Ketchup

Wow, Christmas has come and gone.  This past week has been full of activity for us, so I’ll catch you all up a little. 

Dec. 22-I stayed up until 11:30 at night (I usually go to bed around 10-10:30 here) popping 3.5kg worth of popcorn kernels.  It took 2 hours.  For goodness sake that was a lot of popcorn.  And the lid didn’t fit on the pot, so I had to hold it the whole time.  And the handle was loose.  But, it was fun because they had Christmas carols playing in the next room, where the rest of the team was putting the popcorn into 100 bags for the children at Mercy Home.

Dec. 23- I went to the Street Children’s outreach at Faith Community Church again.  I’m not sure if I’ve written about it, but I’ve been once before (In Oct.) It was their special Christmas party.  The street kids are one of my favourite parts about Kitale, so it’s awesome to hang out with them all at once.  This time, I was on baby-washing duty.  Only one of them cried because she was being washed by a ‘mzungu.’

            - Then I took a matatu out to Mercy Home where the rest of the team was, to join in the Christmas/Birthday party that was happening there.  Most of the kids don’t know their actual date of birth, so they just have one day of the year to celebrate.  There was a talent show, special lunch, and organized games.  I got recruited into the 100m race, which really shouldn’t have been a problem for me...I was wearing a skirt, so the girls got me a pair of shorts to change into.  I am ashamed to say (but will tell you anyway because it’s funny) that I did a face plant in the first 20m.  And pretty much EVERYBODY was watching.  Good one.  A little bit embarrassing, but mostly just hilarious.  I have never had so many people come up to me and say “Sorry” in my life.  I was telling my family on the phone that I feel like I’m about 6 years old, because my knees are totally gross and scabbed over. 

Dec. 24- David and Trudy slept over at Mercy Home, Stellah left to go and visit her Grandma, and Geoffrey has been sick for the past week or so, so it was a fairly subdued Christmas eve.  Nancy and I decided to go outside and stand by the “bonfire” which was actually a pile of burning garbage in the corner of the yard.  It was very enjoyable, we sang silent night and took some pictures.

-          We all sang Christmas carols and read the Christmas story together in the evening.

-          Nancy and I hung out in her room and made “sausage rolls” (because we missed the traditional appetizers of home) This might sound impressive, but, in reality, it was crackers, with tiny bits of leftover sausage extracted from the stew in the freezer.  We never actually ate them, but we convinced Dane that they were good, so he ate them. 

Dec. 25- CHRISTMAS!  I woke up around 7am.  It felt so strange, because I was super excited even though everything was so different than Christmas morning usually is.  Helen had prepared a nice breakfast for us, so I waited until Dane and Nancy got up, so that I could eat with them.  Then I called my family.  It was sad to be away from them at such a special time, but it was great to talk to them.  And also, now I know that next year I’ll be able to appreciate everything that Christmas at home is even more! 

            -After nearly 2 hours of being awake, (this is proof that I am growing in maturity over here in Kenya) I took about an hour and a half to open up all the letters and gifts that had been sent to me in various packages from friends and family.  (THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYBODY!)  Even though Christmas is so much more than gifts and cards, I’m not going to lie, it made it extremely exciting. 

            - Then I went out to Mercy Home to hang out with the kids for the rest of the day. 

            Alright, I’m going to close this off now.  There is a lot more to tell, but I can only type for so long.  All in all, I had a wonderful Christmas season, though very strange and different from what I am used to. 

Playground

KRISMASI NJEMA! (Merry Christmas in Swahili)

