Can ya believe we’re in Kenya?!

Greetings from Kenya, Subscriber First Name!

It’s been a minute - we are so sorry we are just now updating you! The past month has been a whirlwind of transition and learning (which no doubt will continue) in our new home. With any free moment I think, “I should start that update…” and then a more pressing need arises or my head simply hits the pillow in exhaustion.

30 hours of traveling later and we made it to Nairobi!

This week marks our fourth week in Kenya, and we are just beginning to get into a daily groove. We are definitely not settled yet - we just got our furniture - whoo! For the past month our house only had mattresses on the floor, and some wooden chairs we borrowed. But slowly we are figuring out how to do life here.

Our main focus over these past few weeks has been slowly figuring out how to set up our new house, accomplish basic tasks like getting groceries, and diving into learning Swahili. Each day is full of figuring out how to accomplish something new.

Our new home! We live in the right side of this newly built duplex.

Here’s a sample of what we’ve learned this past month":

How to travel around the world and adjust to a very different time zone with two young kids!
How to get new Kenyan phone numbers and Uber around Nairobi
How to shop, purchase, and ship furniture from a local artisan in Nairobi to our new home in Kapsowar
How to get rid of a sewage smell in our house when we arrive (plumbing is done a bit differently here to say the least)
How to use and wash cloth diapers with Sage (which makes us SO grateful to have a washing machine)
How to order groceries from the store (90 minutes away) and have them sent here by matatu (local bus)
How to get internet in our home
How to bleach all our produce so it is safe to eat
How to interpret Kenyan phrases like “What about my lunch?” as meaning “Can I have a tip?”
How to acquire materials needed to paint our house
How to fix a leaky toilet and sink multiple times in a week
How to say basic phrases and greetings in Swahili

Heading into town with a baby on my back! First time in Africa with my kids, and while kids keep you busy on any continent - it’s been fun living this experience as a mom now.

These may seem like silly small things, but doing them in an unfamiliar context with limited resources is a big learning curve. But thankfully, many people speak English here which has made communicating and figuring out how to do things much easier. Kenyans are extremely gracious with all our blunders as we adapt to our new surroundings.

You can read the full story of what this journey has been like on the blog, but in short here’s a quick recap of what our days look like:

1: We’ve been surviving.

Okay, that sounds dramatic I know, ha! We are far from living in a mud home, and have many conveniences of modern life - such as internet, a washing machine and hot water - such huge wins! But some things also take us much longer - such as washing dishes by hand, hanging the clothes on the line, transporting filtered water to our home, working on much slower internet, and using cloth diapers. Not to mention, life with two young children in your home culture is busy enough! So each day we are settling into a routine and learning what our new rhythms will be.

So much dirt to play with. Plus a digger?! Micah’s dream!

All the girls here are quick to take care of little Sage :)

2: We’ve been setting up our new home.

We are grateful for our new house, which is one side of a duplex. It has three rooms and a wide open space that is the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Who knew we’d have granite counters in Kenya?! However, getting furniture isn’t as simple as ordering online. You CAN get imported furniture here from the States - but you will pay anywhere from 3-5K for a simple couch. So we opted to have local artisans make our furniture. A lengthier process that requires more patience, but you also get to (mostly) pick what you want! And if you follow me on Instagram - you saw that apparently deliveries can happen at 2am?!

We decided to paint the interior of our house. Adios, creamy yellow. Hello, neutral grey!

3: We’ve been problem solving.

Each day presents new challenges we are slowly learning to figure out. From fixing plumbing issues (we have woken up to a flooded bathroom and kitchen over the past two weeks), to figuring out how to get our solar batteries to work, to understanding how to get groceries. Everything is a learning curve, but we are grateful for the families who are already here that have helped orient us to how things get done and who to contact when we need help.

Nevertheless, I am learning patience in getting the things we want or need, as my natural impulse is for two day shipping 😉. I went into town the other day and it was an hour and a half of walking to various stores to find the right lightbulb. I never did find the one I needed, but the electrician was able to cut a larger hole in the ceiling to fit the one I could find. So when something can’t be found, Kenyans show us how to be resourceful.

Our first walk into town our first day in Kapsowar. Micah demanded his shirt come off which made all the Kenyans laugh, as they love to bundle their kids up very warmly. Everyone was concerned he was freezing!

4: We’ve been learning Swahili.

Our biggest goal for the next few months is learning Swahili. We are grateful Serge requires us to get language under our belt before Jack starts officially working at the hospital. Currently, we have a wonderful teacher, Beatrice, who spends her mornings teaching us with the methods we learned during our training in Colorado. She is actually a former teacher for preschoolers! Such a win because she loves teaching and we are speaking like preschoolers. Beatrice is kind, encouraging, and loves Jesus. We are so grateful to have her in our home each day.

Daily Swahili lessons with our wonderful teacher, Beatrice. Kris, our teammate with Serge, is also joining in.

There is MUCH more to say, so I’ve written a much longer recap with many more photos on the past four weeks on our blog. Trying to update our Instagram stories pretty frequently too!

New Blog Updates

Tue, Jun 13

We Made it to Kenya!

Wow.

What a whirlwind the past month has been. I have no idea where to begin or even summarize all that’s happened since we boarded our flight out of San Francisco and moved to Kenya. My brain is

Wed, May 31

My Turn to Say Goodbye

By Jack Strutner

Well, the time has finally come. It has been a dream, come into reality, that we have moved to Kenya. This dream has taken so much preparation, so many years of schooling, so many

Follow us on Instagram @thestrutners

I post much more frequently to our stories here so you can see what we are up to each day! Linked with this photo is a quick video recap of a few moments from this past month.

Many, many thanks for your prayers, support, and love. They do not go unnoticed. Despite the inevitable chaos of such a huge transition, I think living here has been easier and more enjoyable than anticipated! There are many moments during our time here thus far where I just feel unbelievably grateful - it feels like a dream come true to be here and apart of such beautiful work. Thank you for being apart of this journey with us!

THESTRUTNERS.INFO

Prayer Needs

For grit and determination as we fumble our way through learning Swahili
For health as our immune system encounters many new challenges here

You can still text us!

If you have an iPhone, you can still text us, but instead of using texting our normal US numbers, text our emails instead (reganstrutner@gmail.com, jackstrutner@gmail.com)
You can message us if you have WhatsApp (Regan: +1-954-560-1501, Jack +1-831-419-3842)
Or, you can still text message Regan at her US number, although the reply will be a bit slower as it is through Google Voice now.