Share New Years with us!
http://www.viddler.com/explore/Jakemalloy/videos/20/
Start a minute before you ring in the new year!
For some post-countdown celebration and entertainment we present to you- Asante dancing.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/jakemalloy/videos/21/
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Ethiopian Restaurant
For our friend Jaime’s birthday awhile back, we went with a bunch of people to an Ethiopian restaurant—it was fantastic! Basically we all just sat around these handcrafted basket like tables, and ate off of them… you eat with your hands, taking a piece of a rice tortilla-like bread, and picking up various foods—spinach, potatoes, lamb (spicy and non-spicey), cheese, chickpeas, cabbage, etc. All of the foods are spiced quite nicely. It’s one of our favorite meals as a family because we all LOVE it (surprisingly Asante included). Anyway, it was a really fun dinner- great food and great company.
Does anyone know of a good Ethiopian restaurant around Columbia or St. Louis?
Does anyone know of a good Ethiopian restaurant around Columbia or St. Louis?
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Our Travels to Western Kenya
This past Monday and Tuesday, Jake, Asante and I traveled to Western Kenya to visit the child that we sponsor through Compassion International, Emmanuel. We left around 7a on Monday morning and got back on Tuesday around 4p. Although it was a very fast trip, it was really fun.
It took us about 6 or so hours to get to the project site. A guy from the compassion office here in Kenya (named jim), drove us there. We got to travel through the Rift Valley. After the Rift Valley, things got much more green and lush. Western Kenya is really fertile and beautiful. Many Masaii live in the area.
When we got to the project, the kids greeted us with a traditional masaii song and dance—and they were all wearing their traditional dress as well! It as really cool and special. We felt really blessed by their warm greeting. Emmanuel was really shy the whole time, but you could tell he was happy for us to be there. We were actually the first sponsors to ever visit this particular project, so it was big occasion for them as well. I guess because it’s really really far out, that not many people take the trek.
After that we spent some time in the church where the kids sang more songs and we got to meet different people who work with compassion. Each project has a social worker, a nurse, an accountant, and a head person. We got a little tour of the offices; got to learn a lot more about the program and what the exact things they do there to help the kids. To finish our time at the project site, they had us plant 3 trees, which I thought was a fun way to mark our time there.
So next we went with Emmanuel to his family’s home. They are Masaii, so they live in round huts with either a tin roof (which is a bit more modern) or a thatched roof (which is what Emmanuel and his mother lived in). We got to visit 2 huts, one that belonged to one of Emmanuel’s older brothers, and then Emmanuel and his mom’s. His dad passed away awhile back, so it’s just him and his mom, and then 4 brothers and 2 sisters. Only one of the sisters is young still—all the rest are grown and trying to make a way for themselves. However, we got to meet all of them, as well as tons of neighbors and extended family from all over.
His grandmother was even there, and it was the first time she had seen a white person in her entire life. She was really really excited and asked to take a picture of Asante.
We exchanged some gifts, drank some Fanta, and talked through translators. The brothers and uncles of Emmanuel really liked Asante—they grabbed him and let Asante play with their sticks, which he loved. I think that they were pretty much the only people that Asante would go to without crying. I think he was not only hungry and tired, but Asante is beginning to get squeamish with people he doesn’t know very well holding him. I guess that’s a part of this age though.
That evening we traveled to a bigger town called Kisii to stay in a hotel overnight (which was actually quite nice), and then made the trek back to Nairobi the next morning. On our way back, right in the middle of Rift Valley, our car broke down. It was high noon, hot, and really dusty. We sat there for 2 hours, calling people and trying to fix it. But, after that didn’t work, a “good samaritan” stopped and offered to take jake, asante and I back to Nairobi. So, we went, even though we were a bit nervous about it at first. I mean, we figured if the compassion guy told us that it was okay, it probably was, but we were still a little unsure. The guy turned out to be nice, quite the talker, and we were thankful to have gotten back to NEGST before dark.
I think we’re now fully recovered from the trip—we didn’t really eat very much over those two days; I packed some snacks, but we only ate dinner at 8:00p on Monday night and breakfast the next morning at the hotel. Asante spent Wednesday (the day after we got back) eating and sleeping A LOT. I think he was excited to be back and run around the house.
It was really great to finally be able to meet Emmanuel—the boy behind the letters. Oh, one fun thing was that he brought out all the letters we had ever written to him and showed us! Cool huh?
