Hey, I’m finally here again! :) I’ve been back home in Kisumu for a week and a half now, but I didn’t get my computer fixed until this week. (It wouldn’t turn on and I couldn’t charge it because there was a loose connection with the battery.) Since then, whenever I’ve had a few spare seconds to post something, the power was always off…Kenyan life at its finest!

I left home (VA) on Sunday evening, the 10^th, and got here on Tuesday.  Right now the WATER girls are here in Kisumu, so things have been extra busy with fun activities that we are doing with them.  Here’s a quick update on what I’ve been doing since I’m back and maybe someday I can do a little catching up from previous weeks…

Wednesday morning, I headed into the hospital to see the newest little member of our compound family.  Joe and Glenda Yoder have an adorable little boy, Elliot Layne.  He was born on Monday morning while I was still traveling.  I ended up staying at the hospital for awhile with Glenda because Joe was out running errands.  It was great to have a chance to hear about everything that I had missed out on here and to hold the tiny little guy while we talked.  They were hoping to come home from the hospital later Wednesday evening, so that afternoon, I went to Nakumatt and got a few things for them and then did some cleaning and laundry to get things ready for them after being away for several days.  That evening, we 3 girls went to the lake with Joseph and Becky and the WATER girls.  I never get tired of spending time at the lake!!

2 days old and as sweet as can be!!

Elliot's big sister, Tiffany :)

Teresa Moyer, Lynnae Brubaker, and Valerie Musser

Thursday morning, we took the WATER girls to do some fabric and souvenir shopping.  In the afternoon, I made some food for different folks and while I was baking, worked on supper preparations for us girls.  Somehow the day flew by exceedingly fast!

Friday morning, we youth girls were planning to take the WATER girls for an early morning boat ride on Lake Victoria before heading out to Ng’ia to spend the weekend with Mark and Mary Ellen Beachy.  I decided I’d better stay home and get some work done.  Seemed like I had barely gotten home and had lots of little bits and pieces to wrap up around the compound before I left again for a couple of days.  So I stayed home and worked on food preparations and other things for the weekend.  When the girls got back from the lake, we headed out to Mark’s.  They are a little over an hour away from Kisumu.  We had a great afternoon doing a book distribution at a large school nearby.  We visited each classroom, did some singing, Mark would do a quick Bible story or ask a few questions from the Bible, and then we would give each child their own Bible story book.  I love watching their faces light up when you hand them their VERY OWN book to treasure.  Like I said, it was a huge school.  We passed out 1,800 Bible story books to the students and 73 Bibles to the teachers and staff.  It was a rewarding, but exhausting day.  That evening, Mary Ellen and I went to visit one of her neighbor girls, Idah, who was very sick with malaria.  After supper, we had a great time singing together and then talking and laughing until really late…

Imagine teaching a class of 75... How many would REALLY learn?

Notice their tattered uniforms...

All of the 8th graders outside ~ 147 students 

Saturday, we headed to the hospital in Siaya to pass out Bible storybooks and Bibles to the patients.  Sylvia, Stacy, and Rhoda came out from the compound to join us for the morning, so that was fun.  We also did some singing at the hospital and passed out lollipops to the children… AND I DID MANAGE TO STAY UPRIGHT and not do any fainting tricks in the delivery room like I did the last time I was there! ;) After lunch, all of the Kisumu girls (except for me) left to head back to the compound.  We took it easy for a little, then Valerie and I went with Mary Ellen to visit some of her neighbors.  Around 5:45, neighbor children started showing up for their weekly Bible story with Mary Ellen.  We played with the children for about a half hour, then the WATER girls taught them some new songs and did a flannel graph story for them.  We played with them more, then sent them home when it was getting dark.  Had a delicious supper and another late night.  Markus and Micah kept us quite, quite entertained!!!

One of the brand new little additions at the hospital...

Lynnae and Teresa playing with the children... It's SO much fun having these girls around!!

The WATER girls ~ Lynnae (L) ... Valerie (Center) ... Teresa (R)

Sunday morning, we four girls went with Mary Ellen to their neighbor lady’s place to watch her make mandazis.  Came back and ate breakfast, then headed to Dienya.  I had never been to their church before, so I really enjoyed it!  We relaxed after lunch for a little bit, and then left for the Sunday evening activity at the compound.  At 6:00, we youth practiced some songs that we were supposed to sing that evening at Gerald’s.  Mark shared a bit of his life story, the 3 WATER girls told us a little bit about themselves, we had some singing, some sharing…and then a grand ole party with lots and lots of good food and camaraderie with the youth group.  It felt great to be back at my own house again. :)

The girls doing a
 flannel graph story to go along with Mark's sermon...

