We are still in Africa...Happiness

Friends, family, country men (and woman so we are not gender specific),

Firstly I would like to say that Becca and I have been blessed time and time again here in Kenya. This experience has not only provided wonderful hands on training/experience in our calling to the mission field, we have been blessed with wonderful relationships and amazing ministry opportunities. There are not words to describe the awesome work that God had done in our lives in the past eight weeks. I can only say that God is good, He is great, He is amazing and He is so caring.

It is hard to believe that we only have five short weeks left before we return back to the US. In the past eight our classes have gone on great. Our student have responded well with msungu (after three blog posts I finally got the spelling correct) teachers, learning what I pray is lots. I cannot always tell because Kenyans pretty much will always tell you that you are doing a good job. However, I do see improvements in writing in my students, so something I’m telling them is sticking. No matter what, both Becca and I are experiencing a lot in teaching cross-culturally. Learning not only from our teaching experiences, but also from our students and various interactions with other Kenyans.

Sunday marked our last CMIA (Christian Ministry in Action) in which we accompanied two students at KIST to one of the local churches they serve at. We had been contributing at the church in a number of ways. We taught Sunday school (with translation help), Becca preached (with translation help), and we did many prayers for various parts of different services. Upon our first arrival at Musitinyi Church of God we were ushered into the responsibility of lay pastors. I have to say it was different sitting in front of the entire congregation for the duration of the service being watched like a goldfish in a fishbowl. The experiences were great, the ministry was great and the relationships that we formed at the church will go with us forever. Side note, Ugali a corn flour tasteless mashed potato like concoction; the stable of the Kenyan diet is in small part quite low on the yummy factor. However, through Samuel’s (a student of mine and one of the students that we accompanied to the church) pestering and encouragement has grown on Becca and I. I can proudly say that we are now eating a respectable amount by Kenyan standards. It was a little hairy at the start, (oh how Kenyans enjoy laughing at msungus) but we have survived and the Ugali now goes down without any hitches. Oh and anyone related to me back in the US (meaning Shrout’s and Hodges’) you will get to partake in the white Kenyan sensation soon enough upon our first visit to Oregon.

It was a sad day when we left the church for the last time. I was told everyone was pleading for us to come back, although I speak little Swahili and even less of the local tribal language so I cannot confirm this. We said our goodbyes, left and are already missing the church staff, our students and the congregation. I am just glad we did not have to say goodbye to Samuel and Harriet (the other student we accompany) that day too. We will be savoring our last few weeks with our students, the staff and especially our missionary friends knowing that we will soon be leaving them.

With this writer about to shed a tear I am moving on and will attempt to describe the major happening of day to day life for the past couple weeks here at KIST. As I posted in the previous blog, February is the dry season and as a result our house ran out of water. Thank you for all of your prayers because I can report that we have been getting the occasional small rainstorm. However, it was not until a few days ago that we were able to enjoy the comforts of indoor plumbing within our own home. As part of the water tank drying up, our water pump dried up and worked its self to death and well it died. Due to this issue our home was without water for two and a half weeks. No showers, no toilets, no nothing. However, such an inconvenience did not stop the Hodges family from going on with life. No, we did not go that long without a shower or using a working toilet, in case you were wondering. I definitely got a little hairy in the face region from lack of shaving, but all the other water needs were taken care of. Buckets of water were brought into our home to flush the toilets with and to do the dishes. We walked over to the empty mission house and showered, all and all it was really not a big deal. Although inconvenient, lacking indoor plumbing in the house did not really faze Becca or I. We take these things for granted back in the US, but truthfully one does not have to have such things. Thank you Jeff and Jeremiah for all of the headaches surrounding our water, Becca and I really appreciate everything that you did and have done for us. It was truly wonderful to take a shower in our own home for the first time in a while yesterday. In the coming weeks we will be leaving the dry season for a wetter season in which rain should be much more prevalent, so the water issue should be behind us.

While on the topic of broken household appliances, our refrigerator has been another inconvenience that we have faced off and on for about a month (3^rd week of January-2^nd week of February). This issue was fixed about a few days after my last post, but is note worthy. Long story short, our fridge died, we moved our food to another house and it worked again so we moved everything back. It died a second time, and this time it found its self in the refrigerator graveyard and we moved our food a second time. Another fridge was moved to our place and we have had our food in our home ever since then. Once again minor inconvenience, but I wanted to mention this because once again we saw gracious help from Jeremiah and the missionaries here at KIST. They are all wonderful people, and have made our time here great.

