Andrew in....Freakin Kenya?

2009-01-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

January movie

2009-01-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

It was tough going through 3,000 pictures and trying to decide which ones to put in a slide show, I wish I would let you see all of them, but that would take 2 hours! So here are some of my favorite ones!

My hommies

2009-01-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

My good friends...

I'm a student...I swear

2009-01-15T05:31:00.000-08:00

It's a staring contest...winner gets to hang out with the cool aid guy. Like my school uniform? I think I will wear it for my wedding...

Sorry, im in the middle of class...

hitting kids on top of the head is a really fun game to play...

This is the river that the high school kids fetch water from...

6 days remain...

2009-01-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

The last couple days have been so much fun here. Friday night, dinner at the girls house was insanely fun. Those girls are so crazy and so much fun. We had a crazy photo shoot jumping off this pile of rocks in the front and followed by somewhat of a circus act performed by Ajix, Dorcas, and Janet. They are hilarious.
Here is Ajix and myself jumping over Dorcas off the famous brick pile...

Here I look like some crazy wizard with glowing eyes who can fly...I thought I was pretty cool, I don't know about you...

Saturday day morning the Girls, Umie (the Uzbeck) and myself went to the Kitale prison to visit the woman and pass out some bibles to them. It was nothing short of an amazing day of sharing our favorite verse, singing and praising our Fathers name. At the end 10 woman came forward and excepted the Lord. It was so cool that God allowed us to be apart of what happened there. Alison went into more detail about the day so if you want you can visit her blog. www.kenyakenyakenya.blogspot.com.

Sunday was church at Oasis, which is always fun. I don't really understand the message a whole lot because the Pastor doesn't really like to wait for Manu to finish translating what he has said. But just having the kids sit in my lap and to dance with them when they worship is amazing. After Daina and I took about 13 of the house boys to get haircuts. That was an experience.

Monday was spent at Oasis just hanging out with my good little friends. I am really going to miss the Shimo girls, Morgan, Kamau and so amny more. Here are the Shimo girls minus my fav...Brenda...

Here is Morgan and Kamau....two of my most favorite kids. They always accompany me to town when we need to get stuff while at Oasis...

Today, just hung out with my best friends again at Oasis. I am really going to miss going there and being able to see familiar faces all the time...
These are my little black ninja bodyguards...We beat up the girls so they ran away from the picture...except for Brenda who is right next to me and not looking at the camera..if her identity gets out it could be trouble...No one messes with my Brenda...

Oasis back in action

2009-01-06T05:24:00.000-08:00

I am so happy to say that my life as I know it here in Kitale is back. The last week or so has been kind of quiet with Oasis being closed. Yesterday was the first day it was back open and I have never been so happy in my life to get out of the house. Even though 52 out of the 100 or so kids that attend Oasis are back in school and will not be there, I was happy to be there non the less. I have been able to hang out with my favorite girls of Kitale, which are, the shimo girls, Taresa, Brenda, and our new favorite little sister Ester. She is adorable. Also being able to hang out with my good friend Morgan and Kamou is awesome. Today both of them walked with me into town as we did some last minute school supply shopping for Sammy.

Things have been pretty crazy since school has started. Alsion and Daina must be exhausted from running back and forth from town to home, to Oasis, back to town, back home, then to one of the 7 different schools that the kids from Oasis attend. They have truly been serving these kids with a giving heart.

I am sad that I only have 2 weeks left here with these kids. I am really going to miss them. I am praying that the Lord really blesses these 2 weeks and really motivates me to go the extra mile with the kids. I am really worried about my friend Samuel who lives on the street. He has not been back to Oasis since December 23rd. I am praying he is OK. Would you please put him in your prayers and ask God to lead him back to Oasis.

2008-12-26T07:32:00.000-08:00

Samuel before Christmas(the one im punching in the head)...

Christmas in Kenya

2008-12-26T06:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve...

In line for a morning snack...

Just hangin watching Spider Man...

It uploaded all weird but look at Samuel before christmas below this post then look at him in his ne outfit!!!

Freakin Cute Ajix...

