I knew I was back in Africa when these five things happened...

...I got unsolicited parenting advice.
On the flight from Dubai to Nairobi (honestly right around the time we flew into African airspace) a Kenyan woman coming from the bathroom stopped to advise me to adjust sleeping Gretchen because her head was at an awkward angle.  I cannot tell you how often I get advice on how to hold, feed, comfort and/or clothe my kids from complete strangers, and after 2.5 months away, all I could do was mildly protest that she was okay as the woman adjusted Gretchen's head herself.  It's all kindly meant, but feels a little condescending.  (My pride rebels!)

...immigration took longer for the Kenyans than for the Americans.
Logically, it should certainly be easier to allow Kenyans back into their own country than to process hand-written visas for foreigners.  In the past we've all gone through the Kenyan line because Fred and Wesley have Kenyan passports and I have a residence permit, so don't need a visa.  This time, because we don't have Gretchen's Kenyan passport yet, she and I went through the visa line, and were done a full ten minutes sooner than the guys were.  Why?  I honestly have no idea.  There were far more foreigners than nationals on our flight, and there are always a handful utterly unprepared to pay a visa fee, which takes time as they argue why they shouldn't have to or can't pay.  All I can think is that the Kenyan government puts such a high premium on tourism that they expedite the foreign visitors as much as possible.

...our lost luggage forms took about an hour.
Our flight from New York to Dubai had been delayed an hour, so we just barely made it to our Dubai to Nairobi flight in time for boarding and we had a feeling our bags might not have made it.  Sure enough, only two out of eight pieces made it on our plane, so we had to report our luggage as lost.  What we should have done is just find our when the next Dubai to Nairobi flight was (six hours behind ours) and come back then.  Instead we got sucked into the African bureaucracy, where the forms for our luggage had to be filled out by hand, complete with coded letter/number combinations to describe each bag.  It seemed to take forever, especially to our three very sleepy kids.

...the lost luggage people seemed a little disappointed to see Fred.
This being Kenya, and this not being our first rodeo, so to speak, Fred made sure he was there in plenty of time to get our bags off the carousel when the later flight came in.  He ran into the lost luggage guy who was also searching for our bags.  This should have been reassuring, except that our instincts (and our taxi driver) warned us that we should not leave our bags in the custody of the luggage people for any amount of time, because they're notorious for rifling through and taking stuff.

...our plans changed immediately upon arrival.
Since we had to wait around for our luggage, we couldn't make it to the overnight bus we were intending to take to the border.  Instead we rented a hotel room for the night. (Thanks to the friends and family who handed us cash on the last day so that this unplanned-for expense was not stressful!)  The kids revived enough to bounce off the walls until they crashed like dominoes, and Fred and I realized that this change of plans was really God's best plan for us.  We got a pretty good night's sleep after about 34 hours of travel and a really nice, hearty breakfast before setting out for our final 10-hours home.

REWIND! Our America Trip in Photo Review

We bought a new fabulous camera as soon as we arrived to help
us document all the exciting and mundane events in our 10-week visit.

Our kids met a lot of great new friends at a ton of brunches, lunches, dinners and playdates.

We did a December road trip down the Oregon and California coast.

2,500 miles in 10 days, but our kids continued to be super travelers!

We stopped every few hours to stretch legs at various beautiful spots.

Fred and I loved driving through the redwoods (literally and figuratively)

Outside of Oakland looking back at San Francisco while we waited
to meet up with one of the dozen or so people we met up with on the trip

Innocent go to dip his feet in his first ocean in sunny San Diego

And Gretchen played in sand for the first time

We went ice skating with some friends, which Innocent loved,
but this was the happiest Wesley was during the whole experience.

When we got back home, we went with cousins to cut a Christmas tree.
We ended up with a slightly taller tree than this one. 

We were blessed to be in Oregon for the warmest, sunniest winter I can remember,
so the boys got to spend a lot of time at the Newberg playground.

Christmas was a really special time for the kids.
They didn't get out of the sled for the better part of the morning.

Wesley (our future engineer) got a toolbox for Christmas.
He's still carrying it around a month later.

After Christmas we went to Eagle Crest for a week of actual non-working vacation with my parents.
It was really helpful for us to have that break in the middle of our visit.

Innocent and my dad did some swimming lessons while we were on vacation.

The boys got to play in snow and use their Christmas sled.

Most of our extended family members came up to Eagle Crest on the last day.

We got to have a small celebration of my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.

Some wonderful friends paid for the boys to go to the dentist, which they actually enjoyed!

We did a lot of presentations on this visit, including at a few
 new church contacts, like Chehalem Baptist.

