I think I'm going to start writing short reviews of "new" (as in new to me) movies I've seen...
Some of you may remember Elektra from it's dazzling previews a few years ago, there were all these great shots of the girl from Alias in a rather revealing bright red outfit fighting a host of somehow strange looking enemies. As it died in the box office I doubt many of you actually saw it.
This film is exactly what the previews looked like, Jennifer Garner (the Alias girl) stars as Elektra, reprising her supporting role from Daredevil which had been released just a few years prior. Elektra works as an assassin for hire who is so good she whispers in your ear before she kills you. The problem comes when she is given an assignment to kill a young girl whom she has just befriended, a rare pleasure for an assassin. Now Elektra, the girl, and her father are on the run from a horde of demons who look like people but blow up into a cloud of smoke when they die. If this plot line sounds cool to you then congratulations, you are very in-touch with your inner 13 -year-old boy. That's who this movie was made for and it delivers on the very core level of a pretty girl kicking butt on the baddies. We're never given any real motive for the demons and why they want this girl, or what value she has. We're never told how we actually know that the demons are bad (other than being called demons) and Elektra's blind former trainer and his friends are the good guys. But we join Elektra as she runs from one surreal fight to another.
Don't get me wrong, I did have fun with this movie, my 13-year-old-self got to come to the forefront for a few hours, but you have to go into it expecting what you'll get. Otherwise you'll just be left baffled.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Multiple lifetimes flashing before my eyes...
That's kind of how this week feels, multiple lifetimes have been flashing before my eyes. At work this week I've been getting about as much use as possible out of our new scanner. I can run up to 5 slides at a time through the scanner and they take about 20 minutes to get scanned. So by the time I rename the scanned slides and put them away, then get the next 5 sitting "on-deck" I have 15 minutes to keep on with the rest of my work. So in those 15 minute spurts I've been organizing the information I've gathered, and compiling my facts onto a coherent outline. I am proud to say that this writing is nearly done. I now have a story that flows all the way from 1935 to 1997 and some helpful facts that are beginning to fill in this last remaining 12 years. Let me take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the very busy people who have been responding to my nagging emails trying to figure out what's happened these last 20 years. I doubt any of them have time to read my humble blog, but there's a thank you note out in cyberspace anyway.
So that's basically what my work days have looked like all week; scanning slides, reading emails, looking facts back up in my reference books, writing the outline, writing emails with more questions... etc. etc, so on and so forth. Therefore I'll skip each day's report.
Knocking work out I feel like I don't have a lot else to say, the internet has been working about 50% of the time lately so I try to take full advantage when it's on and fill my time with other stuff when it's not. I'm told the company is working to hook us up to a fiber-optic line which will be great when it's done, but their projected finish date is some time around august! I guess until then we just have to put up with the internet coming and going as it pleases while they un-hook things and plug them in somewhere else.
Monday night I had a real treat, Ken and Carolyn Wade (fellow WGM missionaries based in Kericho, but usually ministering somewhere else) had me over for dinner. Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatos, and Chocolate Cake for desert! I think I kind of pigged out a bit. As a bit of payment for the treat I worked to help Ken figure out some trouble they've been having with Facebook and uploading photos. Let's just say I got the sweet end of that deal.
Tuesday night I got out my pirated DVD and watched a plotless fighting movie. It was fun for what it was, but there's a definite reason that you've probably never heard of The Purifiers before.
The other evenings of this week have mostly been filled with a bit of web-surfing and working a little bit on the video research. Nothing real exciting.
Today has been fun but quite tiring. I started with Laundry which with an interuption of at least 30 minutes took me about 3 hours. I was very happy when i quit! Then I walked to town using the new shorter route i learned last week on my way back from church. I'd say it cuts 10-15 minutes off the walk. I knew today was going to be a big shopping day so I used the back-pack that my friend Mark left behind after visiting along with my cousins. The advantage there is I could carry a water bottle in the side pocket and I kept my hands free after getting my fruit and veggies for the day. I still wound up carrying 2 bags home in my hands, but that's better than 3 or 4.
The Wades had helped me on Monday also by finding another meat store in town, or rather a small grocery store that has 2 meat freezers that take up the majority of the floor space. So I picked up some lunch meat and a chicken there. But the true surprise find of the day was green apples at the market for 25 shillings.
I didn't get home from the market until 3:30 PM and was quite tired of walking so it was a joy to just make a quick sandwich and sit down with some of the guys to start watching Lord of the Rings. We're going to finish the second half later tonight.
Well I guess this post is going to be about as short as this week seems to have been.
God Bless,
Jonny
So that's basically what my work days have looked like all week; scanning slides, reading emails, looking facts back up in my reference books, writing the outline, writing emails with more questions... etc. etc, so on and so forth. Therefore I'll skip each day's report.
Knocking work out I feel like I don't have a lot else to say, the internet has been working about 50% of the time lately so I try to take full advantage when it's on and fill my time with other stuff when it's not. I'm told the company is working to hook us up to a fiber-optic line which will be great when it's done, but their projected finish date is some time around august! I guess until then we just have to put up with the internet coming and going as it pleases while they un-hook things and plug them in somewhere else.
Monday night I had a real treat, Ken and Carolyn Wade (fellow WGM missionaries based in Kericho, but usually ministering somewhere else) had me over for dinner. Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatos, and Chocolate Cake for desert! I think I kind of pigged out a bit. As a bit of payment for the treat I worked to help Ken figure out some trouble they've been having with Facebook and uploading photos. Let's just say I got the sweet end of that deal.
Tuesday night I got out my pirated DVD and watched a plotless fighting movie. It was fun for what it was, but there's a definite reason that you've probably never heard of The Purifiers before.
The other evenings of this week have mostly been filled with a bit of web-surfing and working a little bit on the video research. Nothing real exciting.
