It’s Saturday morning, and so far we have electricity!  Dad & Paul have walked to Kenyatta Market, which is sort of behind the open fruit and vegetable market near here.  There are little stalls where the people here have their small businesses.  Paul goes every Sat. to get his hair cut, mustache trimmed, and his head massaged.  Last Sat. he brought home a man from there to wash the car.  The whole parking lot there is a car wash place.  They ask everyone who parks  there if they can wash your car.  Paul has gone there for a bank and a pharmacy too.  I saw clothing stores, tailors, probably anything you need.  Today Dad said they were going to buy a shovel. Cammy told me that the plan is to put a pole in the ground in the lot across the street because today the sun will be straight overhead, on the equator, and there will be no shadow.   Dad wants to take a picture of that!  Doesn’t that sound like those two??  Dad is also fixing up a shelf for Cammy in the kitchen, and he painted it early this morning; there’s no sleeping in at this house with these two little boys!

On Thursday, we went on an adventure, which also required lots of endurance!  We left here at 5:00am, and didn’t return until 7:30pm!  All of us, plus two other families, caravaned on a long trip to the base of Mt. Kenya.  On the way there, we stopped at a small airport “up country,” as they say.
There was a really neat coffee shop there.  It had a big veranda porch with lots of tables and chairs, with the view of the small planes landing and taking off.  We stayed there quite a while, just talking, and watching the kids on a muddy wooden play structure.  It was good to get out of the city, and see the natural land.. sort of.  It is constantly amazing to me how many people are everywhere!  All along nearly every road there are people with their wares laid out to sell. It doesn’t seem like they could sell enough to make it worth sitting there all day, but they do it every day.  Also, you see a person with a few cows on long ropes, and they just follow them around all day, hoping the cows can find something to eat.  You see women carrying large loads of sticks and wood on their backs, bent way over from the weight.  Also crude wooden carts with men, or oxen or donkeys pulling them.  Just like all the old pictures we’ve seen, but it is happening NOW!  It is so very dry now, but they are hoping for rain in Oct. for the rainy season.

We continued on toward Mt Kenya.  The main road was a little better than most of the other roads, but every so often there would be a large speed bump that everyone had to slow way down for.  The last part was a long dirt road that kept the car rocking the whole time.  We finally came to the entrance of Mt Kenya National Park.  It wasn’t too impressive in any way, I guess mainly because the mountain was shrouded in a misty cloud.  There was a forest there, and some cabins, but only a couple people working inside the entrance building.  We stayed a while, talking again, and then took off on the dirt road again.  After a while on the main road again, we stopped at Silent Valley Creamery.  We were the only visitor-customers, so they pulled out lots of blocks of cheese, and cut off pieces for us to taste.  Everyone bought some, (good cheese is hard to get here) and some yogurt drinks too.  Then, back to the road until we came to the Trout Tree Restaurant.  We all had a very nice lunch there– up in the tree!  Every eating place here seems to have a playground of some sort, so the kids enjoyed that too.

Then, back to the road for hours and hours.  There is no way for me to really give you the experience of what driving here is really like. Paul has become a very adept driver here, but it is like driving an extremely difficult obstacle course for hours and hours without a break!  There are constant potholes– big ones, people just running across the street while cars are coming, cars pushing their way right into traffic when there’s no slowing down, cars driving along on the shoulder of the roads, and passing you.  There is never a time to relax at all!  Then, as we neared the big city, Nairobi, the traffic was solid.  We were stopped for 10 minutes at a time at least 3 times, and only crawling along the rest of the time.  What a relief to get back here!  Paul was beat!  But somehow it was worth it to get to see more open country. Continue reading →

We had heard about it, but living it is reality.  No water on Tues. thru Thurs. so you have to use only what is in their 3 tanks.  Also, no electricity on Tues. Thurs. and Sat.  Of course it goes out here and there all the time.  The crucial thing is the water pump– it needs to be able to pump the water up into the attic tank, from where the water goes down into the pipes.  It is really bad if that goes dry.  Also, things are so expensive — the little Lego sets I brought are double the price here.

Just four houses down from Paul & Cammy’s, there is a duka, (little store, actually just a window in the wall) where Cammy can go to get things like bread, milk, butter, eggs, etc.  She’s always running down there for something.  We’ve been to lots of “Malls” so far too.  It’s interesting.

