Rift Valley, Time and Bridal Showers

Hey everyone, its Monday, which means its update day which also means another week has gone by, which also means I have less time here. I just passed the 3 weeks left mark and am now heading to two weeks left. This week has been very eventful! some bad events, some bad events, but a good solid week none the less. (I'm switching up the format)

The last two weeks I have been working on my final written report on my research findings and today I have finished it! The whole reason I came to Kenya is done which is a strange feeling. Today I am going to be presenting and discussing it with Alvin and maybe a few other people which should be a lot of fun (I'm glad I can say presenting it will be fun). I ended up with a 16 page paper with too much information! but Alvin wanted all of it so he got it. I'm excited to be done and now what I have left is just random assignments and such to finish up.

This coming week I will be helping Alvin and Nancy with wedding arrangements and getting their show on the road. The other day I sat and assembled 50 wedding invitations for them which was fun, I got to sit with a candle on my lap and burn the ends of ribbons on the invitations for like an hour so they didn't fray, (they thought I was smart). The closer and closer we get to Saturday the longer and longer we are gone and the more Alvin disappears. So yesterday, Alvin, Nancy and I took a break from our work because we were all tired/stressed. Some of Nancy's friends planned a bridal shower for her so Alvin and I had to keep it a secret. Which was really hard because both of us really don't think about the things we say because we just talk and then realize what we are saying afterward. Needless to say she was really surprised, and we got free lunch outta the deal so I couldn't complain. In an effort to get out of the Nairobi for the first time since I have been here, Alvin took me out to Rift Valley. The air was fresh, it reminded me of home on the mountains and I immediately was able to relax. So, we just drove around for a while which was amazing. Rift Valley was really beautiful and for the first time in Kenya I was a tourist, I felt special.

Driving around wasn't always special though, on Thursday, Alvin and I left the house at 7 in the morning and got back at 12 in the morning. Why you ask? because our car broke down on the way back from visiting his aunt and uncle. It was around 10:30 PM, and we were driving on a road in the middle of the city. But at the same time, both Alvin and I hear his car start making this wierd clicking noise that was getting louder as we drove. Eventually, I looked at his dash and saw his engine, battery and oil light all come on and then the car shuddered and stopped in the middle of the road. I look at Alvin and he goes "this is the worst place in the city to break down" I was like..."what does that mean" and then a drunk homeless guy walks up to our car and Alvin rolls down the window and i get a small idea. He ends up getting outta the car, telling me to get in the drivers seat and then both him and the homeless guy push the car into oncoming Nairobi traffic with the drivers side facing all the cars. Somehow I dodge death and we end up in a shady gas station with a drunk homeless guy, the homeless guy says its because we ran out of gas and I am trying to disagree politely but it isn't really easy to discuss and disagree about car trouble with a drunk man, let alone a drunk man speaking another language. Alvin thinks I know all about cars because of one statement I said the 3rd week I got here so he is letting me do all the checking while he is figuring out what to do. Eventually I realize that the radiator was over heated and had no water in it at all. Now Alvin doesn't trust the car, so we call some friends of his and we drive the car over to the Carlile college campus and then drive back to the house at 11:45. Afterward, Alvin tells me to think of one of my big cities and then think of the worst place to break down and that's where we were. He also told me that while I was checking the car, the drunk guy demanded money for helping us and started getting angry/physical when Alvin didn't want to give him any. So, the moral of this story is, don't ever discuss car trouble with a drunk man that doesn't speak English.

Anyway, the time is going super fast and before I know it I will be on the flight home. So please keep praying that I will get things done that I need to get done and that I stay sane in the process. This has been an amazing experience and I hope to keep it up in my last few weeks here. God has really had a huge impact, and I know that when I get home I will see all kinds of things that he has grown in me and all kinds of ways that this will rest on my mind for the rest of my life. I don't know if any of my contributors read this blog but I just really want to say thank you so much for making it possible for me to come here, even though some Kenyans don't believe that I had to raise money to come, I know I did. So thank you very very very much. So this week is wedding stuff, next week I'm all by myself finishing up my assignments!

Thanks for reading everyone,

Dave