"Jesus Loves Me" in Swahili

Want to see what Swahili looks like?  Here are the words to "Jesus Loves Me".

Anipenda ni kweli,

Mungu anena hili.

Sisi wake watoto,

Kutulinda si zito.

                             Chorus:  Yesu anipenda,

Yesu anipenda;

Kweli anipenda,

Mungu amesema.

Kwa kupenda akafa,

Kunikomboa mimi;

akazisafi taka,

Sana ataniweka.

Anipenda kabisa,

Niuguapo sasa;

Anitunza mbinguni,

Niliyelala chini.

Swahili vowels are pronounced like Spanish vowels, and the accent mark is always placed on the next to last syllable in a word.  R's are rolled. 

Swahili is such a beautiful language, especially in song.  I love to hear these people sing hymns about Christ and the Cross such as "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross", "Jesus Paid it All", and "At the Cross".

* Irish Chicken Stew today with homemade biscuits

Chocolate Crinkles

I had not had these yummy cookies since I was a kid, (my mom's recipe) so the other day, I decided to make some for my men.  They loved them, and Hubby very "subtly" hinted that these cookies could definitely come around again and again!  

Chocolate Crinkles
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 oz. unsweetened coco powder (1/2 cup)
3 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:
Mix together the sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients, and stir well.  Refrigerate for several hours.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet, and preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll dough into balls; then roll each ball in powdered sugar and place on cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10-12 minutes.  Remove before they really look done, but a toothpick still comes out clean.  This way they come out deliciously soft and moist.  And the dough does freeze well.  I put half of it in the freezer, and made more cookies another day.  Still yummy. 

A Cup of Chai

Personally, I've never been one to enjoy hot drinks on a regular basis . . . until I got to Kenya and tried their chai.  I was hooked.  Now I'd take a cup of Kenyan chai over a cup of hot chocolate (or coffee, yuk) any day.  Kenyans "take" chai twice a day, once in the morning at about 10:00 a.m. and again in the afternoon around 4:00 p.m.  Then they eat supper late at night around 8:00 p.m.

BJ drinks tea every day that he is home, sometimes two or three times throughout the day.  He has acclimated very well to this culture!  :)  I take tea when I actually have time to sit down and enjoy it.  That does not happen every day, of course.  However, during the school year, Seth and I make it a point to take a chai break between subjects around 10:00 a.m.  It is something he and I really look forward to!

Most Kenyans make their chai with ground up tea leaves.  It has better flavor that way, so I asked my friend, Kendi, to teach me how to make it that way.  Sometimes, though, I get in a hurry, and I make it quick with just a tea bag.  Either way, I love it!

So now let me tell you how to make it, and you can be Kenyan for a day!  It is easy and takes almost no time at all to make yourself a cup of chai.

I generally make two cups of chai at a time--for Seth and I.  BJ prefers his tea without milk so he prefers to make his own.

Here is chai for two the Kenyan way:

You need equal parts of milk and water--so 1 tea cup full of milk and 1 tea cup full of water.  Pour both into a small pan, and bring it to a boil.  Just as it boils add 1/2 teaspoon of tea grounds, and let it boil for a few minutes until it becomes a nice, light brown color.  The strength of the tea is purely up to you.  If you like strong tea, add a little more tea grounds, and let it boil longer.  If you don't like it strong, add less tea grounds and boil for less time.

While the tea is cooking, put two spoons of sugar in each tea cup (or however much sugar you like in tea).   

When the tea becomes the color (strength) that you want, pour it through a small strainer into the tea cups.  Give each a stir to mix the sugar in, and you have your tea! 

Now for the quick "mzungu" way:

Again, equal parts of milk and water.  So if you are making one cup of tea, fill your tea cup halfway with milk and halfway with water.  If you're making two cups, do as I described above.  Pour it into a pan, and bring it to a boil.  While that is heating up, place your sugar in the tea cup, as well as a tea bag.  I use a vanilla tea bag.  Yum!  When the milk/water boils, pour it over the tea bag into your cup.  Stir it up, and enjoy! 