2008-12-18T03:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I think the street kids of Kitale saw santa claus and he was white. A white man with tattoo's. Alison, daina, Joseph and I went into town today to buy about 100 pairs of cloths for Christmas for the kids of Oasis. They managed to fit all of it into 2 huge white bags in which I threw one over my shoulder and walked out into the streets. They must of thought it was santa cluas. Wait a minute, do they even know who santa claus is? Hmmm...

I wanted to show you SOME of my favorite pictures of my trip so far...
The girls I hang out with most of the time at Oasis

This is Isaiah...Probably my closest friend right now at Oasis...And if you were wondering...we do have our own secret handshake...

This is Morgan who gave me a rope neckless with his house key on it...I hope he can still get in...

This is Gigi...probably the illest 9 or 10 year old dancer I know...

Here is our photo shoot Today at Oasis...
Supposed to be sleeping...not all of us are though...their in trouble...

Under arrest? In Kitale? What the crap officer their just children for God sake...

Crazy kids jumping off cliffs and what not...

Robots in Kitale....

Kids being Doctors to Kids

2008-12-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

Kitale for me = Kids. There are kids everywhere you turn. You can't escape them even if you tried. I love it! The last couple days we have been spending at Oasis. We are getting ready for Christmas here. I am stoked that I get to be here at this time and be with them. Its going to be a Christmas I have never experienced in my life. I wonder is Santa black? You know, I think he is!

Today I got to watch kids be doctor to kids. The children here get these bugs called jiggers in their feet from walking around barefoot everywhere and just being dirty all the time. I watched today as kids were talking a razor blade and cutting off all the toe nails and digging into the skin to get the bugs out. this girl Irene was so tough. She is probably only 8 or 9 years old and she was sitting there, as Patrick was slicing through here feet to get them out. I would of died. here are some pictures of Irene and here dismantled feet.

It was so sad to see tears fall from this little girls face. I was so sad to see such a beautiful girl crying. To know that she was going through this all because she doesn't own a pair of shoes was not helping me out at all. And to think that this girl had to walk almost 2 miles home after razor's cutting her feet up was heart breaking. We saw Irene about half way home and put here on a bota bota so she didn't have to walk the rest of the way. She is so tough.

Why do these kids have to go through this? It is frustrating at times to the point where I have to just walk away for a moment. Why God? Why these kids? I could spend hours, days, weeks, months being angry with Him but where will it get me? I wish I could take them all home with me...

Me a motorcycle taxi driver? That's right. 2 days ago when we were getting motabotas home my driver ask me if I wanted to drive home. I was like heck ya I want to drive this awesome motorcycle home. Well I almost got us killed because I forgot that they drive on the opposite sides of the road so we almost went head on with a bus. Sam, the driver, just laughed and said I was a really good driver! haha...

Farewell Chris....I miss you already...

Time...Whats time?

2008-12-14T02:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I have not posted in a long time. But I thought that you would like to see my crew that I spend most of time hanging out with at oasis. I love these kids and mean so much to me and I have only known them for 2 weeks.

Today I spent about 3 hours washing my clothes. I have never been so thankful to have a washer and dryer in my life. My fingers feel like there going to fall off. I hope they don't.

Today we went to church and now are back at home having a nice relaxing sunday. I will post more later about what has happened in the past 5 days tongiht.

Its already tuesday night...?

2008-12-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry I havent posted any blogs the last 4 days. I kept thinking, I
will post a blog soon, it's only been like a day or two. Turns out
it's been 4! What the crap. So let me try and recap the last 4 days.

