Still in the states, but ...

It’s about time I wrote an update – and it’s kind of a strange position I’m in because I get to announce what many of you don’t know yet … I have moved to Philadelphia. Yes, I returned from Africa June 15. I didn’t gather any moss and rolled on over across the country to Pennsylvania.

It may sound random or shocking to some, but the decision was a long one in the making –one of the many things I was considering and processing during my 7 months in Africa. I was pretty set on applying for a graduate program in community development at Eastern University here in Philly. Though I leaned away from that while in Sierra Leone, Philly still felt like the ticket. East coast, urban area, history, diversity, and boyfriend ;)

Yes, Ted is now a first year law student at Drexel University, which is in Philly. I live in a bright pink house in West Philly, an area known as University City – very funky, colorful, filled with yummy ethnic food and parks. My three housemates are wonderful; we’re all about the same age, and two of them are even West African. Just a park with a bi-weekly Farmer’s Market separates my house from Ted’s studio apartment.

While looking into some graduate programs in the area, I’ve found a full-time job working in academic affairs at Penn Engineering. It’s about a 45 minute walk from my house, or a 10 minute trolley ride, and it’s a lovely location (crazily enough, it’s just two blocks from Ted’s law school.) My co-worker is very involved in the African Diaspora community in Philly; she is a wealth of knowledge. Apparently she knows some Sierra Leoneans in town – can’t wait to revive some of my Krio for those encounters!

I’ve been here for 6 weeks now. I am still moving in – it can be a little tricky to acquire what you need without a car – and I’m really enjoying my neighborhood and the city of Philadelphia as a whole. I have pictures of the Lighthouse kids pinned on my cubicle wall –still think about them often and hope the best for them. I found out a couple weeks ago that some of the kids I met in Chennai, India in 2006 are now benefitting from World Vision’s work. Wonderful news, as we’ve prayed for a long time for Christian aid to come to the bus park where several of them live.

As always, if you would like to know how you can support the Lighthouse kids in Freetown, Sierra Leone, or any child in the grip of poverty's destructive elements, you can always ask me about child sponsorship. :)

Reverse culture shock? Ya...

About the reverse culture-shock. It was not as shocking as when I returned from India two years ago. I think I was bracing myself for it this time, expecting to feel really out-of-sorts when I got home.

I did abhor my cell phone for the first few days. I just wanted to take life slow, and not feel barraged with lots of noise and busy-ness. After seven months of having a phone that only a few people called me on, and not having easy access to the internet, I didn't feel the need to be constantly in touch with 50 people at once.

I also thought it would be important to take things a little slow, allowing myself to realize where I had just been, and not cut myself off from Africa by plunging into my old daily routine. I'm glad I did that.

The supermarkets were a tad overwhelming. I couldn't bring myself to look above the bottom shelf in the store aisles, afraid that the rows of options and bright packaging would be too much to handle in once glance.

At the same time, I experienced going from the equivalent of Walmart in Kenya to the Kibera slums in just a five-minute walk. So there was shock there also, and it made returning to the U.S., land of consumer abundance, less disorienting.

It's also been so nice having great friends to share about Africa with, and I am still in the process of this! In the process of working on sharing a few pictures with you all, and thanking my very generous financial and prayer supporters for all the faith and excitement you had in my trip.

It's an ongoing process that I can't let distractions snatch away! I have heard some updates from Freetown recently. Mainly, that all the Lighthouse kids went on a week-long retreat and had meaningful reflection and fellowship time. Several of the Lighthouse youth are currently enrolled in a summer school where, the staff reports, the instructors actually TEACH. Hippee! Santigie and Papanie are among the students doing that right now ;) I have a feeling Victoria and Veronica (her twin sister) are not doing as well, so they are in need on continued prayer.

More soon ... hopefully some pictures to share this week! And if you're still reading ... you're awesome! Thanks for being a cool friend :)

Being back from Africa...

Arriving home felt strangely normal. I stumbled into my parents' house in Carlsbad, stomach a little weak from the 4 different brands of medication I was on, and all of a sudden, it felt like no time had passed since leaving for Africa.

But time had passed. Seven long months in East Africa, the Middle East and then West Africa did happen. Those experiences molded me and changed me, and yet, like the kids walking through the wardrobe returning from Narnia, it felt like no time had really gone by.

I forced myself to take it easy those first few weeks at home, and I'm glad I did. Otherwise, the "reverse culture shock" might have been worse, and I may have rushed back into busy American life without taking time to consider all the places I had come from, and the beautiful people I had met.

The past 6 weeks have been filled with incredible blessings. I was reunited with my family and with Ted. I spent a week in Sacramento with Ted's wonderful family and meet many important people in his life. I also had opportunities to see several good friends. I went to a couple weddings, had a huge 60th birthday party for my mom, and introduced Ted to lots of people.

