How Can My First-born be 40?

Time flies on wings of lightning . . . We cannot call it back . . . It comes, then passes forward, along its onward track . . .

My first-born is 40!  How did it happen?

I made banana bread for Michael's birthday.  But since he's not here in Kenya, I gave it to the Assistants, with whom we work on a regular basis.  Here's Elder Wafula and Elder Arudo with the sign and the bread.  Elder Arudo says it's cold enough to wear a scarf.  He's a "scarf-man" like Elder Torrie!

At home I usually put up a birthday sign and the birthday person's baby pictures.

Happy Birthday to a wonderful son!

Note the two computer screens.  It was Michael who got me on to using two screens.  So nice to have had such excellent training from a computer-expert.  Michael has been programming computers since he was 5 years old!

For All You Birders . . .

I've been hoping to see some really colorful birds here in Kenya but so far I've only seen one.  But I still think the birds I've seen are interesting.  I can't always take pictures of them so I've gone to the internet for pictures so you can see the ones I've seen so far.

I've been interested in birds since I was a little girl.  I thought all mothers were like mine.  From time to time, Mom would grab the binoculars which she kept close by and run to the kitchen window.  She kept track of the all the birds she saw in her bird book.  I joined a bird watching club in High School and went on a few birding trips in the area.  As an adult, I bought my own bird book to keep track of the birds I've seen, and my children remember me running to the window with binoculars and bird book in hand!

I showed you this picture in another post.  It's an African Paradise Flycatcher.  It's the most colorful bird I've seen so far and it was right outside my kitchen window.  It didn't stay very long so I couldn't take a picture of it.  But it was definitely colorful and that long tail was gorgeous!

This is a snappy little bird I see a lot in parking lots.  It's an African Pied Wagtail.  Looks pretty sharp in its black and white suit.

I've seen this bird a couple of times.  It's a dark, chocolately color of brown with an interesting head.  It's a Hamerkop, also sometimes called a Hammerkop or a Hammerhead Stork. 

I put a picture of a Marabou Stork on one of my posts that LeRon took out the car window.  In the post I called it a pelican and for some reason I haven't been able to edit that post.  We see these absolutely huge birds all the time.  They are definitely not what I call pretty.  That long pink sac is an air sac.  Not all of them have such huge sacs.  But many do and when they fly the sac hangs down and looks really funny.  The storks nest in downtown Nairobi near the Nakamutt Mega Store so all of the Senior Missionaries call the store "The Bird."  I've seen a couple of these storks in the area where I live but not many.

This Pied Crow sounds just like our crows back home but it looks prettier with its white belly.  Lots of them where we live.  I've always loved the sound of crows because it reminds me of happy camping trips with my kids in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta.  LeRon has never liked the cawing of crows.

I know that the Egyptians considered these ibises as sacred, hence their name: the Sacred Ibis.  But the more I've seen of them the more I don't think they're sacred at all.  They scrounge around on the ground like chickens.  When we walk in the early evenings, we see them in a dead tree and also on the ground in this muddy pasture place.  They look dirty too.  When I first saw them I thought they were so cool and I put some pictures I'd taken of them on a post.  But now I think they just look like scrawny chickens!

This Sabbath has Not Been a Day of Rest!

Sundays are not the days of rest I thought they would be.  But we're glad to be of help to our branch.  We head to Church about 9:15 a.m.  LeRon plays the organ for Sacrament Meeting and I lead the singing.  Then we head to Primary to help the young sister who single-handedly has been running the Primary (which is for children ages 1-11).  LeRon plays the piano and I teach the children songs.  Singing time is fun!  It reminds me of when I was the Primary Music Director for many years back in the Grassy Lake Ward.  It is exhausting for me too as I do what I call "my song and dance" which is necessary to keep the kids' attention!  Then LeRon and I both teach Primary classes.

Then, in keeping with the ideas I presented in my previous post, "You ask . . . How Can I help?" LeRon and I teach a music conducting class.  The point of the class is to teach the people so they can take over the jobs LeRon and I are doing.  When the conducting class is over, we will teach a piano class.  Again, the point is to help the people help themselves.