So much fun and so many memories with these 5 over the weekend!!! #goodtimes #manylaughs

Monday was family day and we headed out for the day again.  Wayne’s kindly invited us to join their family at Jennifer’s Garden for the day.  I really enjoyed the day!!  There’s such beautiful scenery along the way (about an hour and a half from here)… Before lunch, Valerie and I relaxed beside the pond and talked while the rest of the energized group went on a walk and encountered a bunch of monkeys.  We ate a leisurely lunch including some FABULOUS fried chicken!!!  That afternoon we played bocce ball and kan jam and eventually packed up and headed back down.  The weather was perfect all day long!

One reason that I love going to Jennifer's! Calla lilies have always been my favorite!!

Tuesday…did laundry, made food, ran here and there, and worked at my house.  In the evening we 6 girls went out to eat (compliments of Joe and Glenda Yoder) at a wonderful Chinese place on Main Street.  When we got back, the girls came to my place for fruit smoothies and cake.

On Wednesday Stan took me to get my computer worked on!  In the back of a shop, we headed up a set of steep stairs to a rather dark room with a very low ceiling.  It felt like any minute the floor would collapse and we would fall through and catch our shortcut to heaven, but amazingly we didn’t.  The two guys up there seemed to really know what they were doing and took my computer all apart and fixed the loose connection and now I can charge it and it will actually turn on!  I’m SO glad to have it in working order again!  Later in the morning, a group of us girls went to a nearby orphanage.  We visited one of the special needs classrooms, fed the little ones at lunch time and put them down for their naps.  Wednesday afternoon, Bible study was at Morris and Caroline’s.  Lynnae, Teresa, and Valerie came along to Lela’s Bible study so that was fun.  It was soooo good to see my church people after such a long time!! :) We joined Wayne’s for their traditional Wed. supper of beans and chapatis. :)

The WATER girls singing at Morris and Caroline's...

Friends at Bible study... 

Thursday, I was actually at home a little bit and got some work done!  At twelve, I went to join the girls who were swimming, then came home and made food for supper.  The 3 WATER girls and Stacy and Rhoda came over for an early supper and then we met on the lane at 6:00 to go with the rest of the compound to sing at the hospital.  When we got back, we had fruit and baked goods at Jake’s.  I didn’t stay around long and soon headed to my corner of the compound.

On Friday, we left “bright and early” to go along with Joseph’s for the day.  We traveled for an hour and fifteen minutes ‘til we “reached” the Nandi Hills.  We waited at the clinic until Jebet was finished introducing us to her nurse colleagues and getting things ready.  Then we set out walking with her as she made her rounds up in the hills.  There were moments of pretty intense hiking, but we went quite slowly and rested at people’s places.  She was mostly checking up on people, so I was a little disappointed.  I’d like to go with her sometime when she’s changing people’s bandages, giving shots, etc! We took a nice LONG piki ride to her house to eat lunch.  Her sister, aunt, and neighbors had cooked up a real feast:  chapatis, rice, potatoes, fried cabbage, chicken stew, meat (tough, chewy beef), and beans.  After we had finished our sodas, we walked some more and visited more homes.  Joseph came and picked us back up at 3:30 and we bounced our way back home over the rough roads.  We ate supper at Jake and Janice’s and then had some great volleyball games on the lane with so many extras that we had 3 teams! 

...up in the Nandi Hills...

What a view from their dala (home)!!!

I love piki piki rides... :)

All of us... It was such a fun day! :)

Now today is Saturday already!  The electricity has been off a lot today so it’s been difficult to get any baking, laundry, or other work done.  Finally I decided to sit down and type this…We’ll see when I can actually post it…  Blessings to each one of you! :)

God Provides

Guest Speaker:  Glenda Yoder

Following is our recorded story of our Kenyan adventure this past Sunday.  It is a good reminder to all of us that GOD is GOOD. 

The morning started out beautifully, just like normal Sundays. I woke earlier than usual so I could have quiet time to myself in the kitchen before the demands of being a mom became too demanding. Carolyn, Clara, her sweet crew, Tiffany, and I left for church close to an hour after Wayne and Joe left, which has been our habit since we came. It makes it so nice that Tiffany doesn’t need to be at church during instruction class.  At church, Wayne announced that the order of the service would be different that morning because he needed to go to the Rabour church after the message to take the charge of bishop there. We had Sunday School after the message to give him time to preach to us at Lela before he needed to go to Rabour. He also announced that JoeAllen would close the service, and after that Joe would go to have prayer at the funeral of an acquaintance of the Lela church. This was news to me. We were in for a real Kenyan adventure…

                Sunday School without Wayne and Clara’s more experienced, capable selves went as good as it could, and Joe did well with closing the service. It was not his first time to do this. As we were shaking the last hands in the line of dear Africans filing out of church, our attention was drawn to a commotion by the old mission van in the church yard. A small boy was screaming loudly in pain and a crowd was quickly gathering around him.  Joe ran fast to investigate and discovered the boys had been playing inside and outside the van, and one little boy had his finger pinched in the door. To make the situation worse, the door was locked, so it took a bit to get that nasty sliding door open. Dear Sister Zilpah came to me and asked for pain relief medicine for the injured boy. She very seriously said, “It is good for him to have it.” After some digging in my overstuffed bag, I found chewable children’s vitamin C and adult Tylenol and Ibuprophen. I decided right then, in Kenya,  I need to carry my “nurse bag” with me everywhere after this. I did comfort the boy by exclaiming over his finger and giving him a vitamin C. He seemed quite pleased with my attention. Meanwhile, the majority of the people lingered in the church yard hoping to catch a ride to the funeral.

