Mzungu learning from Africa

Things I've Learned Here in Kenya

2009-02-02T01:06:00.001-06:00

I’ve been trying to be very intentional in reflecting on things I’ve learned here…I know there are some things I’m forgetting, and most of the things I won’t expand much on here, but maybe these are things you can ask us about when we get back as we try and continue to figure out what God has taught us.

1. Missions
Surprisingly, I’m leaving here less convinced of my convictions on the idea of missions, specifically to Africa, and more specifically to sub-Saharan Africa. I’m 100% convinced of God’s command to all believers to spread the good news of Jesus to the corners of the world. What I’m not convinced of is Westerners role in that in this area. There’s a strong church here in Kenya. And sometimes I wonder if kenyans reaching kenyans or kenyans reaching ugandans may be a better fit than westerners coming into a totally different culture and “making christians.” I’ve seen things that disappoint me here about the influence of Western missionaries. I do very much still believe in the power of exchange- africans coming to the states and us coming to Africa, but in an exchange of ideas and beliefs about what it looks like to follow Jesus. As peers, not as one “teaching” the other the right way to do things.

2. Momhood
I’ve learned much more of how to be a mom. I think in a lot of ways I’ve stepped into that role more, and feel more equipped to be that for the rest of my life. ☺.

3. Slowing Down
It’s nice not to be going, going, going. I love being able to stop and have conversations with people. I enjoy sitting at each other’s houses, eating dinner, talking about whatever. I appreciate people’s availability to hang out or go do something, or lend a helping hand. Our family has time to hang out with one another, take evening walks, enjoy good conversation and have a sit-down dinner every night. those are things i’m not taking for granted.

4. Spiritual Warfare
I have a better awareness that what we see is not all there is. And that spiritual warfare is real, and powerful, and we need to be ready for whatever comes our way. I think there’s much for me to learn about this, but I think an awareness is the first best step.

So yeah, these are my things. I know jake has been thinking about a couple of the same ones, but then different ones too. I’m sure he’ll write a post about it as it gets closer to his departure.

Catching Up II (or is it III)?

2009-01-30T22:35:00.000-06:00

Website/Fundraising

In addition to starting classes, Jake has also started helping out of the NEGST fundraising team, who is responsible for brainstorming ways to help promote NEGST both in Africa and abroad. He’s been working mostly on website stuff. It’s been fun to brainstorm—since this is very similar to what I just sat in on during my past year at the BSU. A team of Americans are visiting NEGST this past week and this week—they are helping a lot with website stuff too, as well as teaching various computer skills to both children and adults on campus. I think they’re also doing an after-school VBS.

Starting school

For those of you who haven’t heard, I’ll be starting Asbury in the fall! I’m not exactly sure how many classes I’ll be taking. In theory, I have 7 years to finish the degree once I begin in. The pace will be contingent on our finances at any given point, along with how much time I feel like I can dedicate to it while staying at home with 2 kids all day! I’m excited to be beginning. I’ll be pursing my M.A. in Christian Leadership.

Bible Study

For the past semester or so, I’ve been attending a ladies Bible study on campus on Fridays. It’s made up mostly of the wives of male students on campus. We’ve been studying through the book of John; I’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone better through this.

Praying for the simple things

As some of you may have heard, Kenya has been experiencing quite a dry spell. In some places it’s even been called a drought. Farmers are having a hard time growing food, which makes food a bit more expensive. Last week, however, it rained for parts of 2 days! It was great! Apparently everyone was surprised that it could rain in January. Praise God though, it really has been an answer to prayer- we even prayed about it for a good amount of time in our church service the Sunday before it rained. Since I’ve been here, I’ve found myself praying for simple things more often…

And All the Other Stuff, Part I

2009-01-28T00:22:00.001-06:00

How about everything between Christmas and coming back?

Jake has started classes…we’re in the 4th week. This semester he’s taking Greek II, Morphology and Syntax, Semantics, and Sociology of Language. He’s been approved to sit early for his exams, which means he’ll be taking them the last week of classes, instead of waiting through Reading Week and then Exam Week. We’re excited that the administration allowed him to do this—otherwise he would have not gotten any credit for them. From last term, he got his grades last week and they were great! He was pleased with them; I wanted to put his grade report on the fridge but he wouldn’t let me ☺.

Asante has been attending baby class almost every morning, and really loving it. So far he hasn’t cried when I left, which is a huge improvement from last term! He’s really warming up to the teachers and he loves being around all the kids. He’s turned into a bibliophile again- we’re reading all of his books to him everyday (about 20), and not just once, but over and over. He does that and play ball. That’s about it while he’s home ☺.

As for me, I’ve been working on getting things ready for my departure, making chore lists, menus, recipe cards for Grace and Jake, grocery lists, lists of things to give away and to who, etc. We’ve also gone to a few “going-away dinners” which have been fun and sad. I can’t believe it’s coming up so soon. It’s only been 6 months, but in many ways it feels like home. I’ve also been reading a lot during Asante’s naps (I’ve finished quite a few books)- trying to take advantage of both the library’s books and our friends- Ben and Christi’s books. Both have good books that have been on my list of books to read for awhile.

Coming Back

2009-01-28T00:21:00.000-06:00

In addition to Christmas details, many have asked about our travel plans back to the States.

In exactly 2 weeks- February 10th, I (tiffany) will be headed on an airplane, back to the U.S. My plane leaves here very late at night, and I’ll be arriving in the States early evening on the 11th. As for Jake and Asante, they will be leaving Nairobi on the 16th of March and arriving the next evening in St. Louis. I’m definitely sad about leaving many people and things here, and especially sad about leaving Jake and Asante for 5 weeks. However, we’ve done the best we can in planning so that Jake will have plenty of study time, and Asante will have a routine that will not be too disruptful. I know the boys will be okay logistically, I’m just hoping they don’t get too lonely, especially on the weekends.

