Life at the Mission - Week 1

 

Life at the Mission – Week 1

Our first day, Tuesday January 26, was consumed with cleaning house and getting organized. The house wasn’t nearly as bad as two years ago, but it needed general cleaning, and our crew was happy to work together to make it happen. The boys worked on the mission surveillance system, which meant they spent a lot of time upstairs. But, of course, there was time for recreation also.

Tabbie cleaning the kitchen.

Bethany sweeping the living room.

Corina mopping.

Time for silly fun.

Working on the surveillance system upstairs.

I thought a lot about food and meals, and spent some time making a shopping list, now that I knew what was and wasn’t in the house.

  It felt VERY relaxing after the strain we all have been under for the last month or more. I enjoyed watching the children play and rediscover the mission house and our immediate compound. It was so good to let them be free to run!

On Wednesday Hellen came with Sharon to do laundry. I hadn’t heard about Sharon’s baby, a sweet little girl called Ladashah. She is 4 months old now, and makes me think of Sharon when she was little. Yes, I remember Sharon as a baby. She was 6 months old when we came here in June of 2002! It also made me sad to think of Sharon repeating her mother’s life, and giving the same “gift” to her daughter – fatherlessness. But how do you get them out of this rut? We certainly have more to do in this area, and yes, I know it’s a problem all over the world. Hellen and Sharon had a LOT of laundry to do. We (12 people)left home a week ago tomorrow! They only got through about half of it, and I decided it was enough for one day.

The clean clothes!

Sharon and Ladashah

Hellen scrubbing clothes.

Jeremiah and I went to Makutano for groceries, and a few fresh vegetables. I was able to buy my favorite rice – Daawat! We had a big pan of fluffy rice with beef chunks in soup this evening!

Rice as it ought to be!

Daawat rice

On Thursday morning Hellen and Sharon came again
 to do laundry.  It was fun watching Melita get acquainted
 with Sharon and Ladashah.

The guys did paperwork/finances from the trip, especially our time in Nairobi. Later in the day several of us took a quick trip to Kitale for electrical supplies and food stuff.

This is what happens when everybody is hungry for pineapples! Bethany called and asked if it was okay for them to get some, and at the same time Jeremiah was on another street buying 3 more!  And yes, we will eat all of those bananas. Our children think they are only worthy of eating here in Kenya. And the mangoes, everybody is THRILLED!

On Friday morning the guys decided they wanted to have nyama choma(meat roasted over a fire). We had seen that Kapenguria Supermarket has a bakery, deli and a butchery. Amazing!  And the price of the meat isn’t much different than the local, small butcheries. So Jeremiah and I ran to Makutano for meat, and some things in the market. I even snapped a few pictures…

The deli, and the butchery is to the right.

The bread aisle. They make cakes and muffins also.  The place always smells amazing!

Papaya

Spinach, souja, onions and tomatoes.

The leg of goat for supper!

I was thrilled to bring home papaya, spinach and souja(a bitter greens that we cook and eat with a half cup of cream. Believe me, it is delicious!) And the guys were all impressed with this goat leg…

For supper, we made spinach, chapati, and  Kachumbari (salsa).  Andrew was in charge of roasting the meat out in our gazebo. The younger boys worked for a good portion of the day cleaning out the gazebo so they could do this! And the older boys ran to Makutano for soda, because I guess you must have soda with nyama choma. It was a fun Friday night!

Melita loved helping fry chapati.

Spinach, our greens this time.

Our happy tableful!

Yum!  It was delicious!

On Saturday morning, Louis came to visit. Louis is an old friend of Micaiah and Andrews from years ago when we were here. He joined the boys in working on the surveillance system while the girls did cleaning and helped prepare to go on a picnic. Micaiah and Bethany left early for the picnic spot on the piki piki (motorcycle).

Micaiah, Louis, and Andrew - all grown up

Work on the cameras from the office.

We had our outing close to some cell towers a few hills away from the mission. It’s an out-of-the-way place with a great overlook. Louis went along with us, and we had a great time!

We had lunch first under some fir trees.

Then we hiked to the top of the hill where the cell towers were located.

Starting here.

