Kenya Missions Trip

Dear friends and family,

This summer I plan to go on a mission trip to an orphanage in Kenya. Kenya Matters is a non-profit organization based in Karai, Kenya. It focuses its mission on providing material, emotional, and spiritual support for orphan children, while building relationships between African families and those of volunteers and donors.

We have a deal in our family; my parents decided that when we were selecting our next post, whatever child was entering their junior year would have first choice on destination. Of course this in no way guaranteed we would move there, but it still provided a decent chance. Ever since I became aware of this choice, I have had my heart set on Africa. I am not entirely sure why this has been the case, but Africa has always intrigued me. But, two years and one move later, we are obviously not in Africa. Not even close. Despite that, I still feel drawn to Kenya and long to be involved with this orphanage in some way.

I first heard about Kenya Matters from my good friend, Anna Buist. Her dad currently serves as President of the Kenya Matters board, so they have been greatly involved with the organization for several years. Anna has visited Kenya many times, and always returns with exciting stories to share with me. Through Anna I have been able to interact with Kenya Matters while living overseas in several ways: writing pen pal letters to a few of the girls, watching other mission groups visit and share their experiences, and more. But I would love to be more involved and have the opportunity to visit the kids personally. I have always enjoyed children, and I feel like my passion for them would grow as I spend time with the Kenyan kids.

I have been thinking and praying about going on this trip for a long time now. It’s been difficult to coordinate flights and timing from Taiwan, but everything is finally coming together. So, this June I will be setting out on a 10 day trip to Kenya. I will be meeting up with my friend, Anna, and her dad. The orphanage lies just two hours outside of Nairobi, where we will be spending the majority of our time. We will be keeping ourselves busy interacting with the kids and helping out in the community. Most of our time will be spent socializing with the kids, helping with school, and any other miscellaneous jobs around the safe house.

Please consider supporting my team and I, in both prayer and in finances. I must raise approximately $2,000 to cover flights, room, and board. Any additional money will be donated to Kenya Matters. Your thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated. You can follow my trip, and view any updates leading up to it, by viewing this family blog. 

You can contribute by visiting my donation page on the Kenya Matters website: http://www.kenyamatters.org/elena2kenya/, or by writing a check to the address below. Please make checks out to Kenya Matters, and include a slip of paper with my name.

Thank you for your support,

Elena

Kenya Matters

Box 23

Hudsonville MI 49428

Tomb Sweeping Day

Tomb Sweeping weekend (Quingming Day) was April 2-5.  Here in Taiwan, it is always celebrated on April 5 to commemorate the day Chaing Kai-shek.  This is an important family and religious holiday here in Taiwan.  The embassy was closed for 2 days which gave us some time to explore a cemetery near our house.  

Once a week, Chad rides his bike over the mountain to get from a weekly clinic back home.  Following a gps app., he found a trail that wound through a cemetery.  Old steps wind up the mountain with paths through the cemetery on either side.  We enjoy wandering our way through the overgrow grave sites, looking at the tiles and cemetery stones.  We had wondered if the cemetery was forgotten, but also knew that the Taiwanese do not visit cemeteries as we do in America.  They believe the ghosts of the dead are wandering around and they do not wish to disturb them.  

Tomb Sweeping weekend is the one time of the year the Taiwanese visit the graves.  They clean them up, offer food offerings, burn sacrifices, place fake paper money around the grave to send to their needy dead relatives and pray to their ancestors.  

I wanted to see if anything was going on in our cemetery over the weekend.  I was surprised at how busy it was.  Many tombs were cleaned.  Families were walking up the steps or gathered around a tomb.  Here are some photos to help you understand.

Paper money is placed around the tomb, weighted with rocks.  This will provide for the ancestors in their after-life.

Paper money around these two tombs.

Families walking up the steps, carrying bags of food to leave as offerings.

A family gathered around a tomb burning a sacrifice.

Incense that has been burned on a tomb.

Flowers left at a tomb.

This was a surprise that took my breath away!  A tomb with a cross.  Amongst all the tombs with idols and sacrifices, this tomb was neat and tidy for the family remembered their dead, but there were no offerings or signs of paper money.  

Glutenous rice desert

At Silin night market there is an elderly deaf couple who have a little portable cart in the middle of one of the aisles.  There is always a line of people waiting to get these little, gelatinous, rice desserts. People mingle and watch as they do the steps, oh so quickly.

The scoop some rice powder into this wooden cup.

Add some shaved peanuts or sesame seeds.

Tap down, put a wooden lid on.

Put cup on top of a dowel that somehow sends steam into the cup.

Within a few moments, the rice powder has become a sticky, gelatinous mass.

My favorite are the peanut because they are a little bit sweeter.

Ice Cream Burritos

We enjoy spending a Fri. or Sat. evening walking around a night market.  We tend to end up at Shilin night market.  We go for the atmosphere and food.  Here are some pictures of my favorite food at the night market!  I think they are called Ice Cream Spring Rolls, but I immediately dubbed them Burritos!

This is a solid block of peanuts and sugar.  A nice layers is shaved off the top.

Two scoops of ice cream.

Add some more shaved sweet peanuts to the top.  The secret ingredient is fresh cilantro!  You would never guess it, but it adds a refreshing flavor to the sweet ice-cream and peanuts.

Wrap it up!

YUM!