Today has been fun but quite tiring. I started with Laundry which with an interuption of at least 30 minutes took me about 3 hours. I was very happy when i quit! Then I walked to town using the new shorter route i learned last week on my way back from church. I'd say it cuts 10-15 minutes off the walk. I knew today was going to be a big shopping day so I used the back-pack that my friend Mark left behind after visiting along with my cousins. The advantage there is I could carry a water bottle in the side pocket and I kept my hands free after getting my fruit and veggies for the day. I still wound up carrying 2 bags home in my hands, but that's better than 3 or 4.
The Wades had helped me on Monday also by finding another meat store in town, or rather a small grocery store that has 2 meat freezers that take up the majority of the floor space. So I picked up some lunch meat and a chicken there. But the true surprise find of the day was green apples at the market for 25 shillings.
I didn't get home from the market until 3:30 PM and was quite tired of walking so it was a joy to just make a quick sandwich and sit down with some of the guys to start watching Lord of the Rings. We're going to finish the second half later tonight.
Well I guess this post is going to be about as short as this week seems to have been.
God Bless,
Jonny
Sunday, July 5, 2009
What a week
This past week was a bit of a doozie. Of course, it started with some difficulty with the internet which resulted in me not getting last weeks post up until Tuesday. But there was a lot more going on at the beginning of the week than just that. Some of you may know that my mom had been in the hospital for a few days and was finally able to get out on Sunday. Really everything was fine, I knew she was only there for some tests, but being here with no internet access, I was really feeling cut off from home and knowing what was up. I did hear Sunday night that she was out of the hospital, but hadn't heard much else in several days.
Monday I spent in the office mostly on my own. The power was out most of the day so I couldn't continue with the videos I had been watching when I left on Friday. Instead I started through several folders of slides. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the slide folders I had stacked up had lists in the beginning stating what the images were. These were a huge help especially since we don't have a light table for viewing the slides and instead I would have to hold each page at a somewhat awkward angle to use the light from the window. (I guess this would have been my technique any way since the power was out.) By the end of the day my neck was getting tired of the up-and-downs required for this process.
John had been away at a crusade over the weekend and came back late in the afternoon. The electricity came back on when he arrived so I declared his arrival as the blessing that brought the lights back. When he arrived I was preparing to be done for the day, so we didn't get too much more accomplished, but we decided to sit and talk about the project on Tuesday and evaluate where we were.
On Tuesday morning John had some errands to take care of so in the afternoon we had our meeting. We discussed the fact that we were behind on our proposed schedule and also acknowledged the fact that we needed to focus the project a bit more than we had originally talked about due to time and recourse constraints. That refocusing meeting turned out to be really great and from there on we have been able to push ourselves and our pre-production work. We've been able to come up with a script outline that has us now up to the late 1980s.
So the day on Tuesday was great. When I got back to the trailer that night the internet was finally working. I called in my email and was happy to see an up-date from my mom, but it came with some bad news as well. My Uncle in the US had been taken to the hospital sometime on Sunday. Three more messages soon followed giving details of a blood clot near his heart, his condition worsened, and finally he had passed away. WOW, seriously I went through the 4 messages almost as fast as I've just written them and, unless you're a VERY slow reader, you just read them. Not even an emotional rollercoaster that was more like an emotional cliff dive! Thankfully, I know that my uncle was a strong Christian man so I have no doubt where he is now, but it was still like having a rug pulled out from under me. It was a rather emotional end to the day, and I felt the distance between myself and the family back home.
On Wednesday I was back at work, John and I continued working on our script outline and accomplished quite a lot. In the evening my friend Michael came over and we watched a movie, which turned out to be just what i needed at the end of a long hard day, and in working out my emotions from the previous day.
Thursday John and I had a real victory as we installed and tested out the new hard-drive and slide-scanner I had brought. I am pleased to say both are working quire well. Not a lot else to say on hat day.
Our number 1 goal for Friday was to figure out how we could digitize some of the VHS footage John had in the library. For a while it was very discouraging and we could not figure out what to do. I have to admit I gave in to the frustration quite quickly and had trouble thinking of where to turn, but thankfully this is one area where John really came through for our team. He kept going through various settings dialogue boxes until he found 1 or 2 items that turned out to be the key. So in the end it was another victory for us as we began reviewing and capturing the tapes.
In the afternoon John had to go for another crusade so I finished in the office on my own. In the evening I went to church in town for a meeting with the Young Professionals (YP's), a newly formed group aimed at post college/pre-marriage and family adults. We had some nice fellowship and also "swallow-ship" of Mandazi's and Chai. The message this week came from the senior pastor who spoke on the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Specifically she touched on the 2 greatest commandments to "Love the Lord you God with all your Heart, Soul, and Mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself." The unique thing that popped out to me was that she pointed out the 3rd person we are to love in that verse. We talk a lot about loving God and almost as much about loving our neighbors, but we often for get to talk about how we aught to love ourselves! Just stop and think on that for a moment. Pastor Joyce pointed out that we are not necessarily supposed to be proud or selfish, but we need to be happy with who we are and what we do. Really, how can you "love your neighbor as yourself," if you don't love your self?
Getting back on track... Saturday was the 4th of July, which to me is a holiday, but to the entire rest of the population of Kericho, is just another day in July. So there were no big cook outs and no fireworks displays. My day started with laundry...uh...woo hoo? While I was bent over washing some clothes in my basin, minding my own business, this mal-tempered bee swooped in and maliciously stung me in the back of my neck! It was totally uncalled for! Thankfully, I am not allergic and so I think I will survive this episode of "when animals attack" but it was still an unpleasant experience.
I didn't let the sting totally ruin my day though, I finished my laundry and took the long walk to town, which really got my blood pumping, in pursuit of some groceries. That expedition had about a 50% success rating. There were a few items I didn't find, most notably meat. Last time I was in Kericho I would get all my meats from an ice-chest in a certain corner of the store which was not there anymore. I asked a man who just shook his head and said they don't have it. Don't know what happened, but now I'm going to have to start having my meat purchased and brought to me by other missionaries. A little disappointing and this requires a lot more pre-planning to find those coming my way and let them know what I'm going to need.
