Christmas Celebrating

Just had to get some pictures of Christmas up before December finished and January began! We had a great Christmas Eve, passing out hampers and then baking all day. That evening we went to a big bash at the Richs' house - 200 of my favorite Kijabe friends in attendance, a live nativity, and a chance for my family to meet everybody around. So fun.

That night we did our traditional Christmas cookies and wassail and opened one present each - always pajamas!!

Mommy and Me! Soooooo happy!

This year the girls were in almost-matching snowflake pj's. Love it.

Christmas morning! I woke up Ryan who woke up Mom and Dad and Elyse with the video camera in their face. Love it- my dream of Anderson Family Christmas DVD is being realized! We sat around and opened presents in our pj's all morning. Here's Ryan sporting his new sheepskin hat:


We went to the Richs' for Christmas dinner. Here are the sibs trekking down to lower station with our baskets of food in tow . . . it was so hot!


The Rich's are a great family and I was so happy to spend the day with them. Their college kids are back visiting so the whole family was there, including baby Hope, who is one of the abandoned babies from months back. They have been fostering her for the past few months and she's easily the most popular baby around these parts. The Rich family has really taken me in over the past month as I waited for my family to arrive, taking me along on trips to town, watching Planet Earth at night, making cookies with Anna . . . so it was great to have my family over there with them for Christmas day! My friends Matt (who is practically part of the Rich family), Anita, and Dexter were over as well. Isn't it just so great to be surrounded by family and friends at the holidays? That is one of the best feelings in the world.

Baby Hope was the star of the show for quite a while as she slept through Christmas present opening in the morning and had to open her gifts after lunch. Is she not the CUTEST thing you've ever seen?

After our fantastic lunch we laid around and chatted and watched a movie . . . and ate pie . . . and after calling some family in the States, all the kids got together and played floor hockey, which thrilled my Canadian Anita.

So, it was a different Christmas - hot, in Kenya - but still so familiar and fantastic and fun.

mommy's entry on nile adventures

When I got ready to post on our fantastic adventure of rafting the Nile, I spotted an email my mom had sent to her friends. I found it . . . hilarious. I guess I've gotten a bit used to some of the ins and outs of African life and would never have thought to mention the details that made this trip so special. So, pull up a chair, get out your reading glasses, and enjoy:

Our departure from Kijabe Kenya for Jinja, Uganda was Dec. 27^th. We waited at the bus stop atop a mountain for just short of 3 hours until our “deluxe” bus arrived. No explanation as to why it was late---after all, this is Africa. Our journey took over 10 hours on roads that were often dirt, partially paved, or riddled with enormous holes that our driver vainly attempted to avoid. The bus swayed from side to side. Our stops were in small towns where we had to rush to use the squat pots (holes in the ground that hundreds of people used). We carried our own toilet paper and held our breath. The bus was very hot by afternoon and we asked to open the small windows at the top of our seats. It was stifling and the small of body odor was intense. We just kept drinking water . By late afternoon I had cockroaches crawling on the windows beside me. We arrived in Jinja around 9:30 pm and were met by several men on small motorcycles who wanted to take us to our final destination. We declined their offer of a ride (imagine that!) and waited for a “taxi”. We finally arrived at our lodging which was a whopping $25 a night for all 5 of us including breakfast. Scott and I had the “honeymoon suite” loft atop the two beds for the kids. The shower and toilet were “open air” with no roof so that was also interesting. We got there past the dinner time so we went to bed without dinner. None of us complained. We were just glad to have a bed to sleep in.

(May I please interject? My favorite part: "None of us complained." He he he.)

Early the next morning we set off for the rafting company. We rode in the back of an old truck to our destination. We were outfitted in our life jackets, helmets and given breakfast. Our raft included our family, a lawyer from London, a psychiatrist from Ireland, and our South African guide named Jane who had been doing this job for 7 years in Uganda. We were given plenty of instruction and had to practice various steps of rescue and safety. She told us some very sobering details about this recreation and you can imagine how the anxiety level rose as I contemplated what we had gotten ourselves into. I prayed constantly throughout the day.