Of course, we always try to have something on hand that goes good with chai like muffins, streusel bread, cinnamon rolls, scones, etc.  However, chai is even good all by itself.   Give it a try sometime!

Daddy Takes a Break from Study

 

 

I love my point and shoot camera.  I wouldn't even trade it for a bigger and better one.  It does not tolerate any movement, however, so getting a clear picture of Brina right now is nigh impossible.  If she is awake, she moves constantly.  I think she is exercising those muscles to be ready to crawl very soon.  She just recently accomplished sitting up by supporting herself with one hand.  I will try to get a picture of that soon.  For now, I wanted the grandparents to be able to see some of her expressions in these pictures.  She was having fun!

And here is our tiny, little girl practicing walking with Daddy.  Notice she is only as tall as his knee!

And I'm sure they want to see my other rugrat.  Here Seth was making snowmen . . . or are they mudmen?

 

Whatever they are, he made a "daddy" on the right, a "mommy" on the left and a whole passle of "kiddos" in between.   I think boys are drawn to mud like a magnet.  He was enjoying himself immensely.

* Tonight we are having Saucy Broccoli Chicken Bake.  I found the recipe for it here, and it has since become a family favorite.  

Avocados to My Heart's Content

I LOVE avocados!  When I look out my back door and see avocados galore hanging in my tree, I can't help but think of Psalm 37:4-5, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."

You see, when we were looking for a house in Nakuru, I thought to pray for a desire of my heart.  It was definitely not a requirement for the house we would move into, but I told the Lord it would be nice to have an avocado tree in my yard. 

After another house possibility fell through, God made it clear that this big, beautiful house was the house He had for us.  And then a couple of days after we moved in, I realized that that tree in my back yard was an avocado tree!

Then I really knew that this was MY house!  God did that just for me.  Needless to say, I am enjoying avocados whenever I want, and they taste SO good.  "Thank You, Lord."  He daily loadeth me with benefits.

* Tonight we are having BLT's, something simple and easy to cook after I get back from a ladies meeting at Grace.

Big Mac Sauce

BJ and I watched that Big Mac video several times scrutinizing the amounts, and this is what we came up with.  It is probably not the exact recipe, but it sure tasted good on our homemade hamburgers.  Here is our copycat recipe.

Big Mac Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/8 cup sweet pickle relish

1/2 Tablespoon mustard

3/4 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

* Notes:  It looked like he used about a cup of mayonnaise when he made it.  We didn't figure we needed that much sauce, so we estimated his amounts, then cut the recipe in half for our family.  It was the perfect amount for us.  Also, we cannot get sweet pickle relish here in Kenya, so I diced up some pickles (the pickles we have here are SOUR . . . like turn your mouth inside out SOUR), and then added enough sugar to make it taste similar to sweet pickle relish.  

We decided we will have homemade Big Macs from now on whenever we do hamburgers for supper! 

* Tonight Seth and I will have leftover beef enchiladas for supper.

Fun with KSL

I took some pictures Sunday night during KSL class.

BJ had given the students an assignment where they had to pair up, write a conversation, practice it together for a couple of weeks, and then get up and sign it in front of the class.  And they had to be videoed while doing it.  I felt for them because I remember having to do that in ASL class in Bible College at Oklahoma Baptist College.  It is not fun to be videoed, and it is nerve-racking to be up in front of your classmates, but it does helps you learn.  The class is fairly large.  BJ has about 25 students here at Grace.

They were all so nervous, but they were also having fun.  It is such a joy to see the desire in these people to learn sign language.

Everyone wanted to go first so they could get their conversation out of the way and then enjoy the rest of the show!  There was a lot of good-natured laughter going on but also a lot of support for their comrades.  I know exactly how they feel as I'm trying to learn Swahili.  I can converse in the language, but I am by no means fluent or even confident in it yet. 

Pastor Isaac (one of the assistant pastors) and another of the men in the church left yesterday afternoon for the Congo.  They will be there this month teaching and preaching in the church in Uvira, Congo.  After the service, people paired up to pray for them and for their families here and also to for Pastor Mike and Bro. Kosgei as they return from Congo at the end of the week.

