Cultural Adjustments

Tues, Dec 28th, we will begin our journey back to Kenya. We will begin at LAX in the afternoon, and reach our home in the village on Fri night. From Los Angeles we will fly directly to London, where we have a 23hr layover. Then we continue on to Nairobi where we will spend the first night. Finally on the 31st we will travel by road to our home.

As I begin to mentally prepare for the journey I'm reminded of some of the little differences that always take some getting adjusted too. At first they came as a surprise on re-entering the USA, but now we get to do the reverse on our return to Kenya. Here are just a few that come to mind right away.

1. Re-Packing my Purse: In Kenya I always carry the following in my purse: toilet paper, hand sanitizer, flash-light, and small umbrella.
2. Crossing the Street: In Kenya we drive on the left side of the road (as opposed to the USA where we drive on the correct, ahem, right side of the road. It should also be noted that pedestrians in Kenya do not have the right of way. This has resulted in me nearly running some people down when I first get back to America, and then nearly being run down myself when I first return to Kenya.
3. Weather: Glorious, year-round, 12-hour days and beautiful weather in Kenya! Since being in the USA we have experienced temps that ranged from below freezing, to 114.
4. Roads/Traffic: William and I were commenting yesterday that we should be thoroughly enjoying our final days of CA driving. I think I would need an entire blog-entry to begin to explain the craziness of driving Kenya.
5. Food Prep: Here we have so many fast and easy choices. In Kenya you pretty much need to make everything you eat from scratch. This generally does result in a healthier diet though. So there is an up and a down to that one.
6. Mosquito Net: When I first arrive in the US it is so strange to be sleeping without a net. Now I get to readjust to life under the net again!
   

One thing that I have found to be universal is our humanity. No matter what color our skin is, or which language we speak, we all have so many things in common. We laugh, we love, we cry, we are human!

Wrapping Up

Jambo from California! Yes, we are still in the USA. We are wrapping things up and preparing to head back to Kenya in two weeks. Our time here has been extremely productive and we both feel so very blessed.

I've been able to take two courses while here. One for obstetrical ultrasound, and one for colposcopy (an advanced form of women's health-care). I have learned so many new things that I'm excited to take back to the clinic. I really can't even begin to describe how amazing these classes were and how beneficial they are going to be to the work in Kipkaren!

William just got back from a 5-day agricultural convention and symposium in Florida. He was blown-away by the material and the networking that took place. Delegates from literally all over the world attended and shared what they are doing to use agriculture to sustainably feed the poor in their parts of the world. He is also returning to Kenya with new ideas and strategies in mind.

As we wrap up and prepare to head back to Kenya we are going to be sending out our new prayer cards. It's been quite a while since we actually sent out a physical mailing but we want to do so to get the new cards out. If you want a prayer card can you please make sure that we have your most up-to-date address? You can e-mail it to me at michellekiprop@empoweringlives.org

I'll try to be back up on the blog soon with some more pictures and stories about our time here as well as our plans for implementing what we have learned when we return to Kenya.