The week of visits

This week we spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday visiting members. Wednesday we spent in the northern part of Kisumu. We visited Bro. Steven, Michael, and Titus and their wives. At Bro. Steven's house, his wife Nancy made a lovely dinner of tilapia fish, ugali, and greens. Then we walked to Michael's house who is his "next door neighbor." It was a 10 minute walk past many houses. I think if you live in the same "estate" you are neighbors. There we met with the 6 of them again and taught a lesson. Titus lives in the neighboring estate so we walked back to the truck and drove there. Steven and Michael directed us.
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The truck is only supposed to transport missionaries or be used for church or mission business. So we try to be very careful about giving rides to people. But we didn't know the way. I think people believe if they can walk there, the truck can go there. We wound our way deep into the slums. These roads were narrow, rain washed and full of dips and holes. Houses and small shops lined the way. The sisters actually walked there ahead of us. As we caught up to them, the men got out and let the sisters ride the last bit in the truck. I think that is one of the blessings of the gospel. The men at church have more respect for the women than is traditional. At Titus's house we learned about how they joined the church. It is great to hear how testimonies grow and how as they learn and apply the teachings of the gospel their lives improve.
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We got home close to dark, tired, dusty, and feeling great! Wednesday we left early to go to Maseno-- about 30 km northwest of Kisumu. We visited Sis. Maureen, the Relief Society President at her shop. It's about 10'x10' with a window opening to the street. People stop to purchase. She is a returned missionary and a great lady. We always enjoy her.
Then we braved red clay roads to go visit Bro. Ponge. I love it that we just head off into the brush with vague directions and manage to find the place. (with a little help from cell phones! ) He is a retired teacher and the oldest member of the branch at about age 60. Since retiring, he has focused on the needs of the orphans. AIDs has nearly eliminated a generation of people in this rural area. So many grandmamas are left to raise grandchildren after having lost husbands and all their children and their children's spouses. This is Bro Ponge's early childhood development (ECD) school. On the left are the younger; on the right the class of the older students. Many of them cannot afford to pay for school and often they come to school hungry. One of his projects is to rent land, then till, plant, weed and when the harvest comes, distribute the grains to the families who care for the orphans. Total cost is about $40 and it provides food for 50 orphans and their guardian families for maybe 10 days... but this year he doesn't have enough money to do this.

I love it! Mud floor and walls, but still they are filled with cheerful posters and information and the children are happy.

Then we drove to Bro. Richard's house. He has a nice shamba or farm. We saw his banana trees his mother planted. We saw his brick works and his wife's kiosk by the street where she sells "some small things"-- vegetables, some clothing, eggs. I bought some eggs. Below, they are standing in front of his father's garage. This is where the church met for the first few weeks when it was organized in Kisumu-- so it's a part of history. Now here's the rub. People may live hours from Kisumu and still have a Kisumu address. So when they decided to start a branch here, they gathered all the people from "Kisumu" and learned, after the organization, that almost NONE of them actually lived in Kisumu. They all lived in outlying areas. So these great people in Maseno and other areas now need to travel to Kisumu for church at great personal sacrifice. The church needs to grow in the city, then we pray that branches will spread back out to Maseno and other outlying areas.

Again, we got back home tired and happy. Friday morning we visited Morrice's school. Morrice and Olga discovered they could not work together. So they separated and now two schools are serving that area. They are both struggling, but I hope and pray they will succeed. They are both motivated to do well. Morrice's school now meets in a church. This was it's first day there.

Then we drove to Sabatia to visit Erica. She is below with her grandees and a girl from the school who did the best on he graduation exams. Erica will try to sponsor her first year at form 1. We heard Erica's latest efforts with the fish ponds. These are to support the widow's group. The bees are to support the AID's group. I'm not sure which thing supports the orphan group. We stopped at the school she works with and spoke with the headmaster. They also have an ECD program. They feed the children as they saw them not paying attention due to hunger.

Being obedient to our truck usage, we declared we were delighted to walk to her widow's support group meeting. A mile and a half later we arrived. My shoes are not meant for walking that distance.... and then I see women here walking miles in heels! Again, many of these "mamas" are raising orphan grandchildren. (pronounced MA'ma-- anyone above childbearing age may be called a mama. It's a term of respect. Actually most of these mamas are WELL above childbearing age.) After we spoke to them, they gave us a round of applause as well as a little shaking, dancing, and some Ki-yi-yi-yis. The little one to the right if me with the stick, which she needs to walk with, did a mighty fine job of the shakin and dancin.

On the walk there and back, we met many of Erica's friends and neighbors. One was carrying a banana trunk on her head to take home, chop up, and feed to the cows. Elder Fox had to try the head carrying for himself.

Then she resumed carrying it.

Ah, the complexities of life. Their needs are so great, and yet often problems can be solved with not a lot of money. But everyone has a problem and could use money to resolve. The fish pond needs fish to stock it, then it could be profitable. There is another fishpond that is partly dug, but stopped due to funds. What do do.

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Rain was threatening, and we didn't want to be on the narrow clay roads when it began. And it WAS time to leave. Again, we returned home when it was nearly dark. But I glowed--in more ways than one. It felt great to visit and uplift friends... and I had a brilliant sunburn! About 4 hours in the sun (even if you seek shade of trees whenever possible) at the equator and taking malaria pills that make you more photosensitive all create a bad situation. And she offered me an umbrella. Sigh. Pride goes before a sunburn.

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Saturday we had six people baptized-- 3 daughters from one family, 2 from another, and a boda boda (bicycle taxi) driver. It was awesome to see fathers using their priesthood to baptize their children. This is what the church is about-- growing families in the gospel. This contrasts with an African tradition of sending your children to boarding school. In the afternoon we went to visit Samuel who is not quite 14 and has been in boarding school for the past 2 years. He arises at 4:45 and school starts at 5am. They have scheduled classes, activities, and study time until 9:30 at night. We talked of taking time during study time to read the scriptures. He is the only member there, but he likes it there and dreams of being a surgeon one day. On the way back we took a side trip to see the Kisumu airport. As we entered town we hit a traffic snarl that tied us up for about 45 minutes as a 2 lane road became a 4 lane road with impatient drivers trying to crowd to the front.