Today was a very unique Thanksgiving, but one that I will never forget! It was one of the best days since I’ve been in Africa! Jenny and I were invited to a Thanksgiving meal at the home of a missionary family who we met at the conference last weekend. Greg and Kim are the parents, originally from upstate New York, and they have two adopted Asian children, Isaiah and Anna. They live at Scott [Theological College] in Machakos which is about a 1 ½ hour ride on a matatu. Greg is a lecturer there and I’m not sure what Kim does. They heard that we live pretty near them so they were gracious enough to invite us to share in their Thanksgiving celebration and it was wonderful! A few other families and couples who joined as well so there were about 15-20 people. The food was amazing! Kim found a really upscale butcher in Nairobi who had turkey so we had 2 turkeys along with green bean casserole, corn, 3 different kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, and a lot more! It was just as good as, or better, than any Thanksgiving feast back in the States! We certainly celebrated with all the right fixin’s and it was delicious! Who ever said Thanksgiving is only celebrated in America? Haha! The best part for me was that we really all felt like one big family. On Thanksgiving you just want to be with your family, but since I wasn’t able to be with mine this was certainly the next best thing. It’s amazing how you can feel so connected to other believers through Christ in such a short amount of time. We all share one faith and our faith is the most important thing in our lives so it allows us to form instant bonds and build relationships and friendships so easily. It was such a blessing to be there with those believers, who also have a heart for missions and for Africa, to share in their Thanksgiving meal with them. I truly have a lot to be thankful for. We were so grateful not only for them inviting us over, but also that it worked out for us to be able to go. Armstrong doesn’t like for Jenny and me to ride on matatus by ourselves and he was gone all week at a seminar out of town so we weren’t sure if or how we were going to get there. Well, it turned out that Elizabeth needed to go to Machakos today also to go to the bank so we all went together and it worked out perfectly! The morning started off kind of strange and really funny actually and the whole say was like that. The three of us were standing down on the side of the road waiting for a matatu this morning when Jenny and I realized that neither of us had brought much cash with us so I ran back up to the house to grab some. Well, I was in a big hurry because I didn’t want us to miss the matatu and when I was running out of the house my shirt caught on something sharp and ripped a huge hole in the left shoulder! So, I ran back in and changed really quickly and ran back down to find Jenny and Elizabeth running after our matatu, haha! They hadn’t stopped it because I wasn’t down there, but when they saw me coming they started running after it to stop for us and one of the guys down there was whistling for it. So I ran with them and, thank the Lord, the matatu had stopped just around the corner! When we got on everyone was definitely laughing at us and I can only imagine what they were thinking. Probably something like “haha, those mazungus don’t know what they’re doing.” But hey, we made it and that’s all that matters! It was only around 10am when we got into Machakos and Kim told us they were eating at 1:00 and to come anytime before then, but we didn’t want to get there super early so we had a lot of time to kill. We went to the bank with Elizabeth and to the post office so I could mail some postcards. Then, we picked up some drinks at the supermarket to take to their house and went to T-Tot, a popular restaurant, to have some tea. After that we still had a few minutes to spare so we went to this little shoe store Jenn noticed while we were walking around earlier. They had some really cute shoes on display outside, but inside it was like the most unorganized mess of shoes ever, haha! I don’t know how they even managed to find our sizes. There were shoes just piled up and tossed all over the place, not in boxes or anything. But, they found what I needed and I bought a pair of really cute black heels! Jenn bought the same ones plus another pair. It was totally an impulse buy, but they were so cheap! Mine were only 850 shillings which is like $12 and they are so cute!! I asked the shopkeeper where most of the shoes come from and she said Uganda, which I was thought was really interesting. So now I have a pair of shoes from Uganda! Our shoe-buying experience just added to the whole strange, but funny day.