While back in the States, I’ll spend a couple weeks in Waterloo with my parents (a few days at the beginning and a week before Jake gets back), and then I’ll be spending the time inbetween in Columbia, getting some details worked out (where we’ll live, insurance situation, establishing medical care, catching up with people).

So that’s that!

Catching Up I: Christmas

2009-01-26T05:20:00.001-06:00

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. I’m truly sorry about that! I hope that this series of posts catches everyone up.

Christmas
We had a very quiet Christmas here in Nairobi. We had decided months before that we would not do gifts this year…we (or maybe just I) called it our “Christmas Detox.” I knew that many, most, here on campus wouldn’t be exchanging gifts, so I wanted to participate in that. Plus, last year in the States was particularly hard for me in that I had a difficult time celebrating the Incarnation of Jesus in the world. Too much other clutter filled my mind—shopping, gifts, parties, food, money, etc.

So, instead, this Christmas Asante and I woke up to find that our living room had been turned into a Winter Wonderland! Jake had gotten up at 5:00a to cut out paper snowflakes, which he hung all over the walls. In addition, Jake had set out a small “gift” set for each of us. For Asante, it included his bottle, a banana (which he eats EVERY morning), a sucker that a store clerk had given to jake for him a few days before, and a gift from the Rowburys (one of our good friends on campus). On my pile, was a can of chocolate icing and a box of shortbread cookies to put it on (yum!), a small chocolate bar, and a Kenya-patterned headband that Jake had bought for both me and Grace (a young woman who helps us with some of the housekeeping and laundry).

So, we ate breakfast (I made French toast), Asante opened his gift, we read the Christmas story from Asante’s Bible, and spent a little time praying. Then, we went on our morning walk to check email and talk to a few people online (since it was Christmas eve in the states).

Later on that day, for lunch, we went to one of Jake’s professor’s house for a multi-cultural Christmas celebration. There were people from the UK, Kenya, Cameroon, Australia, and of course us, from America. We ate a FABULOUS meal, and enjoyed conversation with one another for a couple hours.

For a late dinner, we went to the Rowburys where they prepared leftovers from their Christmas lunch, and hung out for a while. Overall, it was a great day. The interesting thing about Christmas here? The day after Christmas, it was over. No more “happy holidays” or anything like that. No more Christmas celebrations. Oh, and another interesting thing is that it was really warm here on Christmas—which throws you off for sure! ☺

Keagan

2009-01-02T23:15:00.000-06:00

In my 2009 goals over at tiffanymalloy.blogspot.com, I mentioned that we’re going to officially add a name to Asante. It will be Asante Samuel, Keagan Malloy. We’re going to add a name to each of the kids after a year or so, when we’ve learned some about their personalities. Some have asked what the significance of “Keagan” is. It’s Irish, and it means “determined, or fiery.” We’ve noticed that Asante is quite the determined boy, and has the fire in him. One example of this is that Asante will try and put the lid on a water bottle for 30 minutes because he wants to do it by himself. He gets pretty fiery if he can’t do it, but he’ll keep on going back to it until he accomplishes the goal he’s trying to achieve. This is just a small example of something that we see everyday in him.

Of course this could be taken as a bad quality, but we think it’s good. If we teach him to direct his passion/fire and determination in healthy avenues, we think it’ll be used by God for His Kingdom purposes. So we want the addition to become a tradition in our family- one that is meaningful and celebrated. We actually came across the name when we were thinking about boy names before we knew if the new baby was a boy or girl.

One for the Grandmas

2009-01-02T23:12:00.000-06:00

Most reading this post may not be that interested in the content that follows, but the grandmas certainly will ☺. We thought that we would highlight some of the new things that Asante is doing and saying- Grandmas are always wanting to know things like that.

Over the past couple weeks Asante has become more parrot-like, hehe. He repeats words that we’re trying to teach him, even if they’re not very clear. The words that he’s using everyday without us prompting him are “up”, “out”, “no”, “yes”, “dog” (which means, “I see an animal or insect”) and sometimes “more” and “bite” (as in, I want a bite of your cookie, mom). It seems that as we’re trying to teach him the baby signs for something, instead of learning the sign, he just learns to say the word instead. Oh well, we’ll keep on working on it.

Even though he doesn’t talk a whole lot, it’s been fun to see how much he’s understanding. Last night we asked him if he wanted another bite of spaghetti, and his back was turned to us. He shook his head no, and then looked at us for a brief moment, then went back to playing. Just now, as I’m typing this, Jake said, “asante, are you sure you don’t want to take a nap?” and he said, “yes” and hopped down. One of our favorite things to ask him is, “Asante, are you getting sleepy?” (along with doing the sign for sleepy). If he’s sleepy, he’ll just smile. If he’s not, he’ll make real big eyes and shake his head no and smile. It’s really cute.

Food-wise, he’s eating pretty much everything we are (as long as what we’re eating is decently healthy), minus most meats. Sometimes he’ll eat a little, but because he doesn’t have molars yet, it’s really hard for him to chew it enough to swallow it. Some of his favorite foods are bananas, chili, spaghetti, scrambled eggs, mangos, pears (canned is all we got here), mac and cheese, milk, juice, and rice. He also really enjoys pickles and olives when we have them around. And of course anything sweet. He’s been eating a cookie or two every day since Christmas (dad even let him eat some cookie dough with us- but don’t worry, I made it so there’s no raw eggs included).

