Larry the Lizard, and life on the compound...

As I was taking my laundry down from the line today at lunch, one of the new neighbor kids popped in with his freshly caught, fingernail-sized lizard.

He asked if I wanted to play.

Living on this compound of pilots and other AIM support-based missionaries is quite different from my home in Sudan, but I'm taking it for what it's worth. There's something wonderful in being surrounded by families who put Christ at the center of their lives, and who have long made Africa their home. I hope I can learn a lot from them in the next weeks.

So far, working with the media team has been good. The whole focus of the ministry has now been thrown on to the recent events in Kenya, and finding "Christ in the Chaos." It's already opened up one opportunity for me to talk with a pastor with an amazing story, and I hope it's only the first of many.

The fellas I work with on the On Field Media team are a blessing, and they're truly gifted in what they do. I was reading Mike's blog just now. He really knows how to write. I encourage you to check it out. You'll see how I pale in comparison to the real masters!

I'm missing Sudan, my roommates and our friends. This big empty flat can seem a bit lonely at times, so I'm anxious for the team to come in from home. Emails from Pattie, Kim and Doris really make my day. I'm comforted that they could be here in time for my surgery next Friday. The idea of doing that alone isn't all that appealing. I hope the roads are safe enough by then, that I'll be able to make it up to Kijabe.

On that note, keep praying for Kenya and her church. They need your prayers.

Friendly faces...

Laudina hates the camera. She really does. But she was a good sport about letting me take some pictures before I left, so I could look at them and think of her while I was gone. You hardly ever get the women smiling, especially showing teeth. They do this strange angry-faced, stick-straight pose. I have no idea where they got it from. The army? Beats me. Anyway, I love it when my friends laugh... It's great. :)

This is Laudina, "Iye!"-ing Pattie for teasing her by taking pictures when she didn't have her angry face ready. ("YOU!") Hehe. You see, however, Thomaso was bringin' it in full force.

Little moments...

Someone here at the guesthouse asked me the other day what my best moment was in Lopitland so far.

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to pin down one "best moment."

But this moment was pretty good.

After a stressful couple weeks, and after two delays of the flight I was already anxious about, I was ready to crash for a bit. Monkey peeked into my room--she has lots of good fun flying in and out of our curtained doorways--and climbed up in bed with me.

A pretty great moment.

(Pattie snuck in later and took this one. I've forgiven her for such invasion of my privacy. ;) )

That Girl (in the Mu-Mu)

Exhibit A: Mu-mu.

Also...

I should add that I'm not in danger where I am in Nairobi. I don't want any of you good folks at home a'worryin' for no reason.

It seems the worst of the chaos has passed in town, and most of the stuff you're hearing about is probably happening up country or in parts of the city I'm not in.

I think the biggest danger I face is that of death by boredom.

Yes, boredom.

It's become alarmingly clear that I have almost no friends in Nairobi. Outside of Chanda, of course. And I spend about 97% of my day just hoping that he will call or stop by. That's truly pathetic.

Tomorrow is Saturday, when boredom can be particularly lethal. So be praying. :)

Make that a trilogy...

Well, everyone, I have surgery again in two weeks.

Surgery to take the pins and wires out of my shoulder.
The pins and wires that are moving around and causing a lot of problems and pain.
The pins and wires that probably should never have been there in the first place.

Interesting, right? Yeah. I sure thought so.

After bouncing around Nairobi for the past few days, getting opinions from different doctors, I let an American at AIM’s Kijabe Hospital cast the deciding vote. He says he wouldn’t have done the surgery in the first place—“not even on a Major League pitcher”—because it’s not worth it. Imagine those words hitting your ears after you’ve spent more than half of your yearly income on flights and accommodation and medicines and appointments and the like for this dumb thing.

I confess I didn’t take it well. I ended up leaning against a tree trunk in a small, out-of-the-way graveyard outside the hospital, all alone, crying—sobbing, really—and dialing Lara’s number, though it was 1 a.m. there. Definitely one of my shining moments in Africa.

But, that’s that. I won’t go into all the details, but I guess there are different approaches to fixing a separated shoulder, and I just happened to get the guy who thought this was best and gave me some not-exactly-accurate information. And then he had absolutely ridiculous ideas to fix the problem. Something akin to whacking the protruding pins back in with a rubber mallet. (Not exactly that, but close.)

