More Kenya Comments and Candids

 

Week 2 saw us helping in a Camp that was within walking distance of the Osborne's home.  I was so glad!  I was struggling with car sickness the first week and then there were memories of a night drive through roads like this...

It's rainy season right now.  The corn shot up in the 3 weeks we were here and the people are knowing they are blessed. 

Josh got a private lesson in meal preparation, starting from Scratch, or with this scratcher.  He was a beauty, and he was delicious. 

 On to cheerier subjects. 

 The camp was in a Bible college, with the big meetings being in a huge teaching garage, complete with lube pit, covered over so none of us would fall in. 

 Then we had classes in smaller groups.  This is where we got to know some of the kids by name and learned more about them.  Tim's group had a nice meeting place. 

 

Josh's group met outside each day so he tanned up nicely.  He also braved the line to get biscuits (cookies).  

Week 3, Paul was off on a preaching trip to western Kenya, while the boys and I did a slot at a more local camp.  It was good!  But we sure know we have a long way to go to fill Paul's shoes. 

 I love the outdoor beauty here! 

 Now for a science lesson.  This is a worm.  It comes from the African Tumbu fly, also called the Mango Fly.  At least this is what we learned online.  I read about 11 different flies that can get under the human skin. This fly lays it's eggs on damp clothing, and then the egg burrows into the skin, and hatches into a worm.  Under the skin.  It's about the size of a piece of rice.  Guess who's skin this guy was under...no, don't bother.  I'm not telling as I don't want to embarrass anyone, but sometimes this homeschooling science gets a little too real for me.  We're still hoping for healing without needing a trip to a doctor. 

 Finally, Merry Christmas!  This is Prudence, who is just launching out into a new little project with me, helping me teach Bible verses.  Stay tuned for more on that. 

Kenya Comments & Candids

  Heading north from Cape Town it's about 2551 miles to Nairobi, Kenya!  It feels like a short flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, if you're used to hopping "the pond" to America. 

 Josh gets credit for most of these pictures, and this one deserves the credit.  Moth on Christmas ornament enhances the moth and the ornament. 

 Off to camp, which met in a school.  Signs keep me interested all over Africa.  I took this one myself, but Josh gets credit for loaning me his camera. 

 Our campers were enthusiastic! 

 My favorite object lesson on Isaiah 43:2.  I love the drama of the fire, as well as the lessons it teaches.  That's the camp director in the background, looking ready to run for a fire extinguisher. 

 Good ol' Monkey and BL (zeebub) were resurrected for the camps, but with new voices of Tim and Josh. 

 Josh tried to catch a motorcycle with 4 or 5 on it, but 3 men will have to do.  I don't think he got the one he saw with 2 live sheep on it either, or any with goats.  Chickens were just too normal.

 Skygo motorcycles from Japan (I think) are everywhere. They've changed the face of transportation in Kenya. 

 Josh, 17, and Tim, 21, are 6'6" and 6'7" respectively.  Their ages caused a hubbub in the camps, when the kids found out they were so young.  They were guessing in their mid to late 20's. 

 Tim teaching the story of George Washington Carver wearing a borrowed shirt from Dad.  Someone forgot to pack more than 1 collared shirt.  That led to a story we'll refer to in the next blog post. 

 Paul teaching at Emmanuel Church, with Gideon translating.  This was a Wednesday afternoon meeting. 

 Cozy bunch crammed in there.  Notice my face turned toward the window.  I felt sick quite a bit.  Nothing ever came of it, just yucky queasiness. 

 Josh helping pick up the rocks that stuck up in the road, so we wouldn't scrape bottom.  This is before we got stuck. 

 Who knew!  There really is a flower that looks like Horton's, in Horton Hears a Who, though maybe that one was pink. 

 Josh was intrigued by this fruit.   He later bought a ripe one at the market. 

 

It tasted a bit like passion fruit, though not such a strong flavor. 

 My three guys with the leaders of the first camp we helped with.  Formal pictures are appreciated. 

 Presenting a goat to the church with the best Awana program.  Appropriately, it was named Victory.  The church not the goat.  That  goat is Christmas dinner on Tuesday. 

Here's a glimpse of Victory's Awana program which they do on Sunday mornings.   It was an enthusiastic group!

Kenya, update on accident

Tim and I doing an object lesson on Isaiah 43:2, with Evelyn translating, at the children's home.  I had pictures of the cute little ones, but it's not appropriate to put them online. 

