So far all is good.The flight from Dallas went by quick actually. I decided to start a journal, My tales from Africa!!! lol

We landed in Nairobi Sunday night and stayed @ the Serna hotel just for the night. Spent some time with kyrans parents.

It was nice the next day, had breakfast then back to the room and had tea on the patio. It was so differnt. Im not use to just being relaxed with nothing to do.

We got here to Nanyuki which is 1 hour or less in flight from the city. I got to see my new home. Its really pretty. We sit on 2 acres of land. There are lots of pretty colorful trees and flowers in our garden. We have a veggie garden and avocado tree.. Straight up country girl now.
Our house is a good decent size. PLENTY of room for visitors!!!! hint hint

The past few days we have just been settling in. We dont have much furniture yet, i want to paint the house first.

Yesterday we were having lunch with one of kyrans friends from middle school. They have kept in touch and now wk together. It was nice hearing all the things they did when they were kids.

Well, as some of you know we live at the foot of mt Kenya, so after lunch Kyran has this bright idea to drive up the mountain. So we took off driving, didnt really know how to get there so we just kept driving.. Mid way there we realize how NOT prepared we were.1st of all i was wearing flip flops and summer clothes. This mountain is freezing and has snow on it. 2nd we had no water or matches. So we stopped by a shop and get some snacks. They forgot the water there and forgot to buy matches..

Finally we find the exit to the Park entrance. We drive up several miles, it was really pretty. There were alot of farm workers. Your typical concept of what Africa looks like.

Well.. we keep driving and wouldnt you know it..car trouble. The land rover starts over heating. Like its in the red. So we pulled over and try to see what the problem was, well..i stayed in the car while they figured it out. Mean time a bunch a little kids come out of no where through the corn fields and observe. I was giving them candy and chips.They were so amazed to see people not of thier color. Things are so differrent here.

Anyways, we let the car cool down and keep driving, there was plenty of water oil and fuel in the car so they couldnt figure out what the prob was.. we kept driving and fianlly just gave out.. Great! here we were i the middle of no where, now we couldnt even get back. so we tried to turn the car around by pushing it but we couldnt. This may have not seemed so bad anyother time but it was already 4pm. And if anyone was gonna come get us it would be late. So we are sitting there, guys trying to figure out what the prob was, then i hear noises in the trees. i was convinced we were about to get eaten!!!

It was just people cutting down trees..

The guys figured out what it was. something with the fuel cap and air getting in or not getting in??

That was our attempt to climb Mt kenya.. So on the way back we pass a sign that says Assembly hall of Jehovah's Witnesses!! so we turned into the street andd look for it.
We drive about 10min through the HUGE pot holes and still dont find it.
We asked someone if they knew where it was and they pointed us to the western hill. So we go up it. the fields we went through look like real country un assigned territory. Its no mans land. We kept driving and driving asking everyone if they knew where the hall was at. And after awhile we realized they no one knew. they just kept telling us to keep going. We are 1 hour away from the main road now..at this point weare just driving enjoying the views. we were heading west so we saw plenty of land and Abadare mountains...

We turned around, passed by cattle crossing the road, and again, little kids standing on the side of the road waving at us.

we found a bridge and water so we stopped and took some pictures. We drive an hour back, close to main road and felt we should ask one more person if they knew where it was, we kept telling eachother that surely it has to be easier to find than this. So we ask a Lady this time :)
and wouldnt you know it, Just 5 min from where we 1st saw the sign!!

Atlast!!! so we drive up this impossible driveway to get to it. There we met the 2 bros who take care of the place. I said, "so this is where our donations go".

It was really differnt from our assembly hall in Denton. Very run down, They said that they are waiting for the letter for the building crew to come in to go through and get approved. Hopefully i can help with that!!!! I could sneak my way into thr International Construction!!!
It was nice meeting those brothers. I know they enjoyed some company.Look forwad to seeing them at the conventinon nxt week.