A presentation in Astoria to a group of my grandmother's friends and neighbors
 at which Wesley made himself a center of attention...as usual

Our whole family climbed the Astoria Column!

Gretchen saw and was seen by many friends and family, and accomplished crawling, walking,
first four teeth and some first words, like "uh-oh" and "daddy".

Many friends contributed to meet several one-time financial needs, like a new laptop for me!

Thanks to all the friends who had us over, prayed with us, gave money, spent time with our kids, offered skills and space and time to make our visit wonderful!  See you next time!

Wrapping Up! 10 Days Until Liftoff!

We're nearly on our back to Tanzania, to work and life and home.  This trip has been incredible, but were feeling that the time is right to return to "normality."

If you're hoping to see us before we go, here are a few last chances:

January 24th, 3pm, Lahash House (4850 N Vancouver Ave, Portland)
We will be showing photos and telling stories about our work in Tanzania.

January 26th, 6pm, Lahash House (same as above)
We are joining the Lahash community at their regular Monday night potluck.  Anyone is very welcome to join us.  The theme is Burrito Bowls!  mmm...

January 29th, Last day in Portland
I'm coming into the office for some meetings on Thursday, so it's literally the last chance to lay eyes on me for you Portland-ers!

February 1st, 9am, C3 Church in Lake Oswego
We're possibly going to be doing a short presentation, but at least popping in to be with them in worship.  We have to run out right after, though, so if you want to see us there, make sure we know you'll be there!

February 1st, 10:30am, C3 Church in Newberg
Our last event before leaving, we'll be sharing for about 20 minutes at their service, and are free for lunch after.

Then we're off!  I guess if we have any friends in NYC who want to come have coffee during our layover, we'll be hanging out at the airport from about 5:30am until 8am!

2 Things I Love About America & 1 Thing I Love/Hate

What I Love

Driving through the redwoods

1. Driving
I must love driving if I've put my family through over 3,500 miles of road trips in the past two months: 2,500 miles down the California coast to San Diego and back up the freeway, then later to Central Oregon and up to Eastern Washington.  The well-maintained roads, cheap gas prices, drive thru food and coffee and free audio books from the library have made nearly every day of our road trips a pleasure.  Our kids are fantastic travelers, even in their car seats, so there’s been very little crying.  We have two more small overnight trips: one to Astoria and one to Hood River.

2.  Collaboration

Acting casual during a Lahash staff meeting

I haven’t spent a lot of time in the Lahash office, but those days are full of meetings.  I totally understand that many people find meetings dull and counterproductive, but as one who works from a home which is more than 10,000 miles away from my coworkers, I so appreciate the opportunity to exchange ideas and brainstorm with my Lahash colleagues.  Also super valuable are the phone conferences with our Mama Maisha co-founders, the Grahams.  Being able to talk freely on a good connection without signals dropping or awkward pauses makes it so easy to compare ideas and make decisions.

What I Love/Hate

Convenience food

First, a confession: I am eating and feeding my family convenience food.  My boys have probably eaten their weight in chicken nuggets in the past two months.  It’s a little bit of a chicken-and-egg thing; convenience food enables me to GoGoGo! all day long and feed my kids within minutes of arriving back at my parents’ house.  (God knows how many days I’ve reached home in Shirati after a whole day on a bus willing to pay dearly for a bag of frozen chicken nuggets.)  On the other hand, if I know that it will take at least 90 minutes to make dinner for myself and my family, I am far more likely to wrap up a meeting or a project to get home in plenty of time.  If I only used a drive-thru or a bag of frozen processed something on those rare occasions that really required it, I could have a love-love relationship with convenience food.  Unfortunately I allow those conveniences to override my best judgment of what my family and I should eat.  Ironically, most of the time I’m in Africa I am dreaming about the amazing food I will cook when I reach America...ugh….  Another example of not giving my best intentions the energy and resources they need to succeed.

Eating garbage (not the diaper)

Let me close with an epiphany I had a few days ago.  I've often felt sorry for myself because *sob*I don’t have many good friends in Shirati.  I've often asked people to pray for me in this respect, but I just realized that many of the women who are praying for me to find a good community of friends never really get time to hang out with their own community of friends!  Everyone is so busy, especially moms of little kids, and super especially moms of little kids who also work or home school.  If you have a mom of little kids in your life (or in your home!), push her out of the house to go get coffee or happy hour with a friend.  Ladies, let yourself be pushed out of your house, sans kids, to get a little community, a little time to just be you in an honest, healthy way.  Laugh a lot, cry a little and be blessed!

Remember the Otienos!

