Course Corrections

Sometimes after church we review the day and go AKK, AKK about things that were not done correctly. Seldom are they GIANT errors, but they are small things that if not corrected will lead to false traditions or incorrect teachings. I had thought that once the branch was established, these things would go away. Then I remembered the Old Testament, where all the prophets kept trying to keep people on the right path. And I remembered the New Testament where Paul kept writing letters to the churches reminding them of the right way and counseling them to avoid errors. And of course the entire Book of Mormon is about prophets warning people and correcting false doctrines—of dissenters being beguiled by flattering words and choosing things pleasing to the carnal mind. And in spite of Paul saying there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” we have hundreds of different churches on the earth today.

In an aside, we were discussing baptism on Sunday and our Kenyan teacher commented that some churches baptize by sprinkling, some by putting a cross on the forehead, some by waving a flag over you, and some by having you jump across fire. Interesting. I didn’t know that. And I wonder if they have read the scriptures that say Jesus was baptized by immersion and he told us to follow his example.

So anyway, I was reminded of our former stake president who had a wife in the hospital with cancer. As he drove toward the hospital pondering and praying that things would soon get back to normal and they could resume a normal life. The Lord spoke to him:”Stan, this IS life.” So I realized I shouldn’t get upset at the irregularities. I should not expect them to go away. I should recognize that this is my lot in life: to recognize them and correct them.

Why do people say and do things that are not in harmony with God’s teachings? It’s the age old battle of good and evil. The “father of all lies” offers quick gratification and long term misery. The Father of Truth offers the difficulty of self-mastery in the short term, with joy, peace, and happiness in the long term. It takes faith that if we go through the correct way now, we can have great rewards down the road. So the reasons?

1. They don’t know what they should do.

2. They don’t understand how to do it.

3. They don’t understand why it’s important and the ramifications of error.

4. They don’t have faith enough to trust God it will work out better with more joy and happiness when they choose right.

5. They don’t care. (I don’t think many people here fall into this category.)

How else do people go off course? They listen to the wrong voice. Satan offers such beguiling ways that are pleasing to the natural man. “All roads lead to God.” Sounds easy. No responsibility to choose the right path. Whatever you do will be okay in the end. The problem is it’s not supported by scriptures. They say, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” And “Not everyone who sayeth Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” So one way to separate the cunning voice of the adversary from the truth is by reading scriptures.

The scriptures say: “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” And immediately a voice whispers, “You can’t do that. You might as well not even try. It’s not going to happen.”And so we tend to discount that commandment, remain in our sins and expect it will all somehow turn out in the end. Instead, if we exercise faith that Heavenly Father won’t give us a commandment we cannot accomplish, we will put in full effort. There are some things we can become perfect at—paying tithing, being honest, etc. And some that while we may not be perfect, we can show great improvement—showing more love and kindness, forgiving others, etc. And ultimately we have the promise that if we put in our full effort, the Savior’s atonement will take us the rest of the way to perfection. So, indeed, we are much ahead by believing God and exercising faith and trying to keep the commandments, than by listening to discouraging words and quitting.

So I’m rambling. I guess what I want to say is that course corrections will always be there—for ourselves, for the branch, for others. We just need to be prepared to teach, to encourage, to help, to let them see the consequences of their choices, to help them increase faith and trust in God, and then pray that the people will choose what is best for them and for the church.

And now, a gratuitous picture: As we were visiting a member, we had some additional interest in our conversation.

Githeri (Beans and Maize)

I thought since I gave you a vegetable (pronounced Veg-ee-ta-ble) dish last time, I’d add the main meal. These are the directions given to me by Marcelus Okumu, a renowned chef:

Boil beans and maize ½ kg. (you can use canned or fresh maize off the cob. If dried beans, soak over night first, then it will take maybe 3-4 hours to cook. The ratio of beans to maize is 4:1 beans to maize or even less maize. Here the maize is large, white, and chewy.)

