Life in Africa

Living here you experience some different things so I thought I would share.
1. Don't wear nail polish because it melts off. :) Now that is pretty hot weather!
2. Always iron your clothes. If you do not you could get mango worms in your clothes. Mango worms eat your clothes and they get on your clothes when you are hanging your clothes to dry after washing. And I mean iron EVERYTHING...even undergarments. :)
3. Only eat with your right hand because your left hand is thought to be used while you go to the bathroom.
4. When you are saying hello AND goodbye you need to shake hands with everyone.
5. You drive on the left hand side of the road here. (Kenya was colonized by the British.) There are no stop lights instead they are round abouts. It is a circle you drive around with different roads branching out from the circle.
6. There are no free refills for drinks. You get 1 glass of whatever you ordered and thats all.
7. There are many muslims here, especially conservative muslims. (These are the muslims that are covered completely with only their eyes showing.)
8. Whitney is not a common name and is very hard to pronounce where as Chad is common because of the African country Chad.
9. Ugali (made from corn or yam flour) is the staple food here. A huge bowl is set in the middle of the table. Everyone eats out of the bowl, using your right hand, and dips the ugali in some type of sauce. This was the lunch we were served after church.
10. There are geckos everywhere, crawling on the walls in the house. Also lizards are everywhere. As you walk they run everywhere.
11. It will rain for 5 to 10 minutes in bright sunshine and then stop. It does this off and on throughout the day.
12. We sleep under a mesquite net every night because the mesquite that bites carrying malaria only bites during dawn and dusk.
13. We are 8 hours ahead of the States so as you are ending your day we are beginning ours.
Those are just some things about life in Africa.
We went to the market on Friday. The market consists of tiny wood stands that are connected, covered with tarps. The paths are tiny from booth to booth. Each booth is selling different things: mangos, bananas, pineapple, baskets, ect. You go up to the stand pick out whatever organic fruit you want and then proceed to bargain for the price. Since we are white they usual double the price so you know whatever price they give you cut in half and that should be correct. We bought mangos for 5 cents a piece! Great deal I would say! The market is muddy and has trash on the floor but is still a fun place to meet people and practice language!
We went to Uzama Church on Sunday. They were so welcoming! They even prepared lunch for us after church. Their singing was beautiful. They made sure to translate everything in English for us so we could understand! Instead of grape juice for communion they had orange Fanta. Have to use what you have and what you can get, right? Many people greeted us and were very excited to have us working in their school. The church has a school, sewing school, library, and computer lessons. It was very impressive but still lacking. For example, the school was on cement floor in a room 12 by 12 feet with no desk, no books, paper, or any supplies. I cant wait to give all the supplies to them and help them!
We love you all! We are doing well and enjoying Kenya!
Keep us in your prayers. We think of you often. We are thankful to be here.
Blessings,
Chad and Whitney