Monday August 20 2007

We made it to Kyambeke twice this week. Once with the Assistants so they could teach a discussion and allow us to make a strip map and then we ventured back Sunday on our own and had some great meetings with the saints there. My companion claims that the driving conditions are going to turn her completely grey if it doesn't kill her first. I reminded her today that our call to serve said nothing about us trying to teach the people of Kenya how to make roads or drive. The Elders have a hill at Athi River that they call suicide hill and she is of the opinion that entire length that we drive could aptly be called the suicide highway. We did see some small monkeys or baboons in our travels this week, along with a giraffe and some antelope with some big long curly horns. Friday evening the skies just opened up and bunches of water fell. All the drain ditches in the compound were instantly filled and backing up and the stairs out back looked like Niagara Falls' little brother. Wouldn't be at all surprised if we haven't already seen more rain than Idaho gets in a year and they tell us this is the short rainy season. The storm on Friday took the power out which I am told is a common enough occurrence that we are cautioned against keeping too much stuff in the fridge as there are stretches when the power is off long enough that we will loose those perishables (I can personally guarantee that we will never have any ice cream spoil though). We went to bed in the dark and noticed that our gecko (we have named him Geico) was visiting us again only this time on the wall of our bedroom up by the ceiling. Since my companion had not been aware that they were equipped for wall climbing and not just floor crawlers I had to get back up and move our bed out away from the wall. Our goal this week is to visit all of our branches at least once but we need to create another strip map of the road to Kilili before we venture there on our own as that one had more turn offs than the Kyambeke/Ilima route and the only point of reference is a mountain that seems to move as you meander on the many trails out there.