He still really likes us to read to him, but right now he’s discovering that he can stack blocks, which is exciting to him. He made a tower of 5 blocks the other day- you should have seen his face! Also, he loves to take things out of boxes/bags/containers and then put them back in, and put the lid on. This can go on for a LONG time. We introduced him to crayons the other day, but so far he just likes to take them out of the bag and put them back in. Oh well ☺. As you’ve seen from the videos, he also loves to dance when we turn on music. He spends a lot of time standing on the bed, looking out the window at the kids playing below.

Sleep wise, he’s sleeping through the night for sure, but wakes up at 6:30a almost everyday. It’s like clockwork. It must be the sun or something. We’ve only been giving him his pacifier when going to sleep, so that’s been good to make that distinction for him. We’re going through an interesting thing with naps…I think he’s trying to give one of them up, but he’s trying to work out which one. For the past week he’s given up his afternoon nap, but that makes him VERY cranky by 5, which is then too late for him to nap. We got him to take his nap at 12:30 yesterday, which worked out pretty well, but he was incredibly tired by dinner.

He’s also become quite the little helper, which I’m so glad to see happening with the new baby coming ☺. He sometimes throws his diapers away and other things that he finds that he thinks is trash. When I (tiffany) am on a straightening/cleaning spree, he’ll walk around, “cleaning” too. one time he came out of the kitchen with our broom and dust pan and started to “sweep” the carpet. He’s starting to help clean up his toys after he’s done playing (if we ask him to and do it with him). I think he’s gonna be quite the little helper with Alethea.

There are 2 other young babies here- both girls- 3 and 4 months old. He’s really good with them- interested but not toooo interested ☺. He likes to bounce the 4 month old in her bouncer- most of the time he gets overzealous with it, but he’s just trying to help. He always tries to offer them his snack or bottle, which we think is really kind.

He makes up games with us too. He’ll pretend to be drinking the bath water so we’ll say, “asante, don’t drink the water.” Or he’ll grab a pacifier and be about to put it in his mouth so that we’ll say, “Asante, are you sleeping?” and then he’ll laugh. He likes us to chase him around the house. It’s good and cute; you’ll love it.

Okay well, hopefully that’s enough. I’m sure we’ve missed things, but this is getting really long ☺. He’s so different than when we left; I’m glad that you’ll get to see him again soon.

Happy New Year's Eve!

2008-12-30T23:37:00.003-06:00

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/

Ethiopian Restaurant

2008-12-20T23:54:00.001-06:00

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?

Our Travels to Western Kenya

2008-12-16T23:12:00.003-06:00

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/

Safari!

2008-11-30T22:41:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday after Jake’s Greek Final, me, Jake, Asante, and our friends Christi, David, and Christine all hoped in Christi’s car and headed to Amboselli, which is a game park right on the Kenya/Tanzania border. A 3-4 hour trip turned into 6 hours on the way down there. An petroleum truck had gone off the road at one point, so we had to wait while a big crane pulled it out, stopping the traffic for about an hour or hour and a half. Then, the roads were just bad, so we drove slower than someone who always drives in Kenya would.

We got to the park about an hour before check-in for our campsite, so we had to book it to the actual campsite. We got there with 8 minutes to spare, which meant we ended up putting up our tent in the dark, but 2 Masaii guys helped us, which was very kind of them. We made a fire, ate some pb&j sandwiches, talked awhile, and then went to bed.

This was one of the craziest times of the trip for me, lol. Because I’m 21 weeks pregnant, tent/floor sleeping isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. I woke up A LOT and had a ton of trouble falling asleep. So I got to hear all the nighttime sounds, which FREAKED me out. At one point I heard a warthog and I somehow convinced myself it was going to come rush the tent, lol. Silly what your mind will do in the middle of the night. We all woke up safe and sound (and with no mosquito bites!) around 6:00a and headed on a morning game drive.

We headed up Observation Hill that overlooked much of the park and the swampy areas, looking for wild animals. It was great to see the sun rising, eating oranges and banana bread, seeing wild animals grazing around, with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. Some of our highlights from the morning included seeing over 100 elephants, tons of other animals like zebras, giraffes, wildebeasts, warthogs, baboons, gazelle, and ostriches, and finding a zebra carcass (which the boys decided would be a good addition to our trunk, which smelt horrible).

After a few hours of going around the park in the car, we went to Amboselli Lodge (which is really nice), went back to the campground to pack up the tent, and then headed back to Nairobi around noon. Again, what was supposed to be a 3-4 hour trip ended up about 6-7 hours! We took a wrong turn somewhere, and ended up on the opposite side of Nairobi, which put us going through the city during rush hour. Yikes!

It was so fun to see all of that and get out of the city for awhile. I realized that once we got out, it looked more like my expectation of Africa- acacia trees, animals in the wild, 4-foot-high ant hills (okay, so I didn’t expect to see those in Africa).

Anyway, it was a fun adventure and the camping part pushed my comfort zone for sure, just being 4 ½ months pregnant and bringing a one-year-old was sure to be a challenge, and it was, but well worth it.

Two great Videos!

2008-11-21T23:15:00.001-06:00

Jake's Birthday, Asante Walking, and Other Stuff

Asante's First Birthday Footage

Check them out! :)

Asante's First Birthday

2008-11-16T07:53:00.003-06:00

Can you believe that Asante is a one-year-old already?! This year has flown by. I still have his picture of when he was first born on my laptop… I can’t believe how much he’s grown, and how his personality reveals itself more and more everyday.

