Yes, Blog duty does get you out of manual labour

Who's complaining?
Anyway, there's not much new to report here. We did the same today as we have the last few days. Tomorrow morning we will be going to downtown Thika for some shopping. At noon we're going to a slum to give food and clothing to the kids there. There should be about 200 of them. Then in the evening we're going to the crusade. On Sunday it's church in the morning and afternoon and then the last night of the crusade in the evening. Monday morning we head out to Masaai Mara for the safari. It's only 150km away... and the trip takes 6 hours. That should give you an idea of what the roads are like here.
I'm not sure that I'll get a chance to post tomorrow, and I definitely won't be able to do so between Sunday and Wednesday. So it might be close to a week before you hear from us again.

Here is a picture I took:

This is the market across the street that we went to on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tomorrow's will be a little nicer.

Personal Best

Yesterday Steve achieved a personal best in sermon length at the crusade. He must have preached for 45 minutes straight. I think he was thirsty afterward.

So imagine that Steinmann's church decided to have a crusade, so we took a big truck over to Shingletown and set up a platform on one side of the road in the middle of town. People would gather on the other side of the road to watch, and there would be singing, praying and preaching. That's pretty much the setup at the town of Mbanda which is about a 20 minute drive away.
The first day we mostly just watched and let the Kenyans do their thing. They evangelize John-the-Baptist-style. Repent! seemed to be the main message. Also, I noticed that the smaller they are, the harder they preach. Anyway, most of it was English translated into Swahili or vice-versa, with no apparent method to when they switch back and forth. Occasionally it would be Swahili and Kukuyu (which is the tribal language of the most populous tribe in the area) - no English.
The second day Steve preached and it was much more what we Mazungu's (white people) are used to. More "God loves you" style. It's time to run - bye for now.

Smash that corn, Don

The internet connection is downright snappy today so I can post some pictures. Here are some of the work activities we've been doing, although it seems we work less and less each day...

Farmer Don laying the smack down on a bag of corn. The bag is filled with cobs of corn, Don beats it up, and the kernels fall right off. Go Don!

Alaina and Andrea making forms for cement. This is one side; four sides are nailed together so they can pour cement inside to make a support post.

Marilyn and Helen hauling dirt. This dirt is from the big hole they are digging for a septic tank. Fill the wheelbarrow, push it out to the roadway (if it's crushed rock/gravel) or to the garden (if it's topsoil).

More Pictures

Well I managed to get this picture up, but the rest keep timing out. This is after our second church service on Sunday - posing with a few of the children that were there.

Last night we stayed with our host families for the first time. To our collective delight we all had indoor plumbing and showers, most of which worked. The houses are actually pretty nice... any middle-class home is surrounded by a wall and a gate, and most have some livestock in the yard as well. The place where I'm staying has some sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, and, unfortunately, four roosters. They had a little contest just before dawn to see who was the baddest rooster of them all. I am staying with Peter, who is a pastor, his wife Rose (who has been to Kitchener), and their son Bryan/Brian who is 12. On the way there we had to drive through a herd of cows and goats that was taking up the entire street in the middle of town. That was fun. If you honk the horn they get out of the way eventually. The town is certainly not what we're used to. Dirt streets and lots of dust and haphazard-looking buildings.
Today we worked a bit, and then went to the market in Thika. It was pretty interesting. It didn't, uh, have the same hygiene standards that we are used to. Hopefully I can get some pictures of that up soon.

In about an hour we'll be off to the first evangelism meeting that's near a town about 20km away.

Down to business

So there was more fun at the hotel last night, and once again I missed it. At around 2 a.m. a water tank broke in the janitor's closet that was between a couple of the rooms, and people awoke to the sound of running water. Christina (I think) stepped out of her bed to see what it was and landed in a puddle. So two or three rooms got flooded, and some folks had to switch rooms in the middle of the night. Richard, hearing all the commotion in the hall, assumed it was morning already so he got up and had a shower and popped out the door all ready to go. At 2 a.m. Once again David and I missed all the action and slept peacefully.
This morning was our first day of work. Some of us spent the day making forms for cement posts, as they are adding a third story to the main building. The other project was clearing dirt and stones from around a septic tank that they are digging, and spreading it out over the ground where the roadway is.
I'm posting this from the ACMI office, but right now the internet connection is extremely slow so I will post pictures later. We're done work for the day, and soon we'll go to meet our host families for this week.

I wanna rock and roll all night...

... and go to church every day.

So yesterday in the afternoon there was a wedding at the hotel where we were staying. We all went to bed early since we had to get up before 6 to go to church in the morning. However, the wedding was followed by a reception, so most of us spent the night grooooooving to the beats instead of sleeping. Fortunately the music stopped at around 6, just in time for us to get up for the day.

At least that's what I hear. I (Ron) was at the furthest end of the building from the party, and I slept pretty well.

So this morning, church service #1 was from 7-9 a.m. in Thika, and church service #2 was, I dunno, maybe 11-1 or so in a daughter church  nearby. It was quite interesting, but by the second service it was getting pretty hot and people were fading fast. But the music was great, the speaking was fiery (in both Swahili and somewhat-understandable English). And the hospitality was unbelievable... we were fed after each service, and everyone was so welcoming.

So right now we are back at the hotel having a little rest. In about ten minutes we are heading out to the world-reknowned Carnivore restaurant in Nairobi, where I plan to eat alligator, ostrich, and whatever else I can catch.

Tomorrow we start work and begin staying with our host families.

That's all for now - Bwana asafiwi (Praise the Lord)!

Pictures

Here are some guys beginning to load our luggage at the airport.


We were greeted at the airport by Pauline and Irene from African Christian Mission International (ACMI), who gave us each a bouquet of flowers.

Enjoying breakfast this morning. The pineapple was delicious. Note that Don is asserting his colonial priviledge.

This is the Blue Posts Hotel in Thika, where we're staying. If it looks about 25 degrees out, and sunny with a gentle breeze, that's because it is.

This is Thika Falls where we hiked this morning.