Red Envelopes

Taipei has been coming alive with decorations in preparation for Chinese New Year.  One of the traditions with this holiday is the giving of a Red Envelope.  Monetary gifts are given in Red Envelopes, but the wish goes far beyond the gift itself.  The color red symbolizes good luck so decorations and lanterns arounds the city are in red.  The ultimate honor is giving an envelope of red color to someone.  You only give these gifts to people in your family - parents give a monetary gift to their children, or adults give them to their aging parents - or you also give red envelopes to people who serve you.  So we have been part of the group of Americans in our building, collecting and preparing gifts for the doormen who serve us each day.  In other places we would do this at Christmas, but here we have waited to tip our staff during the Chinese New Year.

I've had several conversations with my co-workers about the Red Envelope tradition.  I've noticed that they all look upon it fondly, the same as we think of the wistful years when we awoke early, excited to see what Santa had left under the tree for us.  It's a fun tradition to take part in.  

I was even given a red envelope myself.  Similar to the one above, I have no idea what it said.  It was from a realtor I've met a few times as I've gone apartment shopping for the embassy housing pool.  He has a soft smile and kindness radiates from his face.  When I left him a few days ago, he pulled out the envelope and said, "I have a red envelope for you.  It doesn't contain any money, rather a verse I hope you will enjoy."  He bowed his head towards me as he handed me the envelope with two hands.  It is impolite to open the envelope in front of the giver, so I bowed my headed towards him and accepted the gift with two hands.  I tucked it in my purse and waited until I was alone in the taxi to open it up, a bit curious about the verse.  A little card had a verse in Chinese typed on one side and in English on the other.  "But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.  It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end."  Deuteronomy 11:11-12.  I'm honestly a bit perplexed about the selection of this verse for this occasion.  I'm looking forward to the next time I see him so I can understand the significance for him.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Snow

As we read and listened to warnings of snow storm Jonas hitting the East coast of America, we had a bit of excitement of our own.  Snow in Taiwan.  It's been cold here and I feel like I've been whining and complaining as if I had never experienced cold or snow before.  I'm from Michigan and lived in Russia, for goodness sake!  I can take a bit of cold.  But it's been a different because I'm not dressed appropriately.  My Moscow clothes are all packed away in sealed bags, under boxes of other unused items, in the storage room in the apartment building's garage.  It's too much of a hassle when temperatures are supposed to be back in the low 70's by the end of the week.  Proper clothing is really what's important if one wants to enjoy being outside in the cold.  

But despite a lack of proper attire, floods of people headed up the mountain to experience snow in the Taipei area.  7.5" were reported near the airport.  Temperatures here in Taipei dropped to 4C, the lowest they've been in 44 years, and the second lowest ever.  Snow was seen falling here in Taipei, the first time in 80 years.  Over 52 people have died, mainly from hypothermia.  It's a country that just is not prepared for this type of weather.

Photos of little snowmen appeared on facebook and I was pleasantly surprised by this little snowman just outside my apartment this morning.

Lunch

Forty years ago, a woman moved to Taipei from somewhere along the boarder between China and Vietnam.  To support herself, she began selling traditional Vietnamese and Cantonese food.  Today, her niece works many hours alongside her preparing the meat rolls without a pause.  

There are no large signs announcing this simple, out of the way shop, yet word seemed to have gotten around as there was a steady flow of customers at 10:30 in the morning.  There are a few tables, a counter to pay, a refrigerator with chilled items and this simple table where she sits and prepares the meat rolls.  

Steadily she works through the process, over and over.  A ladle of rice milk.  The recipe for the watery rice substance is an important family secret.  The consistency must be exact or the gelatinous rice won't stick together or be the correct thickness to wrap into a roll.  She pours the white liquid onto a drum that looks like it is strung with a dense fabric.  Steam rises from within the drum, through the fabric to cook the mixture.  She swirls the liquid with the bottom of the ladle a few times and covers it with a lid before turning her attention to the aluminum tray in front of her.  After stroking some oil onto her work surface, she removes the lid where the steam has been magically solidifying the rice into a sticky, clear sheet.  With a wooden spatula she cuts the rice sheet into two and puts half in front of her.  She spoons about a tablespoon of meat onto the rice, then tucks in the ends and rolls the sheet of rice up into a spring roll type package.  Quickly the other half is made into a roll and she begins the process again.  Within five minutes, she has a box of 10 meat rolls ready to go.  People wander in and out ordering several boxes at a time.  

My friend went to the refrigerator and grabbed the last two paper cups of coconut soup.  Dessert they declared!    Several more people filed in, their mopeds waiting outside.  Several of them turned away in disappointment when they discovered that we had taken the last of the soup.  Obviously, this was going to be a treat.

A pile of wrapped banana leaves caught my attention.  About the size of my fist, the tightly wrapped packages were tied with string.  The fresh scent of fresh cut greenness caught my attention.  The simpleness of it all was startlingly refreshing.  Banana leaves are used all over the world to cook, transport and store food in.

I carried my treasures in a little pastel, striped plastic bag back to the car.  I was excited about sharing this culinary adventure with Chad.

We sat at the desk in his office and unpacked the food.  Interesting is the best way to describe everything.  Not a single thing was like anything I am used to.  The steamed rice meat rolls were gelatinous with little flavor.  We dipped them in a fresh broth they had sent in a little plastic bag, neatly knotted to prevent spillage.  My favorite was the sticky rice inside the banana leaves.  Inside the rice was crushed peanuts and chicken.  Peanuts are a favorite flavor here in Taiwan.  You can buy peanuts by the bag along the road, or peanut butter in your pizza crust from Dominos.  Dessert was basically a chilled, thick, coconut, tapioca soup.  The slight sweetness was a nice way to finish off this adventure of a meal.