In my last post, I mentioned being gone last week.  I spent the week at CBYC in Nakuru.  CBYC stands for Christian Believers’ Youth Conference.  There were 50-60  students, with approximately a dozen of them being mission youth.  We youth from Kisumu headed to Nakuru on Monday (the 7^th) and came back Sunday (the 13^th).  The week flew by like crazy!!  It ended up being even more fun than I possibly thought it would be! :) 

We had some great classes:  The Christian Home, Biblical Faith, Separation of Church and State, and The Gospel of Matthew.  These classes were all taught by national pastors, but it was all in English which was great for me…(and not so great for some of the students who didn’t know English so well…)  We had discussion periods after each lecture where we were divided up into smaller groups and given questions to think about and discuss.  Some of the questions were very thought-provoking.  Each day before lunch, we spent an hour practicing our chorus songs.  They were mostly Swahili, so that was fun!  The tunes were fairly simple to learn, but it took awhile for me to get all of the words memorized.  Chorus was definitely one of my favorite parts of each day!

Suddenly it was Friday, the last day of classes!  Unbelievable!!  Saturday, we spent the morning doing exams, which were mostly enjoyable, other than the frustration of having inadequate time to fill in all the answers.  Later in the afternoon, we hiked up to the top of the Menengai Crater (an extinct volcano) and spent a little bit of time at the top before heading back down.  Hiking in flip flops isn’t the easiest, but thankfully, the trek wasn’t too exhausting.  After sitting on hard, wooden benches ALL WEEK for many hours each day, it felt amazing to just be outside!!

Sunday morning, each teacher gave a summary of his topic from the week, and we shared our choir songs for the local congregation at Engashura.  After lunch, we hung around for awhile before heading back HOME.

I think the part I loved most this week was the opportunity to learn to know these youth.  Some of the girls were really quiet the first few days, but after they loosened up, we had so much fun together!  There were 18 of us girls who boarded (over 30 guys) and several day scholars who didn’t spend the night there at the compound.  All week, there were so many languages swirling around.  A few of the girls struggled with English, but in general it was fairly easy to communicate back and forth.  There was always a lot of Swahili and a little Luo and Kikuyu in addition to the English conversations. 

I also loved the food.  It was great!!  Breakfast wasn’t always my favorite, but it was always edible. :)  Some of our breakfast foods were uji (porridge made from millet)…Chai… mandazis (yay)…bread… sweet potatoes and hard boiled eggs…For lunch and supper, we had a lot of rice and beans… ugali, sukumu wiki, and cabbage… potatoes…chapatis… a little beef stew…mokimo(something new for me… I loved it… a unique twist on mashed potatoes)… and likely some other things I am forgetting…

I also really enjoyed the “primitive side of things” as well.  Sure, there were some chilly mornings where I inwardly felt like complaining instead of taking a sponge bath from a small basin of water or visiting the smelly choo… However, it really wasn’t so bad.  We had electricity most of the time, and used lanterns at night after the generator was turned off.  I actually kinda enjoyed scrubbing my laundry in a small tub and carefully hanging it on the barb-wire fence to dry.  :)  Our foam mats seemed to get a bit thinner each night, but I slept GREAT ALL WEEK!! In fact, even with all our exciting dorm moments and EARLY morning racket, I still got more sleep than I do at home. ;) :)  

I also really enjoyed our segregated talks in the evenings before lights out.  Mary Ellen did a phenomenal job sharing her topics.  It was also fun to spend time singing with the girls and praying together.  Often, in a small group, they would open up and share what was on their heart.  Some of them have such rough home lives and such negative peer pressure at school.  I am so blessed!!!!

In the afternoons and evenings, the youth would play volleyball.  Their skill was not so bad, but their knowledge of setting and rotating was a bit humorous, and could become exasperating if you let it bother you… so I would go hang out by the fire with the cooks.  These ladies were great!  I loved listening to them chatter away in Swahili, and they loved teaching me new words and songs.  Whenever I had a free moment or just felt bored, I would go spend time with them.  No matter what, they always made me laugh.  They were GREAT! 

Overall, it was just a wonderful week!  I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to go!  …and now it’s been awesome to be back home with internet again, a shower, real toilet, my own bed, my normal routine, and school!  :)

Mary kept me entertained day AND night...seriously, the night part is quite factual!   ...she slept beside me, and I didn't have many quiet (or lonely) moments...