Well that was that day, fun and an adventure. Today is friday. We have meeting. The 1st one for me to attend, it will be interesting. I will practice my comment in swahilli. I'll let you know what i say if i do get to comment. I cant wait to meet the friends!!!!!

Any chance i get i will check my mail and keep in touch.

Till next time!!! miss you

Love Drea.

written by  africandre on November 27, 2009 from Nanyuki, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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Last night (saturday) i woke up at 215 am ish, i thought it was 5 am or so, I tried staying in bed but i couldn't. So i decided i would get up and do some things around the house to get myself tired. I was up about 30 min and still not sleepy. Then i wrote for a bit in my journal saying how i just dont understand why i wasnt sleepy. I was a lil hungry because it smelt like BBQ. Earlier in the day the Gardener was burning compostheap (old organic cut offs from gargen)which is part of every gardeners job here..

So i peeked out my window and saw the smoke from the ashes. No big deal. I sat in bed did my text, then looked again out the window because i kept smelling smoke.
I had the light on and just woke Kyran up and said i saw smoke. He said it was fine.

Ok so i finally lay down and read a book. Then i hear crackeling. And thought, 'this doesnt sound right'. I got out of bed again, and HOLY SMOKES!!!!!! There is a fire and flames behind the staff's Quarters!!!!!!! I woke Kyran up and said 'this cant be right, something is wrong'.

Sure enough, we got dressed and went out. I was so ready to pack up the car. He grabbed 3 buckets and started filling them with water. Mean time i said, " call the fire dept". i could just see his thought bubble.."She has no clue".
He said there was no fire dept. Everyman fights there own fire here. GREAT!!!!!!! THIS IS NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR!!!!!!!

No, the thought of panicking passed my mind for a sec, maybe 2. But i told myself and Kyran that Jehovah woke us up, so he can help us too. I knew then, why i couldnt sleep, and Jah didnt let me fall asleep. I just kept thanking him for waking me up. No one can convince me that he didnt.

Anyways, you can get an idea of how big the fire was by looking at the pictures i put up. All we had were 3 buckets, and a fire extinguisher, which i found doesnt do much good for an outdoor fire. Our Night guard helped us out alot. It took us 4 hours to put it out. It was just under being uncontrollable.

Well.. there you have it. I promise it was more intense than it sounds. On top of that i didnt get a picture of how big it was, maybe 10x10 foot of ground. Oh and i forgot to mention that it spread to the neighbors yard... Geeze..

Always an adventure with me and Kyran..WHY US!!!!

till next time,

Love dre n ky

written by  africandre on November 29, 2009 from Nanyuki, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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Thats what the brother called me from the platform, it means "Sister Kyran!!" (no kyran is not a daddy!!! haha)

My comment was: "Hubiri neno..Kwa bidii" which means, "preach the word, be at it urgently" and it sounds just the way it is written. I was happy i got the first comment in swahilli out of the way. A brother in our hall gave me an english swahilli dictionary. It is helping.

Man i havent written in a while so im behind, but you havent missed much, there isnt a whole lot going on in Nanyuki :)

Been cutting lots of hair and Going in service. A sister in my hall ,Nancy has been taking me for lots of walks, i know the town better than kyran now. I always stop and buy sugar cane and passion fruits!!!I got to see where all the friends work. One sis makes dresses so just for the fun of it i got measured for an African dress!!! lol ky ky doesnt know about it yet :)

I love going in service here, the people invite us in and listen. Last week i conducted a study with an entire family, Dad Mom kids and grand babies On the first visit. We took long so the friends came looking for us. Then the Man of the house got to meet kyran and we stayed a while longer after they invited him in for tea.. I tell ya, we could be in the ministry for 5 hours and only speak with 3 people because they all listen.

