Adjusting to a new life

As one could imagine, there are many things, on many levels, that require adjustments in our way of living here in Kenya. The past two weeks of living here we have had our share of laughs, tears, stories, miracles, and more. It's hard to encapsulate everything into a few short stories, but I will try my best to share the highlights. After getting over jetlag (which took somewhere from a couple days to the first week) we ventured into new territory by moving into the language school about 45min drive from town (about $26 to take a taxi one way). Although we have visited Kenya many times, this was the first time for the P3 to be "on their own". We arrived at the school in time to say good-bye to the staff here for the weekend, and then it was just us (and a guard who would come just for the night time too). Some funny things that we noticed right away were the 'non-osha' stairs that have a big heart on them ("whoever built this house did it with love" we'd joke). A leaky faucet in the downstairs bathroom that during the course of the next week I (matt) tried to fix but ended up braking completely and almost flooding the downstairs entryway (I'm glad someone was there who knew how to turn off the water to that side of the house... and I'm also grateful that the floors are just cement... not a bit of water damage). Peg and I also had to adjust to being back in a classroom. Our first day met us with great anxiety, as every word was spoken in Kiswahili and we had no idea what was going on or how to follow along or what to do. (Later on we found out that it was a weekly, every Monday, morning devotion and worship time for the staff and students, of which there were a total of 10 of us in the room that morning). So once that time was over, Peg and I were to start our class, which was much more doable with interaction, note-taking, and the whole bit. While we are in classes in the morning, Joyce, our house-help, is taking care of Kenya Grace. We've noticed that this has been quite an adjustment for her too, as she has grown accustomed to having both mommy & daddy around all the time over the past month... and now she has neither of us for about 4 hours.

Now that our first week of classes has finished, and we are coming up on the second week of being in country, we are finding that the adjustments are less noticeable. For example, today Friday) the electricity went off in our morning class around 9am (of course everything continues without a blink) and didn't come back on till about 6pm this evening. (Even for Kenya that is a long time to be without power... especially in the middle of the day, but it didn't seem to be too hard for us to find ways around using power, and doing just fine without it).

Probably one of the hardest adjustments for us as a family is not being near family and friends back at home (whether that be in Cali or MI). Even the first week we were here we were able to have constant good-speed internet (I say "good" because it is way faster than the dial-up modem, but still pretty slow compared to U.S. standards) which allowed us to read and write email easily, and post things on our blog and facebook. But now at school internet is sketchy (and at dial-up speeds of less than 1kb per second) and works sometimes and not others. Also, for the past 6 months we have been living in community at people’s houses (even before that for a year next to close friends) which had provided a certain way of functioning that made us feel like family was always with us. To transition out of that and within a week of being here to be just the three of us in a Huge house out in the country... well you can imagine that the emotional adjustment has not been easy. But by God's grace, your prayers, and some time to go by, we are adjusting well. We are also finding daily blessings all around us, the weather, the people, the family time, etc.

I'm sure that we still have many adjustments to go through over the next few weeks, months and even this first year, but I know God will lead us through it. I'll end with a verse God gave me a couple days ago that really helped me. Psalm 139:9-10, "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast."(NIV) God reminded me through that verse that He is in control, that He is guiding us, and He is holding us tight! Bwana Asafiwe! (Praise the Lord!)
- Matt - for the P3