Then we get into our Toyota truck and head the 20 or so minutes to the Rongai Ward where we teach another music conducting course.  We also help them with their Ward Choir but again with the idea that they will be able to help themselves.  There's a lot of very musically talented people there.

We get home about 4 p.m.  So it's a long day.  The drive is interesting.  We always see baboons and warthogs scampering around right next to the road and right next to the many pedestrians moseying about.  I even saw two warthogs scrounging in a pile of burning refuse.  They didn't seem to mind the flames and I wish I could have taken a picture.

Following are a few pictures for the week:

We drove back to Upper Hill (where our mission office formerly was) and it took almost 1 1/2 hours!  Traffic was pretty bad on a Thursday evening.  I've told you before about how Christian this country is.  Click on this picture of a matatu and you will see a picture of Jesus on the rear window.  It's actually a Simon Dewey picture.  (Or is it Greg Olson)?  Either way, it's a painting of the Savior done by an LDS artist.  So cool to see it here in Kenya.  LeRon says he especially likes the logo on one matatu:  "In God We Trust."  The humor is that you have to trust God every day when you drive on these roads.  Sister Msane says she wishes Kenyans would drive "like normal people!"  (She is from South Africa).

We share the roads with handcarts and other slow moving vehicles.  One time a woman was walking (no not walking -- she was sauntering) down the middle of the road.  No one honked.  People just slowed down and patiently drove around her!

These Kenyans are strong people.  Usually a handcart like this is loaded to the gills and is not on the side of the road!

This was taken out my kitchen window.  All of our neighbors are fairly well-off and almost all of them have hired help.  But no one has an automatic washer.  This girl (and not all hired help are girls) washes the laundry outside by hand in big tubs of water.  They wash and scrub each article of clothing and then they rinse it and hang it to dry, usually for several days.  Then they have to iron everything.  I'm grateful for my automatic washer and dryer, even though it's much smaller than the ones I have at home.

I was so happy to buy a mixer!!!  Can't wait to try it out.  The salesgirl didn't want to lift it down from the high shelf because she didn't think I would buy it if I knew the price.  It WAS expensive.  They don't have any floor models here.  But they open each package up and plug it in and turn it on to be sure it works.  They won't let you buy it till they see if it works.  So nice!  I can't wait to make cookies and bread!  I had a nice visit with the salesgirl.  I talked to her about the Church and about how we love Jesus Christ.  I gave her an Articles of Faith card which lists 13 principles that we hold dear.  So nice that most everyone will listen to us.  (Note from later on:  the mixer was very expensive and very wimpy.  I absolutely couldn't use it so I gave it to Sister Baddoo in our branch and she loved it.)

Here we are in the Rongai Ward.  These people are so faithful.  They come to Church at 10 a.m. for the 3-hour block of meetings and then they stay for choir practice and music conducting.  They are there for about 5 hours and no one complains.  And their choir practice is an hour or more long!!!  Wow!

The monkeys come almost every Sunday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.  Maybe they want to listen to our Sabbath music!!  They are so cute!!  The sweet young woman guard (who helps to guard our Church compound) was so excited that we got to see the monkeys again today.  She's used to it but she knows I love to see them.  Usually the monkeys are gone before we are out of church.

I love their long tails.  The barbed wire on the top of the wall doesn't faze the monkeys.

Cute, eh?  No wonder Charles Darwin thought we descended from monkeys.  Monkeys are truly very human like.  But I'm glad we know we are sons and daughters of God!

I bought this cool shirt when we shopped at Nakamut on Saturday.  I had a good visit with the young girl who was selling them.  I explained that our Church was a restored Church -- restored to be what it was when Jesus Christ organized His Church on earth.  

I never understand how these pictures come into the blog.  Not at all the way I mean them to.  Isn't this girl a cutie?  This is at the Rongai Ward during our music conducting course.  She is 4 years old and was pretending to be a lion.  She growled at me almost continually and then giggled.  I told her I was a hyena and that lions are scared of hyenas (which I learned in a book about animals in Kenya).  So we growled at each other for a long time.