Most days of the week, our team starts off by having a meeting together. We usually take about half an hour, talking about the previous day, planning the upcoming one, and then spending time in prayer. Some days though, they tend to drag on because we get a side tracked. Today was one of those days. We were talking in Dane and Trudy’s room for about an hour and a half.
The conversation was extremely varied. Aside from planning the Christmas party that is going to take place tomorrow, we covered many other subjects, such as, the promise of hamburgers coming to Kitale, the lack of lettuce here, cow impersonations, inflatable bicycles, and the possibility of getting a playground built at Mercy Home.
Hamburgers are exciting. The lack of lettuce is distressing. Cow impersonations are fun. Inflatable bicycles would be a genius way to avoid swimming for those who struggle with floatation. And a playground at Mercy Home is a perfectly legit thing to discuss at a team meeting.
Dane has done some work to find out the cost of such a project, and we have found that it would cost approximately $750 (Canadian). Our team feels that it would be a wonderful thing to have built before we leave, because the kids don’t really have anything recreational to play with. The five of us are willing to pool our resources and come up with the money to do this, however, I know that many of you have been wondering if there is any way that you can help. This would be the perfect way to assist the work being done here in Kenya, without having to physically be here. Please don’t feel ANY pressure to donate, and if you do want to give, don’t feel you have to go overboard. Something like $5-10 would be totally sufficient. The team will cover all the extra costs, so the playground will be built regardless!

Since my Gramma is coming to Kenya in 3 weeks (!!!) money can be sent to my parents by mail in the form of a cheque, or given to them in person, and then they can forward it to her.

Thank You!

"Kipsongo City"

December is the Kenyan equivalent of summer holidays, so the kids are off of school for a whole month. The past week was “home-visit” week for the kids at Mercy Home, so they went home to visit whatever relatives they have. It was a really neat week actually, because it meant that our schedule was a little more relaxed than usual, and we were able to go and see the kids where they originally come from. Most of them are from the Kipsongo slum (which is the place that I talked about in my entry about the Truman show.) Over the course of the week, I have been to Kipsongo three times to visit kids there, and to get shown around. One of the days it started raining, and the place just turned into a big mudfest. The dirt here is different than the dirt back at home, and when it turns to mud, it is incredibly slippery. I came mighty close to bailing hard on multiple occasions that day.
Some of the houses are made from packed mud, with thatched roofs, but others are like patchwork-plastic igloos. They are dome shaped dwellings made of discarded plastic bags and torn rags. It’s amazing to think that people actually live in them. As it turns out, most of the street kids (who I love!) come from Kip, and they just make the 1km ‘commute’ into Kitale every day to see what they can scrounge up, because there isn't much to live off of in Kipsongo.

We have had two of the kids from Mercy Home (Alphine, 16 and Joshua, 15) stay at our house over the course of the week. It has been super fun to have them here! It’s been neat to get to know them. Alphine has been my roommate, and part time Swahili teacher. They are going back to Mercy Home today, which is a little sad.

It is Nancy Miller’s birthday on the 23rd, so if you know her, be sure to send her an email or comment on her blog or something!

Pictures

Joshua, Lydia and me on the shore of Lake Victoria!

Most of our team (Nancy isn't pictured) after we received a chicken from a lady we met at church.

Receiving a chicken is apparently an honour. We got him about a month ago, and still haven't eaten him. I have grown rather fond of him.  His name is Fred. This picture makes me laugh whenever I look at it, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

I Love Peas

We had been counting down the days here until we were allowed to start singing Christmas carols at evening devotions, and December has come!  For some reason I am hugely into them this year. 

            One of my very favourite moments in Africa happened the other day.  I came home from Mercy Home, and could hear Christmas carols as soon as I stepped through the door.  The sound led me to the kitchen, where I found Helen and both of  the Davids opening pea pods and singing in the semi-darkness.  (The power was out again.)  Opening pea pods happens to be one of my favourite things to do, as of quite recently, so I sat down on the floor and joined right in.  It was just so peaceful.  The power came back on, but we turned the lights off again because it was so much cozier without them.  I think we sang every carol I know, and then some.  It was so simple, but it gave me so much joy.

            I spent the night at Mercy Home on the 2^nd.  This was my second time, but the first time I didn’t enjoy myself nearly as much .  I was in a way better state of mind this time, and was actually excited to do it.  I had so much fun with the girls, playing cards and just chatting.  I actually had a really good sleep too.  I remembered my trusty earplugs, (If earplugs were animate I think that I would marry them.) and got to sleep on the top bunk, which was nice.  I ended up staying there for the whole day yesterday, and didn’t feel like I needed to get home to rest.  (The first time I did it, I couldn’t wait to get back to our house!)  Benta, the social worker, who works there, braided my hair...which took over 4 hours.  I think that there are 62 of them.  Oh my goodness it hurt.  I don’t have a very sensitive scalp, and I thought I had a fairly high pain tolerance...but it hurt SO bad.  Boys, you will never understand.  (Unless you grow your hair out and get it braided I suppose.  Which I don’t advise.)  So you will have to take my word for it. 