Rush hour traffic  :- )  

 This is the van later involved in the accident, when it was stuck in the mud the first week we were here. 


Wednesday of week three in Kenya was a unique day for the boys and me.  We were scheduled to go with Lois Osborne to the Grace Children's Home, to teach them, help with a craft, and help with decorating the three homes of the children's home, for Christmas.  We also "helped" with eating lunch.  :- )   (Other days we had a teaching slot at a camp.)

Lois was sick that day, but Pastor Fitzpatrick drove Timothy, Josh, and me, with Robert who is one of Lois' boys, out to the home.  

"Before" picture of a tree we were to help decorate at the children's home.

In the midst of the hub-bub, I got a call from Paul. He was traveling with some of the pastors to do two pastor's seminars further west.  They had hit a small boy with the van!

This kind of thing is scary, and I don't just mean for the boy.  There can be mob violence against the driver, or the police can impound the car indefinitely.

I felt overwhelmed.  Happily, I had gone off by myself so I could hear, and so had a place for some quick, desperate praying.  I was in an accident in 1989 in Peru where a friend hit a man on the Pan American highway.  The man did not live, and Paul had thought this boy might not live.

The kids' party went on,  while I was on pins and needles.  Every chance I got, I slipped off to ask prayer from friends on my phone.  People responded on Whatsapp and Facebook.

We gave two 30 minute programs for the kids.  Tim and Josh experienced the difference between a puppet show, and a TRANSLATED puppet show.  Translating more than doubled the length of it, and the boys' faces were twisted in agony at the strain of the longer time in an awkward position, but they were laughing too. We did stories, and the liquor bottle lesson.  We did a lesson on how Christians are to stay salty, and be a light in the world.

We helped with crafts and decorating.  We glittered their cat.  We ate lunch, with one ear on the phone.  We cut the cakes Lois Osborne had sent and distributed that.

The phone buzzed, and Paul said it looked like the boy would be OK!!!  He had stitches in his head, but no broken bones.  However, that first clinic sent him to another hospital for x-rays. That took hours.  Then the 2nd hospital sent them to a third to get a scan of some kind.  What rejoicing when we finally heard he was fine!

We left the children's home around 4 PM, but the saga continued for the guys.  They had to go back to the police station and arrived there around 10:30 PM.  The police were going to keep them all overnight at the station.  Misery!  Just before midnight, Paul got out his chalk talk and preached to the whole batch of people there.  He was preaching at midnight (like his namesake singing in a prison in prison at midnight, in Acts 16:25)!  After that, one of the Policemen said he was a believer, and said they could go find a hotel to sleep in, because of the Word of God.

So they left, and went to drop off the family of the boy who was hit.  From there, they hunted for an hour for a hotel.  Paul said he got to bed at 1:55 AM.

In the morning, it was back to the police station, wait, wait, wait some more, and then the longed for clearance!  Paul's height gave some rapport with the police chief, a man who thought he himself was tall, before he met Paul.

They left around 10 for an 11 o'clock appointment, three hours away.  They arrived 22 hours later than expected and 2 hours late for their appointment.  Happily, this is Kenya, so 2 hours late is not a panic.  Paul preached about 4 times at that seminar.  He sounds tired, very tired.
But he has no more preaching until Sunday, so he just has to get through the long drive tomorrow, and he can rest.

I'm thankful God keeps His promises!

Stranded in a township

Two flat tires at once today!   In Khayelitsha, of all places!  I'll tell you what happened.

I was at home, having all the crises associated with a ladies' Bible study (We ran out of sugar for the tea and a ball the kids were playing with went over the wall into the neighbor's house.  Rather tame stuff.).  Our niece Gloria was going back to her house to get something, when she ran into her husband dashing out the door.  He said Uncle Paul had called for help, as he had two flat tires in Khayelitsha.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khayelitsha if you'd like to know the history of Khayeltisha

The last time we mentioned Khayelitsha, it was when we went to a church there, and there were 13 taxi drivers killed that morning before we arrived.  It wouldn't be my number one choice as a place to be vulnerable, with a Jeep with TWO flat tires.

But it was good!  People stepped up to help!   A local couple helped by giving Paul a ride to a tire place.  A police man gave Paul a ride back to the Jeep, then he gave Paul and his sister Grace a ride to the school where they were to be speaking.  The school staff gave  them a ride back to the car.

Two of the people who helped refused pay.

All these helpful people were Black.  Racial tensions and horror stories are frequently in the news here, but the happy reality in this situation was kindness and helpfulness to vulnerable people.

