p.s. - I SUCK at blogging...

... so here's the deal...

I've had a 'private' blog that very few people actually know about (and at that even they don't really know who I am) since I was in High School.

I post all my dirty little secrets on that blog... All the strange thoughts I have... the more strange interactions that I have with people that I generally keep to myself.

As I was writing a new poem in it today... I suddenly realized that I keep my 'private' blog pretty much up-to-date, however I never write in my public blog. What the crap is up with that? Do I just not care? Was I simply doing it because it was a trend? Am I doing it because I wanted to get responses from people, that I just didn't get?

Was I doing it because I truly wanted help, and accountability and nobody responded but one person? (Thank you so much for your heart Bro.)

Why do we blog?

As of September 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs. ONE HUNDRED SIX MILLION blogs.

Do we think people care about our stories? Do we think people are interested in what we have to say? Speak now, or forever hold your peace...

I thought about this a lot today, as I was sitting at my desk listening to the new album from a buddy of mine, Scotty McFall (myspace.com/scottmcfall) at deafining levels on account of me being the only one here.

Can a life be changed by a paragraph that I 'e-pen' here? By a sentence? A word?

As some of you know, I'm a POST SECRET fanatic.. I've been following this incredible website since like '99. It's an amazing art website, where you create a homemade postcard with your deepest, darkest secret and mail it in. People can e-mail the website and 'respond' to some of the secrets. It's really a great thing.

I, myself, have actually had two of my secrets posted on there in the last few years.

The site is changed every Sunday. I logged on today to check the new secrets. One REALLY caught my eye:

Now, it wasn't the the card that got my attention so much as what followed did. You see, a young man named Ryan in South Dakota responded to the postcard saying:

"Dear Frank,

I feel the same way. I often wonder why I even have a phone because I rarely receive calls. If there was a way we could contact each other that would be cool. My phone number is 605-212-7787 (with permission).

Sincerely,
Ryan (with permission)"

I thought "For real!?! Did this guy ACTUALLY put his phone number up on there? Does he not know that he's going to get FLOODED with calls from people like me, who just want to call him because he put it up there?!!"

Of course, as is my nature, I instantly grabbed the phone, opened it up, took a deep breath and called the number.

"What am I going to say to him?" I thought "Should I prank him? Should I be serious? Will he even pick up?"

The phone rang.

It rang again.

And again.

"Man, I'm going to have to leave a message... huh."

It rang.

And then once more.

After the 5th ring, a soft spoken voice came across the other side... "Hello?"

"Hey Ryan?"

"Yes."

"My name is Slim, from Ft. Myers, FL"

"Slim!! How are you!"

I had to look at my phone... did this guy really know me? I mean seriously... what are the odds?

"I'm fine, thank you! And yourself?" I responded.

"I've been so great lately."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"I've talked to some of the most amazing people lately, from ALL over the world. It's amazing how I can't get anyone around me to speak to me... I have no real friends... nobody here who actually cares. But for the past week I've been flooded with people calling up, just to tell me that they love me."

I hesitated to speak as my mind raced... in THIS moment God convicted me in such a huge way. Because I AM everyone in South Dakota that neglected this guy. I AM the person who makes people sad and lonely. I AM the person makes others feel left out... looked-over... worthless, not for the things that I do, but for the things that I do NOT do.

At the moment, the only thing that was in my brain was "They will know that we are Christians by our love."

Man.

"I love you." Three very simple words. Words that get thrown around too much. But do we ever think about how powerful those words are? Maybe they've lost their meaning to those of us who hear them constantly, but do we think about how much it affects the people who never hear it?

I poured through the Word, trying to find descriptions of love.

Proverbs 10:12
Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.

Song of Solomon 8:6
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.

Song of Solomon 8:7
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

1 Corinthians 13:1 (and some change)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Colossians 3:14
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love: we certainly take that word for granted.

My conviction continues. If you are reading this... then I'm sure we are friends, maybe family... Can you remember the last time I told you that I love you? Have I ever?

So.. it comes to this.. the question echos again: Can a life be changed by a paragraph that I 'e-pen' here? By a sentence? A word?

Yes.

And that word is 'love'.