On something of an up-side, I decided with it being a holiday I would break my rule and buy a DVD at the store. I hope no one from the FBI reads this because it is definitely a pirated disc with 5 movies on one.
When I made it back home I cooked myself a hamburger (a good 'ol piece of Americana) and sat down to watch Elektra. Not the best movie I've ever seen...Maybe we'll just leave it there, but it was a fun ride on a saturday afternoon. Michael came over and I was really feeling I'd make the holiday an excuse to take it easy so we watched 2 more movies during the day. All in all a pretty good celebration, except for that dumb bee.
This coming week I hope John and I will be able to digitize most, if not all, the slides and photographs we are going to need for the Tenwek video and also get the script nailed down quick enough that we can arrange to go around and shoot the footage we'll need.
God bless,
Jonny
Monday I spent in the office mostly on my own. The power was out most of the day so I couldn't continue with the videos I had been watching when I left on Friday. Instead I started through several folders of slides. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the slide folders I had stacked up had lists in the beginning stating what the images were. These were a huge help especially since we don't have a light table for viewing the slides and instead I would have to hold each page at a somewhat awkward angle to use the light from the window. (I guess this would have been my technique any way since the power was out.) By the end of the day my neck was getting tired of the up-and-downs required for this process.
John had been away at a crusade over the weekend and came back late in the afternoon. The electricity came back on when he arrived so I declared his arrival as the blessing that brought the lights back. When he arrived I was preparing to be done for the day, so we didn't get too much more accomplished, but we decided to sit and talk about the project on Tuesday and evaluate where we were.
On Tuesday morning John had some errands to take care of so in the afternoon we had our meeting. We discussed the fact that we were behind on our proposed schedule and also acknowledged the fact that we needed to focus the project a bit more than we had originally talked about due to time and recourse constraints. That refocusing meeting turned out to be really great and from there on we have been able to push ourselves and our pre-production work. We've been able to come up with a script outline that has us now up to the late 1980s.
So the day on Tuesday was great. When I got back to the trailer that night the internet was finally working. I called in my email and was happy to see an up-date from my mom, but it came with some bad news as well. My Uncle in the US had been taken to the hospital sometime on Sunday. Three more messages soon followed giving details of a blood clot near his heart, his condition worsened, and finally he had passed away. WOW, seriously I went through the 4 messages almost as fast as I've just written them and, unless you're a VERY slow reader, you just read them. Not even an emotional rollercoaster that was more like an emotional cliff dive! Thankfully, I know that my uncle was a strong Christian man so I have no doubt where he is now, but it was still like having a rug pulled out from under me. It was a rather emotional end to the day, and I felt the distance between myself and the family back home.
On Wednesday I was back at work, John and I continued working on our script outline and accomplished quite a lot. In the evening my friend Michael came over and we watched a movie, which turned out to be just what i needed at the end of a long hard day, and in working out my emotions from the previous day.
Thursday John and I had a real victory as we installed and tested out the new hard-drive and slide-scanner I had brought. I am pleased to say both are working quire well. Not a lot else to say on hat day.
Our number 1 goal for Friday was to figure out how we could digitize some of the VHS footage John had in the library. For a while it was very discouraging and we could not figure out what to do. I have to admit I gave in to the frustration quite quickly and had trouble thinking of where to turn, but thankfully this is one area where John really came through for our team. He kept going through various settings dialogue boxes until he found 1 or 2 items that turned out to be the key. So in the end it was another victory for us as we began reviewing and capturing the tapes.
In the afternoon John had to go for another crusade so I finished in the office on my own. In the evening I went to church in town for a meeting with the Young Professionals (YP's), a newly formed group aimed at post college/pre-marriage and family adults. We had some nice fellowship and also "swallow-ship" of Mandazi's and Chai. The message this week came from the senior pastor who spoke on the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Specifically she touched on the 2 greatest commandments to "Love the Lord you God with all your Heart, Soul, and Mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself." The unique thing that popped out to me was that she pointed out the 3rd person we are to love in that verse. We talk a lot about loving God and almost as much about loving our neighbors, but we often for get to talk about how we aught to love ourselves! Just stop and think on that for a moment. Pastor Joyce pointed out that we are not necessarily supposed to be proud or selfish, but we need to be happy with who we are and what we do. Really, how can you "love your neighbor as yourself," if you don't love your self?
Getting back on track... Saturday was the 4th of July, which to me is a holiday, but to the entire rest of the population of Kericho, is just another day in July. So there were no big cook outs and no fireworks displays. My day started with laundry...uh...woo hoo? While I was bent over washing some clothes in my basin, minding my own business, this mal-tempered bee swooped in and maliciously stung me in the back of my neck! It was totally uncalled for! Thankfully, I am not allergic and so I think I will survive this episode of "when animals attack" but it was still an unpleasant experience.
I didn't let the sting totally ruin my day though, I finished my laundry and took the long walk to town, which really got my blood pumping, in pursuit of some groceries. That expedition had about a 50% success rating. There were a few items I didn't find, most notably meat. Last time I was in Kericho I would get all my meats from an ice-chest in a certain corner of the store which was not there anymore. I asked a man who just shook his head and said they don't have it. Don't know what happened, but now I'm going to have to start having my meat purchased and brought to me by other missionaries. A little disappointing and this requires a lot more pre-planning to find those coming my way and let them know what I'm going to need.
On something of an up-side, I decided with it being a holiday I would break my rule and buy a DVD at the store. I hope no one from the FBI reads this because it is definitely a pirated disc with 5 movies on one.
When I made it back home I cooked myself a hamburger (a good 'ol piece of Americana) and sat down to watch Elektra. Not the best movie I've ever seen...Maybe we'll just leave it there, but it was a fun ride on a saturday afternoon. Michael came over and I was really feeling I'd make the holiday an excuse to take it easy so we watched 2 more movies during the day. All in all a pretty good celebration, except for that dumb bee.
