Envoy Group | africa sojournA meeting place for the support team of Brian and Jami Staples

I told Brian I needed to sit down and write for the blog.  My greatest writing task to date.  What can I possibly say?

And this is just what we took on the PLANE!!

Every day we wake up in Africa and can hardly fathom, much less express in words, the surreal elation of finally being where we’ve been trying to go for two years.  And that’s just the task of expressing how we feel – never mind the impossibility of capturing the sounds, smells, and sights of each passing moment.  I carelessly assumed I would communicate to you all the notable moments of our life here, forgetting that for the foreseeable future, EVERYTHING feels notable.  The ants here are notable…laundry here is worth discussing…the people here could headline any periodical.  So where on earth do I start?  What will you want to know more than something else?  This is extremely difficult.

Hopefully the pictures can give a brief glimpse at those things I chose to file away for a slow news week in the coming years.  For now, I think ” a day in the life” might allow you to peruse the tsunami of our new lifestyle.  (I’ll be as brief as I can and

You pack it, you pull it! Train 'em young for a life on the road!

highlight key words so you can skip the boring stuff if you feel the need!)

TODAY

6am – awaken in my 62 degree dorm room for a spitting shower in one of the four cement stalls on this floor (careful not to swallow the water, even though the staff swears it’s cleaner than Nairobi’s sources).

7:30am – join the 40 other orientees for another breakfast of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chai tea (Kenyans are baffled by our need to distinguish between breakfast foods and other meals)

8:30a – forego educational moments by the molting chickens and malnourished goats to drop the boys at their own orientation classes two levels above our classroom

9-10:30a – Worship (much the same as an unplugged vespers), devotional and special guest speaker and Kenyan national Joy Mindo teaches us on the African World View (see if you can unravel the meaning behind this African proverb: “A crocodile’s strength is in the water”)

10:30am – High time for chai time…again…(thankfully Cadbury makes a sufficient counterpart to Nesquik) with samosas

10:45-12:30p – Finally shed my jacket as the classroom reaches a comfortable 68 degrees (with the help of internal heating sources: 6 glasses of chai tea).  The leggings under my ankle-length skirt stay, however (in Machakos any woman making known she has two legs is quite risque)

12:30p -  make a brief stop by the “duka” for two orange Fanta’s and two Cokes to bring to lunch as a special treat – only 25 shillings each (about 35 cents).  Mystery meat stew over rice with side of cooked cabbage slaw…not terribly offensive but certainly no Taco Bell!

2p – 4p – Joy continues her lesson as remnants of Jet Lag threaten to embarrass the weak-necked Americans

Our house in Nairobi - room enough for you...somewhere!

4:00pm – hmmmm…what did we d….oh yeah…chai time…again (this time with lovely Kenyan donuts – helllloooo???  BREAKFAST FOOD!!!)

5p – 6:30p – head cheerleader for the futbol game between Abled Bodied Europeans and I Wish I Were Americans (the only thing more sad is watching Isaac and Cole strike a game with the Kenyan boys that ended when they grew impatient with the white boys always picking up the ball and running with it)

6:30p – final meal of the day means holding the boys heads up long enough to put some noodles and stewed tomatoes down the hatch with a 1/4 circle of chipate bread (wheat flour flat bread – a staple in Kenya)

7:30 – fight 20 other computers for bandwidth before pouring tikes in PJ’s while mommy washes face in one-spicket bathroom sink – frigid cold!!  No exfoliating possible with retreated pores!

8:00p – 10:00 – maybe a trip around the campus to keep ourselves awake until it’s rational to go to sleep

10:00pm – Unisom….climb to top bunk (two narrow and dangerous for the lil ones to be trusted)….insert earplugs….cover with blankzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

**2:00am – (for the first 3 nights Brian and I caught up on our reading till 4 or 5am.  Now we manage to go back to sleep after each interruption!  Phew…thank God for sleep aids!)