I took this picture from the Rongai Ward which meets on the 4th floor of a large building. Look at the size of the billboard in comparison with the other buildings.  It's huge.  Then look at the two men, one on each side, who are putting this billboard up.  Before our conducting class started, it was a huge billboard for fresh milk.  But by the end of class it had been changed to this.  I was scared for the two men!  Wish I could have watched the whole process.

Here I am after our long Sabbath day, still smiling but wishing I could take a nap but it's already 5 p.m. so no time for a nap.

The neighbors came over later Sunday evening and sold me two "stress balls" that they had made from balloons and jelly stuff.  I'm holding one in my hand.  They sold it to me for 30 bob which is about 3 cents.  Then they sold me a home-made bracelet for 10 bob, which is 1 cent.  They were thrilled.  They said I was their best customer!

Here's the bracelet that Faye and M* made for me.  It was a little big so they are going to make me another one for free.

Aren't these beautiful girls?  They have lovely smiles. D* (center girl) said that Faye's hair (second from left) is softer because she is only half African (Ugandan and England English).  The other girls are full African so their hair is wirier (is that a word?).  It's fun to talk with them about their hair and how they do it.  Fun to have so many nice people live so close to us.

You Ask . . . How Can We Help?

Some of you have asked how you can help the people of Kenya.  "Can I send clothes?" some of you ask.  How about toothpaste and soap or other sanitary supplies?  Well I'll tell you what I've learned.

 Elder Dale G. Renlund, who is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and has served for many years in Africa puts it this way:  "The greater the distance between the giver and the receiver, the more the receiver develops a sense of entitlement."  And that sense of entitlement is not what we want the good people of Kenya to feel.  We want them to have the self-esteem that comes with their own self-reliance.

Our church leaders here in South East Africa really discourage the many one or two-week humanitarian projects we see here.  They help and then they leave and the people are the same as they were before.  The adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" is so very true.

Self-reliance and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are the best things we can give.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, one of our modern-day apostles has quoted a former president of the Church, Ezra Taft Benson, who said, “We don’t so much take people out of poverty or take them out of difficult settings as much as we teach them the gospel and they lift their eyes and their vision and they make their own way out of poverty. That principle is true.”  (See <http://www.mormonnewsroom.co.ke/article/emerging-with-faith-in-africa>).

LDS Charities, the Church's huge humanitarian effort began in 1985 in Ethiopia.  I remember participating in a special Church-wide fast and we donated the money we would have spent on food to the Church to help with the severe famine in Ethiopia.  $6.4 million dollars was donated on that one Fast Sunday.  (We also have a regular Fast Sunday once a month and donate money to help those in need.) You can read about the Ethiopia fast here: <http://www.ldsliving.com/Elder-Ballard-s-Miraculous-Trip-to-Ethiopia-the-Beginning-of-LDS-Charities/s/80514/?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=related>

The Church led out in helping Ethiopia and then many NGO's moved in to Africa.  Though well-meaning, in many cases, they have fostered dependence and a sense of entitlement, even among governments in the countries where they have done projects.  Many governments have learned how to "farm" the NGO's and the people have not been helped at all.

The Church works with reputable organizations such as Catholic Charities and the Red Cross to help people, members and nonmembers alike, worldwide, especially during natural disasters.  (See  <https://www.lds.org/topics/humanitarian-service/church?lang=eng>).  But on-going humanitarian efforts are geared toward not doing for others what they can and should do for themselves.  The Church policy is to help people learn to be self-reliant.  Yes, we can't see little children starving and do nothing -- we must step in and help.  But the Church's welfare system instructs people to meet their own needs and if they can't, for them to first turn to their own families, and then to their local leaders who are closest to them.  Elder Renlund says, "Because of their proximity to the givers, recipients who receive help according to this pattern are grateful and are less likely to feel entitled."

So you ask . . . how can we help?  The best way is to pay a generous Fast Offering and if possible, to donate to the Church's Humanitarian and Perpetual Education funds.  100% of these donations go to the people in need.  The Church takes no percentage for administration.  The Humanitarian programs are run by volunteers who pay their own way.  So . . . can you help the people of Kenya?  YES!!!