            I have had a really great week.  It took was some hardcore homesickness, but I have begun to realize just how necessary God is in my life.  He will remain the same, and He will bring me comfort no matter how far away my family and friends are.  It has been incredible to notice how much better my days are when I start them off by giving them to God!

Pictures

I ended up meeting David in town eventually, so there are pictures today after all!  The picture of the two boys by the water was taken at Lake Victoria, during our trip to Kampala, Uganda.  The next picture of the river, happens to be the NILE RIVER!!  Cool?!  And the monkey took that banana out of my very own hand!  (She was outside of the church that we go to early on Sundays, before the church service at Mercy Home.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay. I have BIG news.

I just found out...

That my Gramma is coming to Kenya for 5 weeks!!!
She is arriving in Nairobi on the 13th of January, so she will be here for my birthday! I am so ridiculously excited. This news came at perfect timing, because I was really starting to feel homesick...just thinking of Christmas and all. I was trying to imagine how I was ever going to get through another 3 1/2 months, and then there you go. My Gramma is coming.

And thank-you so much to everyone who contributed to the Christmas package that my family sent! I am being very well disciplined and self-controlled and I am going to wait to open the letters and pressies until Christmas day. But anyway, thank-you so much, it made my day x a billion.

And sorry that I haven't been able to get pictures up lately. I had extremely good intentions today...but David took the picture converter devise thingy to Mercy Home with him...therefore leaving me powerless to upload. They will come soon!

I'm in Uganda!

I just thought I'd give you all a quick update to let you know that I am currently in Kampala, Uganda for a 3 night mini-vacation.
We left on our 2 month Kitale anniversary and took a Kangaroo (ha!) to Eldoret, from where we caught the Kampala Coach...to Kampala.
We have been in a small town too long I think. I was just gaping out the bus window at all the lights and tall buildings of the city. We are staying at Adonai guest house #1 which is absolutely wonderful! We feel like royalty. You can check out their site at www.adonaiguesthouse.com (I think)
Thanks for reading, sorry for the short entry...this Kampala internet is darn expensive.
Oh, and for all of you who pictured my hopping down the road on a large bouncy animal...(I really really hope that some of you did) Kangaroos are a type of van here.

Kisumu

My alarm started blabbering away at 4:30am and I wanted to squash it. I pushed snooze a couple of times and then finally got up at some ridiculous hour that was before 5am. I forced myself to eat a couple pieces of chapati even though my stomach wasn’t ready to function, because I didn’t know when we would be eating lunch. Gershom and Monica (the manager and chaplain of the orphanage) picked Dane, Trudy, Nancy, David and me up at 5:30am and we drove out to Mercy Home to meet the chartered bus that would take us, 12 teachers, and about 50 or so kids to Kisumu.
Kisumu is the third largest city in Kenya, and it is situated the shore of Lake Victoria, in the western part of the country. Our team decided that it would be a worthwhile investment to take the standard 6&7’s on a field trip there so they could get out of Mercy Home for a while and see a bit of the area.
It was a 3 hour bus trip along a decent road. (“decent” is in Kenyan road standards...) Our first stop was the post office. I personally wasn’t exactly stoked to see it...but I guess when you are confined to a compound most days, even something like that is exciting. They got a tour, and got to go in the back rooms, and then we moved on to the courthouse. That was a bit more interesting than the post office, but it dragged on for too long. We sat in the courtroom for over an hour and a half while the kids asked questions about law.
I was feeling a little more than 12 o’clockish by the time that we got out of there, but we checked in to the place where we were planning to have lunch, and they told us that it would be more than an hour until our food was ready. We bought sodas for everyone, and then decided to head out to the airport. That stop was probably the most educational for the kids, because they got to have a tour of all the weather instruments, see a plane from Nairobi land on the runway, and even go up into the air traffic control tower.
The kids’ reaction to seeing Lake Victoria for the first time was funny. They started pointing and gasping when all we could see at that point was a body of water that resembled a large pond with vegetation floating in it. Eventually we were able to go to the shore and get a good look at it. It’s quite impressive. It was grey and choppy and looked remarkably like the ocean. We couldn’t see the other side, and we were only looking at the ‘small’ bay. It made me miss the real ocean, but at the same time it was comforting because I could almost imagine that I was home.
By 6:00pm we finally had 'lunch'. At around 3pm my stomach had forgotten that it was hungry, but when they put a plate of Tilapia, ugali and sakumawiki (sp?) in front of me...it remembered. Chapati and Fanta is really not enough to get you through a day of walking around a strange city.
I was so tired by the time that we got back into the bus to go home that the whole ride seemed almost surreal. After the long awaited meal, the kids perked up again, and sang beautifully as the bus bounced through potholes and over unmarked speed bumps. The lights of Kisumu disappeared into the distance as we drove back towards Kitale under a vast and intricate covering of African stars. I nodded in and out of sleep the whole ride home and felt thoroughly at peace.

