My apologies...

Just to say I've been busy seems like a cop out, but seriously people... I've been busy! The first week of December I had Judie and Charles Omondi (orphan from Nyaoga, who now lives with Grace), in Ngong at Grace's "city" house. First of all, Ngong is more like an anthill or a bee hive than a city, and second of all saying city house makes it sound grand and it is very humble. Judie and I were both sick the first week of December but still managed a good bit of activity.

We went to Judie's cousin's graduation from nursing school (with 20,000 other people) yes you read that right... we never even saw her cousin and we were lucky that we eventually ran into her relatives from Meru. We left there early to go meet my friend British (Abdirahman Muhummed's brother), who took us to his apartment in Eastleigh to have dinner with his family. We had a lovely time and then British took us "shopping" in Eastleigh, which is a predominately muslim part of the city. I asked Omondi if he thought we were still in Nairobi and he looked at me like I was crazy. "No mom," he said. "This isn't Nairobi." It's supposed to be the best shopping in all of East Africa. I wish I could have a spy camera, so I could show you just how amazing Eastleigh is...I think I could spend a week there just people watching and not get bored! There is so much to look at - there is this kaleidoscope of

Saturday Dec. 4, was Sammy Kinga'tua's wedding. Sammy is my Kenyan brother. He and his new wife Gladys live in our compound now. It was a wonderful day and I have about 300 photos to prove it. Will try to remember to post some soon. I was invited to the after party in Karen at a night club. When I returned home at 2 a.m. all the Kingatua family members were gathered in the living room having a meeting. One of the family members was sick and had refused to go to the hospital for more than a year. More on that in a bit.

On Sunday I went to church with Grace, her daughter Elizabeth was invited to preach at Grace's church. She is a nurse by profession, but is also an amazing evangelist and gospel singer. Church was good but after the first two hours on a very hard bench I started to get tired!

On Monday the 6th, Anika, the program director for Give Us Wings, an organization that partners with Grace, came to meet with Grace about a building project GUW wants to do for the Maasai women in the Rift Valley. She was here for two days.

On Tuesday afternoon, I took Grace's sick relative (who had been persuaded in the course of the family meeting to seek medical treatment) to the doctor. I took her to another appointment on Wednesday morning and then took Judie to Karen to have some fun. I had taken Charles back to the farm on Monday.

On Monday I also went to Waso with Anika and Grace. It's a Maasai town about 65 kilometers from Ngong in the Rift Valley. I have never seen so much garbage scattered around on the ground. Plastic bags blanketed the ground for miles in every direction. I'd like to strangle the person responsible for the invention of the plastic bag... I think it may be the beginning of the end for human life as we know it on this planet... (ahem... getting off soapbox).

On Thursday we had a board meeting for Grace's non-profit which is called Adopt A Village In Africa. We are in the process of changing the name to Wezesha By Grace, which means Empower By Grace (grace of God and Grace Kinga'tua)... you really can't go wrong with that combination.

Contracted a bit of food poisoning at the board meeting I think... anyway on Friday night I attended a gathering of InterNations (a website for expats) in Westlands, Nairobi. Had a lovely time, but still had headache and upset tummy from food poisoning.

Spent weekend at the farm dealing with some issues of some of the older orphaned children. On Monday, I met the fundie's (mason and foreman) in town and we purchased supplies for the building project and piled them all in a lorry and hauled them down to the construction site... it was kind of fun. Except for the part where the lorry kept almost overheating... it's not easy to find water in the Rift Valley! I will go down again and pay some of the day laborers and supervise a bit.

I've been at the farm today Thursday. Some visitors came to spend time with the kids. We had a lot of fun. Came home to the Ngong house by myself. So had to fix dinner for myself. I'm getting quite good at omelets! Tomorrow I will go to my friend Dennis's wedding... December is wedding season in Kenya.

Okay... that is a brief update... again I apologize for giving y'all the slip for three weeks... I will try not to let it happen again.

I haven't put much in about the work I've been doing in between all these activities... but it is complicated and not nearly as much fun to explain... so maybe will just keep you in the dark a bit longer...

Sorry about the snow! hehehehehehehe!