Archive for January, 2005

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Jan

27

CFS 2005

By Wes (January 27, 2005 @ 10:26 am)

Well, I’m back in the relative comfort of my own home here in beautiful bright Nairobi, Kenya. Ahhhhh. It is good to realize just how comfortable and good we all have it, and its too bad we have to really live another way for a little while before we realize what we’ve got. Last Friday, the whole high school went on CFS – Cultural Field Studies, where myself and another teacher took 17 grade 11 students to a Maasaii area called Oleopolus (spelling may be incorrect), which is about 30 minutes away from Narok – a town about 3.5 hours away from Nairobi, to live with and learn from the Maasai people who live there. We got there on Friday around 1 pm or so, and had lunch (bag lunch from home) at the local church there (a Maasaii Mennonite Church). We set up our tents, relaxed, and got to know Pastor Joseph, and Jer and Jen Janzen (missionaries with EMM from Steinbach area, who have live there for the last 4 years). The local Maasai ladies then started to get supper ready, and so we pitched in where we could, with peeling potatoes, and sorting rice. We did it really slowly compared to the experts, but still tried to do some of the work. Supper (around 7:00) was rice and potatos – a typical special dish for the region. Of course, since Maasai are so generous, our portions were huge….a daunting task at times! The area we were in was very very dusty (they are waiting for the long rains to come, should start any day now out there), and all the water they use they either collect in rain barrels, or haul from the river. Life just takes on a different pace when basic things like making food and getting water ends up taking most of the day.

Part of our purpose in going there was to also be of some service, and so after sleeping in our tents on Friday night, we awoke and got to work on helping to build a house for the nurse that works at the clinic (which is attached to the church). We were to help put in a concrete floor for the building which was mostly up. The house was full of lumber, “kitchen” fire ash, a table, and lots of rocks. We cleaned these up, and moved things out to prepare for our next work day (Monday). Then, around noon, our home stay people arrived to pick us up and lead us to where we would be spending the next 2 days and nights. “Mamas” from all over the community came out, and we were assigned to go out to home stays.

We walked about 2 miles to our home, where we were treated royally – given the fact that we were sleeping in a hut that was inhabited by one of the mamas (the chief whose place we stayed at had 2 wives) and her 4 kids. 2 beds for the 3 of us, along with complimentary rats and bugs. But, they gave it up for us, so they slept all of them (2 women and about 7 or 8 kids under 8 years) in another hut on the property. They also fed us a lot of food and chai, consisting mostly of rice, potatoes, some goat meat, chipatis one night, and ugali (maize) and sukamawiki (think spinach). On Sunday, we went to church, and experienced some amazing worship (too bad we knew no words), some praise jumping from the men, and a message from a south Carolinan evangelist (its a long story…and a seemingly weird / random one too). After church, the guys played a soccer match against some local boys, and we walked to visit Jen and Jer Janzen at their place. Another home stay night, and then we were back to the church to help fetch water from the river (a 30 minute journey one way), mix concrete, wheelbarrow it into the house, and help prepare meals. We worked hard on Monday, and so were pretty exhausted by the time supper came around. We ended up having a campfire time, and played some group games before crashing hard in our tents. Tuesday, our last day, consisted of saying goodbye to our home stayers, as well as Pastor Joseph and Jen and Jer. We packed up, and then loaded up the bus to stop by the market at Oleopolus for an hour. Then it was on to Brackenhurst (a Baptist retreat centre), where all the CFS groups met to debrief and worship.

Exhausted, happy to be finished and home, we arrived back at Rosslyn Wednesday afternoon. An amazing experience for many of our students and staff, and one that I think is so truly unique among schools anywhere. Some things I took home with me are the memories of the Maasai people – so happy, friendly, and genuine. They love to laugh and serve. Other things like the landscape (at times breathtakingly beautiful, while at others, harsh and dry), and the strange comical mixture of Kenya and the rest of the world (like a local duka stand that sells all sorts of Coke products, Maasai men wearing Nike shirts and a ManitobaPork.com t-shirt). A really great experience overall. But, it sure is good to back home.