I love you.

Things I love...

...about her.

• Her smile
• Her eyes
• Her voice
• Her own little language (i.e.: "Fiffernug", "Jean Ween" etc.)
• Her humor
• Her wit
• Her sense of style
• Her classy-ness
• She's a dreamer.
• She’s prone to extreme silliness.
• She’s honest and trustworthy and loyal.
• She has a bizarre sense of humor.
• She makes a good eggs.
• She’s cute.
• She puts up with me.
• She's going to be a FANTASTIC mom
• Her energy is infectious
• She's adventurous, seeking out new experiences.
• She's sexy AND smart.
• How she continues to fight for me, even when I neglect her
• Her unflagging curiosity about everything around her.
• She's a great cook.
• She's not afraid of speaking out even if it means going against the majority.
• How she questions things most people take for granted.
• She's not afraid of goofy fun.
• Her writing is from the heart. She may claim she's not a writer, but her blog entries have made me laugh out loud and also teary-eyed.
• Her positive attitude and humour through experiences many other people would be constantly whining about and using as a crutch. Instead, these experiences seem just to make her stronger.
• The way she helps friends find cool opportunities.
• She doesn't mince words, especially when she's pissed off about something. You always know where you stand with her. No mindgames, no emotional manipulation.
• She's a great listening ear, sympathetic but also objective. Doesn't let me get away with self-indulgent crap.
• She's intellectually and emotionally honest.
• She's gorgeous.
• She's a loyal friend and an amazing woman. I feel incredibly lucky to be her friend.
• She has what I believe to be the softest skin in the universe.
• She can dance
• She can sing too.. although she doesn't always get the lyrics right...
• She is extremely photogenic; she does not take a bad picture!
• Spending the day with her guarantees lots of laughter
• She never takes life for granted.
• She gets such a joy out of her family's joy.
• She looks comfortable and classy in anything, from a slinky formal dress to baggy sweatpants and a t-shirt.
• The fact that despite her crazy schedule, she still makes it a priority to find time for me.
• She could spend hours browsing the children's section of a bookstore.
• Her playfulness.
• The depth of caring she shows her friends and family.
• The fact that she loves me
• Her sweet face
• The fact that she let's the Dude sleep on the bed in the master bedroom when I'm not around.
• "You wanna snuggle one time some times?"
• "I love you a whole lot of bunches of oodles plus 2?"
• "You... you... you... wanna get meeearrrieeed?"
• Her family
• Her friends
• Her stories
• Her laugh
• Her love.
• Her commitment to God
• Her general outlook on life
• Her heart
• Her life
• Her warmth
• Two words: "Frit" "tata"
• How she's picked up MY own little language
• How she moves her hands when she talks
• The cute little dance she does when she thinks nobody is looking.....
• How God designed her specifically to mesh with me
• How God made her my wife (to be)
• How it doesn't matter how long we're apart, she'll write little cards for everyday that we're away from each other.
• The way she hugs me
• The way she kisses
• Her smell
• Her touch
• She does my laundry

I love every single thing about her. As the days get closer to our wedding, I started to realize that I'm just falling deeper and deeper in love with her. I can't wait until we are old and hardly functional, so that I could look back on my life and realize that I had the greatest life ever, and that people would have killed to have my life and to have what I have. To look back on my life and realize that there really is a God, and that he loves me and shows me daily how much he loves me by putting such an amazing, stunningly beautiful woman in my life.

God is good.

Sorry, sorry, sorry...

...My sincerest apologies for the delay in writing a new post. Crazy busy I am.

Anyway... the quick run-down... all the flights home were good until we got stuck in Boston overnight. However because if it, I fulfilled a couple life-long dreams.

1.) Tour Boston.
Thats right... what's a dude to do in Boston for a day? That's right I walked around until I got tired and then took a trolley tour around town. Good times.

2.) Roll 1st class in an airplane.
Thats right... what's a dude to do after being stuck in Boston for a day? The nice lady gave us 1st class tickets because of getting stuck there. Good times.

I made it home, Laura picked me up. She was hot. We had lunch... a fantastic lunch might I add.

I went home a wrestled the Dude. Off to mom and dads for dinner later that night. Back home... it's good to be home.