We thank the Lord for His safety, and His people we meet along the way.  

 James went zipping over from home with that yellow coiled thing to inflate the tire. 

 It looks buried in the sand, but it's cement, not sand. 

Grace speaking in one school. 

Up, up in the air, in a beautiful balloon

I don't feel like I've shared enough of our balloon trip! Being a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it needs more than a quick treatment.  

We had to wait almost a year from the time we were given the gift at a party for our twenty fifth anniversary in Maine.  We tried to schedule in Cape Town, but with our fickle wind and weather, it had to be rescheduled each time.  We would have insisted they take us, but we    didn't want to get swept out over the Atlantic Ocean, nor the Indian Ocean.  

So on this fine morning, we got up in the dark so we could be rising at dawn.  It wasn't just us.  First of all, Josh got to come with us, since we discovered that a balloon ride up-country (in the North West province, near Hartbeespoort Dam)  costs about half of a balloon ride in Cape Town.  Whoo-hoo!  

Josh wasn't the only one with us.  Turns out we had a big basket and there were 14 of us total, including our captain.  We were a very international group too.  Besides our 3 American selves, there were 2 from France, 3 from the UK, 2 from Argentina (yeah!  I got to speak Spanish a bit!), 1 from Denmark, and 3 South Africans. 

All of us were thrilled with the beauty and the peacefulness of the flight!  I didn't feel afraid at all.  Before we went up, I had felt nervous of being cold, but that morning I put on 4 layers, and that did the trick.  I was peeling layers before we came down.  The firing up stage was suspenseful, chilly, and fascinating.  

Notice the blue ring inside the balloon.  To land, they open that small circle, and the hot air in the balloon escapes out of the blue circle so we could descend more or less where the pilot wanted.  

We landed in a cow pasture.  We had to be careful where we stepped.  

Ta-da!  We were ready to go up!  (Sorry these are not in the order I intended them.  I struggle with moving pictures around.)

We got over a mile high.  We saw these fields looking like quilts, and game, and cows, and mountains and water.  We saw God's Creation!  

The balloon basket was divided into 5 segments.  It reminded me of a picnic basket with a section for the cutlery, the dishes...

After the balloon ride, we got down to business.  We went to Sasolburg where Paul preached in a bunch of schools, and a church on Sunday.  Josh continues his homeschooling, and I watch for opportunities to add something to it.  

After Sasolburg, we moved to Back to the Bible Mission, near Barberton.  All of the rest of the pictures are from near Barberton, except the glorious sunset from Sasolburg.  

Josh and Jock of the Bushveld.  We read that book by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick for homeschooling, and learned some South African history so now we're in Jock's territory and were excited to see this statue of him.  Sort of. He's a little larger than life, I think.

Late afternoon walks are a normal part of life for us, and in Barberton we enjoyed walking the railroad and even crossing a trestle.   Not everyone was so sedate on our walks. 

We toured this house called Belhaven in Barberton.  Notice the coffee plant growing on the left.  The guide tried to act like everything was so old and out of date, but I kept seeing things I grew up with, like the ringer washer, low door knobs more like I see in America, and linoleum like we used to have during our stays in Kenya.  So it kind of made old seem not so long ago.  But if our lives are merely a vapor, nothing is so long ago, so it's not that I'm old or anything like that. 

One day Josh and I got to use our Jeep and went off to visit Lizelle's new baby Ziya in Nelspruit.  What a cutie!  I hope she and our Clarity get acquainted at some stage.  

Isn't this tree beautiful?  We saw several in bloom, but I don't think I'd want to climb it...

It doesn't look user friendly.  It's a nice little parable there about beautiful, but prickly people. 

When Paul preached in Alberton, we got to eat lunch with the pastor and his family.  We met his friendly birds...

and his daughter who was so good with the birds. 

This wall fascinates me.  Poles with rocks in between. 

We had a memorable meal where Josh sampled snails. 

Sometimes we're in the city so much, I forget we're in Africa.  Other times I am reminded. 

We are fishing for men!  That's another way to say "Drawing Others to Christ." 

 

Paul preached on Psalm 90, the brevity of life, numbering our days, applying our hearts to wisdom, being satisfied with His mercy, rejoicing, being glad, and working for the Lord.  

He preached on lots of other things but his photographer wife misses a lot of photo ops.  :- / 

25 years and counting!  We visited an outdoor wedding venue.  Even with no wedding going on, it was special with its bamboo walls. 

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!"  PSalm 90:12