Weekly Update 9/30/07

Well I guess the big news that impacted our lives this week was traffic snarls. Thursday and Friday evening it took us over 90 minutes to cover a distance that can be traversed in 15 minutes normally. With all the truck traffic on the Mombasa Highway, dodging around overturned or stalled vehicles that they are fixing on the spot is pretty common but I think this week we were victims of the upcoming elections. Whenever the President moves around they virtually shut down all traffic and since we live on Statehouse Crescent only a short distance from his home we are subject to those events. Once they back up traffic like that what is normally a real zoo becomes utter chaos. A small van cut in front of us Friday evening and his bumper hooked our wheel well which messed up a little of the fender trim. I bought a roll of duct tape and have it secured until our next service date which will be the second week of October. Anyway their elections are over in December and hopefully all the rallies and etc. will be a thing of history for the balance of our time here. Especially as we are instructed to avoid areas where heated rallies such as they have here are taking place. Apparently white people make great targets when people get their feelings stirred up. It is amazing to Sister Bishop and I at how soon we have forgotten that we really do have a different color of skin from the people we see everyday. The young people we pass on the roads in Kilunga Hills do serve as a barometer. Barb has divided them into three categories. There are the ones who smile and return our waves, those who run and hide then peek around to stare, and a small minority who will yell something to the amusement of their companions (don't know what they are saying as it is in KiKamba). We did start teaching Francis and Sarah in the Kyambeke Branch this week and if we don't mess things up they should be baptized by the end of the month. He knows his bible real well, loves the Book of Mormon and is anxious to be baptized but we still need to get through the Word of Wisdom and Tithing but they sure are a great couple to work with. Sister Bishop's keyboarding classes are a big hit and we have picked up another keyboard from the office to support them (she has 3 available for each class now). It will be interesting to see how many stick with it as the novelty wears down. We delivered some more humanitarian aid supplies to a couple of the branches this week and was able to get some things for a small crippled girl who can't talk but seems to have some cognitive skills. She is very small and we thought she might be in her early teens but it turns out she is 23. Her parents have passed away and her aged grandpa normally cares for her but is currently at a hospital in Nairobi so the RS Sisters stop by to help her out. She spends most of her days just lying on the floor of her mud hut or laying in her crib sized bed now that we have gotten her a plastic covered mattress to replace the blankets over wood that she was using. We are trying to find a permanent solution at a nursery or orphanage here in Nairobi since Elder Bishop is not Matthew Cowley and lacks the faith needed to heal her. My co-driver continues to find an occasional giraffe as we travel the Mombasa Highway and we spotted several monkeys on the roads in Kilunga hills this week which immediately made us think of several grandkids. As we were driving up the last stretch of road to Kilili I was mentioned how great it would be to have Bridgette here as I was remembering how she used to hate the road dropping into the Snake River at Wendell. Barrett will be interested to know that there have been a couple of days this last two weeks when it was clear enough for us to see Mt. Kilimanjaro as we traveled south out of Nairobi. It is easy to identify as it is the only one with snow on it in this warm climate.

Elder & Sister Bishop

Pictures

These are a few pictures of the meeting hall at Kilili. It is a rented facility that sits right in the middle of town. The doors have to be left open during services to keep some degree of ventilation which allows for anyone or anything (dogs, birds or bats) to wander in during the meetings. There is a bicycle shop next door and a bar and cafe with a rather loud sound system just a few doors down that really get noisy some Sundays.

It has a U-shaped compound in back with several rooms on either side that are used for classes, library, and Presidents Office.

In this last picture you can see the portable font (the light blue metal tub), some banana trees and in the far upper right corner are the outdoor latrines. These are some of Sister Bishop's favorite facilities as she almost dropped her glasses down the little hole this week. If that happens and she is on her own.

On vacation

I apologize to all those who were waiting for the weekly update. Matthew is out of school this week and so we flew to Denver to see if we would like to end up here some day. I return home tomorrow evening and will get the pictures up that they sent as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience.

