Wednesday, July 19.
So I never got to finish explaining what a day in BCEA is like.
Like I said in a previous entry, everyday except Lord's Day (which is what we call Sunday here) starts with early morning prayer at 5:30AM. We sing a hymn, read a passage, then one of the pastors speak briefly. After that, they turn of the lights in the chapel, and people pray for a while. It's scheduled till 6:30AM, but people are free to leave when they want to (or that's what they seem to do).
At 7AM, the students eat breakfast at the cafeteria. According to the menu I saw once, they eat bread and tea every morning. The faculty, on the other hand, go back to their own places and prepare breakfast on their own. I usually eat some cereal with milk, yogurt, honey, and bananas. This morning I ran out of bananas, so I had some toast with peanut butter and honey instead. I know... why am I not starving in Africa? I mean, somehow I'm much more well-off than the students here even as a missionary. I guess knowing this fact will help me use my money (i.e. financial support from the church in California) wisely, and be a better steward of what God has given me. Those of us who live in developed countries are "spoiled" when compared to people living in developing countries. Even homeless people in the States can have access to shelters, food, and some clothing. But people here live off of bear minimum. Because I'm "spoiled," it would be so hard for me to start a day with just a piece of bread and a cup of tea. But perhaps that is something I need to learn eventually if I were to become a missionary doctor in third-world countries.
On a school day, at 7:30AM the students go back to the main chapel (named Glory Hall) for some Bible reading and meditation. At the same time, the faculty (including myself) meet together to read a passage and pray together. At 8AM, we have morning chapel, which consists of singing a hymn, scripture reading, and a sermon. The chapel lasts for about an hour. After that the students go to classes, while I go to the main office.
I'm in the office from 9AM to 12:30PM, have lunch, then come back at 2PM till 4PM. In the office, there's usually nothing to do, so I just bring my laptop and either write my journal entry or work on my med school application. There's actually one huge task waiting for me to do, which is to make an inventory of all the books we have in the office. But I'm setting it aside for later, since med school app takes precedence. Besides, I'll be gone to Masai in less than week, and I wouldn't want to start a project and leave it half-way for one whole month.
Students usually come in to fill out permission slips (for missing classes, etc.), and faculties come in to ask to make photocopies. Sometimes we have visitors who are interested in attending the school next year. Today, I spent all morning in the office typing up some final exams for the kindergarten. Mrs. Yoon is in charge of making those (or that's what I think), so she asked to type it for her, since I could do it in tenth of the time it takes for her to do it (maybe I'm exaggerating). When I gave her the finished tests, she gave me a few pieces of chicken that she cooked. Maybe it was a reward, but it could be just out of kindness, since she's usually very nice. She's helped me out a lot with food and stuff.
For lunch today, I decided to cook rice with the inner pot of the rice cooker on the stove. Since it's an electrical stove, I figured it's just like using the rice cooker, except I would have to adjust the heat. I learned that if I have the heat too high, it starts to bubble to much, the water dries up too quickly, and the rice remains uncooked. So I had to add some more water and cook at really low heat. Times like these I wish I had internet access so I could just look up "How to cook rice" or "How rice cooker works." But I guess it's also good to learn from experience. I was going to have some kimchi that Mrs. Yoon gave me, but apparently the refrigerator was set too cold, so the kimchi was partially frozen.
After lunch, I was going to go out to Outdoor Evangelism like last week, but Eben and Richard were going out for grocery shopping. Since I just moved out from Richard's place yesterday, I needed to do some shopping, and since I don't know when they'll go shopping again, I decided to go. First we went to this private residence where they sell some Korean food. They had sticky rice imported from Uganda, some rice cake for tok-kuk and tok-pok-ki, some fish, and some home made sesame oil. I got 10kg (22lb) of sticky rice for Ksh1000 ($14), a pretty good deal, I think. I also got some rice cakes for tok-kuk. Then we went to the ABC market and got some veggies and meat. Mrs. Yoon helped me choose what to buy.
For dinner tonight, I cooked rice again, but this time I was pretty confident. I set the heat high, then lower it to lowest setting when it started boil. While the rice was cooking, I marinated two chicken legs in soy sauce and honey with some garlic, onion, and red chill pepper powder (kochu-karu). Both the rice and chicken turned out really nicely. Well, the chicken was a bit salty (little too much soy sauce), but I guess I'll live and learn. At least it was fully cooked. The rice was excellent. The only thing was that I used the long-grain rice that I bought a week ago, so it wasn't as good as it would have been if it was sticky. Maybe I'll just give my remaining long-grain rice to Richard, since he uses the same kind.
So I'm here as a missionary, but it might seem like I haven't been doing much missionary work even though it's been 12 days since I got here. I'm thinking to myself, "SunMin, haven't you done enough adjusting-to-life-in-Kenya already? Get some work done!" Well, maybe I'll have to wait till I go to Masai, but right now, I'll just have to do the tasks that I'm given. I suppose one of them is to make the inventory of books in the office... Times like these, I recall the parable of the talents. I need to use the little things that God entrusts me with to glorify Him, then he might entrust me with bigger things. It's not for me to say, "God, why don't You give me something more important to do?" It's all up to Him, and I must keep obeying.
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