Im use to putting in long days in service but here i get tired quick because we walk EVERYWHERE! as in everywhere. plus im getting use to the altitude. Yesterday we were out in the fields and we saw some Masi's and zebra. Ill post the pictures. It was so cool.

On a different note, I was bored one day so i decided to play with kyrans hair, it was fun. first he had yellow because we didnt leave it on long enough, then he looked like vanilla ice!!

Other than that not much else is new. I am falling in love with this place more and more. The friends, service fresh air and beautiful back drops of Mt kenya as i walk home is more than i can ask for. I wish the photos could capture the beauty..Oh well i guess you will all have to come see it for yourself!!!!

Did i ever mention that the people here call me Mzungu? That means white person :) Thats what they call everyone who isnt black. Even a mixed person is called mzungu.

A sister just got a kitten, i asked her if she named it and she said she calls it Andrea, she said she named it after me because it is a BROWN kitten!! LOL LOL too funny.

Thats it for now friends. Till next time!!!!

Love ya!!!!!!!!!!!

written by  africandre on December 23, 2009 from Nanyuki, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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This week we have the visit of our Circuit overseer and his wife. This is their first cong to serve in Kiswahilli. They have been serving in the Kikuyu service.
Very humble people.

Yesterday we met for service as a cong at a brothers house. There were twenty people crammed in the tiny living room. I was wondering why we didnt meet at the hall and they told me it's because everyone walks, so it closer to meet by the territory..makes sense.

The C/O conducted the service meeting in english JUST FOR ME!! Even on the reg days we meet they will conduct it half and half. SOO thoughtful and considerate of me and i never even asked. :)

On sunday after the meeting we were invited to a Bros house. There we sang 25 songs from the new song book, I had left mine at home so was singing in swahilli. There were about 9 of us. We had tea of course and bread with blue band, which i dont eat because i hear its one "something" away from being plastic!! :O

They love singing the melodies. When we are in service the friends will sing random songs, im so amazed of how many they have memorized. I thought i was doing great having memorized 3 and a half songs! But now i see why, they get together and practice. New for me but i like it.

Yesterday we were in service working in the slums..i didnt realize where we were till about half way through. It's exactly what you see on tv. No electricity no clean water nothing. Yet this is all they know. Very sad conditions. But i tell ya, they love listening to the bible and thats what matters the most.

A Muslim lady stopped two of the sisters she was pointing to my superlong skirt. She had told them that all the sisters should be wearing skirts that long. Of course they were all dressed modest anyways, but we just took it a compliment.

I took a couple of pictures you might like to see. One is of a Hotel in the slums. Another is of a lil sister in our hall who is always out in service with us. She loves to preach.
And finally we were crossing the river on the tree trunk. Very fun!

Today i babysat a couple of cuties.I did their hair, walked in the garden and picked flowers, learned ABC's and even had to change a Pamper! Ehh

Thats been my week..Kyran has taken up the sport of Golf :) He just joined a golf club..BORING!!! (sorry brother Snider ;))
Oh and havent got my sheep yet. The lady we are going to get it from is out of town. Tryin to think of some names for them. If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know! One will be black and one white, Baby lambs that will need bottle feeding:)

Ok take care, Miss all You Americanos!!!! And Aussie's and Germans!! :)

Love Drea

written by  africandre on December 31, 2009 from Nanyuki, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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Other than that nothing exciting has happened. I just wanted to let ya know im good. Had my jalapeno fix!!

Going out in service tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Kyran has his interview tomorrow!

Talk to ya soon!

Oh and i put up a picture of kyran when he was a lil boy! He makes this EXACT same face when he is upset. I can never get mad at him because i always think of this picture!! Not fair!

See Ya!

Love Dre

written by  africandre on January 5, 2010 from Nairobi, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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Well it has been some time since my last blog entry, not much new has happend really.
Been chilling here mostly.

