and im sure my face had gone pale. i can do a lot of gore and blood but when it comes to teeth, im weak! so the doc jabbed one more needle full of lidocaine into the fresh crater where the tooth had been and then stuffed it full of gauze and sent them away with some ibuprofen for later...i can garuntee thats not gunna be enough! poor kid. he's gunna have to liquify his ugali for the next week.

Tonight is American night so we are at Michelle's house, eating an american dinner (lasagna, garlic bread and even chocolate chip cookies!!)...and getting to use the internet to blog! yay:) 2 nights in a row of missing out on ugali...bummer. This has been one crazy, out of control, LONG blog, but if you made it this far, you have a good image of what life is like right now in Kipkaren, Kenya. A crazy adventure!! Thank you all so much for your continued love and prayers, as they are needed and so felt. All my love to each one of you!! Tl next time...

Love,
Somerlyn

Hiiiiiii from illula!!

Hi home!! I of course have to begin with reminding you all how much i miss you all like crazy!! Being away, half way across the world, away from everyone i love really makes me realize how incredibly blessed i am in that area of my life! Wow. My phone has been holding up pretty well, despite the fact that the minutes go so so fast, so a few of you have heard from me and i hope that you are passing that on to others, as i cant call everyone; though you all know i would if i could!

So we have been here in Illula for a few days, running a well-child clinic here at the children's home. It's very similar to Kipkaren, the children here are a bit older though, cuz this home has been here a few year longer. We ran the clinic all day yesterday which was long and tiring but very successful and quite fun:) So far, we have seen about 73 kids and will finish up the remainder this afternoon, before heading back to kipkaren tomorrow morning. We have figured out a system of how to effectively run the clinic...alie and i switch of taking all the vitals (bp, pulse, respiratory rate, temp, etc), and the height, weight and also a vision test. It has been fun to finally be hands on and get to work with kids while incorporating our fine tuned nursing skills ;). I have become a professional at taking manual blood pressure...most of you wont appreciate that, but in America, we have those fine litte machines that role around the hospital on wheels and take all the vitals, including bp, in about 60 seconds. Here, obviously we dont have access to those clever little robots and must refer to our days in medsurg, with our stethescopes and our sphigmomanometers! So, alie and i take care of that and Lourdes (Michelle's "2nd mom" who is here visiting) takes care of all the administrative, organizational stuff, managing and updating their files, and Michelle, the brains of it all, the Nurse practitioner, does the full, head to toe physical exam. Since these kids are a bit older, the 14 year old boys were ever so lucky to get to have a special little extra exam for testicular cancer. Oh to watch their eyes get huge as Michelle was explaining what was next! Alie and I could hardly hold ourselves together! Poor boys. After one of her pep talks to a group of boys, one of them turned right around and bolted out the door! Smart kid. The kids are great here and are such a joy to be around. In assessing them, I am getting to hear bits and pieces of their pasts and the stories of how they came to be orphanes and came to the children's home here. there are times when i find myself on the verge of tears as im reading such horrible, devastating, tragic stories of what happened to these little children, at such young ages. They've experienced more tradgedy and disaster and loss in their lives than most of us will experience in a life time...and yet, they are so full of joy and life and they love Jesus so so much. It is humbling and inspiring to be with them.

One of the things I am finding that I really love about the Kenyan people and their culture is that they just LOVE to share their stories and hear yours too. Every night here in Illula, around the dinner table, (on that note, the cook here is amazing and im going to miss his cooking going back to kipkaren) we have sat and listened and shared about life, about our journeys, where God has taken us and what He is doing right now in our lives. God is so real and so tangible in Kenya. To sit and listen to these people tell their life story, their own tradgedy and how they found Christ and how they got involved with ELI, wow, its stunning. I wish i could remember all the details of all their stories cuz they are so powerful and so encouraging. Amazing. Last night, after dinner, we sat and they discussed the whole cultrual issue of "cows" in the issue of marriage. Most of you probably arent familiar with this custom but it is huge and very important. When a man wants a womans hand in marriage, he must get his whole, clan (tribe) together with her whole clan and the elders discuss and negociate how many cows his family will have to pay hers in order for him to have her as his bride. It's a crazy system and so funny to hear them talk about!! I love it. Oh, the Kenyan culture...can you imagine if thats how we did it in America...Davis decided he (finally!) wants to marry me and comes to my dad to negociate how many cows im worth?! Oh boy, i can just see that conversation going down...how many cows am i worth, Davis?! Dad, im ur first born so Im worth quite a bit of meat, so get all you can outa him! We can just put them in the backyard on the grass with piggy...it would probably be good for her self-esteem to be around the cows. Ok, that was a tanget, back to kenya...

