Paul & Cammy's non-wall from the back

Paul is greatly appreciated at AIM IS. His system administration skills are extraordinary, and he has a genuine “Can do!” attitude. That last attribute is very important since his responsibilities extend well beyond IT. It has been great to see him interact with the people at the hanger, other missionaries in the area, and the Kenyan people. I have walked with him to the local marketplace, and it is amazing to see how many people greet him excitedly. He has great rapport with the guards of their “estate” (don’t let that word fool you; it simply mean a gated community with each yard having its own walls, with side walls shared by neighbors. A “compound,” on the other hand, is walled in, but the individual homes inside are not walled from each other). That rapport with the guards was very important two Sundays ago. We were all awakened about 6 AM by someone knocking at the front gate of Paul & Cammy’s home. I then heard Cammy say, “Our wall is gone!” I looked out a back window and saw that the back wall to their yard was missing – for a couple of minutes I actually thought somebody(s) had taken the blocks since I could not see them. The wall had fallen outward, and because of a slight down slope, the blocks were not visible from my original vantage point. The person knocking at the gate was one of the guards. He was there to let Paul know what had happened. The wall fell between one and two AM (no one in the house heard anything) and the guards had been keeping watch so that nothing would “disappear” from the yard. Paul told me that some of the guards of other estates could have easily been the responsible parties for the “disappearance” of some items. For most people in the U.S. it is hard to understand the importance of having that back wall. Twenty feet behind it is one of the main roads that lead from Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, and the foot traffic is tremendous. Many people here have a different view of what is “fair game” (hence all the walls). Paul had a friend come over to keep watch while he and I went to a church in Mathare (another slum). That was a commitment he felt he had to keep, and it was a blessing. By the time we returned, the guards had moved the block into Paul’s yard and a temporary mabati (corrugated metal) wall was in place. The permanent wall was started Wednesday (Oct. 7). It will be paid for by Paul and Cammy’s landlord. That is good news!