We're quickly drawing to the end of the year, and many of you will be thinking about your year-end giving.  No doubt you're getting emails and Facebook and snail mail reminders from every cause you've ever supported asking for your check or online donation as 2014 closes.  Well, here's my pitch for why your year-end giving should support the Otienos:

1.  We're involved with really important work which is impacting lives.

We work with Lahash International, facilitating holistic care for vulnerable children.  We work with the Tanzania Mennonite Church, doing all kinds of things like building housing for widows, installing rainwater cisterns for palliative care clients and supporting illiterate pastors in caring for their congregations.  We work on Mama Maisha, a project we started earlier this year with our good friends, the Grahams.  This is a project which is literally saving lives.  Here is the photo of baby Grace, who was born just last week in Shirati Hospital after her mother had complications in delivery.  Six months ago, before Mama Maisha's Maternal Health Advocates started their educational outreach, the mother and baby probably would have died like so many others before them.

2.  We're dependent on your support.

All of the projects we work on, from Mama Maisha to Lahash International to gender-based violence are dependent upon the generosity of donors like you.  100% of our financial support comes from donations, either directly to our personal support fund through Lahash International or through donations to the projects we work on.  God has called us to a ministry and a life which requires us to raise money almost constantly.  Many times this feels burdensome and unpleasant (asking friends and family for money is often uncomfortable and nearly always awkward!), but in order to do the work that we are called to, we need your support in prayer, fellowship and funding.

3.  We love you and want you to be part of our work.

We love what we do and we want to share the satisfaction and joy that we receive from showing God's love and care for people in vulnerable situations.  We want you to share that satisfaction, to feel ownership for work which is dramatically impacting the lives of the poor and suffering in rural Tanzania.

How can you be part of our ministry?

Give to support our family's personal and travel expenses.

Give to support the organizations we work with.
(Click the photo to give to that project.  Mama Maisha funds are raised through Village Life Outreach Project, a non-profit that we have a great relationship with.  Just be sure to mention Mama Maisha when you give or send me an email to let me know about your gift so that we can make sure it's credited to Mama Maisha's account.)

     

Attend our presentation on January 9th to find out more and ask questions.

Thank you for your love and care.  Happy New Year!

Some Amazing Ladies...Brief and Exciting News from Mama Maisha

These ladies are all members of the brand new Mama Maisha village groups!  I cannot tell you how excited all the Mama Maisha staff and founders are to see more than 100 women getting involved within the first month of the Maternal Health Advocates starting up.  These groups are a place for women to be educated and discuss matters about healthy pregnancy, safe delivery and family planning.  My favorite thing is how many pregnant bellies and tiny babies are in these photos.  As nice as it is to be in the States right now, I'm itching to get back to Tanzania and meet them in person!

The Amazing America

We're having a great time in America, but, sadly, the crazy pace of standard American life has caused me to neglect the blog.  Here's a brief update:

Fred's work - Mostly on hold until we get back.  The end of the year is usually the end of the budget cycle for his projects, and December is often a month when everyone takes leave.  Sadly, we've heard that some of the people Fred has been working with are being laid off because their projects aren't re-funding.  Please pray especially for Stephen, who I mentioned in our last email, because he doesn't have the formal education to get a similar job at another organization, so he'll being going back to volunteering and farming.

Leisha's work - Mama Maisha has had a little pause while both our coordinator and I have been traveling and while our quarterly funds have been pretty tight because of the expensive training in October.  Grace, our coordinator, is back in Shirati and getting things back on track.  We just got word that we didn't get a grant we were hoping for that would have provided safe delivery kits for moms and traditional birth attendants, but we're talking to a lot of people about Mama Maisha and hope to get some sustainable, grassroots funding in place.

The kiddos - The kids are loving America, especially the family and many, many friends we've met.  The last ten days we've been driving through California and southern Oregon, meeting up with so many friends, nearly all of whom have kids the same age range as our kids.  Inno's writing journal is full of city names followed by the names of the new friends he's met and cool things he's done. It basically looks like this, but in barely legible grade schooler handwriting.
              Brookings, OR - Blake, lighthouses
              Santa Rosa, CA - Nick and Jaclyn, redwoods, drove through tree
              San Francisco, CA - Scott, playground
              Pasadena, CA - Baby Gideon and Sofia
              San Diego, CA - Jasmine and Hannah, beach, church play
              Modesto, CA - Bear
              Medford, OR - Grant, ice skating, church
              Albany, OR - Reagan

We're home again now, transitioning into Christmas celebrations and a series of dinners with friends.  Hopefully our kids will keep up their excellent behavior and pretty good health and patient acceptance of so many new things.  Thanks to all of you for reading, for praying, and for inviting us into your homes and churches.  We're really enjoying this time of fellowship and fun as a family and the opportunity to share our work with all of you!