S

I calmly lifted the deck in the air. Slowly. Very slowly.

Saturday

I woke up too early this morning. Dougie B has a meeting with Edward at 11:30am this morning, and then we're headed to Pipeline for a Committee meeting at 1pm. So, really, I didn't need to wake up until like noon...

I had planned on waking up around 9ish, that way I would still be able to catch breakfast in the morning.

Well, I feel asleep with my TV on and at 9am CNN woke me up. I remember it being nine, because the guy on the news said it... so I jumped up, grabbed a shower, put on my nice, clean, hand-washed clothes (they do it right in A-Freak-ah!) and headed out the door for some brreeeakfast.

I ate a lot of fruit, some potatoes, and an egg... over easy. I then sat there for a little while waiting for Dougie B. What seemed like an hour went by quickly. I thought to myself "Dang, Dougie B sure is sleeping in! It's gotta be past 10am!"

So I opened the computer for two reasons:
1.) To try to post more pictures on the blog so that I could try to get caught up.
-and-
2.) To see the time.

I actually didn't look at the clock right away... I connected to the net and opened Firefox and notepad to type up a blog post.

After a few moments, I thought about Dougie B again... looked at the clock... it read: 12:48am. Now this clock is still set to Ft. Myers time, so that I know what time it is there. 12:48 Ft. Myers time is 7:48am here. SEVEN!! I freakin' woke up at seven!

Now I'm still tired, and know that I could've slept in for 2 more hours!

It's okay though... I'm not going to go to sleep tonight... I'm just going to stay up all night. That way, hopefully, I'll be able to sleep the 8 hours from here to Amsterdam!

My plan is to pass-out from here to Amsterdam (8 hours), relax during our layover (2.5 hours) then rely on Wal-Som (you know we ghetto fab) for the flight from Amsterdam to Boston (9.5 hours). We then have a THREE hour layover in Boston, where we'll be headed out to grab lunch in the city (if possible), and I'll just tough it out from Boston to Charlotte and from Charlotte to the Fort.

I know it's rather selfish, but I've been praying that God will give us A330 air busses from here to America... also that the seats next to me would be empty too... say a prayer, will ya!

Steve was right on time... as always. They say here that there are two times: Africa time and Steve time. "Africa time" is a 'show up whenever you feel like it' kind of time. You can set your clocks to "Steve time" he's NEVER late!

Anyway... off to Pipeline we went... it's not a really long drive to Pipeline from the guesthouse, but it's certainly not a short drive either...

It's a strange day here in Pipeline today. It's very warm, the sun is very high... the people seem to be really happy today. It's as if they don't realize that they live in the slums.

These are truly beautiful people!

We had a meeting... from 2pm - 6pm ... I WAS DYING!!

So, I did what I always do... I went outside to play with the kids. Steve says to never do this.... I have a rebellious streak.

These two girls in particular were just AWESOME! Sharon and Sheila. What amazing girls, both VERY educated. They walked up to me, and put there arms around me and said "Hey Slim!"

"Jambo," I replied "how are you girls doing today?"

"Mzuri sana, Slim." "Do you know what that means?"

"Of course! I've been learning a LOT of Swahili while I've been here!"

"Oh, that's good! We have a question?"

"Anything! Go 'head!"

"Do you have a family?"

Man, my gut wrenched.. how do I answer that? "Yes, yes I do. I have an amazing family and you have nothing?" I've been asked many questions before. Some of them were even difficult questions. In most cases, it was easy to answer... never did I think that one of the most difficult questions would come from the mouth of a 5th grade orphan!

"Yes I do. I have a Mama and Baba, a Ndungu, and 2 Dada's! They're awesome people!" I said.

"That's so good Slim! Do you have any kids?"

"No, not yet. I'd like to have kids though!"

"Slim?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think that when you have your kids, you can bring them here to see us, one day?"

I had to fight back the tears. My gut turned, my eyes hurt, and my throat became more dry than that of a pothead.

"Of course.. I would love for you to meet them!" I finally answered.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No." I replied, heading towards the 'fiance punchline'

"Well, when I'm older, I'll be your girlfriend!"

