I heart faces photo challenge | Beautiful Black and White

I've been wanting to enter some photos into a contest lately, and when I discovered this awesome blog, totally focused on pictures of PEOPLE (faces) which is what I love to photograph I was SO excited to see what their upcoming contest was.  I have many many photos from my service trip to Kenya that I feel aren't being enjoyed and appreciated just sitting on my computer, so I thought I'd bring submit this one of a Maasai warrior, all decked out in his garb. Here is the link to my photography blog (it wouldn't cooperate with the contest rules!) if you want to see more of my photos, and check out  www.iheartfaces.com to see tons of other awesome black and whites!

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

Maasai Mara

On my last weekend in Africa we went to the Maasai Mara- drove about 5 bumpy hours, seeing many beautiful sights along the way, and then arrived at our camp.Heres a couple pictures of a Maasai village we visited:

We stayed in the coolest "tents" i've ever seen:

this was my tent... kinda shame to hog the whole thing to myself!? =) We went on 4 game drives over the days we were there, got tons of pictures and saw some incredible animals...

Lea Toto pediatric AIDS clinic in the Kibira slum

On my last morning in Nairobi I was fortunate enough to go to the largest slum in africa, home to around 2 million people and spend a couple hours with some incredible kids at a clinic there. It was so nice to be able to talk to them a bit- the kids i'd been with up to this point didnt know any english, and i didnt know enough swahili- but these kids were older and knew a bit more english. We had a good time, over peanut butter sandwiches, cupcakes and some crafts. =) here are their beautiful faces...

Salgaa

we visited a local ministry in a town close by called Salgaa.... saw some pretty sad situations, buts lots of room for God to work! go to this link for more pictures- it should work even if you dont have facebook... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54718&id=1188510011&l=8522c8aea7

Back Home

After a long 30 hours of traveling on the way home, I made it. I didnt think i'd have a whole lot of culture shock, since i didnt really have any when i went to africa... ha. Just shows how much i know. Lets just start with the snow that was on the ground when i stepped outside the airport, and then yelling at dad that there was a car coming at us, when he was, in fact, on the CORRECT side of the road. Then i step in my room and look around at the palace i live in. my room is REALLY cool. i cant believe i never realized it, and then i turn and try to ignore the fact that i bought a tv before a left for my bedroom... and i havent hardly watched any in the last 2 months (or missed it even) as i look into my closet, basically pouring into my room- with only my WINTER wardrobe!? i have so much.. so much that i dont really need. and so much that i've taken for granted.

Today i went back to work. I was kinda dreading it... ok, i was really dreading it, and kinda wondering if i still remembered how to do my job. The drive to work didnt really help things either, since the sky felt like a ceiling, only about 30 feet above me the whole way. I hadn't seen sunshine since i'd been home, and i'd easily gotten used to the huge african skies. everyone says the skies there are big. they arent kidding. they are ginormous, and amazing and beautiful... and i get home and dont even see the sun! yuck. but then i got to work, and my clients were excited to hear about my trip adn i was excited to talk about my trip (and to have an easy conversation starter =)) and then it was already time for lunch and then the sun came out... and things just got better.

Its nice to be home, to drink water out of the tap and to have my guitar back, and especially to see all the people i love. Now im just trying to find the happy medium between the person i was when i left and the person i became while i was there. God definitely has given me a heart for missions, and showed me soo much about myself and my life, and what He may want for me in the future- or atleast that He's got big plans for, its pretty exciting. =)

