Fun Times; Busy Times

So much going on.  New missionaries arriving in Nairobi (see following post).  Lots of office work.  The banks here in Kenya are moving to chip debit and credit cards.  (We've already had them in Canada for several years).  So suddenly, missionary debit cards wouldn't work because the US banks hadn't issued chip cards.  So Elder Torrie had a huge problem on his hands.  He had to cancel all the missionary support cards while at the same time ensuring that missionaries had enough money to live and then he had to have the bank re-issue the cards with chips.  It was a huge headache.

We had a fun get-to-know you community party at our compound.  Then a Stake dinner and dance.  Lots of missionary work too as we share the gospel with all those we come in contact with.  Tonight we stopped at a little bakery/restaurant and the sweetest young girl served us.  She says she's a Christian but not attending church but would like to.  We shared the gospel with her and gave her some pamphlets to read.  So . . .  Life goes on.  I keep asking my kids . . . Do you think we can go for another year at this pace?!  Sure hope so!  By evening we are tired and thankful that we're not to be out after dark.  Nice to be home!

I'm still loving the foliage here.  We discovered a little park right next to "The Hub."  The Hub is a modern shopping mall with lots of stores and an arcade and lots of restaurants.  The park is lovely even though the water is very dirty.

Here's LeRon enjoying the park (with his eyes closed of course).

And now here I am with my eyes closed of course.  We both have poor vision as we age so we can't tell if eyes are open or closed until we get home and put the pictures on the computer.

This is the park from an upper level of The Hub.  Notice the walls on the left with barbed wire.  Sad that everything has to be fenced and wired and guarded.

I zoomed in on these storks so you can see the baby in the nest.  I only had my little point and shoot camera so the picture's not that great.

Any time there's an event, they set up these white tents.  They look cool.

The owner of our compound, Francis (on left) sponsored a get-together for all residents of the 30 or so apartments (called flats).  Here he is jamming with LeRon.  They had fun together singing gospel songs.  Amazing Grace.  How Great Thou Art.

Francis is a good Christian man and we enjoy visiting with him.  He is a politician but a very nice politician we think!  If we could vote here in Kenya we'd vote for him.  We never talk politics much; we talk Christianity and family and things like that.

Francis' two daughters are on the left.  Lovely girls.  And a friend from South Africa on the right.

LeRon and I are the oldest ones living in our compound.  Francis is just a few years younger than us but the rest are the ages of our kids.  So we have sort of adopted these two couples as our children.  They are from South Africa and Sweden.  We enjoy visiting with them.  Good people.

Here we are with Andrej and Francis.  Well . . . here is LeRon with Andrej (from Sweden) and Francis.

LeRon and I taught everyone the Chicken Dance and then they taught us an African round dance.  We joined in as best we could.  They were all singing in Swahili.

Our neighbor, Sammy, in the light blue shirt, explained that it was a song about a train.  So we joined in with the "choo choo choo."

Francis' wife Edith is a lovely person.  They provided this delicious catered meal.  For African food, it was pretty good!

Now a few pictures of the Stake Dinner Dance.  This was a first-time event for the Nairobi West Stake.  A first time event for any stake in Kenya.  The room was decorated simply but lovely.  Everyone was dressed up and it was an amazing event.  First the Stake President talked about strengthening marriages and how important it is to communicate but also to have fun together.  This was the point of the Dinner Dance.  In this photo you can see a mzungu couple (white foreigner).  They were the Grays, the only mzungus besides LeRon and me.  Everyone else was black.  But you know . . . we don't even notice color anymore.  They are just people.

Fun to see couples having fun!

The dance was a huge success.  More people were dancing than sitting.  The dance floor was hardly big enough.  LeRon and I enjoyed fox trotting and jiving while everyone else did their thing.  Lots of couples asked us how we learned to dance and said they would like to learn.