Our trip took a total of 6 hours. We did SEVERAL class 5 rapids. On our second class 5, all but one in our raft went overboard in very fast moving water. Jane had told us that we would tumble and tumble and feel like it was an eternity before we would surface. I will attest to that!!!! There were Ugandans in Kayaks that accompanied our trip to help rescue us. We had to cross our legs around the front of the kayak and hold on to an attached rope until we could get close enough to our raft and get pulled back in. It was so scary. Of course, we gulped in a great deal of water when we tumbled. Nile River water has a unique taste!!! (amoeba flavored) When we managed to successfully go over a rapid without flipping, we would shout and lift our oars to touch in a high five position. It was hilarious. Talk about a bonding experience. You can imagine how exhausted we were by the end of our 30 kilometer trip down the river. Along the way we saw many beautiful birds, people washing and bathing along the banks of the river, and lots of beautiful scenery. The water moves quickly so it was very clean. We drove back dusty roads in our open truck to our original destination to enjoy a wonderful barbeque overlooking the Nile. The only injury occurred when our Irish friend flipped out at the last rapid and was smacked in the nose with his oar. His wound was bandaged and cleaned but we had to depart before we knew if he had actually broken his nose. He was a good sport about it but this was the first day of his holiday and he was spending two more weeks in Uganda. It was hard to tell if he needed stitches, but our guide didn’t recommend going to the local hospital.

Our 10 hour bus ride back the next day got us back to Kijabe by 7:30pm. We were so dirty but all of us agreed that it was worth every minute. I found out afterwards that many of the missionaries who have lived here for years have yet to attempt the rapids due to the danger involved. I am glad I didn’t know that or I am sure I would have backed out.

Things I just have to add: The actual rafting was AMAZING and definitely terrifying. The last rapid was a class 6 that we had to get out and walk around part of, and then we rafted the last part of it, which was a class 5. Mom stayed on the bank and watched us as we all went flying out of the raft and were sucked under and tossed about. In her words, "I will never regret that decision as long as we live."

So, these pictures aren't that exciting, we didn't take our cameras on the river. But here they are:

FREEZING on top of the hill, waiting for the bus for 3 hours.

Mom wrapped in her hoodie and chatting with the kiddos.

siblings by the river as we got ready to go. cheerful, aren't we?

the choo that we paid 10 shillings to use at the border.

as these types of toilets are fairly uncommon, this sign was available to explain how to use it.

and guess what we did!

This is an email that my dad sent my mother last week as we were trying to make plans:

From: Scott Anderson
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 6:18 PM
To: Carol Anderson
Subject: FW: Communication from website - Age restrictions for the Nile Rafting

Carol,

Here is the adventure Erica has cooked up for us all - rafting on class 5 rapids at the head of the Nile! Sounds exciting? Hold on - it gets even better. It includes a 10 hr Kenyan/Ugandan cultural immersion/excursion (2 times) at no additional cost. Others would refer to this as simply a "bus ride" but little do they know that the more adventuresome have mastered Swahili, built diplomatic bridges, solved world hunger and brought entire villages to Christ on such excursions. Somewhat frequent stops are made in route to collect input from local villages with a census conducted of the local sanitization infrastructure, if one exists. Our evening accommodations at the Nile include dormitory style housing for the princely sum of $7/night. Smell the aroma of adventure? Equipped with a little Imodium this trip holds no bounds. We would be accompanied by another RVA family the whole way - doubling our pleasure and providing witnesses to validate our adventure as true to fact.

In short, 10 hr bus ride to Uganda, overnight in dormitory style housing, although I did see tent city as well, rafting all day (awaiting confirmation Elyse will be accepted due to age limit - was done just last week), another night, then return 10 hour trip. Price is inclusive of the "nicer" bus fare, over night accommodations, rafting, and Uganda visa (US dollars no older than year 2000 - got that covered already).

In or out? Sounds like fun and many memories.

Love Scott

So the final decision? You'll just have to wait until the next post to find out!! We've been having such a great time here in Kenya, I'm so thankful for my family's visit! The internet has been worse than normal so blogging been impossible, but I heard it should be better soon. Cross your fingers- more pictures coming your way!

Christmas Hamper Delivery

Christmas Eve morning dawned bright and sunny . . . and warm! RVA Titchies raised money to provide Christmas hampers for families in the area. The local church picked the neediest families and we drove off to the deliver the gifts. My family delivered to 5 widows who were taking care of their grandchildren.

We headed down the bumpy road to Kijabetown, which lies a little lower than RVA at the base of the hills. The area is beautiful, but it was obvious that the village was lacking in rain as shambas (gardens) are dry and the soil dusty.

a shosho (grandmother) carrying up wood and water.

Most of the shoshos that we visited only spoke Kikuyu, not Swahili or English. Henry, who works in the Science department at RVA and lives in the village, was our guide and translated for us. We dropped off the baskets, sang a song, and showed the women how to use the solar flashlights that were included. Then the ladies prayed for us.

(hmm, solar torch?)

The kids were so cute and loved being videotaped by my brother. Ryan got some really great footage - excited to see what he does with it!

FAMILY HERE!

As MUCH as I love Christmas, I've been a bit bitter towards all of the "I'll be home for Christmas" and "we're together at Christmas" songs this year. I've been waiting impatiently for my family to arrive and that day FINALLY came! Actually, I got to pick up Ryan on Tuesday and we've been hiking and messing around and chilling out for almost a week.