This coming week I hope John and I will be able to digitize most, if not all, the slides and photographs we are going to need for the Tenwek video and also get the script nailed down quick enough that we can arrange to go around and shoot the footage we'll need.
God bless,
Jonny
Friday, June 26, 2009
Back in Kericho, Back to Work
Random thought, I've decided one of the weirdest things about driving in Africa is getting used to judging the width of the car from right to left instead of left to right. It's strange because you wouldn't think this would be a problem, but I really feel like I'm much less sure of my width here than in the US. Also not helping the problem are two facts, 1) I drive a different car each time I get the chance to drive, 2) the roads are insanely narrow.
Any way this past week has been quite eventful. I did make it to Nairobi on Friday as planned and spent the night in my old bedroom from high school days. It was bittersweet as I missed having the hundreds of posters and magazine clippings that used to line the walls.
After getting into town Friday I walked to a nearby mall to get passport pictures taken for my work permit and alien registration. While at the mall I popped into a computer store to see if they had any slide scanners. They had one that was about $50 more than I was really hoping to spend.
On Saturday morning I tried to call a few electronics stores in Nairobi to see if they had slide scanners. I got through to one of the three. They did have a scanner, but it was about $700! I was looking for more like $150 so I decided I'd pass on that.
My main plan for the day was to attend the Safari Sevens Rugby Tournament, an annual 3 day event. So I prepared to make my way there. There was no breakfast food in the house where I was staying and I needed to buy a few other small things so I first walked across the street to a grocery store and then made my way toward the tournament which was about a 30 minute walk down the street. I stopped about half way at my favorite coffee shop (Java House at Adams Arcade) and had a hearty breakfast so it would hold me until dinner. By the time I got to the tournament it was about 12:00, but I was just in time to see the Kenya A team take the field. I spent the rest of the afternoon with my cousin Heather Adkins watching the tournament.
In the evening I walked down to Robyn Moore's house where I would be staying for the rest of my time in Nairobi. "Aunt" Robyn had 2 other volunteer girls staying with her and the 4 of us would have a lot of fun through the next several days.
Finally after dinner a high school friend, Andrew Ruturi, picked me up and we went to another Java House to just chat and catch up. At 9:30 we were the last customers to leave the restaurant. Long day!
Sunday after church we (Robyn and volunteers Lindsay and Rachel) headed to the final day of the Rugby Tournament. The girls had never seen a rugby game before, so I got to pretend to be really smart and tell them everything I know about my favorite sport.
Monday I was met by Joel Kiathe who works with WGM helping with business such as work permits and other important, yet time consuming details. I had heard horror stories of waiting all day in long lines and trips from one office to another for this stamp or that piece of paper, so I was prepared for a long a tedious day. In fact, it moved right along and we were only there for 2 hours maximum which was a very pleasant surprise. I was actually back to Aunt Robyn's before lunch!
WIth my sudden extra time I tried again to call some electronics shops looking for scanners. I still had 2 that I hadn't heard from yet. I got one of them and was met with the quick reply that they simply didn't have slide-scanners. I had 4 different numbers for the other one, only one number connected and it turned out to be someone's private number. The lady was not interested in selling me a slide scanner. Having exhausted my knowledge of options I caught a ride with Aunt Robyn and picked up the one in the mall.
Tuesday morning I stayed at the house and worked some more on research for the Tenwek video while the ladies went to a few orphanages to check on the kids and to pick up 3 MORE volunteer girls. When they got back the house began to overflow with estrogen, but I think we all had fun anyway. :) We went to a nearby shopping center for a late lunch and then I did some grocery shopping for my return to Kericho. The girls and I had made plans to go see a movie after the shopping was done, but that fell through because the film was apparently NOT at the theatre yet.
So Plan B was made. We returned to Aunt Robyn's house for the rest of the afternoon and had tacos for dinner, then after dinner I took 5 girls out to the movies! I guess that's how you make up for not going on a date in a REALLY long time.
Wednesday I had breakfast with all the ladies before they ran off to visit some more orphanages. Once they were gone I just tried to work on more Tenwek research while I waited for my ride to Kericho to pick me up. I caught a ride with the Bishop of AGC. By evening I was back in my trailer at Kericho. Within a couple hours Michael, one of my friends from the Bible College, came over to greet me and invite me to join him and some others in leading chapel! Fortunately I wasn't given too much responsibility I was just asked to join them in singing a few special numbers. It was fun, but kind of a whirlwind turn from where I'd been the night before.
Thursday I was off to work in the Media office, I started gathering several massive collections of slides and kept going through the books that I'd been reading for research. Really not a whole lot to talk about there.
Friday was similar though rather than slides and reading I set up a video projector and VCR and looked at some old videos about Tenwek. So far the most interesting has been what was probably the first ever Kenya Field Video that WGM put out back in 1980 something. Dr. Tom Hermiz hosted an interesting trip throughout Kenya. I had a few good laughs at things like Aunt Robyn's short appearance. Don't worry I'm sure people will laugh at me some day too. (And several of you are asking "someday???")
Saturday I started to catch up with my unpacking and laundry, did some more Tenwek research and then walked to town for a few groceries. With the shopping all done I spent most of the afternoon at the church waiting for a promised goat roast.
Man that was a long update and it's really late coming. I'm sorry, the internet has been real flaky lately.
By the way, my Uncle in the US passed away Monday evening. Please pray for my Aunt, Elain Brady, and her family.
Until Saturday, God Bless,
Jonny
Any way this past week has been quite eventful. I did make it to Nairobi on Friday as planned and spent the night in my old bedroom from high school days. It was bittersweet as I missed having the hundreds of posters and magazine clippings that used to line the walls.
After getting into town Friday I walked to a nearby mall to get passport pictures taken for my work permit and alien registration. While at the mall I popped into a computer store to see if they had any slide scanners. They had one that was about $50 more than I was really hoping to spend.
