Weekend in Eldoret and Kitale Part II: Great Church Leaders in the Kitale Area

There are five branches in the Kitale area.  We went to the Sikhendu Branch building to do the training.  I listened for awhile and then went wandering.

The branch presidents and clerks are listening attentively to Elder Torrie.  He's probably talking faster than they can listen!  (He has only one speed:  too fast!)

But no, they are smiling so I think they are understanding him.  The man in blue reminds me of a black Wilhelm Ostrop!  (He's a good friend and neighbor back home in Grassy Lake, Alberta.  Wilhelm is from Germany and spends half the year in Germany and half the year in Grassy Lake.  He is a prince of a fellow as LeRon would say).

We brought two laptops and a hot spot.  It really helps if they can see as well as hear.  The internet in some of these buildings is not too reliable but we are working to improve it.  Hopefully by the time we leave, things will be better.

Elder Torrie likes to teach and he likes to make people laugh.

These two brethren are from the Kitale Branch.

In the suit is the Sikhendu Branch President and his branch clerk, David.

On the left is the Mautuma Branch clerk or president (can't remember which) and on the right is the Naitiri Branch clerk or president.  Both eager to learn.

These three brethren are from Misikhu Branch.  The brother on the right in the suit is the branch president and the others are clerks.

President Kogo is the District President.  He came with Elder Torrie and me to show us the way to Kitale and to take charge of the meeting.  He brought lunch to serve afterward as some of these brothers have over an hour each way matatu (small bus) ride.  They left home early to be here for 10 a.m.

While they were in the meeting, I wandered around the Sikhendu Branch meetinghouse which is in a rented building in a lovely area.

Here's a view from the chapel toward Mount Elgon which is a small mountain between Kenya and Uganda.

Behind the meetinghouse building is a canvas tent with a corrugated tin roof.  They hold sacrament meeting and other meetings within this tent.

The bathrooms are outhouses -- Gents on the left, ladies on the right.

LeRon had warned me that it was just a latrine.  But I expected that perhaps the ladies room would be more than a hole in the ground.  But no . . . the ladies was a hole in the ground too. I've used these kinds of latrines in other countries but didn't expect it here but I'm a farm girl so it didn't faze me!

The baptismal font is a tank outside with a cornfield behind it.

And a farmer's house and yard is next to the church.

This is the inside of the tent meetinghouse.  There are lights too.  Pretty well set up I would say.  So interesting how they make do with what they have and are satisfied.

Another farmer's yard beside the church.  Notice how the woman bends from the waist.  We were always taught to bend the knees to save our backs the strain.  We used our leg and arm muscles to lift.  But women here don't do that.

This unfinished home was near the chapel.  Interesting to see the mode of construction.

Gorgeous green crops.

Weekend in Eldoret and Kitale Part I: The Gorgeous Drive

LeRon has felt the urgent need to train branch and district clerks on how to budget.  He could see that branches were not "living within their means" and he felt that it was because they simply didn't know how to use the budget helps the church has for them on the internet.  District President Kogo, of the Eldoret District, invited us to go to Eldoret and Kitale and train the clerks.  It was a wonderful chance to drive through the beautiful Kenyan countryside and to see more of Kenya than just the city.

Tourists who come here on safari see amazing animals and interesting people (mainly of the Masai tribe, which is a very small tribe compared to others in Kenya) but they do not get to see the normal people living normal lives.  We are so privileged to be here and to be able to drive from one end of the mission to the other (well, sometimes we have to fly to the other because it's too far to drive) and to get a view of the common Kenyan doing common things.

We saw sheep and cattle grazing alongside the road and in the fields, with one or two or three herders sitting or lying close by keeping watch.  We saw donkeys being used as beasts of burden, pulling heavily loaded carts or carrying those burdens on their backs.  We saw baboons playing on the road and zebras grazing in the wild.  We saw women bent over from the waist, hoeing corn or potato fields with large heavy hoes.  We saw women cooking in their yards and children running free.  We saw people walking along the highway.  Where are they going? we wondered.  Sometimes it was groups of people; other times, it was just a single woman walking along.  We saw people visiting and laughing together.

