So we’ve been quickly approaching a point where we need to made some decisions about what to after this school year is over. Do we stay or do we go?

We’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but we want to involve all of you back home. We’ve been seriously considering staying on for another year, and we’d really appreciate your input. Teaching has been going well for Amanda. She feels like the school has invested a lot in her, and that she has invested a lot in the school. Her contract expires at the end of the school year, but she has an open invitation to return. As for me, there are a lot of exciting opportunities for me to serve here, especially for putting what I’ve been studying in college to use. Doors seem to be opening. But of course, we miss home. We miss family and friends. And football, taco bells, and reese’s, too. We really miss home, and would love to return.

At this point, we are leaning towards staying on another year. Either way, we’re coming back for the summer (at the least, june through august). We need to let Amanda’s boss know by December 1. We’re taking this decision really seriously. We have been really trying to seek out what God wants. We are able to be here because of support from other Christians who believe in our reasons and purposes for being here - so we want to be really sure that we are following God’s leading.

So we would ask all of you to pray for us about this. And let us know your thoughts! Post comments! or, if its a little more personal, email us! (spparks@gmail.com, ajhoops@gmail.com)

Thanks people! we look forward to your input…

Hey, happy Thanksgiving, eh?!

Hope you all had a feast! We were jealous, we have to admit. We were dreaming about huge turkey meals. But alas, no turkeys here. Not even a turducken!! Not for anything close to what we’d be willing to pay, at least. Actually, did get together with some Americans and had an pretty impressive dinner. Chicken and pork were the meats of choice, with some gravy, mashed potatoes, string beans, even cranberry sauce.

The big plans for this weekend, though, were in a town in western Kenya called Kakamega. Remember my post when I talked about the Christian organization called “The Reckoning” that I had met up with? These guys are great, I’ve been really impressed with what they do, their heart in it all, and their whole approach to development in general. (to keep this post short, here’s The Reckoning’s website if you want more info) In Kenya, they’ve mostly focused on micro-finance projects in Kakamega. Micro-finance is a really interesting solution, it’s something I’ve studied a lot in college. Take, for example, a woman selling clothes in rural Kenya. She started with very little money, so she has very few clothes. A small inventory will attract only a few customers, so the money she makes is barely enough to sustain her family, let alone go to pay for more inventory. If she could increase her inventory, she could increase her customers and her profit, and her small business could continue to grow. Banks don’t deal in small loans, and she doesn’t have any collateral anyway. That’s where micro-finance comes in. It focuses only supplying small loans to the poor, usually through some kind of group where there is shared expertise and mutual accountability. They have relatively low interest rates, but enough so that the loans can eventually stand on their own. It think it’s brilliant! Its a really effective way of empowering the poor to be able to profit from their personal talents and skills and creativity.

Anyway, they gave me an opportunity to go and meet with some of their clients and disperse some loans. So Amanda and I headed for Kakamega Thanksgiving evening.

Of course, things never go completely as planned in rural Kenya.

About 2 hours into our overnight 9-hour bus ride, I got really sick. Bad chills, an awful feeling in my stomach, and one other problem (*cough* diarrhea). With seven hours to go on pothole-laden roads. Haha, I cannot put in words how torturous this was. Apparently, somewhere around the sixth hour I told Amanda that I wished God would just take me. When we finally got to our hotel at 7am, I collapsed into bed (then, got right back up to go to the bathroom, then collapsed into bed again). We had to postpone the meetings until the afternoon so that I could rest and eventually go to the doctor.

The Doctor’s official diagnosis: malaria and amebic(?) dysentery.

It sounds a lot worse than it is. Actually, I doubt I actually have malaria. I think it tends to get over-diagnosed in Kenya. To me, its almost exactly like the first time I had dysentery. In fact, I’ve been taking only my dysentery meds and I started getting better almost immediately. So anyways, I started getting better, and the show was going to go on.

But there was another unexpected twist. There was a funeral for a prominent evangelist the next day in a near-by city, and most of the board members were involved. So the meetings that were postponed until the evening didn’t work out either, and everything was instead going to take place the next morning. Meanwhile, my phone wasn’t working, and my contact there, Dan, couldn’t get ahold of me. The next morning came, but success didn’t. Communication is tough in rural areas here. Its difficult to change plans and get everyone on board in one day. So most the people receiving the loans weren’t there; some had gone to the wrong place and some hadn’t heard. Worse yet, the funds hadn’t arrived.

So there were no micro-loans given out yesterday. But everyone was able to get on the same page again and organize a meeting for the next weekend. So I’ll be going back next Friday. Next weekend should go a little smoother, barring another tropical disease.

On last piece of the story: it was pretty necessary that we fly home instead of taking a bus again - I would have died!! So our friend Dan booked a flight home for us. We got to the airport, though, and our names weren’t on the list. AHHH! All other flights to Nairobi on all other airlines were full. We were at the mercy of no-shows. Haha all the mishaps had been really frustrating, for sure. Poor Amanda, she didn’t get much of a weekend, but she held it together!

