Merry Christmas and Good night!

Well, we have been back on this side for almost a week now. Sweet reunions with family...and meeting one new member, Maverick!

Lots of Ultimate Frisbee, too.

During a layover in Johannesburg, we got to see Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto the day after his burial. Our travel was a bit longer than scheduled, but no major problems.


From Karen:

Some of my favorite things about our first day back in the States:

- warm shower and comfy bed (obviously), 

- coffee, orange juice, smoothie, Taco Bell, Dr. Pepper,

- Ultimate Frisbee, good weather, driving our car, washing machine & dryer

- Russ and Ann, texting with friends

I love Africa, but it's so nice to be home!


From Mark:

Back in Texas! So thankful for my parents Russ and Ann . They decided to "pamper" us and I when we got back from Kenya last night-we had Franklin BBQ for dinner last night, followed by Blue Bell Cookies and Cream ice cream! 


Also, Im really loving the weather in Austin right now. It was a crisp and fresh 39 degrees (4 celsius) this morning and it felt wonderful. Since Austin is so far south, many of the trees here still have leaves on them! It's just wonderful. Karen and I are feeling very blessed right now.

Our 58 hour time of traveling from Ah-Gah-Pay Mercy Children's Centre Kenya to my home in Round Rock was the longest trip Karen or I have ever taken. Everything went well until we got to America. Our flight to D.C. was 1.5 hours late, which made us 20 minutes late our connecting flight to Austin. We weren't upset about missing that flight until we took the next flight (3.5 hours later) and then sat in the plane for 45 minutes waiting for "other passengers" to arrive. Why didn't the first plane wait for Karen and I but this plane waited? If anyone has industry knowledge about this I would greatly appreciate it, this phenomenon is maddening to me (especially at the end of 55 hours of traveling).

The tour of Jo'burg was fantastic. Saw the location of the Soweto Uprising of 1976, as well as the former homes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond TuTu. Powerful stuff, can't believe the atrocities of apartheid happened so recently. Although, the current conflicts in Syria, Congo, and CAR remind me that humanity still has a long way to go.




Now we're in Roswell!

Thank you for your support during our recent Africa travels. We look forward to talking to many of you about our experiences. The blog will be dormant for awhile until we have some other noteworthy news or announcements. Please continue to follow amcckenya.org and keep us posted by emailing zambiakaren@gmail.com or markjadawson@gmail.com.

Life at AMCC

We have been meeting individually with the children at AMCC to hear how they are doing, take suggestions, and pray for them. It was a really neat time to get to know them better and to listen to them. We were really surprised by some of them - at their level of English and what they're hoping to do. 

Recently, we went to meet the chief of this area, and he spoke so highly of Rev. John and AMCC. We've also appreciated getting to know the new accountant and have him explain some things to us. We went with the children to the field at their primary school and had a good football (soccer) match; the younger kids got really good at throwing and catching frisbees!

It's raining a lot here, especially in the afternoons and evenings. It's mostly cool but not unpleasantly so. I have to take a picture of some of the younger kids all bundled up with their awesome hats on! We eat beans a lot - beans with rice, with maize, and with ugali (maize meal). We also drink a lot of sweet chai, tea grown locally! And enjoying fresh fruits like bananas, mangos and pineapples. 

It's a bit intense to be living so closely in very different situation than we're accustomed to, but it is really special, too. We appreciate prayers for patience, wisdom, and humility during the last few days here.

Thursday is Kenya's 50th anniversary of independence and Friday we are having our Christmas party!

Leaving AMCC

Wow, being at AMCC really has felt like a mission trip this time! It’s been really hard and really good. As a “team,” we’ve had our moments of tension and also of feeling like we’re doing really good. We both feel content and spiritually enlivened after our time here. It will be hard to say goodbye to the children, but we have many good memories to take with us, like the Christmas party yesterday! And playing soccer and Frisbee in the field at the local elementary school. And teaching the children a lot of different songs. (The theme song is “Prince of Peace” with the men’s’ and women’s separate parts.) But we are also quite ready for some comforts of home like warm showers and not having to go for a long walk in the night, unlocking a door and going downstairs outside, if I need to use the loo. We are both satisfied with what’s been accomplished during the three weeks we’ve been here. Praise God! (Amazing how I can have a conversation with a grandmother that includes only “Thank you”, “Praise the Lord”, and “Amen”.) J

We leave tomorrow (Sunday) from Nairobi, will have a 12 hour layover in Johannesburg (going out to see the city), then to DC, then Austin, arriving on Tuesday a bit before noon. Can’t wait to see family!

Mark with an AMCC student, Simon, who graduated last year

We love AMCC!

Wrote this Nov 19

Praise God! We have arrived at Ah-Gah-Pay Mercy Children’s Centre (AMCC) in Kenya. It is another home to us, and we are with the AMCC staff, our brothers and sisters, and Rev. John’s parents are also our parents here. God has really blessed this place since we were last here, and we are so thankful! A few of the improvements:

- The kitchen has ventilation and a lot of new utensils.

- The location is safe and secure (we have been assured by three different local politicians).

- The children do not have to pull water from the well twice a day but there are holding tanks filled by the rain and a tap/faucet.

- There is electricity that seems to be reliable – no more walking 20 minutes to a friend’s shop to charge phones!

- Now, we have five staff members looking after 29 kids when they are all home. This is a much better ratio than 2:40.

We rejoice to be here and to have this pace of life for a few weeks. An example: at about 11:30, we went to greet our “parents” and we stayed until 2:30. Although we hadn’t made plans with them to visit, they fed us lunch, got and peeled sugar cane for us to chew, and told us about life in Kenya before independence. (We will be here over the 50^th independence celebration Dec 12.)