The Truman Show

I’m sure that many of you are familiar with the movie “the Truman Show.”  I have only seen it once, about five years ago, but I still remember it clearly and it crosses my mind every once in a while. In it, the main character, Truman, is actually starring in his own hit TV series…but he knows nothing of it.  The entire world that he lives in caters to, and revolves around him, but he is completely unaware of it.  His world is confined to a bubble, and everywhere he goes there is a camera following him.  After watching that movie, it’s difficult not to become a little bit suspicious of your friends and surroundings, and wonder if they are actually paid actors and elaborate sets. 

A little while ago I was passing through the Kipsongo slum, (the place where a lot of the kids at Mercy Home originally come from) and I suddenly knew without a doubt that there was no way that I was on “the Candice Show”.  The world is too real.  I realized just how self-centred I can be.  Even if we don’t go as far as believing that the events of the world are a TV show unfolding with us as the protagonists, it’s easy to convince ourselves that we are more important than we actually are.  It’s easy to forget about the things that we don’t see, and imagine that the only things that are real are the things that are in front of us.

And GOD.  Wow, that’s another one.  I have had him in a box all my life.  I have this idea in my head of what he’s like, and it is so confined.  I have my own ideas of what worship is like, what preaching should sound like, how long church should be, what singing should sound like, and oh my word, things are so diverse here in comparison to Canada.  It’s incredibly exciting to imagine all the parts of Jesus that I never even knew existed!  Like how He sees the street children of Kitale, and loves them the exact same amount that He loves me and you, and how He ALWAYS did, even long before I considered coming over here to meet them.  Like how He doesn’t require our praises to be in English, and that I don’t need to understand what people are saying in order for it to bless the Lord.  (This sounds shallow and obvious I’m sure, but it had never crossed my mind before!) So I challenge you to start taking God out of the box that you have Him in.  He is so much more than assumptions and clichés…He is HUGE!  As long as we live, we will never fully understand Him.  But why not get a start?

So this is me on a camel...

The Hospital

Our team has made a new friend. Her name is Josephine. She is about twenty years old, and very good-natured. We hardly know anything about her because she speaks next to no English, and we’re not exactly fluent in Swahili yet either. What we do know is that she spends a lot of her time on the streets of Kitale. We took her to the hospital about a week and a half ago because she had these horrible wounds on her foot and ankle. It was like someone had taken a spoon and just taken out a few scoops of flesh. It made me feel a little weak in the knees to look at it. Sorry, that’s a disgusting description. Well anyway, we have been visiting her at the hospital quite frequently. It’s a scary place. There is a strong and distinct smell of sickness and disinfectant that makes me want to hold my breath or press my nose into my shoulder all the time. Josephine shares a bed with two other people most of the time, but lately she has been spending a lot of time outside, most likely to get away from the smell and constant moaning. I always try to stay focused and only look at Josephine while we’re there, but my curiousity always gets the better of me. There are disfigurations, burns, broken limbs and miserable looking people everywhere. I’m starting to get used to it, but every time I go I am so thankful for the medical system that we have back home in Canada.
If you could pray for Josephine then that would be much appreciated. Not only does she need a miracle with healing, she also needs one for her future. From what we can understand, she lives on the street, and has nothing to go back to once she is released from the hospital. We need wisdom on how to help her. During the past week or so, she has changed. She is smiling more, and making more of an effort to communicate. The other day when we were about to leave, she pulled me by the hand and gave me an African style hug; left cheek to left cheek, and then right cheek to right cheek. I would hate to see her land right back where she was before.