For this birthday, I was sadly gone from 7a-6p, but when I got home, we ate a quick dinner and then had a few other American families over (and their kids) for some cake and opening of cards/gifts. It was a good time of celebration, and Asante LOVED having 6 other kids and 2 babies to celebrate with him. Before everyone came he was being really cranky and I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a good party, but as soon as people started showing up, he turned into all smiles and began to ham it up. Sigh. How did we raise such an extrovert?! I think it’s all you college students’ fault ☺.

Anyway, he loved it. At first he daintly picked at his cake, nicely putting it in his mouth. Then, he got a little more brave and dug in a little more. Then, maybe realizing that we had no limits on him, dug his face into it! By the end, he had it all over his ENTIRE body, as well as jake’s clothes (on whose lap he was sitting). It was great. And like his momma, he made sure to eat all the icing, but not the cake.

The kids were really sweet. They made him cards and one family even brought him a gift! One of the girls even gave him a puppet show. I had thought about doing a big birthday party, but since asante is just one, and I didn’t have a lot of time to put things together, I knew I couldn’t do the “NEGST birthday”… which consists off ALL the kids (about 60 or 70, I think), coming to your house with their own plate and cup, and you serve everyone snacks and juice and stuff. Whew! That would have been too overwhelming for me at this point.

In addition to birthday celebrations, Asante has been really improving on his walking! He took his first steps 2 weeks ago on Jake’s birthday, and now he’s walking around like crazy. He still crawls, and he still falls, but he pretty much always tries to walk first. I’m proud of him! It’s crazy that although almost every human being goes through this, a parent can be so proud ☺.

Leadership Summit

2008-11-16T07:52:00.001-06:00

I am SO thankful for getting the opportunity to attend Global Leadership Summit 2008 here in Nairobi. This was my first big adventure out on my own away from our area, so that was exciting too. I decided to take a taxi each way, just so I wouldn’t get lost and I’d be on time. We have this guy named Karanja that has been our sole taxi driver while we’ve been here, so I asked him to take me back and forth these past 2 days. This is cool in itself because I think he’s the only non-christian that I’ve met in Nairobi. So its’ been good to get a different perspective on life here in Nairobi, as well as being able to build a relationship with him.

Anyway, it was good experience..basically the same speakers that ya’ll had who went in the U.S. in August… the cool thing was that bill hybels was here in person! He did a good job of speaking in a way that Africans could connect to—using different words and ways of explaining things than he would have in the states. Surprisingly bill was a bit more revealing on his political leanings (probably thinking that the government cannot change the world, only the local church can, be he’s definitely excited that barak won the election).

The vice-president of Kenya also made an appearance on the first day of the conference, which was particularly exciting for me, as a westerner who has never met him.

International justice Mission has an office here in Kenya, so one of the guys that actually was rescued from prison by IJM now works here, and I got to meet him! He actually lives near us, and he is a pastor at the Methodist church right down the road (at least that’s what I can gather). For those of you who went, I think he was the guy that Gary Haughn profiled in his talk from Kenya.

The worship through music was also really cool the second day. Everyone was really getting into it—I’ve found that when we sing praises in Swahili, everyone gets super excited and dances around. Some of the guys in front of me, probably in their 30s, were doing the robot and twist and a bunch of 70s dance moves. It was so refreshing and exciting! No matter how old or young, people were dancing, singing praises to God out of a joyful heart. Surprisingly that doesn’t always happen here—it doesn’t always look like that, many times it looks like it would in the U.S., but once you start singing in Swahili, watch out—they come alive!

Anyway, I’m thankful to jake for making some serious time sacrifices (especially this week as the term is coming to a close and everything is compiling paper-wise), and making it possible for me to go.

For those of you who went in the states, was there anything specific that God impressed on you at the summit?

Baby Malloy...

2008-11-09T05:57:00.003-06:00

Sooooo.... the news that some have been waiting for....

it looks like we'll be introducing Alethia Amani Malloy to the world around April 8th!

We've already gotten some adorable pink and purple outfits from some friend here who have been having girls. Everything from the ultrasound looks great...looks like everything is forming quite nicely. We're really excited!!!

Barak Craze in Kenya

2008-11-06T07:43:00.001-06:00

So, I’m sure that back in the states there’s a lot of hype about Barak becoming our next president. And sadly we’re missing out on that, right? (lol) Wrong. Kenya is SUPER excited about the election results.

Wednesday morning (Tuesday night your time), I went to Karen with a friend of mine for her daughter’s 2 month check-up, and the first thing I heard in the doctor’s office was, “Did you hear that we have a kenyan running America?” (a guy who was delivering some stuff said to the receptionist). LOL. Interesting.

Then, at the post office, guys were yelling, “Obama!” everytime a new person walked up. Lots of people had Barak t-shirts on, and the newspaper stands were advertising their papers with, “Learn about Our Son’s victory in America.” Oh dear.

BUT, I shouldn’t complain, because today is a public holiday due to Barak’s victory! The President made the announcement yesterday. No school today (Thursday). Thank you America for the day off of classes. Jake is enjoying this day with some extra study time (and family time, of course).

So, just thought you’d enjoy that little bit of information.

2008-10-13T03:58:00.002-05:00

I'd like to introduce you to our local church's website:

http://www.karencommunitychurch.org/

Also, there is a small chance that I may be able to attend Leadership Summit Global in November! Basically, it's the one that occurred in the States in August, but broadcasted here in Nairobi later. The cool thing is- Bill Hybels is coming to Nairobi and speaking here live! So that'd be a fun thing to see. I missed the deadline (it was Friday), so I emailed someone, asking if an exception could be made.

Asante was sick last week, but he's fully recovered, as of today. It was Jake and I's first test in caring for a very sick child. I suppose we're blessed if this first occurred after 11 months :). I can't believe he's going to be a year old in a month! The time has flown by. He's becoming way more verbal (he loves to repeat what we say), and he's doing a really good job of communicating with us in his own way.