Chop onions—2 large

Chop tomatos- 3 roma

1 tsp tomato paste optional

Parsley \ a little bit

Coriander chopped

Cilantro /

Carrots chopped—1-2

Potatoes cubed—3 large

1 Cup cabbage chopped or sliced

Boil carrots and potatoes or add to almost done beans and maize.

Fry onions with a little cooking oil until golden brown. Add tomatoes and fry until thick sauce. Add spices to fried vegetables. Choices are some or all of: chile (or add fresh chile to fried veggies) black pepper, garlic powder (or fresh added to veggies) coriander seed, turmeric.

Drain beans and maize (save some of the liquid to add back to correct consistency later. Or use some of the liquid to make the onion/tomato/spice sauce.)

Add salt.

Add fried vegetables

Add rest of vegetables and spices.

Check for flavoring. You can add a little bit of beef or chicken flavored cubes.

Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes for taste to enter.

This is vegetable githeri. The basic githeri is just beans, maize, onions, and tomatoes. The fancy-schmancy githeri has beef, chicken, or goat meat in it.

Fried Cabbage

Many recipes in Kenya begin with brown chopped onions and add chopped tomatoes. This recipe is no different. I also add some garlic. We have a serious lack of lettuce, but a plethora of cabbage, with heads the size of oxcart wheels. In an effort to find more uses for this, I asked some cooks here how they cooked cabbage. You can get good results even without the jiko (charcoal stove) and soferia (open pan.)

1 tbsp butter. Melt in frying pan.

1 med. Onion chopped and browned

1 large Roma tomato chopped and tossed in with the onion and cooked.

3 cloves garlic, chopped—also cooked along with onion and tomato.

½ head of cabbage, chopped. I like it more finely sliced and then cut in-- oh, 2” or so bits.

Salt and pepper to taste

When the onions are soft and brown, add the cabbage to the frying pan. You do not need to add water. Cover and let steam a bit. Stir and mix periodically. (I find a spatula works well for this.) In about 5 minutes the cabbage should be cooked- soft and translucent. Make sure onion and tomato is uniformly distributed.

Serve and enjoy.

Saga

We have had a wonderful week! Monday we drove to the Mara. We didn’t get lost, except once; the road was passable, and Elder Fox enjoyed fording the few streams. The resort we stayed at—the Aruba—caters to Germans so we heard German, saw the German magazines and books, and had sauerbraten for dinner. This is the dining room.And our tent: It was a nice comfortable place, excepting the tepid shower. Our game driver was a Masaii with a good understanding of the country. It POURED rain in the afternoon. The stream we forded was now a torrent. So we went another way and slithered through the Mara to see lions, elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, water buffalo, and lots of DLA (Deer Like Animals. I’m borrowing that phrase from the Jamesons; it’s so useful.) We saw jackals, hyenas, warthogs, fox’s, and lots of vultures. As we watched, they'd cruise in for the feast-- at least a dozen of them!And some had an attitude! (This is for Miranda!) Both the evening and morning game drives were fun. With this being the end of the migration, the easy prey has left many carcasses for the scavengers. After the rains, the giraffes kicked up their heels.


We saw lions feasting. We watched a family of lions play while one stalked a herd of wildebeests. I think he was playing with them. He just walked toward them. They scattered left and right. They bunched up and pushed the oblivious ones forward. Finally the lion walked back and joined the pride.


One of the tender mercies of the Lord was that the truck tire didn’t go flat until after we parked at the Aruba. It took until our last day at breakfast to get it fixed. How many Kenyans does it take to fix a tire? One to drive the tire to and from the shop. One to fix the tire, and one to take the tire off and put it on. But for about $10 we got it repaired and it is holding and we are grateful.

We drove a second way out of the Mara to Nairobi. It also was a functioning road – sometimes wider, sometimes washerboard. I suppose it was faster than the Nairobi traffic that we hit coming into town. We spent the nights with our fantastic Employment couple, the B’s.

