Long overdue

So, it’s been way too long since I’ve made a post. Soooo much has happed in the last few weeks. I’ll try to keep it short and too the point for all you fellow ADD people...um...now what was I saying?...oh yeah keeping it short.

The first month here was really tough for me. The culture, food, people, environment, basically everything was difficult for me to adjust to. I was also starting to feel a little trapped here at the compound and I think I was starting to get depressed. I spent a night in Kitale and it was just what I needed. I got to see familiar faces which helped a lot. But the big thing for me was I remembered all the dreams that really came alive for me the first time I was there. I’m really excited about what the Lord has for me to do here in Bungoma.

I got to speak at our church two weeks ago. God gave me a word I was supposed to give the church and just a couple of hours later I was told they wanted me to speak the next Sunday. The word was on prosperity. It has to do with giving and receiving. It was very difficult for me to deliver this word for more that one reason. But at the end the Holy Spirit showed up and gave everybody gold coins (in the spirit) which symbolized a blessing of prosperity. I found out later that the Lord had given Noah a similar word for the church just a few weeks before. Some pretty awesome stuff is coming to our little church.

OK. I think I’m going to break this up into a couple of posts because it’s already getting long.

We’ve finished the roofs for four houses and we’ll be starting the foundations for two houses very soon. I’m anxious to get started.

Noah bought a new cow just a couple of weeks ago that was just about to calf. Well on Saturday morning just before 6am she gave birth. I was hoping to be around to see the birth but at least I got to see the little one’s first steps. It was pretty cool.

I still haven’t milked a cow yet but I did slaughter my first chicken the other day. It didn’t freak me out like I thought it would. It really wasn’t much worse than gutting a fish. I guess there’s a few ways to kill the chickens but here they prefer to cut the head off so it doesn’t suffer as much.

Well, I think I’ll leave you with that. I’ve still got a bunch of stuff to say but I’m just tired of typing.

By His Stripes

For some reason I haven’t been able to wear my contacts since I’ve been here. The right one irritates my eye. It seems to be some sort of allergic reaction or something.

Well, on Sunday I tried to wear them again and wore them too long. On Monday I woke up with a very irritated eye. I tried to go outside and work but the sunlight was just too much for it. It progressively got worse through the day and by the afternoon I was in horrible discomfort. A bump had formed on the inside of my eyelid and it was swollen halfway shut. It felt like there was something in my but was unable to find anything. All I could do was cry out to the Lord a this point. By the time I felt I couldn’t take it anymore it seemed to get a little better but I was still in a lot of discomfort so I decided to try and go to sleep early.

Almost every night I pray with Noah and Anisia before bed. Noah prayed for my eye to be healed. Almost instantly my eye was about 95% better. It was wonderful to experience relief after the day I had. God rocks.

Today it’s at about 99% and I’m expecting complete healing.

Living, Working, Learning

We’ve had a crew here for two weeks now digging and mixing mud. Today they started forming bricks. We’re going to bake them right here on site. The metal roof system should also be arriving any minute. I just hope the truck can make it to the back of the property without sinking in the mud. It’s been raining like crazy until the last couple of days.

We had to fire our architect because he wasn’t doing his job. We hired another architect yesterday and he seems to be on top of things. He’s much more experienced and he’s helping to “Africanize” our plans. We plan on meeting up with him this afternoon.

Well I just got a call that the truck is just up the road so I will have to resume this later…

…Ok it’s later.

We have our steel, we have our plans and we have two fundi (the guys helping us erect the buildings) that will be staying with us for the next couple of weeks. This house is getting pretty packed full of people.

So my main job here to help with this building project. Problem is I really feel like I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. Sometimes I really don’t know what the heck I’m doing here. I’m learning a lot, but I still feel completely under equipped. Please keep me in your prayers. I’ve spent a lot of time crying out to the Lord for guidance lately. He always comes through, just not always when I want.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I don’t do much manual labor anymore which is what I’ll be doing.

I give up...

on this stupid internet today. The main reason I came to town today was to use the internet and it's completely packed with people so the connection is horrible. I sure do complain about the internet a lot. It's wonderful when it's working well but very frustrating when it's not.

OK, so just getting to town today took about two hours. The cops were doing checks on the road just up from the house so the matatus weren't packing people in like they normally would. When we did finally have a person offer to give us a ride the cops saw us get in his car so they decided to pull him over and harass him just because he picked us up. So Noah and I got out of the car to search for other means of transportation. We ended up getting a ride on a couple of piki piki (motorbike) down a muddy back road to avoid the cops.

All that and now I can't even really get anywhere with this slow connection. I only hope this is able to post. Other than than everything is great. Thank's for your prayers and encouraging words. I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

I'll try to get to the cafe early on Friday and beat the crowd.

New pics

Gotta make this fast since my battery is about to die. Been on the net for two hours now try to get a bunch of stuff accomplished and due to the poor connection today I was only able to finish half of what I wanted to do. O well, another day. I've just sent out my first update email. Had some errors on some addresses so I'll see if I mistyped some things. If you would like to receive emails from me or if you're expecting an email an haven't received one let me know. Email me at jijeremy at gmail dot com. OK gotta go!

Yay!

I got my phone hooked up with a new sim for the Safari Com network a few days ago. I've been try to get connected to the net through my phone now for a couple days and I now up and running. The connection isn't too fast but I can access from the comfort of home, or anywhere I have service. It seems to be somewhat affordable too. 12.6 KES/mb which is about 20 cents/mb.

Well, its taken a few days to adjust but I'm doing well. I'm eating very well and have all the chai (tea with milk fresh from the cow) I can drink. Although many people speak English here it is still difficult to communicate at times because of the thick accent and cultural differences. I've picked up a few new words in Swahili but I have a way to go. The weather has been beautiful. It's been raining in the evenings but sunny and 80ish during the day.

That's it for now. Tune in at a later date for more of my adventure!

In Bungoma

I was just thinking, "Man, the internet has been a lot faster than it was when I was here last," when a handful of people walk into the internet cafe and muscle in on my bandwidth. O well, it's still not too bad.

Just had my first ride in a matatu. For those of you that don't know, a matatu is a minivan taxi that packs people in like sardines. It's cheap, but not very comfortable. The lord told me to ask him for a car while I was still in the states a week ago. "God, I'd like that car now."

Everything has been great so far. Noah and his family have been wonderful. They've welcomed me like family. Life here is going to take some getting used to, but I'll adjust quickly.

I'm planing on getting a phone while in town today and pick up a few other little things. So I'll try to give you a call tonight (or morning for you) mom.

Bye!