On a different note, I'm SO glad that Catalyst is over. I've been thinking about it the whole time I've been here, but now it's over and there's nothing i can do about going. Lol, I fantasized of jumping on a plane and taking it straight to Atlanta. Lol, oh dear :).

Jake has about 1 month of classes left! This term has flown by, for him and I both. We have the month of December off, so we're hoping to visit our Compassion child, Emmanuel. We're still trying to work it out though.

Java House, Fun Day, and New Baby at NEGST

2008-10-04T09:32:00.005-05:00

Much to update since our last post!

Java House
The other evening, in celebration of our one month being here, the new arrival of Lillian (baby of Jeremy and Jamie Lang), and our friend Julie’s 31st birthday, we went out to the Java House to eat dinner. Java House is a restaurant that was started by a missionary kid, and has a lot of really great, authentic American food. Most people got a bacon, quacamole cheeseburger with fries (jake included), but I ordered a grilled chicken salad and a side of fries, and Asante got a pancake in the shape of mickey mouse. It was AMAZING. I had been craving a salad since long before we left, so 6 weeks later, my craving was finally fulfilled. It was fun time of hanging out and relaxing.

Here’s a pic of Asante and Anabelle in their high chairs:

Fun Day
The next day, we had fun day on campus. There were a lot of games and a big goat roast. Here’s a pic of Jake’s plate. Guess the food!

Jake
Jake has been really busy with classes these days. He’s taking: vernacular scripture, Greek I, hermeneutics, Postgraduate research and writing, and cultural anthropology. That’s 18 hours, which is a little heavier than the average load, but he’s taking it like a champ. Normally he does a lot of his reading and studying after Asante and I go to bed…staying up until 11 or midnight, and still getting up with us early in the morning. Please be praying for his endurance and focus as he works hard.

Asante
Last week Asante was pretty sick. He vomited ALL over the place one night before bed, and for the next 3 days when through a whole pack of diapers because of an upset stomach. We took him to the clinic and they gave him some medicine, and now he’s fully recovered. That was pretty nerve-wracking for me, just because he’s never been sick really (besides a bad cold), and I had no idea what to do. Thankfully I had some moms to ask around here.

A Columbia Connection
The other day I got to meet a woman named Cami, from good ‘ol Columbia, MO! She comes to Nairobi every so often, sometimes for a year, sometimes for 6 weeks, to travel around to the different orphanages to do medical stuff. She is a member of The Crossing Church, who, by the way, helps out with the Pistis School on campus—the one that Asante goes to. They have provided blankets and different things in the past for the children. It was really great to talk about the common people we know, and just good to have someone from Columbia here. In a couple weeks (when my stomach isn’t so queasy), she’s offered to take me out a little to see some of the orphanages with her, maybe one of them being in the slums. I know that will be hard, but that’s something I think I need to see… I need to understand poverty in a deeper way. Anyway, I look forward to hanging out with her more. She seems really cool.

Chinese Night
I forgot to take pictures (I’m so bad at at that!) but we made homemade Chinese dumplings (yuuuum!) last night for our friend Julie’s birthday. They turned out wonderfully, and it brought me much joy (do you notice a trend between joy and food with me? Lol, I’m a true pregnant lady). It was just really fun to spend a few hours cooking, talking, and celebrating with them.

Sidenote: After we got home from the Java House, Julie had her baby 8 hours later!! The new baby’s name is Rebekah Jane Emily and she is ADORABLE. Some newborns are ugly, but this one is a cutie. Here’s the family:

Well, I think that’s all. We are working on uploading ANOTHER video! This one will highlight Fun Day, along with a little other footage of our clan. Be on the lookout!
Also, for those of you who aren’t aware, Jake has a blog too: www.jakemalloy.com

Cooking in Africa!

2008-09-22T02:37:00.003-05:00

I always thought I was decent cook…but little did I know that I was only pseudo-cooking until now ☺. Cooking in Africa is much different. I only have 2 gas burners, so I have to figure out how to make everything we want on those! (although I am considering buying a small oven … it kinda looks like a toaster oven… where you can fit one casserole dish in it).

Anyway… I’m learning, slowly but surely.

Here’s a woman at the school who sells fruits and vegetables. She buys them at the market, and then sells them a little higher here on campus. We call her Mama Flora (because she is the mother of Flora).

Here are some things that we have bought over these past few weeks…

A red pepper the size of Asante’s head (for about 40 schillings, or 60 cents):

An avocado almost as big as my head (okay, not really), but it’s big. It cost probably, like 10 schillings… or 16 cents:

And big fresh pineapples cost 30-40 cents here—we love them! We have been buying one a week to snack on during the day.

So far I’ve learned how to make homemade spaghetti sauce (from tomatoes!) and meatballs, chili (which wasn’t hard, but I did have to cook the kidney beans), oogali (which is a white bread that you make from just water and flour on the stove), hummus, and guacamole.

And here are some fun bonus pics of Asante: ☺

From Asante

2008-09-13T11:13:00.004-05:00

So this is an update about me, Asante Samuel Malloy. My momma calls me Asante Sana a lot, and I hear “Asante!” being yelled all the time because it means “thank you” here in Kenya.
Here are a couple pics that mom took of me:
Here I’m sleeping, something I’ve done more of since I’ve gotten here. I normally take a short nap in the morning and then a longer one after lunch, and sometimes even a short one right before dinner!….