And the whole time I had Africa on my mind. Before coming back, our team leader Stephanie asked us what we would do to keep our Sierra Leone experience alive. Who would we tell about it? How would we remember and not let the memories become buried? Cami, the field director in Freetown, asked us more pointedly, "How are you going to be true to this place? To the kids we all got to know?" Santigie, Victoria, Papanie - how will I be true them in how I tell their stories, and how I choose to live.

I think those are important questions to be asking myself. About one month ago, I printed all the pictures I had taken with the Lighthouse kids and wrote personalized notes for each of them. Cami asked us to please send pictures that we took of the kids back to Freetown, so that the youth could own more pictures of themselves. I wanted to do that as quickly as I could, and it ended up being such a joy, a special opportunity to let them know I remember them, and I value each of them so highly.

I don't like thinking about not seeing the people in Freetown again. I suppose that's hard with any place you visit. I just feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to go, and I continue to hope that my experience there will be integrated into where I am now.

I know God is the perfect Author who can weave all of these strands into something excellent for His glory.

It's noisy outside

It's noisy on the streets outside. But, then, it's always noisy on the streets of Freetown. Except for the cool, dark nights passing by the lonely cemetery in Murray Town. Or when you climb the windy hills and sit amongst the gray and green cotton trees in Wilberforce and Hill Cott. Old, clapboard houses and long stone walls splashed with bright, advertising colors.
But the noises aren't all bad. Mangoes for sale. Sheeptoe, guinea, red cherry. Oh my mouth is watering; I will miss that sweet, juicy taste available morning, noon and night. Cold water, peanut cakes, pineapple, biscuits. All fresh produce! Everything you need so easy to pick up on the side of the road, just picked from fields in the provinces.
The sound of hard-working individuals. Men balancing twenty foot boards on their heads, weaving in and out of taxi and pedestrian traffic, women toting baskets of coal, two, three, four... no, seven baskets high! So graceful as they take care not to fall through the cracks in the cement slab sidewalk, into the running sewage below.
The splatter of rain. It rained today. The sound muffles the blare of honking horns and vendors announcing their goods. Soft blankets of water left us scurrying for shelter: a wooden bench offered by a crew of firemen seeming anxious for distraction. They ushered us to the junction, securing a taxi with a "fine price" for our desired destination. So willing to help; always a kind smile on the streets here, in response to our attempted Krio greetings.
A walk through Kroo Bay leaves a trail of squealing kids, all crying "Aporto! Aporto!" the Temini word for white person. If not "Aporto!" then "white man! white man!" Won't be hearing that sound again for awhile...

I love this city. I love its character. It is a part of me now, and I will never forget this town, nor this beautiful continent.

Our last weeks were awesome. For our final week of tutoring we gathered all the kids in the staff house on Dillet Street and showed them 6 episodes of the BBC series "Planet Earth." The films are stunning and it was so fun to see the kids' eyes widen in amazement at the totally unbelievable animals and insects and landscapes. They often shouted "Eh!" in unison as they saw clips of how big and diverse and stunning this world is. It was so cool.

And then, last week, the Servant Team took our debriefing retreat "upcountry." We went to a National Park called Outamba-Kilimi, past Kamakwie village on the Guinea border. It took about 10 hours and 3 modes of transport to get us there. We were IN THE JUNGLE. With white monkeys on our campsite, hippopotami, big crazy bugs straight from outer-space, and yes, MAMBA snakes (we just saw one). But it was awesome. We got the real upcountry experience, had good time to reflect on our four months here, and came home with literally hundreds of bites on our legs. ;)

And last night, we said good-bye at Lighthouse. The kids gathered round and took pictures with us, prayed for us, and said "thank you" in various ways. It's so difficult saying good-bye. I didn't really know what to say, because I don't really know if I believe that I won't be seeing them again.

Now, I'm about to fly off! I must go, but I am so glad that my leaving won't mean I am cut off from Freetown. I have friends here now, and there's no way I can forget this place, because it has blessed me and, I hope, changed me!

Love, Katharine

Burray Town Beach

The beauties of this country, and the beauty of the relationships built here.

On Sunday, WMF celebrated "Princess Day" with five of the Lighthouse girls. The title sounded silly to some of us, that is, until our team leader reminded us that "girls are never [normally] treated nice here." A sobering reminder!

The teenage Lighthouse girls, for the second year in a row, were treated to a wonderful full-day beach outing. Eleven of us hopped in a chartered poda-poda at 8:30am and headed to Burray Town, a beach further town on the Freetown peninsula, about 2 hours away. The luxory of a paved road made the ride smooth(er) and problem-free. (Well, there were those two times our driver almost rammed into oncoming traffic and some people's hearts jumped into their throats, but whatever! ;)

At the beach, Cami shared the Bible story of Hagar, Abraham and Sarah's Egyptian slave, reminding us of God's ever-present love for us. He is the God who sees us (Genesis 16).