Wednesday we went early to the Mission office to drop off our truck for servicing. We did the usual distribution orders, records update, requests for branch equipment—like microphones, slashers and ponges (yard tools), and getting additional Seminary materials. We got our temple recommends renewed and had a great meeting with the Mission President.

In the afternoon, armed with maps, directions, and courage, we forged into the unknown and sought out the American Embassy. We wanted to mail a package, pick up absentee ballot requests, and check out the PX. Somehow, that took ALL afternoon! Well, just getting in is an ordeal. The PX was last. Elder Fox drooled over the chips, the chocolate, Jiff peanut butter, the Betty Crocker brownie mixes…. But they only took US dollars! Imagine! We haven’t used those in months. So we pooled all our shillings, went to the bank across the hall and converted them to $$ so we could spend them all. When we got to the couples flats with our horde, we discovered we will be mighty popular the next time we go there.

Thursday we spent several hours getting trained on MLS—Member and Leader Services—program on the computer. Kisumu is getting a computer!!! This is really exciting. First, there are amazing training programs on the computer. Second, now we can take care of our own finances, rolls, directories, adding and moving members, etc. The good news is we are responsible! The bad news is we are responsible! It means more work for us and much less for the Nairobi office. Likely we got the computer to keep us out of their hair. Now if we see an error, it’s up to us to correct it. The clerks should do this, but they will need to be trained first. And that means Elder Fox needs to learn it well enough to train. And I need to come up to speed on the auxiliary part.

I got my hair cut. Hurray! It was very long. We did some shopping and here you see Elder Fox with the small carts you can use. We also found a fabric store that had heavy white material that could be used for baptismal clothing. We met Elder and Sister L who just arrived in the mission on Tuesday and will be going to Eldoret. Here they are (left) with the Mission President and wife (right.)Friday we left before 8am with the L’s following to lead them to Eldoret. Bless their hearts, first time driving on the left side of the road with a left hand shift. I recognized the white knuckle experience of Sister L as it paralleled my first days out, but brother L actually did quite a good job driving. We got them a bit settled into their house, took them shopping, went out to eat, and crashed. Saturday we shopped again, showed them where the cheese factory was, showed them 2 of the chapels and they had a chance to meet missionaries, branch presidents, Pres. Kogo, the 1st Counselor in the Mission Presidency, and we got their dryer installed. We left them going to an Institute class and meeting students and teacher. We went on to inspect the progress of the young missionaries flat, and then return home to laundry, unpacking, and an early night to bed.

It’s good to be home. I feel like we’ve been away from some of the church members a long time. Primary is preparing for their program. Our Relief Society president might be moving away. In two weeks we have branch conference. “There is work enough to do,’er the sun goes down!”

Leaving

We just learned that one of our favorite senior couples (okay, so they are all favorites) is going home early. Medical problems need more attention than can be obtained here and in less than a week, they will be back in the USA. We are sorry to see them go. We understand the Lord sometimes has different plans for us than we had for ourselves. And we will miss them.

In contemplation, it made us realize three things:

1. We need to make every minute here count. We don’t really know how long we will have here to accomplish our mission.

2. If we were to leave here, what would it be like? Have we done enough to help the branch move forward? We sometimes wonder if we are making a difference. But when we looked at the branch through the lens of our absence, we saw how many things would not be accomplished and thus saw what we were doing. We are still needed to “steady the arc.” Fortunately we have the Lord’s permission to do so.

3. We realized how important it is to “teach a man to fish” instead of giving him a fish. If we were to leave—have we made anyone dependent on us? I have heard of some places where members really suffer when the missionaries leave because they’ve become dependent on help or income from the missionaries. I don’t think we’ve done that. But this is a good reminder that what seems like a kindness in the short term can be damaging in the long term. It’s so important to teach instead of giving.

That being said, I ordered a chair sight-unseen for 150 shillings (under $2) so that the member would have enough money to buy materials for two or more chairs. What will I do with the chair? I don’t know. But I would rather buy something I didn’t really need than just give the money.