Thank you all for following my blog while i was gone. All of the prayers were definitely felt, in my quick adjustment, strong relationships and incredible experiences, plus many other things, and i feel very humbled to have soo sooo many people care so much about the work that i was doing. So now some more pictures from my last couple weeks. I'll post some photos, then also links to my facebook albums that have even more pictures... enjoy! =)

love,
~erika

Baringo

(if you're just starting reading you might want to skip down a couple posts to get caught up on the last week. or just read it all backwards. thats ok too =))

monday afternoon Colleen adn i headed to Lake Baringo. A VERY fun drive, to a more desertous part of the country.. it got hotter and hotter the closer we got. We stayed in a Banda, next to 25 english 5th graders.. hmmm. =) and when we got there we went for a walk before supper and found 9 crocodiles sunning themselves on the beach we were walking by! soooo cool! and so incredibly scary. colleen is weird and loves dangerous animals =) (i hope you're reading this colleen) and SHE wasnt scared so i tried not to be either, and just did it for the good pictures... they go right into the water when they get scared anyways, so as long as we stayed away from being between them and the water we were ok =). it worked out... and i got some cool pictures. then in the morning, after the darkest night of sleep i think i've ever had (it is soooo dark there, which makes the stars absolutely incredible- like seriously there are about 5  or 6 times the stars that we see in ohio. SOOOO many- but in the banda after we switched out the lights and tucked in the mosquito net it felt like i was blind. there was no adjusting to the darkness for my eyes... i woke up a couple times at night sooo disoriented because there was not even a speck of reflection or anything to get my bearings. it was weird. anyways, so we got up at 6 this morning for our boat ride... got on the boat around 645 and set off with our driver and our guide Joseph. The boat was kinda like an extra long rowboat with a 25 horsepower motor. we saw tons of birds right off the bat, and some little crocs, and some fishermen in really cool little boats and then we started across the lake to the islands. first we passed an island inhabited by one family. A very old man and his wives... i've heard between 5-8, and their 30 or so kids... and then lots of goats and sheep.. so that was the first little island, and then the main island had a little town on it, and we were planning to just go around it, but our motor broke down, so we HAD to stop, so when we 'docked' (on the rocks) we asked if we could walk around a bit so we got a personal tour of the Maasai village there... (Maasai are the kenyan tribe that you'd think of when you think of typical national geographic africa tribe- huge earrings/so huge earLOBES and lots of colorful jewelry and clothes, very dark skin, living a liitle more remote/conservative... something like that- very fun to photograph... against the law to photograph without permission...) it was a fun little side trip though, and they got the motor going again, so we headed back towards the edge and found some hippos... lots of them... talk about stinky. they smell awful! like a bad fart x 1000 =) it wasnt bad till we got downwind... i've never fully understood that word (or pumba's song in the lion king), downwind, till today, smelling that downwind. They are very cool creatures though, and i of course took lots of pictures!

The rest of the week is going to be full of kids! Im going to miss them horribly and im not looking forward to leaving them... as everyone knew would be hard. =( So i have all of tomorrow (wednesday) with them, and then most of thursday, we might actually take some to town and to cason and colleens house for the afternoon.. they love to (and need to) get out of the complex once in awhile, plus i need to go to town to find this guy that has been bugging me to buy cards from him... i kept telling him later, but its now later and i need some! they are really cool, he paints little pictures on them and they would be really neat framed. anyways, so we'll take the kids to town, a few of them, and then we're having a going away party with the youth- so i can say goodbye, and we can take some pictures (we're taking them out to eat =)) so thats thursday, then im with the kids again on friday and then to safari till monday, then nairobi to visit some ohio friends and possibly see an elephant orphanage and some other stuff, then i fly home on wednesday night at 1130... one week from tomorrow. Its been such an adventure, an eyeopening, jawdropping exciting experience and i wouldn't trade it for anything! Im talking like its already over! geez. i have a whole week left! I'm going to focus on that for now and enjoy every minute... probly wont write any more till im home, but i appreciiate so much you following my experience and reading my ramblings and for all the prayers. theres so many here that need your prayers so badly- please remember them and if you could also just pray that my transition home would NOT be heartbreaking that would be great =) I'm so so sooo sad to leave yet looking forward to coming home with a totally different outlook on how i want to live my life... the adjustment could just be a little rough. Hope you've enjoyed all the stories.. there will be many more when i get home! =) happy spring!

~erika

(pictures possibly coming tomorrow... right now i'm off to bed!)

