Daily Duties

The past two weeks have been amazing, but routine. I decided that since I don’t have many new experiences to share I would try to describe the day to day events in our Kenya house. We have all learned to do things that we didn’t anticipate doing:

Cooking- The grocery store that we shop at has a great variety of food. The one significant difference is that they have very few processed foods available. Meals in a box are not an option here. Everything you make starts with its original contents. For example, we were really craving Hamburger Helper. Well that is unheard of here so we created our own with noodles, minced meat, random spices, and fresh cheese. It turned out great but I guess I had just never considered doing that at home.

Baking- Baking has become my newest hobby. During my free time I try new recipes from scratch: chocolate cake, strawberry muffins, mango muffins, apple and brown sugar muffins, banana bread, snicker doodle cookies, peanut butter cookies, and anything else I can think of. Ryan has really been enjoying this new hobby but it is starting to but a kink in my summer diet.

Sleeping- This is something that I’m going to miss so much. In Nairobi there is exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. It gets dark around 6:30 here so our daily activities end early. Since we can’t drive and public transportation is unsafe at night, we are restricted to our small houses from 6:30 on. Preparing and eating dinner takes about an hour, so from about 7:30 on we are free to do whatever we please. With no TV, speratic internet connections, and unpredictable electricity we find ourselves going to bed early. For a couple of hours each night, the three of us usually spend time visiting, playing cards, or obsessing over the game “Super Jewel Quest” on our $15 phones.

Sewing-This is something that I wasn’t good at before coming here and won’t be good at after coming here, but it is something we are forced to do to get by. Chrissy and I both had the straps to our dressed rip. So instead of calling Mom or taking it back to the store, we found a needle and thread and fixed them as best as we could.

Walking-As mentioned in earlier posts we do a lot of walking each day, a total of about 5 miles. All I have to say is that my idea of “walking distance” has significantly changed. When we leave, we know we won’t be back for several house so we carry everything with us, like pack horses.

Reading-The Kindle was a purchase that has definitely paid off. Ryan and I have both read several books since we left the states. For me personally, I have leisurely read more in the last 2 months that I have in the past 2 years combined.

As much as these things feel like an inconvenience while we are experiencing them, they have really made this experience as memorable as it has been. We have spent so much more quality time together and gotten to hear stories that would not have otherwise been shared. Each time we start to complain about something we just look out and see what the majority of the population lives like in Nairobi and we immediately thank God for what he has blessed us with here and back at home.