New Blog!

Hey there! Well, I have decided to officially close this blog about my adventure in Africa. It has been awesome & amazing to share with you through this medium. Thank you for reading & commenting.

I have started a new blog through my myspace account. Non-myspacers are welcome too! : ) Check it out at blog.myspace.com/alitaluree.

I do not see my career as a missionary as coming to an end. I see it as just beginning.

May God bless you abundantly!

journal entry 2.1.07

Yesterday I hung out at my brother's Starbucks, waiting for a friend to call about an apartment. Here's what came to mind as I journaled:

Last night I was so tired-- so,so tired. I felt overwhelmed with everything. I was mad & sad, but mostly tired. I feel like I have been tired since I've been back- for the last 2 months- feeling disconnected, like I'm just floating with no purpose. My analytical mind wants to pick this apart and make sense of it all. One option could be that I, after a year of working extremely hard for a cause with a huge amount of purpose, am feeling a huge let down. Now that I think of it, that is probably exactly it. As I was coming home [from Africa] I thought a job at Starbucks was exactly what I needed- that was my way of letting down, finding a no brainer job & "relaxing". Aside from the point that a job at Sbucks will not pay the bills for me, between student loans, a car payment & insurance, I think that doing anything now that isn't remotely like what I did in Kenya will not be satisfying. I have affirmed (once again) my passion [and my calling] for serving others- so deep that I have to do it. No questions about it!

Now that I've established that, I just wish I could handle the transitions between my "serving" a little bit better. I do suppose, though, that this specific transition, by nature is destined to be more difficult. Too many differences to describe (between Africa & here) and even if I attempted, who could understand?

I believe the greatest gift of my faith so far has been that even in times like this, when everything feels unstable, even spiritually, I know that Jesus is still my rock- He is still here, in spite of me. And that is the most stability a girl could ask for! <3 ~A

PS- Update! I found a great apartment in Oregon City today, thanks to my great friends, Ryan & Meridith (Lundy) Foley! And I also had two very good job interviews- one w/the Boy's & Girl's Club, and one with an insurance brokerage. I'm awaiting more news from them in the coming days. Yeah! Thanks for your prayers!! :)

reverse culture shock has set in...

This is the wierdest time in my life, with such a wide range of emotions. I am tired, sad, & overwhelmed. I feel lost-- like I have no idea where I'm going or what I'm doing. I feel clumsy & akward just about every moment of every day; like I am completely out of place. Here's the thing: in Africa, being white made me stick out like a sore thumb. I was stared at and thought of as out of place no matter what I did, or where I went. At first that was difficult to get used to, but after a while it became quite comfortable. I was able to drop all of those inhibitions and social awareness/insecurities and become comfortable with who I was, because I knew that no matter how hard I tried I would still be considered a WIERD-O! That was such a freeing way to live.

Now that I am back in American culture, however, it is amazing how quickly those social inhibitions & awarenesses creep back into my everyday life. Basically, I just don't feel like I fit in here anymore. I think this is a common feeling when one goes through reverse culture shock. And I don't expect too many people reading this to understand, unless they have gone through a similar experience.

There are so many other factors in reverse culture shock. For example, in Africa logical thinking rarely made its way into everyday life. That was also really hard to adjust to at first, but became quite comfortable after a while. Decision making rarely made sense, so nobody really cared if I totally messed up. Like I said, I stuck out anyway. In fact, I think they expected us to mess up on a regular basis. I still held myself to a high standard as usual, but the grace of the African culture was refreshing.

As I drive on the strictly organized American streets, sip my gourmet coffees, try on Levi's and new shoes, and preapre for the most anticipated holiday of the American culture, inside I am struggling to maintain my composure. Tears come to my eyes while walking down the grocery store aisle and watching tv commercials. I am not sure what to do with myself! And this, I suppose is what everyone warned me about.

Please pray for me, as I look for a job, try to find an apartment, and try to reconcile my cultural experiences thus far in life. In case you are wondering, I do hope to return to the mission field someday. Right now, I feel like I am where God wants me, but I have no idea why or what for. Thank you for all of your support. I am blessed by all of you!

Love & Blessings,
alita

I miss my flip flops...

I really do. My feet were not made for shoes!

I miss not worrying if I had enough layers on to stay warm enough throughout the day.

