Ridiculous rain and internet fights

Well, it has not stopped raining. I never knew that so much water could come from the sky. This morning we went running to this gorgeous beach and while we were collecting sea shells (I had my hands full) it started pouring. We started walking home and a school bus full of kids offered to give us a ride. haha the people here are so funny, but kind. When we leave the office at night, it's definitely rush hour and we can never catch a matatu so we have to walk home. And of course it was raining. So we were soaking wet when we got home tonight. THEN walking to the internet cafe, (2 blocks from our house) it started raining again. So, at a nice internet cafe I look like a homeless person.

At work today, Andrew tried to do some crazy things with the internet (like taking cords through the window to a different floor) but he got chewed out. Apparently there are no wired connections in Kenya. We are all connected to a wireless network which comes to our workspace after about 4 generations of routers/hubs etc. No wonder we aren't getting the internet. Andrew may have posted some pics on his blog about that. It is an unsolvable problem (or at least it seems like it.)

Well I'm here at the cafe tonight for two reasons. One-Andrew told me I had to post more so that people will read it. Two-I'm diving into the marketing world, trying to find out everything I humanly possibly can. I don't know really anything, but I'm excited to somewhat expand my business horizon and force myself to learn this stuff.

We're going to head to Shimba Hills this weekend (hopefully). We have Friday off because it is a Kenyan Holiday-Yeeha! We'll take that for sure. Some ward member knows about a house that we can stay in. I'm so excited, we're hoping to hike to some waterfalls and see lots of animals.
I'll post some pics next week, or look at Andrew's.

Lotsa Bug Bites

So it’s a Saturday night in Kenya, and we’re too tired to go see the Miss Mombasa Pageant (which I desperately wanted to attend.) This morning we went to the beach (which I posted some pictures of) and this afternoon we went to an orphanage. I loved the beach this morning because there are tons of tourists from all over. At one point we were trying to communicate with a Korean couple who were cutting open a sea urchin with a pocket knife while a Spanish or Dutch or German (one of those) couple tried to tell us about how great sea urchin is to eat. Man it was gross, but so entertaining. These guys would go out on a boat and come back with fish to sell and the tourists would look through the rest. I held a blowfish!! It started making all this crazy noise, and then it started deflating. The Korean couple also showed us a sea horse and Andrew stepped on a poisonous lion fish. We got hounded the entire time we were at the beach by all of our favorite people-salesman of all kinds.

The orphanage was insane. I was impressed how organized it was with the little money they receive, but it was really dirty and covered in flies. The little kids were darling and they sang this whole song about Jesus to us. We also learned how to make Chipati (the tortilla bread) which I love. There is a picture of me and my dear friend Grace who kept running around telling everyone we have the same namesake! I think I’ve heard that term maybe once before.

http://byu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4271&l=1b6e0&id=586037020

I also posted pics of the whole coconut process. They have may have gotten a little mixed up, but the whole process should be in there.

To the fam- I can’t believe I missed out on S. Mill but I hope you guys had fun! Let’s go again in September okay? Ha, I wish.

I kind of hate paying for internet so that is why I never post too many pics because it costs 3 shillings a minute. I put up some weird pics too...I don't even remember anymore. I did put a picture off of our roof. The view we have should be in a magazine. Today I did laundry by hand for the first time. Not too bad, but who knows how clean it got. Oh and I think I may have fleas, but there is not much I can do about that except bug spray it up.

I put in some pics of our apartment to. I've got my own bedroom now. It looks like a princess bed, I know. and Brady is currently sleeping in our family room. I like our apartment though, it's nice. Sorry I didn't get a pic of the front, but I promise I'll take one. Oh and I met our neighbors across the hall. They fed me cabbage and rice with tomato sauce, it was soo good. Sophie and her sister Ancelia, brother Nick, and two kids, Meg and Mark, live there. A real good fam.

If you want to hear what Andrew has to say about our adventure his blog is

andr01d-2000.blogspot.com

More later. I've already spent a dollar. Oh and by the way please be grateful for the internet. It is a beautiful and reliable thing we take for granted. I miss it so.

Rainy Days

Well it is definitely monsoon or typhoon or rainy season here (whatever you want to call it). It has been raining all day. We sat in the office all morning and Brady told us about all the things that need to be done.

Joseph, our dear ward friend, came and hung out with us for an hour or so. This kid is so cool. He's a return missionary from South Africa and just the nicest guy you'll ever meet.

Yesterday, I said thank you to a muslim woman that sneezed behind me and the plant manager, James, said that she didn't acknowledge me because she thought I was some crazy Christian talking about praising the Lord and blessing people. Haha.