It has been a few posts since I last updated you all on the war against the terrorist organization known as APP (Annoying Pest Population). What I once labeled as an invasion force has since employed gorilla tactics, hence their down grade to a terrorist cell. Although there forces have been reduced because of timely release of chemical weapons, like many terrorist organizations they have cells that pop up all over the place. Similar to Alkida in the Afghanistan Mountains one such cell as created a tunnel network in our front door covering. I say in, because they are wood burrowing bees (the size of Voltzwagens) and at one point burrowed an extensive tunnel network through the rafters and trusses. There are pictures of the tunnel openings and one of the bees on Becca’s Facebook. To fight back the bees I was forced to use the majority of an entire can of Doom. The sheer size of the little pests, and their ability to hide and maneuver around in their tunnels made it quite a tricky task to kill them. Upon multiple sprays into the holes most of them flew out of the tunnels. All in all I think I only killed two of the seven that I have seen at any one time. It was quite interesting however to hear them buzz at one another during the process. I am completely convinced that buzz means, “Hey there is a crazy giant coming to kill us, fly away!!!!!!!!!” I almost felt bad for the two who died because I could here them stuck inside the wood buzzing in agony as the poison slowly did its job. Since the “spraying of the bees,” a have only seen one or two of them, however, I have no idea how many are left. Until I sprayed I did not actually see that many at any one given time.

Well I have so much more to share, but must get on with working on the faculty development that Becca and I will be leading this Friday. As always thank you for your prayers for KIST and us. You have truly blessed us here. I look forward to sharing many more stories with everyone soon.

Love from your friends in Kenya,

Ryan (The Bug Assassin) Hodges and Rebecca who is teaching right now

More Hodges Life in Kenya

Hello blog followers,

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for Becca and I. I want to start out by asking additional prayer for many of the students, staff and faculty here at KIST. Malaria seems to be hitting quite a few of them and I would just ask for prayer for healing and for their families who worry for them. Secondly the dry season is wreaking havoc on KIST. Yesterday our home ran out of water and we were told that the city probably wouldn’t send KIST water for several more days. The Deputy Principle had water pumped from his tank to our tank so we now have water but it is becoming a scary situation all over the campus. SO Please, please, please pray for rain here. Normally the dry season ends by March, but pray we get good rain sooner for the crops that we cannot water as well as water for the houses, dorms and kitchen. Finally, prayer for the school in general would be wonderful as well.

This past Sunday Becca and I started attending Christian Ministry In Action (CMIA) with two students here at KIST. The students on Sundays are required to go out and help in some ministry capacity at the local churches around the area and Becca and I are going with two students to one of the local churches and help in any way as well. It is about a kilometer walk from KIST. We had a great time this past Sunday. Becca helped the female student with teaching Sunday school for elementary students, while I helped the male student with Sunday school for junior highers. It went great but I was not prepared to be put on the spot to teach a Bible lesson. Thank goodness the topic was youth leadership so I could quickly read 1 Timothy 4:12 and discuss how it tells youth not to let anyone to look down upon them for their age but to be leaders. Side not of humor…As customary after the service the church leaders fed us some food and Chi. This was great because it was about five hours since breakfast. However, hospitality is huge in Kenya so despite my several attempts at telling the hostess that I was full, the hostess filled and refilled my mug until Chi was coming out of my ears (ok not literally). Thank you Dr. Hawkins and Lisa for showing me a cultural way of saying I am satisfied so that I don’t walk home Chi and groundnut logged again. These are the two big updates on what is taking places in our ministry/internship portion of our time here at KIST, Becca and I pray and look forward to see how the remainder of God’s plan for us unfolds for the last month and a half for us here.

General Happening and Life:

Not much to report about this portion of our experience here in Kenya. I did discover that if you do not keep up with causing DOOM to the ant colony that live in our walls they will try to stage a cue and invade with what I consider to be the largest invasion force in bug history. Norman, one of our house lizards was keeping the tiny little sweethearts at bay until last week when I discovered the living room just caked (I mean lines of ants all over the walls). For better understanding of the ants find the pictures Becca posted on facebook and you will see how I spent an afternoon last week raining (or should I say spraying) destruction…DOOOOOOOOOM down upon our wall ants, mwahahaha (dastardly evil laugh). The bugs are truly harmless, but the boy in side of me comes out when causing ant genocide and it is a great form of cheap entertainment. Maybe that is a little creepy but has become a part of life.