Then, we played some beach games, coordinated by the U.S. Servant Team ladies - one game I learned in the comfy and laughter-filled environs of my college apartment (the clapping animal game!) and the other I played once at my Trinity youth group. It involved human pyramids and making shapes in the sand with our bodies. Lots of laughter and squealing involved!

Florence (the girls' Bible study leader) coordinated the food - we ate shwarmas and pepper chicken for "snack" and then soda, juice, water and *delicious* couscous and vegetable salad and more chicken for lunch. We played in the ocean, helping the girls stay afloat and dive under waves and splashed around in the river. We did live like royalty for the day!

It all culminated in the "dressing of the princesses." Each girl modeled their new African dresses that the Lighthouse tailors had sown for them, and jewelry purchased with Florence. They looked so beautiful and were having so much fun.

Again, elements of this may sound cheesy, but it really is true - how often are girls appreciated here? Told that they're beautiful and valued and given a chance to just enjoy a full day like this? Even as the day was closing some grown men were hanging around our post and asking if they could "take" one of the girls as a wife. I was so disgusted I wanted to scream.

But they were given a day to be appreciated and loved. And I loved that WMF's heart and mission is to pour into these girls' lives; to encourage and love them despite all they have been through.

On the streets

Two weeks ago, Word Made Flesh hosted a seminar entitled "Children in Crisis." A man from Britain delivered the 5-day conference, and WMF invited the parents or guardians of each of the Lightouse kids to attend, creating an opportunity to give them tools for raising their own kids who have lived through traumatic experiences and also allowing WMF to deepen their relationships with the Lighthouse kids' families. It was a good, enriching week.

Sitting on hard wooden benches at Robert Street Baptist Church from 8am to 4:30pm, serving tea and coffee, and mingling with Lighthouse parents, I was able to learn about the fragility of children, how formative their first years are, and the immense impact and power each adult in their life holds over them.

Two boys, both entering the Lighthouse program but without sponsors from America, were on my heart and mind. Best friends, they attended the seminar together, as they had no guardian willing or able to come on their behalf. One of them, I learned, still sleeps on the street; the other just came off the streets as his father invited him to live with him again. Neither are in school

I won't share too much about the boys right here, but I've known them since my first week in Freetown, and only during the seminar did I learn of their current situation. Through the seminar's content I began to understand how a life of poverty weighs on a child's mind and soul, subconciously feeding them all kinds of lies about their value and worth as dearly loved human beings.

All of the Lighthouse youth, except for these boys, have monthly sponsors. The sponsors' contributions to WMF enable the staff here to enroll the kids in school, pay for their lunches for the week, and organize meaningful outings, opportunities to have fun and grow, and to feel affirmed by WMF mentors.

One of these boys gives me joy from his bright smile, the other has quite a tough exterior from all he's gone through and reminds me of the sorrow and hardships in this place - both weigh on my heart and I hope some people some potential sponsors will soon show interest in them.

Another WARM Freetown day - gray clouds announce the enroaching rainy season. I've heard that Sierra Leone gets the most rainfall of any place in the world. Their rainy season lasts from May to October. Sierra Leone also has some of the most nutrient-rich soil on earth. And it's also the poorest, or perhaps second-poorest, country there is. It doesn't make sense does it? No; and it is tragic.

More from me later - just about one month to go before we leave; wow! Much love to you all!

Receiving a piece of bread

The foundational "lifestyle celebration" in the Word Made Flesh community is intimacy. Intimacy with God. We recognize this as our highest and deepest calling, the reason we were created, to know Christ and thus worship Him. I realize that may sound a little sentimental to some, but over and again during my time in Africa this draw towards intimacy with Jesus has been a continuous, underlying theme of each day.

One Sunday in Nairobi, the lyrics of a worship song from church stuck in my head and resonated within me: "My Comfort, my Shelter, Tower of refuge and strength, Let every breath, all that I have, never cease to worship You...My Saviour, my closest Friend, I will worship You until the very end.

As I left church, I asked myself if that is really true in my life. Do I truly consider Jesus my One and only Saviour, and my closest, most treasured Friend? I want to. I want Him to be my All.

And here in Freetown, at our Monday meetings we have been looking at Scripture and sharing about whole-hearted devotion, having an undivided heart. It has been so good for my soul to reflect on how deep God's love is, and challenging to consider that He alone is worthy of my praise.

A few weeks ago at First Presbyterian Church we took communion. At this church, the whole congregation walks forward, is handed a wafer and cup of grape juice and then remains standing by the stage, waiting for everyone to join the group and partake in communion together.

As I came forward, Pastor Zizer (my host dad) took a wafer in his hand, made the sign of the cross with it, and held it out for me. I reached forward to take it, but he pulled it back. Confused, I tried to take it from his hand again, but he subtly shook his head, motioned for me to stand still and hold out my hand so that he could hand me the waver, placing it in my open palm.