Early this week we went to a Lion’s High School “prize giving day” at the invitation of the man who is chairman of APDK (we met him at the wheel chair turnover ceremony) and who is also heavily involved in the Lion’s Club. He has contacts through many charitable organization and agreed to help some of our members network for jobs. Two of our members who are teachers also went there. And we did make some contacts. On Friday we went to the Young Generation Center orphanage and school. What a great place! There are many people here in Kenya who are doing a herculean job of saving the lives of people one at a time.

Elder Fox reminded me of the starfish story—about the man walking along the beach throwing back into the water those starfish that had been stranded on shore. Someone said, “Why do you do that? There are thousands of starfish here and you can’t possibly make a difference.” The first man picked up another starfish and threw it into the water. “I made a difference to that starfish.”

Sometimes it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the needs here in Africa. It’s good to remember that we can make a difference to the one... or two… or twenty.

Update

I've been blogging, but not saying much about what we are actually doing. Sometimes I wonder just what we are doing. The days go by, we stay busy, but at the end of the day we look back to make sure we "have done some good in the world today."

Our week always has preparation for institute classes and for lessons like Leadership Training, Teacher training, and any other thing the Branch Presidents want us to teach the members. At this moment, we seem to have a greater desire to train presidencies than they have a desire to be trained. Sometimes they don't meet, or they don't have time. So we have decided to go to them individually. They love to have people visit them in their homes. So we've been going to the Relief Society Counselor's homes and to the Young Men's president's, primary president's home and so on. There we give a spiritual thought and teach them out of the handbook. We are also trying to work with those planning on going to the Temple in January. Sometimes just getting birth certificates and paperwork is such a problem for them. I think only prayer will get these things through the system.

The "short rains" have arrived. We had a little trouble figuring out the seasons. But in the "dry"season it only rained every week or so. And when the clouds rolled in and darkened the sky... they kept on moving and it might or might not rain. Now, when the clouds start rolling in, it will rain. It definitely will rain on the laundry we fail to bring in.

And it seems like in the short rains, the rain comes in the afternoon. In the long rains, they seemed to come in the evening. We were visiting the young men's president in the slums yesterday and it started pouring! Of course all the pathways are dirt... now puddles and mud... and I was wearing sandals. Sigh. It was just grit.

Today we put our property management skills to use. We drove to Eldoret to check on the senior missionary house. A new couple will move in next week. The missionaries were to have moved out. A sister spent nearly three days cleaning it, we moved a new stove in, and we wanted it all nice for the new couple. We also needed to sign a lease for the young missionaries new apartment. We went to see the apartment that was supposed to be ready yesterday. YUCK!!!!!! It had NOTHING done to it since the last tenants moved out. So we went over it-- point by point and got the manager to agree to fix, repair, paint etc. Then we went over the lease agreement and contested the automatic rent increase each year and got that removed. I hope we saved the church some money and that the elders will have a better apartment to move into than they otherwise would have.

It was a bit frustrating that as I was waiting for Elder Fox to return with duplicate keys, the missionaries came to the house-- planning on spending the night there. "Er... no. It's clean. It's ready for the new couple." "Oh, we know how to clean." "Well, no. You don't. Or it wouldn't have taken 3 days to clean after you left." Their motive was good. They wanted to be closer to the people they were teaching. But their understanding of the direction that they be moved out by the time it was cleaned... that lacked a little.

In The Lunatic Express, a book about East Africa, the early settlers were very concerned about the direct rays of the sun, coming straight down and not at a slant. They feared it could damage their brains. Of course I laughed at the idea. Now... I'm not so sure. Cases in point:

1. This morning we left Kisumu. Now there are only 3 roads out of Kisumu. Yet we got talking and managed to take the wrong road out of town. We were trying a new way to Eldoret. We got the first part right, but missed a turn. Hmm. The bad news? We weren't sure where we were going. The good news? It was a GREAT road through beautiful country side. And ultimately it added 20 minutes and 10km to our trip. The Lord DOES look out for us.