Here’s I am playing with some twine that dad gave me after he used to make a thingy for the mosquito net to go up into the air when mom and dad aren’t in bed…

And here I am playing with some of my friends. They’re really nice. They don’t come over as much now though, because they are all in school…

I am starting school on Monday at Pistis School right by my house. I get to go in the mornings 3 times per week for a few hours. I will be the youngest in my class, but they are very excited to have me there. I’m excited to be there as well because now I get to play with other kids and with some different toys!

I’m also learning some about language…I’m able to imitate my mom and dad when they say “baba” and “mama” and “papa” and “fafa”. I also like to copy my mom when she says “up” and “down” when my momma throws the ball up and down. I’m getting pretty good at saying “up.” I can also say “moo” when I’m playing with my toy cow.

I’m feeling more brave about walking around on the furniture. I’m not quite ready to walk by myself yet, but I’ll get there one day. Sometimes I stand by myself when I don’t realize it. But then mom or dad says, “Asante! You’re standing by yourself!” Then I get scared and grab on to something.

I also love to make my funny face all the time. And I clap a lot now. Mostly when I’m happy, but sometimes when I’m mad at mommy too.

And yesterday I ate a tortilla and some taco meat and drank from a sippee cup at our friend’s house. It was so tasty. I felt like a big boy.

P.S. Dad told me to say that he has some video coming soon!

Big, Exciting News

2008-09-04T06:44:00.005-05:00

Today we got to see a bigger part of Nairobi, northern Nairobi to be exact. Why you ask? Well, we went to a medical location to get me checked out... and this is what we found:

And for those of you that found out about Asante on the BSU Spring Break Mission Trip....no, it's not a tumor :).

Baby Malloy is about 8 or 9 weeks along. I've been suffering from bouts of morning/all-day sickness, which has made things here a bit more challenging, but it's no where NEAR what it was last time, due to God's grace and more sleep/rest during the day.

If it's a girl we have our great girl name that we love love love. BUT, I think another boy name is going to be tricky. So if you have any suggestions, feel free to write them below. However, include the meanings of the name as well, as that is definitely important to us.

More Pictures!

2008-09-04T06:31:00.003-05:00

Our lovely bathroom with the oh-so-cute shower curtain. So far I have successfully had one full warm shower. :)
another pic of our room (obviously our desk this time)...
me in our living area...
our dining part of our living area...
jake loves the brick and the tall ceiling... when we first got here we got someone to come in and take down 2 wasps nests!
Our refrigerator, which i'm quite happy about. We have a great amount of freezer space. Also, notice all the great pics of our friends and family!

A Few Pictures of our Home

2008-09-02T07:41:00.003-05:00

Our bedroom ...
view of the kitchen...

Our view from our living room window, of the kids playing outside.
Our Dining Area
Another of our kitchen....
Asante's Bedroom...

The only rooms left to share are our bathroom and living room... i need to change the pics around before i post them, so this is until next time... :)

Update from Nairobi

2008-08-31T13:27:00.000-05:00

Hopefully those pictures I promised in the last post will get up soon. We’ve tried a couple times, but blogger was being finicky. We took some pics of our apt all set up.
Anyway, things have been getting a little better here. The homesickness is still there full force at times, but it’s a bit dimmer. I can forget about it during the day. We’ve tried to stay pretty busy.

One day Jake went out to give some blood at a local hospital for one of the family’s here at NEGST. Their 4 year old son had to get a heart surgery, and unlike America, there is a VERY short supply of blood here, so they charge the patient for any blood they may need during something like that! So, Jake had the kind of blood he needed, so he donated it to him so the family doesn’t have to pay. Also, some other mzungus went as well, even though they didn’t have the same blood type. Apparently if they give a pint of any kind of blood, then the hospital will give the family one for free of the kind they need. It’s interesting to think that Jake’s blood is actually going to a person! Most of the time when one gives blood in the states, it just goes into a big bank—you have no idea the difference that you’re making. So, anyway, that was cool and I was proud of him for doing that on his 3rd or 4th day here.

Let’s see…. What else? Asante is doing well. He’s cruising around like CRAZY, which for those of you who aren’t familiar with that language, it means he’s walking from one piece of furniture to the next, while hanging onto to something with one hand. He’s much more confident in his walking abilities, but I think it will still be awhile before he walks. Funny story—jake and I said to him, “Asante, I think you are going to walk SO soon.” And he immediately shakes his head no very firmly. LOL. I don’t think he knew what we said, but I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s beginning to understand when we say “no” to him, and he’s begun to indicate that he knows some of what we are saying. He’s such a good boy. We’re very blessed and thankful for him.

We’ve begun to hang out some with a few families here… one is from the states originally, and another is from the UK. We all watched the Office last night, neither of them had seen it, so that was really, really fun. I don’t know if everyone liked it, but I think most of them did. We also had fajitas at the family from the states—YUM! I don’t know how they made it to taste so authentic, but it was delicious.

We attended a local church service here of a church called Karen Community Church. I’m not sure what denomination it was—they didn’t really say. But the people were nice and the service was pretty much what we were used to in the states. Some of the songs we sang were English, and a couple in Kiswahili. They had announcements, prayer, new member recognition, and a sermon. It lasted about 2 hours, but it didn’t seem that long. Afterwards all the visitors went to the pastor’s office for sandwiches and tea. It was quite a good idea! It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was a good thing to be able to get face-to-face with some of the leadership and meet other visitors. In the bulletin they had a quote from Bill Hybels—and from some of the structure, I have a sneaky suspicion that they may be somewhat affiliated with Willowcreek Association. Being the bibliophile that I am, I scanned the pastor’s little library, and saw a lot of books that I recognized, which was kinda strange for me. I guess I expected everything to be a bit more…. I don’t know, African?

