Boredom, Girraffes and Pizza

Hey everyone! So, on Sunday I will have been here 7 weeks! Pretty crazy, time is getting shorter and shorter and it wont be very long until I am saying "OK I am heading back". Today I don't have much time so I think this will be a pretty short update...maybe who knows.

Living and Such:
You know how I told you I was going to Kisumu? yeah that didn't work. Because I was so behind on schedule with interviews I had made appointments with four people on Sunday afternoon at the church (without my translator). I had asked Alvin the day before I made the plans if we would get back on Sunday before 2 and he said "yes" so I made plans to go with him and do the interviews. However, the next day I am talking about the interviews on Sunday and he says "wait what time are you doing the interviews?" I say "2" he looks back at me and says "we wont be back in time for that!". UGH!!! so i ended up staying in the apartment all weekend by myself! I had a lot of work to do so it was OK. I got to see Ryland and JP again which was great, we went out to have Indian food OH MY GOSH SO GOOD! I am pretty sure it tasted like the breath of an angel who brushed his teeth with God's glory. Anyway, outside of that I really haven't done much aside from work, sleep and watch the World Cup. I took a day off the other day, went to a bookstore, picked up a book and read for at least 6 hours. So relaxing!!! However, I have been super busy which equals super tired.

Community Development and Such:
I am finished with Kawangware! I am so so happy. In the end I ended up doing 18 interviews which is almost the whole group! This week I will go to the Kibera group which is a much smaller group and interview them. I think I should be done either this week or the middle of next week, however, you never know. Pray that my translator stays focused, if he does it won't take as long. I did three interviews on Sunday by myself (in English) in about an hour, if that happened this week then I will be done...today. Anyway, the research is going well and very soon I will be finished with the interview stage and start the analysis stage...awesome.

God and such:
I am really enjoying the Psalms right now, it has really blessed me for sure. Also, on Sunday I went to a church in Kawangware which was amazing. Most of the service was in Swahili, but I could follow along because I can understand better than I can speak. I think the biggest thing for me was being able to fellowship with this group of people in another country. It is so strange to see and hear worship and praise in a different language and then realize that God doesn't have language barriers. It's also really humbling because you remember that's why God is the basis for community development! Right now I would ask you to just keep praying for me and the weeks ahead. Once I finish interviews I will have days where I am just sitting around doing assignments and writing reports and such so there will probably be a little bit of down time. Just pray that I can keep busy until the end so I don't get distracted about why I am here!

Other Stuff and Such:
- I am now rooting for Ghana, you should too. No African team has ever made it to the Semis!
- I am a firm believer in Indian food
- I am still trying to talk Alvin and Nancy into getting some Japanese food. However, until then I have fallen in love with a place here called Pizza Inn...their Hawaiian is probably endorsed by Hawaii.
- I dream about restaurants in America...I miss Olive Garden a lot
-Please pray for a professor/worker here named Tim Ryder, he is an American that has lived in Kenya for about 15 years. Right now his daughter has faced some serious health issues which have put her in ICU for about 28 days gathering a hospital bill of about 1 million dollars. I know the hospital is going to forgive some of it, but I'm not sure how much. Pray that the Lord provides for him and his family!


I am sorry this update was late, we didn't come to the office on Monday to my surprise. Also sorry that this one is a little more basic. My translator and I are leaving at 11:45 to go do some interviews in Kibera.

Until next week,
Dave