All I remember about Saturday was that we were in the store for almost
3 hours. It was crazyness. The most people I have ever seen in a single
store at one time. If we were back at home people wouldn't even bother
going in if they saw how busy it was. But the then kenyians, they didn't
seem to care. It was just a typical saturday in town for them. Steve was
here for a couple of days so he decided he wanted to go and re-stock
the essentials that we needed for the house. It was fun and crazy having
Steve here. A lot of people were over to see him so that for me meant meeting
a lot of new people. With Steve being here and it being Chris's last week I have
met more people in the last week than I know in my own town, which I have lived
in pretty much my whole life. Everyone knows someone that you know here.
It's sweet. Oh yeah, Chris just walked in and reminded me that during the day
we had all the boys in house 1,2,3 and the girls house come to the coffee shop
and watch home alone on a projector. I loved it. How could I have already
forgot about that. That movie is the closest thing to home I have experienced
yet. The kids were cracking up at the end of the movie when kevin was pulling
the pranks on the robbers. Isaiah, my hommie, was laughing so hard he was
running around the room. He couldn't control himself. Just seeing that made
me crack up even harder. I love to laugh. I love laughing at other peoples
laugh.

Sunday Chris and I went to Ben and christine's church in Kipsongo. It was a
brand new chruch that met in a tiny room. There was probably about 18
people who attended it. It was cool. Different, but also interesting.
I have had these expectations that my first Sunday in an African church
I would be dancing and trying to sing along with them. It came no where
close to it. They sang 2 songs and it was in Swahili and no one was really
dancing. I tried to get into the spirit but it was just so different to what
I have been used to. I hope in the weeks to come that I will get to
get that "African church service" I was looking so forward too. If not,
I guess I will just have to come back. After church we headed home and
relaxed a little bit. I have started watching a new show, well it's not
really new, Heroes. Alsion has it on dvd so Chris and I have been watching
at least 3 episodes a day. I like it. I wish I was a super hero. If I
got to choose one of the powers that the character had on the show I would
choose to fly. How sweet would that be? I mean I would fly home to hang out
with Sarah at night then fly back to Kitale to in the morning to hang with
the kids of Oasis and the glue sniffing street kids. Anyways, Sunday night
was the coolest night yet. Steve ordered 10 pizza's, yeah they have pizza here,
who would of though, for about 14 people. There was the 4 Ukrainians, 6 kenyians,
and 5 americans. It was an international pizza party. But not just a pizza party,
also a hilarious dance party. I think the best part of the dance was seing Steve
dance. We made a soul trane line and watching Steve bust his moves down that
line was priceless. Again, laughing histarically.

Moday we headed over to Oasis to hang and help out in the clas if needed.
I am really starting to like the Oasis kids. Mainly becuase I am starting to
remember their names and become actaul friends with them. I am not just this
white guy who comes and hugs them and then is gone in a week. They know my name
and I know theirs. I believe this is the actual start of my trip. I am looking
forward to diving in deeper into their feelings, wants, needs, problems, wishes,
pain, and happyness. I love these kids. Jesus loves these kids. Monday night was
another huge dinner at geoffrey and Olivia's house for Chris going away. Such good
food. The girls were in the kitchen for at least 4 hours making this huge feast for
15 people. We had a good time. We watched Madagascar and some futebol. Everyone is
going to be super sad when Chris leaves here. He has made a huge impact on the people he has come in contact with and they are going to miss him. I couldn't imagine making such a close friend and then possibly never seeing him again. I would be so sad. But Chris is going to try and return soon, God willing.

Today, Tuesday, We went to Oasis and hung out with the children. I love it that we do
not have this carzy shcedule everyday, trying to fix things or start new programs. I love that we are here to just offer ourselves wherever needed. To simply just go and hand out with the kids. It is my first "missions trip" and I believe I found the perfect one. Steve has this motto that he told me before I left it was," We are here not to fix but to serve". I love that. First of all I wouldn't even know where to start to fix the problems here and I would not have enough time to get anything done because I wuold just be overwhelmed. Haning out with the Oasis kids gets better and better each day. today I played tag and had a huge game of chase and then tickle. It was me against about 8 kids. I obviously lost.I am so ticklesh too. They found my weekness. I am DOOMED!

Just some good fun...

2008-12-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

The last 2 days have been really fun. Friday night we went to the girls of Oasis
house to have dinner. Instead of tell you about it I thought I would just let
you see some pictures from the night.

Here are some pictures of Firday during the day. We went to Discover to Recover
and watched their graduation. It was a blast. It was my first time there so I had
a lot of fun meating and getting to know some more kids. There's kids everywhere
you go here. It's awesome.

