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