The Last 3 Months

Hello strangers!

I sincerely apologize for not posting in quite some time. It went from being crazy busy to being one of those things where it's been so long so where do I start. I am back in College Station, almost finished with my first semester of Junior year. I am still working with LibertyLinked and have been blessed with the opportunity to go on a few business trips with them.  I am debating on turning this into a political opinions blog, but that won't happen just yet. Instead I may add in little tidbits or go on occasional rants.

A gift from Cody. I wear it proud!!

Cody is a newly transformed political activist and loves himself some Ron Paul

If you haven't joined LibertyLinked yet, DO IT! www.LibertyLinked.com It really a great resources. Let me encourage you that we need, no we MUST, do something about our country to save the future for my generation, my children, and well who ever comes after that if the good Lord hasn't come back by then! I have had the privilege of working with some great people in the grassroots movement. We make up a team of LibertyLinked, Alice Linahan, Lorie Medina, and Catherine Engelbrecht. We also have Brandon Darby and Anita Moncrief join us. And occasionally we have Foster Friess come speak with us as well!

Anita is the woman in charge of exposing ACORN and the fraud they foster. She now works with the grassroots movement and helps spread the truth of politics from the conservative side to the lower income communities and tells her story around the country. She has started Boots of Liberty Taskforce.

Brandon Darby, in the middle, is a former left activist who was involved in just about everything liberal you could think of. After a change of events, he became an FBI informant to expose the games of the liberals and now goes around the country investigating all of the Occupy ____ and has done extensive interview work at Occupy Wall Street. He started Citizen Patriot Response.

Chad, my boss, is on the right.
Forgive our silliness, this picture was taken at the last event of the night at a conference in Florida which ended around 2AM.

Foster Friess is a renown investor of his $15 billion firm, Friess Associates, who now  uses his resources to remind the country of the principles our Founding Fathers established our nation on. He and his team post frequent blogs uncovering the truth of what is happening in our nation. www.FosterFriess.com

School is going well, I am ready to graduate. Some people have mixed feelings when I say that. I have been traveling a lot, just about every weekend this semester. I might have stayed home 3-4 total weekends. I have been so blessed with my roommates and we love living in our cute, little, old, quaint house. And I have been attempting to be a crafty little lady....

These window panes are all from the ranch and the middle one I made into a mirror for my vanity

My headboard is an old fireplace mantel

I hand painted the rug!! 

The dresser Cody and I remastered

The rug during transformation (same one that's under my bed)

Horrible picture but I handmade a happy birthday garland!!   Mom was of great help on this!

I made a dry erase calendar! It's burlap in the background --sorry for the bad picture

In the meantime,

Cody took me to the Texas State Fair for my first time! I loved it! We watched a butterfly come out of it's chrysalis and.....

We petted a zebra!

But best of all.... We found an African dance performance and guess where they are from.... MOMBASA!!
I of course had to go talk to them and prove to Cody they are really from Africa. Come to find out they are from the same tribe as the people I worked with at Mbewau. As soon as I introduced myself as Kadzo they were shocked but began laughing. It made my day.

 I still speak with my dear friends in Mombasa at Mbewau. I talk to Jackson about every 2ish weeks and Mary every 3 weeks. I am desperately looking for someone in College Station who speaks Swahili as a first language. I have been gone for a bit too long and it is starting to fade! I need someone to help me practice so I can have better conversations with Mary. I think about my dear friends every day and have their pictures all over the place. I can't wait to see them again, but until then, I will satisfy myself with our phone calls. Please continue to keep them all in your prayers. Mombasa and Arusha are still living day by day and still need prayers.

My favorite "fast food" place in CS is back open. THANK YOU PITA PIT!! We of course visited the first day.

I have cheered on the Ags and stood with the 12th man

 

Even one of my campers came!!

We even camped out for tickets to the very last A&M vs. t.u. game!!

BUT BEST OF ALL:

 Sam and Stephanie are pregnant with baby number two!