Jotham and Melita found a lizard
and had a lot of fun playing with it.

We got some cute pictures of them.

Here we are at the top!

We saw a lot of trees like this.  The guys said
that the locals use the pitch like glue.

  

You can see amazingly far from this point.  This country is so beautiful!

I zoomed in on a compound for this picture.

On our way back to the mission, we saw a very old friend from the first time we came to Kenya in 1998. His name is Alfred Wanga or most people call him Kazi Bure (It's a story that goes back to his younger years. This guy is around 60 and is a hard worker. He had cement on his eyebrow and was on his way home from work). Jeremiah pulled off the road and got out to greet him. He was terrifically excited to meet us.

Dear Alfred...

On Sunday we went to Makutano church, here on the mission compound. It was so nice to walk in the warm/hot sunshine to church. We really enjoyed the service, and everyone stayed around afterward to visit for a long time.

Some of us had afternoon naps, and then we made soft pretzels and a big fruit salad for supper. It was a fun evening.

Making soft pretzels

On To Makutano!

 

We took a bit to get around the next morning in Nairobi. Then we sat and waited for Andrew who had run some errand. Micaiah and Bethany walked to a local shop and bought yogurt and crackers to help those who were hungriest. I also pulled out a few left overs from the bakery in Germany, and those disappeared too. It was wonderful to watch the hot sun come up, and we sat outside soaking it up as long as our winter-toughened bodies could tolerate the heat.  It was noon before we hit the road for Nakuru.

We stopped at a Java House for our breakfast. It was located in a mall, and most people wore masks (at least on their chins). When you entered the Java House an attendant took your temperature, and another one squirted a liquid that smelled of alcohol into your hands. Not bad, but the funny thing was that every time you left that shop and either went to the restroom, or to your vehicle, or to get money from an ATM, then reentered Java House, you went through the same routine of the temp check and hand sanitizing. It made us chuckle. It’s almost like you might leave and catch corona, then bring it with you 10 minutes later! Another thing, the children commented that the person doing the temp check (with the gunlike thermometer) didn’t even pay attention to what it said. We laughed at how they’d test whatever skin was closest and available. We offered our wrists, but other people had it done on their arm, forehead, back of the hand, or neck! Of course, we didn’t really care. Everybody was smiling and friendly. We had a delicious brunch. A few of us ordered “African coffee”. As soon as Jeremiah and I tasted it, we looked at each other and laughed. We’d forgotten what that meant here. It was instant coffee! For those who don’t know us, we’re pretty fussy about our coffee. We buy green coffee beans and I roast them, so this was a joke on us! We imagined what a laugh Jeremiah’s mother would have if she heard, because we have this on going joke with her over Maxwell (instant) vs “Pot coffee”. Java House does serve some really good coffee. We ended our meal with a Malindi Macchiato and a couple other cappuccinos. Delicious!

We enjoyed the road to Nakuru, though Andrew took us by the partial valley route, with which we aren’t as familiar. It was beautiful, even if Kenya is a bit yellow, being in the dry season. We saw all the regular road sights, and laughed and talked as we rode along. Zebras were in their regular spot near Naivasha, so we were happy to see them also. We arrived at Luke and Jamila’s place in Nakuru at about 6:30 or 7pm. We did greetings, and then they served us a tasty meal of haystacks outside on their newly “paved” area around a campfire. It was great to catch up with them again, and our children quickly reacquainted and played some rousing yard games. After lots of “missionary stories” our girls and Micaiah’s went to their rooms, and we headed to their guesthouse to sleep for the night. It was a pretty little place down the road a bit from them. 

Melita must have felt insecure without her car seat.
  She asked her Dad to be buckled!

Melita was miserably tired, and really fussy. I decided to make a floor bed for her in our room, and she didn’t like that at all. It didn’t qualify as a bed in her world I guess, but she lay down and was asleep in only a few minutes. I made coffee for the boys, and we visited a bit, then called Seth and Hosanna to chat with them. They were ready to take a nap, and it was 11pm here. (It’s an 8 hour time difference right now.) We had a decent night of sleep, and woke up fairly early. We made our own breakfast in the kitchen, which was a bit of a challenge. I fried plain scrambled eggs and we ate taco bean dip (prepared by one of the CAM ladies for us) over them. We also had bars and passion fruit and mango.  It was pretty good, but different! We went back to Kurtz’ to pick up the rest of the crew and were on the road by 10.