But what is African really? I guess that’s what I’m here to learn. My expectations are blown nearly everyday, and today was no different. I was surprised that they had a bulletin with an order of worship- they also had lots of programs- men’s, women’s, outreach, missions, prayer, youth, etc. etc. They had 2 services- the first was for youth and anyone under 40ish who was single. Then everyone else came to the later service. During the later service, those who were in the first service had Sunday school type classes outside, which was pretty fun. Those attending the service weren’t particularly more or less charismatic than what we were used to in the states. Not good or bad, just surprising I’m not sure if we’ll “shop around” or just stick with this community church. We don’t want to spend too much time going from one church to the next. We know there is no perfect church, so we’re just trying to figure out where we can fit in and use our gifts. It’s hard because we feel like while being at NEGST, an entirely Christian community in itself who has chapel 2 days a week for the students and a small group on Fridays, we don’t want to become “overchurched”, something that we were trying to get away from in the states. So, all that to say we’re praying about it and seeing where the Lord leads.
I guess this is enough for now. ☺ I could ramble on for a while. Thanks for reading!

First Few Days in Africa

2008-08-27T12:14:00.001-05:00

Hujambo Rafikis!
So brace yourself, this could be quite a lengthy post.

For those of you who haven’t heard, we got to Nairobi after a very smooth plane ride… we had quite the layover in Amsterdam, around 4 hours, which was a little rough—I wasn’t feeling well and Jake was really tired and Asante was… well, not. ☺. Jake kindly let me sleep on a chair and table while we waited for the boarding time. Other than that, the food was good, we had good seats, Asante was well-behaved (thankfully he slept every single takeoff and landing!), and everyone was in good spirits.

When we got to Nairobi, it was pretty late—2 guys from the school picked us up and took us back to a professor’s house to stay for the evening before going to our flat the next day. Asante got up at 2a and was awake until 5, but it was okay because we weren’t that tired either. We eventually got up around 11, and a kind man named Lawrence picked us up to take us to Nakumatt, which is basically Kenya’s Wal*mart type store (complete with blue vests). We bought some basic, basic necessities (like a mattress), and then came back to our place to begin putting things in order.

The first night we were here we were invited to Lawrence and his wife, Dorcas’ house, for dinner. It was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. I love love Kenyan food. It was actually cool because as we were talking, we realized that both him and I have gone to the same Leadership Summit! He came to the states a little bit in 2006 and went to Willowcreek in Chicago. It was fun to talk about. He says that there is a satellite location in Nairobi of Leadership Summit, but it’s kinda far away. It’s at a huge Baptist church towards the heart of the city. Depending, it might be fun to go next year and talk about it with those of you BSUers who go too!

It wasn’t until today (Wednesday) that we’ve gotten all of the stuff that we know that we need. Actually, as I write, Jake is out braving his first independent matatu ride to Nakumatt to pick up a few things that we need for the househelp.

Speaking of, many of you know that we weren’t really sure if we would get househelp, but we decided to go ahead with it…. Lawrence’s younger sister, Grace, is going to be our househelp. She came for the first time today, and she did a great job. She’s really sweet and has great initiative. We’re going to be having her help with laundry, watching Asante 4 hours a week, as well as some light cleaning and shopping. It is so crazy that a good wage is less than a dollar an hour. I think she’ll also help us with learning Kiswahili. Asante seems to really like her. I think I’m going to ask her to only speak Kiswahili to Asante so he begins to pick it up. There’s a 2-year-old here named Annabelle—I heard that she knows both Kiswahili and English, and she was 1-year-old when her parents moved here.

Asante is doing very well… he is completely adjusted to the time, and he’s even okay sleeping in his own room (something we didn’t have for him in the states!). The first night he got 9 mosquito bites, but they don’t seem to bother him at all. Everyone loves him – he has friends come visit him everyday so far to play with him. He LOVES it when we’re around other Africans… he reaches out for them and likes to be held. Everyone is quite surprised by his willingness to go to anyone who wants him.

Jake’s classes begin on the 8th of September, but he has orientation all week next week, starting on the 1st. This is where he’ll register for classes and things like that. We saw that they are beginning a new masters of arts here called Organizational Leadership. The classes look so cool, but it’s actually a distance education course. And you have to be involved in an organization on the leaderships level in order to get into it. I think it sounds fun though.

Anyway, that’s how things are going. Although we’ve had a lot to set up, the days have gone by slowly. I’ve been really homesick. I really miss the community, I miss our family. I surprisingly miss a lot of food and conveniences… mostly a vehicle. I can’t really get around by myself here… they say that white women and children shouldn’t ever be out alone. Soooo, I’ll be stuck here during the day—everything is kinda far away. Many people here have cars, but I just don’t think it’s in our budget. I miss the ministry of the BSU. I miss game nights and having a tv on during the day. Internet is hit or miss, but a guy here is working on networking, so we may be able to have internet in the house regularly in a few weeks or months. That would be really cool! But of course no telling for sure.

We’re going to post pictures, so be on the look out!

last 24 hours

2008-08-20T10:26:00.002-05:00

Today is our last day in America. Tomorrow at this time we'll be high in the sky, heading towards our first destination on our 24 hour journey.

It's pretty laid back today. Only things left still to do is hem up a pair of pants, write a book blog, and head to the hotel where we'll be staying tonight. It feels like any other day. My nerves aren't really kicking in yet. I feel pretty laid back. I think it won't be until the airplane that it really hits me.

Asante has had a cold the last few days, so please be praying for him! He seems to be getting over it already. He had a fever the first day in Waterloo, but he's well over that now.

