April 27, 2007
Kenya has entered the season of the long rains. Along with the rains come all manner of insects. The one pictured above is a Nairobi eye. If you squish it, it's alkali body fluids will give you a severe chemical burn. Bugs like this are why in Africa you brush bugs off of you instead of swatting them. There are 20 on the ceiling right now, but they are just a nuisance, not a big problem. It's not like this all year either.
I wrote the paragraph above yesterday. Today I went to the doctor with a swollen eye. The diagnosis? Nairobi eye! Two antibiotics, ibuprofen, and an antihistamine prescribed to keep it from becoming a problem.
April 19, 2007
As you can tell, the house is moving very rapidly. We are waiting on the sheet metal for the roof. Then the windows and doors will be installed and the house will be "dried in." As our teams from Fellowship of Christian Optometrists, Grace Bible Church and Lighthouse Chapel come, they can help finish out the inside. We are really looking forward to the teams arrivals.
April 19, 2007
We have just returned from Mombassa, Kenya where Linda and I went with the crew pictured here. In the picture you see (front row) Johanna's friend Julie, our daughter Jessie. In the back row are Johanna, Jessie's friends Amanda and Veronica.
We saw the famous Baobab trees (that's Jessie in front of one)
We toured the old town of Mombassa (I hated it, the kids loved it) and Ft. Jesus, which was built by the Portuguese. The kids had a good time there, too.
I enjoyed getting a lot of studying done while the others played on the beach (I never have cared much for the beach). One of the highlights of the trip for me was developing a friendship and sharing my testimony with our driver, Ali. He listened very attentively. He has become a friend and we look forward to our next contact with him.
March 31, 2007
Nyumba anendelea- "The house is coming along." Linda is talking with Peter Ruegg about the details of our house. Peter is the Vice-principal for Administration at Moffat and also the architect for our house.
The ring beam has been poured now, and the upper half story can begin. Before long the house will be dried in and our teams will be able to come out to help finish out the inside. Grace Bible Church in Bellville, TX and Lighthouse Chapel, in Masillon, OH are planning to send teams to help us finish the house. We really appreciate their enthusiasm and are looking forward to seeing them soon!
We had a small problem as the stones were being laid. The baboons thought we were building a playground for them and were swinging around on the freshly laid pillars. They knocked down the pillar in the picture above and it had to be redone. We'll have to own a dog to keep the baboons from being a nuisance.
The little monkeys in the picture are not the baboons who caused the problem. They are Erica and Emily Saunders. We get to be "Granma Linda" and "Grandpa Kevin" to them. Their parents do a fantastic job running the motel here at Kijabe where we are currently staying. We had a great time together today as we watched them. They have a baby brother who was just born yesterday, so we kept the girls while mom and dad got adjusted.
March 5-20, 2007 Cheptebo Home Stay
On the way to Cheptebo, we crossed the equator INTO THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE where I have lived all the rest of my life. It was weird and a little disorienting.
On the road (which was in good shape once we got past Nakuru and not that bad on the way there) to Cheptebo we saw baboons, zebra and Linda saw a tortise.
Farther south, they sell fruit along the roads. Here they sell local honey in old whiskey bottles.
For our second home stay, we stayed at the Africa Inland Church's Agricultural Demonstration Farm. The church has developed a farm that demonstrates efficient and inexpensive ways of watering, has developed hardier and more productive fruit trees through grafting (like the mangos grafted on lemon stock above) and so on. All this benefits the community greatly. They also have a conference center there.
Joseph and Sally Kimeli were our hosts and they treated us so kindly. We lived in our own home and had a beautiful, restful view of the Kerio Valley and the surrounding mountains. Cheptebo is down in the valley, but it is still at an elevation of 4059 ft.
They had quite an agenda worked out for us participating with the local church and pastors. I preached several times and did a lot of visiting. We saw a number of people make professions of faith.
I also had the chance to give devotionals to several groups of World Vision workers. These were very well received. As part of the conference center ministry, the center provides devotionals for the groups that come. I also shared during an evangelistic outreach and at the local school, and staff devotionals several times.
One night after supper, our host, Joseph asked me about my Spirit Raiser 2006 t-shirt from Southway Church. Raising spirits means something entirely different here!
