Pictures from Cheptebo

This is a picture of one of the mice that we caught in our house we were staying in at Cheptebo. Linda saw the first one the evening she got sick. She was laying on the bed and saw it run under the dresser. Tracy would not let us kill it because she thought it was too cute. We caught it and released it outside. Baxter took this picture of the second one we caught. It is under the dresser. The next morning the kids went outside and saw three on them beside the house. They feed them some old bread.
The water at Cheptebo was not safe to drink. We had to filter it or boil it. Here is a picture of the bath tub with water in it before the kids had a bath. Even though the water does not look good, it is a blessing that the people in the area have water to use. Many people from around the area came to the project to get water.
This is Immanuel. He is the son of Joseph and Sallay, our hosts for the time we were in Cheptebo. As you can see, they keep thier children very warm.
Here is a picture from the day we were leavingto return to Kijabe. We are with Joseph, Salley and their family. They only have one child of their own, but it is very common for neices, nephews and cousins to live with you.

During our stay in Cheptebo a children's Bible camp was going on. We spoke to the kids one day. This is a picture of the class room. There were around 100 kids at the camp. All the girls stayed in a house beside the one we were in. They went to sleep around 11:00PM and were up at 5:00AM washing their clothers outside our house.
The kids at the camp loved to talk and just look at us. We were some of the first white people that some of the kids have ever had the opportunity to interact with. Here is Linda playing a rope game that the kids showed her. Baxter and Luke played soccer with the boys. Tracy and Emily did the rope game and played volleyball with them.
The kids at the camp were very excited to play with the kids. Here is Tracy playing a rope game with the girls. Tracy is ready to bring a rope home and teach the kids in Lorena the game.

The girls with Tracy were part of the extended family of our hosts.
This is a shamba (garden) we saw while driving back to Kijabe.
Here is Luke on his birthday. He was trying to act like he felt good, but he was very weak from being sick.

The project were we stayed was a working agriculture project. Each day at 7:30 AM and 3:30 PM the cows were milked outside our house. Emily and Tracy helped milk the cows. Linda made chai with the fresh milk. This is Emily helping milk the cow.
Tracy helping milk the cow.
This was on the way to the Engagement party. This was a termite mound. We parked our car here and walked another 2 miles or so to get to the party.

This is the kitchen where some of the food for the engagement party was prepared. The rest of the food was prepared outside over open fires and the goat was roasted over an open fire.

Here is the Bride to be and her wedding party. Sally is the one closest to the camera in the pink and white dress. This was after the dowry was settled and before the service.
This is the living room that was set up for the Bride to be and her friends to sit in during the service. They made it from poles and blankets. While we were waiting for the Bride to come from the house, the furniture was brought from the house and included everything from the living room at the house even the coffee table!

Here is the Choo (toilet) at the engagement party. There were several families that lived in the compound and all shared the toilet area which included 3 stalls. The girls refer to this type of Choo as a long drop. (Tucker, I thought you would enjoy this picture!)

More Pictures of Cheptebo

While we were in Cheptebo the African Inland Church (AIC) had a fund raiser for the new church building. They really put on a service for the fund raisers. It started around 9:00 and lasted to about 2:30. It started with a tree planting. The Bishop Silas Yego of the AIC Church Kenya was there. He planted a tree, our family planted a tree and the family from Canada planted a tree. It will be fun to return one day and see how the tree has grown.

Here is the Bishop delivering a sermon during the service.
Here are the ladies preparing for the fundraiser dinner. There were several chickens and goats that were slaughtered for the dinner. Linda and the girls helped.
Here is a choir from Iten performing. There were two choirs who performed several songs. the choirs do not just sing they also have choreographed moves. Steve and Stephine take note.
Here are the people giving their gifts for the fundraiser. As each person gives an amount the person receiving the gift announces it on the loud speaker system. Several people gave chickens, fruits and vegetables. These items were auctioned at the end of the service.

One day we went to a local school to plant trees. When we arrived we noticed a very important person had arrived. Baxter noticed that he had body guards carrying machine guns. He name was Henry M. Obino, the District Commissioner from the Kerio District. He is appointed by the President. He planted a tree and then there was a service that lasted around 3 hours. Several people gave speeches and sermons. Kenyan's are not afraid to mix Church and State. The Word of God was a major part of all the events we attended. I also had to give a few words of encouragement. Any time we were at a function we were asked to give a few words of encouragement. I was nervous at first but I got better the more times we did it. When you come to visit us just be prepared to give your testimony and share a word of encouragement when asked.

More Pictures from our Home Stay in Cheptebo

On the way to our home stay in Cheptebo we crossed the equator. There were several small shops along the road. As we were taking this picture they all lined up getting ready to sell us something. The merchants can get some what aggressive at times.
This is the local car wash in Kabarnet. It is a low water crossing. They just pull their cars into the shallow water and wash them.
This is the view from a small town called Iten looking down into the Kerio Valley where Cheptabo is located. We went here with Joseph, Sally and the missionaries from Canada. It was Luke's birthday. He was still not feeling very well from his malaria.

