Some initial thoughts and prayer requests

I've been here for 3 days, but it seems like it's been 2 weeks! Not much has been going on. The first couple of days have been set aside to rest and adjust to life in Africa. Tomorrow we begin orientation where me and my roommate while I'm here, Ryan, will be learning language studies, how to get around Nairobi, security issues, and really how to live on our own (which is what we will be doing once we live in the apartment they have set aside for us!).

Kenya is alot of what I remembered from the last time I was here. The smells, the crazy driving, and the people are really the same as I remembered. However, during these days which we are doing nothing, it has begun to sink in how long I'm going to be here. Before it was a quick trip...now I will actually be living here for 3 months. I know once I get into my work and all the things I will see and experience, I will probably not want to leave. Yet now it is hard being the one who doesn't know anything in a world completely different from what I'm used to. Culture shock is one thing I wanted to experience while I'm here; so I'm getting a good taste of it. Studying about it for the last 5 years is different than actually going through it. God is with me through it all.

Pray for me that I will learn to be open and friendly. I tend to clam up in any very different situation. I don't want to seem ignorant or do anything embarrassing. Yet I must break through that in order to adjust to life here. Looking and acting like a child is a big part of adjusting to a new culture. Thank you all for your prayers, and I hope to get some pictures up here soon when I actually take some :)