I miss "young missionary worship night" at our house.

The other day I was washing Thanksgiving dishes, and I remembered Boaz, the guy we had hired to help us keep house. He was so amazing, sweet & a Godly man. I didn't mind doing the dishes. But doing them made me think of him, and I missed him.

I miss the beautiful sunny mornings, and doing yoga in my room after I woke up.

I miss the kids very much...

______________________________________________


I love the brown, yellow & red leaves.

I love building a big fire and keeping it going all day.

I love anticipating the snow fall here in Prineville and hearing about it piling up on the mountain.

I love Starbucks (here in Prineville!).

I love my huge Christian family here in the Northwest.

I love spending time with my mom. Shopping, making dinner, watching movies, and deep conversations about life.

Kenya and the States are so different. But parts of my heart can be found in both countries. Right now I am back in the place where I am from, wondering where God is taking me next. I have a feeling it's going to be a long wait. Probably the longest one yet. But I'm ok with that. I really am. ;-)

Right now, this is all I've got... :)

Home Sweet Home

Well, being home has been good… but definitely different! It seriously feels like I have traveled through a time tunnel when I leave Africa and come back to America. If I didn’t know any better, I’d wonder where the cows, sheep, goats and chicken are that wonder the city streets and country roads in Africa. I would be amazed at the enormous automobiles these people drive around—and how everyone seems to have at least two of them!! But I would find absolute beauty—much like that of Africa, right here in my “new” backyard. This thing called snow—though treacherous is absolutely breath taking at times. And the food! Wow, the food! There is so much variety in content and flavor and style; it’s almost overwhelming. To think that anyone could ever go hungry in America blows my mind; I don’t think I’ve been hungry since I stepped off the plane!

I have had the awesome opportunity to talk to several people since I’ve been back and I have quite a few more chances coming up (including talking to two high school health classes about HIV/AIDS this afternoon!), but what I have told people is that you really can’t compare Kenya (or Uganda) to America. They are two totally different worlds. Each has their good and their bad; that’s life! And while my heart is happy to be back home with family and friends in my comfort zone; my heart still thinks about and misses those kids and people in Kenya very, very much. I haven’t really experienced the reverse culture shock I’ve been warned about yet; but here are some things I’ve noticed—

The first one may gross some of you out, but welcome to the mission field! We would have to conserve water on our compound because some times our house tank wouldn’t refill itself from the municipal line every day. In order to save a lot of our water we adopted the slogan, “if its yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down!” from several other missionary families we met. (Yes, we did have flushing toilets!!!) Now that I’m back in the States, and although I don’t have to worry about checking to see if there’s enough water in the big tank outside, I still don’t see the point in flushing the toilet if I only go #1! C’mon people! We should all be doing our part to conserve water no matter where we live! I’ve considered starting a national campaign… ;-) The other day I used the last egg and I found myself staring at the empty egg carton as I held it over the garbage can. “Should I really throw it away? You can totally re-use these things!!!” At the small market where we did most of our shopping, Soy Supermarket in downtown Kitale, we would transfer our eggs from the flat to the carton, take them home and then take our carton collection back every few weeks for Mahendra (our grocer) to re-use. I was forced to throw it away—who’s going to use it?! But now I want to find a grocery market where I can re-use my egg cartons! (Prineville doesn’t have recycling, by the way, if that’s what you’re thinking.) But my last story is the real duzy! I was driving up to the drive through window at Starbucks the other morning. I was coming up to the drive-thru drive way from the parking lot side. When I was almost to the entrance, a car turned into the parking lot from a street entrance right in front of me. I kind of hesitated, but decided I had right of way, since I was entering from the parking lot, where the line would have already formed (there are no lines at the Starbucks in Prineville… it’s beautiful!) After I turned into the drive-thru, I looked in my rearview mirror and the passenger of the car I apparently cut off was flipping me off as they drove past the driveway!! Not only that, but she was at least 60 years old!!! I was so flabbergasted I just had to laugh. How utterly ridiculous! I thought about going through the drive way, parking and going and finding them and saying, “I’m sorry I cut you off out there, but thank you for handling it with so much maturity!” With a big smile on my face and warmth in my voice, of course. But I didn’t. When I came around the side of the building, they were parked in a handy-capped spot right there, and the infamous passenger was talking on her cell phone. Oh man, I thought to myself… only in America!!! :-)

So coming back to America, life goes on. My world view has definitely changed. My heart has changed. This country has changed, and Kenya has changed. God is in the business of change! I would like to continue posting more on here as I debrief, so please stay posted. I am thinking about starting another blog now that I’m back. But would anybody read it? Let me know! :-)

Love & Blessings,
Alita

Official new parents, sorting rice: Nancy & Bosco Mukholi, Peter & Judith Simotwo

Greg & Sheri, Bosco & Nancy's 3rd daughter.

