Relief Society Birthday

I missed the Relief Society Birthday party here in Kisumu because I’d been invited long ago to Busia for their party. We left home about 7:30 and arrived shortly after 10am. We had some training meetings, a temple preparation class, and then the Relief Society Birthday party. I had been asked to speak. I said, “I’ll talk on visiting teaching, okay?” “Fine.” As I’m introduced they say, “Sister Fox will tell us about Relief Society and why we celebrate the birthday.” Oh shoot! For someone who loves history, I’ve always thought the Relief Society history was boring and zoned out when they talked about that. See how your sins come back to haunt you? Elder Eyring said you need to learn everything since you never know when the Lord will call you to something and you need to know that. Sigh.

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So, I searched my memory and I think it was factual, if sparse. As I talked of Relief Society as sisters coming together to assist others, help support the men who were building the temple, and to organize to support one another, it morphed nicely into how visiting teaching is the Lord’s way of helping others and caring for one another.

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After I spoke, they had a sister who was a tailor teach about how to make a dress. They made a dress for me. So I was the model as she showed how to measure. Then she took the fabric, put the measurements on it, drew with chalk and cut out the pattern. Amazing! They also taught me three ways to wear a matching head scarf so I can be very fashionable in my bold printed dress. She finished cutting out the material at 4:30, our drop-dead time for leaving.

Naturally we still had to have “a bite” as well. It was raining again, so we walked next door to Mary’s house where the women had been cooking in the morning. We had chapates, cooked cabbage, boiled potatoes in sauce, and some kind of meat in sauce. It was quite tasty and so fun to watch people skillfully eat most of it with their hands. We finally left a little after 5 pm.

The difficulty was driving home in the rain and then in the rain and the dark. This is a road full of potholes… and people walking to and fro… and oil tankers, and matatus, and trucks and cars all with lights that have never seen a shop that correctly sets the headlamps. We know at least one of the walkers. Bro Crispin, an elderly gentlemen, was the first person and the only person on time for our Temple Preparation class today. He walked 24 km to get there. He said he awoke at 5am and started walking. What a great man! All these faithful saints are just amazing.

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Once again we recorded the road for your viewing pleasure. Note the cars and trucks are driving on the shoulder of the road and the pedestrians are walking down the middle.

Here the oil tanker is in the process of moving from our side of the road, back to his own side.

Here we are following the same truck, being passed by a bus, and you can see the oncoming traffic off to the shoulder and the very minor potholes in the middle.

The video is very bouncy because we were going through potholes. Maybe it gives you a small feeling of being on the road.

We returned home exhausted, but filled with the love of these good people