Valentine's Weekend in Chogoria: Love

It was a busy weekend around here!  Lots of happenings and lots of love shared.  It was a perfect celebration of the holiday of love.

I'll go in reverse order...

Yesterday, on Valentine's Day, we had a picnic with the homeschoolers and read Valentine's poems.  We have the biggest group of homeschool kids that Chogoria has ever seen and it's a beautiful blessing.

Before lunch, however, I busted out the Valentine's candy I brought over from America.  M&Ms and heart-shaped Reese's!  The boys were pretty happy

And I was pretty happy when I woke up to a surprise breakfast in bed.  My hubby made me a ham-and-cheese omelette (one of my many favorite breakfast dishes) and the boys had picked fresh flowers and made me Valentine's cards.  It was incredibly sweet!

The day before Valentine's Day included a Ladies Afternoon.  The Chogoria ladies are an amazing group of people and I cherish them so much!  I could write an entire post about them (and maybe I will).  This day had us enjoying snacks and chai and learning to play the game Code Names, which was really fun.  Lots of laughter filled the afternoon and I was reminded again of how grateful I am for this community.

The day before that (Saturday) culminated in our annual "Valentine's Day of Races."  It's like a field day of various races and events.  I've planned it for the past three years and it's become a tradition.  We had a great turnout this year and everyone loved it!  Who doesn't love the chance to channel their inner child and run and laugh and maybe get a little wet if the water balloon bursts on you???

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it till the day I die: I greatly appreciate and respect any adult who willingly and gladly plays with children and creates memories like this with them.  Kids do not forget the times an adult ran around with them and got silly with them!  They do not forget when a grownup tripped to the ground during a sack race because said grownup is really too big for the sacks (Eli and Derek) or dove to the finish line to beat the other team (Will) or was the person who caught a water balloon from halfway across the yard and got the most soaked (Anne).  I know they will remember these things because of how they talk about them.  They talk about them like memories were made, and I believe they were.

So here's a smattering of photos from this year's Valentine's Day of Races:

The classic egg race.  Even the little ones participated with a little help!

I love this set of photos because it shows both the excitement and the intensity of these races!

Again, adults who participate in stuff like this are the coolest!  Jumping with a balloon between your knees is pure silliness and everyone was cracking up!

This is a super simple but super fun race: two people running with a beach ball between their foreheads.  I particularly admired the folks who chose the strategy of one person running backwards while the other person ran forwards.  I feel like that takes more coordination than both people running sideways, but maybe I'm wrong.  Either way, it looks ridiculous and I love it!

And the sack race!  Another classic race.  I'm indebted to our househelper who supplied the sacks for us.  I was busting a gut watching Eli and Derek race each other.  I couldn't get many photos of them because I was laughing too hard!  The kids were laughing pretty hard too.

The last race of the evening was the wheelbarrow race.  It's always tempting to wanna put some kids in there and let the adults run amuck, but that's a sure recipe for disaster with this many kids around.  So we keep it simple and just have everyone push the wheelbarrow down and around the cone.  It's still a fan favorite and I totally understand why!

I brought water balloons from the States just for this.  I only wish I could spare more, but at least everyone got to toss twice.  The little kids typically drop theirs right away, but some of the older kids can get a little farther.  There's a lot of technique still to be learned.  I kinda want to give water balloon tossing lessons to improve their chances of throwing father and getting more soaked in the end!

Check out this action shot!  Olive missed the water balloon but I love seeing the shape of it as it landed on her leg and was about to burst!

Lastly, we pulled out the parachute.  How on earth did we get a parachute in Chogoria, you might ask?  I have no idea.  A colleague who used to live here had it and passed it on to us when they left Chogoria.  I'm not sure how they got it here, but I'm glad.  We don't get to use it very often since it's so huge and requires so many people to operate, but this was the perfect chance to enjoy it.  Balls were flying and then kids were flying as they ran underneath it, trying not to get trapped as the parachute was brought back down on top of them.  I can barely describe the giggles and squeals!

More than the fun that everybody had, my greatest joy of the entire evening was watching Caleb participate in every single event.  That was the first time ever that he's done that and I was so incredibly proud of him!  Usually he sits out of certain things, or sits out of everything, but that night was his night and he not only participated but enjoyed all of it.  A smile was plastered on his face and no one had to coax him into anything.  What a milestone for our son!

Our community here is amazing and I think we love each other rather well.  I think part of the reason Caleb was able to reach the point of participating in this stuff is because our community is a safe and loving place to be.  There is encouragement and understanding, kindness and grace.  Love abounds.

And as I said to the kids before we started the races, "Let us love one another, for love comes from God" (1 John 4:7).  Anything we do that loves each other well is because of God.

Home Again

Even though it was the middle of winter when we left Michigan, we made sure to pack T-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops in our carry-on bags because we knew we'd get to wear them as soon as we made it back to Kenya.  It's been a beautiful 75 and sunny almost every day for the past few weeks and we aren't sad about it!

