Extra Garnish- NO Charge! The Many Adventures of Western Kenya

So I’m still living in Kenya Africa in case you wondered and everyday is a new thing and everyday the Lord shows me something more about Him. This past week my team and I traveled to Western Kenya to the city of Bungoma. It was wonderful to see grass again and flowers and to not be constantly sweaty, but to actually feel a cool breeze! The best part, because this area was very Christianized and did not have Somalian Muslims, us girls were allowed to wear jeans outdoors and even shorts inside the compound!!! It was marvelous and I never knew such a small thing could make me so happy!
WHY’D WE GO THERE???
The purpose for this trip was to take a class. So I along with 15 other Bethany International Students were scheduled to talk Church Development at the Christian Life Teachings College in Bungoma, a Christianized town. We were taught by Kenyans and by a on the ground and founder of the college missionary from Montana. We mostly learned about leadership and godly ways to execute leadership over people and a church. It was a good class and the Lord stretched me.
While here we experienced many fun and growing things. I’ll just highlight a couple things. One of the most rewarding parts of the trip was being able to play with the kids. They loved to come to our gate every afternoon and watch us either play volleyball or mess around. We would invite them to play and we’d play tag or soccer. This one little 3 year old girl named Judy stole my heart. One day while the other children were playing soccer with Nate (one of my teammates) I sat with the little little kids and held Judy on my lap. I rocked her to sleep and she feel so deep asleep that when it was time to wake her I couldn’t! She was so out of it that I just passed her off to her mom. Once I had let her go I realized that my jeans were unusually wet! Little Judy had left me a present in her sleep…she was so worth it.
SQUATTY POTTIES AND BUCKET BATHS!
So at this college they don’t have any running water..no big deal right. Well count how many times a day you use water from your faucet or how many gallons of water you use and tell me if it’s not a big deal. ☺ It’s sort of like camping but maybe a little rougher… well at least in Nebraska we had completely working bathrooms at camp sites. The huge blessing though at this college was that the water was clean and from a pump. So we didn’t have to filter we just just pump and go. But the bathrooms were anything but modern. Lets just say I got really good by the end of the 10 days at squatting and aiming and taking a “bath” with no wash cloth and a bucket of water in the dark at 6:30 in the morning.
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH?
So one afternoon I along with 2 other girls and 1 other guy went out to eat at the Red Hat restaurant. We had previously eaten at this restaurant and knew that the food was good. We all ordered a burger with fries (which they call chips here). Well my food didn’t come until all the others were done with it. When it finally did come my hunger pains were growing and I was eagerly licking my lips in anticipation for my juicy burger and greasy fries. The waiter seemed to walk in slow motion as my plate came closer and closer ever so slowly. When it was placed on the table my eyes saw something that did not quite seem to fit amongst the burger and fries. What was that? No, nope I’m not going to believe that that is really on my pile of fries…. I took another look and sure enough I found myself staring in to the green eyes of a deceased, deep fat fried, bright green, grasshopper! To the surprise of my friends, I made an exclamation and quickly pushed the plate away from me in horror. After many laughs and shocked expressions I decided against eating my ‘African garnish’ and we quickly left.

My favorite part of going to town was being able to ride the sweet bikes. I loved just perching on the back and getting a ride home. It was easy to do but super hard in a skirt!