But, bygones. It’s all out of my hands now, and it could be that things are simple from here. I just have to endure the pain for another two weeks, then I’ll be in in the morning and out in the afternoon up at Kijabe. And hopefully not on any more detours to my healing and blooming MLB career.

Until then, I’m going to team up with the On Field Media team early, Lord willing, so at least I’ll be of some use while I’m forced to stay in this city.

Sideshow slideshow...

Now, let's see if this works. I put up a little slideshow over there -->.

And you can (probably) click here: Andi's pictures.

Now, I'm still working on organizing them. They're sort of a mess. And apparently the Flickr powers that be have declared you can only have 200 pictures without paying. So... look while you can, before I change them out.

Also, a confession.

It's become obvious that I have far too many pictures of Ellen.

It's just that she basically lives at our house, you know? That, and I love her. And many others...

**OK, I tried to put these in some sort of order... We'll see how this goes... Still working on it...

Idule no bongi...

Emininga inya bino-no-no. Emininga iyohoi. ;)

Picture princess...

Pattie and I just went a little wild with the camera one day, that's all...

Village views...

Lately, I've been spending more time just hanging out with Abuba and some of our other neighbors. It's been really nice. We laugh a lot. Like we are here. I love it when Abuba laughs. Though I guess she's often laughing at me...

Paula is getting older. She's beautiful.

Thomaso, playing shy. He's really a fierce cow herder...

Great Goat, Heinrich's 30!

Heinrich turned 30 last week.

It was a pretty big deal. :)

The guy has been dreaming of a birthday BBQ for literally months. But I think it turned into a bit more of a nightmare than he was ready for.

It took three days to track down a goat, with lots of false starts and failed hopes. But, he did finally drag one home and--umm--butchered it on his kitchen table. You can imagine Doris as she told me this over the radio...

So, everything was set for one amazing night. But then Heinrich got a bad fever. Can you even believe it? He's never sick. And then it rained. Poured even. You know... in dry season. Haha!

But, Heinrich is a trooper, and the man really wanted the BBQ to happen, so it did. We had a great time. HK stuck it out as long as he could, left for a nap, then came back for more. Like I said, quite the trooper.

Happy Birthday, HK!

This picture is hilarious.

Tobias, manning the grill. Turns out Tobi is a perfect gentleman, by the way. He's a huge help 'round here.

What's more adorable than a baby gnawing on a goat rib? Only baby Joy gnawing on a goat rib.

Speaking of babies... Jen had to cut my goat for me, since my shoudler is still a piece of junk. Just one humbling day after another 'round here. But, hey, we got MEAT!

Pictures...

Hey gang. I added a handful of pictures to go with some older posts. Enjoy!

Pattie Chapati...

(We are such) Suckers

More drama at Christmas...

But this was the good kind of drama.


Cath and Martin put together a really nice drama for Christmas this year, based on the story of Job. They did a great job of bringing in music and making it culturally appropriate... Well done, team.

Maandazi's with Mary...

Mary came over, and we made maandazis. Yum!

You've got a little schmutz right there...

Franco was quietly double-fisting it all night. Way to be, Eddir.

Mama Ellen

They've started calling me "hotonye Idule"--Mama Ellen. Haha.

Get to the point...

In Lopitland, if someone is being naughty, or maybe just funny, or if you just want to make fun with them, the people have this way of saying "Iye!" or "Ette!" all drawn out like. (Umm... Like... "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-YE!")

Well, Kim and I do that to Ellen sometimes when she's being Ellen, and we often point, too. Ellen started doing it back to us recently.

And that's what she's doing here...

Also, there's this old guy, David, who comes by every night and straightens the bamboo in our fence at this certain spot. He always shakes his head and talks to himself while he does it, probably cursing the children who are constantly parting the bamboo and making the hole. I'll give you one guess who the main hole-maker is.

January

Howdy, howdy! Here's my January prayer letter! Just give 'er a click and it should get big for ya.

Checking in…

When did I write last? Who knows?
I did squeeze out a prayer letter this week (that’s always a big accomplishment), and Ginger (my “U.S. Missions Manager”) seems to be all over it.
I’m not sure what I’d do without my stateside team. Bunch of superstars, they are.