Weekly Update 9/23/07

We traveled 5 days this week and used Mon. & Wed. as prep days to maintain the pad, lay in a few supplies, and prepare the variety of different training and lessons for the week. Tue. we were at Kilili and while Sis. Bishop was working with the YW and RS I was teaching some new member discussions with 3 recent converts and then reviewing the building that the church rents there to see what could be done to keep the birds out of the meeting/classrooms and Presidents Office. Thur. in Kyambeke Sis. B started with some English students while I studied in the BOM with an investigator and member. These people want to participate so badly in the church meetings but the language barrier is tough to overcome. Especially for the adults who are not involved in the school system. I appreciate their frustration as we are trying to become sufficiently familiar with their Kkumba (local language that is really not Swahili) to assist in the English course work. I thought we could just write their words next to ours but illiteracy is also a factor so that they can't read their own language. Friday we were at Ilima and I spent time in Mission Prep with Joshua then worked with the Elder's Quorum Pres. Sis B met with the RS and Primary. Before we left Pres. Simon took us to see a crippled girl who is retarded enough that she can't talk. Her parents have died and she is living with her aged grandpa who is currently at hospital in Nairobi. The RS goes in to help her each day but they just leave her on the floor through the day so she wont soil her bed. Quite an effort as many of these ladies live some kms away and have to walk wherever they go. There are none of the people in the area that have anything more than a bike and most just walk. Some live more than 10 kms from the chapel and are walking on winding hill (almost mountainous) roads. Saturday we were back to Kilili as that is the only day that we can spend much time with Pres. Makiti as he is a school teacher. I finally completed their financial audit and then spent time reviewing their special needs and how we could help. Sis B was helping the Primary Pres with some final preparations for their Sacrament Program. We got back to Nairobi a little earlier as all the couples were having dinner with the John Bestor Family over by the US Embassy. He is the brother to Curt Bestor (pianist/composer) and is with the FBI assigned to the Embassy. They had A&W Rootbeer to go with the barbecue which was a real treat. Sunday was back to Kyambeke for services. Pres. Mbondo had invited a non-member couple and they were there. Because of his respect for the pres. he wanted to be baptized right then but I convinced him there were a few things we needed to talk about first. We will be teaching them this Thurs. Sis B will be starting keyboarding classes at all the branches as early as this week and I will be working with another English class so our plate is really filling up. We could certainly be more effective if we didn't have to spend 6+ hours traveling each day but because of several concerns, not the least of which is security, that just can't happen right now. We try to get away by 0645 before the traffic snarls up and return by 1800 as that is when it is starting to get dark here.

Lori asked about our transportation

All the couples drive extra cab pickups. They are either Nissan or Isuzu. The vehicle we had our accident in was a Nissan but the one we are currently driving is an Isuzu. This one actually belongs to The Church Education System but they are currently short two couples so this was available. The only young Elders with a vehicle are the Assistants and it is another pickup. There is a van assigned to the to the Mission Office. The President drives a stripped down version of a Durango and his wife has a car but she is no more anxious to drive than Sister Bishop so I have never seen it.

The Isuzu is the better pickup as it has a power torque engine and a lower gear ratio which is much more conducive to the driving conditions we encounter. Those conditions are really beyond description although the ones we witnessed in Brazil are close. We are averaging about 2,000 kms each week. We are hoping that if and when the Nissan is repaired that it finds a new home. I have been dropping hints but who knows?