On Saturday morning I tried to call a few electronics stores in Nairobi to see if they had slide scanners. I got through to one of the three. They did have a scanner, but it was about $700! I was looking for more like $150 so I decided I'd pass on that.
My main plan for the day was to attend the Safari Sevens Rugby Tournament, an annual 3 day event. So I prepared to make my way there. There was no breakfast food in the house where I was staying and I needed to buy a few other small things so I first walked across the street to a grocery store and then made my way toward the tournament which was about a 30 minute walk down the street. I stopped about half way at my favorite coffee shop (Java House at Adams Arcade) and had a hearty breakfast so it would hold me until dinner. By the time I got to the tournament it was about 12:00, but I was just in time to see the Kenya A team take the field. I spent the rest of the afternoon with my cousin Heather Adkins watching the tournament.
In the evening I walked down to Robyn Moore's house where I would be staying for the rest of my time in Nairobi. "Aunt" Robyn had 2 other volunteer girls staying with her and the 4 of us would have a lot of fun through the next several days.
Finally after dinner a high school friend, Andrew Ruturi, picked me up and we went to another Java House to just chat and catch up. At 9:30 we were the last customers to leave the restaurant. Long day!
Sunday after church we (Robyn and volunteers Lindsay and Rachel) headed to the final day of the Rugby Tournament. The girls had never seen a rugby game before, so I got to pretend to be really smart and tell them everything I know about my favorite sport.
Monday I was met by Joel Kiathe who works with WGM helping with business such as work permits and other important, yet time consuming details. I had heard horror stories of waiting all day in long lines and trips from one office to another for this stamp or that piece of paper, so I was prepared for a long a tedious day. In fact, it moved right along and we were only there for 2 hours maximum which was a very pleasant surprise. I was actually back to Aunt Robyn's before lunch!
WIth my sudden extra time I tried again to call some electronics shops looking for scanners. I still had 2 that I hadn't heard from yet. I got one of them and was met with the quick reply that they simply didn't have slide-scanners. I had 4 different numbers for the other one, only one number connected and it turned out to be someone's private number. The lady was not interested in selling me a slide scanner. Having exhausted my knowledge of options I caught a ride with Aunt Robyn and picked up the one in the mall.
Tuesday morning I stayed at the house and worked some more on research for the Tenwek video while the ladies went to a few orphanages to check on the kids and to pick up 3 MORE volunteer girls. When they got back the house began to overflow with estrogen, but I think we all had fun anyway. :) We went to a nearby shopping center for a late lunch and then I did some grocery shopping for my return to Kericho. The girls and I had made plans to go see a movie after the shopping was done, but that fell through because the film was apparently NOT at the theatre yet.
So Plan B was made. We returned to Aunt Robyn's house for the rest of the afternoon and had tacos for dinner, then after dinner I took 5 girls out to the movies! I guess that's how you make up for not going on a date in a REALLY long time.
Wednesday I had breakfast with all the ladies before they ran off to visit some more orphanages. Once they were gone I just tried to work on more Tenwek research while I waited for my ride to Kericho to pick me up. I caught a ride with the Bishop of AGC. By evening I was back in my trailer at Kericho. Within a couple hours Michael, one of my friends from the Bible College, came over to greet me and invite me to join him and some others in leading chapel! Fortunately I wasn't given too much responsibility I was just asked to join them in singing a few special numbers. It was fun, but kind of a whirlwind turn from where I'd been the night before.
Thursday I was off to work in the Media office, I started gathering several massive collections of slides and kept going through the books that I'd been reading for research. Really not a whole lot to talk about there.
Friday was similar though rather than slides and reading I set up a video projector and VCR and looked at some old videos about Tenwek. So far the most interesting has been what was probably the first ever Kenya Field Video that WGM put out back in 1980 something. Dr. Tom Hermiz hosted an interesting trip throughout Kenya. I had a few good laughs at things like Aunt Robyn's short appearance. Don't worry I'm sure people will laugh at me some day too. (And several of you are asking "someday???")
Saturday I started to catch up with my unpacking and laundry, did some more Tenwek research and then walked to town for a few groceries. With the shopping all done I spent most of the afternoon at the church waiting for a promised goat roast.
Man that was a long update and it's really late coming. I'm sorry, the internet has been real flaky lately.
By the way, my Uncle in the US passed away Monday evening. Please pray for my Aunt, Elain Brady, and her family.
Until Saturday, God Bless,
Jonny
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
TRY something new
Thinking about this blog today I recognized how long it's been since I updated anything here. My problem is I keep waiting for moments of inspiration and not really coming up with anything.
I recognize that the main purpose of this blog should be to keep friends and family up to date on my life here in Africa. So I am proposing (to myself) a new philosophy. Rather than just writing about the rare random story I should start going for a post a week. We'll see if I can be faithful and pull this off, but I thought I should at least try for it. So each week I will look to the week ahead, where I'll be, what hope to accomplish, and any interesting events coming up. I also hope to look back and make note of the previous week, where I was and what I accomplished. Hopefully this new blogging perspective will bring about some interesting stories as well.
So to begin...
I feel like this time I really should jump back and mention the time i was recently able to spend with my cousins Tiffany and Samuel Thaler and our friend Mark Schieffla. Tiffany had been in Kenya since September 2008 as a volunteer working in Physical Therapy in Nairobi. Mark and Samuel came for about 2 weeks to visit. Actually no account of our time is complete with out my going back about 2 weeks now to Tiffany and Samuel meeting me in Kampala, Uganda. They took the 12-14 hour bus ride over to meet me and we all went white water rafting together on the Nile.
After rafting we returned to Nairobi by bus and met up with Mark. We all spent 2 days in Nairobi seeing places where Tiffany worked, visiting the baby elephants and the Giraffes near the national park and shopping. During this time we rented a vehicle and because I was the only one with a license it fell to me to be the driver! So I had my first experience driving in Nairobi, and with the exception of a few wrong turns it went pretty well.
