I will be leaving in 5 hours for my trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. I don't think I'll be able to make any updates while I'm there, so this will have to do for a while.

We're leaving Nairobi at 7:30 tonight, traveling by bus to Kampala, Uganda. We arrive in Kampala at 9 a.m. then we have a 30 minute stop break, then back on the bus for another trip to Kigali, Rwanda. We arrive in Kigali at about 5 in the afternoon. We're staying with some people for the day in Rwanda and we will get to see the city and go to the genocide memorial. Then on another bus to the D.R.C. I don't remember the names of the towns/cities that I'll be in, in DRC but they're somewhat close to the eastern border. Pretty far from the capital where the unrest is. I'm making sure to leave my viva la Bemba shirt at home.

I'll be in one city for a week doing a Community Health Evangelism training, then we go on a 8 hour boat ride to another city for another week long training.

Michael Shepherd, one of my classmates from Hope is going on this trip with me and we're both excited for all that we're going to see and experience. We're hoping to see Pygmies and eat monkeys.

Please pray for the safety and everything to work out well for this trip.

I had a little run in with a bee the other day. Last Saturday I decided to go for a walk. I decided to walk barefoot, which turned out to be a very bad idea because the street became very hot for the 80% of the walk that wasn’t in the shade. I returned after my one mile trek on hot, rock asphalt with blisters all over my feet. I’m a moron and I’ll never do it again! Yet that wasn’t the most exciting part of the walk.

I was the only person on the street except for a man who was a long distance ahead of me but was walking towards me. I wasn’t far from the house when I heard a loud buzzing right above my head. I kenw it was bees but I was sure they would fly on by…but they didn’t. I knew they were going to attack soon and I wanted to make the first move so I started swatting around my head. As soon as I started doing this two comedians instantly came into my head, Dane Cook, with his stand-up routine about the killer bees, and Brian Reagan with his routine about walking into a spider web or being chased by a bee. So as I’m trying to defend myself from these bees I’m also embarrassed because I know this guy ahead of me is thinking, “Hey, is that guy waving to me? Wait, what is he doing? He’s going crazy just flailing his arms in the air and spinning around and hitting his head!” In the meantime, NOOOOOO!!! as the first bee stings me on the right earlobe and I continue going crazy because the buzzing is still very loud around me. Finally it ends and I continue on my walk along the street. Soon I encountered the man who had witnessed the mayhem and he asked, “Are you having a problem?” I said, “Yeah, some bees were attacking me back there, but don’t worry, I punched every one of them in the face!”

I’ve decided to put another entertaining update on here. I’m going to include another entry out of my journal for you to enjoy. It is another matatu experience.

March 1, 2007

“I think that one day I may write a small book on all of my matatu experiences. The again, it may end up being a rather large book.

This time it was a Monday and I didn’t arrive to my matatu line until about 6 p.m. The air temperature had cooled down a lot from Uhuru Park to where I was now and I could tell it was going to rain sometime soon. The first sprinkles started after being in line for about ten minutes; the line held fast. As soon as the drops became a little bigger, bam, the line cut to less than half its original size. People scatter in all directions, running to find cover—while the braver ones (or stupider ones) moved up in the line. I was having a great time—I had moved from near the back of the line to a position where I could get on the fifth or sixth matatu that came, and I was loving the rain since we don’t get to experience it too often in Fullerton. And I continued enjoying it, until thirty minutes had passed, only two matatus had come, and the downpour didn’t seem to be letting up. Then, after an hour had passed by I was standing I a puddle with my soaking clothes clinging to my body, I was thinking, “Hmmmm…I guess it might not have been that bad of an idea to run for shelter as soon as the monsoon began.”

Finally my turn came and the matatu pulled up beside us and the conductor attempted to open the sliding door, but it would only open about six inches. This was unbelievable; we had waited to get out of the rain for an hour and a half and finally when it was our turn our dreams were suddenly shattered by a broken door. But our hopes were revived again when the conductore reached through the window and managed to get the door unstuck. We loaded up and began to back up while the conductor slammed the door shut, Bam! It slid back open, Bam! It slid back open again, Bam! OK! There’s no way that door’s going to shut! So we left in the rain with the conductor holding the door shut. As I glanced to my left I realized, “No wonder the door won’t work, it looks like this little Nissan was t-boned right where the door slides back and it looks like someone just beat the doorpost back out with a sledge hammer and slapped some body-putty on the spot to smooth things out.” Seriously, is body-putty on the inside of vehicles a common practice?”

I seem to be continually apologizing for not being very good at keeping everyone updated through my blog. And again I say I'm sorry. Life has been really hectic and internet access continues to be limited.

Things are going well. Last week I spent the majority of my time in front of the computer. A school in Mathare is implementing a new child sponsorship program and I was given the task of making the profiles of 400 new students. The children's information was collected by the social workers, then it was given to me to input into a database and then merged into individual profiles with pictures. It was an arduous process, but it is finally completed. We celebrated at the end of the week with some Nyama Choma (barbecued meats). We were celebrating the work being done and we were celebrating the lift of the ban on meats due to the Rift Valley fever. It was very nice to finally eat some meat rather than just beans and greens.

Exciting news! I am going to get to take a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in a couple of weeks! We are traveling to the DRC to hold a Community Health Evangelism training (CHE).

I am experiencing much and I am getting much experience; therefore, the internship is working out wonderfully!