"Hahaha... that's very nice, but I'm actually engaged to an amazing woman back home. Her name is Laura."

"She must be very beautiful!"

"Oh, you have NO clue!"

"When do you get married?"

"In just 6 weeks! Can you believe it!?!"

"Wow! That's very good, Slim. I wish you the best of luck!"

"Asante sana" I replied.

"Slim?"

"::chuckling:: yes?"

"Can we ask you a question?"

"::chuckling continues:: Of course!!"

"When you get married, do you think that you can bring your wife here to meet us? We want to play with her and do her hair...?"

The tears finally came out... "Of course... she would love it here, and love to meet you!"

"Do you think that she would want to be our best friend?"

"She already is!" I exclaimed.

I got called back into the meeting at this point. I didn't want to stop talking with the pair, but it wasn't long before we were able to talk again.

"How much Swahili have you learned, Slim?"

"Not much." I replied as I rattled of the list of words that I knew.

"We'll be right back!!" the two shouted.

During this time, a small group of kids came to find me. Some of them had seen me doing magic for Steve and wanted to see some. I was surprised at this. Edward told me that the kids would be too scared of magic and think I was Satan. As "Satan" was not quite how I wanted to be perceived by the kids, I pretty much kept it to myself and adults.

I said no... "It's too scary for you!"

"Please, please, please, please!" they rang out.

So I ran through a couple card tricks. They were speechless. I then made a 1Ksh coin appear out of thin air. Then I made it disappear, and reappear behind a small child's ear.

They watched in amazement as the 1Ksh coin changed to a 5Ksh coin... RIGHT BEFORE THEIR EYES!

As if that wasn't enough, the 5Ksh magically doubled to a 10Ksh coin at the wave of my hand!

They were stunned!! "More, more, more!!!" they shouted in unison, like a well rehearsed choir "More!!" they cried.

"Okay. I'll show you ONE MORE. But you've gotta promise that you wont get scared!"

"We promise." they chimed again.

I didn't explain to them what I was about to do. I just asked a girl to pick a card, by her "own free will" of course *wink**wink*

She chose the Queen of Spades. I then instructed her to put the card back on the top of the deck. I flipped the card back over and told them to watch closely.

I calmly lifted the deck in the air. Slowly. Very slowly.

Their eyes were GLUED to the deck.

"Watch closely!" I said as I let the suspense build up.

"Do you see it?" I asked.

"Do you see it!?!"

They didn't know what they were looking for... as I hard not really started the trick.

"Concentrate." I instructed them.

"Concentrate hard!"

Slowly but surly, the card LIFTED itself right off of the deck! It float nearly 3 inches RIGHT OFF THE DECK!

At this, the kids SHRIEKED and BOLTED away from me as I laughed.

Soon the girls came back. Sheila handed me a folded up piece of paper and said "This should help you with your Swahili!" I opened the paper. It was Sheila's version of the Swahili crash course.

Sharon lifted out her hand and said "This is for Laura. I made it for her." as she handed me a necklace. "Tell her I love her and can't wait to meet her!" she whispered in my ear.

What amazing kids these are.

I'm very happy to be going home, but very sad to leave. Kenya, very quickly became my home away from home.

We left there... headed back to the guesthouse to handle some business, and then dipped to the Java House for dinner.

It was good, as usual.

Taxied back to the guesthouse for some MUCH needed sleep.

I'm heading home on the 28 hour traveling journey. Goo.

S

I had the stir-fry Lamb and Almonds again...

Friday

Another kind of uneventful day.

I woke up... I ate breakfast... Steve picked us up.

We went down David Diamonds hotel to pick up some stuff that he left here for us. Some pens, some candy for the kids and such.

We when headed to Pipeline to meet with Pastor George real quick. He's doing a funeral today of one of the boys in his church, second one in two weeks. Crazy! We needed to take pictures of his "orphanage" to send to Dave to get his advice on how to build it up bigger and stronger.

Surprisingly, our brief meeting was actually brief for once.

We left there and went o the Village Market. This is in a SUPER upscale part of town, where are the people from the Embassies live. Lot's of white people... rich white people...

