Busy times...

It has been an insane week; hence the reason there hasn’t been any recent emails/blogs.

First of all, I had an amazing week with my amazing friends, Rhonda and Catherine. They arrived in Kenya on the 22nd of November and left on November 30th. It was a packed week of showing them around, showing them our different projects and just spending time together. Although I felt like we didn’t get to spend as much time together as I had liked, the time we were together was really awesome.

It was a week full of fun and wonderful surprises/acknowledgements. It makes me wonder where things will be in one year’s time. I am totally excited about it; all of it.

Friends of ours, Eva Joy and Caleb (whom I have talked about many times), got married today in our backyard. It was decided on Wednesday that they were going to get married, here in Kenya, on Friday. So the past couple of days have been a whirlwind around our house, from 15 people living in it, to planning a wedding in less than 48 hours.

Thanks to the Lord, the wedding was a complete success. Eva Joy looked absolutely beautiful and my sweet little brother (who’s a foot taller than me), Caleb looked totally handsome. Their vows to each other were beautiful; and their first kiss was when Wycliffe, the one marrying them, said, “You may now kiss your bride.” It was beautiful, totally beautiful.

Tomorrow is the beginning of our holidays. Jared, Amanda, Kate, Daniel, Faith and I are heading to Nakuru for two nights. The four of them (minus Daniel and I) are going to do a safari and we’re then going to tour around the towns, etc. Then we are heading to Nairobi to visit the Soweto (sew-wet-o) slums. We are starting a project there soon; it’s a desperate slum area, as bad as the well known Kibera (Key-bear-a) slums of Nairobi.

Jared, Daniel, Faith and I will head back to the Kitale area while Amanda and Kate head to Mombasa for a week. Then we, the four of us or the three of us, may take off to Kisumu for a couple of days. I just know that I don’t want to stay on the compound the whole time during my holidays. There is something about staying in a hotel, watching TV in bed or reading for hours that just sounds so relaxing. :-)

Other than that, things are going really well here. We’ve been building a good relationship with the street girls, especially Anne, our social worker. It’s hard because our project won’t be ready until hopefully May of 2008 and we know that these girls need help and soon. But what is the quick fix? What can we do in the meantime to help them? Ideas have flown around but we haven’t got any real peace or direction from God yet. So, we just ask for prayer for that. What can we do to help these girls now? Help them from possibly getting pregnant, getting HIV during this time of building?

Thanks to everyone for all that you have done. I have the best group of family and friends. I hope that you are all getting ready for the holidays. It’s amazing how time is flying by; I can’t believe that Christmas is less than a month away. I can only imagine how INSANE the shopping malls are right now. Frankly, I don’t miss the chaos. I just miss the time with the family, friends and hot chocolate (with a little bit of Bailey’s) by the fire on a cold winter night.

I will add pictures soon of the past week (Catherine and Rhonda, The wedding and my vacation).

I love you all!
Meredith
xoxoxo