I started to cry a little as I thought about the picture I was just given of God's love. He gives it freely. It is not something I need to snatch or reach out and grab for myself. God comes down and lavishes His grace upon us (1 John 3:1) though we have hang-ups and make mistakes and can never really get our act together. And that's the point - that we cannot clean ourselves up before coming to God. He is the one that washes us clean, and pours His love and saving grace upon us.

Salone update: Am loving Freetown. Today we return to our "regular" schedule. I have tutoring and my weekly visit to Kroo Bay with Erin to do medical check-ups. We are visiting one woman who had a serious stroke but is walking with a cane now that Erin has been working with her, and a little boy named Ibrahim who has cerebral palsy. And then, I shall return home to do some serious laundry! :) More on last week's "Children in Crisis" conference later...

Embroidered African elephants

Oh, Freetown! This morning my team returned from Banana Island where we spent 3 days of relaxation and reflection. This mini-retreat was planned to mark the 2 month anniversary of our trip; we are now officially half way done with our Servant Team. Banana Island is not far; it took us a one and a half hour car ride to get to the wharf at Kent beach, and a 20 minute boat ride to reach the island shore. We stayed at Dalton's Banana Guest House (pretty neat huh??). It rained the first night, and the roofs leaked :) But the beach was beautiful and Dalton and his wife and kids treated us so kindly. Being on an island, they catch a fair amount of seafood every day. So yes, yours truly tried for the first time and truly enjoyed lobster, crab and barracuda! I could barely believe it myself!

Monday morning, the poda-podas went on strike in Freetown(podas are the main mode of transport, exactly like the matatus in Nairobi, for those of you that have been faithfully reading this blog of mine!) Steph, Chris and I go into town for a Monday morning all-staff meeting and breakfast, and yesterday was our turn to get there early and buy bread, fruit, oats, sardines (I admit they're not that bad) and boiled eggs for everyone, but because of the strike, we walked a full hour from Murray Town to downtown, with guitar in tow!

But what was really neat is that everyone was walking. The various crowds of school kids - distinguishable by their different bright uniform styles and patterns - fruit sellers and bread sellers, carpenters and tailors, everyone on their way to work. It kind of felt like a community event! It's typical for people to yell "white man! white girl!" or make "Sssss" noises with their teeth until we look their way, but yesterday morning we were also approached by friendly faces, some friends of ours and some new acquaintances.

Memories of the war are never far from what you see day to day. Though it has been easy to forget the war, for me, as a visitor. Meaning, it's not on my mind all the time. Yet, you do wonder with each Sierra Leonean that you meet where they were and how they fared during the war. Just today our Krio teacher shared some of her war experiences with us. The bullets firing, homes and people burning, it's too much to imagine living through. (Read "A Long Way Gone" for a boy's retelling of his life during the civil war). Even with the youth I tutor, as I meet with Papane, Santigie and Victoria during the week, I cannot assume anything about their current and past situations - whether their parents and siblings are alive or the degree of harmony in their home lives. All I know is that the war has left deep scars inside each of them, and I am thankful we get to see each other on such a regular basis. I am trying still to be as effective a teacher I can be. Please keep praying for us in this endeavor!

One of the Lighthouse boys, Sheku, is a tailor and loves to make bags. I asked him to repair my Indian elephant bag a few weeks ago, and he came up with an amazing creation - a new bag with a whole new elephant etched into it, using African colors and patterns to fill in the body of the elephant. I could tell he was very pleased with the work he did. I love having this memento of how WMF (Word Made Flesh) has helped these kids through vocational training, allowing them to make a living and do work they enjoy and can take pride in.

Returning to the bustle of the city definitely left an impression this morning. The loud music, traffic, wheelbarrows tumbling along the uneven roads coming straight for you every other second... It felt like our first couple days here in Freetown! We haven't gone back to the Zizers yet, but please keep praying for us, for peace and strength coming from the Lord every part of every day.

Thank you all ~ "We go see back!" (See you later! in Krio) :)

Freetown

"Kol wata de!"

That's just one of the phrases I hear being called out on the streets of Freetown each and every day. Little kids with buckets of cold water pouches yell "Kol wata de," which means "cold water is here!" repeatedly until people buy.

It's now been 6 whole weeks since I landed in Sierra Leone. My team celebrated our one month "anniversary" by eating pizza - something we didn't know existed here until our team leader surprised us for lunch. :)

Our schedules are now pretty much set here. No week is ever fully predictable, but we have our tutoring and Lighthouse schedules, and we now all know when and where our group meetings and Bible studies fall.

