December New Missionaries!!

Always great to meet the new missionaries.  They come with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation.  Joy and fear.  Scared to death, yet wanting to serve the Lord.  All missionaries have these feelings to one degree or another.  President and Sister Msane met the 8 new missionaries at the airport and then we all welcomed them here for a dinner of pizzas and salads.  The next day they met their individual trainers and spent a day with the President learning their duties.

Singing Christmas carols while waiting for dinner.  Elder Mortensen, new Elder Tucker, Elder Hales.

Elder Tucker, Elder Wood, Elder Jameson, Elder Coombs, Elder Card singing carols.

Elder Hales, Elder Mortensen, Elder Tucker singing their hearts out!!

New Sister Bamutesiza from Zimbabwe with her trainer, Sister Njoroge.

New missionary, Elder Jack (seated) from Zimbabwe with his trainer Elder Muthiani.

Elder Wafula, why are you making that face?!  Is your lemon juice sour?

Elder Torrie on the keyboard accompanying the singing missionaries.

Sister Msane and Sister Torrie singing Silent Night in Zulu for the missionaries.  The problem was that I didn't have the words in front of me so I had to listen hard to Sister Msane's words.  The Zulu words are lovely.

New missionary, Elder Barnard helping Sister Msane in the kitchen.  Great job helping!

Sister Msane and Sister Torrie working in the kitchen.

Elder Hales, Elder Tucker, Elder Wood, Elder Jameson singing with Elder Torrie.

That night we hosted two of the trainer missionaries in our flat.  So good to have Elder Merritt and Elder Lotulelei with us. They are both Americans.  We had happy visits and good laughs.  They slept on mats in the living room. 

Elder Lotulelei said this was the first Christmas tree and probably the last that he would see this Christmas.  It's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree to LeRon and me but the missionaries and our neighborhood grandchildren love it!!

President and Sister Msane with new arrivals Elder Tucker, Elder Card, Elder Coombs, Sister Bamutesiza, Elder Barnard, Elder Wood, Elder Jack, and Elder Jameson

Missionary work CAN be FUN!

Another shot of the fun missionaries!

Now here are the missionaries with their trainers.  Back L-R: Elder Wood with trainer Elder Muthiani; Elder Otieno; Elder Barnard (his trainer is Elder Limu); Elder Jameson (his trainer is Elder Otieno); Elder Limu; Elder Le Cheminant with trainee Elder Tucker; Elder Rasmussen with trainee Elder Jack; Elder Mugele with trainee Elder Coombs.  Kneeling in front Elder Agesa who is training Elder Card.  Seated: Sister Njoroge; President & Sister Msane; Sister Bamutesiza.

All the missionaries having fun!  Or maybe it's just the end of the day and everyone is getting their second wind!

God Bless Kenya

I saw a bumper sticker on a car in our compound that said "God Bless Kenya."  I agree.  Kenya is a lovely country with a great future.  To see some of that future, our neighborhood granddaughter, Faye, invited us to her international school to see their Christmas fine arts production.  The school was truly impressive.  So nice to see a focus not just on sports but also on fine arts.  We stayed for the first hour and a half and then we had to leave to help President and Sister Msane welcome 8 new missionaries.

Funny thing.  At half time, they announced a 20-minute intermission and invited us to have refreshments in the foyer.  Keep in mind that the theater we were in was HUGE.  So everyone filed out and lined up for refreshments.  Only one table with lots of food but only one line.  After 40 minutes, I went back into the theater.  No food for me.  The 20-minute intermission turned into 45 minutes so everyone could eat.  African time!!!  (Worse than Mormon Standard Time!)

I've never seen this bumper sticker on any other country's vehicles other than the US.  So yes . . . God Bless Kenya!!!

Now on to the Performing Arts Showcase at Faye's international school.  What an impressive school.  Teachers.  The School itself.  The students.  The West does not have a corner on education.

The school showcased its singers, dancers, theater.  It was a great show. 

I took pictures like any proud grandmother!  Faye is third from left in the front row.