I will tell you about service in the city. Its funny how things are just a little different, for example, when we work the territory we hardly ever knock on doors because every home has a gate guard. So the majority of the people we talk to are men at work. Unless its street work or market service. Usually all the calls have to be turned over to the brothers.

Also, when we write RV's usually we just put the st. and house # right??
Well..I was looking through my RV' book and its funny some of the things you write down to remember. One of my calls says " Mud House with the Tin door" also "House with 100 chickens for sale" and "House next to the Chicken place". Another "House in the middle of no where on the way to the zebras". Its very hard to find #'s for the homes sometimes :)

Anyways.. there is an on going reconstruction of the Langata Assembly hall. They have been working on it forever it seems. Last yr i got to help when they were painting it and now they are doing stone work.

Like i mentioned before, I was on the RBC back in TX and worked on Decking, Sheet-Rock and Dry wall, and had been doing that for a few years. However for some reason last year they put me on the Mason crew, and i was a lil sad at first because i really wanted to be on the roof or inside putting up sheet rock..You know, wearing a tool belt and using power tools!!! But of course I enjoyed working with the bro's and sisters on the Mason crew!!

Well..little did i know how much skill and perfection is involved. And boy am i glad i was paying attention to the instruction! Jah always does think ahead and see's the bigger picture that sometimes we dont see right away. I came all the way to Kenya and found out that i would be needing those very skills!! They are putting up stone around the entire assembly hall. And there are on average about 10 people working at a time.
Sandra (kp's mom) Is the only one who has all the tools for everything pretty much. So if she doesnt go usually no one shows up, its kinda sad.

She is a good worker and together we wk pretty fast. On friday we put stones up on a section of the wall by ourselves and the friends worked behind us grouting and cleanig the stone. I was very proud of the wk!!

I remeber back in 1999 learning how to do stone wk for the first time on the GP Kingdom Hall. I couldnt help but think of the friends who taught me, and how they are still doing the same wk for jah till this day. Those friendships and memories are very special to me!!

I will post some photos of the work we did. (notice them grouting with SPOONS!!)

Oh I forgot to mention, when I showed up to the assembly hall in the morning it had been my first time back in over a year, yet one of the brothers shouted "ANDREA, Is that you!!"
It was so nice to see him. Also the the A overseer's wife came up to me and said "We need SODA" i was like huh?? She said "Yes to celebrate your marriage and that you are back!". Thats their way of celebrating :) awe

Yes it was great to be back. Everyone remembered me and I couldnt help but to feel loved :) For lunch we didnt have the huge trailer of cook's lined up to serve us, rather all 10 of us sat in a circle around a small table outside, behind the Overseers house and had tea, bread and some salad that Sandra made. Oh yes and cake too :)
They have a blackberry tree so i was picking those and eating them,YUUMM

Alrighty folks thats it for now,, Till later

Kwaheri!!

Love drea

P.S.
When doing stone wk, some of the stones were too big, and we dont have the proper tools to cut them, so we had to chisel some of them the old fashioned way! I kept telling myself, "if the Isrealites did it, so can I!!" :)

written by  africandre on January 24, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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IM watching the history channel about space. It's very interesting. I now know the difference between dark energy and dark matter and somewhat how it works:)

Last Thursday me and kyran were invited for lunch at bethel. We had fish greens and ugali ( I think that's how it is spelled) a traditional african dish. It was really good!! After lunch the sister gave me a peak of what work she does. Pasting pictures in the magazines, appropriate for different parts of africa. It was really neat.