Oh, and by the way, my African address is:

Candice Veale
c/o New Bethany House
PO box 4448
Kitale, 30200
Kenya, East Africa

Pictures

Here are some long awaited pictures that provide a glimpse into some of my experiences in Kenya. Enjoy!

Our House

(There are a few more pictures of the house here.)

Candice with a group of children at Mercy Home.

(Another picture of Candice at Mercy Home can be found here.)

A picture Nancy took after her, Trudy and I experienced our first Tuktuk ride!

Yes, I'm in Africa

Sometimes I almost find myself forgetting that I'm on the opposite side of the world, but then there are times where it is impossible to ignore the fact that I am in Africa.

This morning I came back into my room after eating breakfast, and there was a huge cow grazing right outside my window! It was a little surprising. I could have reached out and touched it, had I felt so inclined, but I chose to take a picture instead. (Okay, maybe I would not have been able to touch it, I exaggerate, but it was pretty darn close.)

Even though I worked in a coffee shop for over a year, I will admit that I never really knew where coffee beans came from. It wasn't until near the end of my time at "Just-a-Cuppa," that I even found out that coffee grew on trees. But I had no idea what the trees looked like until I came here. This past Saturday I got to help pick some coffee beans behind the Ochana's house. They have a whole plantation, and the trees are all around 10-12ft tall. We had to use stepladders to reach the berries. The coffee beans that we see in North America hardly even resemble the ones off the tree. Picked fresh, they look somewhat like cranberries, and then if you open them up, there are two little beige beans inside which will eventually get dried, roasted, and then ground up to make people happy in the morning. I tried eating the outside shell part, and it's very sweet. It doesn't taste remotely like coffee, which suits me fine.

Another thing to remind me that I'm not in Canada anymore, (Toto), is the way that my hamstrings are sore from learning how to do laundry the Kenyan way! My new friend Sarah at Mercy Home taught me how to be a human washing machine. To avoid back problems, women here don't squat beside the buckets of water to wash their clothes; they bend at the waist so that their legs and backs are both kept straight. It's incredible how efficient they are. I told Sarah that if women in Canada would just start washing their laundry by hand, they could save a heck of a lot of money on unsuccessful dieting attempts.

A taste of Kenya

   Sorry that this has been off to such a slow start.  Procrastinating person + unreliable Internet = an infrequently updated blog.  Here is a little taste of the Kenya that I have been enjoying for the past month:

-Kenyans are generally very friendly, and very eager to meet visitors.  Everyone shakes hands and welcomes us profusely. 

-The name Candice doesn’t seem to exist here, and everyone has a terribly difficult time trying to make it out.  I have to repeat myself at least twice before they can say it anywhere even close.  I get Candees, Cathy, Carlie, Can, Candy, and Dandis, but rarely Candice.  Geoffrey (the man who we’re living with) has taken to calling me Malkia (Malikeea) which means queen, because of queen Candace in the bible, and because it’s easier to say.   

-I love avocadoes here, and never really cared for them in Canada.  They are about twice the size, and I don’t know if they actually taste better, or I just tell myself that because I can see them growing outside on a tree in our yard. 

-Picking your nose in public is not seen as rude.  I am still getting used to this, and quite frankly feel quite embarrassed for the people that I see sticking their fingers up their noses absentmindedly.  I don’t think that it’s a habit I’m going to start, even though it’s socially acceptable here.