I tutor three youth here. They are *drum roll please* - Papane: Papane is about 18 years old. He attends a Christian school and aspires to be a missionary one day. With Papane I try to work on reading, writing, geography (which I get most excited about, pouring over the world map and listening to his questions about different countries and their histories -so fun!). He just had exams these past 2 weeks so we spent a lot of our time cram studying for those too.

Victoria: I would guess Victoria is 16 or so. She attends a catering school, so we work on practical math, reading, grammar, etc. Finding somewhat creative ways to present these lessons is something I'm working on and want to do well. I meet her, and Papane, at the home of Auntie P, a friend of WMF who provides lunches for the kids and runs a catering business. Needless to say, I eat a lot of her yummy home-cooked food throughout the week - a whole plate of food (which is so big that I split it with Stephenie) costs us 2,500 Leons ... that's about 80 cents!

Lastly, Santigie: Santigie is the most advanced of the three, a really bright, friendly guy who has a knack for showing up late and says "ya man" a lot. He also likes looking at the world map, and he posed the very complicated and confusing question last week, "Katharine, how many races are there in the world?" Hm, no easy answer to that one! (As I'm thinking about my freshman year cultural anthro class where we spent 4 weeks asking "what is race really?") But it'll give us a lot to talk about!

I meet with each of these guys for 3 hours a week, one hour a day. Last week I also got my first opportunity to visit a medical clinic in Kroo Bay with a staff worker Erin. Erin is a Physical Therapist, and she is going to meet patients at the clinic weekly. I'd love to observe and learn from her - I did her note-taking last week and learned some new Krio phrases like "squeeze your leg tight," "don't drop your foot down" and "stand up" and "sit down." :) It was so sad to see these elderly people that have been living with body pains for years without anyone to get professional advice from.

Easter weekend! Easter weekend was wonderful - restful and fun, with so much to think about and be deeply grateful for. On Friday we watched The Passion movie. On Saturday the team celebrated by birthday with some yummy chocolate cake and a meal at Basha's - our favorite Lebanese restaurant, and I heard from some wonderful family and friends back home. Sunday morning we had a sunrise service at Aberdeen beach with all the Lighthouse youth. It was a new concept for them all, but I think they really had a good time. Our service wrapped up with a meal of "snapper" and bread -fish, just like Jesus cooked fish on the Galilee for his disciples, after his resurrection, ha! A bunch of the kids jumped in the water after that, or buried each other in the sand which was hilarious to watch.

And yesterday was a national holiday - Easter Monday - which everyone got off work and school. On that day we did something awesome. We climbed, with twenty of the Lighthouse kids, the highest peak on the Freetown peninsula - SugarLoaf Mountain! Haha, the climb was steep, and rocky and slippery with leaves and crazy branches hindering your sight half the way. At the very top two of the staff had hidden candy sweets for all the kids and everyone got to search for seven of them. And then we just enjoyed the amazing, green, mountainous, view from the top. Some kids climbed trees, others just sat and talked ... it was lovely! The day ended with a lunch of beans (which sounds like "bench" when Sierra Leoneans say it, causing some confusion for me) and bread (made by Auntie P) at the staff's house in town.

During this last week I've been very grateful for my team, for such interesting and fun and easy-to-be-around people. My birthday felt very special, and together we spent the last week focusing on the sacrifice and suffering of Christ. Christ, who makes all things new, in us and in this world. The cross somehow embodies that newness and I don't want to lose sight of that being the center of my salvation - what defines me and has given me life!

Thank you all so much for reading and for praying. I'll keep writing as life moves along here. Please pray for my team's relationship with our host family, the Zizers. And for time to process and live out what God's showing me here. Peace!


The group on Aberdeen beach for our Easter sunrise service

Kroo Bay and Tutoring

Freetown, a city of beautiful colors, chipped paint, beggars in wheelchairs, smooth reggae and hip hop, and awesome hair doos. Of little, smiling children, yelling "white man!" and spicy, peanut stew, and fried plantains (yum!) Bustling streets ... and more and more familiar faces as my time here continues!

We began volunteering this past week, and our days definitely felt more hectic! I will be tutoring two of the Lighthouse youth - Papanie and Victoria. I meet with them M, T, W - one hour each day, to review math, english, geography, and whatever else feels relevant. I'm excited for my time with each student, though I've never formally taught or tutored before. Papanie is going to read "Horse and His Boy" from C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia as one of his assignments! And we're going to have a little geography/culture lesson each week, seeing as how he wants to be a missionary someday!

As for the rest of my time - I will be around Kroo Bay and City of Rest. My official schedule won't be hammered out for another week or two. Thank you all for your prayers for me during this time. My team is doing well. We're all feeling strong and healthy, and enjoying each other very much.

Please check out this awesome link to see more of Kroo Bay! Explore Kroo Bay: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/kroobay/


A hog in Kroo Bay

"Aw da bodi" everyone?