Moving on from Nairobi we spent a few days in Maasai Land first at a mission station there and then in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. At the Olderkesi Mission station we were privelaged to visit an actual Maasai village (not the touristy ones you find near the park) and were also treated to a night game drive using the spot light to try and find animals in the darkness.
After Maasai we returned to Nairobi for a night and last Friday (June 12) I said good-bye to the three of them and made my way to Tenwek Hospital. They were to fly out later that night.
I've been here at Tenwek for a week now mostly beginning to research my next video project. Tenwek Hospital is celebrating 50 years since the first full time doctor, Dr. Ernie Steury, came. My coworker, John Makibior, and I have been tasked to assemble a video that tells the story of Tenwek's early days and how far it's come since then. I am very excited about this project, but it is no small task. On Tuesday we had a meeting with the hospitals Executive Officer, Mr. Geoffery Langat, to discuss plans for the project. It was reassuring to see that he was looking for similar things to what we were thinking of.
On Wednesday morning Mr. Langat asked us to join the celebrations planning committee and present our thoughts to them. This meeting also went quite well.
I have spent the days since continuing to research and beginning an outline.
So what's in store for next week?
Today (Friday) I'm heading to Nairobi to hang out for the weekend and do some business at the beginning of next week. My work permit has been approved so I need to go and finalize that and apply for alien registration and a multiple entry permit so I don't have to pay every time I come into Kenya. I also plan to try and look for a slide scanner for AGC Media that we can use for this Tenwek project and for digitizing the large slide library at the office.
Until next week, God Bless.
I recognize that the main purpose of this blog should be to keep friends and family up to date on my life here in Africa. So I am proposing (to myself) a new philosophy. Rather than just writing about the rare random story I should start going for a post a week. We'll see if I can be faithful and pull this off, but I thought I should at least try for it. So each week I will look to the week ahead, where I'll be, what hope to accomplish, and any interesting events coming up. I also hope to look back and make note of the previous week, where I was and what I accomplished. Hopefully this new blogging perspective will bring about some interesting stories as well.
So to begin...
I feel like this time I really should jump back and mention the time i was recently able to spend with my cousins Tiffany and Samuel Thaler and our friend Mark Schieffla. Tiffany had been in Kenya since September 2008 as a volunteer working in Physical Therapy in Nairobi. Mark and Samuel came for about 2 weeks to visit. Actually no account of our time is complete with out my going back about 2 weeks now to Tiffany and Samuel meeting me in Kampala, Uganda. They took the 12-14 hour bus ride over to meet me and we all went white water rafting together on the Nile.
After rafting we returned to Nairobi by bus and met up with Mark. We all spent 2 days in Nairobi seeing places where Tiffany worked, visiting the baby elephants and the Giraffes near the national park and shopping. During this time we rented a vehicle and because I was the only one with a license it fell to me to be the driver! So I had my first experience driving in Nairobi, and with the exception of a few wrong turns it went pretty well.
Moving on from Nairobi we spent a few days in Maasai Land first at a mission station there and then in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. At the Olderkesi Mission station we were privelaged to visit an actual Maasai village (not the touristy ones you find near the park) and were also treated to a night game drive using the spot light to try and find animals in the darkness.
After Maasai we returned to Nairobi for a night and last Friday (June 12) I said good-bye to the three of them and made my way to Tenwek Hospital. They were to fly out later that night.
I've been here at Tenwek for a week now mostly beginning to research my next video project. Tenwek Hospital is celebrating 50 years since the first full time doctor, Dr. Ernie Steury, came. My coworker, John Makibior, and I have been tasked to assemble a video that tells the story of Tenwek's early days and how far it's come since then. I am very excited about this project, but it is no small task. On Tuesday we had a meeting with the hospitals Executive Officer, Mr. Geoffery Langat, to discuss plans for the project. It was reassuring to see that he was looking for similar things to what we were thinking of.
On Wednesday morning Mr. Langat asked us to join the celebrations planning committee and present our thoughts to them. This meeting also went quite well.
I have spent the days since continuing to research and beginning an outline.
So what's in store for next week?
Today (Friday) I'm heading to Nairobi to hang out for the weekend and do some business at the beginning of next week. My work permit has been approved so I need to go and finalize that and apply for alien registration and a multiple entry permit so I don't have to pay every time I come into Kenya. I also plan to try and look for a slide scanner for AGC Media that we can use for this Tenwek project and for digitizing the large slide library at the office.
Until next week, God Bless.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Unique Offering
Every once in a while I experience something that reminds me, in a good way, that I'm not totally and Kenyan and some things here are still strange to me. This is one such story...
This past weekend I attended church a little outside of Kericho and joined in the celebration for several recent graduates of the Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program. I was there to film and help create a short story about the program and graduates. At the end of the service a special offering was taken. I was surprised here to see a woman bring forward a live chicken and give it to the pastor. Honestly, I should not have been surprised, this is not really an uncommon occurrence in rural African churches, but it did catch me off guard. I actually started thinking of my church back in Michigan and wondered what Pastor Dave would do if someone brought a live chicken and set it in the offering plate. I started picturing his face and laughed a little to myself.
What I had forgotten, or had never known, was what is done here with chickens that are given in the offering. Once all the congregation had been given a chance to give their gifts the chicken was auctioned off to the highest bidder! So Pastor Dave, if someone brings you a live chicken for offering that's what you do with it! The chicken sold for about $6.35. Later I found out that if I went to the market to buy a chicken like that I could expect to pay about $3.75 for it.
In this area people mostly live off their live stock and what they can grow on their farm. Most families will have at least one parent involved in some kind of small business, but the money from this mostly goes toward paying for the children's schooling. The chicken that this woman brought could have been a meal for her family, it's possible that it used to lay eggs for them even and she probably gave it because she had no money. Today I've been thinking about the gift she gave and how God used that small amount to instantly bring in an even larger return. If she had come with the 300 shillings the chicken was worth, that's what she would have given, but because she brought forth this chicken she was able to give that amount and God was instantly able to multiply it! I guess this just made me think of how we can bring so little to a God who created everything and He can use it to do amazing things!