Last Sunday at Ngata AGC

sunday was my last sunday of church. i picked up one of the babies from the baby center to bring along like i usually do (Hope was the lucky winner this time).  it was a very good sermon, by wycliffe keter- staci (BC directors husband) on "the call" and not only hearing God's call, but knowing when you're hearing it and how to act on it. very good. and the singing... it was awesome as usual... the english service was ok, but then we stayed for the beginning of the swahili service right after, and we stood up front (not IN front like the youth wanted- they are the choir) we didnt have enough guts to stand up with them because they do all these cool clappy rhythms and dancing sorta and we would've looked like fools, but the songs are sooo fun to listen to, and they put the words up so we can sing as well. It was an awesome morning... kinda hard though, knowing it was my last one for a while. I was standing there, holding little hope as she slept in my arms, swaying to the music as on beat as i could possibly be while singing =) and looking around at all the friends i'd made, and the youth smiling back at me as they danced and sang their hearts out.... i definitely started getting a little teary. just like i am now... =) i will miss it alot.

 This is (from left) Connie, Gideon and Boss

Sleepover

Friday evening i went to cason and colleens house for a SLEEPOVER! im 25. yes.. but sleepovers here are still cool =)  we (well they, cason and colleen) had the youth over for their second sleepover. its always an interesting time with the youth, blending the cultures together but we had a really fun time and i got to know them so much better. They are really amazing kids (only a few years younger than me!) and we shared a lot of laughs that night... it started out with the roasting of the goat... well no. it STARTED with me walking into the dining room to find half a goat laying on the table in a plastic bag.

it was a black one... i found some fur still left on its leg =/ by this time a few of the girls had started the ugali (made with corn flour, kinda like really sticky but not, mashed potatoes with the flavor of unseasoned grits =) they eat it with everything, kinda like a filler) and a stew and green grams (kinda like lentils, but waaayyyy better) and then chipote, which im really going to miss.. its just like a thicker sweeter tortilla, thats really good with stew.... so the girls were cooking away

and the guys were thinking about roasting the goat, and working on getting the perfect fire, and 4 hours later supper was ready!

so we ate at 10:30 and then had our discussion time led by cason. we're studying James now (recommended by me) and we talked about how our faith is nothing if our life doesnt show it, and how we can change the way we live to make it obvious that we have a personal relationship with God. there were lots of good questions asked and a lot of good discussion, followed by some singing (in english =( and swahili! =)) i LOVE their singing so much... it was a really meaningful evening and its so encouraging to see the youth really asking questions and wondering how they can be better christians and live better lives. (they could use prayers as well, just to find and stay on the right path in a society where that isnt always the 'normal' thing for youth to do.)

 (this is Aggie, Dorcas, Me, Colleen and Rael)
we got little sleep that night(went to bed at 430, and they were up and ready for breakfast around 7!), and watched "into the spear" with them till early in the morning (a movie by the church that did Fireproof i think, about these missionaries who went into the amazon to bring jesus to a tribe of killers, and who ended up getting killed). it was interesting. a good movie, but maybe not the right setting... esp watching it as missionaries. the next morning we had an american breakfast of eggs bacon and cinnamon rolls for them, and then did a devotional/follow up from the night before and then played games until it was time for them to leave. their favorite game WAS uno.. but colleen and i thought that needed to be changed so we taught them how to play spoons... every youth group needs to know how to play spoons! (we would've taught them dutch blitz too.. but im not sure how it would've worked, plus we had no cards) so we taught them spoons, with uno cards =) it works, by the way- and its now their new favorite... it was actually a blast to play with them.

after they left we went to relax as the house help moved in to clean up the disaster left, to a salon in nakuru where you can get 12$ pedicures that are awesome. I decided for some reason to ruin my relaxed state and get my eyebrows threaded!!! if you dont know what that is its an indian method of shaping the brows, where they wrap thread around their fingers and then somehow, they way they pull it apart or something, it pulls out the hairs. owie. =) he did a great job though! and it only cost me $1.25 . that always makes it better =)