Week one has officially passed here in Freetown. I'm still feeling fine, though this is still definitely a foreign place for me!

Homestay: The Zizers continue to be very gracious and accomodating hosts. The 11-year-old, Marvin, is always anxious to know what we're up to, or to help us bruk (wash our clothes) in the bathtub. The arrangement is that Auntie Marvel cooks for us Sunday lunch, Monday and Thursday evening, and her meals are delicious. My main problems have been with the spiciness and fishiness of Sierra Leonean food. But I've found that I can close off my nasal passage while eating, scarf down the slimy fish & greens sauce and then stick a piece of gum in my mouth to erase the memory of the taste from my mouth!

Team time: We had some great team time to start our Servant Team off. Word Made Flesh (now WMF) is really intentional about the quality time we spend with each other, and the quality down time we each have to spend with God. This is great, because our team leader, Stephanie (different from my roommate Stephenie!), tried hard to not overwhelm us with activities right away. The six of us (our team plus Stephanie) meet every morning but Sunday for breakfast, and then devotional or Krio lesson (which is 3 x per week). We will alternate who provides the food and who leads the devotionals, but on Wednesdays we will all discuss the "Lifestyle Celebrations" of WMF, focusing on each one for 2 weeks at a time. The first celebration we are meditating on is intimacy with Christ, as this is our highest calling.

Retreat: Last friday night, we all drove up (in an old station wagon taxi) to Mount Leicester. the highest hill in Freetown. We spent the night there at this pretty retreat center. From there we were able to spend lots of time together. We began our discussion on "what is poverty?" and learned more about the Servant Team and our own leader, Stephanie. And then we stayed up late swapping hilarious and embarassing stories - my teammates are FUN and funny and I had a great time laughing with the group. On Saturday morning, we had our first book discussion. We are currently reading through Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger a few chapters at a time. The conversation was really good (as this is a dense book that is hard to read without sharing reactions and thoughts with others), and it looks like we'll continue our weekly dicussions every Saturday.

Walking tour and Lighthouse: As part of our orientation last week, we each went on a 2-hour walking tour of, really, the most impoverished parts of Freetown. What made this tour so unique is that we were split into groups of 2 or 3, and led around by one of the Lighthouse boys. Lighthouse is a youth discipleship and vocational training center run by WMF here in Freetown. The youth involved come from really troubled circumstances. Some were forced to fight in the war, others still live in refugee camps or lived on the streets for many years. Every Thursday night we will attend their youth program, and each of us will tutor some of the kids regularly.

So, back to that walking tour. Our guide and friend took us to 3 different wharfs, leading us through the dilapadated, smelly and wet slum housing. Trash covered the wharfs and drifted in and out of the water. Something about these conditions were way worse than Kibera in Nairobi. Stopping at the first "government wharf," our guide told me the story about this being the point where thousands of slaves were chained and forced aboard slaving ships bound for Europe and the Americas. This is also the place, he said, where the freed slaves returned to settle Freetown in the 19th century. As I looked around at the suffering in that place, and then reflected even for one second on the incredible history of suffering in that one place. it overwhelmed me.

After lunch our guide also took us to the Sierra Leone museum were there was an impressive Amistad exhibit lent out by the U.S. The Amistad was a slaving ship that left from Sierra Leone and was bound for Cuba, but a man on board overthrew the captain on the ship and attempted to steer everyone back to West Africa. That failed, and they ended up in New England, where a prison sentence and trial awaited them. I didn't realize when I saw the movie Amistad that the soon-to-be slaves on board were Sierra Leonean!

Okay, enough of my history enthusiasm for now...

Heart: At our all WMF Monday morning meetings we have been reading scripture relating to the heart. We are doing a similar program Thursday nights at Lighthouse. I really appreciate this exercise of reading and thinking about scripture and hearing each other's reflections. Again, I am thankful for WMF's emphasis on recognizing our relationship with Christ as number one importance. From there, our service to each other and the community will flow. And it can only flow from there.

Service: After all, this is the Servant Team! Our service here is meant to be relational at the core. Like I mentioned above, we will each tutor some amount per week with the same kids. I would also like to shadow/assist one of the staff here, Erin, on her medical checkup rounds in Kroo Bay (another slum area where WMF runs a Saturday afternoon kid program). As for my "main" activity, I am considering volunteering at City of Rest. City of Rest is a home for mentally challenged adults, as well as recovering drug addicts. The conditions are far from adequate, but they would love for some people to come and interact with the guests. I'm feeling a little unsure because I don't have creative ideas for what to do with the guests (like some of my teammates do), but I also know that that isn't the main point. The main point is just spending time with the people, and Ben and Kristina have this cool mural project idea that I think would be fun to be a part of.