Meanwhile, Mom, Dad, and Elyse have been living it up in New York going to White Christmas on Broadway and staying in a hotel on Times Square and going to Macys and Anthropologie and and afternoon in Paris!

so stinkin cute! i kind of forgot that the rest of the world was cold right now, but they have mentioned SEVERAL times that new york was freezing!!

Monday we jumped out of bed at 5:00 am to pick them up at the airport. They made it, without some luggage, but they're here!

pooly erica!

Poor family, going from OKC to NYC to Paris to Nairobi in just a few days! Culture SHOCK! Welcome to steamy Kenya, lose some bags, traffic and truck exhaust . . . good thing my family has traveled before, they took it all in stride.

We've decorated the tree and made a gingerbread house as I tried to make up for lost time celebrating Christmas with my family.


They took turns konking out on my fun but I forgive them. They can do whatever they want, as long as they're here with me!

Wedding Bells Again!

This weekend my Bible study friends convinced me to go to the wedding of someone who used to be in the study . . . but left before I got here. They assured me that it was perfectly ok to show up uninvited to a wedding of someone I had never met. So, since it's vac and there is not much going on in my life, I took them up on it and signed up for a hilarious day of the "Kenyan Experience."

Francis, Sarah, Dexter and I left at about 8 am from Kijabe. No one actually had an invitation and but they called and thought it started at 10:30. We traveled happily on lovely roads for about three hours past towns I had heard of and yet never seen, taking in the lovely countryside, spotting zebra . . . great fun. We stopped for chai and samosas.


And then the fun really began. Suddenly our good road was gone and Francis was forced to take his car on the rockiest of 'roads' for 15 km . . . or an HOUR's worth of travel in search of Rotich's house. In order to make an already random trip more surreal, our music choice varied between Johnny Cash and "Franye's Techno Mix." We finally found the way, indicated by a sign labeled "Rotich's Place" and an arrow pointing up the driveway . . . which was really another 3 km of bumpity bump.

And here we are after hours of travel, arriving at a wedding that should've commenced at 10:30 and still hadn't started 12:30.

Here's proof of the wedding plan vs. wedding reality:

Before the bride arrived, I had opportunity to meet the groom. You know you're in Kenya when the groom shakes your hand and has to introduce himself. I felt a bit awkward but he didn't seem to mind. In traditional Kalenjin fashion, the bride was escorted in by a crowd of friends and relatives, and then the party could really start. The wedding ceremony was held outside under tents and translated from Kalenjin into Swahili/English - whatever the pastor felt like.

This is what the seats next to me looked like once the wedding started:
empty.

Because all of my friends were busy doing this:
Their best paparazzi impressions. But that's ok, too - it's perfectly legit to stand in front/beside/behind the bride and groom and snap away as they say their vows.

Here's my paparazzi pic of the happy couple feeding cake to the parents:

After the ceremony we washed our hands and dug into traditional Kenyan food for the feast. There was also some Kalenjin dancing performed by Grandpa and soon joined by the rest of the family. Please notice Grandma's stylin hat:

I joined the Kijabe crowd of hospital staff and Bible study buddies during the speech giving and ended up singing along to a song I didn't know . . . in Swahili . . . I think it was kind of obvious I was just a wedding crasher.

We couldn't stay long as we had to get back to Kijabe . . . so we piled back in to the car and headed down our favorite 15 km stretch, this time chosing "Franye's Rock Ballads" as the cd accompianament. My friends said I should show some pictures of the road and ask my supporters to raise money for a BS vehicle - preferably a Prado. I didn't think that would fly . . .

After a long day of wedding crashing and air guitar playing in the back seat, I fell asleep on the way home. But I woke up to catch this:

And this:

And thus ended another Kenyan Adventure.

Kenyan BBQ

Wednesday nights I go to a Bible Study on lower station. It has been such a blessing - I appreciate leaving the gates of RVA and developing these friendships with some of the lower station crew. We are comprised of surgeons/doctors/dentists and one teacher - me! So sometimes when discussion goes to what enzyme ibuprofen inhibits, I tune out . . . (not even sure if I got that right). We also meet Monday nights for prayers (and chai and popcorn). Right now we're studying money matters. This topic is especially hilarious - besides the cultural differences, everyone else is salaried, not to mention older and more established in life than I am. So sometimes I don't have a ton to add but they kindly tolerate my presence. =)

most of us!