Overall, I am doing much better than my last blog probably sounded. I was still sick and very homesick and weak...I am no longer sick, my bowels are functioning great!!, and of course, i still miss home desperately and think about it everyday, but its not holding me back or consuming my mind all hours of the day. I am slowing finding my place here and discovering why God brought me here and what He has in store for me in this country, so so far from home. I am being stretched and challeneged daily. Stripped of everything i know, I have nothing but God to rely on. funny how that works out. Keep praying for me and alie...that we would daily find strength in Him, that we would find purpose and joy here, that our bodies (especially our bowels!) hold up and we remain healthy, and that we ultimately are the hands and feet of Jesus to theses people here. I never in my life have felt more covered in prayer so i thank you all from the bottom of my heart for thinking of me and praying for me daily...i really do need it and i really do feel it. I am so blessed by what i call home and i cannot wait to be back there and share all about my adventures in Africa! It might be a little while til i can blog again, but until then, i love you all SO much!!

love,
Somey

A quick hello from eldoret!!

Hello home! oh how i miss thee! so so so much! i wish i had more time to write but this is gunna have to be a quick one cuz we are on our way to ilula from kipkaren and just stopped in town to get a few things. i have so much to fill you all in on but thats just not gunna happen right now. We really dont have hardly any access to internet here, sadly. i would blog daily if i could. so we made it to eldoret and to the village of kipkaren. weve been here for about4 days now and it has already been quite and experience. im learning that culture shock is a real thing and that its rough in many ways. everything since weve been here has been a challenege...the travel, the food, the language, the culture, the time change, the sleeping arrangements, being sick (night 1 and 2 for me...miserable)...it has been quite a lot to adjust to. But I just keep reminding myself that God brought me all this way for a reason and im gunna find out why. so like i said, the first 48 hour of being here, i was very sick. dont know from what, but my bowels were not happy. it was horrible. i am still working on recovering from that and have yet to gain my appetite back so i am very weak and tired with no food in me. its hard to go from being sick, straight to ugali and veggie mush. alie and i spent the day in the clinic yesterday and saw a few patients. mostly babies and moms. we each got to give one injection so that was cool. it poured rain for about an hour as well which was nice. when we are not at the clinic, we are spending time at the children's home, getting to know them and playing with them etc. that can be pretty hard tho with the language barrier. We work in the clinic from 8-5 everyday and go back for lunch and dinner at the children's home. everyone here is so very welcoming and loving. it is great:) but still, it is just so so so much to adjust to...it has been rough. I am hoping and praying that in the coming days we will become more comfortable and adjusted to kipkaren and the challenges will decreases somewhat. I would really appreciate continued prayer for strength to make it through each day, for health physically, as i aleady learned that its miserable to be sick in a foreign country! and for comfort and purpose in this place. it is so easy to get homesick and miss everything and everyone that you love when you are half way around the world. i am hoping that i will be able to blog in a few days when we are on our way back from ilula...we are going there with the nurses to do kindergarten checkups on tons of kids! shud be interesting. tell everyone i love them and miss them more than they know!!

xoxoxo, somey

Oh what a crazy ride this is!!!

Oh goodness, i dont even know where to begin...the last 48 hours have been insane. We made it to Nairobi at 6:30 am on the 31st. The flight was pretty good seeing that Alie and i were both pretty much unconcious before take off. (secret recipe: tylenol pm, benadryl, dramamine and melatonin). speaking of take off...we were delayed a little while on account of a crazy lady on the plane who was screaming and yelling and making a huge scene. they restrained her (literally tied her down, strapped her to the seat)...everyone was standing up staring at the situation with expressions of "please just get this lady off the plane so we can leave". after a good 20 minutes of her going crazy, the flight attendant finally just punched her in the face and knocked her out...the flight attendant got a standing ovation. ok, maybe that's not quite how it went...but they did take her, kicking and screaming off the plane. yay for that.