I have to admit, it was very hard to see so much poverty.   But some things are very much the same in people, no matter what their circumstances.  Cammy has a lot of help from her house helpers, but she teaches them lots of new ways, and she and Paul feel this area is part of their ministry too.   At times she leaves the boys with them, and the boys are very happy to see them, and be with them.  The two women Cammy has are sisters.  They come on alternate days.

Paul and Grandpa went to work at the hanger every day, and it it a full day– leaving at 7:30am, and arriving home at around 5:30pm.  Everyone (Kenyans), tells us that Paul is truly a Kenyan.  One man asked us how he got to be that way, because he said many missionaries don’t relate to them closely like Paul does.  He is nearly fluent in their language–Swahili.

So far, we have been to nearly all the Malls in the area.  Cammy is still such a shopper.  But she is very careful to get the best prices.  She buys all her fresh meat and produce at the outdoor market about 2 blocks from their home.  That means we have to walk out of their estate, a walled, gated, and guarded, (24 hrs. a day) neighborhood. It is still hard for me to do, but I want to go with her.  She has one young guy named, “Sudi” that she gets most of her fruits and vegetables from.  He always gives her a good price, and adds more to her bags.  She must soak everything in bleach water, and let it dry out completely, before we can eat it.  She gets her meat there too, and the first time we went there I was startled, because there were 3 full-bodied, (minus the heads) pigs hanging by a large hook, right in the entrance doorway, to drain the blood on the store floor!  So we went to the regular store to look around for a while, and then went back as they were mopping up the floor.  I have taken pictures everywhere, and Grandpa does too, so we’ll be able to show you all of this.

It’s both so good to be here, and so hard also. The boys are lots of fun; Petr is so enjoyable to talk with, and Andrej is so funny and constantly physical– either punching and hitting or snuggling; and still feeling moles!

We were gone from here from 9:15am to 5:30pm. It was truly a day of enduring, but also a very special day. Paul was preaching for both services at a church in a large slum. He had a different message for each service. They sat us all in the first row, and there didn’t seem to be any separation between services. So we sat there from 9:30am to 1:15pm! The whole day was an amazing cultural experience. We drove into the slum on a raised, muddy, one lane dirt road, with water ditches on each side, and little makeshift “stores” lining the road. And there were so many people everywhere! There are very few cars there, so we had to drive through crowds of people. There are large piles of trash here and there with goats eating stuff from them, and some children picking too. We parked right next to the front of the church, which was just on the side of the road. It was constructed mostly of corrugated metal, and wood. Inside, the floor was swept dirt, and the “stage” area was just a 6″ high wooden frame of scrap wood on the ground, and filled with more dirt, and covered with very old, used linoleum. But! They had an excellent sound system– LOUD! The guy on the keyboard was so, so good, and they held the microphone for him to sing too! I know Bob would really enjoy having him to visit and lead worship at Horizon. He is such a good worship leader, he could hold his own in any church, anywhere. And they sang songs we knew, so we were able to truly worship our Lord; as one with all those people.

Paul’s messages were so very good in every way. He’s very good at working with an interpreter; it just flows between the two. He wove personal experiences into lessons with scriptures that proved his points. I felt very convicted, and encouraged, and determined to change some things in me. Paul is truly not at all hindered by the things of this world, and since I know his heart is truly for following the Lord’s leading no matter what it costs him, I was even more convicted. That isn’t to say that I want Paul to be this way, because I want them HOME! The side interest of the services was the many chickens who joined us in the church. One was even taking a dust bath in a hole in the ground! At one point, a couple of them flew up onto a table in the front, and knocked the offering bags off.

After the two services, we were shown into the “office,” and offered a choice of drinks, which they then went to get. Everyone is so friendly, and polite, and pleased to meet you. They truly honor you. The children are so curious to see us and shake our hands, and loved it when we were taking their picture.

THEN we drove within the slum, to a home where we were invited for a meal. The entire “home’ was the size of an average bedroom. Somehow we all fit in there, and were served a meal with at least 10 or 12 different items that they prepared. Amazing! But we sat there on very hard seats for hours and hours, talking and answering questions, until we finally left at 5pm. We needed to go on a brisk walk, three times around the compound here, to feel better, when we got back.