One week in

We're one week in and I've met my top goal of my return trip to Africa: I've already seen 3 giraffes! And many elephants (almost every morning), some baboons, and all the goats, sheep, and donkeys you could ever want to see (or live with).  Seriously though, we're living in Maasai-land, which is seriously like living in a safari.  Whenever we walk somewhere I think about how serious our safari guides in South Africa were about staying in the vehicle (but that was in a game park, where the wildlife is a lot more concentrated, and don't worry we always have Maasais with us and the animals have never been close enough to be dangerous, Mom).

Here are the basics on Maasai-land:

• When you're walking somewhere you don't know you're approaching someone's hut until it's right in front of you.
• Chai is served with breakfast and again in the afternoon, and is actually mostly goat milk and sugar in this case.
• It takes 3 or 4 hours to get from the nearest town to where we are staying when driven by the bus driver we hired from Nairobi, but only 2 hours to get out of the bush when driven by a matatu driver who drives the route regularly.
• Sometimes children are scared of white people.
• It's not good farmland, but a lot of people keep livestock (goats, sheep, donkeys, and some cattle) that they use for food and income.
• There is a bi-weekly market that comes to one of the villages that we get to experience on Wednesday.
• Matching is not something that concerns the Maasai people.

On a more serious note, our contacts and the people we're staying with are some of the most beautiful and gracious people you will ever meet.  We are doing hut-to-hut ministry, which can be frustrating because often it is difficult to build relationships that way, but the previous AIM team that was here had such an impact on our ministry hosts that they want to try emphasizing lasting relationships, so we will be trying to build on some of the relationships we started meeting people this past week.  It is so awesome to see how this partnership goes both ways and we all have something to learn from each other.

Prayer:

• Continued good health for our team
• Good attitudes as we continue to live away from civilization (electricity, running water, internet, beds, candy, etc.) for the next three weeks
• Boldness over our team as we continue to step out in faith that God's word does not return without achieving its purpose (Isaiah 55:11) and that our labor in the Lord is never in vain (1 Corinthians 15:57).
• I'm not 100% informed on the situation, but the teachers in Kenya have been on strike for better pay.  Most children were able to start classes again today, but I think it was because the government told the teachers they would lose their jobs if they didn't start teaching again and not because they were granted better salaries.  This all has to do with the elections that are coming up in March 2013, so just pray that things would be resolved peacefully and that the elections would be able to run smoothly as scheduled.
• Praise God for his goodness and faithfulness and for his provision and protection for our team.  Pray that we continue to dwell in that.

We're in the bush until the 29th, and then we'll be in Nairobi for a couple of days before we go to Tanzania, so be expecting more updates then here and on our team blog!