I prayed with Naomi.  She prayed first.  I love to hear these Christians pray!  In my heart, I long to be able to talk to God with such ease as she does in Swahili.  However, I know it is not my first language.  Maybe someday I will get to that point.  For now, I haltingly prayed for my brothers and sisters in the Lord and for the work there in Uvira.

Here is Brina with Pastor Isaac's wife, Monica, and their little girl, Nyambu.  All of the little kids love holding her.  Unfortunately, Brina has found her index finger, and she loves to suck on it when she gets hungry or tired.  Here, my baby girl was quite sleepy!

* Tonight we are having Big Macs and homemade french fries.  BJ recently found this link for how to make a Big Mac at home.  Not being a McDonald's fan, I have high hopes that a homemade Big Mac will taste better than a real one!  It has to, right?  Everything is better homemade!

In My Kitchen

Today, I am again linking up to the Baptist Missionary Women blog, and we are doing posts about our kitchens!

I posted pictures of my kitchen when we "toured" my house, but I'll post a couple of them again for you.  I love my big, roomy kitchen.  It is a joy to cook in here.

   

 

As many of you probably know, cooking three meals a day on the mission field generally takes all day.  I try to cook hearty breakfasts most days.  Lunches are usually more simple--leftovers, sandwiches, salads, or veggies and dip.  Then about 3:30 every afternoon, I start working on supper preparations.  Almost everything is made from scratch, so, of course, each part of the meal takes a while to prepare.  On Sundays and Wednesdays, we have leftovers, so the day before I try to make a meal that heats up well for leftovers. 

These pictures are from one day a couple of weeks ago when I made King Ranch Chicken.  It was a new recipe that I found here, and it was a keeper.  We all liked it.  First of all, I chopped and prepared all my ingredients. 

I don't always do this ahead of time, but it is less hectic for me when I do because then I'm not having to scramble at the last minute to prepare an ingredient that I missed or forgot about.  I love it when things go smoothly in the kitchen.  (Unlike the other day when I manually juiced tons of lemons for lemonade, had almost a whole cup of lemon juice, and then sent it flying off the counter when my hand bumped it!  Grrrrrr!)

With the veggies sauteing, it is time to make homemade tortillas.

Occasionally, I see tortillas at the store, but I don't bother buying them because I enjoy making them from scratch.  In the above picture, I am using Kimbo, which is our version of Crisco here.  I have also seen Crisco at the store before, but it is much more expensive, and Kimbo works just as well. (By the way, we like our tortilla recipe.  My only issue with it is that they don't roll up quite as nicely as I would like.  If anyone has a recipe for tortillas that roll up well, I'd love to try it.)

 

Then comes putting it all together in my largest glass casserole dish.  

After 30 minutes in the oven, we all enjoyed Mexican food!  Drop my voice to a whisper.  Yes, it is a casserole, but that word happens to be a bad word in our house, so I just give each recipe a "BJ friendly" name, and everyone is happy!  This one I didn't have to rename, so that was a blessing!  

And oh, by the way, my oven/stove is gas.  It took a while for me to learn the settings on my gas oven, but I would definitely recommend a gas oven over an electric one to anyone living in Kenya or in any other country where electricity is not reliable.  When the electricity shuts off here, I can calmly continue with my supper preparations, and it saves me a ton of stress!  

Now to tackle that huge mound of dishes.  Ugh!  Do they make gas dishwashers??? 

* Garlic beef enchiladas tonight

New Clothespin Bag

Every time I hung out my clothes, the thought crossed my mind that I needed to make myself a clothespin bag.  I've been using a large ziploc bag for my clothespins, and I've gone through 3 of them.  (Ziplocs cost an arm and a leg here IF you can find them!)

I found many pictures and patterns online for clothespin bags, but as soon as I saw Joanne's quilted clothespin bag, I fell in love with it!  I knew immediately that it was the one I wanted to make.  So this is how I've been spending my "free time" the last couple of days, a few little stitches here and there.  I love how it turned out.  Those little clothes were so fun to applique on there.  Applique is not really my forte though, so I opted for as straight a lines as possible.  I still need more practice appliqueing around curves.

