Kenya is always interesting to view as we drive around.

 It was a pretty uneventful week for us. One highlight was visiting the home of the founder of Mto Wangu. He and his family came last week and we had tacos. I felt like they didn't really like it, but we were told that his son asked for tacos for his next playdate meal. The founder didn't actually make it home while we were at his house, but we had a nice visit with his wife. They have  9 month old baby that was very charming. Dinner was delicious and we were sent home with chapati (a Kenyan form of roti). Walking home after dark was a little scary for us. We usually don't go out after 6:30 because that is when all the crime happens. Luckily they live very close and it was a short walk on a quiet residential road. 

We spend Saturday at Village Market, a very nice upscale mall that has lots of places for me to sit and work while the kids explore.

They didn't do much exploring without me though. Elizabeth, who is anxious to get her mission call was on the hunt for mission clothes.

One of the things that entertains us when we drive is looking at the different things they haul around by motorbike.

I've seen them carrying large TVs, a couch, and 4 people at once. When it rains they have little umbrellas.

Here are some of the pictures we have taken.

We also saw camels while driving around this last week. The uber driver told me they come from Somalia.

I have gotten the kids into a habit that every day we go work out in the little gym in our apartment building. When you are living with 2 kids with ADHD and they don't go out much, this is essential. But they find it very boring and begged me to do Just Dance with them. Malachi didn't bring that game, so we just do it on YouTube, which has allowed them to get nostalgic with all the old dances they did from our Wii game. I have discovered you can get a good cardio workout from doing just dance.

Ebola has come to Nairobi. A Kenyan man that had been living in the DRC travelled home to Kenya and died a day or two later. He went directly from the airport to the hospital and they have done contact tracing. Since then, 6 more people (that had been in quarantine) have contracted Ebola. It isn't out in the community yet, but it is worrying. I don't want to even think about what would happen if it spreads into Nairobi. Please pray for the people here and the medical professionals. (3 of the 6 that have contracted Ebola are healthcare workers.)

Tea Farm Adventure

The senior sister's group that we attend organized a trip to a tea farm this week. To be honest, it didn't sound like the most exciting excursion, so I was going to pass. But then, our driver had a family emergency and so the outing I had planned wasn't going to happen, so I decided to join the tea farm trip. Lizzie and Malachi were not too thrilled either. We had to get up early because it takes a couple hours to get there and we were supposed to meet at the area offices, which are about a 40 minute drive from here. So we got up early an were eating our breakfast when I received the text that the cost will be almost double for us because we aren't residents. Non-residents pay higher prices for some government run places like national parks and even Karura Forest, which I understand because we don't pay taxes and we have generally have a higher income than the locals. But when private businesses charge you more for not being a resident, it feels a bit like price gauging. We decided to give up on the tea farm trip and were just figuring out what to do with our day, when I received the text that she had talked them into giving us the resident price.

So off we went. We met at the museum. While we waited we took some pics.

Not that many sisters actually went. Marie was the organizer. She isn't a missionary; her husband does legal counsel for the church. They are from Calgary. The drive out there was full of chatter and quick subject changes ( 2 of the sisters have ADHD). I learned about their different mission assignments and I told them about working with the kids in Mathare. It is hard to tell them much more of what I do, because somehow the conversation always changes. So in their minds I work at a nursery school. Kenyan roads have speed bumps everywhere. Like everywhere. In the middle of the highways. On residential roads. On busy roads with 4 lanes of traffic. Everywhere. And they aren't always marked. Let's just say that Lizzie and Malachi were launched a few times in the back seat.

When we arrived at the farm it was raining. That was a problem because it had been hot for several days in Nairobi and it was when we left as well, so we didn't bring any warmer clothes. Instead we brought swimming clothes for the swimming hole. Luckily the rain stopped almost immediately after we had to leave the shelter, but Malachi still stubbornly held on to his umbrella.

The tour started with a "breakfast" of a small scone with hibiscus tea and hibiscus jam. The kids did not like the tea, but the jam was a big hit. After breakfast the we walked down to the farm where we were given baskets and taught how to pick the tea leaves.

It felt kind of weird just tossing the leaves over my head or shoulder and expecting them to land in the basket. After we picked a handful each, we took our haul back to the house where we roasted the leaves and then rolled them. I learned all about the differences between black tea, oolong tea, and green tea. There is also purple tea, white tea and yellow tea. All are made from the same tea leaves--it mostly has to do with how long they are left sitting before they are processed. The earlier they are processed ( green and purple are processed the fastest) the lower the caffeine.