We slept very well last night and are enjoying our friends here and Kenyan chai. Trying to figure out our plans for heading to Uganda at the end of the week.

East Africa Adventures - nothing like the bus

It's been a couple of busy weeks since leaving South Africa! We spent a few days at AMCC and enjoyed being with the kids and getting to know them again. The new AMCC (at the converted chicken house) is great, and there have been so many improvements, such as electricity, tanks to catch water, and porcelain squatty potties. We drank lots of tea and were happy to fellowship with the staff and children. I almost know all their names!

Quick rendezvous with friends in Nairobi.

Then we took the bus to Kampala - that was an adventure in itself. There was a wreck ahead of us that caused a 6 hour stop in traffic, making our 14 hour trip into 20 hours. So upon arrival in Kampala, we grabbed dinner and rode "boda bodas" to the craziest bus station that I've ever been to! And got on another bus to Mbarara, Uganda, where we met up with good friends Micah and Betsy DeKorne, who now live there, and David and Kristen Okada, who flew in to visit and celebrate Thanksgiving. We had an incredible time together with some really good conversations. And we had a great Thanksgiving meal, too.

Now back in Nairobi before heading to AMCC tomorrow. But now I need to head to bed.

Anniversary and Good-byes

Hello, Readers!

It's a rainy Saturday in Cape Town. :( Feels like winter...again. Also ironic that we've repeated some of the major events of our first week here, like staying at the Peterson's (because it was rainy and we were on the scooter and why not?) (But they aren't here, so it wasn't as much fun.) And hanging out, waiting for a ride at a particular shopping center (because I left the house keys at the wrong house.) Uncomfortable and feeling homeless already.

I am sad because I've said goodbyes to most of the people who've been so special to our time in Cape Town. Just got back from a precious lunch with Ruth and Gina - Love those ladies. And said goodbye to lovely Carol at Joshua Children's Mission (www.jcmission.org).

I'm feeling the weight of the transition right now. Prayers appreciated. For me and for Mark, as he puts up with me. We celebrated our 4th anniversary this week! He brought me these lovely flowers. 

Another lovely, adventurous trip this week!

Since we first began talking about a semester in South Africa, Mark has been fixated on Tugela Falls, the second highest waterfall in the world. Few South Africans had heard about it, but we’ve been planning to get there (near Drakensberg National Park) and had invited many different people, none of whom were able to join us. Finally, we bought plane tickets and went!

The mountains were incredible. The weather was lovely, if a bit breezy at times. We had a lot of fun hiking and it felt good to push ourselves a bit.

We rented a car, and we decided that I would be the driver since I’ve had more experience driving on the left side of the road (in Zambia), and also because when we’re in beautiful places, Mark rubbernecks like crazy, trying to take it all in at once! We thought we’d locked the keys in once and started to freak out, but we stopped to pray, and while we were praying, Mark remembered that he had put them in the tent. I was just about shouting “Hallelujah!”

We camped at a backpackers’ hostel, so we were able to cook our own food. It honestly wasn’t a very nice place, but it worked for what we needed, and we can deal with cold showers (though we were a bit grumpy about it since we were expecting access to hot water). The first day, we came back and our tent was gone! The reception office didn’t know anything about it, nor did the manager on duty. They phoned the maintenance guy at home and located the tent in the laundry room! We were never told why it was taken down, and it took two hours to get all of our stuff back. By then, there was a light sprinkle and we were quite frustrated.

Day 1: We entered the national park, went to the visitors’ center, and hiked down a ravine toward the bottom of the Tugela Falls. It was a very pretty hike, and we enjoyed exploring the river. There was a cool slot canyon. We kept hiking up the riverbed because we hadn’t gotten a good view of the falls yet. Turns out, there isn’t much water in the falls right now, so we never got to where we could see it, although we could see the canyon where it should be. On the way back down the river, we took a short cut and jumped in!

Day 2: We went to another part of the Drakensberg that was recommended to us – Cathedral Peak. It was about an hour away and there’s a big, fancy lodge there. We hiked to some small waterfalls in the area. Turns out there was no trail to the second one we were trying to get to, so we bush-whacked some and had a nice lunch at the lodge’s restaurant afterwards. We also avoided baboons on this hike.

Day 3: Woke up early for the 2.5-3 hour drive to the parking lot where we hike to the top of the waterfall, near the Lesotho border. It was a smooth drive, though we decided not to push our rental car up the very pot-holed, rocky dirt road. We parked on the side and were gathering our things to walk the last few kilometres when another vehicle (4x4) was coming up, so we were able to hitch a ride with them. A German guy had hired the vehicle and was doing the same hike, so the three of us ascended together. The views were amazing, and there was a fun part where you take chain ladders up a cliff face. We saw a ton of lizards on this hike! Alas, the waterfall was quite small from the top, too. Still, we enjoyed lunch at the top and Mark took a quick dip in a pool at the top of the waterfall.  We came down a steep ravine and drove back for one last dinner and sleep at the backpacker’s hostel.

We slept well all three nights after hiking. We made good memories and had discussion about dealing with disappointment, what the difference is from resentment… It was a good trip and we had fun. Glad to be back in our South African home for one week until we leave SA.

Birthdays!

We came back to a new season in Cape Town - and we've swimming the past six days! Celebrated both of our birthdays. The Petersons have been our family here, and Diana made us a delicious cake. We celebrated with them at the beach! And we got to go on a spontaneous retreat with to a time share with another couple from our life group. God is good.

Also, the church we've been attending here just celebrated ITS 30th birthday, and it was incredible to be in the service when they released a few hundred balloons! We were singing songs in various languages, the kids were dancing around, and no one was too cool to hit a balloon around - because if you didn't hit it, it would fall and hit you in the head! I got teary with anticipation for heaven.