Weekly Update 9/16/07

Well this the week of our 38th wedding anniversary ended with a lot of traveling. On Monday there was a Nairobi Zone training seminar at the Mission Office at Upper Hill. We were invited as we kind of fall in the crack with our assignment since our branches are not assigned to any district but report directly to President Taylor. We spent the next couple of days preparing lessons, getting the truck serviced, dividing a bundle of clothes from LDS Charities for the 3 branches, and picking up some cleaning and medical supplies that they needed us to bring. On Thursday we took the Assistants (they are a threesome until the next transfers) with us to Kyambeke. They did Angie's baptismal interview and taught discussions to the folks that had showed up to the English class wanting to be baptized the previous week. Sis. Bishop and I spent time evaluating the more advanced English Students that showed up trying to decide where we go with them next. Several young people showed up who had not been baptized at the age of 8 even though their parents are active. It was a downer day for us as we had to inform them that once they turn 9 they have to understand English well enough to receive the discussions. If left to the school system their English will probably not be sufficient until about age 15. Hopefully we can get their parents to start speaking english at home and reading the Book of Mormon with them to accelerate the process. One little fellow was 12 years and should be a deacon now and I could tell he was very disappointed that he was going to have to continue to wait. I did give him a copy of Book of Mormon Stories for children and his father thanked us today and said he himself enjoyed reading it. We hope he spends time reading it with his son. I am working with the 3 Branch Presidents to interview all the active 8 year olds so they can be baptized as children of record and not have to wait for the other system. I had wondered why there were always older boys that passed the Sacrament and it turns out the parents were waiting for the missionaries to teach their children. Friday we made the trek to Ilima where Sis Bishop worked with the Primary President on their Sacrament Meeting presentation while I taught a Missionary Prep class to a young man who hopes to get on a mission in the next year. I have started helping him get his documents together for the passport application. Turns out that a lot of these people have no birth or marriage certificates as they just do the tribal thing but these need to be certified before they can get documents are go to the Temple. Saturday we were at Kilili where Sis Bishop spent time with another Primary President on their Sacrament Program while I stocked the buildings cleaning supplies. Special thanks to Bridgette who sent us a copy of the script she had just got her Bishop to approve for her ward's Sacrament Program. These 3 units all have their programs scheduled in October and hadn't decided what they were going to do yet. The church music we hear here is very interesting as a lot of the songs were learned without the benifit of knowing what the music sounds like and they don't have that great a grasp of what all the notes and stuff are for. Since none of the areas we work in have the distraction of electricity we don't have a good solution yet as to how to expose them to the way it should be done. Sis Bishop played a battery operated keyboard one week and it just seemed to confuse them from the way they normally sang so it is going to take a little more effort to get them to conform. They do love to sing and have beautiful voices but it borders more on a tribal chant sometimes. Today we made our first visit to Sunday Services in Ilima as that was where we were headed the day of the wreck 3 weeks ago. We left there a little early so as be to Angie's baptism at Kyambeke. The missionaries rode with us again. Our schedule is probably going to be like this for the next few weeks with the addition of a Kilili trip every other Tuesday at least until the Primary programs are over. Primaries are probably a good place to focus however as that is where the future of Africa is at. We appreciate the messages we receive from many of our friends and family back home as to what is going on in your lives and certainly appreciate your prayers for the missionaries. Elder Kolliker from the area authority counseled us that if we could get the investigators to pray for the missionaries success that the number of baptisms here would double.

Pictures 9/16/06

This first photo is a picture of where we turn off the bad road to the very bad road on our way to the Ilima chapel. We make a left turn here and then another left around the rock you see and from here on it is 4 wheel drive in low.


Next is a picture of the shambas in the valley as seen from the Ilima building. It is like we are sitting on top of the world when we get up there.


This is a picture of some Safari Ants moving out. They are very small but there are so many of them it looks like a 3/4" black rope laying on the ground that just winds its way along to where ever they are going. What we could see of this particular group was about 15' long and then it disappeared into the hillside.


Several have wanted to see what Geico our Gecko looks like but he is very shy. We have decided that he is maybe a she as we found this little feller in our kitchen sink area the other night. He was only about 1 & 1/2" long compared to Geico's 5 ". I said was as Sister had me encourage this little feller to live somewhere else so I caught him and put him in a flower bed outside that I had seen another one in earlier this week.

Weekly Update 9/9/07

We put the Cowleys on the plane headed back to Tanzania on Monday then went back to work in our area. We did host Family Home Evening Monday for the 7 Nairobi Couples and the ones from Eldoret and Kitale who were still here getting their vehicles worked on. Pretty good sized group for our little flat. The Sudweeks were the only ones missing as they had family visiting from Utah. (The Kenyans pronounce it Ootah.)

This was to be our first week teaching English at Kyambeke and we were really struggling as we just weren't sure how to evaluate their current skill levels. We had decided that I would work with those who had some reading skills, Barb would take the middle group and Cassie (a native with good english skills) would continue with the beginners. After all the worrying most of the class were no shows but we did have 2 non-members show up who wanted to be baptized. There hasn't been anyone baptized in that branch for 5 years because of their struggle to understand English and the Church is requiring that everything be done in English now. We read with them out of the scriptures and asked some questions and they seemed to have a pretty good grasp once we got past our accents. We set up an appointment for the Assistants to work with them for next Thursday while we work with the rest of the class.

Friday we finally accomplished our first solo visit to Ilima. Quite a feat as the last km has to be done in 4 wheel drive with Sister Bishop keeping her eyes closed. I worked membership and financial audits with the Branch Pres and his Clerk while Sister Bishop walked over the side of the hill a ways where the RS were doing a service project. The Branch Presidents wife had been in the hospital so the ladies were using their hoe like implements to get the shamba ready for planting next month. The women do most of the menial work in the shambas. Especially in the non-member households.