 

I made my own bias tape using this tutorial.  And since I did not have a wooden hanger, I just used one of the kids plastic hangers.  My clothespins are plastic so they are not real heavy anyway.

The bag holds all of my clothespins, and it got used it for the first time this morning.  It works great.

By the way, Joanne gives a good tutorial on how to make this bag, and she's even willing to answer any additional questions via e-mail.

I was also delighted to find her quilting blog Thread Head.  I love quilting!  I've made a couple of quilts (one while sitting in the car on deputation); I just don't have much time for huge projects like that right now.  There is always someday.  

 

Brina clutching her hippo

Every time I take her upstairs for a nap, we practice a little Swahili just for fun.  She is learning the Swahili word for bed, "kitanda", and as soon as she sees her bed, and I say Hippo, her eyes immediately start searching for that hippo.  He is her sleeping/playing buddy. 

 

* Breakfast:  Omelets and banana muffins

* Lunch:  Homemade corndogs

* Supper:  Baked potatoes and chicken Ceasar salads

My Summer Student

Warning:  Long Potty Post—READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I've been asked how the infant pottying is going.  Yes, two months into it, and we are still at it.  We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve kept at it.  One thing I have learned:  It takes commitment.  When I first started, I was committed to at least give it a try.  The further I got into it though, my commitment changed.  I became committed to see it through because I was/am not willing for the  alternative—two years of diapers and then a year long battle to untrain her in what I already trained her to do—go in her diaper.  That seems so counterproductive to me. 

A couple of weeks ago though, we hit a snag.  Nothing was working, and I got really discouraged.  We were missing almost every time, and I could not figure out why.  I seriously thought of quitting.  It would be so much more convenient to just leave her in diapers and try to forget about it.  The problem is I'm not too sure I could just forget about it this far into the game.   To be honest with you, it’s become more like a habit and a way of life for me, and I think it has for her too.  Inconvenient?  Most definitely.  But do I face the inconvenience of it now or later?  I still opt for now. 

In the midst of my discouragement, I bought this book.  It was not cheap, but I still had some birthday money someone had sent me several months ago.  BJ teased me about what I wanted to spend my birthday money on—a potty book!  Ornery man!  He is not the one making multiple trips up the stairs to the "special bathroom" losing more weight in the process!!!  (Which by the way, paid off!  She willingly goes anywhere I ask her to now so long as she actually needs to go.)  Anyway, I would definitely recommend that book.  It gave me the encouragement  I needed, and it also gave me some tips that I had not found anywhere else online.  As a disclaimer though, I must say that I don’t agree with everything in the book.  For instance, it “explains” why infant pottying works . . . “because of 200,000 thousand years of evolution”.  I just pushed those peas to the side of the plate!  

However, it did encourage me to keep at it, and in the book, I discovered what our recent problem had been.  When we were catching potties before, Brina was pretty regular every 40 minutes.  I got used to that, and we really had a system going.  Then the little stinker changed things up on me (not on purpose, of course).  As she got older, she was able to hold it longer (every hour to hour and 15 minutes).  I was still taking her every 40 minutes when she didn’t need to go.  This frustrated her.  Then we’d miss it every time, and that frustrated me!

I had to go back to square one.  When I again timed her potties, I found out that she was going every hour to hour and 15 minutes.  I started taking her potty at the right times, and it’s again working like a charm.  We are catching almost everything and only missing 3-4 times a day.  The misses do not bother me so long as we are getting somewhere.

In my reading and research on the matter, I learned that many babies signal when they need to go.  Some fuss, some wiggle, some get facial expressions right before they go.  Well, I’ve had a problem with that.  I just don’t see the signals if they are there.  I’ve concluded one of two things to be the case.  Either Brina does not signal for me, or I am just too blonde to see it!  (And I DON’T need any comments on that, dear family!)

