Crazy Daze

Wow! We’ve had a busy few days. Saturday we had three baptisms. We needed to be in Busia, but these were such wonderful people being baptized, we got them to move the baptismal time up so we could attend. Margaret has a heart and spirit much larger than her diminuative size.

Joan was the one who came and learned how to strip quilt. It was her husband that Elder Fox baptized. He is so serious and diligent. And Winnie is just a sweetheart.

We had packed (some) the night before. We’d made a cake the night before, too. Once the baptisms were over, we jumped in the car and dashed… well, slalomed around potholes to Busia. Actually the road is improving, it was getting out of town that was the challenge.

You see, the constitutional election is coming up. People will vote yes or no to accept this new 208 page constitution. Most of the current government is for it. Some of the members of past governments that perfected the “voluntary contributions” that resulted in a mass shift of wealth from people to politicians, are against it. The security report that the church sends out daily asked us to stay away from Nairobi and limit driving. There was to be a big pro-yes rally here in Kisumu on Saturday with main government leaders coming in. So we thought that would be a good time to be gone. Yes and no. Good time, poor timing. As we were leaving, crowds were gathering to welcome the officials. We waited behind some trucks, then slithered through a narrow road and skirted around the crowd.

In Busia, we arrived in time for the marriages. Several couples who had traditional marriages were getting legally married. This sweet sister was married on Saturday and baptized on Sunday. Her husband is scheduled to follow in baptism later on. Typically a wedding is a very big deal. Lots of cars, lots of food, fancy dresses. And either people go into debt, or they don’t do the wedding. So the church offers an alternative to this extravagant tradition of poverty. However, people still need to contend with tradition. One sister was SO delighted that they could wed and have it be fun and modest. We had quite a gathering there. And I think she was worried that when no big feast was produced they would get grumpy. But they were happy with cake, biscuits, and soda. Sister R and her husband cut the cake. These are the couples that married.

While people waited for all the paperwork, I gave a leadership training. We had both planned on training, but things are sometimes kind of fluid. We arrived at 12:30. By the time the training, weddings, refreshments and such were finished it was about 4:30. We went to Pres. O’s house to visit his wife who had a stroke. She seems so loving.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of the grandchildren. They are so CUTE!

It was fun to see his place. This turkey was quite irate at the intruder he saw in the reflective bumper. He pecked at it diligently and fluffed up his feathers.

Then we needed to get Bro and sister E. on a matatu back to their home about 100 km away. It was dusk. And we needed to get Pres K and his son to a hotel for the night and us to our hotel. On the way out of downtown Busia, we again saw mobs of people covering the road and a few less effective policemen. We were told that the NO campaign was coming to Busia, which is a YES area. Oh great. Stay away from crowds we were told. We were able to drive down the dirt along side the crowd and get past them. Then we saw 15-20 cars caravanning down the road. Ah.. the NO campaign. A few moments later, people started running and peddling furiously from the direction we’d just come. Mama’s beside the road were hastily packing up their goods. Eek. Didn’t look good to me, but our friends just laughed. They said that when one person starts running, everyone starts running. Then after a bit, they stop and look to see why they were running. They said, perhaps a YES person started the running to empty the crowd who might have listened to the NO campaign.

We got Pres K situated and got Pres O’s bicycle from the church. We agreed to take him close to his home, which was also on our way to the Farmview, our hotel. I was glad to have him with us. We were headed back downtown and it was now very dark. However it was all quiet and we got to our hotel without incident.

Sunday we planned to be at church by 8am, but were delayed a bit picking up Pres K. It didn’t seem to matter at all that we were late. Tom spent time talking to Pres. O, the branch president, and giving him all kinds of material. I visited with sisters and mostly sat around. During Sunday School Pres K, Elder Fox and I spoke to the members and talked about being grateful for a branch rather than spending time wishing it were closer to home. One brother said, in the dry areas of Kenya where it may rain once a year, women walk 40km daily to get a bucket of water for their families. They do it because water is essential to life. Our spiritual water is also essential for spiritual life and we should be willing to do what it takes to get that spiritual nourishment.

During Relief Society, I gave a talk on visiting teaching, and then, after church there was a baptism and we gave the last temple prep class. Phew! 4 talks in two days. I was doing well with three talks, then Tom reminded me again about the temple prep class. I thought he was teaching it all. Nope. I had a part. Oops. Good thing we’d taught this class before, so I just needed to review it.

We got away about 3:45…. Only 45 min past our goal, and came to Kisumu before 6pm. I fixed dinner while Pres K. met with the branch presidency. I invited them all to dinner of Carbinara. Different for them! But they seemed to enjoy it.

Wow! Full day. We’re baking another cake (we means Tom) for more weddings tomorrow. We will also drive to Sondu to visit the saints there. I love this work!