The area was so scenic.

The pictures look like we are standing in front of a backdrop, but it was real. After our tea education, we walked down to the waterfall. We walked through a bamboo forest.

The bamboo was so big and arched way above our heads.

Of course the waterfall was beautiful, but none of us went swimming because it just wasn't quite warm enough. The tour concluded with a fancy lunch. The chef shared all his recipes with us, which was surprising and we drove back feeling uncomfortably full and with Marie hitting only a couple speed bumps at full speed.

Yesterday we attended a farewell and welcome party for the senior missionaries going home and the recent arrivals. For us, it was the first time meeting most of the husbands. It was nice doing a little socializing. The sisters that went to the tea farm with us greeted us like we were old friends. It seems like a really special tight knit group and we feel privileged to be included. They invited us to attend their FHE which was tonight, but we had company coming couldn't go.

I think I mentioned before that the founder of the organization I work with lives just around the corner. Today he and his family came for dinner. I wasn't sure what to make, so we opted for tacos and taco salad. I'm not sure what they thought. Elizabeth practiced her card tricks on the kids and then we were taught a few card games. One of them was basically Uno but with face cards. It was fun. I managed to not get too competitive. 😉

I Hide Behind Elizabeth

 Since I "finished" writing the report, we went out a lot more this week. It can be hard to find something to do that will interest a 13 year old boy. He usually rejected any of our ideas, but couldn't give any alternatives so we went ahead with our ideas which he mostly ended up enjoying. On Monday we explored Arboretum Park, which is only a km away from our house, but the reds would not walk there.

The only way I could convince them to go was to go by uber. I felt kind of ridiculous asking for an uber to only go that far. We had to pay 700 shillings each to enter, so we probably won't go back there, but it was a nice little park. We saw tree sized cacti and other beautiful trees.

As we walked Elizabeth made us play the game of who she was going to marry. Malachi and I each had to suggest a guy each and then she had to pick one. Let's just say it was very revealing...😉.

On Tuesday we went to the Maasai market, which changes location everyday. On Tuesday it was at the mall not far from us, so we decided to give it a go. I expected it to be like when we were in Twala last year where all the women had all their goods out on display and quietly waited while we looked and made our decisions. Well, it was not like that at all. As soon as we walked in, people tried waving us over to their areas to buy from them. We started at one end and soon were surrounded my 4 or 5 vendors. Someone took Elizabeth off and started wrapping a skirt around her, a woman kept showing me different things, someone else tried selling Malachi T-shirts (he would have none of it). I think we were the first ones to show up because everyone said we were their first customers and that we would bring them good luck and they would give us a good price. Haha. Most did not. 

Elizabeth became very adept at handling the aggressive sellers and ridiculously high prices. I just started telling the people they needed to talk to her. It worked way better when I did that.

One of Lizzie's favourite finds

At one place where they were selling Maasai blankets, they told her they would give a good price to the big American. She told them she was a small Canadian. They asked 15 000 shillings for the blanket (roughly 150 CAD)! She got them down to 2000. In the end we never made it all the way through before we were done. All the haggling and pressuring to buy things wears on you after awhile.

We also went to Karura forest--one of our favourite places in Kenya. This time we brought a friend we made at church. Her husband works for CES here and she hasn't really been able to explore Nairobi much yet. The reds, extroverts that they are, really like having another person join us.

She also went to the Maasai market with us. (She said I was very kind, but a sucker). 

As you may know, it was conference this weekend. For us, the first session begins at 7 pm. Because of that, they held normal church this week and next week they will show a couple sessions of conference at church. Wanting to keep our conference traditions going, we had breakfast for dinner and bought some Kenyan candy.

whipping the cream by hand

We made up our list of words (when one of the words is said, we get to eat a candy),  and started watching.  Two talks in and we were all done (with candy). I think Elder Gong said almost every word on our list.

We missed having Brent's...more specialized phrases like "providential living" that we discovered actually prevent us from eating too much candy. Nice strategy Brent. We watched Saturday afternoon session after dinner today (Sunday). Nobody wanted to watch conference while fasting. Next Sunday when there is no church, we will watch the rest. So no spoilers--so far it has been so good.