I began a journal last week which I have titled “Reasons to laugh at a Musungu.” (Translated to reasons to laugh at the weird white man). I am saving this journal for story telling when Becca and I return home, however, I can give you a flavor of what it includes. It has Topics such as: Sneezing in front of the church when the pastor starts praying, Bugzilla landing on your head freak out dance, chalk handprints on your butt (and no not Becca’s hand prints my own thank you very much...gosh perverts), the white man can’t tell the difference between a Kenyan avocado and passion fruit. These titles do not sound very entertaining but come with hilarious stories, believe me. These are only a taste of the humor a tall musungu brings to Kenya.

Alas I must start helping Becca cook dinner (although I keep telling her its culturally weird for a man to cook and thus shouldn’t). We are having a much-needed stay at home date night tonight. I somehow allowed her to con me into this three days before valentines day in which we will be having another one (ok, so yeah she fluttered her eye and used her girly voice and I caved. What can I say but married me can be weak sometimes). I pray that all of you are doing well back home and Becca and I look forward to talking to you when we return.

Adios (Until the next installment of Ryan and Rebecca in Kenya) Love from,

Ryan (and Rebecca who is baking me a make up birthday cake…she insisted because on my birthday she used a Kenya cake mix to bake one and it was disgusting. This one is hand made from scratch…I truly am the luckiest man ever to have such an amazing wife)

Life, Ministry, and Bugs...the African Way

Thank you all for your continued prayers and financial support.

Well faithful blog readers, I just want to apologize for taking nearly two weeks to post this blog but life in Kenya has become much more busy with classes in full stride, Becca and I creating and teaching professional developments, creating curriculum for a future course offered here at KIST, internship homework, homework for our TESOL in Ministry course and discipleship groups. My goal is to in the future post weekly, but I may fall short a few weeks.

Firstly, teaching is going great for both Becca and I. The fourth week of classes just ended and our students are doing well. No major crises thus far and I look forward to seeing future progress in learning. To all of you teachers our there, you know how wonderful it is to see your students learn and succeed in your classrooms. Teaching has been slightly difficult due to the available resources, but that has not stopped learning at all. Please pray for continued guidance in teaching as well as students who are still ready to learn as the term continues on.

This past Wednesday Becca and I created and taught our first ever faculty professional development. I will be honest and say that both Becca and I were nervous as anyone usually is when they teach their colleagues in front of the entire administration. From what I have been told, it went well with lots of positive feed back about what we taught and how we did. I guess if you get compliments from the Principle and Academic Dean you did something right. We have three more that we are leading while we are here so pray for continued success.

The Principal and Academic Dean asked Becca and I to create an entire curriculum for an introduction course to college. This was a requirement passed down from Global University (the US university that KIST is associated with), which was passed on to us since we have the most experience in creating lessons and curriculum. This will be a large amount of work in addition to all of our other responsibilities here at KIST. We feel honored to have such responsibilities while here and know we can accomplish it all but we do ask for your prayers in accomplishing this and our other duties in our last two months here.

Now for some home life, general life and really anything else that does not fall into the category of work and or ministry…

Where to start? In addition to teaching and being here at KIST, Kenya is amazing; the people are so nice, the landscape is beautiful and the weather stays between 75 to 85 most of the time.

Well I better report that we had a successful campaign against all things that are cockroach. I have not laid eyes upon a living or preferred dead roach in about a week. The poison did its job admirably and upon any future invasions of my home by the pesky menaces I will quickly deploy the poison once again…mwahahaha (sinister laugh). However, we do have other creatures living in our home such as the colony of ants that live in our walls. Why don’t we kill them you ask? Well we cause DOOM upon them once or twice a week (DOOM is the insect killer that is common to Kenya), however, after a few days they return and we watch them scurry up and down our walls once again. I don’t know what your definition of doom is, but doom to me means death! Destruction! Eradication! Ant mass murder! Extreme happiness of humans, oh and did I mention death!!!!! Not, hey a few ants die; they are gone for a few days and then its back to same old, same old. Oh well, ants are ants and they are not that harmful, just pesky. Although on a side note about the ants, we do have two lizards living in the house as well affectionately know as Baby lizard (cuz yeah, he is a baby) and Norman. We find both in random places in the house, but it is always entertaining to see Norman launch out his tongue and eat one of the ants.

