A Chicken with it's Head Cut Off

Hamjambo! That means hello everyone in Swahili. Well, the orientation went well. We did general things on culture and expectations and AIM. We also had Swahili lessons, and did a few things to get used to the city, like go to a "mall"-type place and a market. One other things we did was go on a Matatu. These I think are best described as a mix between a bus and a taxi. They have routes and stuff like buses, but there are fewer people who ride them. Apparently it is usually about 10 shillings to ride them, I think, but if there are more people around the cost will go up so that the people collecting the money can have more of a profit. So for us it was 30 shillings to get to the first place we went, 20 shillings to go to the next, and 10 shillings to get back, which was the longest ride. We caught a glimpse of the curroption that is here in Kenya when one of the guys riding the Matatu tried to take something out of a bag of one of the girls in our group. He did not get anything, but the girl who was showing us how to use the Matatu got quite upset. We kind of decided that this was a good time for that to have happened so that we can be prepare the next time and be watching for that kind of thing.
So, last night I moved out of the missionary guest house I was staying in for orientation and into the house of that pastor who Catherine and I will be living with all summer. They have a young adults group there last night. They usually meet on Tuesday but because we were coming they changed it so that they would be able to meet us. They were a great group of people and I'm looking forward to getting to know them more. A couple of them are on the worship team, so I'll be working with them more in that sense as well. This was good for us because this way on Sunday there will be at least a few familiar faces. In this group was a young girl who would be about my age who is Pastor Mutangili's niece and lives here with them as their house help, she's really nice and I'm sure will be a help in getting Catherine and I better acquianted with Nairobi, her name is Mwende (I'm guessing on the spelling).
Another cool thing in this household is that there is an 11-day-old baby here. Pastor Mutangili and his wife, Slvia, just had a little baby girl named Judy, and she is beautiful. She is a real blessing for them and I am very excited to get to know this little girl.
So, as I wrap up this post I am going to leave you with a story that you will likely find gross or funny, or both depending on who you are. So this morning when I woke up I could hear a rooster cawing. It went on throughout the day and to be honest did get a little annoying. Around 4:00 on of the young men, Didi, who was here last night dropped by while Pastor and Sylvia were away. Mwende and Didi came out to the front room where Catherine and I were at one point asking us if we had ever prepared a chicken. We followed them out to the back and he had killed the chicken. Its head as on the ground and they were taking its feathers out. They had it in hot water because this apparently makes the feathers softer and come out easier. After they finished that she picked up the knife and cut off the feet and they brought it in, and we're having it for supper tonight. It was a cool experience, and definitely a first. From the conversation that was had there I think we might have roped ourselves into helping de-feather a chicken at some point, but we'll see how that goes.
Anyways, that's about all for now. Your continued prayers are always appreciated. Right now getting used to the city is stressing me out a little bit. As well, I'm still a little nervous about starting the ministry in the church and with the worship team. There are also still the prayers for rain in Kenya that are needed, and I would also like to ask you to pray for the corruption that is in this country and that there could be a stop to that. As a group in orientation we were talking about how Kenya statistically is about 80% Christian, but it is still full of curroption from regular day-to-day people, right on up to some authorities.
Thanks so much for your support. Kwa Heri,
Steph