2. The neighbors have a bright security light that shines in our bedroom window and has since we arrived. At first, they seemed to dim it about midnight. Then it burned out for a few months. Now it's on 24/7. We decided to plant bougainvillea to grow up the fence to block it. I used a sleep mask part of the time. Then, over nine... that is NINE months after suffering through this, I thought, why not put a liner in the curtain? DUH! Ah. Bliss! We have a dark bedroom at night. I had been afraid it would cut the breeze, but it acts like a sail instead.

Here is one of my sewing students with the pillow she made of scraps. She was so pleased. She learned to use the sewing machine as well.

Here she is delighted with her first straight stitches... and keeping the machine running forward, not backward.
We visited a member "up country" and saw his mother's posha mill-- grain mill. These little children brought their basket of maize. The sifted it outside to get rid of any impurities, then brought it in and dumped it into the hopper (in the back where the man is.) The boy pocketed the change. Then they shook and tamped the meal down so it would fit in the bucket. Very capable children.
This sweet brother gave us a WHOLE whateveritscalled thingie of bananas. It took two people to hoist it into the truck. We've been giving hands of bananas away all week. this is a portion of what was left on Monday. With the help of some banana bread we are now down to 4 bananas.

Problems

The Book of Mormon traces the history of God’s dealing with the descendants of the Israelites who migrated to the New World. Some chose to obey God—and called themselves Nephites. Some rejected the teachings of the prophets—and called themselves Lamanites. The Book of Mormon records their wars and contentions. Always the Lamanites were a threat to the Nephites.

This is an interesting quote I read this morning:

“No matter how wicked and ferocious and depraved the Lamanites might be (and they were that!), no matter how much they outnumbered the Nephites, darkly closing in on all sides, no matter how insidiously they spied and intrigued and infiltrated and hatched their diabolical plots and breathed their bloody threats and pushed their formidable preparations for all out war, they were not the Nephite problem. They were merely kept there to remind the Nephites of their real problem, which was to walk uprightly before the Lord.” – Hugh Nibley

It occurred to me that no matter the trials we are faced with: poverty, bad neighbors, corrupt government, unemployment, illness, death, whatever is around us. That’s not the problem. The problem is: will we walk uprightly before the Lord? These other things aren’t going to go away. Just like the Lamanites never went away. So we can’t say—this is a terrible problem, let’s get rid of it. Instead, when we have a problem confronting us, we should ask ourselves: Am I walking uprightly before the Lord? Am I being faithful and keeping the commandments the best I can?

If the answers to those questions are yes, then we can have full faith in the Lord. We can trust that He will bless us to be able to overcome our adversities. He will strengthen us so we can shoulder the burdens that we must carry. Even in the midst of war the Nephites had joy and comfort. So even in the midst of our difficulties, we too, can have joy and comfort and peace in our hearts if we are faithful.

The cool thing about this attitude is that when problems come, you don’t complain about the problem, you look to your spirituality and focus on that. THAT is something you CAN control. Then you trust the Lord to show you the way forward.

Challenges of Polygamy

We went to our third funeral Saturday after we held our leadership training. Fortunately this funeral was less than an hour from Kisumu. A sweet member’s father had passed away. Here is the story as best I understand. J’s mother is the first wife. When J was growing up, the father was a drunkard and drank away all the school fee money and so J’s mom kicked him out. He went and found wife #2. After the children were grown, she took back the husband and he spent his time between his shamba where wife #1 lived and where wife #2 lived—someplace within 10 km of wife #1. But I think mostly with wife #2.