The Village Market is basically a mall. I really wasn't interested in the place, but we went there to try to meet up with Bobby Pall. Bobby is a mucho world-renowned photographer. He's the guy who made the book that my mom has.

He's world class... fantastic... and an AWESOME guy. Him and I really clicked, I think more-so than anyone else on this trip. He's a very encouraging guy, a very smart guy, and just an all around talented guy. It was good meeting him... I should've got a picture of him though!

Anyway... we met over Coke Lights at the place across the street from his studio. We talked about the project and how it's going and such. I told him of my lack of shots showing real need. See, everywhere we shot was like orphanages and such, where the kids were being well-fed and happy, so most of the shots I been able to get have all been of bright, smiling kids!

He told me that he would flip through his archive and pull out some good shots and put them on disc for me.

We decided to meet back up for dinner. Siam Thai it was!

We met up with Bobby at Siam Thai, I had the stir-fry Lamb and Almonds again. Just amazing!

After a good dinner, Bobby took us back to the AACC guesthouse for some sleep.

I got to talk to Laura again, over the Internet (man, I miss her voice!) and post some things and such...

Off to bed I went to get ready for my last FULL day in A-Freak-ah.

See youse guyses tomorrow!

S

"Does THAT hurt!?!"

Thursday

It is 12:43am your time, 7:43am "my" time. I'm so tired. I haven't really slept the last two nights, on account of my leg hurting so badly. It's pretty discolored now, and swollen. It still just feels like a really bad bruise. I'll hope so anyway.

We had an earlier start today.. just by one hour. Steve arrived at 8am sharp with Patrick and his mother (Mama) Anna.

Now here's the deal with Anna, she is the mother of 4 children. She lives in a small 10'x10' house. If you count it, that's 5 people in the house... each one getting 20sq ft. Seems like a nightmare, huh? Well, I suppose that now would be a good time to tell you that Anna has also taken in 6, yes SIX orphaned relatives of hers. Cousins, nephews, nieces, etc... that's ELEVEN PEOPLE in a 100sq ft house. Let's redo the math, shall we? 100sq ft / 11 people = 9.. 9sq ft. to live in. Can you imagine that?

Anyway... we brought Anna and Patrick some food, as we were sure that they were starving. And headed up to Kijabe which is way up in the mountains a little. In fact, the road parallels with the Great Rift Valley. Now, I'll tell you what... you've never seen anything until you see the Great Rift Valley. It stretches over most of Africa. In fact, here in Nairobi on the way to Kijabe it reaches it's highest altitude ... over 8,000ft high!!

I just couldn't help but take in the scenery. Such a beautiful sight! Everything around was all farm land. So you would see people living in a way that I would've imagined that God intended. Just living off of the land, making all of their own clothes. Raising their own cattle to eat and get milk from... it was amazing. I can't begin to describe the beauty! I wish that I could've taken pictures... just very hard to get good ones from inside a moving Safari Truck... know what I mean?

We continued up the road making small talk with Patrick and his mother.

On the way there, we were stopped by THREE police road blocks in a row. It's very weird here... they'll just stop you for no reason, most of the time. They'll want to randomly search you and your passengers. Or randomly run your plates... or in Steve's case, randomly mess with you.

During the second police stop, one officer came to Steve's window and pulled out his gun, told him that he was under arrest and to get out of the car. The second officer then pulled out HIS gun and came to MY window! Now, I would not have been afraid had I not known that in this country Police, Admin. Police, and the Army can shoot you anytime they want, without any reason. "For real!?!" I thought.

Steve asked the officer "For what am I being arrested for? I've done nothing wrong!" the officer looked at him and said "Okay, you can go."

SAY WHAT!?!?!?!?!

"Did anyone else see what happened!" I though... so yeah... turns out here... the police get so bored that they'll pull you over and tell you that you're under arrest just to see your reaction. If you're calm, like Steve, they'll just let you go... if you freak out you're probably headed for a bullet...

Another fun fact, police don't move around in cars... well, some of them do, but most don't. Therefore, if a cop stops you and tells you to drive him somewhere, YOU MUST. It doesn't matter if you're late for an appointment and he's going the opposite direction. It doesn't matter if he wants you to drive him to Japan, YOU MUST. If you try to speed off, he will shoot you tires out. If you try to speed off and you're too slow, he'll just shoot you! Crazy!