When we were done shoe-shopping we all hopped in a tuk-tuk (tuke-tuke) or “taxi” to get to Scott, just a couple miles from the middle of town where we were. The best way I can think to describe a tuk-tuk is a cross between a car, a tricycle, and a tent, haha. Its has just three wheels, but it has a motor and its covered by a canvas top that zips open and closed. There are tons of them in Machakos and whenever we walk by all the drivers yell “Scott, Scott, Scott.” Its really funny; they know where we’re going. I mean, where else would mazungus be going, right? Elizabeth talked to the driver to get a good price while we hid in the shoe store. If they saw us there would be no hope of getting a reasonable price; white equals money here. Elizabeth rode with us to their house and then went back to Machakos to see some of her friends until we were finished. After lunch the Dads and all the children played football in the front yard. I really felt like I was back in American then. We couldn’t stay too long because we had to get back to the home so Kim went ahead and set out the dessert for us. There was pumpkin pie, lemon meringue bars, no-bake cookies, lemon-meringue pie and sugar cookies…yummy!! We enjoyed some dessert and then said our goodbyes and headed back. They were so glad we had come, but I am sure we were much more glad to have been invited. It was great!
We were going to get a tuk-tuk back to town, but while we were walking to the entrance of the college we met a student, Charles, who started talking to us and we ended up talking and walking with him all the way back into town. Turns out he is one of Greg’s students so he knew the family we were visiting. We met Elizabeth at the matatu stage and waited in our matatu only about 20 minutes before it left for Mukaa. On the way back home Elizabeth informed us that one her friends, Mary, who is a nurse at the dispensary on the compound, invited all of us over for dinner tonight. That was such a nice surprise! I love visiting the African’s homes. They are always so welcoming and kind. She lives basically on the compound so we headed over there around 7pm, but on our way, we were met with another huge surprise…Elizabeth’s older sister had shown up at the compound. She has two boys, Charles and Kimanthi, who live at the home and Elizabeth hasn’t seen her in many, many years. She has never come before to get the boys for Christmas so they have always stayed here throughout December. It was the very last thing Elizabeth ever expected. She said she was so happy she wanted cry. Her sister is going back home tomorrow and I don’t know if she will take her sons with her or not. It is such a joy that she is here though so we’ll see. After we visited with her for a few minutes we continued on to have supper at Mary’s home. She made rice and steamed cabbages and a potato stew and it was all so good. After dinner she pulled out her photo albums so we spent a little while looking through those before taking tea and biscuits (tea cookie). During the course of dinner Mary told that there was a birth at the hospital today and the mom and baby were still there so she let us stop in visit them on our way home. Jenny absolutely loves babies so she was super excited when we found out they were still at the hospital and we could go visit them. Mary walked the three of us to the hospital where we met the mom, Agnes, and her new baby boy who was still unnamed. The husband’s mom was also there and a neighbor lady who came with them so they were taking care of her. The husband was not there. We didn’t ask where he was, but Mary told us probably far away somewhere so he couldn’t get there. They don’t have cell phones so there is no way for them to contact him to let him know his child is being born. That is really sad to me. I would hate to not even be able to contact my husband when I go into labor. But, that is normal here so they don’t think anything of it I suppose. Also, we were amazed at how young she looked. Jenn and I thought she couldn’t be any older than 20 so were shocked to find out that this was her fourth born! We both thought for sure it was her first. But in Africa, just because it was her fourth child doesn’t mean she is any older than she looks. We don’t know how old she was, but the women often marry very young, while their teenagers, and start having babies very young too so she may very well only be 20 or 21 years old…that is the scary part. It was also amazing how simple the hospital was. There were 8 or 10 beds in the room and they were just metal frames with a thin, plastic covered mattress; no sheets or pillows except for a couple blankets on Agnes’ bed. There were no machines, monitors, electronics, anything. There wasn’t even a separate bed for the baby. He was breast-feeding when we got there and when he was done she just laid him down on the bed beside her. I was thinking that I would be so scared to give birth there, but again, that is all they know so it works for them. We visited her for about 15 minutes and then continued on our way back up to the house. What a Thanksgiving! God has given us so much to be thankful for today. We were blessed with friends to share a real Thanksgiving meal with, we had another delicious meal with African friends, Elizabeth’s sister showed up and there was a new life brought into the world right here on our compound. It was so amazing that all these things happened on this day that is set aside to give thanks to God for all of our blessings. It was one thing after another and I am left speechless at how God has used this special day to show us that He is truly watching over us and taking care of us. Everything that happened today He had planned out perfectly a long time ago and it amazed me to see everything come together according to His good plan. It was an unforgettable day and truly the most unforgettable Thanksgiving.
