Sorry for the long silence – where has the time gone? We can’t even say that it’s because we’re busy in the lead-up to Christmas because Christmas is such a low-key event in this culture – the other extreme from the commercialised Western Christmas.
We hear the weather at home has got cold and snowy. Here, after a few weeks where we have had a lot of rain (which really brings the temperature down) we are having a couple of hot sunny days. We are praying that the rains will slow down now, as people are complaining that their land is waterlogged, their houses are damp and the cobs are beginning to rot on the maize plants. A couple of weeks of sunshine would restore hopes of a great harvest.
We’re well, keeping going with supporting the church leaders, helping out here at Hope & Kindness, farming (!), visiting people and helping to assess needs, taking photos and practising speaking Dholuo.
Last Saturday we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of one of the teachers – a bizarre experience indeed. The invitation said “from 10.00am” but the bride was not in the church until sometime after 2.00. The procession of 8 flower girls, 11 bridesmaids, 13 men and boys forming the groom’s escort and various other bride’s helpers took a full hour to sashay into the church. Unlike British weddings, it seemed like they had the party in the middle of the service, at least in terms of the amount of celebration and dancing! A great experience, if you could avoid a headache due to the high noise volume!
We’ve had visitors staying with us here. Two Danish girls doing a “gap year” and spending 4 months in Africa stayed for two weeks and spent a lot of time working with the children, particularly doing art with them. In the middle of that we had another team from the international company Cisco, which supports the school and home. They were really busy for the few days they were here – painting the classrooms, helping to build a house, and organising the kids in a “talent show”, amongst other things.
All these visitors really joined in the work here so well; they all seemed to enjoy their time here and the kids loved them. It’s been a pleasure to have them but it has also been nice now that they’ve all gone away and we have the house to ourselves again. Even Terry has gone home for a few weeks and the school has closed for the long holiday. Most of those children in the home who have a grandmother or aunt or other relatives to go to have gone off for a holiday. Only 14 children are still here.
There’s still a lot happening here – building work is progressing well and there’s a lot of maintenance work getting done on the site. Yesterday we had another practice session for the people who will be involved in training others in “Farming God’s Way” – we hope to be ready to offer the training to church and community members from early January.
The group for young mothers has got off to a good start with up to nine mums and their babies and toddlers attending. They have been very attentive to the teaching on nutrition, hygiene and vaccinations that Hilda has brought so far. The men’s and women’s groups and the church generally are also encouraging.
This Sunday we will start with the Pre-Encounter teaching for the 4 people (English speaking) who will be our “guinea pigs” for the first Encounter – this is scheduled for 14th and 20th December.