Anyways enough about bugs and lizards, well probably for now anyways (I have a few wood burrowing bee stories as well as spider stories). On a more serious note, if you are currently experiencing rain and would prefer sunshine please ask the Lord to switch weather with us. Kenya needs rain for cops and house water supply. It is the dry season here in Kenya and each day past without rain our water tanks cry just a little more about how empty they are (side note, for sake of smell, pray that we get rain soon so we don’t have to start skipping showers and reducing toilet flushing. We are not close to this point yet, but the dry season does not end until March and I fear it might be a smelly February).

About 30-45 minutes away from KIST there is a restaurant and resort called Kaboko Bay. We were taken to the restaurant for dinner twice and its pretty much super beautiful there. The restaurant sits on the bay of Lake Victoria (second largest lake in the world) and the landscape is just spectacular. Seating is outdoors, which gives you the picture of eating your dinner under perfect blue skies, palm trees and flowers everywhere and the lake off in the distance. There is only one tricky part to this restaurant. Kaboko in Swahili means hippo, so it is called Hippo Bay. This is on account to the hippos that roam around the bay and resort, or at least so I’m told. Hippo Bay has been hippoless which is sad because Becca and I really want to post pictures of the wildlife and the hippos have been a no-show.

At long last I must stop being distracted from my TESOL in Ministry homework and stop writing. It probably doesn’t come soon enough; I hope I didn’t put anyone to sleep at this point. Once again thank you all for all that you have done for us.

In poor attempts of making fun of Ryan Seacrest,

Hodges out 

At Taste of our New Home

It is the beginning of our third week at KIST here in Kenya. Becca and I are doing well emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. Each day has been a blessing of knew information and experiences. I am writing this as Becca is preparing to teach her first lesson of this week. One week of teaching has passed and both her and I are settling into our teaching rolls here at KIST. So far they have been great. The classes are small which has been a great blessing in comparison to teaching back in the states. Our students are equally great; thriving to learn and equally thriving to teach us more African culture. Relationship building is possibly one of the greatest attributes to African culture, each and every day we are greeted with open arms and love. In addition to classes starting last week, discipleship groups started as well. A group of students (7-10) are grouped together with mentors (faculty and staff) to discuss varying topics about theology, the Bible, culture and any amounts of life’s issues and or blessing. We meat every Wednesday, and although we have only had one meeting both Becca and I have come away fulfilled and enriched in the small communities that our two discipleship groups have formed. I look forward to this time, in which we can really dig deep in relationship with our groups and discuss the Lord and share our hearts with one another. These are the new developments in the ministry, academic and professional portions of our internship here at KIST.

Now on a much less serious note, let me update you on the various nuances of life and daily activity for Becca and I here in Kenya. Firstly, I shall note that I am winning the war against the evil empire know as the cockroach invaders. The nasty little buggies (side note freaked Becca out finding one in the shower, although dead…lol) invade our home here in Kenya on a regular basis. My first military campaign against the invaders saw a smashing victory with the death toll of seven roaches in two days from the help of a large size 13 sandal. This is an old stand by tactic that I learned in previous skirmished against these evil foes back in the states. We recently have employed chemical warfare tactics introducing a roach paste in the evenings seeing dramatic results. As of now we are only finding dead roaches in the house. Becca as a result has become much happier at night, no longer worried to find any of the enemy in our bed. I am glad to announce the war has tipped in our favor and I see victory in sight soon.

Oh to a much more important topic, experiencing Gods amazing beauty. To all of you; if you ever have the chance to come to Kenya, do so. Seeing God’s beauty in nature here is breath taking each and every day. Upon our first day driving through the packed capital of Nairobi in the distance we witnessed Giraffes a half mile from the highway. It is wondrous to know there is a national park in the heart of the city of over a million filled with all manner of wildlife found in the Lion King movie. This is only for starters however, the plant life and animal life throughout everywhere we have been thus far is phenomenal. God is a true master painter when he painted the landscape and created the animals of Africa. I cannot give justice to this place and only hope that we get decent pictures to share with all upon our return.

