Monday June 25th

Okay, so I wish I could tell you that whatever I was sick with was just some 24 hour bug, and that I woke up on Monday feeling marvelous. However, that would be lying because I was up all Sunday night, and still had a horrible fever and was still very sick on Monday. I was so glad that Monday was our day off. On Tuesday we were leaving to stay with the Massai people, which would be hard work and very uncomfortable, so Monday was time for a little R&R. We were going to go to a Giraffe house and an animal orphanage, but I couldn't even eat or drink without getting sick so I was leaning towards staying home. However, I decided that it would be a relaxing day either way and giraffes are my favorite animal so I might as well go.I remembered when Lance got really sick in Iraq and had to keep going out on missions, so I figured that if he could fight in 142 degrees being that sick, then I could go stare at animals.

We only stayed at the Giraffe house for 2o minutes or so. First we got to feed the giraffes, and by feed I mean kiss. Giraffes eat acacia trees which have huge four inch thorns on them, so their saliva is antibacterial to heal the cuts in their mouths. This being said, we held the giraffe food with our mouths and let them lick away. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Then we listened to a guy talk about the three different kinds of giraffes and where they live and what makes them unique. I wish I could tell you what he actually said, but I could hardly listen and was concentrating too hard on not falling asleep. I did enjoy petting and feeding the giraffes though. God is so creative isn't he? Giraffes are just so....strange.

We were going to spend the rest of the day at an animal orphanage, but we were all pretty exhausted and our matatu drivers knew of an elephant orphanage nearby. We decided to go there instead of the animal orphanage. By the time we got to the elephant orphanage there was only about 10 minutes left before they put the elephants away. We saw quite a few baby elephants there and were able to pet them and watch them play soccer! This was the first time we had seen other white people in Kenya (besides some of the missionaries we had been working with) and we almost felt out of place!

After a couple minutes the elephants left and we decided to go back to Ramsey and Vickey's (a missionary couple's) house and hang out. It turns out that Vicky, the missionary who lives there, was sick with whatever I had and had spent all Monday morning in the hospital! She had just got home before we came over. We started watching the Jonah Veggie Tales movie, but I fell asleep within two minutes, I didn't wake up until the credits were rolling! Up until that point I had not slept for that long of a period of time since we had arrived in Kenya! The rest of my team ate dinner there and we were able to meet one of the missionary's husband, Vincent. Vincent is Kenyan and he married a girl from San Luis Obispo named Andrea. Andrea is from Calvary SLO and has been living in Kenya for a few years. They are the couple whose wedding picture was in the Tribune on New Year's Day this year after they got married in Avila. Vincent is hands down the funniest guy I have ever met. You know those people who don't look like they will be funny, so you don't ever know when they are joking? That's Vincent. I believed whatever he said because he was so serious about it. He enjoyed taking advantage of my gullibility (is that a word?) and was ruthless to me for the rest of the trip, but he was so fun. I loved Andrea and Vincent and would love to go back and stay with them for awhile. We were able to work with Andrea's ministry later on in the trip (which I will eventually get around to blogging about).

We had to leave the Vule's house somewhat early because we weren't really supposed to be out after dark (for safety reasons). Monday night was a particularly bad night for me, but it was a blessing that I had my own little room to be sick in and didn't have to wake people up all night. I was bummed because I wanted to sleep well before we went to the Massai the next day. However, like always, God used my non-sleeping time to teach me what I needed to learn. I was looking up some of the verses that have helped me through all my surgeries and trials the last three years, and was reading in 2 Corinthians (2 Cor. is a must-read when you are suffering. Chapter 12:9&10 especially) but I came across these verses: "For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had recieved the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:8&9) Now of course a fever and throwing up every half hour does not lead to despairing life itself, and I am not saying that that is how I felt, however, it can get rather draining after two days. So as I sat on my bed with a trash can and my Bible, I realized that this was so exciting! Here I was in a third world country, serving the Lord, and there was no way I could possibly rely on my own strength the next few days. At home I have to rely on God to get through the pain caused by my leg each day, but now I would have to rely on God for, well.... everything. The next few days I would not only be in pain, but I would have to eat anything the Massai ladies made for me, no matter how sick I was. I would be without any form of comfort whatsoever; no bed to go lay down in, no shade to rest in, no anything. I would be two and a half hours away from any medical care if I needed it, and I would have to be serving and showing God's love to a group of people that I could not even communicate with (the massai people speak their own tribal language, not Swahili which we had been learning the whole time). The fever had taken every last ounce of energy I had left and I could hardly lift my head I was so sick, so there was absolutely no way I could possibly get through the week on my own strength. And to be quite honest, that is the very best place to be. With that I closed my eyes just in time to hear Deborah walking down the hall to come wake me up for the day.