It was awesome! If that is not on your bucket list, put it on there. We finished the journey to the Hoppers' house (they are missionaries in Nairobi), and they took us to a place called Diamond Plaza. Now we didn't know this, but they did this on purpose just to laugh at us. When you sit down at Diamond Plaza (or Little India as they call it), you are swarmed with people and menus. There are several different eateries, so each one wants your business. Brother James and the Hoppers just sat there and watched us as we struggled through this little experience. We finally figured out what to order and got our food. It was delicious. What came next was not so much. While we were in the car, Brother James told us that we were going to have to eat something called paan. He did this with a smirk. So when we were finishing our meal, he hadn't mentioned it in a while, so we thought we were off the hook. Nope. They walked us over to the little shop and ordered an "after dinner mint." None of us knew what paan actually was, so we sat there in amazement as we watched the guy prepare this leaf with stuff on it. He put some red stuff, some green stuff, some seed-looking things, some spices, some other stuff, and some more red stuff and then folded the leaf up and handed it to us.
It was awful. Ernie and Michael Hopper love this as does Brother James. The interns however...well....Logan barely got it in his mouth before he gagged and spit it out. Brittany chewed a little, then spit it out. Julie got most of it down, but couldn't take the leaf anymore and spit the rest out. Me? I ate the whole thing. Not because it was good, but because it was a matter of honor. :) I think I'm going to do like Sissy Hopper and put that as my New Year's Resolution: Don't eat paan.
We woke up early on Tuesday morning and drove about an hour and a half to the Rift Valley. If that's not on your bucket list, add it on there. It's amazing to see God's handy work. The Rift Valley is visible from space because it's so big. We drove to a place called Mount Longonot. This is an inactive volcano. You can hike up the volcano and then you can hike around the rim of the volcano. So we did just that. I'm not going to lie, I am really out of shape, and being 9000 feet in the air when I'm used to Louisiana sea-level is not conducive to physical activity such as climbing a mountain. Yes, I stopped quite often, but we made it to the top. On our way up, we met a Polish man named Chris who was hiking by himself. We met him later on, but he finished way before us. When we got up the side of the mountain, we stopped to eat lunch. We had MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) packed for our trip. I have never had an MRE (or military food as I called it) and so we were all a little worried. Well, the chemical reaction that is supposed to heat the food didn't work, so we all traded the different things in our packages (and our sun-warmed main dishes) and ate enough to get us through the rest of the hike. While resting for lunch, we met two German guys who were hiking the mountain as well. They looked at our MREs and said something in German as they snacked on their little sandwiches. I'm sure it had something to do with Americans being fat because there are like 3000 calories in one of those things. A little later a group of fifth graders came up the mountain. This is the end of the year trip for the International School of Kenya. It was so neat to sit and listen to these students. It made me miss my kiddos a little bit. They all knew what our MREs were (which I would never have known about at that age). Most of the students had some sort of accent, but all of them spoke English. I chatted with the teacher (who was also a math and science teacher) about his job at ISK. I think that there should be a class in college about the different opportunities teachers have once they get out of school. There are schools all over the world looking for teachers, so if any of you out there are looking to go off somewhere, just looking into some international schools.
After our lunch, we set out around the edge of the volcano. We reached the highest peak and kept trucking along. It was a lot more difficult than it sounds. I thought it was going to just be walking, but it was much more intense. It was incredible to see God's creation from such a high point because you realize just how small you really are. Why would the God of the Universe choose to love a tiny little thing like me? And why would I do anything except spend my life living for Him?
The next morning we woke up and went back to the gas station for breakfast for some more peppered steak and eggs. We headed toward Mombasa to go to a meeting at the school in Miritini that the second mission team will be working at. We stopped at the pastor's house for a moment to pick him up. You should have seen all of us stuffed in the car. There were all of us and then the pastor, another church member, and a third church member who was also in charge of the orphanage where a lot of the students from the church live. I wish I would have had my camera because the area where the school is is absolutely breath-taking. The school deputy was very receptive and excited about the basketball camp we will be doing there. We walked around the school to see where we would set everything up. The July team is going to have an awesome time out in this village with the basketball camp and the showing of the Jesus film. July team, get ready...it's gong to be amazing.
After leaving the school and dropping off our extra travelers, we went to do some other business in town and then ate lunch. After lunch we got to go to a place called Haller Park. As you drive into Haller Park, there are giraffes just walking around. No cage. It was crazy! We got to feed the giraffes and walk around the park to see monkeys everywhere! You know how you can walk around most college campuses and see squirrels everywhere? It was like that, but with monkeys. We saw crocodiles, hippos, cape buffalo, eland, tortoises, and very dangerous snakes. It was a pretty neat little place. We continued on to Malindi and crashed pretty hard.
Today was our day of rest. We got to sleep in! We still woke up before 9:00. After a delicious breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy, we got the house ready for guests. A missionary couple and their kids are staying with us for a few days. After getting their rooms ready, we did the first day of Insanity. Yes, we are all starting the Insanity work out and plan to do the whole two month program while we are here. We jumped in the pool after our workout and played with the kids. We've had a wonderful evening fellowshipping, celebrating Brother James' birthday, and eating tacos! (Every Friday is taco night). Tomorrow we are doing Insanity in the morning and then going up to the church to do some work. It's a little sad to think that we only have 7 weeks left in Africa, but there is so much that we are going to cram into those 7 weeks that it's going to fly by. Can't wait for the first 516Missions team to get here next week! Do work! Affect Eternity!
In Christ,
Ashley
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