Second Week in Makutano – More cleanup and greeting friends

 

We started off the week with the boys deciding they wanted to get the old cruiser running. That was a job, because it hadn’t been driven in a while, and had an issue with the battery. They worked on the battery terminal, then chained the old cruiser behind the new one, and worked for several house to drift or pull start it. I can’t tell you how many trips they made across the compound. Our house is higher in elevation, so they’d start by our garage and drag it down to the church, again and again. They were having a good time, and laughed and joked as they worked. Finally, they did get it started! Victory!!

Hellen did laundry, the girls did more cleaning and airing of the house/furniture, and the children started on their schoolwork for the week.

Jotham

Jeremiah decided he ought to teach Jerusha to operate Quickbooks for the mission, so they started on that. It is an overwhelming job right now! The program is not up-to-date because we haven’t had a missionary living here, and the visitors didn’t know how to do it. So that means 2 to 3 years of receipts/etc. to record. They got started anyway…

The beginning of a long job...

Late this afternoon Grace stopped in with two of her children, Rehema and Jonathon. Rehema is the 3^rd youngest, and Jonathon is the youngest. He is 4 years old. We had a short and sweet visit. It was so GOOD to see Grace again!

On Tuesday we did a lot of outdoor cleanup. Hosea pays someone to trim and mow, and we’re glad for that or this place would be a jungle. But there were piles of cuttings here and there, and the garden was totally unkept. A lot of the compound just needed picked up. Micaiah took charge of the cleanup, and they even mowed the garden. Soon there was this HUGE pile of brush in the garden. We were all a little nervous about burning it, because it is so dry right now. They decided it would be better to burn it in the evening when the dew had fallen, so it’s waiting.

Jeremiah trimmed the hedge by the walkway coming into the house. It was so tall that the security cameras were being blocked from yard activity. It looks pretty bad right now, but it will look better in the next month or so!  Tabbie decided to do her math outside today. Jerusha was just soaking up sunshine! The younger children enjoyed playing in this tree. They climb up quite a ways and made a little nest for themselves!

See the laiso(Kenyan blanket) nest?

Jerusha laying among the trimmings.

This is Wednesday. The rest of group from the states was supposed to arrive today at the mission. We got word yesterday morning that Jonathon Pifer and Alan Meyers were on their way, but Merle and the Lichtenberger family got held up because their covid tests did not come back. We had already sent Andrew in the cruiser to Nairobi to bring them all back before we got that news.

We ladies all went down to the lower house today to clean it for the rest of the crew from America. We have 13 in our house, and every bed is full. This house will have 10 people, and also be full. We decided that this lower house didn’t get much cleaning. It was a lot of work to make it liveable, and plenty of traces of rats. I learned some things about rats today!  Rats love candle wax, and can eat cloth, plastic or thin metals. They decimated a box of crayons, but left all the purple and shades of purple behind. Maybe purple has a bad taste? We pulled the gas stove out, and cleaned around, behind, and under it. I also cleaned the grill drawer in the bottom of the stove. We moved some of the beds and a closet, and made the beds. I headed up to make supper while the girls finished. Corina and Bethany found a rat that was live and well. They wanted the boys to come down and kill it, but it got away. Oh boy...

Jeremiah and I went shopping to Makutano today, and stopped at Kapenguria Supermarket. I got a few things for us, and basic items for stocking the lower house. I was in the kitchen utensils aisle in my shopping mind, thinking of how I could improve our kitchen. Suddenly I felt like I wasn’t alone, like there was an intruder. I caught sight of something grey out of the corner of my eye, and thought of a mouse or rat. I really jumped and my heart pounded. When I realized it was a cat sleeping there on top of the packs of stainless steel forks and spoons, I just laughed. Then a store employee walked up and I had to explain. He just smiled politely. No problem. This is the store cat, I guess!

My surprise...