Carolyn took an older member, Hesbon,  home with the van while Joe and I finished meeting the people. When she came back, Joe told Carolyn that he doesn’t mind if she drives the van because she is more experienced with this dear old van with its left hand stick shift. Poor Carolyn! I know how awkward it can be to drive American men around, but she bravely stayed at the wheel. I climbed in beside her with Tiffany, and the cramming, jamming, cracker box stacking began. After some shuffling and discussion, we headed to the funeral with twenty eight people on board. The funeral location was surrounded in mud and water, due to rainy season. As we bumped along the rough road to the funeral, that overloaded van needed to drive through water and Carolyn was afraid we would get stuck, but the backseat drivers were telling her to keep going. She told me, “The gas gauge shows below empty.” I began to pray and immediately I felt peace that God was in that van with us. I told her, “God will provide.” We arrived well at the funeral, and after the challenge of walking across logs setting across the water and sticky mud with very helpful and kind African mamas hanging onto my arms wanting so much to help this Mazungu mama across the mud, we gathered around the coffin and sang good Christian Luo songs. There was a mixture of evil and good represented at that funeral. Some wailing hopelessly; others singing and praying. Joe read a few verses and prayed. Those kind ladies insisted that I sit down. I preferred to stand but sat for their sakes. After the prayer, they begged us to eat. They served the typical Kenyan meal of beef, ugali, and sukuma.  The church people ate well that day. Their stomachs are accustomed to it. I tried, but the ugali was the color of the tan/gray water around the place and with every bite, the grit of sand in my teeth would take my appetite. The beef didn’t smell like my mom’s Sunday lunch at home either, but I did enjoy the sukuma. Their hospitality was the sweetest part of the meal. The dirty, hungry, starving dogs that insisted in squeezing around my legs, (to my dismay), and under my chair ate well that day too. Tiffany was very happy to feed them.

As soon as it was appropriate to leave, Carolyn, Joe, and I, along with several Lela church members who didn’t wish to stay for the burial, headed across the mud once again to the van. The very helpful Africans became a little too helpful to me in that mud and caused me to lose my balance with all the hands pulling and pushing on me. My foot slipped off the log and I stumbled into that thick, sticky mud losing my flip flop in the process. I quickly reached way down and found it with my hand. The ladies insisted on washing me in a very murky mud puddle. I was happy to head home. That van made it home without running out of gas! PTL!

*You just never know what kind of excitement a day will bring... I enjoy Glenda's perspective because after awhile this becomes normal life.  It's fun to read it from someone else who has a fresh outlook on all the "new experiences" here.  Thanks, Glenda, for letting me share this... :) ~Carolyn

Life is just great...

...in fact, it's so great that I stay busy doing fun things and don't find time to write about them.  School is one of those places where a lot of those great memories take place...It's unbelievable that we are almost finished with our LAST week of school!  Tomorrow will be a semi-normal day, and then Friday will be filled with "last day of school" activities!  Truly, this year has had more change than any year I've ever taught, but SCHOOL is still SCHOOL and I love teaching no matter where it is.  I'd still say that 3rd and 4th are the perfect grades to teach, but I'm adding 1st and 2nd to that list as well... :)  Not sure how that all works, but anyway! :)  It's also been a lot of fun going through kindergarten work with Brad the last while.  I'm excited about having him in school next year & definitely looking forward to having my three girls again too!!! :)  

Singing at a school in Lela

Distributing Bible story books to the school children...

Lots of happy little folks...

Lunch time!!!!!

Either their smiles are on the way coming, or on the way going.... ;)

This is the table to take your leftovers to... they'll help clean up your plate!!

They finished their credit cards!!! :) :)

Extra Credit card rewards:  ICE CREAM TIME :)

Pouring finger jello at Miss Carolyn's house...

A morning boat ride on Lake Victoria

We saw lots of hippos that morning :)

The school children & Titus 

Speechless, but alive as ever......

I'm getting in the habit of only sending pictures, rather than sharing thoughts or stories... so here come some more random pictures from the last few weeks!!! 

My Sunday school class waiting to head up front to share our song and verse...

One of us loves rain & one of us doesn't... ;)

I just NEVER get tired of spending time at the lake!!

Fidel Castro and Goretti :)

... Just a normal Bible Study... :)

Carrying heavy loads of water from the well at church...

A few of my favorites at church...

Fides, the "leso lady"

Lydia, my friend from church...She's great! :)

Train up a child in the way he should go!  :) :)