I dont have a ton to say.... I'll be sending out an email soon, so be looking for it!

t-6 days

2008-08-15T16:17:00.002-05:00

Less than one week until take off! I can hardly believe it. I was up late after Jake and Asante went to bed, reading through some material that the travel clinic person gave to us after we got our shots last month. It was terrifying! I had to make my mind stop racing as I was trying to fall asleep. Things like parasites and infections and malaria were a big threat in my mind at 11:00p. When I woke up this morning, it wasn't so bad. I think I'll be less nervous about all of that stuff once I get there and realize that it's not as terrifying as the packet of information lets on.

Asante got his yellow fever shot this morning and his Hib this afternoon- he totally took them like a champ! He cried for a split second and then stopped-- without the need of cuddling or a pacifier. I'm totally proud of him. :)

Tonight is the night of good-byes for most of our Columbia friends, and early tomorrow morning we'll be headed to St. Louis to help my little brother move into college. After that we'll head to Waterloo to hang out with my parents until we leave.

It's really weird... I feel like Columbia isn't my home right now (because we have no permanent home here anymore), and it doesn't feel like Waterloo or Potosi are our homes either, obviously because we haven't been there for awhile.... so I have this weird homesickness feeling that is uncurable. I'm not sure if the thought of moving to Nairobi makes it better or worse.

update on packing

2008-07-24T18:34:00.002-05:00

This afternoon has been one of organizing papers. Like 2 hours of it. Who has that much paper to look through? Apparently we do. It doesn't help that one of my strengths, according to Strengthsfinder 2.0, is Input. Input people LOVE to collect things- anything really- that they think will be useful for someone else sometime in the future. You can imagine what that looks like, lol. I want to learn how to do that electronically instead of with paper. I'd save a ton of trees.

Only 3 days until my parents come to take as much stuff as they have room for home. We have a lot of boxes; I hope we can find room for it all. It's amazing how much stuff we still have despite giving away and selling so much.

Our Schedule

2008-07-20T12:39:00.003-05:00

I thought I would share with everyone our schedule for the rest of our time here in Missouri.

July 20th-August 2nd: In Columbia, living in our duplex.
August 3rd- 6th: In Columbia, living with the Parsons and maybe Christa and Tyler.
August 7th: Columbia in the morning to get Asante's shots and last doctor appointment, and then we'll head to Palmyra for Emily Foreman's wedding rehearsal.
August 8th: Emily Foreman's Wedding in Palmyra
August 9th: Journeying from Palmyra to Potosi, with a possible lunch stop in Columbia.
August 10th- 16th: Vacation with the Malloys to Oklahoma
August 17th-20th: In Waterloo with the Knoebels
August 20th: In the late afternoon we're going to be travelling to St. Louis to get a hotel room near the airport so that we can be close, and also hopefully hang out with friends and family.
August 21st: Bright and early we'll be heading to the airport! We have to be there by 7:30am-ish.

Louisville

2008-07-19T15:55:00.003-05:00

I'm sitting in my friend Jessica's room here in Louisville, KY, getting ready with a few of my favorite girls for a night on the town. We're going to do a little window shopping and then a dinner on the Ohio River. I'm so loving being here with these girls-- I haven't hung out with any of them very much (besides Ashley), so it's such a great blessing. I think this will probably be my last girls weekend for awhile :).

This is just a polaroid of what is to come-- lasts. I am so thankful for the friends God has put in my life, and I'm trying to savor the time before we leave. As with anything, I know that this is not the final goodbyes for most, but simply a pause. And I know that I'll make some great new friends in Kenya.

Yay for Louisville and great ladies - Ashley, Charity, Laura Mac, Jekkisa, Shannon and Kayla! Maybe I'll add some pics later...

First Word Imitated

2008-07-14T13:25:00.002-05:00

Asante just said "dog." Adriene, Bryce and I were in the living room and we were saying it to him to repeat it, and he did! He was really concentrating and then said something that was similar to it. And then we did the same with "doggie." Amazing boy!

Whew!

2008-07-09T22:58:00.000-05:00

Wow, I don't remember getting ready for a yard sale to be so exhausting. My mom and I used to do it all the time, and it was way more fun than this, lol. It makes it harder with a small child around- only one of us can be working on something at a time because Asante moves so fast and just gets into everything! Today, I was going through our bedroom to look for things to sell, and Jake and Asante were hanging out there with me. Asante started to climb over and on all these things. I'd turn around and he was trying to eat the Skin So Soft Bath Oil or Outlet Covers or his diaper rash ointment (yik!). He's crazy, but hilarious.

It's 11:00p and I'll be headed to bed shortly. Jake and I are rising early tomorrow (6a) to start on some things before Asante wakes up. Pray for us! I feel exhausted and the sale has yet to begin! :) And tell your friends. About the sale that is. I mean, maybe there will be nothing good there. That's a possibility. But maybe tell them to buy just one thing. Maybe the cheapest thing there. Just something. :0 hehe. Goodnight ya'll!

Packing

2008-07-03T22:16:00.000-05:00

So far, so good. I've been officially unemployed (weird!) for 3 days, and it's been a productive week. Jake and I have spent the afternoons going through the upstairs office/storage room while Asante is napping. We've been very successful in our progress. I think our goal is to have everything in the house looked at by Tuesday evening, and then I'll spend Wednesday and Thursday pricing things-- because my yard sale is on Friday and Saturday! We're hoping to get rid of a lot of our stuff-- if you're in the Columbia area, be sure to come take a look. We're selling some good stuff, I think. And all the money goes to our 2-year trip to Africa! :)

We're going to Potosi for the weekend to visit Jake's parents and brother's family. I'm excited to see them! This may be the last time for awhile.... so sad. We've officially begun the good-byes-- Emily Sutterfield left for St. Louis (and soon Alabama) for good. :(