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.