Let's see if i can remember the last four days.

Well first off, we had the international convention! It was such a blessing to attend it again. Met many new friends and i got to see the old ones i met last year when i was here.

Nairobi is an hr flight from where we live, thankfully the company Kyran works for has a taxi plane. Its really cute and soooo tiny! Its a 2 seater. one that most people learn how to fly in. Its pretty old too. It actually has hand break!!!!! yes, a hand break. We were flying at 80 to 100 mph. It felt like we were driving my Volvo in the sky :) Kyran said that if the plane stalled that it would just glide down and we could land anywhere since its so small! Thankfully that didnt happen.

We got to Nairobi and we first went to the doctor because Ky was still feeling sick from the fire..gave him a bunch of med's as you will notice in one of the pictures. We just hung around the city till we met the friends we stayed with for the weekend.

Of course the convention was great. What i found interesting were the illustrations they used, so appropriate for this country. For example one was:

" If you were walking from the market carrying a bag of potato's on your head , and a truck stopped and offerd you a ride, would you not accept it? Or would you continue struggling, carrying this heavy load all by yourself?"

I was like wow, carrying a bag of potatos on my head, we wouldnt use that in the states.

A brother gave his expressions on one of the symposium's "They will build houses and plant vinyards". He said that he owns land, and its not uncommon to have lions and elephants and buffalo intruding and sometimes eating up the crops. So in paradise he looks forward to having his own land free of disturbance!!!

One experience was that of a Tour guide, He told the friends "You guy's get more excited seeing a Kingdom Hall than you do a lion!" He was given an invitation to the convention but wasnt able to make it because of work.
Later on some friends met a woman and her 3 kids and invited her to attend, she had been looking for the convention. Turns out she was the wife of the Tour guide! Arrangements were made for that famiy to have a study.

Those were just a few of the things i enjoyed. The drive to and from the convention should only have taken 30min's but with this CRAZY Kenyan traffic it took 2 hours. One night oh my goodness we got lost and it was dark. We ended up in an industrial area which isnt a place you want to be in at night.

I actually took my rings off because if we were gonna get robbed they were not taking my rings!!!!

We had some friends from Dallas who were assigned to attened the convention, The Dominguez', We got to spend some time together on their free day. We did get lost again for a n hour. But it was fine, got to see different parts of kenya.

Well now im sick, had fever the last two nights. Hopefully it wont last.

I had more to say but now im feeling sleepy. I'll continue my story tomorrow. We are driving back up to Nairobi again in the afternoon, Im sure i will have a car problem to write about!! LOL

Till next time..

love drea

written by  africandre on December 8, 2009 from Nairobi, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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So if we are a lil upset we have no one to talk to but eachother,which of course is a good thing!! We cant be mad at eachother because we have no one or where to run to but eachother!! We are closer now than ever before! :)

Another thing im having to remember is when im refering to the congregation, i cant say 'the congo' like im use to because people think im talking about the country of Congo. And when people say they are going to visit SA i forget they mean South Africa and not San Antonio! lol

Thats all today folks!

Love drea

written by  africandre on December 9, 2009 from Nanyuki, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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Ky Ky's job with Tropic Air just did not work out. So yesterday (sunday) we went to our last meeting in Nanyuki Kusini. :(

The friends were sad to see us leave, as were we to say goodbye. You dont know how attached you've become to people till you have to leave them. The C/O and his wife thanked us for supporting the the congo and also gave us encouragement.

Of course, i took some group pictures. The friends love taking photos!! Oh, and it was nice singing the new songs at the hall. The cd player didnt wk so we had to sing with no music.. Check out the picure of the actual CD player, its a walkman!!!!!

As we were leaving the hall i told kyran that i had no regrets in leaving, as in, i felt good because from the moment we had arrived to the cong, we were in service almost everyday, I had plenty of RV's, and studies. I knew everyone in the cong, spent lot's of time with the friends in and outside of service. I knew where alot of the friends lived and worked because we had visited them after long days in the ministry.

I think i would have felt a lil guilty had i not been so involved. But now we definately have a place to go back in visit!!

Im not really sad to leave that city, just the friends.. I was prepared to stay there a year. But anything longer would have been a bit much. Of course unless Jah wanted us to stay thats different. I think im just disappointed that i wont get my sheep after all :(

Its ok, in paradise we will have our Beautiful House again fresh air no mosquitos and our pet sheep!! :) One thing i did take back from Nanyuki was food Poisoning!!!! Yeah i ate a bad burger..Been having stomach cramps for 5 days!!! Anyways..was bound to happen.