So we landed in Nairobi at 6am after 8 hours of flying. we then stood in the line to get our visas for almost 3 hours. that was fun. by then i had come to the realization that i had completely run out of my own strength and now must rely on God's strength to keep me going. It's been a little rough figuring out exactly how to do that and it's not really easy but at this point it's all i have. Got to baggage claim, fully expecting our bags not to be there and mentally preparing myself to live in these sweats and blue hoddie i had on. But praise the Lord, all 4 of our bags were there!! Next, we had our first experience with driving in Kenya...mr. toad's wild ride x 1,000. first, sitting in the front seat, on the left side of the car, where the driver sits in America...whoa!! soo bizarre!! i kept trying to grip and imaginary steering wheel and stomp on a nonexistant break. seriously...it was nuts!! we almost hit like 8 people and barely avoided at least a dozen accidents! people sprint accross the highway, in between cars going about 80 mph! it's like a human game of frogger! terrifying! Gosh, words just can paint an accurate picture of Nairobi road rage. We made it to the Mayfield guest house and immediately fell asleep for a good 3 hours. a much needed rest. Michelle (one of the nurses we will be working with in the village) picked us up and took us to Java House (an American food restaurant) for lunch. Thoroughly enjoyed my turkey sandwich, knowing my coming days would be filled with tons of ugali and cabbage. So, from lunch, we took another crazy ride back to the airport for out 4:30 flight...or so we thought. to make a long a very complicated story semi-short...our flight was cancelled, like months ago, and they moved everyone's names to a new flight, but our 2 names somehow didnt make it onto that new flight which of course was now full. sooo...trying to go with the flow and know that God was in control and we clearly were not, we just waited patiently...the next flight out to eldoret was not for 24 hours. so the final decision was that we were gunna go back to the mayfield inn for the night and go out on the flight the next day. The airline agreed to cover our cab ride back to the inn and our accomodations too. A man loaded our bags onto a cart and followed us to the cab...or so we thought. when we got to the car, he was nowhere to be seen, and therefore, neither were our bags. We ran back to the check in area and he was nowhere. The customer service people told us they don't know where he went and then proceeded to ask us if we had anything of value in our bags and if they were locked. Good question mam...actually no...1 of my bags is full of toilet paper and the other is full of tooth picks so no worries if this man just stoll them. Come on lady. I asked her if we were going to see our bags again, and she just looked at me and shook her head in "i dont know". That's when the reality set in that our bags may have just been stolen. Wow...God, what is going on?! Tears were welling up in my eyes. Turns out he was in the parking lot looking for our cab...so we found him after a few scary minutes and loaded our 4 bags into the car. As we got into this little car with some man who was a complete stranger, in a foreign country with no phone or any contact to anyone we knew...the fear of the situation started to set it. It was friday afternoon traffic in Nairobi so the drive took about 2 hours. All the cars were burping out this terrible thick black exhaust and i was breathing it all in, quickly becoming nauseated. As we wound through unknown streets, not knowing if this man was good or bad or if he could be trusted or where we would end up, etc, i just began to pray...i prayed for the entire 2 hours..."God, please get us there safely. Protect us from harm. Give me peace. Please keep me from bursting out into tears in fear....etc" I cant explain the feeling of relief as we turned the corner and saw the inn. it was like coming home. Bwana Asifiwe!! (Praise the Lord!) They only had 1 room left, with 1 little twin bed & a floor mattress but at this point, that sounded like 5star accomodations! We rested and kinda debriefed in our room, thanking God so much for his protection all throughout a crazy day. God really becomes so real when He is all you have to rely on. We had dinner at 7 with all the missionaries at the inn...was nice to sit and chat with other americans who were on a similar mission. After dinner, the exhaustion really set in. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. I missed home and all my comforts that had been stripped away. I tried to hold it back but it all just came pouring out in tears. My first breakdown of this journey. The tears just kept coming and i couldnt stop them. Alie began to pray for us, as we sat in our tiny little room. After we prayed and i had gone through a whole pack of tissues (thanks for packing those for me mom!! you knew i would need them!) we talked for a whole hour about this journey...about God's purpose for us in it and i came to the realization that part of this journey is about God working in me and changing my heart and in order to do that, He must first break me down...through exhaustion and hunger and tears and fear...until i had nothing but Him. It is such an uncomfortable thing to know that God is breaking you down but the knowledge that He is doing it so that He can build me up and change my heart is awesome. I've never felt so surrendered to Him and so dependant on Him for everything. It's scary but also amazing.