Husband sickens and dies. He goes to the morgue. The unbreakable tradition is that the husband is buried at the home of wife #1. Wife #2 contested. She wanted him buried on her property. The village elders said no. She came again. No. They were about to bury him, and learned wife #2 planned on hijacking the body after Wife #1 took it from the morgue. So they went to court. Again wife #2 insisted the body be buried on her property. She tried to bribe the morgue to release the body to her. Her sons threatened death to the first family. The burial was postponed.

Finally the court ruled in favor of wife #1, but allowed wife #2 to have the body rest at her place for a few hours the day before the burial. Rumor had it that they would prevent the body from from being taken to wife#1’s house. But the law was there and the removal went okay.

When I heard of all the problems and the threats on J’s life, I said, “Why not let wife #2 bury the father? J was shocked. No! Our tradition is the husband is always buried at the first wife’s house.

So if you want the body. You’d better be the first wife!

In spite of repeated questions, we’d gotten remarkably poor directions to the funeral. After a frustrating interchange, it would end with, “Just come to Lela and I’ll pick you there.” Well, that might be a good idea if we knew where Lela was.

So we turned onto Bro. P's road—a narrow dirt road and while she said just wait there…. there was no town there. Alas, Bro P's road has two entrances. So we drove on this dirt road about 4 km, back to the main road where we discovered: Lela…and Bro. P waiting to pick us. However, the discussion of where we were, where we should be, and how to get there, reached the dimension that Elder Fox decided he would call for directions and I would drive. Yuck! Mud, narrow roads, gullies to cross. I was most uncomfortable driving it, but bless his heart, he did not complain.Once there we were served a meal near this house.We then listened to the funeral service in native tongue for a while. Then people gathered to donate something to help out. Note the 'battery pack' for the PA system in the foreground. Then they moved the casket to a nice cement lined hole. This time, they did not fill it with dirt. Rather they laid poles across the top, then corigated tin, then wire mesh, and then a heap of cement which they mixed at the spot. It was a true crypt.
We learned that when the husband dies, the wife can no longer stay in that house. She needs to abandon it or destroy it. Now, maybe if the children had built a house for the father… then the mother could stay in the original??? I’m not sure. Anyhow, in this case, a new house had to be be built for her before the funeral could take place. I’m not sure if all the belongings must also be abandoned, or just the house. So here is the newly made house.

Note the storm clouds. It didn't start raining until after the burial. We headed for home as I was concerned about the roads. But it only sprinkled on us. When we got to Kisumu, however, we found evidence of a torrential rain storm. Glad it avoided us. Another tender mercy of the Lord.

The wonder of Advertising

As we drive on the roads of Kenya, we see these amazing buildings painted red, orange, pink, blue, green, etc. At first I thought what was written on them was what they sold. Finally I realized it was simply advertising and the merchants may not sell Zain, Safaricom or Orange prepaid phone cards at all. They most likely didn't sell Trust condoms, Omo laundry detergent, or Tusker's beer either. So take a moment and enjoy the sights of Kenya:

Art Work

This is the view from my computer desk. I am pleased with the way the quilt or bedspread came out. My goal was to show the women of the branch that they could take 200 shillings (about $2.50) in scraps and make something useful. Actually the backing was another 250 shillings and I bought the black fabric because I wanted uniformity. Well, I use the term "uniformity" loosely. There is a kind of cohesion to the piece.I tried to continue the same fabric in strips in the same order from top to bottom. This photo is when 4 of the 6 panels were completed. I stitched them together, then covered the seam with the strip of black. Here is the completed project. As I took the photo, Tom was complaining about the ugly mosquito netting. I decided it really was an art form of its own and sometimes reflected the Mission Life. You see, it's prepared to serve. It's capable of serving, but right now it's all wrapped up in itself . Or maybe it's all tied up in knots. Sometimes we feel frustrated in that we want to serve, we think we have an excellent way to serve, but that service doesn't seem valuable or necessary to others. Like the mosquito net, we're willing, but the net's owner says you're not needed just now. Still, there is hope. At any moment the net is prepared to function, to serve, to fulfill its purpose. And hopefully, so are we.