We saw towering evergreens and flat-topped acacia trees and cactus trees.  We saw flowering potato fields and tall corn fields.  Banana plants.  Vegetables.  Gorgeous green cropland.  Being farm people, we were thrilled!  The journey from Nairobi to Eldoret climbed in elevation from nearly 6000 feet to 9000 feet in places.  So interesting to see evergreens growing near the equator.  We crossed the equator as we approached Eldoret but didn't stop for a picture this time.

On the way, we stopped in Naivasha to take some pamphlets and Books of Mormon to the missionaries there -- Elder Call and Elder Odhiambo.  Great to see them again!

We've made part of this drive about five times now and each time, it looks a little different.  Sometimes it has been very green; sometimes it has been very brown.  Today it was green but very, very misty.  Clouds hung low over the Rift Valley.

When we were here in February, it was brown and not much was growing.  Now, with the coming of the Long Rains (which are going to be shorter than usual), it is greening up and you can see fields of crops.

Love this silhouette of the cactus trees.  They are not plants.  They are actual trees with thick bark.

Men and women (but mostly women) work in the fields.  This reminded me of my brother and sisters and I hoeing sugar beets each year on our farm near Taber, Alberta, Canada.  Only here they use heavy hoes and they bend over from the waist to dig out the persistent weeds.  If any woman's libber from the US ever came here and saw the heavy, physical labor that women perform here, they wouldn't be so anxious to be equal with men.

We stopped at Naivasha to take Elder Call and Elder Odhiambo some church literature.  This gorgeous bougainvillea plant is blooming near the missionaries' gate.

Elder Call and Elder Odhiambo live in a very colorful place!  Yesterday (Sunday, May 14), they phoned me and sang "Mother, I Love You" to me for Mother's Day.  It made me cry, it was so sweet of them.  What loving young men they are.  Their mothers would be proud of them.

Elder Odhiambo grew up in this area of Kenya but lived most of his life in Nairobi.  So he is on his home stomping ground but has never yet met up with anyone he knows.

Elder Call is showing me where he studies each day.  Missionaries study together and separately each day.  The Western missionaries often learn Swahili from their companions too.

As we left the missionary flat, we noticed this example of Kenyan construction.  It's been there for a long time.  Notice the wooden ladder.  They use whatever material is at hand.

In between the beautiful cropland, were wayside market places.

The markets are definitely colorful!

Here's another example of a small wayside market area.

And then the beautiful cropland.

People working in their fields.  Cows and sheep grazing.  

Two women in colorful dress just walking along the road.  Where are they going?

I love clouds.  We have beautiful clouds back home and there are beautiful clouds here in this green, green valley.  40 shades of Green -- like Ireland!

Cattle aren't fenced in here.  They graze wherever they can find feed.

I wish the camera could see what my eye can see.  If I was a better photographer and maybe with better equipment, you would be able to see the beauty that is here.  Just remember that I'm taking it through the truck window as we go whipping by at between 40 and 100 kph.  Not bad for those speeds.  LeRon has learned to drive like a Kenyan and we made the drive to Eldoret in 5 hours which is pretty good considering the traffic and the rough roads.

Kenyans are often sitting on the roadside trying to sell their produce.

Can you see the beauty?

Enough to Feed Hungry Missionaries

We thought Elder & Sister Pehrson would be dropping by so I made a big pot of taco soup.  When they came, we learned that Elder Pehrson wasn't feeling well so they needed to go straight back home to their flat in "The Nest".  What to do with a big pot of soup?  I scooped it into small containers so I could freeze for later use.  But then . . . a knock came on the door . . . and there were five HUNGRY missionaries!  What a blessing that I had soup for all.  They ate all the soup and all the buns and all the cookies and whatever else I could find.  So nice to be there when missionaries need FOOD.  It keeps us young to be associated with such fine young men!!

Elder Card (from Cardston! Yeah!!), Elder Ellis, Elder Lotulelei, Elder Hales, Elder Kiio.  Click on the picture to enlarge and you'll see my grandchildren on the fridge and our daughter Heather and her fiance Vince.  Well, it's kind of hard to see them but they are there.

Elder Hales was one of the first missionaries we met when we came on mission here.  He was an "office elder" so worked in the office next to us receiving referrals over the internet.  And Elder Kiio was in the first group of missionaries that LeRon and I processed when we were just new in the mission.  Elder Kiio has a sister who is also serving in our mission.