On our drive back to Nairobi the sights were amazing!! So pretty. We were listening to the I-pod and jamming to Toto! We were sticking our heads out of the window singing "I'V CAST THE RAINS DOWN IN AAAAFFFRRIICCAA!!!" LOL
Ok we didnt stick heads out of the window but definatly jamming to that song!

Im glad to be back In a Large city again :) I get to see my old friends from Woodly cong which is gonna be nice! They have 17 pioneers and service attendance is good! It reminds me so much of GP WEST!!!! I will take pictures soon. Our first meeting back will be tomorrow.

Ok gotta go get my grubb on!!!

love ya all

Drea

written by  africandre on January 4, 2010 from Nairobi, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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Yesterday Kyran and Peter were out and me and Sandra were home really bored. We ate went shopping and ate some more and still bored. Then she had this sudden urge to build something. She had some wood that she had brought back from the coast in Mombasa. So she got the sawing table and tools out and we made a picture frame. Its not quite done yet.

I thought i had skills being part of the RBC for several years, but here, man seems like im starting all over again. Im use to using nail guns, power drills, electric saws and so on..but they dont use Power Tools here. Everything is manual labor. If you want a 2x4 well, go cut your piece of wood and have it made first!! Even having been on the Mason crew i never had to CHOOSE a certain type of mud or dirt to mix, we just went to Home Depot or Lowes and bought it!!!

It's all such good experience!!

Tomorrow we have the Zone visit, i didnt know what that was at first. The Zone overseer is in charge of looking after the Bethel Homes and Missionaries. They had a special vist just for them today and tomorrow will have a special discourse for the public. It will be held at the same facility they use for Assemblys.

So, today we had the privilage to help clean the place. It was fun of course. Its nice doing spiritual activities like that with Kyran, im use to going with my sisters and friends from the hall but now we get to do things like that together :)AWW i know :)

Oh and speaking of manual labor, when the brothers were cutting the grass, they didnt use lawn mowers or weed eaters, but instead used these long knives with a curve at the end and went hacking away! They said they were just playing golf, but with grass! i will post the picture but its kind of blurred and from a far.

Later on i met up with a sister who iv kept in touch with, she had moved from Nairobi to another city a few hours away and was in town for the visit. Was really nice, we had lunch and then went over to another sisters house and stayed till 6ish. It was great catching up.

Anyways..that was my week. Next on the list, Apt Hunting!

Still enjoying my salsa n chips:)

Will write to you soon,

Drea

written by  africandre on January 9, 2010 from Nairobi, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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There was one picture i would have liked to take of us witnessing to 3 girls who were chilling outside on the grass under the clothes line. We joined them and placed two books. I got to use the "Picture Presentation" which proved to be very effective. :)

The sister I was working with had dropped her car off to get worked on so we had to take a matatu (small bus) to some of the Rv's. On our way back, the poor sister was robbed in the bus. A thief was sitting next to her, and when she looked down she saw his hand coming out of her purse. We told the driver but when he pulled over the man had gotten off before we had time to report it to the police. It wasnt until later that she realized the man stole one of her phones :(

Anyway that was a downer..Later on we went to pick up her car, but it wasnt ready. We called her big brother to pick us up. Mean time we went to a gas station and had a hot dog. Well i had a few, dont know why, its not healthy at all!!! Me and Ky have been craving them alot recently. We even bought 2 packs the other day to make at home! (gross i know)

I started telling her about Quick Trip in TX and how it was and probably still is THE stop. We meet at the hall for service @7 and shortly after everyone is there for coffe!!

Then i was telling her that when we were living in Nanyuki me and Kyran would go to this one gas staion, (one out of three staions in the small town) and would have like 3 hot dogs each!!! (no worries, we are still skinny people) The girls who worked there knew us by name, we would witness to them alot and chat. Small town huh??!!

Finally the sisters Brother showed up and he looked at me and said "I have seen you before". And i told him we just moved in from Nanyuki. And he told me that he was there a few weeks ago and he was driving and saw me walking and thought to himself "That must be a sister",because of the way i was dressed. :)

So later he asked one his friends who he was visiting, if there was if there was a Mzungu (light skinned person) ;) attending the hall. And they told him that a pilot and his wife had just moved in. "They had good things to say about you two" he told me. He said the sisters told him " That gal Andrea! She eats the food and drinks the water!" In other words i fit right in!!! :) That was nice to hear from a person i just met, who already knew all about us :)

Later on that day we went to a restaurant called "The Rusted Nail". Yummy place! They actually had Sweet Iced Tea!!! ICE!!! Hard to come by here. I told them how I missed my 54oz sweet tea from QT and Chicken Express!!!!