These pictures are from a barbeque we had a couple weeks ago. My friend Dexter is a dentist here and his fiance was back in town. She works for CURE and used to work at the hospital here but has been transfered and now lives in Al Ain and works at the hospital there - the one I was born in! Small world. Dexter will be moving there after their wedding in February. Another random connection . . . before I met Jenna I was looking at Dex's photos on his fridge of them together in the States . . . and thought I recognized the shore in the background. Jenna is from Essex, Masachusetts, where I visited in May, and is good friends with the Hammons, whom I know from college. LOVE connections like that!

firing up the grill

wema, one of my favorite babies!

bbq turned to wedding planning and committee forming. as you can see, this was rather exhausting for some of us. :)

the happy couple at Dexter's baptism

Sleepover Fun

Nothing like a little sleepover to say VACATION is here! Apparently I started to miss some of my kiddos after about a week off, so I called up the 'station girls,' the ones who live either at RVA or lower station. My house is too tiny to party in, but we had a great time in my friend Anita's house. Her empty dorm was the perfect place for sardines in the dark - quite scary!

We made cookies . . .
and cards for the Christmas hampers and ran around screaming and watched a movie and slept out with the Christmas lights. We also played one of my favorite games - set the time and make up a scenario.

"cool people"

"christmas morning"

"pouty attitude"

"tickle the unsuspecting"

Arachnophobia

My dad used to threaten me with that movie growing up . . . I didn't actually watch it until I was a senior in high school and, although the effects were obviously ridiculous, I still was completely freaked out. That was the summer we moved to Oklahoma and there were ridiculous spiders EVERYwhere . . . my worst nightmare coming true.

Well, I'd like to say I've grown up a bit. Rather than crying, I actually kill spiders on my own. And sometimes I see them and don't kill them. But I've decided to stop that practice since one of the ladies I work with was bitten in her sleep . . . resulting in a very swollen finger and a couple trips to the hospital. No, thank you.

The following are photos taken in the last moments of these little arachnids' lives. Perhaps that is a bit morbid, but I have this great camera and sometimes I think, Is that thing really inside my house? And I feel the need to share that for REAL? moment with others.

Enjoy.

Christmas in the Classroom

So, just to clarify, I no longer walk the 15 steps from my house to my classroom. No, these mornings are free from the sounds of Titchies playing boys-chase-girls or basketball on the court. Yes, Vac has arrived, and it is QUIET around here.

But before they left, we celebrated Christmas. The decorations actually went up a week and a half before leaving day. I just couldn't imagine missing out on the Christmas celebration with my kiddos, so we went to town in the middle of November and studied Thanksgiving and Christmas at the same time.

Thanksgiving: We braved the unpredictable internet situation and used two really great websites, one from Plimoth Plantation and one from Scholastic. The first one came with great lesson plans my class really got into adding to the giant KWL chart I put up in the computer lab. It also offered the option of downloading the entire thing onto the network, which was fantastic - except it only worked on my login. But at least I could have that up on the screen for the kids to follow along in case there computer never chose to load.

Christmas: We started out by making snowflakes, and my kids are apparently AWESOME at it. They made such beautiful creations - big ones that I hung from the ceiling and small ones that I stuck to the windows. We spent most of our mornings with only the twinkle lights on, writing poems, reading stories of pilgrims, and discussing the characters of the first Christmas.

Each student chose someone from the first Christmas (Gabriel, Zachariah, etc) and did a little project on him or her. They did such a great job! This little exercise helped me to see the first Christmas in a whole new light and really prepared my heart for the season. Sitting outside and listening to my students talk about why God chose this person for that time, and how it affects them was such a precious time, and it encouraged a lot of conversation about what that Christmas was really like. Certainly nothing like how we celebrate it today! I especially liked comparing Bethlehem and its shepherds to Kijabe and the people that live around here. I think in it is a pretty accurate analogy.

Thanksgiving!

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! I had a very traditional Thanksgiving feast here on our first day of vacation. And just to make it feel like home, I brought along the Anderson favorites - chocolate pecan and regular pecan pie. For me, pie making is always a challenge, made so even more out here. But between the pecans I received in the mail or that people brought out here, I had enough of those . . . borrowed two pie plates . . . and used chocolate chips that were mailed from America. So, supplies assembled, now the only challenge was to actually make them.

Gladys made the crusts the day before but I had to throw them out, making a 30 minute project into much longer! Thankfully, Super Kelsey to the rescue! Kelsey and I hang out about once a week and this week's time conveniently turned into "how to save Erica's Thanksgiving." With Betty Crocker in hand we went to work cutting in shortening, all the while mumbling what instructions I could remember from the pie making demo I had last year in Charlotte.

So that picture pretty much sums it up - Kelsey proud and accomplished, me - confused. BUT all of that went ok. I didn't exactly remember to put a cookie sheet under the pies as they baked so the kitchen/house may have been filled with smoke when I came back from my run . . . but that wasn't really THAT big of a deal. And pecan pie was had by all.