-I have witnessed that it is possible to put five people on one motorbike (pikipiki) I have only personally experienced three, and that’s a little squishy for my liking,

-They drive on the left hand side of the road here.  I have gotten used to this way faster than I thought I would.  I caught a glimpse of an American program that was showing on a TV in an insurance place that I had to wait in for a while, and I was shocked when I saw cars driving on the right side of the road.  I was like, “what are they doing?  They’re all going to crash!”  I have been converted very quickly.  I think that when I come back to Gibsons I’m going to cause traffic mayhem. 

-Speaking of traffic mayhem…Let’s not get started... 

-Luckily, English is taught all throughout school here, and most people are quite competent at it.  Even the street kids who haven’t finished school can hold a perfectly good conversation.  One thing that I’ve noticed though, is that the street boys are far better at speaking it than the street girls.  The girls seem to know almost none.

-Swahili is a fairly easy language to learn.  I do wish that I’d studied it a bit before I came though.  It’s completely phonetic, which is very helpful for looking things up in my handy little dictionary (THANKYOU to AnnaBettyBurns!)

-When we go to rural areas, having white skin makes us instant celebrities.  Children line the streets and shout “Howayou?Howayou?” without stopping for breath, or to hear what we have to say in reply.  Half of them are too shy to answer when we return the question, but they all want to hold our hands.

-Everyone has been taught to say ‘fine’ here, instead of ‘good’ when asked how they are.  So if I come back saying ‘fine,’ then I am actually good, but I’ve just trained myself to say that so that the kids will understand me!

Thanks so much for reading!  Have a great day.

My First Ever Blog Post!

   First of all, THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU to Emily, for setting up this blog for me!  You are incredible.  (Emily offered to make a blog site for me, because she knew that I hadn't set one up prior to leaving Canada...and she has first hand experience with Kenyan internet connections.  They're a little on the slow side most of the time.)

   So, I am Candice Veale, and for those of you who don't know already, I am currently in Kitale, Kenya.  I'm with a team of four other people, and we are primarily here to volunteer in Mercy and Caring Children's Home, which is a school and orphanage for kids who come from the Kipsongo slum on the outskirts of Kitale.

   Dane and Trudy Ruck are the 'leaders' of the group, and they have been to Kenya twice before.  Nancy Miller is a recently retired school secretary, and David Williams just graduated from high school. (In the same class as me)  We're calling ourselves an odd little makeshift family for now, with Dane and Trudy as the parents, Nancy as the grandma, and David and me as the kids.  We're staying with a Kenyan family (the Ochanas) who live about a ten minutes drive away from Mercy Home.  They are a wonderful, welcoming and incredibly hospitable group of people, who insist that their home is our home, and that we should make ourselves totally comfortable.  There is Geoffrey and Helen, their son David (34), their nephew Laban (24) and their neice Stella (15) who are all living at home.  Altogether there are 10 of us in the house, which makes for big happy family dinners!

   We've been here since Sept.24th, and we're all beginning to adjust to life in Africa.  It is so amazingly different than life in Canada, that I have no idea where to begin explaining it.  The way of living is different, the way of communicating is different, the food is different, the idea of time is different, and the way that I'm beginning to see God is different.  We've only been here for a little over two weeks, and already, I am starting to find that my views are being altered, and my normal is being shaken.  We're planning to be here for 3-6 months, so it'll be interesting to see the effect that that amount of time will be able to have on my general outlook of life.

Introduction

Welcome to Candice's blog! A place where stories and adventures unfold, and the experiences of her life in Kenya are documented.

Candice recently arrived in Kitale, Kenya where she will be spending the next six months living. She is serving at a local orphanage which is flooding with adorable exuberant children.

I am looking forward to hearing snippets of her journey and life experiences, and I know you will enjoy hearing them too, and journeying along with her. You can also read about what the rest of her team is up to by visiting thekenyablog.blogspot.com.

The internet in Kenya can be very tempermental and constant access is not an option, as I learned while spending three months there this spring, so I have set up this blog for her, which is a place where I hope you will enjoy coming to check up on Candice.

Em
grandfamilyadventures.blogspot.com