I haven't written much in a while because not alot is going on. I been working with different friends in the hall getting to know everyone. I worked last week with a sister in the Chinese group. I placed one tract ;) my presentation went something like this:
" Woe jao Andrea, woe sung gay ni" which translated means: "my name is andrea, I have something to give you" ;)

Well we won't be joining the group anytime soon but I don't mind working the territory every now and then. After all, I was in the Lao group before so we are practically kin folks!! ;)

Oh good news, IM officially part of the Congo !! They welcomed me last night at the meeting. Took 3 months but it was nice! One sister told me: " so now you are Kenyan ! What tribe do you wanna be from?" then jokingly I said "Kikuyu!! Mwega jitagua, Nigwede te munu!!!!" which translated from kikuyu means" how are you? I love you too much" ;) i just said the few words I knew ;)

This past weekend I went with a few sisters into town as they say. A Couple of them are in an up coming wedding so we went to see the dresses! It was fun. I told them it reminded me of planning my wedding and how if I could do it again I would!! ;)

Later on we went to this Ethiopian restaurant. And man was it yyyyuuuu mmmeee!! It was nice hanging with the sisters out side of the meeting and service. This cong isn't known for having many "get to gethers" so that was a good day :)

Speaking of get togethers me and another sister are throwing one in a couple of weeks. She and I came up with the idea when we were in service. I told her I had some clothes I wanted to get rid of and if she knew anyone who could use them. Then I was like, why don't we have a "clothes swapping party" for the sisters??!

Everyone thinks it's a good idea, also since some of the sisters in our hall live in bethel, it works out so that no money has to be spent. I think most sisters like to give and receive clothes so everyone is excited about it. I already made the invites. I'll let ya know how it turns out!! ;)

One last thing, last week before the in -laws went to the states, me and sandra were out and she told me " Andrea, I want you to hear this song! I love the beat it's so cool"!!

And this is what came on: sssssnnnnnooooooooooppp! Drop it like it's hot drop it like it's hot!!!

Lol I nearly fell out the car laughing ! Too cute and funny!!

Ahh ok well IM about to watch a movie with my sis in-law.

Till next time!!

Love and miss you all

Drea

written by  africandre on February 17, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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Well lots has been going on. This new hall is so nice. Since we have been here we have been kindly invited to many of the friends houses for dinner. One family invited us to their retirement home which is about an hour away from Nairobi.

The place was really nice. They live here in the city but their house is in the country. They designed it and built it themselves. We ate so much. When we arrived they served us a huge plate of veggies, rice, githeri and lamb. Then out came a plate of fruit and they said " this is just the appitizer!! We were soo stuffed already!! The brother was outside grilling a lamb.

Mean time she brought us drinks while we sat in front of the fire place. That day was cold. They showed us around their land. They dont have to leave the house much. They have cows so milk is provided all the time. They grow potatos carrots and peas. We got to pick our own & came home with 10 pounds of carrots!!!!!

We are making a carrot cake tomorrow!!

Last saturday a couple invited us over. Ah the food was soooo good, it was chinese food. At first i thought we were going to eat raw food! Then as we all sat down they turned up these boiling pots that were in the middle of the table and they just started throwing in food!! We had shrimp crab and fish with all the trimmings. Its crazy how they boil everything. Even sea weed, melon and lettuce. Surprisingly enough it was really good. The association was good aswell. A couple who serve as C0's were there too. We had met them last yr when i was here so it was a good reunion!

Later we had some good blueberry ice cream, and flower tea. There was real flowers in the tea!

Then just a few days ago there was a bro visiting our hall from Germany bethel. He and Kyran hit it off good. We liked him alot and plan to visit him. Now we have 10 friends to visit in Germany!

So we have been doing lots of entertaining and getting to know the friends in our hall :)

This friday we went out with some friends to this nice hotel and there they had a live salsa band playing!! guess how happy i was!! I requested the song "sama rew" by Africando, its the same song that the wedding dancers performed at our wedding. It was so much fun!!

Kp is doing really good in his service. Says he plans to aux pioneer soon.

Well thats all for now. Its been raining alot!!!!!