This past weekend I attended church a little outside of Kericho and joined in the celebration for several recent graduates of the Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program. I was there to film and help create a short story about the program and graduates. At the end of the service a special offering was taken. I was surprised here to see a woman bring forward a live chicken and give it to the pastor. Honestly, I should not have been surprised, this is not really an uncommon occurrence in rural African churches, but it did catch me off guard. I actually started thinking of my church back in Michigan and wondered what Pastor Dave would do if someone brought a live chicken and set it in the offering plate. I started picturing his face and laughed a little to myself.
What I had forgotten, or had never known, was what is done here with chickens that are given in the offering. Once all the congregation had been given a chance to give their gifts the chicken was auctioned off to the highest bidder! So Pastor Dave, if someone brings you a live chicken for offering that's what you do with it! The chicken sold for about $6.35. Later I found out that if I went to the market to buy a chicken like that I could expect to pay about $3.75 for it.
In this area people mostly live off their live stock and what they can grow on their farm. Most families will have at least one parent involved in some kind of small business, but the money from this mostly goes toward paying for the children's schooling. The chicken that this woman brought could have been a meal for her family, it's possible that it used to lay eggs for them even and she probably gave it because she had no money. Today I've been thinking about the gift she gave and how God used that small amount to instantly bring in an even larger return. If she had come with the 300 shillings the chicken was worth, that's what she would have given, but because she brought forth this chicken she was able to give that amount and God was instantly able to multiply it! I guess this just made me think of how we can bring so little to a God who created everything and He can use it to do amazing things!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
A day in the Life
As I've been uncertain of what to write about here I think this time we'll just go for a basic topic... A day in my life in Kericho, Kenya.
I am now living in Kericho and working with John Makibior in the Media department at the Africa Gospel Church head office. I live in a small house on the compound that is referred to as "The Trailer" because it is a converted trailer. To get a sense of this small but homey living space check out my Facebook group "Adkins Media On Location."
Last night I started writing about my typical day here in Kericho, it wasn't very interesting. Then today came along and I had a rather unusual day! So I'll write about that day!
I have been running low on groceries for 3 days now and each day I just put off going shopping especially as I've been quite busy at work writing and re-writing a script. Well after dinner last night I was running real low so I decided I had to go to town today.
I got to work a little after 8 this morning and worked probably until around 9. I decided to walk to town, good exercise and it's cheap, so I went out and took a short cut I learned last weekend. It was quite a nice walk though if I had really thought it through I would have left behind some of the things I was carrying. I have no idea how long it took me to get to town but I would guess 45 minutes based on the fact that i listened to a 12 minute podcast and half a CD album on the way. On the way in I passed some fruit vendors and made a plan to buy mango and pineapple on my way back.
I had 3 place I wanted to visit in town, there's the photo shop which I only know how to get to from the book shop, the book shop which I was pretty sure I could easily find from the grocery store, and the grocery store which I totally know how to get to! I went straight to the grocery store since I knew the way there, but my plan was to find the book store first so I could buy a small Bible. Well, when I got to the grocery store (Stagemat) I looked in each direction for which street looked right. I didn't see the book shop. I decided to pick a direction and start walking, nothing looked right. When the plan goes wrong go back to the beginning. I took another direction. still nothing looked right. Back to Stagemat, I asked the guard at the door if he knew the way. He just pointed me into the store. I thought maybe he was intending down the street and to the right so I tried that, still not right. Finally, I admitted defeat, I had misplace the book shop. Now it should be mentioned that this is Bethany Bookshopt, it was started by my Grandparents or Great Grandparents, this is almost like misplacing the family jewels!
Any way I decided to adjust my plan and do my grocery shopping, call a Taxi and have him take me to the book shop before coming back home. I did my grocery shopping and things were good. I called this taxi driver I know, his name is Soldier, and after a few minutes he came and got me. When I was getting in the car I asked if we could go by Bethany Bookshop first, he looked at me a little funny and then drove across the street! It was right there! Went into the shop and bought my Bible, it's a small one so I can easily pack it when traveling.
Soldier and I then headed out of town and stopped at the fruit stands I had passed on the way in. He helped me get a pineapple at the first one for 40 Shillings (about $0.50) which he said was expensive since they are out of season. Then we continued on to the Mango stand by the speed bumps and got a Mango. That was 20 Shillings ($0.25) which again he said was a rip off. As we came on to the church office Soldier explained that there's a market in town where Mangos are about 5 shillings (almost nothing). I have decided that finding this mythical market will be my next adventure!
When I got back to the house it was about 11, so 2 hours to loose a book shop, get groceries, find a book shop and get back, not too bad really.
I went back to work where I found Koech, my friend who brings chai twice a day, cleaning the office. The board is visiting us tomorrow. Koech poured me a cup of tea almost as soon as I sat down and that motivated me to keep working until lunch time.
I decided to make lunch my small meal for today so I just had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was pretty good.
The afternoon was mostly spent working on my script and logging my footage from Burundi about a month ago. John, my co-worker, has been in meetings all this week so I just kept myself occupied. John did make it back some time around 4 and then we suddenly go busy straightening the place up until sometime after 5 when we came home.
Getting back to the house this evening I had to do laundry (again I direct you to facebook to see my oh so efficient "Laundry Machine"). Once the laundry was out of the way I set about taking care of my produce. I had an onion, a pineapple and a mango to cut up and store in the fridge. The onion was easy to cut, but it was a strong beast of an onion so I cried through the whole thing. Then I went for the pineapple, I'd never cut a pineapple. I figured it couldn't be too hard, but I wasn't really interested in messing up either. So I went to Google and man it pulled through for me, I fond a site with step by step instructions and photos. Turns out cutting a pineapple is exactly as easy as I thought it would be. By this point I was feeling pretty good, so it was on to the Mango! I was pretty sure I knew how to do this so I skipped google and just dove in. Well I'd completely forgotten Mangos have a hard seed in the middle. That was issue one, but should have been something I could get around. However, I think the fruit was also a little under or over ripe because rather than a nice firm inside that can be cubed it was all mushy and stringy like a pumpkin. I salvaged what I could of it and we'll see how it turns out.