Elder Lotulelei stayed a couple of nights with us near Christmas time.  We had a tiny Charlie Brown Christmas tree and he was excited to see it.  The only Christmas tree he'd seen on his mission.

And of course, Elder Card is one of our fellow Albertans and Elder Ellis is an Assistant to the President along with Elder Hales.  They are all great young men and we're so happy to be associated with them.

May MLC and Nairobi Zone Conference

 LeRon and I just got back from a weekend in Mwanza, Tanzania, getting to know the Colemeres (the senior couple there) and meeting the branch members.  LeRon also provided financial training for the branch president and clerk.  I'll post about that soon.  Now we're back in Nairobi.  It's evening and I've got the little space heater turned on.  The long rains have arrived and it gets cold in the evenings now.

But for now . . . here are pictures of the latest MLC (Missionary Leader Council) and Nairobi Zone Conference.  MLC's are held monthly and zone conferences every 6 weeks.  There are 4 zones, so that is a lot of meetings and conferences in a year.  President and Sister Msane and the Assistants, Elder Hales and Elder Ellis, are very busy people.  Plus the President interviews each missionary every 6 weeks and there are 90 missionaries!  Anyone who seeks for the calling of mission president has rocks for brains!

It's always great to be with the young missionaries.  They make us feel young again!  So glad we get to be so involved.  We often help with the food, take pictures, have sing-alongs.  It's great fun, though at times, exhausing!

Elder Mahanzu, Elder Hales, Elder Agesa.  WHAT are you up to?

Elder Wambua and Elder Wafula.  Hard for the camera to adjust with white shirts and black faces!

Sister Msane has taught all of us how to fold plastic bags into tiny packages.  Here's Elder Mahanzu and Elder Soita taking their hand at it.

Elder Mwashi and Sister Omo.  Don't they have beautiful smiles?

Elder Merritt is taking some time for study, away from the "madding crowd."

Elder Torrie looks awfully gray and white next to Elder Agesa's youthful dark face.  Open your eyes, Elder Torrie.

Sister Msane is tired of cooking so Elders Rasmussen, Soita, and Le Cheminant have taken over.

Elder Soita is making chapatis.  They are kind of like a heavy tortilla cooked in tons of oil.

Elder Soita has a cool method of making fluffy layers of the chapatis.  Kind of like making pastry.

Elder Le Cheminant and Elder Rasmussen cooking up a stew.

Eldeer Le Cheminant making a colorful salad.  Good job.  Your mother has taught you well!!

Best buds, Elder Musonda and Elder Ellis.

Elder Wafula and Elder Mwashi

Elder Torrie and Elder Soita going over receipts and other financial matters.

Next day was Nairobi Zone Conference.  Elder Ngabonziza, Elder Covarrubias, Elder Nyanhamo, Elder Ellis, Elder Pavik, Elder Ochieng (who is here temporarily, waiting his visa to Zimbabwe).

Sister Petersen, tall Elder Manu (the Tree, as his mom calls him), Elder Egbert

Elder Merz, Elder Card, Elder Carter, Elder Harrott, Elder Brown, Elder Fraga

Elder Jameson, Elder Cotts, Elder Wood, Elder McGrath, Elder Manu, Elder Egbert.

Elder Barnard, Elder Soita, Elder Lotulelei, Elder Apuoyo, Elder Ombaka, Elder Akpu, Elder Limu

Elder Gimeyi, Elder Odhiambo, Elder Call, Elder Kiio, Elder Somniso

Drink Fanta!!!  Elder Musonda, Elder Hales, Elder Noel.  I can't believe how much pop people here in Kenya drink.  (In Alberta, we call it pop but I know you Americans call it soda.  When I was a kid, it was called soda pop.  I've never really cared for pop.  I don't like the fizz.  Give me good old water any time.)

I wanted in on the picture too!  I'm usually taking the pictures.  Elder Lotulelei, Elder Ngabonziza, Elder Brown, Elder Merz, Elder Carter, Elder Harrott and me.

Somehow I missed the table with the 8 sister missionaries so I caught Sister Masibo and Sister Matata in the hallway.  I need to get the pictures of the others.