T.I.A.

My friend Lorraine introduced me to this term. It means This Is Africa… which means don’t expect things to go as you think they will. Yesterday was a TIA day. Fabulous… but not as I had planned. _ We were to take our last visit to the Nyabondo saints who live about 50 km south of us. Dennis and Bethsada had invited us to their house… for what? A bit unclear. Kenneth and his family makes bricks. We’d often driven by brick making operations, so I asked if we could spend just a little time seeing how bricks are made. Sure he said, it will take 10 minutes. Then we planned on teaching a short teacher training lesson for the seminary and institute teacher and then a little longer lesson on Doctrine and Covenants 50 to both show the teachers teaching methods and enlighten all the others who would be there. Our time frame: Leave at 10. Arrive shortly after 11 at Dennis’ house. Leave at one. Do bricks and stuff until 2. Teach until 3, be home about 4:30. We left a little late. Orange was reconnecting the phone line outside our gate. HURRAY!!! INTERNET!!!! It had poured rain the night before. Normally I have some concerns about going on the dirt roads when it's rained a lot, but I trusted they would have dried out, and they had. And we arrived at Dennis and Bethsada’s house about 11:20. We visited with Dennis as Bethsada cooked. And we had quiet, contemplative time while we waited. Sitting and doing nothing is not easy for me. Fortunately we had scriptures and could read. We ate lunch of rice, meat stew, cabbage, avocados, pineapple and bananas. We spent some time visiting with several girls from a nearby school. They are starting to take seminary classes with Bro. Dennis during the week. Sweet girls. A little before 1:30 we drove to Kenneth’s house—where the gathering would be. Here's a photo of Dennis, his wife, and several of the students.

We picked up Kenneth and drove to the brick making place. But first we stopped in front of the primary school to admire their stand of trees. Then we walked past other new tree plantings the saints in Nyabondo are doing for a community project and went to the secondary school. This area tends to be boggy in wet weather. When they plant blue gum trees, they draw the moisture from the soil and keep it dryer. Ingenious. We visited the secondary school principal and talked with him about Kenya and America and how lovely his school was. Then we walked by where people were building with bricks and mud mortar. We saw where the brick mud was stomped and then pulled from the top soil. We saw the fired bricks and the “kiln” made of the mud bricks to be fired. 3500 bricks make the kiln with a space for two holes for fire to be built.

Then the whole thing is mudded over to keep the heat and smoke in. The smoke eventually exits through small holes in the sides and top that it finds, but a well built fire will last for 3 days—enough to bake the bricks. We returned to Kenneth’s and he had us plant a tree so he could remember us.

The Women gave a demonstration on how the walls of mud homes are sealed with a mixture of dirt and cow dung.

And we also saw a demonstration of the brick making.

Leonard was fast, efficient, and turned out perfect looking bricks. Here he is pressing out the finished brick.

Then we had the father of the clan, Stephen, take us on a tour of the shamba. It is large and well cared for. By now, it’s about 3pm.

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We began our meeting after the opening song and prayer. I love the singing here! Rich, beautiful voices with their melodic harmonizing! I will miss that! First, the Seminary gave a lesson. (Last time we’d asked both seminary and Institute if we could come and watch their lessons. I guess it set a pattern.) One of the youth gave a fine lesson on Keeping the Sabbath Day holy—from the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C). Then the Institute teacher gave a great lesson on Missionary work. I loved how both of them took us repeatedly into the scriptures to find answers. They invited discussion and class participation. Then it was my turn for the lesson on how to discern the spirit of the Lord from other spirit from D&C 5. Then Elder Fox taught about keeping the doctrine pure by teaching from the scriptures and the church publications. By now it’s close to 5 pm. Closing song and prayer and we’re done… right? No.

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Now we get to hear a word of thanks from Elder and Sister Fox and then from the patriarch of the family, Stephen. Stephen’s talk was so sweet. He spoke of the day we first came to his home and went out to the brick field to meet him. He told we introduced the Book of Mormon and he could not understand it. Then we came a second time and talked about the Plan of Salvation. He went through the plan in detail—from our pre-earth life, to the creation and the fall of man, to our life on earth, the atonement of the Savior, death, spirit world, resurrection, final judgment and degrees of glory one can inherit. This additional knowledge made such an impression on him that he converted and has spent the last year seeking more knowledge and guidance. He said, “We wanted to rush things, but that does not lead to good results. We need to be patient and wait and in the Lord’s time things will come about.” This was so sweet as that is what we’ve been telling them, and to hear it repeated back meant they understood it.

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Then we went outside and took pictures . This is Stephen's wife, children, and grandees.

And all the attendees at the meeting.

Then the Seminary group and other groups gave us gifts. Avocados and baskets from the women. Bananas from Stephen (they are all wrapped up. Doesn't it look like a large cocoon?)

We got banana leaf purses and a soapstone dish. Elder Fox has a banana leaf belt hanging around his neck here. This is Kenneth giving the dish.

It was so moving. They were giving us from their heart and their limited resources. We also got a book with thank-you’s written in from many of the members and investigators. We took a picture of all our gifts when we returned home. We are so touched.

Then we went back to the compound so Kenneth could show us the kitchen where food was prepared. Then into the home to visit and eat. We talked about grain storage methods we’d learned and about drying foods like onions, tomatoes, mangoes, etc so that they could preserve them against the lean times. Often they grow them, sell them when there is a glut, and then go hungry with little between seasons. They were very interested in the idea of drying foods to preserve them.

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As we were finished and ready to go, Zedok spoke. He talked about how he’d been in the hospital in February of last year and met Stephen, a member from Kisumu who was in the next bed over. He was so impressed with the people who came to visit him and their reverent manner, that he asked and Stephen gave him a church magazine. He studied it, learned of Kenneth’s group of people and came and learned more. He talked about how his life changed. He stopped smoking and drinking and saved 2,400 shillings a month. He now had money to send his boys to school. He said he was “the man” and never sat with his family, had no relationship with his children and they feared him. But he repented and now the family sits at meals together and discusses and reads scriptures. He is friends with his boys and they talk to him about things. He is so grateful for the changes. His health is better. Since that time he has not gone back to smoking or whiskey. When he has a desire, he prays. I was touched anew about how the gospel really does change lives in so many ways. Not just the person converted, but those around them feel the influence.

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There was such a sweet spirit, it was hard to leave. At 6:30 we got into the truck. It got dark at 7pm and the phrase: “play now, pay later” came to mind. We drove slower than normal and ended up home after 8pm. There was much rumbling and lightening along the way, but no rain. Good thing. Our laundry was still on the line from the morning. After all, we expected to be home in plenty of time to bring it in.

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It was an exhilarating, exhausting day and in every way typified the saying: TIA.