culture, masks, my health

Sunday, Popo, Emma, Jany, Gabby, Julius, and Alex, a Canadian girl, went to this cultural fest that was taking place downtown. It was super awesome. there was lots of singing and dancing, a band from columbia, a chinese dance group using techno sounding chinese music, and many other local groups. there were these acrobats where one guy held up 6 people. they would just run and jump up on each other and instantly be 3 people tall. my fave had to be this guy that imitated michael jackson...hilarious. i didn't know what the song was at first b/c lots of people in the group were dressed like masai men, and it was all serious until they started singing, "it don't matter if you're black or white."

monday the juvenile kids finished decorating their masks and they look super sweet. they really came up with a lot of creative ideas. they also told me that the poster we made together for the contest won. i was in shock. i started jumping up and down b/c i saw the rest of the posters and didn't really think ours was that great. yesterday i made guacamole for a group of women in kibera. they ate it up very fast and liked it i think, although they thought it was so strange when i first started making it. on monday night, i stayed with tara and some of her kenyan friends. we made them fajitas and guacamole too. they also loved it. the one girl has traveled all over for various missions...china, u.k., etc. i enjoyed hearing her stories and was so interested in what she was saying about christians in china. she was explaining that even though people can be persecuted for their faith, that the church was more alive and vibrant there than anywhere else.

i have spent much of today and yesterday at doctor's offices. i would really appreciate your prayers for my health. it has turned into this forever long saga that i don't want to get into. so to keep it short basically a few weeks ago i was treated for malaria on 2 different occasions with medication and shots. i still wasn't feeling better yesterday, so i went to see a specialist--an italian doctor who is known to be an expert in malaria and other diseases. after checking my blood (by 2 different people) they said i definitely did NOT have malaria. praise God for that!!! so they are running lots of other tests. but it could be that i have now had so much wrong medication dumped into my system that it's making me ill. i haven't mentioned all of this before b/c i know that westerners freak out when they hear about malaria. so please join me in praying that they will find out what, if anything is wrong. God is good even when i'm sick, and i know that this is all happening for a reason. my faith has been strengthened through all of this despite that it is dampening my spirits a bit.