If you have ever thought about sponsoring a child through Compassion, I’d highly recommend it. Even more so after getting to meet everyone and hearing about everything that they do for the kids and the high level of accountability that they maintain. I was really impressed by them. The ministry is very very contextualized (no worries about trying to make these kids into westerners), and they work very closely with the kids and families on long term success…not just food to sustain them, but life-time achievement goals.
You can sponsor a child for only $32 a month (sometimes more in AIDS/HIV areas), and you can choose a child from anywhere around the world. Check it out: www.compassion.org [check this website to make sure it’s correct].
And finally, 2 videos from our trip:
www.viddler.com/explore/jakemalloy/videos/10/
www.viddler.com/explore/jakemalloy/videos/11/
It took us about 6 or so hours to get to the project site. A guy from the compassion office here in Kenya (named jim), drove us there. We got to travel through the Rift Valley. After the Rift Valley, things got much more green and lush. Western Kenya is really fertile and beautiful. Many Masaii live in the area.
When we got to the project, the kids greeted us with a traditional masaii song and dance—and they were all wearing their traditional dress as well! It as really cool and special. We felt really blessed by their warm greeting. Emmanuel was really shy the whole time, but you could tell he was happy for us to be there. We were actually the first sponsors to ever visit this particular project, so it was big occasion for them as well. I guess because it’s really really far out, that not many people take the trek.
After that we spent some time in the church where the kids sang more songs and we got to meet different people who work with compassion. Each project has a social worker, a nurse, an accountant, and a head person. We got a little tour of the offices; got to learn a lot more about the program and what the exact things they do there to help the kids. To finish our time at the project site, they had us plant 3 trees, which I thought was a fun way to mark our time there.
So next we went with Emmanuel to his family’s home. They are Masaii, so they live in round huts with either a tin roof (which is a bit more modern) or a thatched roof (which is what Emmanuel and his mother lived in). We got to visit 2 huts, one that belonged to one of Emmanuel’s older brothers, and then Emmanuel and his mom’s. His dad passed away awhile back, so it’s just him and his mom, and then 4 brothers and 2 sisters. Only one of the sisters is young still—all the rest are grown and trying to make a way for themselves. However, we got to meet all of them, as well as tons of neighbors and extended family from all over.
His grandmother was even there, and it was the first time she had seen a white person in her entire life. She was really really excited and asked to take a picture of Asante.
We exchanged some gifts, drank some Fanta, and talked through translators. The brothers and uncles of Emmanuel really liked Asante—they grabbed him and let Asante play with their sticks, which he loved. I think that they were pretty much the only people that Asante would go to without crying. I think he was not only hungry and tired, but Asante is beginning to get squeamish with people he doesn’t know very well holding him. I guess that’s a part of this age though.
That evening we traveled to a bigger town called Kisii to stay in a hotel overnight (which was actually quite nice), and then made the trek back to Nairobi the next morning. On our way back, right in the middle of Rift Valley, our car broke down. It was high noon, hot, and really dusty. We sat there for 2 hours, calling people and trying to fix it. But, after that didn’t work, a “good samaritan” stopped and offered to take jake, asante and I back to Nairobi. So, we went, even though we were a bit nervous about it at first. I mean, we figured if the compassion guy told us that it was okay, it probably was, but we were still a little unsure. The guy turned out to be nice, quite the talker, and we were thankful to have gotten back to NEGST before dark.
I think we’re now fully recovered from the trip—we didn’t really eat very much over those two days; I packed some snacks, but we only ate dinner at 8:00p on Monday night and breakfast the next morning at the hotel. Asante spent Wednesday (the day after we got back) eating and sleeping A LOT. I think he was excited to be back and run around the house.
It was really great to finally be able to meet Emmanuel—the boy behind the letters. Oh, one fun thing was that he brought out all the letters we had ever written to him and showed us! Cool huh?
If you have ever thought about sponsoring a child through Compassion, I’d highly recommend it. Even more so after getting to meet everyone and hearing about everything that they do for the kids and the high level of accountability that they maintain. I was really impressed by them. The ministry is very very contextualized (no worries about trying to make these kids into westerners), and they work very closely with the kids and families on long term success…not just food to sustain them, but life-time achievement goals.
You can sponsor a child for only $32 a month (sometimes more in AIDS/HIV areas), and you can choose a child from anywhere around the world. Check it out: www.compassion.org [check this website to make sure it’s correct].
And finally, 2 videos from our trip:
www.viddler.com/explore/jakemalloy/videos/10/
www.viddler.com/explore/jakemalloy/videos/11/
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