We will all hammer out our "schedules" this week. :)

So, I appreciate so much knowing that you people support me and care about what's going on here. I continue to want your prayers -for my team and our relationships here (Oh, we are also all attempting to learn Krio, and I'm slow to catch on so far!) I love and miss you all. ~ Katharine

(By the way, the title of my post is the typical greeting here, and it is pronounced "How da bOdy?" It's great.)

I'm in Sierra Leone!

I just wanted to write a journal post, saying that I made it to Freetown!! All my flight connections were smooth-- everything passed with no problem, and my teammates and I did indeed take a HELICOPTER ride late last night to get into the city!! It was pretty darn cool, and *interesting* as it was clearly an old military helicopter from somewhere. Our "flight attendant" had a lovely little speech for us which started with, "Hello gentlepeople, welcome to the helicopter." :)

My teammates are all great people - the married couple, Ben and Kristina, are from Indiapolis, but just got back from teaching in Korea for 6 months. They're young too, both are missionary kids and they are intentionally looking into full-time missions. My roommate, Stephenie, is super sweet and tons of fun to talk to and listen to! She is 29, getting married in September, and is an elementary school teacher. Get this, she just moved to Oceanside 6 months ago! And that's where she met her fiance and everything. So crazy! And then there's Chris. Chris just graduated from college in Tennessee, and he's from Virginia. He's taught in Vietnam and spent 8 weeks in northern Kenya before. He's also interested in long term missions.

Stephenie and I are staying with a Pastor Victor Zizer and his family. He and his wife, Auntie Marvel, have 3 children. Their names are Marvick, Marvin and Marvina! All combinations of the parents' names! :) The kids are really sweet and helpful and everyone is very gracious to us. Stephanie and I are sharing a room - there is a HUGE KING size bed, and then a twin, and we don't even need a sheet to sleep under cause it's so hot and humid and here!

Today we have just had a brief introduction to Freetown. We ate lunch and are about to visit the Kroo Bay children's center - a ministry that WMF works closely with. There are something like 300 children there. Tomorrow we will have our first team meeting to really start to get to know each other and discuss the plan for this first week... more later! God has really gotten me here safely, and our team is filled with really neat people. More later!


The two Stephanies outside of the Zizer's home, the place I will be staying!


The team! (Taken our last week in Freetown). It goes: Katharine, Stephanie, Ben, Kristina, Stephenie, Chris

East Africa travels: Kenya - Kampala - Kigali!

Dec 19th to Jan 11th

Three countries in three weeks – tons of new sites, new friends and glorious new vistas, hopping between three distinct cultures in such a short time. Each day brought new delights and challenges, and it was so fun to experience it all with my newly-acquired traveling companion, Ted!

We enjoyed four days in Nairobi, during which I showed Ted my most common Nairobi stomping grounds. We met with Ruth and Pastor Josphat at Word Fellowship Centre in the Kibera slums; we walked through Arboretum park, enjoyed some yummy Kenyan and Ethiopian food, and met with two of Ted's American friends who are currently living in Kenya. One of them is in Peace Corps. She spent a couple days with us at Lisa's flat, hanging around Nairobi (we did some epic walking, let me tell you!) and doing some much-missed American activities like drinking Dr. Pepper and watching a movie! Oh it was so good to be in the company of friends. Ted and I also visited Eastleigh, a section of Nairobi that is home to many Somalis, most of them refugees. It felt like stepping into a completely different country – most everyone was foreign! With Pastor Josphat's help, we ate lunch with and interviewed a Somali man.

Christmas Eve was our chosen departure date for Kampala, Uganda. After a 15 hour, indescribably beautiful bus ride via Kisumu, we arrived at approximately 10pm. Our hosts were the Olukas, the family of one of Ted's classmates in Cairo. They were wonderful to us. We enjoyed their home and fellowship for nearly 10 nights. Their daughter Faythe was our immediate friend and tour guide, showing us the ways of Ugandan taxis and my beloved motorcycle taxis (boda-bodas)! (I first rode one of these in Ruth's village, while balancing two wedding cakes on my lap, you may remember!) It is hard to describe Mr. Oluka's brilliant sense of humor and the total warmth and thoughtfulness of the entire family; God was very good to us through that family's kindness.

Kampala was much more laid back and safer than Nairobi. We explored parts of downtown, attended the Oluka's church on Christmas Day, attended a show at the National Theatre, and visited the Compassion Uganda country office (where I ran into a Ugandan man that I had actually met in San Diego this last summer! Small world!) Ted and I took a one day, one night excursion to Jinja, a town famous for being at the source of the Nile River! Ted's good friend, John, was honeymooning in Jinja and invited us to come visit (their "honeymoon" is going to be 8 months long, so we didn't feel too intrusive.) John and his new wife, Regina, are from southern Uganda. It was so fun to spend time fellowshipping with them. We took a boat to see where the Nile flows from Lake Victoria, and paddled across Bujagali Falls and, of course, enjoyed some traditional Ugandan dishes (Perhaps I am biased, but I still believe that nothing beats Kenyan cuisine!)

