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
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