So, anyway, after a couple of scares we were back on our way.

We reached the CURE International Hospital.

This facility was AMAZING. It was immaculate, and very well built. It's an American run hospital for children. It's also located on the property with the local hospital (the good hospital.) Sadly, this hospital is so far away from the city and the slums.

We got Patrick in to see Dr. Joseph Thuri, however he was in surgery and was evidently going to be a while. So, we showed Patrick's leg to another Dr. there... his jaw immediately hit the floor!

He literally ran to get Dr. Thuri, who came rushing back to look at it. He told us that these were deformative growths on his leg (2 of them) and that he also had about 4 more across his body. He got him all checked out, and set a date for Patrick's surgeries.

We decided to go ahead and pay for Patrick's surgeries... we planned on them being a few thousand dollars... we were surprised by the total. Two. Well, just over two. $230 to be precise.

For real? $230 could fix this boy? Amazing.

After that, we had the good Dr. check my leg... "Take your pants off." He says "Dr. Thuri, don't you think you should AT LEAST take me to dinner first!?!" I replied... yeah... evidently he didn't get the joke. He stood there confused... so I just dropped trou.

He looked at the swollen, discolored craziness and said "How in the world did that happen!?!" I explained the story to him... he laughed... a lot.

He then started pushing the spot over and over again, which was truly excruciating! He would push it hard and go "Does that hurt?" I felt like punching him in the neck and going "Does THAT hurt!?! Booyah!!" ... "Yes, it hurts badly Dr.!" I replied.

He had me on my back, bending my leg all sorts of ways saying "That hurt?" "Yes, yes... a thousand times yes!"

"Fracture!" he exclaimed. Now to really appreciate it, you need to re-read that word, but really roll the 'r' to get the dialect going... it was more like "Frrrrrrrracture!"

"What do you mean, frrrrrracture!?!" I said, "It's just a bruise!"

"Nope. It's a fracture."

"Well, what am I supposed to do?"

"It's not very bad, yet. Just take it easy for the next month. No running or jumping."

Now it was my turn to laugh... right in his face!! No running OR jumping? Shucks!! I was really hoping that I would get to run and jump... oh well...

So yeah... now my left femur is fractured do to a faulty piece of wood on a wooden bridge. I would also like to sate, for the record, that the breaking of said wood had nothing to do with my shear size and stature. I'm not fat. I'm fluffy.

The board broke on its own accord due to it's inherent weakness.

So, yeah... gonna take it easy for the next month or so.

Anyway... we left there... headed for Kibera to drop Patrick and Anna off.

Luckily, we didn't get hit by any police check points on the way back.

We got into Kibera, and headed towards their "house". We let them out, but Anna wanted us to see her house. She's very proud of it. We walked a short ways up the street and found her place. A small room... ten feet by ten feet. She used newspaper as wallpaper.... it was plastered all around the walls, with a HUGE picture of Jesus hanging up in the center. Some clean pots hung on the wall. There were three beds, they were all maid up properly. The floor was spotless. She truly kept her house EXCEPTIONALLY clean!

We walked back outside and met some of her kids and orphans. I was able to snap a picture of the ones that were there. Most were out though.

It was very sad. As we drove away I couldn't help but think over and over again.. that these people have nothing, and in Anna's case she has lived outside of Kibera. She knows of a life outside of the slums. Yet she's happy and thankful for God's blessings. Man, I suck at life!

We headed from there to "Saints Alive Church" near Pipeline. This is Edward's church. He is the youth pastor there. But I think that "youth pastor" here means "Children's Pastor" back in the states.

This was actually a very nice church (considering the circumstances.) It was a big church, on a big piece of land. Big stage with a sound system. It was nice. This church was actually where Pastor Amos got married.

They had a separate building called the "Saints Alive Youth Church" where the youth were... (a bunch of preschoolers during nap time.. haha) also a very nice facility!