Swimming but also Pooping babies at the pool!

2008-12-04T07:24:00.001-08:00

Today I met one of the greatest couples I have ever met or even heard about in my life. Richard and Freda Robinson, also known as Sister Freda run a hospital on their 26 acres of land. That is not all they do on that massive amount of land. They operate a school for orphans up to the age of 2 to 11. They also have about 8 children around the age of 3 or 4 that live with them. Richard grows multiple crops that range from pineapples to coffee. They have cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and an abundance of cats and dogs. They can fully survive off of their land. They are the most loving, caring, giving, serving, nice, polite couple I have ever met. They truly show the face of Jesus with their love for these children. Sister Freda is an amazing woman. She was always trying to serve us or give us something and just trying to make our visit relaxing. I felt like she should have been the one sitting down and me serving her. She does this work, caring for the children, providing medical needs for them everyday and her she is serving me also. What an awesome lady I kept telling myself. I am only here for 3 months, not doing nearly as much as she does throughout the day. I cant imagin doing it for my whole life. I am still so caught up in my life at home and I am not even there. I know that God is going to teach me something through this but I just want to be taught now! I guess I will pray for patience and understanding. Richard and Sister Freda have surrendered all of them for the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope to God that one day I can be like them.

When we arrived the kids were so stoked to see us. Chris and the girls have been going there since they had arrived in July. They have gotten to know most of the kids and the kids are in love with them. I hope that by the time I leave that I will know the children at Sister Freda’s like they do. We were there to take the 8 babies that live with them to the pool. It was hilarious to watch these kids in the baby pool. They loved to jump off the edge into areas where their feet came nowhere close to the bottom of the pool. They were the happiest little kids I have met. Just a simple activity as going to the pool put the biggest smile on their faces. It reminded me that life does not have to be packed with such big or expensive activities. The simple life brings just as much if not more joy in our lives. These 8 kids will live at Sister Freda’s house until they are old enough to go out alone. I will look forward to going back there. After we swam in the pool for a while we at french fries, or chips as they call it here. Again these kids were so stoked. I mean, who wouldn’t? A plate full or fries at the age of 3? I mean come on. That’s heaven if you are that age. What the heck, its heaven for me and I’m 23 years old. Don’t laugh at me. Fries are my most favorite food in the world. Just ask Sarah. I miss her. I mean….. just ask her she will know.

Look at this little girl name dotty, she seriously weighed about 10 pounds. So tiny. She fell asleep in my arms on the way to the pool. It was precious.

Here are the kids that go to school and that live and Sister Freda’s…

Me? A 3rd Grade Math Teacher?

2008-12-03T21:56:00.000-08:00

Today was an awesome day. I will probably be starting every entry with that
opening sentence. We woke up around 9:30 and headed to Oasis to hang with
the kids. When we arrived the kids were on break playing soccer in the
Alley (their field). Chris joined in the game and I hung out with the
little ones. They are so amazed at my tattoos. They try and rub them off
everyday. It's so funny. I love it. When their break was over all of them
went into this little room they call their classroom. It had 4 tables in
it with all the kids in there it was packed. They sat in age/kind of grade
sections. When I asked about it Chris said " this is the 5th graders, this
is kind of the 2nd, 3rd grader and this is the 2nd to babies. I laughed so hard,
it was so awesome how they all worked together just to have a space to do
their schoolwork. The kids cannot get a diploma from the school at Oasis of
Hope. The classroom is more of a place to occupy their time and keep them off
the streets. They receive two free meals a day and a safe place to hang out.
Any of the street kids in the town are welcome to go there any time on any day.

I decided to head over to the "kind of 2nd, 3rd" grade table to hang out and see
what they were working on. As soon as I sat down they started calling me teacher
and asking me for help with their work. There I was living my dream of being
a 3rd grade teacher in a different country. I didn't even realize that I was
living that dream until I left Oasis for the day. It was Freakin so sweet.
The kids were so eager to learn and some of them were the smartest 3rd graders
I have ever met. They would not cheat and worked so hard and fast at the work.
It made me think about how some of the kids I have worked with at home take
advantage of even being able to go to school. I mean they are so young that
they don't realized what they are doing but if only they could see these kids
and what they call "school".

