Fried Rice

If you've seen Lethal Weapon (4 I think it was) you'll know what I mean.  Here is a look at some documents we've received from various aviation authorities. 

Aaron Jacob

Our new nephew Aaron Jacob.  Kurt and Carla came up from Tanzania for his birth.  We think he's pretty cute!

Last night we ordered Ethiopian and enjoyed it with some friends from Winnipeg who were in town.  Half a second before this picture was taken Aaron's older brother, who was jumping on the couch, let one rip.  And he didn't even eat any Ethiopian.  But for him at least, "logurt" seems to have the same effect.

A different view

These pictures were taken at the same time of day from the same GPS position.  The first is from 10,000 as I flew myself home, the second from 30,000 aboard an East African Fokker.  It takes 2:40 minutes in the Caravan and just over an hour with East African.  With East African I get fruit juice and cheesy (on the bag it says they're cheesIES but my last bag contained exactly one individual cheesY).  With MAF I get Grange Park water (so clear you can see through the label) and Cadbury Chocolate Eclaires. 

It's taken a few weeks but we're getting back into the routine of Nairobi life.  The week following our move back to Nairobi I was back in Loki again to fly, leaving Kristen to settle in by herself.  But now I've also been around for about two weeks.  Tuesday nights are the MAF prayer meetings, Thursday nights we have Alpha, and we should start meeting with our couples group again on Sundays.  Although this "couples" group may not last that much longer as the rest of the members are doing all in their power to have babies. 

At home it's been nice to see what plants have survived the dry season.  I did arrange for our compound gardener to water them, but there has been no water coming from the city for most of this year which made his job rather difficult.  But with the few rains we've had many plants that looked beyond hope have perked up.  The grass we put in to replace our concrete backyard has filled in well making it much more pleasant so sit outside in the evenings.  My summer job during college was lawnscaping.  It must have worn off on me because I quite enjoy weeding, digging in the dirt, and watching the plants grow.  In the front it's a constant battle between soccer balls bouncing on them, dogs trampling them, and our 3-year old neighbour leaving his own mark - "peepee in the bushes mommy!" 

Some exciting news for us was that Kristen was accepted to teach ESL and French at Rosslyn.  This means we'll be staying in Nairobi for at least another year.  It does bring a much welcome feeling of being settled.  I wouldn't have thought it would bother me much, but the constant uncertainty of whether or not and when we might move to Juba did weigh on us.  It's nice to know where we'll be for a year and make plans from there.  A few months ago, when Kristen approached Rosslyn it was just to look into the possiblity of student teaching.  It is the last thing she needs to become an officially licensed teacher.  When she finished university she didn't really have a desire to teach in a school situation, for which she would need the license.  (Not to mention that her new husband didn't have the cash to pay for it).  She thought there would be plenty of opportunities in adult/community ESL.  However, being here we have seen the advantage getting the license would be for wherever we might go.  So she looked into Rosslyn to student teach.  They said, "Yes, but what about applying for a job as well".  So she did.  We checked with MAF first and given the uncertainty of the Sudan program they gave us their support.  They always need pilots in Nairobi too!

Here are a few more Loki pics before we move down to Nairobi next week.  It is hard to believe that our time here is over already!

If you look closely, you can see Ryan:

This is a picture of a small church here run by Mama Rose (in white) and her husband Frederick (closest to camera).  Mama Rose operates a little veggie shop, which is how we met them.  They currently rent this little mud room for about $20 a month, but they would like to buy it and start a primary school.

I like this picture of Francis singing with the Turkana ladies.  I'm going to miss meeting with them!  In a previous blog I mentioned that we were looking into possible project ideas with them.  After much discussion with Francis and the ladies, we decided to buy chickens for them.  They are each contributing as well and will each receive two chickens.  We'll buy a few community roosters to encourage multiplication and we pray that the eggs and chicks will provide a bit of an income for the women, as well as food.  If any readers out there want to be involved in supporting this project, you can send us an email.

I taught the kids to give high-fives--it was a hit.

The one below speaks for itself (this is in a restaurant!):

And here are a few pics from our trip to Mombasa last week--our first time to the coast since we came back to Kenya with MAF.  We had a great week there, except that I got sick one day and had to spend a night in the hospital because I was dehydrated... not so great when you're on holiday, but at least there was a good hospital nearby.  And it was only one day-- the rest of the trip was fun and very relaxing.

Here's the fishmonger cutting up a lemon fish for our lunch.  Because of the election crisis there are still very few tourists at the coast--we stayed with a retired MAF couple in their house, but the hotel next door which can hold 430 guests only had 6!  Because of the lack of tourists, prices have risen.  These two little fish fillets cost the equivalent of several dollars, which is more than they would have a few months ago.  But it felt good to be able to provide some business for this man.