OH OH OH I almost forgot, Kenya is moving up in the world. We went to Nakumat, which is THE grocery store and found they now have Old El Paso taco shells, soft tortillas, salsa, cheese dip and yes oh yes JALAPENOS! Alas They arrive! Now i can happily live comfortably in Kenya forever!! lol well not 4 ever but you know what i mean ;)

Hope you all are well. Miss you all much

Love Drea

written by  africandre on February 28, 2010 from Nairobi West, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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There is a new bethel extention in the city of Nyeri. That's about 3 hours from here and 1 hour from "My shags" as they say, Nanyuki :)

Its a pretty large house that they are remodeling to use as a translation office. We were givin permission to go help this weekend. Me and Kyran went with a couple of friends. And some of our friends from nanyuki showed up to meet us there! That was a nice surprise.

I told some of you that it has been my dream to become an International servant, so to be able to help with this construction is like a dream come true! Now I need to set new goals :)

When we arrived they put me and another sister in charge of the painting. Then not too long after we were done, the brother kindly asked if we could help with lunch. I didn't mind but I thought it was funny because I always considered that to be ' a sisters job' :) but its all for jah so its ok!

After lunch I went outside and saw some sisters plowing the yard. Man! That is tough physical work! These mamas have some serious strength. They asked me and kp to try it and not too long after that we couldn't do it anymore. The older sisters showed us up big time!

After that intense labor, the brother asked if I wouldn't mind cooking dinner! That took forever! There was about 17 people to feed which isn't bad, but they were having problems with the electricity.

I ended up making the chicken which was a hit! Everyone loved it! And another sister made chips, (fries).

There was a few visitors from the Nairobi bethel along with their friends, so they helped too.

People here love dairy. They eat it and drink it. Even fermented milk and yogurt mixed with sugar! Gross! I can't do it but to everyone else its a delicacy.

Later on in the evening after dinner, the friends said they wanted to take us to this small joint. So I was imagining something small and ragged. But it was nice! They took us to this local hotel. And they had a huge screen outside showing the futbol game on the lawn and every table had its own pot of fire to keep them warm.

Its was really nice. Unlike the states we don't have sports bars to go to if we wanna watch a game. So the bros really really liked it! Matter of fact we are planning another small trip there in July, and we will bring more friends from my congo and have a bbq.

Well back at the home, me and kp had our own room away from the house. It was cute. Only thing I had to deal with was that there was no shower head, just a bath tub. Also there was only a little bit of hot water so we had to shower using a basin! Lol

I had never done that before, it was so funny. KY had to pour water on me, I told him ' it feels like I'm in a consentration camp.' I know, it sounds bad and probably isn't even like that, but it just was such a wired feeling. Always a 1st for everything !

They kept telling me that IM so american! That's they way the majority of kenya bathes!

Ahh, good times.

So, the plan for Sunday was to drive back to Nairobi for the late meeting. Well when we woke up no one was home! Only our car group was there. Everyone had went to their meetings. But they were so nice and had breakfast prepared for us sitting on the table! Pancakes !

We didn't want to leave while they were gone, so we decided to have our own meeting after breakfast. And atleast we did, because they don't have English meetings in Nyeri.

Then to say thank you, me and Sylvia made a cake! It turned out great except that we put the icing on too soon. I'll send the photos on snapfish, you will notice it all melted away!

But when everyone got back to the house they loved the cake! Kenyans don't bake lots of cake so its always a treat.

So later on we had to say our goodbyes, took lots of pictures of course. The city is so pretty ! Did I mention that already?

We drove on the bumpy roads all the way home. I miss paved roads that's all I gotta say.

When your driving you see quite a lot of interesting things. Like men trying to sell fish, huge fish on the side of the road. With no ice, lake or river within 100miles in sight! Lol!

The only picture I managed to get was of a donkey. We took a pic of it!

Anyways, that's the story for now!

I'll have more news next week, I'm going to eldoret on friday:)

Ok take care!

Mwa! Love yal!

Kwaheri , Drea

written by  africandre on June 22, 2010 from Nairobi, Kenya
from the travel blog: Eldoret kenya
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