Here are the Kids at Iten. The valley is in the background.
This was a water fall that we saw while driving to Iten. It looked awesome in real life. Pictures do not always turn out like you want them to.
This was a typical day driving on the roads. You have to be aware of cars, potholes, people, bicycles and livestock.


This the the Kerio River that runs thru the valley. The water in very brown but it is still very beautiful.

Nairobi is a great city!

Here is a post from mid July that we were not able to get loaded untill today!

We finished our language course in Kijabe on Tuesday so we were finally able to go into Nairobi to shop for necessary household items and to go to Java House to eat. Java House is perhaps the most "western" restaurant in all of Nairobi. They serve Cheese Burgers and Chips (French Fries) and Heinz ketchup. The kids have been looking forward to this day since early July when they heard about it at ABO from a former MK who is now going to be teaching at RVA. We thoroughly enjoyed our food and left with very full bellies!

On this trip into town we were able to order some furniture (beds, dining table, etc.) for our house that we should move into at the end of August. It was an interesting experience and we enjoyed working with the local people. They have shops all down one side of a particular highway in Nairobi. There were many people milling around as well as goats. The people here take great pride in their handiwork and seem to be happy to meet and talk to complete strangers. It is not uncommon to develope a lasting friendship with someone you do business with.

Pictures from the last month

Here are a few photos of things around Kijabe.

Here are the Kids at the entrance to Kijabe. There is only one paved road that comes into the town.
Titchie Swot is the Elementary School that Luke, Tracy and Emily go to. They started school today.

A really cool swing at the RVA playground. I think that Luke and Tracy are the ones on the swings.

Our house from the backyard.

A view from our back porch.

A playhouse for the girls in the front yard of our house.

Baxter standing by two large Bougainvilleas in our backyard.

The kids at Village Market (a mall) in Nairobi. Looks pretty western. The girls finished a Dr. Pepper which was quite a find and the first one they have seen since we arrived here. I would like to add that the Dr. Pepper (1 can) cost 130 Kenyan Shillings or $2.00. We won't be having many of those!

Baxter, Luke and Tracy playing in the yard between our house and the neighbors house.

One of Tracy and Emily's friends found this chameleon so she let us all hold it. I chose not too but the kids said it felt really cool!

This is our new puppy, Carly. The puppy is a Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix. I know my sister will understand why we named her Carly but apparently no one else is familiar with the book "Good Dog Carl". Our puppy is a girl so we named her Carly

Killer Bees and a lack of chicken

Luke, Tracy and Emily start school tomorrow and Baxter starts on Wednesday. They are excited and I must admit - RVA is a very cool place to go to school. The atmosphere is more like a small college campus than an elementary and junior high school. I pray that they continue to like it and that they grow both academically and spiritually.

OK - now to explain the title. We had chicken pot pie tonight. Some man came to our door on Saturday selling chickens so we said we would take two and he left for awhile and then returned with two chickens in little sacks. We also had a man come to the house who was selling eggs. We bought a tray of 30 eggs because that is how they sell them. The kids also really like them so we use a lot of eggs. So tonight before we ate dinner Tracy made a very profound statement. She said, "If we keep eating more eggs than chicken pretty soon we are going to run out of chickens". So the logic is a little flawed but we did get a good laugh out of it. Emily wouldn't eat the chicken because she said it didn't look like all of the feathers had been plucked off properly. You see, while we were in Cheptebo there was a fundraiser with a meal (for about 400 people) that we helped cook for. This involved killing about 8 chickens (chopping the heads off) and watching them run around like a chicken with it's head cut off! Then, the ladies plucked the feathers off of the chicken. The kids were fascinated and a little grossed out but they began to realize that chickens don't only come in the grocery store. Emily is a little leary of eating chicken right now.

Saturday, we were getting ready to walk to RVA and measure how far it is and how much of an increase in elevation. As we were waiting outside our house to go, James, one of the boys next door told the boys that they could all throw rocks at a bee hive in the middle of a large tree between the houses. Well, all of Baxter's pitching practice paid off (or didn't depending on how you look at it) and he threw a rock right into the middle of the hive. Needless to say, the bees were very angry. We noticed right away that James was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, we felt the bees on us so everyone scattered. Baxter and Luke ran towards an open field by the hospital, Tracy, Emily and I made it into the house and shut the door and all of the windows and Philip got Carly and ran to get the outside worker and run from the house. After about 2 hours, everyone was able to return home. Philip and Carly got stung several times and Tracy got stung once. We were quite lucky. They were not killer bees really but it sure seemed like it for awhile. Just this evening, two Kenyans built a fire in a small paint can and climbed up a ladder to the hive. They smoked the bees out and then got all of the honey and honeycomb out and then poured Kerosine in the hole so that the bees would not return. The guy was protected only by a jacket, a pair of gloves, a hat and something on his face. Not quite the white knight that we call a bee keeper. When he finished, he gave us a little of the honey and then we lent him a lantern to carry while he walked home. He was a little scared to walk home because there were 3 elephants spotted in the forest yesterday! Here is a picture of the bee operation.