Check out another article about how a South African girl is helping South Africans:http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/09/africa/orange-drought-kiara-nirghin/index.html

Pictures to Share

I have a lot to say but I'm too tired to say it.  Maybe next post.  I remember a friend in Taber telling me that missionary sisters ought to wear pants so we would be like the locals.  Well, here in Kenya, women wear dresses.  That's just what they do.  It's mostly tourist women who wear pants.  So dresses are always in style here.  I don't know how that thought fits in with this post.

We had a quiet day at the office as only LeRon and I were in today.  LeRon was busy with finances and I was communicating with branch presidents and bishops about how to fill out missionary recommendations forms.  I had to send emails to about 65 people.  It kept me busy all day.  Then after we were finished we drove up to The Hub, the new mall which is close to our office to buy some cheese.  It's the only place we've found to buy mild cheese.  It costs about $12/lb!  On the way home, I took some pictures along the way.  When we got home, we went for a long walk and took more pictures.  Enjoy!

This is a very crowded street.  Matatus on the side waiting to pick up passengers.  Covered stalls selling a variety of food that they cook right there.  Not recommended for us mzungus (foreigners) to try.  I'm trying to be unobtrusive as I take the picture.  I should have zoomed in a little more.

I zoomed in on this picture and it was too much.  In the front is a handcart loaded with goods.  We don't shop along these streets.  For locals only.  But I bet there's good deals here.

Look at the lovely red soil.  I was trying to take a picture of the nursery plants but my camera is too slow and I got the motorbike instead.  A motorbike is certainly the way to go around here.  You can zip in and out of traffic very easily.  And motorbikes transport a lot of goods -- even Kentucky Fried Chicken.  On both sides of the road people set up their nurseries, which they water by hand.  I don't know if they have to pay for the use of the land or not.  I even saw someone planting a small garden alongside of the road.

In some areas, the streets are blocked off.  You can only go down them if they let you in.  This is the entrance to our neighborhood.  The guards know us and let us easily in.  A couple of times we changed trucks (we drive mission trucks) and the guards weren't going to let us in until they saw our faces.  They hadn't recognized the truck.  Nice to know they really don't let people in who shouldn't be there.

Now we're on our walk.  It's a lovely neighborhood.  The only trouble is that you can't see into the yards.  I'm sure they're very lovely.  But all we see is trees and walls and gates.

There's a section of the road with beautiful sculptured bushes along the way.  They look like chairs to me.

More chairs.  Somehow the light was reflecting funny.  And this was about 5:30 p.m. too -- just an hour before sundown.  Maybe my camera's set wrong.

I wish the pictures would do justice to the beautiful sculpturing.  Nairobi is a very beautiful city.  And all of these bushes are undoubtedly hand-sculpted.

I was going to try and sit in the bush but it didn't really work.  It was just a bit too tall.

I tried this chair too but I thought I might break it!  Such cool bushes!

I peeked through a hole in the wall and saw this lovely home with cows grazing beside it.  LeRon held the camera over his head and took the picture for me.  Nice to see inside those walls!

I can't get over how beautiful the bougainvillea are.  I wish they would grow like this in Alberta.

More gorgeous bougainvillea.

Click on this picture to enlarge it.  Here's an armed guard strolling down this road.  There are several homes along this road and I imagine he's paid to guard them all although each home has its own guard too.  Not all guards are armed.

Interesting tall trees reaching for the sunlight.

If there's not walls, then there are dense hedges and tall trees to guard each homestead.

This is the gate we drive into and out of every day.  Our guards are armed and very professional.  Some even wear suits and ties.  They are very fine people.  We enjoy visiting with them.  We're very happy to be living in such a nice place.

A Kenyan Friend in Buckingham Palace

One of the other senior couples here, Elder & Sister Ford, are Church Public Affairs specialists for this area which includes Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.  Part of their assignment is to keep up the Kenya blogsite and the facebook site.  (I think they may keep up blogs for each of those other countries but I haven't checked it out myself).  They travel all over the area seeking out interesting and positive news of the Church here in Africa.  The blogsite is www.mormonnewsroom.co.ke.  I don't know what the facebook site is since I, being the rebellious sort that I am, don't do facebook.

Check out this article:  http://www.mormonnewsroom.co.ke/article/kenyan-mormon-honored-by-queen-of-england.