They had a RIDICULOUSLY long meeting with the people from Action Kenya Now, a micro-lending company. I was so bored, so I went outside to take pictures of the chickenses, and these kids:

I went back in to find Amos sleeping on the couch, in the middle of the meeting!! Haha... how punk rock!

He woke up and took me to the sanctuary to film the women's group meeting in there. I literally took maybe 25 seconds of footage and maybe 3 pictures... there was nothing going on in there....

So Amos and I just sat up on the stage talking about our wives, and wife-to-be's... Talking about how/where we met, how long we "courted" before getting engaged and such. He then asked if we wanted kids... I felt like punching him in the neck and saying "Does that hurt!?!" however this didn't quite seem relevant anymore.

I told him yes... we'd like to have 3. If we can, have two and adopt the third. He thought that was awesome. "How long are you going to wait?" he asked "Dude, we're just trying to make it to the wedding... ask me in a couple months!" I responded... so I asked out long they waited. Funny story... he went on to tell me that they got married on November 5th, and their daughter was born on August 5th... EXACTLY nine months later... haha...

He said "We wasted not one second!" haha... good times.

The lame, boring meeting was finally over. We headed out.

Steve dropped us off at the Nairobi Java House for some American food, and we taxied back to the guesthouse.

I was able to post a little bit and have a good conversation with my sweet babe.

Then I took me and my frrrrrractured leg to bed.

I'm not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow, but I would imagine that whatever we're doing tomorrow is what I'll be doing.

Okaybye....

S

p.s.- Most of Africa is MANY years behind us in many ways... evidently they still haven't heard about two-ply toilet paper yet... when I come back, I'll open their eyes...

::GASP!!::

Wednesday

Hmmmm... what can be said of today?

I didn't really sleep last night. My leg hurt so badly... some of the worst pain I've ever felt. It's also quite swollen. No matter how I laid in the bed, I just couldn't get comfortable. So needless-to-say, I'm pretty tired. My leg hurts, and evidently when I had my right leg twisted up beneath me, I hurt my ankle somehow but didn't feel it until 3am.

Steve and Dougie B seem to think that I may have fractured my leg.

Not that I know anything about medicine, or the human body, but I doubt that it's fractured. I think it's just really bruised.

Lucky for me, we are taking a boy from the slums to a Dr. tomorrow to look at his leg. Evidently he broke it a little while back, but couldn't get it looked at, so he just had to "cast" it himself. Well, the bone seems to have healed, but there is this massive, oozing inflammation that he's had for a couple months. He showed it to us and we knew we had to get it taken care of, or he'd lose his leg!

Dougie B evidently has a contact with CURE and helped them to build a hospital in Cambodia, and the guy running CURE was all "If you ever need ANYTHING let me know!"

So Dougie B sent him an e-mail to get advice. The guy responded saying that there is a CURE hospital not too far from Nairobi, and to bring the boy in Thursday morning. How's that for God working quickly in this boy's (and ours) life!

While we're there with him, I'm going to have the Dr. just check my leg out and make sure that it's nothing serious.

Anyway...

We had a meeting at 10am with a company called Gitithia. Gitithia does micro-lending. This meeting was very long, and on account of it being in a office with no electricity, I couldn't film at all due to lack of light.

After that, we had a meeting at 1pm with C.H.E.S.S. (Christian Entrepreneurs Sacco, I don't really know what it means, nor do I know how they got "chess" out of it...) C.H.E.S.S. is a micro -lending company also. Again, very long and very boring. The light was better here... but at this point there was only 3 people in the meeting and the room looked like crap.. so I didn't film it.

Hmmm... back to the guesthouse to drop Martin off. Martin is from Partners Worldwide, yet another micro-lending firm.

Off to Trattoria for lunch with Dougie B. They were very busy and slow... this made Dougie B mad >: [ So today, for the first time, the waiter was not tipped ::gasp!::

Kinda funny really...

Back to the guesthouse to catch up on some writing, hoping that the Internet was up to send a couple e-mails and post on the blog... no luck... but it's only 6:30pm here (11:30am there) so maybe there's still hope for the net!

I love you guys... and so does Africa...

How about everyone I know move to Africa with me? That way I could stay here and still have all my friends and family?

S

p.s. today sucked, okaybye.