With some help from the people at the inn, we got my Kenyan cell fone working (thanks a TON to the Bechlers for that great gift!!) and i was able to call home and talk to mom and Davis too. They were very short conversations, as i didnt know how many minutes i had or how long the service would last but it was so so wonderful to hear voices from home and encouragement. Speaking of that, i dont think I've mentioned yet how amazing it was to open all those letters from everyone at home that stacie had gathered to send with us. I can't thank all of you enough for that...it really meant so much to me. To know how much I'm loved and how covered in prayer i am was so comforting. Ok, tanget...anyway, we had a great night sleep and woke up rested today (saturday). We had breakfast with everyone again and even got to take showers!!! I don't think there's been a time in my life where I've appreciate a shower more than this morning. I hadn't had one since tuesday!! We are now fresh and clean and lookin fly in our skirts:) We will be heading off again to the airport and, hopefully this time without much trouble, will be flying to eldoret. The airline, FLY540 seems pretty sketchy so were a little nervous about this last flight but God has shown up in every situation and has brought us this far, so we have to trust that He will get us there safely!

Once we get to Kipkaren, i dont know when the next time that i will have internet access will be...hopefully soon. As you can see, i LOVE to blog. It's comforting and fun to reflect on this crazy ride and share it with you all at home. If you got this far, thank you so so much for reading it and for thinking about me and for praying for me. I've never needed it more than right now and i really do feel covered in prayer. Thanks also for all the love on facebook. It's great to hear from you at home. Until my next blog...sending my love home to America!!

Love, Somerlyn

Making the Most out of 12 hours in London!

hello again from london...yepp, were still here. but we cant complain about the opportunity to explore such a fabulous city! it was quite a day...rode the underground tube into the Westminster and sorta just found our way around. We saw Green park, located right next to the Birmingham Palace...at 11:30, we watched the changing of the gaurds...gotta be honest and say it wasnt all that exciting. it was like trying to watch the electric light parade at disneyland smashed between 6,000 other people with no view at all...and minus the techno music and flashing lights and micky. but i guess its cool to be able to say that we saw that. and the fact that we got to have tea with the Queen afterwards made it worth it as well. Alie and i had lunch at a little cafe and then bought a buncha postcards to send home. We sat in this beautiful park writing on the postcards, but then all the sudden, a storm broke out and we got drenched as we sprinted back to the tube. the wierdest part about it is that when we got there, we were waiting for our train at platform 9 3/4 and guess who was there?! yep, good ol Harry Potter and Hermoine Granger...robes, wands, the whole thing!! it was great. i got a picture and all...hopefully i can post that soon. We went over and saw Big Ben and the Westminster Abbey and tons of double decker tour buses and tons of people driving on the wrong side of the road...gosh, it just looks so strange!! they even walk up and down stairs that way...opposite of how we americans do. so that was a bit of a challenge, trying to cross streets etc. We really felt clueless all day but we just so happened to encounter the nicest most helpful people at all the right times, right before we would get on the wrong train or get hit by a bus, etc. It has been so clear to me that God really is working all things together for our good as we make this journey. We just keep discussing how strange it is that we have been up for almost 30 hours straight now and have yet to see and darkness. we left in the morning from LA and we arrived in the morning in London and stayed up all day here, and now we will fly 8 hours overnight and land, once again, in the morning. so were basically praying that we can get some real sleep on this next leg of the journey. if not...o man...it wont be pretty when we get to nairobo. im thinkin up a good recipe...2 parts dramamine, 1 part tylenol pm and 1 part glass on wine. and if that doesnt do the trick, ive got some benadryl too! ok, just kidding, im not guna go overboard with that...but really, i gota get some sleep!! im delerious. this morning...or whatever time it was, i was using the restroom in the airport and my boarding pass somehow found inself in the toilet. i quickly cringed and reached in and plucked it out but it was too late. the ticket was all smeared and unlegible...needless to say, i told the gentleman behind the counter that i spilled water all over it and he kindly printed me a new one:) \i know, you're just thinking...somey would be one to drop her ticket in the loo. keep your fingers crossed that our bags make it all the way through to Nairobi. we are just so excited to finally get there and meet Michelle and hopefully get some rest before we fly off to Eldoret. More to come once we get settled in to our new home!! much love from London!