Girl's Camp: Kisumu style

I wanted to share just a little more about Girls' Camp. The girls had a fun day. They got to know each other better as many of them live far away from each other. They all arrived later than expected and so had only a short time for volleyball before beginning lunch preparation.

First they learned chapati making. Elizabeth, the Young Women's counselor showed them how to mix the dough.
Then the girls formed them into balls and they rested for a bit. (the dough, not the girls.)
Then they rolled out the dough into disks.
They put a tablespoon of oil on the top, then rolled it up, stretched it out, and rolled it into a ball like a cinnamon roll.
The dough rested again, then was rolled out once more...
And cooked over a jeko-- a charcoal stove. It was cooked on one side, then flipped and oiled. Then cooked on the other side a bit more. It was tricky to turn the chapati so it didn't burn, and flip it, and then remove it. It was all done with fingers or a spoon. I think the ladies must have asbestos fingers.

They were taught cutting up vegetables, then came the chicken cooking. It started with two live chickens. Skip this part if the details are too graphic. Jemima was the brave one. She stood-- one foot on the wings, one on the feet (which were tied together.) She plucked feathers from the neck, then cut the neck through the spine so the head was held on by skin. They collected the draining blood (and I'm not sure... and preferred not to ask... where it's place was in the meal.)

Then they dunked the chicken in boiling water and plucked it.

They scraped off the beak and cleaned off the outer part of the tongue and the outer skin of the feet-- which they considered dirty. The rest was edible.

They showed how to remove and discard the gullet, then slit the wing bone muscle near the body so the chicken could be pulled apart stem to stern or top and bottom. They cleaned out the innards-- entrails, cut around the rectum, removed heart, liver, and something that was filled with grains of sand? that they whacked, cut, and pulled out the lining.
The girls wanted to eat the entrails, so they were shown how to clean them and wrap them around the foot of the chicken (presumably to keep them in one spot.) They cut the chicken into many pieces so that each person could get a little bit.
Then the girls watched as it was cleaned, put into a pot with only a little water and left to steam. Later a few vegetables and some seasoning were added. Other vegetables were cooked in another sofura, and finally one sofura was used for ugali-- a corn flour and water mix that forms a hard paste.

While the food was cooking, the girls made necklaces.

They strung gold beads onto fishing line, then strung the Young Woman's pendant onto the chain before putting the clasp on.
It really went quite quickly and looked lovely. They were so pleased with their necklaces. Jemima is modeling hers.

When the food was ready, the girls served the children and the priesthood leaders...

Then ate their own food. Notice the lack of utensils. (They borrowed the spoons they used for chapatis, and were horrified or astonished that I didn't have a big paddle for ugali making.)

After, a member of the Branch Presidency addressed them. Then they sat and listened to the Young Woman's broadcast. It was a little inconvenient that the electric people showed up at that time to see why our power was fluctuating so badly. They turned off the power a few times. The girls went to play ball for a bit, then returned to the broadcast.

About 6pm the day ended. The girls posed for a last "snap" and then went home.

Elizabeth, one of the leaders and chapati cook, left with pans neatly held in place with a lessa-- a piece of cloth used for apron, shawl, baby-carrier, etc. I had to get a "snap" of her, too.

These were the girl's comments on the day:

Lydia: I liked making the chain. It makes me happy and reminds me of the Young Women Values.

Jemima: I liked doing the chicken. I liked chopping and learning new things. I liked making the chapatis.

Vanessa: I thought the best part was making the salad. The chicken was interesting. I like the personal progress program because it helps us strengthen our testimonies.

Imelda: I liked serving people. They were telling me what they needed and I went to the kitchen to get it. It felt good to prepare the food.

Vivian: I liked cooking ugali and I liked playing football.

Julie: I learned that we should never give up. Pres Uchdorf said, no matter how long it takes, you should fight for something and never give up.

The girls all agreed the camp helped them get to know one another better and to have fun together. It was a great first Girls' Camp.