Well that was my day, had meeting later which is always refreshing.

Today was kinda boring, except for service of course :) The past few days i have been quite bored. Kyran was like " You never complained about being bored when we were living in Nanyuki, where there is NOTHING to do and NO WHERE to go , but we get to the city and now you are bored :) ?!?""... Hmm... Good point :)

Other than that all is good. Kyran says HHIIII to everyone!!! He figured out how to unlock I-Phones!!! All thanks to YOUTUBE!

Dont know why, but i was researching the Nutritional value of Onions today. LOL I know. But its interesting to me!! Been doing that lately with fruits and veggies :) Im still a health nut.... who eats hot dogs :)?

We may be going to the coast in Mombasa in a week or two! Its such a beautiful place!!!!

I will write to you soon!!! Take care!

Love Drea!

written by  africandre on January 27, 2010 from Nairobi, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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Yesterday we had our meeting, and during the watchtower we noticed the accents of some of the visitors. Here you can always tell when there is another fellow American visiting :)

The Brother came up to me and Kyran and introduced himself. He asked me where i was from and i said "TEXAS! Dallas area and you?" He said Austin!! That was cool. i stayed talking to him and his wife the entire afternoon.

They told me they are serving as International Servants in Sudan. I remebered them from the International Convention back in December. I told them it was their experiences that encouraged me the most! And that is the truth. Hearing about the conditions they lived in when they first moved there had helped me appreciate how good we had it living in Nanyuki :)

Later on i went in service for a bit with one of the sisters while Kyran went home to cook :)
He made Pasta and Meat! Me and 2 sisters came home to find 4 boys layed out on the couches waching TV..So we ate and went for ice cream :)

Its nice just being relaxed with nothing to do, boring, but nice. Today im making BBQ chicken, steamed asparagus with other veggies, and baked potato with all the trimmings. Im gonna have to make the 'bacon bits' from scratch since they dont sell them already made.

Thanks to "All Recipes.com" I'v been trying out new things. I know everyone in the world knows how to make Deviled Eggs, but i had never tried to before. So i decided to boil 24 eggs and make them!! They turned out great with salad :)

Im gonna make something new everyday till i get tired.

I learned how to make BBQ sauce!!!! Its really good if i can say so my self. I got a lil too excited to cook and started making dinner around 1pm. Its now 245 and dinner is pretty much done..hmmm what to do?...

Im gonna prepare for meeting now so i will talk soon!!

Love always< Drea

written by  africandre on February 1, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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Well alot has been going on here. Poor ky has been a lol sick. Can't go into details on open Internet But he is better now!!

Seems like Satan is trying his best to challenge us on our 1st few months of being married, first The moving , losing our job then our house and now this. But it's really ok. Jah has never failed me or him so we are completely happy dispite our trials.

We have been keeping busy in service and studying. I love my new hall!! The friends are wonderful and always check on us!

Even the friends back in Nanyuki call often to see how we are doing. :)

IM really building up my service and quality of it. Finding many interested ones. We did business territory the other day and that was good. It had been a while since I wkd business'. I just told the ones I met that I was leaving these with them because perhaps their clients might enjoy reading some of the articles in the awake mag. And for them to look over them and if he or she wanted, I could bring them monthly. It seemed to wk because when we went back they were sitting on the tables in the lobby!!

I find here that so many like Reading the bible. There are missionaries and churches from so many different countries. So it is easy to strike up a conversation with someone. Matter of fact there is a lady sitting next to me reading her bible.

Well I am realizing how small this world really is. One of my friends, Omar, is from tx and a couple of years ago he told me that he wanted to join the chinese group and help them. Well he did and eventually made it his goal to move for a yr to Tiawan to become a need greater and improve on the language. Well seems like yesterday I was at his going away party. He went back to tx and is now in Tiawan again.

Mean time I got married and move to Kenya and meet a sister who has known kyran for a while. She told me that she was moving to tiawan to learn and improve her Chinese to help the group in our hall. I told her that my friend was living there and if she runs into him say hhhiiiii!!

So before she left I e mailed Omar and told him she was going there and that I gave her his info incase she needed. Anyways he wrote me yesterday and said that he went to meeting the other day and met a sister and she told him she was from Kenya. He said he asked her if she knew Andrea and she said yes! He realized she was the one I was telling him about.

So yeah small world! It's great being international! It's part of the beauty of being in Jah's family;)

Well that's all I got for ya now, hope all is good for you guys!

Take care and love from us!!

