some culture & fun!

Annikah before church on Sunday

Our last couple nights in Machakos the students on campus invited our group to share in their cultural night. It was like a variety show and the students did a fabulous job. We watched various skits knowing that they were funny but not quite getting why, it was like being on the outside of an inside joke as their were language and cultural barriers to understanding everything but I was amazed at how much we could share even though our cultures were so different. Some of us also did acts based on our culture (there were Europeans, Australians, Americans, and Canadians. I was part of singing a praise song in English which shall not appear in the following video :). Annikah also got her groove on to some of the music before the official program started.

It was hilarious to the students that in one skit a daughter of a Kenyan moved to Michigan (they pronounced it "Meeshgin") and was freezing cold there. We all had a great laugh at that! Some of the actors were amazing, this one guy playing an elder actually came on stage at one point with a live chicken: I love Africa! It was also incredible to see how many cultures were present at this small college. There were at least 10 languages represented and one person speaking each language recited by memory a Bible verse in their own mother tongue, it was an amazing testimony to the unity that this group of students has in Jesus, especially considering the recent tribal violence and clashes that Kenya has experienced. There was a ton of singing, dancing, skits, and it was an incredible night that we were blessed to be a part of.

One of our last nights our training group had a celebration dinner and a fun night. We cooked some fabulous yummy food (I was in charge of the guacamole for 52 people: I was chopping for a LONG time). We had pumpkin soup, salad, guacamole, barbecued chicken and goat, and mac-n-cheese (a real treat as cheese is quite expensive). It took all day to prepare everything with little cooking utensils or equipment but it was sooo worth it! After we shared a fabulous meal (coordinated by Rock Star recipient Juli who will be teaching in Dar Es Salam (the capital of Tanzania)) we had a variety show that was entirely hilarious and full of inside jokes of common experiences that we had shared over the last 3 weeks. I was in a skit entitled Super Miss with 5 other girls which received a raving review from all (I have the entire skit on video but it it too long to upload here). It was awesome to blow off some steam and just laugh after such an intense training schedule. We now all are off to our separate areas of service but it was incredibly encouraging to meet some many people from all over that will now be scattered all over Africa. We got many emails and blog addresses and hope to keep up with everyone (and maybe visit a few).