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!

The Chronicles of Zambia

Zambia has got to be one of the most photographical places on the planet.  Shall I prove it? 
I plan to try, put not so much today.  I've been working and waiting for an hour and a half and only managed to get four ( I hope) pictures up, but it's a start. 

Josh with an elephant bone. 

Crossing the Zambezi River on a ferry. 

 A monkey visitor on our Jeep in Lusaka. 

Olivia, a new friend in Zambia, and a four year old, with a four. 

 Have you ever seen such a romantic puddle??!! 

 And here's some heart-throb eyes to go with the romantic puddle.  He's trying to figure out the musungu with the camera. 

Now we're launching into the culture shock section.  Paul preached several times in a huge settlement called Kaunda (I think)  .  They've had a cholera outbreak there recently, and when we saw how they were crowded in, with no plan, and apparently there are only a few wells where everyone must go to carry home their water, it is not surprising if sickness travels in a very crowded place like that. 
We tried to give a few glimpses into this community. 

Paul preached at Rockyview Baptist Church which was appropriate with the rocky roads.  the picture won't upload, but here's the yard that inspired it. 

 Roads were challenging, even for our Jeep.  We saw one pothole with a fire in the bottom of it! 

 Now there's a sign you're not going to see in America!  Now I know that different things are appropriate in different cultures, but this one gave me a jolt!    And before we had recovered from the one, we saw another one!  Same name, (the name on the right) but it was a hardware store.

Townships are not the only place for culture shocks.  Anyone ever seen a giraffe licking a braai pit/grill before?  It got my attention! 

So many more pictures I want to share!  Patience, someday we'll get a good internet connection, and I might even be able to post our impala stampede on video, and giraffes in action. 

The Lord is great, and His creation keeps fascinating me, and I love sharing it with you. 

Rwandan Remembrances

 We have started wending our way southward, but I have a few more pictures to share from Kigali.  Josh took this one through the binoculars, of the American embassy across town from us.  Nice to see the red, white and blue over there, waving in the breeze. 

 The tamest giraffes we've met in our travels stand watch over Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. 

 It's the rainy season right now, which means hard afternoon rains, sometimes producing flash floods like this one we had to drive through on the way to a school.  Kigali has thousands of motorcycles, and they just have to park and wait storms like this out. 
We kept going, but Paul couldn't preach with this rain thundering down on the tin roof.  No one could hear him. We prayed, and prayed some more, and the Lord stopped the rain. 

 This school has the distinction of being the only one in Rwanda where Paul could preach without an interpreter. 

 Our first time eating in someone's house in Rwanda.  It was a sweet time, and a very typical meal with rice, French fries, sweet potatoes, and stew.  But it also had 3 kinds of salad.  This was with Jane, the translator, and her pastor husband. 

 Paul's official (self appointed?) escort at a primary school. 

 After the rains, with Jane translating, this school was very enthusiastic and attentive. 

 Paul preached to a Christian group at a Muslim school 

 Josh wanted this picture for his Brother In Law--BIL--Ryan. 

 But of course there are dangers out here on the road.  What happened here?  We stayed at the little hotel behind this petrol station (for about $7.50  :- )  on the way north, and the top was fine.  But now?  People were still able to buy gas, but one of the pumps is tipping to the right.  Maybe the wind did this? 

 And there are the dangers of wide loads on the roads. 

 Gas attendants come in all shapes and sizes these days.  I liked this lady's outfit, and told her so.  She seemed pleased when I took her picture and gave her a Swahili tract. 

This picture is aimed at anyone who is a Jungle Doctor enthusiast, like we are.  Does Anyone remember his car, Sukuma?  which means "Push" in Swahili.   We just got a little laugh over this sign on a door in Dodoma.
 

       All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
                                                     Psalm 22:27

Rwanda Wanderings-Rwamagana-Nyagatare-Kigali

 

IN MEMORY OF JOSHUA'S KINDLE

Josh's Aunt Wendy gave him her Kindle Fire, and he used it about every day for reading, whatsapping, and taking pictures like he's doing in this picture.  I'm glad I have this picture to remember it by because it was stolen out of the window of a house we stayed in. 