On New Years Day, we traveled south, crossing into Rwanda – the country of a thousand hills. Oh, Rwanda. Rwanda, Rwanda, Rwanda. How can I express how it was to be in that tremendous place for five days? Another of Ted's friends (these are all friends he met in Cairo during his studies this year) picked us up at the International Bus Park in Kigali Town. He found very reasonably-priced lodging for us in city centre, where we stayed for 5 nights. My goodness – the country itself is more beautiful than I imagined any place could be. The city is built into huge, rolling, green hills. The streets are clean and safe (polar opposite of Nairobi, and much cleaner even than Kampala). The country has flipped completely around since the 1994 genocide, though the effects of it are permanently etched into the conscious of every Rwandan. Walking the streets of Kigali, the mental images were inescapable- I imagined dead, bodies, cut by machete and half-eaten by dogs filling the road, knowing that that was once the reality in every corner of this country. For the past 13 years, Rwandans have been working hard at reconciliation, letting their open wounds gradually heal instead of sloppily covering up the mess and destruction by ignoring the genocide and trying to "move on." They are striving to remember, so that they can be a sign to the rest of the world and a lead educator on what genocide means. Ted and I visited the Genocide Memorial in Kigali twice, the second time to hear a survivor's testimony and watched a film titled "Shooting Dogs." I highly recommend it.

One day in Rwanda we traveled to a village one hour away to meet Ted's Compassion child, Mukama. Another day, we took our African Safari! I still hadn't gone yet, and as it is the signature thing to do in East Africa, my parents treated me to an early birthday gift. We enjoyed a full 5 hours driving around Akagere National Park along the Rwandan-Tanzanian border. It was beautiful, and full of zebras, impalas, giraffes, baboons, hippos and all sorts of strange and colorful birds.

So yes, I loved Rwanda. I got to speak French (as that is one of the national languages), enjoy many long boda-boda rides, dramatic views and sweet cups of tea. It was somber and deeply beautiful at the same time.

(picture: me in Kigali, Rwanda)
We had intended to stop in southern Uganda on our return to Kampala. Our time, though was cut short by the fuel crisis in the country, due to the eruption of post-election violence in Kenya and the still uncontrolled Ebola situation in the south. Ted and I returned to the Oluka's home in Kampala. From there, we made alternate travel arrangements back to Nairobi (where we were catching our flight to Cairo on Jan. 11th). Our 7 hour layover in Nairobi was without problem. I met with Lisa and Virginia and Bella one last time, to collect my luggage and say "farewell" to East Africa. It was so strange saying goodbye, and I am still missing the people and experiences God gave me there. I am so, so grateful to God for all He did in that time, and all I hope He will do through those relationships in the future.

Bless you, and please, please pray for Kenya. You'll hear from me again soon!

Upheaval in Kenya

It makes me so sad to report that the elections in Kenya went so horribly. I knew the race was going to be close; I knew nearly everyone in the country had a strong opinion and that those opinions were usually drawn along tribal lines; I knew people were worried about rigging at the polls and sabotage; but, I also knew that…

-Kenyan Christians had been praying for months for peaceful elections
-Good Luou and Luya friends of mine, and good Kikuyu friends of mine were casting their votes for opposing candidates, but they were all praying and hoping for a peaceful election
-In my mind, Kenyans had a maturity about them that not all African countries currently demonstrate – Though tribalism is a tangible issue, I never imagined it would be cause for violence and murder here
My assumption that the election would pass smoothly was probably the result of some naiveté, partly because I was only in Kenya for seven weeks, and partly because I spent almost all that time in a large city, and large cities are known for blurring the lines a little between tribal classifications and prejudices; urban life usually gets people to mesh a little, to live life in closer proximity and so dislike each other a little less.

It is a little unreal to read the names of places that I have been in the newspaper, to hear that horrible things have taken place there – Kibera, Mathare, Kisumu, Eldoret, and rallies at Uhuru Park. I am upset about the current state of things, praying for resolution, and frankly was feeling anger at both Raila and Kibaki. It is pretty evident that both men sabotaged the polls, and they are refusing to cease their stubbornness for the sake of saving their countrymen’s lives. A little less power tripping, and a little more love for the Kenyan people would be a brilliant way, a necessary step, towards resolution.

Praise God that all my friends are safe. Pastor Josphat and his church are really struggling financially. Their church was not burned, but the Pastor has welcomed many congregants fleeing the violence into his home, which is outside Kibera, and his family is struggling to cover these costs. My main concern right now is that I have no word about the girl I sponsor, Purity. Purity is a Kikuyu and she lives in Mathare slums, the worst hotbed of violence against Kikuyus in Nairobi. I am hoping and praying that she does not live in a particularly harsh neighborhood in Mathare.