So I am teaching her sign language.  Believe me, in a few more months, she will be able to signal when she needs to go!  Right now, I’m relying on timing mostly . . . and Mommy’s intuition. 

Intuition?  I read about that too, and that didn’t seem to work for me either.  Therefore, I was pretty skeptical about the whole premonition thing.  However, now after two months, amazingly, I am finding that there IS something to that!  I’m not sure if it’s just that by this time I know my baby pretty well or what.  But it is happening more and more that all of a sudden I’ll get a funny feeling that she needs to go, and when I take her, she goes immediately!  Pretty amazing.

We are even pottying at night now.  She usually wakes me up one time in the middle of the night to nurse, and I take her then too.  She goes for me nearly every time if I hear her cry and take her in time.  A small challenge is that she sleeps in her own room, so it takes me a minute to get to her and get her in position at the potty.  But that is okay.  We win some and we lose some.  

By the way, I had to modify the classic potty position just a little.  Brina feels more comfortable and secure in this position . . .

 . . . than in this one.  

From the get-go, she flatly refused to potty in this position.

Lastly, whenever I need more encouragement, I call my Grandma.  She had her children trained (to hold it until taken potty) and out of diapers at nine months old.  People thought my grandma was crazy too, but how can one argue with it when it works?

* Leftovers before church tonight

Ngala Secondary School

After the primary school Bible Club, we walked over to the secondary school for our second Bible class.

Seth had a great time!

I was so proud of BJ's KSL students as most of them went out of their way to meet and talk with the Deaf.

They are very new in sign language, and it is scary trying to communicate in a language you barely know.

 

Notice how he fits right in--my little missionary.

Some of the KSL students are still shy and in the background, but many of them are overcoming their fear by getting out among the Deaf and signing the best they can.  And it means the world to these deaf young people to have 15 people show up at their school who can and want to talk with them. 

 

Brina was once again the star of the show.  This girl loved her to pieces!

Brina didn't mind a bit.  She let them pass her all around the room.  Even some of the young men wanted a turn holding her!

Can you find Brina in this picture?

There were 52 secondary students in this Bible club.

BJ is still teaching the story of Adam and Eve bringing out simple spiritual truths that these Deaf have probably never even heard one time.  He feels that he could probably teach them for two hours straight, and they wouldn't mind!

Here I am again doing my family introduction.  BJ teased me when I didn't introduce him too! 

The KSL students watching while BJ taught the lesson

After a while, Brina got REALLY sleepy.  Carol (Mrs. Oloo) finally ended up with her, and it wasn't long until . . .

"It's nap time, Mommy."

She lost the battle.

* 15 bean soup and chapati

STUCK!

Ah, life in Africa is never dull!  Torrential rain = huge mud puddles.  Huge mud puddles = the church van gets stuck.  Really stuck.  Needless to say, Brina and I had an interesting morning on the way to church today.

Bro. Oscar came to pick us up.  Everything was going fine until we came to this bend in the road.  The van went into the mud and did not come out for 45 minutes!

Oscar tried for about 20 minutes to drive it out of there, but all we were doing was digging a deeper hole. So we set off on foot.  We decided to walk to church which was fine with me too.  I've done that many times in my life.

 

We had not walked far though before Oscar began wondering if it was wise to leave the van there without someone to watch it.  So we turned around to try again.  

By this time, several men had gathered and with their combined strength and many tries, they finally pushed the van out of the hole.  

In the meantime, Brina and I had made friends with these boys on the side of the road.

Hey, it's still a good day, and I still love rain!  Never a dull moment.

* Tuna Melts

Torrential Downpour

During BJ's Bible lesson at the secondary school on Saturday (post coming soon), the rain poured down.  It was probably the heaviest rain we've seen here.  The blessing is when you are teaching in sign language, the noise of the rain on the tin roof does not interfere with class at all.

When we drove home though, I was amazed at the water flowing over the road.  The road looked like a river.  This white car was stuck.

 

One thing I've learned about Kenya--It either rains A LOT or it doesn't rain at all.  

 

I love the rain though.  I hope it stays around as long as possible.