Oink, the goat??

What’s been happening here? Not too much, but enough to keep us too busy to write a blog post for the past couple of weeks. The main thing in the diary has been preparing for and taking part in another 2-day seminar on Farming God’s Way. Those people who have tried the method on their own farms over the past few months have been encouraged by the results – the main problems have been getting enough mulch (grass and leaves to cover the ground and keep down weeds), keeping animals and birds off the growing crops, and water-logging due to lots of rain and poor drainage. These last two issues would of course be problems even if people were doing farming by the traditional methods.

For a couple of city dwellers, we’ve learned a lot about farming through Farming God’s Way. Our role is helping to co-ordinate the seminars, which are delivered almost all in Dholuo now. Last week we weren’t sure how many people to expect but 17 turned up on the first day, mostly from the community but not many from our own church. Hopefully they will all try out the methods and spread the word in their own areas.

We’ve been meeting individually with the church leaders and reviewing the leadership structure in the church. Next weekend we’re expecting a visit from two of the national leaders of Elim Gospel Church Kenya and their wives. They’ll be doing some leadership training and we’ll also discuss the proposal for our little church here to officially join up with the denomination.

Last week one of our oldest church members, Bernard, died. Bernard was brought to church every Sunday in a wheelchair by some of our older boys. We will miss him from the church – his usual place at the front will be empty. Bernard was increasingly frail and bent but he didn’t miss church very often, and liked to greet the church members. When he was younger, he went away to work on the tea plantations near Kericho, and it was there that he came across horses. (Horses are not found at all in this part of Kenya – only donkeys). When we visited him last year, his eyes lit up when he talked about these wonderful creatures!

The Land Rover is back in business after being off the road with electrical problems for a week. A group of us were halfway back from Kisii, our nearest large town, when it broke down. A guy from the petrol station in the nearby village agreed a price to tow us back to our mechanic’s place – but as he only had an old Nissan saloon – about 1200cc I would guess – he didn’t manage to tow us right up the hilly track to the garage. A second vehicle had to be hired to complete the job! Our good friend Douglas came to our rescue with his minibus and transported passengers, shopping, sacks of potatoes, timber etc for the remaining journey back to Kosele, only delayed slightly because the road was still blocked by a bus which had been stuck in the mud all day. Safe home before nightfall! No AA or RAC here but we get by thanks to people’s ingenuity and helpfulness.

We’re now on Facebook (Ian N Hilda McMillan) where we’ve posted some photos. One photo is of our newest residents at Hope & Kindness – two greedy female goats (named Oink and Annabel by Terry’s daughter Ellie, who’s been visiting).