The weekend

3rd August, 2009 - Posted by Camille Cotton -

Saturday was a day of rest, which meant shopping, experiencing the local culture and a trip to the Kiero View. The Kiero View is like their version of the Grand Canyon. So, our day started with a trip in to town which is an event in itself just getting there. I am not kidding when I say the roads are narrow. A typical road here is about the width of a single lane plus the emergency lane. And we are driving in a big bus or motor coach as our friends from England call it. There are people walking everywhere and riding bikes. I kid you not, there can’t be more than a foot, if that some times, between our bus and the bikes and people walking. And the most amazing thing….the bikers and the pedestrians don’t even flinch when we whip by them with inches to spare! I think most of us have finally been able to relax and know that our driver, Isaiah, is more than capable. But it is really crazy. We did a little shopping, had lunch in town and then headed to the Kiero View. It is really beautiful and super peaceful there. The valley of the canyon is filled with little farms and huts and is very green. We watched a thunder and lightning storm come through the canyon leaving a beautiful rainbow for us to see! The road to the Kiero View is lined with small little shacks, road side huts, cows, pigs and chickens roaming freely. Well not really freely; their owner is somewhere in the area, but never anywhere near the cows, pigs or chickens. All along the way, there are children playing in the dirt and we wave from our bus. They see us and give us this ginormous smile and wave back as long as they can see the bus in the distance! When we returned from our sightseeing adventure, we spent the evening visiting with a couple local men, learning about the various tribes and the traditions that still exist and those that have been lost. Very educational! At The Noble, where we stay, a young couple had just been married and that opened up the dialog about marriage here in Kenya and the traditions that go with it. Typically the man must give a dowry to the future father-in-law; depending on the tribe, it may very in value. For this couple it was 14 cows at $1,200 a piece. Can you imagine! They do have their whole life to pay it, but then they are forever indebted to the father-in-law. Anyway, it was interesting to see and learn. Here in Keyna, the population is about 80% Christian, 10% Muslim and 10% traditional tribal or unknown. However, the Christians are not all living the life of a Christian. Some have viewed being a Christian as a position of power and use their faith to gain wealth only. We are still trying to fully understand that piece and will work on flushing that out before we come home! We had our first real rain here this evening. The temp was about 60 and it rained for about 2 hours. The red dirt here is so packed that it can’t absorb the water and it just pools.

Sunday was church and putting on your best dress….one thing some of you may not know about Kenya, they dress pretty nice every day, so on Sunday, they kick it up a notch. A typical day’s dress attire for a man is a pair of nice pants, a collared shirt and nice dress shoes. For the women, it is a dress or skirt with a nice blouse and nice shoes. The children are a little more casual. The further from town you get, you might see the children without shoes, but no matter how far away from town you get, they still dress nice! And it doesn’t matter if they have a job or are just hanging on the streets. So, on Sunday, the children are dressed up in the sweetest dresses, some with hats, the boys have nice pants, a nice shirt and some include a sweater or vest. For miles you will drive the road and pass families walking, all dressed up, carrying their Bible and headed to church! Very cool to see! For our team today, we headed to the Open Arms Village for a church service and we just spent the day hanging with the children and house parents….it was the best! When we arrived at the Village, the children came running over to the tent for church, carrying their Bibles with them. The church service started with one of the house father’s speaking in English and the other house father translating it in to Kiswahili. After opening in prayer, the children or otherwise known as the ‘Open Arms children’s choir’, came up front and sang a couple songs as well as led us in a couple songs! They sing in English and Kiswahili. Next, Peter, the house father speaking in English, asked which children wanted to share their memory verse and about 7 of them went to the front and stated their verse in English! Very cool to see these young ones learning scripture. Peter gave a short message using Psalms 27:4 and the older children follow along in their Bibles…again, very cool to witness. From this point, we just all started playing different ball games and parachute games with all 27 children. Ann, who is from Texas got a kickball game started. Shane and Spencer were throwing the whistle rockets to some boys, Rachel, from the UK, Karleigh, and I got the parachute going with the little ones and Helen, from the UK, played catch and parachute and every other game she could think of! We enjoyed a wonderful, authentic African lunch made by the house moms. It included Ugali, chicken, a green spinach dish that had pieces of maze in it and these yummy tortilla things (chipati)! I thoroughly enjoyed it as did Brandt, not sure that Shane, Spencer and Hunter were able to get through the whole thing, but Karleigh did her best to clear her plate. Helen and Anita were thinking that the Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches weren’t so bad after all! After lunch we played some more with the children who just can’t get enough hugs, swings, jump rope turning or ball tossing. An afternoon of laughter…it doesn’t get much better than that! For now, the prayer request is for hundreds of local people to come to the medical clinic tomorrow so that God can work miracles for them through the doctors and our team!