So we prayed, and hard. And what do you know, some seats opened up one one of the flights about 15 minutes before it was taking off. Not only that, but after buying the tickets, they informed us that they would have to move us up to business class…. hallelujah!!! So after all that, we were flying home in luxury!

Race. The topic is inevitable. I’m reminded of it everywhere I go. The problem is….it’s awkward. Being a mzungu is awkward. Today a little girl ran up to the table where Sam and I were eating icecream. She stared, cocked her little head and then ran off to here dad. Yesterday, I was in line at the grocery store, and I see this little boy behind me whimpering because he wants his daddy. His dad is standing right in front of me, so i push my cart to the one side, and I moved to the other side. He did not budge. Eventually his dad pushed the cart towards me so the boy could scamper past without being close to me.

OK, so children are frightened of my freakishly white skin. I can deal with that. What is a little harder to deal with are the stereotypes, both true and untrue. This incident will illustrate an example of stereotypes.

I was walking home from the nearby grocery, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned clutching my purse. An older haggard looking Kenyan woman was asking,”Miss, miss!” She caught up with me and started telling me her story. Mind you, I was in a crowded area, but I was the only white face around. She told me she had a second-hand curtain shop, but her daughter got ill, and she spent everything she had trying to save her. Her daughter died, and now she wanted to reopen her shop, but she had no capital to get started. Apparently that is were I came in. She didn’t ask me for money, but a job, which I respected. I told her I didn’t know of a job, but that I saw women washing cars at our building every morning and maybe she could look into that. Then, I stopped her outside my apartment and brought her a snack to eat. She said, “Oh, Americans are so good and caring. No one else even gave me a second look, but you walked all this way with me and talked with me. Thank you!”

I attempted to tell her it wasn’t an American thing, but a God thing, but the whole experience was kind of unnerving. Americans aren’t any nicer or better than Kenyans, why did she believe this?

Sometimes I can’t figure out if Kenyans believe we are kind or that we are pushovers. In another line one day, an older Kenyan woman jumped in front of me with her bag of milk, and just held it up, saying, “just one!” I looked around, and sure enough I was the only white person in line, and even though my line was longer than some, she chose to cut me. Nice or pushover?

It is just interesting to be a minority for once in my life. I can honestly say that I have not thought about race much in my life before this year.

Sam and I are really enjoying the relationships we are building with some Kenyan friends. And, I can not tell you how amazing it is to worship God with people of different backgrounds, yet we all have unity in Christ. Worshiping God in a language I don’t know can almost be as rich as when I know the words! The diversity in the human race and culture is the handiwork of God. I just wish our human nature didn’t get in the way of truly enjoying one another as He intended it.

ok… Exhibit B…

* haha Bruce, note the top two buttons left unbuttoned.

haha…. amanda’s grandparents sent us this advertisement. guess i have a better looking brother out there, eh?!

So, if Sam’s “thorn in the flesh” is altercations with the law, mine must be altercations with germs. My stomach has been hurting for about 2 weeks, so I finally decided to go get checked out and make sure I didn’t have typhoid (they actually did test me for that, eww). I just have a nasty case of gastritis, so I will be fine, but how annoying. The migraines have been creeping back into my life as well.

I decided that some maybe getting a wrong impression of our life in Africa based on this blog. Life is NOT all disease, robberies and bribes. We actually have a lot of fun here- I swear!

 We have spent our free time in downtown: salsa dancing, going out to watch World Cup rugby matches at an Irish pub, and sampling Ethiopian, Indian and Kenyan food. I even got to go to an African fashion show fundraiser at “Amani Ya Ju” for these refugee women who are taught how to sew and run a business. It was so cool seeing those woman who have been through things we can not even imagine, walk the “catwalk” all dressed up with styled hair and makeup. They must have felt so beautiful!!

 We also have a blast getting out into the countryside a bit, biking through “Hell’s Gate” and walking in a gorge with hot springs, riding a camel, feeding an ostrich, seeing a waterfall and going in caves behind it (creeeeeeeeeapy- who knows what lives in there).

 They also have fantastic movie theaters here, where a small popcorn is about 75 cents! Unfortunately, not a whole lot of quality movies make it to Kenya. It seems like a lot of kid’s movies and bollywood movies, mostly. They even have a few American-style coffee houses with free wireless (uhhh, sometimes)!

 Oh, and for you fruit and veggie fans, produce is amazing! The most flavorful carrots, bananas and mangos ever! I tasted the most delicious sweet potato of my life today. Plus, you gotta love fresh avocados for a mere 13 cents, and mangos for about 30 cents (and those are the high prices they charge for the white people;)).

 And of course, we can’t forget our visits to the U.S. ambassador’s house, especially when we went to a really cool concert that was kind of like a “Rock the Vote” theme.

 So, our last three months have definitely had some high points. You can pray for us as we try to decide whether or not to recommit at West Nairobi School for another year. Their deadline is December 1^st- less than a month away!