A Little Bit of This . . . A Little Bit of That

As our mission is winding down, I'm taking more pictures of people and places.  So many great people here!  When we leave, we will leave part of our hearts here in Kenya.  Who could have guessed we would come to love it so much here?  I was never interested in Africa; Europe always held my interest, probably because my ancestors came from Europe and partly because we've been there many, many times.  But Africa?  Never thought about it.  All we in the West knew about Africa was AIDS, Ebola, and tribal warfare.  But there are millions of people who call this continent home and it is a diverse and intriguing place.  It is no longer the "dark continent" to us.

At the end are two short videos.  I love the weaver birds that are building nests in our palm trees.  They are very loud birds and I love their chirping so I tried to take a video of it.  Every time I hit record, one of the workers in the compound turned on a loud pump.  Oh well.  I tried.

We pass this mosque regularly.  We've always loved the call to prayer -- ever since we first heard it in Jerusalem, then in Turkey, and Jordan, and other places.  Our cousin, Ellen & Dave and their family, lived in Turkey for a few years and from them, we learned to love the call to prayer, "sung" by muezzins of differing vocal abilities.  Notice to the left of the mosque is a furniture store.  Click on the picture to enlarge and you will see the furniture set out for sale.  So interesting to see so much furniture sitting out in the dust and the dirt and the rain.

We generally shop at the very modern mall called "The Hub" but sometimes we go further down town to the "Yaya" mall.  It's an older mall in an older part of town but has everything in it, including the only good hardware store we've found.  To the left of the Yaya sign is a very strange-shaped building.  Quite uncharacteristic for Nairobi.  When we were first here, and freezing because we hadn't brought enough warm clothes -- after all, we WERE on the equator -- we looked for sweaters in thfe Yaya mall.  Yes, they had a nice sweater for LeRon -- for $300!!  No thank you.

Elder Harrott and Elder Kiio slipped into our office for a short visit.  Elder Harrott is from England and Elder Kiio from Kenya.  They are the missionaries in charge of referrals.  So nice to see them.  We love our missionaries.

Right close to our flat several weaver birds are weaving their nests in the palm trees.

They are very loud birds, at least in the daytime.  At night they are sleeping in their woven nests that hang down from the branches of the palm trees with the opening at the bottom so that any snake which might climb a tree cannot get in to eat them or their eggs.

Look closely and you'll see the wonderful broom that James, the compound handyman, is using.  The neighbor children call it a "James broom" because it is made of tree branches.  A very good use of natural resources and free too.

Lots of eucalyptus trees here in Nairobi.  This one is right out my kitchen window and I've been watching its bark peeling away.  It's a beautiful tree.

I took this photo of LeRon to show him that I'm not the only one that's aging!  He's looking more and more like his mom and his dad!  Look at that chin!!!

Good friends from the Langata Branch -- Joe and Sharon Poche.  Sharon's a wonderful Primary president and Joseph is stake Young Men president.  The church is in good hands here in Africa.

Now I've joined Joseph and Sharon and so has Ezra, the branch president's son.  Ezra and his brothers and sisters really know the gospel.  You can tell that they read the scriptures together as a family and do all the other things LDS families are supposed to do, such as keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  These children are being well taught.

Emma is the branch president's daughter and has become a teenager recently.  Sharon (on right) and I enjoyed her a lot when she was in Primary.

Zipporah brings her cousin, Nestor, to church regularly.  She is so faithful to bring Nestor and his younger brother each week even though they have to come on a dusty, noisy matatu.  Zipporah was a missionary in our Kenya Nairobi Mission and served under President and Sister Hicken but it was before my time on the mission.

Elder Torrie gives a piano lesson to Peggy.  Peggy's doing great and even practices!  Such a joy to a piano teacher!  Peggy is very determined to learn a hymn well enough to accompany the congregation.  She too comes to church on a dirty, dusty, loud matatu.  LeRon and I really admire the faith of these people.

Another piano lesson, this time with Zipporah.  Zipporah is studying to become a nurse.

Solo is one of the children in my Primary class.

Solo listening in to the piano lesson.

Another day, another piano lesson with Zipporah.  She says it's hard to learn the piano, and she's right.  The older we get, the harder it is to learn.