 

If I would have been home, I could have gone to see my flesh and blood grandchildren's school productions in Fargo North Dakota.  Matthew and Alice, I will be there someday!!

In the meantime, I'm here for Faye's performances.  She's a good singer and a great dancer.  Very lithe and agile.

The Tae Kwon Do demonstration was fun!  Feisty little kids!!

Tae Kwon Do students.  They each broke a brick with their hands.  One little girl tried with her right hand and it didn't work.  So she used her left hand.  Bam!  It broke.  She yelled "Ouch!"  So funny.

The ballerinas were so cute!  I took this picture to show my daughter-in-law, Jocelyn, who took ballet and other dance classes in her youth.  Interesting that I no longer notice that skins are black.  Also that there are varying colors of black.  But being an international school, there are also white kids there. 

Faye's group choreographed their own dance.  It was great! 

Farewell to 9 missionaries

We said good-bye to nine missionaries.  Young men serve for 24 months and young women for 18. Senior couples can choose 6 months, 12 months, 18 months or 23 months.

Sister Lyman, Sister Atieno, and Sister Torrie waiting for the feast to begin.  Sister Msane, our mission president's wife loves to cook.  She sets a pretty table with lovely creations and delicious food.

Elder Mortensen (a companion to Elder Wafula and Elder Hales), Elder Mboya, Elder Boaz, Elder Emmanuel, Elder & Sister Lyman, Sister Atieno, Sister Torrie

Everyone is here except Elder Vidonyi who hasn't come in yet.  Missionaries ready to head for home: Elder Mboya, Elder Boaz, Elder Emmanuel, Elder Musasia, Sister Atieno, Sister Alinyo, Sister Lyman, Elder Lyman, with President and Sister Msane in front.

Here's Sister Atieno, Elder Wafula, Elder Mortensen.

Elder Vidonyi finally arrived.  Here he is with Sister Alinyo.  Farewell missionaries!!

Busy Days

We've been so busy that I finally crashed this weekend.  Slept all night Friday and all day today, Saturday.  I'm fighting off a cold.  I think I will be successful.  So excited that our son Eric and his lovely wife Jocelyn had a baby girl on November 28.  Our 5th grandchild!!

The buses here in Nairobi are painted and decorated so creatively.  I wondered what "Ready to Drink" referred to until I saw on the side of the bus that it said "milk shake!" 

We still enjoy our neighborhood "grandchildren" who often come to visit with their mothers.  Since we are old enough to be the mothers' parents, we are definitely old enough to be their children's grandparetns.  Yaro was intrigued with this little camera tripod that you can twist into all kinds of shapes so that you can hook it wherever you want to take a picture.

Hash likes to lift my weights.  His mother is expecting in March so we will have a brand-new baby next door.

We love our neighbor grandchild Faye!  Her mother is Ugandan and her father is English.  Lovely people.

We went to a Christmas Devotional at Upper Hill.  After the devotional, we had a nice lunch.  I really should have tried these fish heads but I just didn't have the stomach for it.  The Kenyans ate them with relish.  You just grab the head and pull the meat out with your fingers.  They say it is delicious.  Kenyans eat most food with their hands.  So there weren't many utensils to be had.  I had a plastic spoon to eat with.  Thank goodness for some rice, some nice vegetables and some Kentucky Fried Chicken!

This is what one Kenyan ate.  In the middle is the fish head and on the right is a very greasy chapote.  They also had a green vegetable called squma wiki, which we know as kale.

This was Elder & Sister Lyman's last meal with the Service Center people with whom they have worked for the past year and a half.  Lyman's left for home Thursday night.

Last Saturday we had a tour of the Karen Blixen home.  Those tall palm trees are about 90 years old.  Karen Blixen planted them long ago.  This is her home here in the Karen area of Nairobi where she attempted to grow coffee.  But the coffee didn't do so well because we are almost 6000 feet above sea level and coffee, apparently, needs to grow at 3000 feet.  I've never read the book by Karen Blixen called "Out of Africa" and I've never seen the movie and don't intend to.  She was born in Denmark but came here to Kenya from England back in the day when Kenya was a British possession.