I met Jeffrey, the head honcho that runs Oasis, today. He was such an amazing
servant of the Lord, such a nice guy and as Chris says a breath of fresh air
from the Kenyan culture. I did not understand what he meant when he said that until we went to lunch and then to this place called Kipsongo.

Now Kipsongo was an awesome school for kids from ages 11 up to college age students. It was such a nice place compared to anything that I have seen in Kitale. We went there because some of the Oasis boys were staying there for a camp for a couple days. We met the, I guess I would label him as a principle? His name was Francis I believe. It’s hard to understand the Kenyan people sometime. He told us that the school has dorms that hold up to 40 kids at one time. They can stay there for a maximum of 3 years. He believes that after 3 years the kids are changed enough that they would be ready to go back into the town and stay clean. There were these 2 little girls staring at me while we were in the office talking with Francis. I kept slowly looking over at them and giving them the drop. The drop is this ugly/funny face that my good friends bumber and Jesse do back at home. They would laugh so hard. They would make me laugh because they were laughing so hard. After we took a tour of the place I found the girls and chased them around the school while it was poring rain. They did not care at all that they were running and playing in the poring rain. On the other hand I kept seeking shelter. Then I realized, who cares if I get stoked. I am not going anywhere that I need to be looking good. It was a blast. Here are the two little girls....

There is so much that goes on in the day that I want to write. It would take pages. But as I am new to this "blogging" thing I will try and give you the best parts and talk about what God has revealed to me that day, if anything is revealed to me at all.
I realized that I should not expect to be greatly enlightened everyday that I am here or come away from the day feeling a little wiser or more "holy". Just being here and being with the kids I feel like God has shown me everything I needed to be shown.

I wanted to share with you these verses that got me through my journey on that bus ride.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" John 14:27
And
"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your
counsel and afterward you will take me into your glory". Psalm 73:23

I made it alive!

2008-12-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

Day one in Kitale...
First off I want to thank God for getting me here alive! Lets just saythat the journey here was neither easy or safe. I added it up and I hadtraveled for 29 hours with 21 hours of lay-overs. 3 different flights anda 9 hour bus ride over night from Nairobi to Kitale. That was the scariest night of my life I think. I have never reached so far for the hand of God to get me through a situation than I did that night. I was in a different country, did not speak any swahili, no cell phone, had no idea if anyonewas going to pick me up from the bus stop, had a bunch of expensive equipment on me, and was on a bus in the middle of the night to a place I had never been to. I was dropped off at the bus stop in Nairobi 2 hours before my bus had left. sitting in a lot with my 3 bags and no idea when this bus was going to start loading because the guy only spoke swahili,anouncing when to load the certain busses. I sat next to a man who I seriouslythink was sent to me by the big man upstairs. His name was Daniel and he wasa christian and worked with orphans. Before I started talking with him I wantedto cry. I wanted to get back on a plane and go home. I was thinking, this isnot what I had in mind. I may die here. Going through mny head were the worstpossible scenarios that could happen to me. I kept saying I can't die right now, I am getting married! God was with me. Sitting right there beside me,in that parking lot and on that bus,holding my hand the whole was through. Now I understand why on mission trips you depend on God so much. I now understand.
Arriving in Kitale at 5:15 a.m Chris was there to great me. Seeing Chris there wasan answer to my prayers. I was so happy to see a familiar face, let alone a goodfriend. When I woke up Chris and I went and met up with the girls, Daina, Alison, andAlex, at the Oasis School of Hope. When we got there the scene blew my mind.Over a houndred kids from probably 4 years old to 14 years old, hanging out behindthis building. I was bobarded with children. I loved it! So many of them just wanting to hold my hand and take a picture with me. One kid that stuck in my mind was this orphan named humphry. He would not let my hand go.
This is Humpgry.....

Here are some more pics of my first day with the children of Kitale