Tanner will be the proud big brother of  PIPER MARIE!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't forget to be thankful for all of the wonderful gifts we have been given by our dear Lord.

Home at Last

I am finally back in the US of A. 

My flights home went well, I have been busy like a mad person since I got back. 

Thursday I came home to my entire family, Loriann, Sarah, and Cody. It was wonderful. We had the best lasagna I have had in the last 5 months. And....DR. PEPPER! Delicious!

Friday was spent running errands. I was reminded how much I love Texas and about all of the in your face TX stuff that is out there. I picked up Skylar from daycare and she gave me a typical kids say the darndest things... "Hey Cathy-guess what!-There was a brown girl at daycare today ....but she wasn't from Africa."

Texas display at Walmart

Saturday Cody and I went up to T Bar M Camp Travis and saw some of my old campers and our friends. It was SO great and I miss camp so much. But it was a little bit weird to be on the other side of camp (more of the parent side). We got to hang out with some of my friends from SACS at the Goudge's lake house which is like a summer tradition for us. It was a GREAT day. 

Saturday was also a big day in the Bean family because Skylar lost her first tooth!! She was so excited she carried it around with her everywhere.

Skylar's first lost tooth!

Sunday Cody went back to Dallas. My family and I celebrated my dad's birthday and father's day. We had a great afternoon with the family hanging out and eating cake. And we made homemade ice cream!! YUM!

Monday morning mom and I packed up my car (mattress and all) and I went to lunch with Abbey then started my trek up to Dallas. I beat the traffic and made it into Dallas just in time for Cody to come help me unload my car as he got off work. 

My full car including my queen sized mattress

I am living in a town home that is pretty new and absolutely beautiful. I love having a garage I can park my car in every night. It's night and day from where I was staying in Arusha...I have a big, huge couch and a comfy mattress and comforter. I feel so spoiled.

Tuesday was spent running errands, getting groceries, and meeting my new bosses. 

Wednesday was my first day at work at LibertyLinked which is a grassroots site which provides networking tools and a place of community for conservatives to get active and do something about the government. It is a great place for discussion and gives you the opportunity to see all of the political events that will be occurring--all organizations-- all on one page. Check it out and join! --Really, do it.

Thursday and Friday was work, work, work. Friday night Cody, Mitch, and I babysat which was ... let's just say.. full of laughs. 

Saturday Cody and I went garage sale hunting and I found some cool mason jars which are now my drinking glasses. I also found great old books and a cute dresser! I need to repaint and give it new hardware. Cody had a great find and got a $150 racket for 5 bucks. He was on top of the world. 

My new dresser! It was 60 bucks -- i love the old timey look to it

Sunday I got to go to the RANGERS GAME! It was my first Rangers game and one of the things I really wanted to do while I was here. Even though we lost and it was incredibly hot, it was really fun! Thanks Chris and Rachel!

After my first Rangers Game which was a VERY hot and sunny afternoon.

We also drove by the billboard Cody created at The Richards Group for Patron congratulating the Mavs win. For all the Dallas people it on the Tollway at I35. (He came up with the tag line) I'm so excited for him!

"A basketball comeback five years in the making. Perfect." GOOD JOB CODY!!!

Monday was a really cool day at work. I had the opportunity to attend a meeting recapping the 82nd legislature that was held by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. It was a very informative meeting. Then I went along for the ride and ended up at David Barton's personal office. If you don't know who he is, click HERE because you need to learn. He wasn't there but my two bosses, a fellow grassroots activist from FL, another grassroots activist from the DFW area, myself, and one of David Barton's historians got to spend some time with his personal collection of over 100,000 historical artifacts. The room we were in just smelled full of history and age, it was beautiful. The historian, Tim, gave us tons of information and let us have some hands on learning with Bibles, documents, and letters from the late 1700s. We were also able to handle some of the weapons from war that were used in the 1770s. This experience was absolutely amazing to me and I am so thankful for the opportunity.