P.s. Something is wrong with my camera!! Ever since the construction last week it hasn't wked;( so i won't be posting pictures till I get a new one:(

written by  africandre on February 4, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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Well first of all good news, Ky Ky got the job! So that's great news! All thanks goes to Jah for that;) I can't wait to take advantage of the flights!! Ill be coming home soon to visit I hope!!

So we have been enjoying the service alot. Kp n I are having good results in the ministry . Oh and I gave my first part on the school last week ;) everyone said it went well, I was actually a lil nervous??

I have made such good friends here. And they help keep me busy.

A sister in our hall will be getting married soon, guess who they put in charge of games and food!!?? That will be fun. Or nice time like they say here;)

On Saturday there was two sisters from the states visiting and I was working with one of them in service, I told her she got jipped because when she visited bethel the sister who gave her the tour was from Cali ;) and I am from Texas, so she didn't get to work with the Africans ;) But I did get to use my Swahili more. Which by the way IM picking up the language fast. And I know just about the same amount of kikuyu too.

I was telling some of you that I learned how to say a funny version of Michael Jacksons "Dont Stop Till you Get Enough" it goes like this " Cha, Chaza kwa stepu, usimuka nyage mwenzio" lol you have to say it fast like the song and it's pronouced the way it is written ;) it literally means "watch out when you dance , don't step on your companion" lol or something like that ;)

The other night we had some friends around for dinner. If course I made Mexican food. They now sell Old El Paso food so we have salsa tacos tortilla enchiladas and even re fried beans!! I feel at home now ;)

Well last night we went out for "Soul Night" dancing. That was fun. Kp says he wants to go salsa dancing again which makes me happy!!!

As for me working IM still doing good. Been keeping busy doing hair! Changing lives!! Lol just messing;)

There was a sister visiting from Russia for a few weeks. We spent alot of time together. She was staying with her unbeliving relatives which I got to meet. IM hoping to start a study with the daughter soon ;)

Switching subjects, every Tuesday night they show last seasons Show " so you think you can dance" I love it!!!! A bit behind but it's ok, it's ok ;)

I have been going for walks just about everyday. It's so nice! And I usually end up at a friends house ;) today I walked to Toy Market. (traders village) and took one of my dresses with me that is too big. I was just going to see if someone like a vendor would by it off me, didn't expect anyone would but just wanted to give it a try! Well I found a man who sells dresses and instead of buying it he traded it with a newer one;) so I got a new dress !! Free too ;)

Kyran has been keeping himself busy with wood work. He re did a table for his mom. It's coming out really nice! My lil builder!! And he has been helping out alot at the construction site ;)

well I have more stories but it's getting late so I will close for now. I will write again SOON this time ;)

Till then yal take care!

Love Drea

written by  africandre on March 22, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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Una Furahia Kingereza au Swahilli??

"Do you prefer English or swahilli?" that's a phrase IM using quite often in service. We had such a good time passing out the memorial invites. :) our Congo took advantage of letter writing. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, we always talk to the guard. This time jah really blessed our efforts. A few people actually let us in to wk door to door ;)and those who wouldn't let us in agreed to hand out letters to the tenants if we left them with the envelopes!! A couple of times we got kicked out.

We had 150 at the memorial. We expected more but because it rained I think it prevented alot from coming. Most folks here really can't drive in rain!!

We arrived at the facility where it was held and there was no electricity so it was completely dark !!! Brothers scrambled to get the generator working. They managed to get a light on so that the brother giving the talk could see ;) so we all sat in the dark, it was an interesting experiance!! I managed to get in 2 pix of me n kyran so il post them on snapfish soon ;)

Last weekend there was a wedding shower for a sister in our hall. I didn't get to stay long because we had made plans with a family in our hall that same evening. But the shower turned out nice, I got to be in charge of games even though I wasn't there :)

The family took all the Pot's out bowling ;) I was surprised that the ally was nice, it reminded me of main event! After a game they invited us to dinner at this really good Indian restaurant. Ky had told me that you know it's good Indian if you smell like it after.. Let's just say it was good lol!! Gross I know
The family had said they took us out to welcome us girls in to the new congregation. So sweet!!!!

Other than that all else is good. Sorry been slacking on keeping up with this blog!!

My beautiful friends in Nanyuki still call often just to say they love n miss us! IM really missing my old hood!!! ;) I hope we can visit them soon.

Kyran and I are enjoying this month of April, because he starts working in may and I know he will be busy!!So just enjoying it while we can.

Ok I have another small story but i will put it in the next blog post so this won't be too long to read;)

We miss jelly ana jerry n amie!!! And all you friends!!!