Finally, I cooked dinner. When I first got to Kericho nearly 3 weeks ago the only meat I found at Stagemat was hamburgers. Only problem since has been a lack of buns. Well I found some buns today and so I dug into one of my burgers. Oh man that was good. I followed the Burger with pineapple and cookies. Oh man that was good. After I finished eating I hopped her on the internet and have been blogging ever since. It's now nearly bed time, 11PM, so I hope you will all enjoy my roller coaster day as much as I did and we'll see you again soon.
I am now living in Kericho and working with John Makibior in the Media department at the Africa Gospel Church head office. I live in a small house on the compound that is referred to as "The Trailer" because it is a converted trailer. To get a sense of this small but homey living space check out my Facebook group "Adkins Media On Location."
Last night I started writing about my typical day here in Kericho, it wasn't very interesting. Then today came along and I had a rather unusual day! So I'll write about that day!
I have been running low on groceries for 3 days now and each day I just put off going shopping especially as I've been quite busy at work writing and re-writing a script. Well after dinner last night I was running real low so I decided I had to go to town today.
I got to work a little after 8 this morning and worked probably until around 9. I decided to walk to town, good exercise and it's cheap, so I went out and took a short cut I learned last weekend. It was quite a nice walk though if I had really thought it through I would have left behind some of the things I was carrying. I have no idea how long it took me to get to town but I would guess 45 minutes based on the fact that i listened to a 12 minute podcast and half a CD album on the way. On the way in I passed some fruit vendors and made a plan to buy mango and pineapple on my way back.
I had 3 place I wanted to visit in town, there's the photo shop which I only know how to get to from the book shop, the book shop which I was pretty sure I could easily find from the grocery store, and the grocery store which I totally know how to get to! I went straight to the grocery store since I knew the way there, but my plan was to find the book store first so I could buy a small Bible. Well, when I got to the grocery store (Stagemat) I looked in each direction for which street looked right. I didn't see the book shop. I decided to pick a direction and start walking, nothing looked right. When the plan goes wrong go back to the beginning. I took another direction. still nothing looked right. Back to Stagemat, I asked the guard at the door if he knew the way. He just pointed me into the store. I thought maybe he was intending down the street and to the right so I tried that, still not right. Finally, I admitted defeat, I had misplace the book shop. Now it should be mentioned that this is Bethany Bookshopt, it was started by my Grandparents or Great Grandparents, this is almost like misplacing the family jewels!
Any way I decided to adjust my plan and do my grocery shopping, call a Taxi and have him take me to the book shop before coming back home. I did my grocery shopping and things were good. I called this taxi driver I know, his name is Soldier, and after a few minutes he came and got me. When I was getting in the car I asked if we could go by Bethany Bookshop first, he looked at me a little funny and then drove across the street! It was right there! Went into the shop and bought my Bible, it's a small one so I can easily pack it when traveling.
Soldier and I then headed out of town and stopped at the fruit stands I had passed on the way in. He helped me get a pineapple at the first one for 40 Shillings (about $0.50) which he said was expensive since they are out of season. Then we continued on to the Mango stand by the speed bumps and got a Mango. That was 20 Shillings ($0.25) which again he said was a rip off. As we came on to the church office Soldier explained that there's a market in town where Mangos are about 5 shillings (almost nothing). I have decided that finding this mythical market will be my next adventure!
When I got back to the house it was about 11, so 2 hours to loose a book shop, get groceries, find a book shop and get back, not too bad really.
I went back to work where I found Koech, my friend who brings chai twice a day, cleaning the office. The board is visiting us tomorrow. Koech poured me a cup of tea almost as soon as I sat down and that motivated me to keep working until lunch time.
I decided to make lunch my small meal for today so I just had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was pretty good.
The afternoon was mostly spent working on my script and logging my footage from Burundi about a month ago. John, my co-worker, has been in meetings all this week so I just kept myself occupied. John did make it back some time around 4 and then we suddenly go busy straightening the place up until sometime after 5 when we came home.
Getting back to the house this evening I had to do laundry (again I direct you to facebook to see my oh so efficient "Laundry Machine"). Once the laundry was out of the way I set about taking care of my produce. I had an onion, a pineapple and a mango to cut up and store in the fridge. The onion was easy to cut, but it was a strong beast of an onion so I cried through the whole thing. Then I went for the pineapple, I'd never cut a pineapple. I figured it couldn't be too hard, but I wasn't really interested in messing up either. So I went to Google and man it pulled through for me, I fond a site with step by step instructions and photos. Turns out cutting a pineapple is exactly as easy as I thought it would be. By this point I was feeling pretty good, so it was on to the Mango! I was pretty sure I knew how to do this so I skipped google and just dove in. Well I'd completely forgotten Mangos have a hard seed in the middle. That was issue one, but should have been something I could get around. However, I think the fruit was also a little under or over ripe because rather than a nice firm inside that can be cubed it was all mushy and stringy like a pumpkin. I salvaged what I could of it and we'll see how it turns out.
Finally, I cooked dinner. When I first got to Kericho nearly 3 weeks ago the only meat I found at Stagemat was hamburgers. Only problem since has been a lack of buns. Well I found some buns today and so I dug into one of my burgers. Oh man that was good. I followed the Burger with pineapple and cookies. Oh man that was good. After I finished eating I hopped her on the internet and have been blogging ever since. It's now nearly bed time, 11PM, so I hope you will all enjoy my roller coaster day as much as I did and we'll see you again soon.
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