We're extremely grateful to my parents for their help in getting us to the airport and then helping to manage all of the luggage: 15 checked bags, car seat bag, plus carry-on bags and backpacks for everyone.  We're a bit of a traveling circus every time we head back to Kenya.  Between all the homeschool curriculum and books, supplies for the residency, chocolate chips and other America food essentials (pepperoni, cheese powder to make mac 'n cheese, taco seasoning, etc.) we easily filled all of those bags and bins!

The flights back to Kenya went well, praise God.  Our flight out of Amsterdam was delayed, so by the time we landed in Nairobi and retrieved our luggage and arrived at the guesthouse, it was 4am East Africa Time. But all in all, that was a minor hiccup and we had no complaints.

The boys did extremely well overall with only a couple mini meltdowns from Asa.  Caleb barely slept the entire time but somehow didn't suffer for it.  And Kai was as happy as a clam as long as he could play games on the screen.  We are extremely thankful for such wonderful little travelers!

leaving Detroit

happy campers

collecting our luggage in Nairobi

breathing the fresh Kenyan air

We spent a few days in Nairobi to get over jet lag, see some dear friends, and visit the dentist before heading back to Chogoria.  Then it was time to head home!  The boys were hyper as we drove out of Nairobi.  We were going home and everybody felt it in their bones.

The drive to Chogoria is beautiful with a wide range of scenery.  We pass pineapple plantations, rice fields, banana groves, and tea fields on the way to Chogoria.  My favorite parts are the rice fields (because they offer a vast beauty with plenty of white egrets scattered across the fields) and the tea fields (because they're picturesque against the lush green hills, and it means we're almost home).  We live in such a lovely place on earth and we don't take it for granted.

herding cattle

donkey cart

one of the many rice mills we pass by

a typical means of transporting large items

tea fields

When we reached Chogoria town, the boys began chanting with excitement.  Caleb shouted, "We're here!  Somebody hug me!"  So Kai said, "Okay!" and gave his brother a giant squeeze.  It filled our hearts to be surrounded by such joy in our boys!  Knowing your children are happy in the deepest part of their soul - well, there's nothing like it.

Goodness, it felt good to be home again!

The boys jumped out of the car straightaway and found their friends.  The Webbers were waiting for us and Asa and Jack fell over as they hugged each other intensely.  A sense of rightness filled the moment: we are where we belong.  The gift of being confident in knowing you're doing exactly what you're meant to be doing in the exact place you're meant to be doing it cannot be discounted or underestimated.  We all take turns wondering what we're supposed to be doing and where, so being in a season where all of it makes sense and there's peace to go along with it offers a particular kind of contentedness.  We are thankful.

In an instant we jumped right back into life in Chogoria!  So many friends came over to say hi and to play with the boys.  We were greeting people late into the evening and felt so loved and welcomed.

friends!

boys in the loquat tree in front of our house

walking to the river behind our compound

We were blessed with a week without any official responsibilities so we could get unpacked and settled back into our house, as well as meet with lots of folks to get up to speed on everything.  It was a fairly gentle reentry, for which we are thankful.

We even squeezed in a day trip to the bandas (in the foothills of Mt. Kenya) before Eli went back to work at the hospital and before the boys and I started homeschooling again.  We took all of the MKs and let their parents have the day to themselves at home.  Great fun was had by all!  We had to take two vehicles and we decided to have a Girl Car and a Boy Car.  So I got to drive all the girls and it was fun and hilarious to experience how girls entertain each other compared to what I'm used to with boys!  For example, there was a lot more talk about cute baby animals (instead of animal battles) and a bit more sass and squealing (instead of wrangling and roaring).

The bandas remain a special place to us.  It's beautiful and quiet up there, and the boys have their fill of running and climbing and exploring.  It was great to share the day with the other kids too.  We enjoyed our standard picnic of PBJ sandwiches and saw a bit of wildlife - monkeys, waterbuck, and even an elephant near the road as we drove home.  It was the perfect day trip before diving into regular life again.

And then real life began.  The first week of homeschooling was exactly what I expected - a bit of a struggle to get back into routine and to get the boys to focus well on their work.  In their defense, it's hard to focus when the perfectly sunny days are calling you outside where trees are begging to be climbed and chameleons are waiting to be found a pair of black kites are swooping around the yard to find sticks for building a nest in a nearby tree.  Adventure awaits!  But school needs to be done too, so we're figuring out the balance day by day.

Eli hit the ground running, as you can imagine.  But he's happy to be back, especially to be working with the residents again.  The residency breathes life into him, and it makes me happy to know how much he enjoys his work.

And me?  I've had several Zoom meetings since donning the hat of Director of Member Health again, and have dived deep into planning our annual retreat (which I'm in charge of), and have led our weekly Bible Study, and am doing all the things on the homefront like managing the brood of boys that seem to end up playing at our house most days and baking bread and making granola from scratch and other domestic things required in this setting.  The days are full, but life is good.  We are grateful for this season.

Because goodness, it's good to be home again!