What a beautiful drive! We sang part of the time, happy to be together, and happy to be back in Kenya.  The only downside to the trip was two flat tires, but we hardly noticed.  It was just nice to get out and stretch our legs!  We stopped in Eldoret to do shopping for a while, and poor Corina had an issue with the ATM when she was attempting to get money from her account. The machine ate her card! What a disappointing start here. She had to call home and get Dad to cancel the card, and then decide if it was worth it to try to get a new card to Merle or one of the other board members before they leave the US in a week. They finally decided to just let it go. 

The road from Kitale to Makutano was surprisingly good. When we crossed into West Pokot (our county) there was a place where everyone was required to get out of their vehicles and wash hands, have their temperatures taken, and then get back into the vehicle. We were stiff from sitting for so long, and didn’t care to get out here, when home was so close. Andrew got out and was washing his hands, talking to the guy, and we slowly started to climb out. Suddenly Andrew came back to the vehicle, “You don’t have to get out,” he said. “I talked to him and told him you are all one family.” Whew! We’d already done the hard part, but we happily climbed back in. We were amazed at all the lights of Makutano as we rounded the hill coming up to the town. The place had grown, and there were so many street lights now. It still had plenty of potholes in the road though. That felt right homey! We pulled into the mission and the nightguard came running to open the gate. We were so thankful to be here!

We stumbled out of the cruiser, stretching and breathing in the wonderful familiar air of Makutano. Then I noticed a medium white car down the hill toward the gazebo, and Hosea was coming to greet us. What a happy surprise! I started laughing at Andrew. “That’s why you didn’t want to stop in Kitale for supper!” I teased him. “You knew your Dad was here waiting for us” I had been fretting a bit about what we’d ever do for supper. I was bringing food, but it was already around 8pm, and we were all hungry. He grinned. Everyone greeted Hosea in the traditional Kenyan way. To those unfamiliar with greetings here, it involves a lot of handshaking, hugging on one side, then the other, with much sighing, some moaning, and a few prayers of blessing and thanksgiving. Jotham must have forgotten this part of Kenya. He whispered to me and his Dad, ”This is kinda weird!” Greetings took a full half hour, and we all stood around enjoying Hosea’s joy at each person’s presence. He did pretty good with the names also, and was thoroughly amazed at how big some of the children had become.

Kenyan greetings...

Such joy to meet again!

 

Finally we had the keys and began unloading everything into the house. Hosea apologized about the condition of the house. He and Hellen(and her daughter, Sharon), he said, had cleaned it. But he wasn’t sure if it was acceptable. I assured him it was fine, and we would take care of the rest. He left then to sleep in another bed on the compound. Everybody was excited, but there was also a lot of work to do. I rather forgot about food for awhile, and gave directions on how the bedrooms ought to be arranged for sleep. For some reason, all the beds for the boys and girls rooms were in the wrong room. Jeremiah wanted me to just switch their rooms, but the purple one is larger, and the girls needed more beds because of Melita sleeping in the crib. It was a pain to tear all the beds apart, for sure. In the end we were much happier with it because the boys are closer to the hall door and don’t have to pass the girls’ room. Besides, that’s the way they’ve always slept here! 

Time to dig in!

The aftermath.

Andrew and Micaiah decided to go find supper for us, and I was so grateful to have them take care of it. They took off in the cruiser and soon came back with food from Calabash, the hotel only a quarter mile away. They brought beef in soup, chicken in soup, cabbage, greens, and 30 chapati! Everyone was thrilled. We were hungry for a good, traditional meal!  It didn’t take long to discipline (as we say here) that array of food. There were only a few chapati left!

We were all so thankful that Cindy had taken the time to organize the sheets of the mission. I was able to point each person or couple people to the right stack of sheets, and most everybody made their own bed. Yes, it felt amazing to climb in after all the travel. We were home!!