 

Paul was awakened about 12:30 AM Monday morning, and at first he didn't know why.  A few minutes later, I was jolted awake by the sound of our Jeep's alarm going off.  Talk about a jolt of adrenalin! 

 

We investigated and discovered thieves had used sticks to reach in two of our windows and steal my bag that I'm using as a purse, Paul's glasses, his Bible, and Josh's Kindle.  My bag contained, among other things, all of our passports, 2 credit cards, a little money, and my car keys.   We went outside to look around, and there was my purse, upside down on the grass!  The passports were still in it!  We were so thankful.  That would have been a huge job, expensive in both money and time,  to get them replaced.  But my car keys were gone.  We kept looking, and soon found my keys on the ground in the ally beside the house.  Apparently our thieves were scared off by the car alarm.  (I'm glad I'm not the only one scared to death by that noise!)  Our mosquito repellent was on the wall.  

 

Paul walked around the whole house, and as I stood waiting, I heard footsteps behind the house next to ours.  Later we heard someone talking softly to the guard of the houses inside the gates where we were.  Paul found his Bible and glasses on the window sill outside our bedroom window.  They had been on his nightstand, inches from his head.  Maybe that is what woke him?  It was a bit freaky to think of someone being that close while we slept.

 

We ended up being very thankful!  We're sad for Josh, but we can't help but see how much worse this could have been.  If they had kept my car keys, we wouldn't be able to leave the car alone for  a minute until we left that area.  Josh's Kindle was recharging in the laptop.  If we lost this laptop, we'd lose our prayer letter list, among other things. 

 

In the morning, we found one other thing:  human excrement in the back yard.  We are told that is for "good luck" (as in witchcraft) so the person breaking in will not be caught.    Too bad DNA testing hasn't arrived in Rwanda or we'd have a good case against someone.   

 

 

 We left Rwamagana (and our wifi) over a week ago, and tried to catch some of the scenery as we moved to Nyagatare which is in the north, close to the border of Uganda.  Rice fields still fascinate us. 

 I guess Lot's well watered valley wasn't like this, but it makes me think of him. 

  Pine trees and banana trees together.  I didn't know you could do that. 

 

 Finally, we are at the pastors' conference that started the whole trip to Rwanda!  Paul had the floor from about 9:00- 4:30. (9:00 African time ) with about an hour off for the whole gang to walk to a restaurant for lunch.  Pastor Bosco was his translator, and he did very well.  Paul used the American expression "I was a chicken" describing when he was timid about sharing the gospel, and the unfamiliar expression struck Pastor Bosco as extremely funny.  It gave me the giggles too, picturing afresh instead of it just being a common expression.

 Josh got an unusual shot of the streets of Nyagatare in one its more empty moments.  It's a bustling town.

 "Bend-down Bazaars" are popular all over Zambia and here in Rwanda too.  Used clothing from other countries is sold for a bit.  It's like a yard sale, and can be so fun. 

 We all were pretty tired by Friday afternoon, but here are some of the pastors at the conference. 

 From Nyagatare's high spots, you can see the mountains in the distance, and those mountains are in Uganda, about 40 minutes away. 

 Suddenly, without warning, the story of "The Princess and the Pea" came to my mind. 

 On Sunday Paul preached in three churches.  This was Pastor Innocent's church.  It's funny when he introduces himself, "I'm Innocent" before we'd ever accused him of anything. 

 At church #2, Pastor Deo's church, I took a video so these two shots skips to church # 3. 

 Coffins are made outside.  We were told jobs were available at this place if the person would covert to Islam. 

 A rare picture of the three of us!  We went to lunch with Pastor Bosco and enjoyed good Rwandan food, and he likes my camera. 

 A nursery school between church and home caught my eye.  Looks like they're off on the right foot!

 The cook and the goat.  Need I say more? 

 We got to Kigali last night, and Paul preached at two churches.  His black light showed up nicely in the dark. 

 The lights of Kigali framed by two giraffes. 

Kigali the next morning with our hillside view.  Josh is sick today, and I'm sort of recovering, hopefully, so we are thankful to have a more still day today, close to facilities. 

"Thou tellest my wanderings..." 

from  Psalm 56 :8

"With my whole heart have I sought thee:  O let me not wander from thy commandments."
                                                                    Psalm 119:10