The story is about the son of a man we work with at the Service Center here in Nairobi.  He's so proud of his son, as he should be.  His son got to stay at Buckingham Palace for a week!

Our friend, James Kyulu's, son receiving an award for "innovation by youth" from Queen Elizabeth.  How cool is that?!  Too bad James wasn't invited to be there to actually watch it.  Oh well.  Not too many people get invited to meet the Queen.  I think she's a very lovely lady and I've always respected her.  She has done a lot of good in the world.

And on the same page, there's an article about our new Mission President, President Msane and his wife, Sister Msane.  Check out <http://www.mormonnewsroom.co.ke/13353166033189290675>.  This picture was taken at our mission office in front of a picture of the Second Coming of the Savior in clouds of glory.

I Feel OLD Here

I've been noticing that LeRon and I are the oldest people around.  Wherever I look, there are people younger than us . . . at the mall . . . on the streets . . . at the mission office . . . at church . . . in our compound.  EVERYONE is younger than us!!  Where are the people our age?  Are they at home (and never go anywhere?)  Are they in a senior lodge?  WHERE are they?!

So I asked google.  And google told me that the median age in Kenya is 18 and the life expectancy is 59 years!  So.  WE REALLY ARE OLD!!!  We met a young man when we were out walking and I jumped over a mud puddle.  He looked absolutely astonished.  He said, "People in Kenya your age are never out jumping over mud puddles.  They are home in their rocking chairs!"  And he was serious.

I am so grateful for our church which encourages seniors like us to go out and make a difference in the world.  Yes, we are old.  But . . . we have a lifetime of experience and hopefully a little bit of wisdom.  And we are here on this mission trying to spread the bright light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today in the opening prayer at sacrament meeting, a good black brother prayed for peace in Kenya and for surrounding nations who are so troubled by war.  It was a beautiful petition to the Lord to bless his sons and daughters here in Kenya.  In our CTR (Choose the Right) Primary class, we talked about the war in heaven and how it wasn't a war with guns and bombs (and machetes and knives, one of the little girls put in), it was a war of words:  Satan trying to get the people on his side and Jesus sweetly and lovingly encouraging us to "Choose the Right."

Getting back to the issue of age . . . we helped celebrate Elder Arudo's 28th birthday!  See the pictures below.

Today, August 5th, is Elder Arudo's birthday (on left).  Elder Arudo and Elder Wafula have discovered my blog.  Here they are reading it while they munch on birthday popcorn.  We brought some microwave popcorn to help celebrate the birthday.

Here's the birthday boy, Elder Arudo, with his bowl of popcorn.  The Torries traditionally eat popcorn on Sunday evenings.  So we thought we would share this tradition with Elder Arudo.

So fun to work with these amazing missionaries.

On Saturday, the power was off in the whole country for about 12 hours.  So LeRon and I went to Tamambo's for lunch.  Tamambo's is on the Karen Blixen estate here in the Karen district of Nairobi.  It is a lovely restaurant in a very beautiful setting.  Eric (on left) is a local artist who sells his wares at the restaurant.  Oh oh.  Elder Torrie is on the lookout for more paintings!

It was a cool day.  I was glad I wore the wool sweater that I bought here.  Hot soup and hot chocolate warmed us up.

LeRon was very taken with the bottom painting. Very interesting collage of zebras.

And I was taken with the tree in the background.  It is a "Brugmansia Candida" also known as a trumpet tree.  Very striking.

Here's a close-up of the trumpet tree's flower.

The flowers hang down like trumpets.  So lovely.

I didn't take this picture, but I saw this beautiful bird right outside my window.  It was just sitting on the clothesline with its long chestnut-colored tail hanging down.  Gorgeous!  I was so glad I had bought a bird book of "Birds of East Africa."  I discovered that the bird is an "African Paradise Flycatcher."  How cool is that?  Today coming home from Rongai, we also saw baboons playing by the road and several huge ugly looking warthogs.  I know baboons and warthogs are dangerous and yet there they were just beside the road with pedestrians walking along and they were totally ignoring each other.  This is definitely a wild and interesting country!!!