This evening Alan and Jonathon arrived by matatu (taxi). They thought it better to just come than to wait another 2 days there for the rest of the crew. It was exciting to welcome them, and we had supper at our house. Also this evening, the boys burnt the pile of brush in the shamba(garden). They watered around it pretty well, and there was only a few places where they had to carry water to extinguish flames. Most of us are thankful. A few probably could have enjoyed a runaway fire.

On Thursday morning Alan and Jonathon had quite a time getting breakfast. They just couldn’t get the stove to work. Jeremiah went down to help them to hook up the gas to it, but it still wouldn’t work. They ended up taking apart the top of the stove, and they found it FULL of rat nests. Ugggg… After cleaning that out, I think it finally worked. Also, they told us how they found and killed a rat before they went to sleep last night. Hopefully that is the end of rats for them! I don’t think Charity will want to deal with rat boarders.

The men enjoyed visiting a lot today. They visited here with Jeremiah, and also other friends in Makutano.

I took this picture of evening feet washing because I remember this evening ritual from years ago, and it was fun to see them do it again. Now they are bigger with only 2 at a time, but they still enjoy doing this together.

On Friday some of “our boys” stopped by to see us. Dickson Kalasia and Cyprian Ambuli Amaswache came for a couple of hours. We really enjoyed seeing them, catching up, and then we took some pictures. Dickson actually lived with us for a year and a half, so he feels like a member of our family, calling us Dad and Mom. Then we got some family pictures.

In the evening the Land Cruiser arrived with Merle Sweitzer and the Lichtenberger family. Such joy! We have waited for this so long!! We had supper together at our house. It is so good to have the entire African Mission Board together in Kenya. It’s never happened before, and we look forward to 2 weeks together.

Greetings!

These were our first neighborhood friends to visit.
They are making themselves right at home, crawling in the flowerbeds!

The American children were a little shy at first, but it didn’t take long. And this crew can make noise! Our children and Andy and Charity’s are good friends.

Card games before supper.

Corina serving chai.

The African Mission Board in Kenya!

Hanging out on the verandah

The first agenda on Saturday was working on the solar well. It hasn’t operated to give water to the community for the past 4 months, so the men pulled the pump to figure out what was wrong. It was fun to watch them work together, and there were plenty of jokes.

Pulling the pipes of the well (with the cruiser)
 to get the pump out. The well is behind me!

Together, we can do this!

This is the view from the south of the new hospital below the mission compound.

And this is the pump!  Jeremiah worked in well drilling when he was a teen, and he
had never seen a pump like this.

We ladies prepared a picnic to take to the pines, but the well project was moving slowly and they couldn’t just let it laying all over the ground. So the men agreed that Andy and Jeremiah should go picnic with their families, and the other 3 would work replacing the pump.

We took our picnic to “The Pines”, a place very familiar to anyone who’s served here. Everything looked so different with the construction on that road that we had a hard time finding the spot. We passed it, and had to hike quite a LONG ways back before we found the familiar, shady, relaxing, piney spot where we always used to go.

Such a long walk over rugged ground.

It's there! We see it!

We made it. Such a soft, cool place to sit.

We were eating, and communicating with the older 3 boys about what was happening, and they drove right up to where we sat. They didn’t have any trouble locating it!  We were happy to see them, but a little annoyed at the same time.  We ate tuna salad sandwiches, carrots, cookies, and quencher (Kenyan Koolaide). It was so late by now (5pm) that it really wasn’t enough food. Oh well, I was planning to make soup for supper.

The 3 late-comers who'd been working away for the day.

Taking the "shortcut" down to the road.

Waiting for the 2nd cruiser to get down to the road.

We loaded everyone in the 2 cruisers and headed back to the mission. I don’t know when to mention this, because it is every day’s struggle, but the solar was just barely working when it was just our house, and now with both houses, it is totally helpless. We run the generator most evenings so that we have lights, and enjoy a pot of coffee while it's running.  Everyone is boiling water for dishes, and baths, which are mostly "sponge baths" or Kenyan showers.