Today was another busy day at the office. We were able to attend another meeting, this one held by Americans for Prosperity and America's Next Impact about the need for reform in higher education and the problem with tenure. Did you know most college grads graduate with at least $20,000 in debt? Also, the debt accumulated through college loans is $829.785 BILLION. Pretty scary, right? 

I have been trying to learn how to play tennis in my free time with Cody and his roommate, Mitch. I definitely need more practice. 

My adjustment process is still something I am dealing with daily. I have times where Swahili is the first response that comes to mind. Times where I am confused about what side of the road to drive on. Times when I have no idea about the conversation of the new (or old) movies, TV shows, and music that is all the rage right now. I have moments where I just want to cry (or have cried) because I don't know when I will be going back and I miss the simplicity and community of the East African lifestyle. Times when I forget that I can drink water out of the sink or pet a dog I see. Times when I get so excited because of grapes, Icees, mac and cheese, ice cream, couches, comforters, Reeses cups, hot/full pressure showers, salad, LUNCH MEAT, and carrying a sweater with me at all times. I have been finding JOY in a lot of little things lately.

All in all, I have not had time to sit down and dwell on my last few months. It won't be for a couple more weeks till that happens, but I suppose it is better than sitting and moping all the time. 

I cannot thank you enough for all of your prayers, thoughts, and kind words that have given me courage, encouragement, and endurance over the last couple of months. I am going to try to keep blogging... at least for a while. So if you want to keep reading, add me to your RSS feed or keep checking my blog! 

Memaliza

Today I am getting on the plane and flying to Nairobi, Amsterdam, Detroit, and then TEXAS! Yesterday was my last day at Mbewau and my last full day in Africa. I don't feel like today I am actually leaving and going home but instead just traveling to another city over here and staying there for longer. Please pray with me for safe travels and everything to be on time and smooth.

We were blessed to have the Hallmark team come and spend the day at Mbewau and be blessed by the beautiful children. They received a big welcome ceremony along with mandazi and chai. The team split up amongst the playground, classrooms, and music to interact with the kids and participate with them. 

I was able to go back to where Mary lives and say goodbye to her and the Kopo family. I brought my computer to show pictures from 2008, 2009, and since I have been here to Mary, Leena Kopo, Mary's husband, and about 10 other people who just kept trickling. It was so fun to have them sit in a huddle behind my computer and talk about who was in the picture and look at baby Mercy when she was learning how to walk and a picture of Lamech on Leena's back. The two women walked me back to the school which I'm sure was a funny sight. I was carrying baby Jane on my back in a kanga and Leena was carrying my big black backpack with a kanga around her head and as a skirt. When we passed people they told them I was their sister. 

The Kopo kids : Mercy, Lamech, Anna, baby Jane (  Frances was playing a game) and the oldest is at a different school for older kids

All of us! 

plus Mary!

How toilets are built.... this is going down across the street

I loved being able to joke around and interact with the staff there at Mbewau and talk about how far the school has come. At the end of the chapel program that was put on for our guests, Pastor Nzaro looked at me and asked, "Do you remember day 1? Because I do." I gave him a big hug with tears rolling down my face. 

Then the Hallmark team went to play a volleyball game with Rama's team he has created as a ministry for the church to young men. The team called Mbewau Magic is undefeated and go around playing other volleyball teams in the area. And of course they beat the Hallmark team in all 3 games and the games weren't close competition! It was a hoot. I stood there watching and cheering while playing with Dorkas, Nzaro's daughter Esther, and holding Dorkas' brother. 

Saying goodbye's were quite hard as this symbolized the end of my time here and the relationships I have made and only had grow closer through the years and even more so in the last few months. I am so thankful for all of the opportunities and experiences I have had. I hope to keep my blog going for a while longer, but from Africa I am signing out! 

Tutuonana East Africa, nitarudi!

The New and Improved MbeWOW!

 And my pride and joy.... the BABY CLASS!! Everything is made from shapes, numbers, and letters so the teacher can use the wall decorations for teaching!