More news! My birthday is coming close on January 21, 2012. As a result Becca and I had our first experience in the local curio market (market in which locals sell handcrafted African goods…more bombart you with deals and offers until you finally give in and buy something) because she insists that she must celebrate my birthday despite my never ending attempts to point out that the 21^st of January is just another ordinary day. The curio market thus is the site in which she decided to purchase a birthday present. Once again I am very apprehensive about this because I do not want to celebrate my birthday, however I am now struggling to do so since she purchased me an African Tribal Spear and I must admit its pretty much bomb.com. Yes fokes, I said bomb.com. I am a product of the 90’s so I am entitled to a 90’s flashback or two even in my blogs. To all of you mockers out there, God loves me just the same if my lingo is not hip and up to date all of the time. Anyways this spear is amazing, but sadly is wrapped up and won’t actually get to be enjoyed until our return back to the states. I dare say I love it, however Becca will read this and take it as a sign that I do in fact want to celebrate my birthday. “Oh and dear, no I do not, but thank you so much for the gift, the spear is awesome.” Anyways the curio market is crazy. Rows of Dukas (not sure on the spelling, which are little covered areas full of handcrafted amazing stuff) lined through a small little area that maze around to the point that I am not actually sure one begins and the next ends. I am only certain however that they were designed this way so that the sales person can corner you and offer you different deals until you cave. However, caving brings zero relief because before you can finish the okay or yes they are already trying to convince you to purchase something else. All in all, it’s quite an exhausting experience but a great place to save money on beautifully ornate handcrafted stuff. Stuff is the best term for description because there are thousands of soapstone carving, woodcarvings, beautiful fabrics, handcrafted baskets, bowls etc, etc, and etc.

I must quit typing now because I fear I have written too much and have lost many of you already due to the shear length of this blog. Sorry that I have only gone into little detail about the ministry that we have been apart of so far here at KIST, but as the days continue and we encounter more I pray that I will finally be able to do justice to what our experiences here are like. Know that God has blessed us with our internship here and that he is doing amazing things here in Kenya. To all that are reading this, Becca and I miss you and love you. Thank you all for your prayers and financial support you have been a true blessing in our lives.

Signing of,

Your Brother in Christ near the Jungles of Africa,

Ryan

First few days at KIST

Hey all! Greetings from KIST. I hope you are all doing great and are enjoying the last bit of Christmas vacation you have left. Those of you in Oregon, I think you may have already returned school and work, but I am not sure. We have arrived safely here at KIST and thus far are greatly enjoying our time. Our flights were good and with no complications. The longest one was only 8 hours, which is great given the fact we have traveled over 8 time zones. Adjusting to Kenyan time has been the most difficult thing thus far. Both Ryan and I keep waking up in the middle of the night wide awake and ready for some dinner and it has been difficult to fall back asleep. The longer we are here the easier it is becoming to sleep the entire night. The students are beginning to arrive today and school begins tomorrow. Ryan is going to be teaching his first class tomorrow and my first class begins next week on Monday. The people here are so friendly and welcoming. We both are really enjoying living in a place where relationships are more important than the task that needs to be accomplished. We have been so blessed to have this opportunity to learn from some amazing people and we are looking forward to what God has in store for us here. We are both very excited to begin learning Swahili beyond hello and how are you. We will be able to add some depth to our conversations. Most people here also speak English because it is a national language as well as Swahili, but it is more comfortable for them to speak in Swahili. The other missionaries here have been wonderful in helping us adjust and have given some cultural advice as well. The weather has been great. Since we are just about a mile from the equator the weather does not change much around here. The best part of that is that we live on a mountain so it is about 20 degrees cooler here than it is down in Kisumu. Our temperatures range from 70-80's with no humidity! This is what I call perfect weather. When it rains it can get down into the 60's, but that is about the lowest it reaches. Until next time, enjoy your day and we will right more later. 

Ryan and Rebecca

Almost two weeks away

We are just about two weeks away from taking off to Kenya and praying that everything will fall into place. This is the time in the preparations that we just need to take it one day at a time and trust that God will do his thing. We are so excited about this adventure and looking forward to seeing what God has planned for us. Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Getting Ready

As the semester is drawing to a close it is becoming more real that we will be soon leaving for Kenya. We still have tons of planning that has to be done, but things are slowing coming together. God is continuing to bless us throughout this process and we are very excited. Thank you to everyone who has helped us along the way to this point and keep checking back for more updates as we get closer to leaving and also while we are gone. Thanks all!