We laughed to see all these old time pieces of farm machinery.  LeRon remembers his grandfather using such things.

Here our guide talked to us about coffee growing.  This is a coffee tree.  I didn't know it grew on trees.

And this plant is a "Christ's Thorn."  You can see the horrible sharp spines on it.  The young man said that this is what Christ's crown of thorns would have been made from.  Hmn . . .

And this millstone was turned into a table.

LeRon & Colleen at the millstone table at the back of the Karen Blixen home.  It just looked and smelled like an old house to me and I know I won't be back.  I've seen a lot of old things and places in our travels.

Is this the start of a Bottle Brush Tree blossom?  Pretty neat.

It's the season for the African Lilies to be in bloom.  Gorgeous blue heads on long stems.  They grow everywhere.

LeRon laughed when he saw this old tractor.  Notice the sign:  "Polite Notice:  Kindly do not sit on the tractor."  You see "Polite Notices" everywhere.  Also, "kindly" is used the way we would use "please."  Sometimes I get emails from people saying "Kindly send me a . . . kindly."  They use lots of "kindlys" even in one sentence.

Another cool slug outside our front door.  Love those antennas!

And here you can see the size of it next to LeRon's fingers.

Another Day, Another Dollar

Another Day . . . Another Dollar.  That's what my Dad said almost every day.  LeRon and I say that here too as we climb into our truck, shivering in the cold and turning up the heat.  But of course we don't even get a dollar.  Just the Lord's currency . . . "bless you my son and daughter!"

There's only been about a week so far that I haven't worn a sweater.  It can get very hot for a few hours of the day but in the morning and in the late afternoon it still is very cool.  And this is supposed to be the summer.  But the rains have been late this year and it is bringing cooler weather.

We have been very busy.  When 8 new missionaries come tomorrow, we will be up to 78.  By February, there will be 90 young missionaries (not counting us old ones).  So that is double the number that were here when we first came in early May.  So much office work to do.  Makes life interesting.  We definitely feel needed.

We helped the other senior couples celebrate American Thanksgiving by going out to dinner with them at Heminway's which is a fancy hotel near where we live.  Was nice to get together with them.  We don't see them a lot since they are centered in down town Nairobi and we are far away in the mission office in the Karen area.

Elder & Sister Ford are finished their mission as Public Affairs specialists the end of January.  We'll miss them.  Elder Ford is a wonderful dentist who has even checked out a problem LeRon was having.  Good to have him in our mission.

Elder & Sister Petersen will be finished in May.  They are the LDS Charities Directors in Kenya, overseeing work that the church does in schools and also helping to drill water boreholes. 

Elder & Sister Lyman are leaving this week and they too will be missed.  They've been serving as Self-Reliance Missionaries, teaching members and others principles of self-reliance.

Sister Msane came with us to the Thanksgiving Dinner.  She is such a fun person!  So glad we get to work with her.

Lovely "parasite" flowers growing on this tree.

Here's a close-up of the beautiful flower.

This slug was crawling on the wall by our front door.  So cool!

And so huge!!  Look at it in comparison to LeRon's fingers!

I love clouds!  Beautiful formation by Galleria mall.

And this pizza oven is still used to cook pizzas at a local French bakery.

Here I am with the flowering "parasite" on the tree.  I'm sure there's another name for it but I can't remember what.

LeRon in his P-day clothes with his Santa hat by the Christmasy Nakamutt elephant.

Beautiful Christmas tree at Galleria Mall.  The stores are getting in the Christmas mood but other than that, no one has decorations like we do in the West.  Christmas here is more getting together with family and going to church.  In fact, most Kenyans go "up-country" for Christmas.  This means that they go to wherever their original village home is.  Many city people still maintain a home "up country."  They say Nairobi is very, very quiet at Christmas time.  I guess we will find out.