We went out to coast coconut farms yesterday and they started working in order to show us how the process worked. We got to crack open the coconut shells, and go through the whole process.

We just barely got back from eating lunch at Elite Cafe (it was delicious...i ate a lot of rice and maybe 2 beans, I'm easing into the whole beans thing) and we had quite an interesting experience. Let's just say that this Kenyan man called me "sweetie" and "utah (pronounced ootah) jazz" and tried to get me to do what Kenyan's do. I didn't get it at first either. Haha Andrew is going to tell the whole story on his blog-but I'll tell it later. It was really funny, especially because my face was dark red and Blair, Sam, and Andrew were just dying laughing.
I put a couple more pics up.

Dad the electrical picture is for you. Some of the wiring at CCF is even worse. Above the only sink they have outside are a bunch of loose, hanging wires. So there is another guy here named Sam Fife (he's only here til June 8th) and he's taking doxycycline and he sure got a bad sunburn. So we wear a lot of sunscreen.

http://byu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3772&l=7b516&id=586037020

Facebook Album

This is the website for a few pics. Hardly in though, I'm sorry. The place is going to close.;


http://byu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3772&l=7b516&id=586037020

And We're Here....

Well we're here. This place is insane. Literally. Well I guess that is an overstatement, but I seriously never expected it to be like this.

I love it though.

We got here on Thursday, really late at night. We followed some nice Kenyan lady to the right terminal for our little Kenya Airways plane to take us to Mombasa. We thought the plane was really late until we realized that my watch was an hour fast...we were exhausted.

But, we got there and it had been raining so it was very nice. It is not so nice anymore. I don't remember what it feels like to be completely dry. We are always hot and sweaty. I haven't worn make up or worried about what I look like the entire time I have been here. There really is no point.

I thought I would be an avid blogger, trying to keep everyone updated but then we realized the value of money over here and how hard it is to find internet. At the office, the internet works very sporadicly.

We've had some fun experiences already. We went to the Nakumat which they call the Walmart of Kenya. I loved that place. We bought food and have made dinner the past 3 nights. We are trying to live as cheap as possible since we will be here for 3 months. I actually feel like more of a cheapskate than I was before. Haha, if that is possible.

On Friday, we were introduced to everyone at the office and got to work brainstorming to get Coast Coconut Farms some sales. We met David, the account/sales/marketing manager (can you believe he has so many responsibilities? Crazy.) We are definitely going to help him out.

I feel like this blog is probably very random, but when you are paying 3 shillings a minute, you have to type whatever comes to your head.

Mom, you'll probably like this. We got icecream on Saturday at this place close to our house and I got this huge cone of Pistachio Icecream (it is delicious and quite cheap). I dropped a piece on my arm and I tried to lick it off and I dropped the whole scoop off of my cone. Of course, I leaned down as quick as possible and picked it up and stuck it back on my cone telling everyone it's okay! it's okay! Don't worry! The workers at the restaurant were dying laughing, insisting that they get me a new one. I really would've eaten it, it sure didn't look dirty.

We have decided to walk to and from work each day (which is about 2 miles each way) and that is quite an adventure in itself. There were a couple of junior high boys behind me laughing for like 5 minutes then one of them finally got the courage to walk next to me and one of them said "Good Afternoon Madam." I've never been a Madam in my life. But I love walking around. Everyone is so excited to say Hello! How are you! Welcome to Mombasa! That is there basic knowledge, it is so funny. There are a group of girls that live in a shanty by us that say that every day as we walk home.

My favorite part about living here is the Muslim prayers we get to hear 5 times a day. There are mosques all around us and the first night I was here, I woke up from 4am - 5 am to them announcing prayer over the loud speaker. Plus, there is this goose (that thinks it is a rooster) that joins in with the prayers. I seriously laid in my bed and laughed.

Last story, and I'll call it good for the night. Church was an ultimate adventure. Relief Society was crazy because we were next to the primary and we listened to them belt out all of the primary songs while the lady teaching taught us about how to best manage a home. I could not hear a word the entire time and Blair and I left with a headache. Sunday School was also interesting. I sat next to this really nice fella, Joseph. He just got back from a mission in South Africa. They got into a huge debate about whether all sins are equal and one guy insisted that you if you murder someone you can never ask for repentance and one guy was quoting some scriptures but I'm not sure it was exactly working for his argument. Sacrament meeting was fantastic though. I loved hearing Brother Coco speak. He talked about how Sister Grace and her friends were bringing all these blessings from Utah to them. We really have some expectations to live up to. I feel so blessed to be here, and they are closing the internet cafe so later.