Alita @ 2 months.

To Everything There is a Season...

[Hopefully most people who read my blog will have already heard this news, so it will not come as a shock. If you haven’t heard this, I apologize that this is the way you have found out. Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have.]

It didn’t take us long after being here to realize that a majority of our time here in Africa was going to be spent at the Kenya Church of Christ Children’s Home. Before we arrived, we had no idea what shape the home was in, and how many improvements it needed to be run the way it should have been. But we quickly realized this and re-adjusted our priorities around the home, thus putting aside our goals and dreams of teaching AIDS education, counseling, and opening an AIDS clinic. While we definitely didn’t get to focus on AIDS ministry, we did get a first hand look at what it takes to run a ministry here in Africa, more specifically Kenya. We learned much about the politics involved, the accountability needed, the hardship of finding trustworthy people to help run ministries, but most of all about the inadequacy of our preparation in coming to Kenya. While God gave us what we needed to help the children’s home, we learned that it would take much more preparation and planning to start something like an AIDS clinic, or even that type of ministry. Working with a ministry that had already been around for 14 years taught us how much more it would take to start a ministry from the ground up.

Our sending church still had a vision for the AIDS clinic, however. And we felt as if they were expecting major results by the time we were scheduled to come home, next September, 2007. But the more we prayed about it and thought about it, the more we felt like the team that was needed was different than what we had to offer. We also felt like all the details that needed to go into planning something like that were far too many for us to start such a project, already almost one year into our two year commitment. For example, we really felt like the AIDS project is more needed in Kisumu, rather than Kitale. To do this, we would almost have to start all over again, with only 1 year left to achieve anything. After much prayer and consideration, we felt it wise that we return to the states now and help the church prepare a better equipped team to take on such a task. This was a very difficult decision to make, as we have already built great relationships with the church members here in Kitale, especially those at the Children’s Home. We felt like this decision was integral to the future of the AIDS ministry here in Kenya, however. We especially did not want to be bad stewards of the money that had been given in good faith that an AIDS clinic would be built in Kenya, when we didn’t feel like that was a realistic goal for us to achieve in a year’s time. (Things here in Kenya take about 10 times longer than they do at home, especially when you’re white!!)

We know that not everyone has understood or will understand our decision, but we feel at peace with this decision, and that it is what God had planned for us to do. Sometimes God uses one motivation to get you somewhere where your purpose ends up being completely different. Although we didn’t know about the serious problems at the Children’s Home, God used us to restore the home in many ways because we were willing to be used by Him. And we are so grateful that He chose to use us in this way.

In fact, I am still praying about returning to Kenya someday, maybe in the near future, or maybe further down the road. I don’t have any idea what that would look like, but I also can’t help but feel that God is not done with me in Africa. I am praying, watching & waiting for the time being. I appreciate your prayers regarding this as well!

Like I said, feel free to email me with any questions…
alita.tombleson@gmail.com

Blessings,
Alita

PS- We will arrive back in the states the night of October 30th in Seattle. I look forward to seeing many people over the holidays!

Rachel in Africa!

Whew! As soon as I got back into Kenya I went on a whirlwind trip with my friend, Rachel Schulte, from Seattle. Rachel’s a nurse who is interested in working here in Kenya, so she came back with me to check out Kenya. She also brought over extensive materials for first aid kids for our two projects in Kisumu as well as the children’s home here in Kitale. So we took off to Kisumu after only being back in Kitale for a few days. We spent a week down there doing medical treatment for the kids at Lakeside Children’s Home and the most severe cases at Ring Road Orphan Day School. We saw 60 kids in two days at Ring Road, a feat that Rachel said was impressive even back home. I took the kids’ history & general info so that Rachel could just focus on the medical problems. We also spent quality time with Thomas and his wife Irene, as well as Schola Odhiambo (Jared’s wife) and towards the end of our visit got to meet up with James & Lauryn. Jared had not yet returned from his visit to the states. We thoroughly enjoyed traditional African meals at Thomas and Jared’s house. And Rachel was happy because we pretty much found Coke Light (diet Coke) just about everywhere we went, which is the only soda that she will drink.