Bado

As my last few days here are quickly coming to an end, I have truly enjoyed my time I have spent with my friends here in Mombasa. I have been slowly coming back to civilization as Mombasa is much more like America than Arusha. 

I spent a whole morning with my dear friend Mary at her house with the other mama’s and babies while all the kids were at school. They made chai so we could all drink and eat bread together because ...you always feed a guest... anytime and anyone. While the chai was being made I just walked around the village as though I was at home. I would pop in and out of houses (mud huts) and have little conversations with the families. I met another Kadzo and her children which was naturally followed by the joke that I am really the baby’s mom because my name is Kadzo also. Even though there were three different languages going on (English, Swahili, and Giriama) I felt right at home. I know enough Swahili that I can get by on my own and be able to carry on conversations which made my visit so much more meaningful. I was able to love on Mercy and her little sister, maybe the happiest baby ever, baby Jane. We had a small photo shoot with Mary and her husband because she asked me to come and bring my camera so we could take pictures. We also took pictures with the babies and with the other women. On our way back I stopped and tried my hand at hoeing a field of one of her friends...let's just say I need some practice. I can’t explain my connection or my deep compassion for her along with many of these dear friends of mine out here, but it is there and it is deep. 

The village area Mary and Jackson and Mercy live. It is a common middle area whit huts surrounding it on all sides.

Mary, she is TINY! She is about 44 ...I think is what she said.

 Sunday afternoon, Chris and I were able to drive out to Richard’s house and visit him and his family again. Baby Lisa was still afraid of us mzungus but she let me hold her for a while with out crying. But little Elijah I adore. I cannot express to you how much I love this little boy! As soon as I got there, little children were yelling “mzungu, mzungu!” and so I yelled “mtoto, mtoto!” (child) and as soon as Elijah heard my voice he runs out the door with the biggest smile on his face and into my arms. We sat on the couch talking and laughing and tickling and letting everyone know that he knew my name and where I was. I adore this family and feel so incredibly blessed to be able to call them my friends. Richard and Pauline have one of the best marriages I have seen on the African side. They have a beautiful family. So this is the conclusion we came to.... since I can’t take Elijah home with me, if my first born is a boy then he can come over and marry baby Lisa when they grow up and we can just be one big family, or we can trade kids. 

Elijah, me, Lisa, Richard

You can't not love him

Then today was spent preparing Mbewau for our guests from Hallmark Church in Ft. Worth who will be out at school all day long. They brought sharp new embroidery polos for all of the staff which I handed out today so they would look their best tomorrow. I also spent some time trying to finish out the shoe fitting process which we are ALMOST done with, but not yet. I would like all of you sports people out there who use fields with lines on them to appreciate the wheelbarrow carts that roll the chalk lines on the dirt for you because today Rama, Chris, and Jackson spent a few hours bent over sprinkling the chalk lines by hand. 

In my attempt to take a picture of the all of the children from my favorite family I was able to go out and see Mary again. Today she took me to her shamba which is a farm like area where she grows crops- a square area about 10 yards wide. On our way out there she told every one we saw that we were going to see her shamba. She was quite proud as we walked through the villages holding hands to show off her work. She grows corn in a small square area with sand like dirt which is a plot in a row of about 5 other shambas all growing corn. We walked around the entire perimeter and she showed it off to me telling me that corn was there and a big mango tree was here and so and so’s house is over there....then we we reached the area with her biggest corn she asked me to take a picture so I could show all of you how big her corn is. So she ran over and stood in the corn so it would measure against her. I am going back tomorrow to say goodbye and give her pictures of me and my family that she has asked for. 

Mary and one side of her shamba

Us showing how tall the corn is. A girl took this picture that had never held a camera before and wasn't quite sure about the whole thing.

Pictures of baby Morris at 10 days old!!!

Lucy and baby Morris at 10 days on his coming out party

Lucy and her mom. This was his first day out of the hut

Lucy, Morris, and Lucy's husband's mom