The stereotypes of Africa are here. Termite mounds and grass roofed huts (built by the Turkana in this case). However, we were constantly surprised at how clean this part of Kenya was. Poverty is everywhere. So is an entrepreneurial spirit and hard work.
The children seem to all be beautiful. Viola (age 13 but looking much younger- on the right in the picture above, the other girl is Jemaiyo) dropped by one day. I was taking a nap and they came up peeking in my window and said, "Paszalek, hello! Where is Madam (Linda)?" I directed them to the front door and they came in and visited for a while.
The old people are beautiful too. This lady is nearly 100 years old. She's sitting on the floor of her house so that Linda and I could sit in the only two chairs.
Lucy, an eighth grade girl (on the right above) who needed money for her national exams came by today to help us with language study as a way of earning the 500 shillings ($7.20) she needed. She was so cute. Every time Linda wrote something down, Lucy would bend over close to the page to see what Linda was writing. We all enjoyed it. Other children ended up coming by so we had about 8 other kids here as well at one time. We practice on them: "Darasa nani?" What grade are you? "Uko na miaki mingapi?" "How many years do you have?" "Umeokoka? "Are you saved?" We have made progress in language study but we need to be more disciplined in this.
John has been exploring the Kerio valley and the mountains with his friend Major. He also borrowed a bike and has been trying to keep in shape that way. He and Linda have taken some stunning wildlife photos. We are trying to figure out how to best show them to you.
February, 2007 Nderu Home Stay
This has been home for us over the last couple of weeks. We are living with Stephen and Salome Mariga in Nderu.
Where is Nderu? It is Latitude -1.14429 Longitude 36.60100. If you have a map of Kenya, it is somewhat near Limuru, which is on the main road from Nairobi to Kijabe.
This comfortable home has electricity and running water, but no phone lines (they keep getting stolen). Cell phones work though.
Stephen and Salome, their house worker, Grace, and their daughter in law, Lucy have done everything possible to make us comfortable.
We've had a few emotionally difficult times while we've been here, but for me at least, these have caused me to bond more with the Kenyans around us, and the Lord has brought us through.
Nderu (same name as the town- he is descended from the chief the town is named for) was one of our language helpers in Nderu. We had to be careful or he would give us "shang" (a slang mixture of Kiswahili, English and Kikuyu common among the kids) instead of Kiswahili. He was a big help to us in a lot of ways.
January, 2007
Africa Based Orientation is intended to orient us to, uh, Africa. Orientation used to be done in the sending countries (US, for example) but now it's done here in Africa. Which is why it is called Africa-Based.
We're living at Scott Theological College in Machakos, Kenya (shown above). It is dorm style, but Linda and I have our own room with bunk beds. The mosquitos are driving Linda crazy at night, even with the mosquito nets.
We've been learning from veteran missionaries Loren and Donna Fast who are very wise and entertaining, and from a couple of Kenyan instructors who were brilliant and articulate. All of us are in awe of their erudition.
If we want to go to town, we ride a tuk tuk (a three wheeled motor cart)
or a boda boda (bicycle).
I felt sorry for my poor driver having to pedal me into town. He was obviously laboring to keep his forward momentum at points. It's a good thing it isn't very hilly on the road to town. I paid him a double fare since I weigh at least twice what the average Kenyan weighs.
John is here with us and having a good time learning and also interacting with the Kenyan ministry students.
December, 2006 Our Commissioning Service
On Sunday, December 17, 2006 Southway Community Church tearfully commissioned us, sending us off with many prayers and good wishes. Old friends we hadn't seen in a long time drove in to encourage us and commit us to the Lord for our new work in Kenya.
We couldn't have asked for a more affirming day.
We are very grateful for the loving way the people of Southway Community Church have supported us.
Mission Address: Africa Inland Mission Int. P.O. Box 178 Pearl River, NY 10965
Home Address: P.O. Box 70, Kijabe, 00220, Kenya
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I knew that the locals had their own word for "bicycle" but I couldn't remember what it was. So at the end of the ride, I asked my driver what this thing was called. He looked at me strangely and said, "byeee sickk ile." I just let it go.
Johanna is at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. She loves her teachers, loves her classes, loves her new friends, loves her room mate, and is very excited about being asked to choreograph two short numbers for the upcoming Junior/Senior banquet (the social highlight of the year). God has comforted us a lot by making the transition so easy for Johanna.