After we returned from Kisumu we spent a few days here in Kitale at the Children’s Home. Rachel did first aid training for the staff at the home, which included taking all of their blood pressures. The staff each received a writing pen from Rachel when they “completed the course” for which they were very grateful. Rachel left a large tub of medical supplies, including blood pressure cuffs, stethoscopes, pain killers, ring worm treatments, bandages, and a copy of the book “Where There is No Doctor”. Which is basically a great resource for first aid for people here in Africa.

After we finished up in Kitale, Carrie & I decided to take advantage of having a guest with us to go to the coast of Kenya. We started out our journey on a bus to Nairobi. This was not the bus company that we usually take to Nairobi, and we quickly learned why. About half way through the journey we experienced a Kenyan drug bust on our bus!! So we got on another bus because they wanted to take the driver and conductor of the bus in for statements at the police station. When we finally made it to Nairobi, we caught a taxi to the train station, where we waiting for several hours. Our train was supposed to leave at 7 pm, but didn’t end up leaving until almost 10! When we finally got off and rolling, we enjoyed some Kenyan cuisine in the train’s dining car and then headed off to our cabin to spend the night on the train. I’d never slept on a train before, but it was a pretty nice experience! We woke up the next morning a couple hours outside of Mombasa, the main coastal city in Kenya. Once we were there, we toured Fort Jesus, which was built by the Portuguese at the end of the 1500’s. The next day we woke up and boarded a matatu (a Toyota 14 passenger van, the common Kenyan taxi) for Malindi, about 2 hours north of Mombasa. We enjoyed finally getting to see the beautiful Indian Ocean and finding an unexpected Italian café where we could get real cappuccinos for only one dollar! The next day we boarded another matatu and went to Watamu, about half an hour south of Malindi. It was in Watamu that we found our favorite destination of the trip. Watamu is just a small beach side village, but it has beautiful beaches and our hotel was absolutely beautiful! We hung out on the beach, watched the stars at night, and I even got to catch a sunrise over the Indian Ocean… despite the African beach bums who tried to harass us into buying their wood carvings or necklaces, be their girlfriends or get our hair braided, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! The real adventure began though, when we tried to leave Watamu the next day to get back to Mombassa and catch our train back to Nairobi. We thought since it only took 2 hours to get to Malindi, it would take even less time to get back, since we had already driven south a bit more. But alas, we were wrong. About 3 ½ hours after we left Watamu we finally ended up in Mombasa, and we had missed our train by 15 minutes. (We figured they must not leave on time ever, since our other train left 3 hours late before! Silly us…) But our adventure did not end there! Our taxi driver thought he could get us to the first or second train stop outside of Mombasa. So we took off “speeding” (not really, but he tried) down the horrible road between Mombasa and Nairobi. As we pulled up to the first stop, the train was just leaving. On our way to the second stop, we got a flat tire! So we turned around and headed back to Mombasa for the night. We only had about 2 days before Rachel’s plane left, so we decided it would be more efficient to shell out the $120 to fly from Mombasa to Nairobi the next day, so Rachel would had adequate time to get the gifts she wanted to take back, and to spare ourselves from the 10 hour bus ride from Mombasa to Nairobi! It was totally worth it!! So we spent Rachel’s last day and a half craft shopping and hanging out at the Java House.

It was great to have Rachel here in Kenya. She definitely got a full perspective of the country, the people and the ministry opportunities here. And she was a great trooper throughout everything we did and everywhere we went. I think she will definitely fit well in Kenya, should the Lord decide to bring her here some day.

More later!
Alita

PS- I had this blog ready to be posted over a week ago! We've been having major telephone line/internet problems... I'll try to catch up over the next week from the internet cafe, which is proving to be far more trustworthy at this point! [smile]