Wes (for the Enns clan)

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Jan

16

Turtle Bay Trip

By Wes (January 16, 2005 @ 1:56 am)

So, the start of a New Year! First of all, we’d like to wish every one of our friends and family a truly happy New Year, one filled with God’s leading and blessing. Thank you for supporting us in this adventure God has led us on, and thank you for your prayers for us.

2005! The years just keep racing by (yes, what an old person thing to say!). Really, though, its hard to imagine that a year ago, we still had not even thought about Rosslyn Academy, or even considered teaching overseas, and so were completely oblivious to what lay in store for us. Amazing.
We are truly thankful to God, our Father, for gently leading us and spurring us on to take some leaps of faith with Him. It has been a great ride so far!

And, speaking of rides, our first ride of this year was a wingdinger – our first vacation ever, and our first (hopefully of many!) trip to the Kenyan coast. Words tend to fall short when describing beauty, and I think my limited vocabulary would definitely not give you a full impression of what we saw there. So, I won’t go into lengthy detail describing the white sand beaches, the blue/green of the water, the height of the palm trees, or the incredible diversity and blending of colors of the fish we saw in the Indian Ocean. I will say, though, that you should just imagine the quintessential paradise scene…that was where we were! We enjoyed it all pretty thoroughly, although Jean could’ve spent more time lounging on the beach, enjoying the view in tranquil splendor. But, alas, the boys had us up at 7, and usually in the pool by 8, after scarfing down a bun and a “traffic light” (one of their favorite juice drink concoctions) for breakfast. Literally, the first 2 days we were there consisted of at least 7 hours of pool time per day. Can you say waterlogged? Wow. Then Ez had had enough water and pool, and so after 3 days, we were able to get out and do some cool fun things together. We had great times walking down the white fine sandy beach, the wind in our hair, the salty ocean smell in our noses, the wow-its-like-a-bathtub-warm water of the Indian Ocean at our feet, looking for cool shells, crabs, jellyfish washed up on shore (don’t touch guys!), swimming in the ocean, checking out the tidal pools in the coral, watching crabs get angry (we always thought of the crabs from Nemo shouting “hey, hey, hey!”), along with many other enjoyable moments. Anyway, here are the highlights: for the boys – the drinks, the pool, chasing crabs on the beach at night, feeding the moray eels fish on a stick, watching 2 turtles be set free into the ocean from the beach, and finding a beautiful starfish (in the colors of Spiderman!). For myself – not paying for a thing while we were there, seeing real live dolphins (about 30!), and snorkeling along the coral reef (it was like swimming in a very big aquarium. Incredible!). For Jean – the divine combination of blue, green and white as she’s never personally seen it before, snorkeling, and the pleasure of seeing the boys love their time at Turtle Bay. The food was good (how can you beat chocolate or fruit crepes for afternoon snack, and all the fresh seafood you can eat?), the company was good (lots of friendly Rosslyn families there to hang out with, including our good friends the Beyers and the Matlaks), and the sea kayaking and pedalboating were a blast (even when the tide almost smashed us against the rock shaped like a turtle ? the adrenaline surge that powered us out of there was MOST impressive!). Overall, we could not have pictured a better holiday. More could be said…but really, I think you get the gist. We loved it, and look forward someday to going back.

What a treat it was, and now, we are back to the daily grind bigtime, with Basketball kicking into high gear for Coach Wes, Ezra back at school for 4 days a week this semester, and Jean and Zay starting BSF again, along with trying to keep us all amused (Zay’s job) and alive, fed, watered, clean, content, and just about everything else (Jean’s job). Check out the blog gallery soon (hopefully this weekend yet), for some incredible shots of Turtle Bay.

Bless you this year, thanks again for your prayers and emails.
The Enns Family

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