On Sunday we went to Kapkisei, a church on top of Mt. Elgon which takes 2 and a half hours in good weather to reach. This is dry season, so it is good weather! We really enjoyed the drive up here today, and got lots of pictures.

The river, and water hole.

Children getting water.

Notice that the red dirt covers the trees. It's really dry.

We had to stop and rejoice over this bridge which was finished now.  We reminisced about when there was just 2 split logs over this chasm, and we all got out to walk over, then we prayed out loud while Jeremiah drove the cruiser over.  Amazing!

It was a very nice service. Micaiah interpreted into English for Pastor Nelson, and Andrew interpreted into Swahili for Jeremiah when he was preaching. Afterward we visited for a while as the ladies finished making lunch. The valley is really foggy from dust during the dry season. It was actually nice and warm, and we didn’t worry about rain at all, so different for here.

The church chicken.

Pastor Nelson sharing, 
Micaiah interpreting.

Jeremiah preaching,
Andrew interpreting.

This sand pile was in the back of the church.
They said it was for making a cement floor when they were able to do that.
The chicken had her nest on top of it!

The church building.

The kitchen where they were cooking lunch.

The valley was hazy because of the dusty, dry season.

Corina made a friend.

Our lunch was delicious – chicken, rice, potatoes, cabbage, and chapati. They kept filling our plates with more food until we thought we would burst! Then they brought soda around for everyone. Wow! We are being treated like royalty today. When we thought we were finished, they served us chai!

Serving us food. The closer one is 
Phanice, Pastor Nelson's wife.

We were all very hungry.  Breakfast was many hours ago!

A special treat, soda!

And of course, good Mt. Elgon chai
to finish it off!  

A neighbor lady saw Melita playing with her chicken, and so she gave it to her. Later she gave another one to Jotham. The children were very happy, and held their chickens on their laps until they’d each pooped. Thank God for baby wipes!  I wasn’t going to put up with that kind of cleanup for 3 hours, so I said they had to go under the seat. Melita wasn’t happy with that at all, and insisted that the peeping sounds were the chicks crying! We told her that they were just talking to each other.

A town center.

Jotham holding his chick which he calls, Thunder.

It was a fun ride back home, though it was almost 4 before we left. Micaiah was driving, and the vehicle was full with our 13, and then 2 ladies asked for a ride also. We laughed and sang, and they laughed. Surely they must think wazungu(white people) are crazy. Our boys bought 10 cabbages (because they are everywhere in stacks and are 10 shillings each) and got only 9. Later we were following a canter (small box truck) and one of his cabbages rolled out. Micaiah stopped and Andrew ran to rescue it. We all laughed until our sides ached, and the Sabaot ladies were very entertained!

The back of the cruiser.

A permanent house (made of brick).

The beautiful hazy valley.

Melita enjoying her chick before it went under the seat.
She calls it Sadie.

We stopped in Chwele (at the base of Mt. Elgon) to see Colly’s Electrical shop. (He is another of Pastor Hosea's sons.) He wasn’t there, but we got to watch the town for a while.

These children are carrying sugar cane, grown much in all of Western Kenya.

Pastor Hosea's house in Misikhu.

Mama Mike was outside
 doing chores. 

Jeremiah talking to Fred.

After that we stopped to see Mama Mike at their house. I just thought that I couldn’t pass by and go home when we were within 10 minutes of her house. She was delighted to welcome us! We sang and prayed, then she served us chai. It was another hour and 15 minutes before we got home, and we drove in dusk, which is when the roads are full of people going home. All the "traffic" was clearing off as we drove into Makutano. We got home at 7:45, then went down to the lower house for a light supper with the rest of the mission group. It was fun to tell stories from our day. Each of the 5 men had gone to a different church, so their were 5 stories at least! Merle had dropped his Bible off the back of the piki piki(motorcycle), and his wife saw on the Dunkard Mission facebook that someone found and listed it there! Merle went to get his Bible and had a good conversation with the man who found it. He was a Christian and a pastor. That was a complete miracle, and Merle was jubilant telling the story! A very special Sunday in Kenya.