Love Drea

written by  africandre on April 5, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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Well some sisters had told me about this one place in town where all the vendors get their stuff from. Directly from the ships that come in from the UK and States. And so the clothes are super cheap. 2nd hand of course but still veRy good!

So me and Sandra were excited to join the friends who were going today. They told us to dress down not to bring our phones and not to wear jewelry.

When we arrived into that area of town it was such a drastic change of environment. It was unimaginable the kind of conditions these people live in. The roads were so dark and muddy and the buildings very run down. That area is where most of the refugees from Somalia all live.

We parked at the offices where one of the brothers works. He is a dentist, and apparently Somalians like the Chinese, and he is so he has one of his offices right smack dab in the middle of that place.

He had one of his workers take us around. When we were walking it was such an interesting experience. You probably have seen on tv the markets in china Thai land or India where there are bags and bags of spices on the streets for sale. It looked just like that but really run down. They had everything from henna to wood and even rocks for sale!

There was a man making brooms. It was just a really neat thing to see. It reminded me of when I was in Mexico, all the shops of clothes and material.

Well me and Sandra we're disappointed to find out that the shops we went to were actually whole sale vendors! All new stuff. Lol

It was a Lil funny because the local friends were there wanting to buy new stuff for 400 shillings for clothes which is a really good price, and here these 2 mzunguz Sandra and i were wanting to pay like 20 or 30shillings for used clothing!
We went to a different place!

But all in all it was a great experience! Way cheaper than the stores. Its just hard paying 800 shillings for a dress when I can bargan at toy market for 200!!!!

Well we had lost half of the group by the end of the day. Good thing the tour man was with us! He was telling us about the culture and giving us such a good tour. There was so much to see. Lots of nice perfume bottles form India. He said the local Somalian dish is rice and pasta.

Oh, here you see a wild man every now n then yelling in the streets some random bible text. Well there was this older man doing just that, and when Sandra passed by he said "you , woman every head of woman is man." then kept rambling on about how she should have a head covering. There all the women except the Africans had a head covering.

When we got back to our cars we stopped in to see the brother. He has just one room so we all sat inside. While we were waiting for the other friends to come back I was telling him that I was worried about my teeth because I haven't been able to find my retainer! Then he told me he would make me one! So I just got on the chair while everyone watched and he made impressions of my teeth. They will be done tomorrow ! Yay! Random huh?

Anyway that was a good and long day. I would love to take yal there just to get the experience. The brothers said that most of the people who live in kenya have never even seen that part of town.

On a different subject, the other day I went upstairs to introduce myself to our neighbors, do you remember I had told you I met a man from TX? Well I wanted to meet his wife and give her my card. I saw that she was cooking and I said , where did you get those fried onions!!!!!

Well they had just got back from visiting ft worth and brought back a bunch of food! She showed me all the corn tortillas in her freezer! I was so jealous cus I been craving flautas!

I told her that I been wanting to learn how to make them from scratch so she loaned me her tortilla maker thing. I went home and attempted to but it didn't work out too well. They don't have the yellow corn meal here. I made too much dough so I had no choice but to finish making these gross half corn half flour wanna be tortillas. :(

Then I thought to myself 'why don't I try making chips!' So I cut them all up and put them in the oven. I had just happen to make salsa verde the day before so I thought what the hec i may as well try it!

Mean time, since I had a mess everywhere I thought to make doughnuts! But like the old fashion ones. I mixed flour eggs a Lil water and sugar and made small doughnuts. I fried them like my grandma use to do, and then put sugar and cinnamon on them! The first batch wasn't cooked right in the middle but th 2nd ones came out good.

Then I remembered about the chips in the oven. I almost broke my teeth trying to bite one. Oh well... Thank goodness I'm the only one who eats that kind of stuff in this house. :)

Last night we forgot to buy bread, so like a wife in ancient times I went into the kitchen and made some myself! I mixed flour milk eggs and the left over sugar and cinnamon and made swirls. Then layed them on the tray and put sugar and butter. Everyone loved them!!!!! I'm so proud of myself!!!!!!! They really were good even the day after. :)

Those are some of the things I do to keep myself occupied.

Oh one more thing I found to be kinda funny, you know in TX you sometimes see the Mexican men standing around the corner waiting for job opportunitys?
Well here instead of men, you see a bunch of women with their apron on and scarf of the head sitting around waiting for someone who is looking for a house help. :)

Ok well I gotta rest now, have early service Kesho! Tomorrow!

Till next time!

Love drea
Aka nyagothe! :)
(very common not so very pretty kikuyu name I was given by an African Sis who I now call. Josefina Petra Maria!!)

written by  africandre on April 5, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Nairobi
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