Today we drove to Kilili for Sunday Services and finished coordinating for our visits for the next little while. Because of some special help that all 3 branches want in preparing for their primary programs we will be making 4 to 5 trips a week for the next 5 weeks.

Sister Bishop is being a real trooper about all the traveling. Road and traffic conditions are tough to describe. About half of the 40 kms on the Mombasa Highway are spent on deviations (British term for detours). Picture 2 lane dirt roads with a steady stream of large trucks going to and from the Port in Mombasa to as far inland as Uganda. Throw in the Mutatus and buses darting in and out which makes for one large dust cloud that you are never really sure just what is heading at you. There doesn't seem to be any kind of DOT controls so it is not unusual to be behind a truck that is either overloaded or run down to the point that it is just creeping along. One often comes across a rig that broke down right in the road and the driver is working on it trying to get it going again. The normal warning sign is a tree branch broken off and thrown in the road. There are days when I sure wish I was traveling in an M1 Tank again.

We did see 5 more giraffes, an ostrich, and several herds of antelope that looked like heartabeests along the road this week. When we get on the roads in the hills one has to be alert for goats and cows but they are usually trailing a hobble like rope from one leg and a herdsman of some kind (usually a young kid) is close by.

FYI

I just wanted to let you know, if you don't already, that you can click on any of the pictures on the blog to see them bigger.

Where the Wild Things Are

Here it is - finally! It's a slideshow, but if you would like to read the narration of a certain picture just click on it. When you are done reading you can just click on resume show to continue looking at the rest. ENJOY! If you have any problems just click on Comments at the bottom of this post and leave your comment. I check in pretty regularly.

Masai Village

These pictures were taken at the Masai Village we visited. Elder and Sister Bishop with the young man who welcomed us. I think he did that simply because of his mastery of the English language.
The next is some of the young men doing one of their tribal dances. They seemed to only have two. One they would hop around in kind of a snake line of sorts and the other they took turns seeing who could jump the highest. They didn't seem to bend their legs much but they sure got some altitude when they went up.

Their village is built in a circle facing inwards and is surrounded by a woven willow fence that is to keep out the wild game The fence has various openings that their cattle enter through each evening. The cattle come in the same gate each evening and stay there, so obviously they leave a lot of dung lying around. This is good though as the huts are made by weaving willows together and then coating it with the dung. If the roof starts to leak they just pile on more dung.

This last picture is a reception line that was formed to congratulate the family members of a young woman who had just gone through a coming of age ritual. She wasn't there as she was trying to recover from the ordeal. The Masai are very proud of their cattle and eat only beef even with all the other abundant game surrounding them. They only kill those wild animals which threaten their livestock and I guess the other tribes that have livestock so that they can increase their own holdings. I assured them that we didn't own any cows. They have adapted some to the modern world as they had built a market area to display all the artifacts they wanted us to buy and made sure we each had an investment councilor assigned to encourage us to purchase something. Very persistent little devils.

African Safari

On Thursday we left for the safari portion of our Couple's Conference and this is a shot of our room and bed at the Lodge we were at. Turned out we didn't have to sleep in a tent after all but it was in the middle of nowhere as one could hear several different wild animals during the night and no it wasn't Elder Bishop snoring.

*Stay tuned for some great pictures of all the wild beasts they were able to snap shots of.*

Young Ones

Last Wednesday Pres. Mbondo brought some of the YW from Kyambeke to Nairobi for an outing before they started back to school. This is a picture of them as they arrived at the Mission Home and yes the 14 YW, Angie the YW Pres. (in the dress next to the Pres.), Pres. Mbondo, his 5 year old daughter, and the driver all rode the 70+ miles in the 14 passenger van you see.

Later that day we helped haul some blankets and clothing to an orphanage on the outskirts of Nairobi and these next 2 pictures show the kids and their sleeping quarters. What they don't show is the open sewer that ran in front of the house and its accompanying odor.

Fender Bender

These are a few shots of last weeks accident. As you can see we couldn't have gotten much further over to our side of the road and he had plenty of room to go around on his side of the road. When we went to the police station the driver of the other vehicle admitted it was his fault and the guy that owned the matatu said he knew his insurance would have to pay for repair of our vehicle. I just hope that that doesn't get changed somewhere along the line.