Weekly Update 10-28-07

Well the rainy season is starting here in our little branches. That means they are busy planting and we are busy avoiding all the new ruts in the roads. Our shortcut works real well for Kilili but it has some grades with switch backs for the other two. Our route decision each day is made based on the time available, weather and Sister Bishops desire to visit the last station with a porcelain commode on the Mombasa highway. We generally try to get on the road by 6:45 on the days we head up country but can still get hung up in outbound traffic on some days that really throws a wrench in our schedule. On Thursday we saw a higher than usual number of big rigs that had rolled over in the night and ended up waiting in a couple of long lines while they came up with a work-around. Then Sunday they appeared to be having some kind of marathon or walkathon and just shut down the big highway heading out of town. We probed it in several different accesses but were turned back each time and spent over an hour just wandering back roads before we were able to get out of the city. We still made it to Ilima in time for their Primary program and they did a super job. We have gotten a little involved in helping some of the folks procure seed and it is very interesting to see some of their farming practices. We were watching a film on the restoration that showed Joseph Smith using a stick to plant corn seeds. President whispered that we farmed just like they do but then I reminded him that the film was depicting a time 180 years ago and that it was a little different now days. Because the majority of the Shambas are on terraced hillsides and the austere means available, just about everything is done manually either with a pinga (big hoe) or panga (machete). I apologize to anyone reading this that speaks Kikumba if I have mixed up the terms or spelled it wrong.
The week ahead looks interesting as it appears that our paperwork is finally ready for the issuing of our resident cards. This paves the way for our receiving a resident drivers license and also receiving a break on some of the tolls and taxes we run into. Unfortunately we will also be getting some new CES missionaries in which means a decision will have to be made on our vehicle. I have purposely avoided following up on the status of the little green Nissan since the accident so I am not sure what we will be driving by next weekend but it will most likely not be the CES truck we are currently using. That is a decision that is made a pay grade or two above my level so all I can do is snivel like some little private. Well must run as we have to be down at immigration shortly.

Pictures 10-28-07

Sister Bishop, Sister Nicrette, and Silas at the pharmacy at St. Mary's. Our last name really confuses these folks but we get along great and enjoy the 3 hours we try to spend there each Wednesday.

I thought Brett and Boyd would be interested in this scaffolding at a construction site. It is just trees bound together and if you note the ladder in the bottom of the picture I think the boys at OSHA would have a coniption.

Sister Bishop has turned into a real camera bug lately to fill in all the time she spends as a passenger. The first is traffic on a two lane deviation (note that some impatient driver is trying to make it 3 Lane). The second is us last Thursday stopped in a traffic jam changing from one deviation to another. The cause of the back log was an overturned bus. We saw 4 other overturned vehicles that morning which is a record even for here.


These were all taken at Kilili. The first is their Primary getting ready for the Sacrament Program. The next two were taken at their enrichment activity where they were making yarn doilies with the last being their nursery.

Weekly Update 10-21-07

This weeks report will be quick as we spent most of Saturday, our normal preparation day for personal matters, with the YM in Kyambeke. We are sandwiching those chores in with the other things we do to prepare to support our branches today (Monday) and Wednesday. It is surprising the myriad of items that seem to consume our efforts on those days. We copy lesson materials to support all the classes we are teaching plus all the material needed to support the primaries. In addition there are always several requests for items that we try to run down for them. Pres. Simon wants us to find out the cost of a hearing aid for his wife's sister and that consists of a little more than just picking up the phone like we would do back home. With the exception of the items picked up at the large stores there are always the Mazunga's price and the natives price and our accents seem to always demand the higher price which is very prohibitive for the native's spendable income. Consequently we end up either doing a lot of comparative shopping are just hire someone to make the purchases for us. Victor, a former native missionary here, has developed a business for himself procuring items for the couples and mission home. We are using him more all the time and find him very trustworthy.
We had a couple of firsts this week. We began helping out at St. Mary's hospital for a few hours on Wednesday mornings. This week we spent 3 hours in their pharmacy. We were filling and labeling small bottles with anti-acid medicine (It looked and smelled like pepto bismol) for issue to patients from the six liter jugs that they come in. We prepared 175 bottles and were told that it would provide about half of what they required for the day. Our other first grew out of our frustration and discomfort with the deteriation of the deviations that we travel each day. We heard of a back road that was all paved but mountainous enough to discourage the big rigs from using it. We decided to try it out on our way home last Tuesday and it was pretty much what we were hoping for except that because of some construction in Machakos we got on the wrong road and I know my companion was sure we were going to end up in Somalia. I did stop and ask a couple of folks but my English and their Swahili just didn't mix. We did make it home okay but it was way after dark. We have since been able to determine the right route and have used it several times.
As I indicated earlier we did support the YM at Kyambeke for an activity on Saturday. Because of school demands that is the only time they can get together. We borrowed a generator then loaded up the TV and DVD player in our truck and showed them several clips from a church history set we purchased at the distribution center. For treats we had found the makings for what we were able to pass off as smores. The marshmallows and BBQ briquettes were a whole new experience for them and they were very tentative at first but really got with it after a while and not surprisingly there were no left overs.
Because of power outages and internet disruptions we were not able to view the pictures of little Andrew until Sunday evening on our return from services in Kilili but it is obvious to us that he has many of the same genes as JJ. It is comforting to us to see the many things that you each do for one another in our absence. May God bless you each in your activities.

Pictures 10-15-07

This is the Kyambeke Primary just after they completed their program.


Picture number two is of our vehicle when we got home last Thursday. We have a fellow who teaches school here who will come and wash our car on demand during non-school hours for 200 or 300 schillings depending on whether we have him do the interior or not. That converts to $3 and $4.50 at the current exchange rate. When it gets this dirty however I get feeling a little guilty and will throw water on it to at least get rid of the mud before it dries. We have no hose or spigot so I carry the water up the stairs from our washroom area.


3 & 4 are snapshots of the road to Ilima. Sister Bishop is getting used to it somewhat so took these hanging out the window as we drove along. Her kids would be both proud and impressed of her.

Weekly Update 10-15-07

Well this has certainly been another week. Sometimes we get the feeling that we appear like a big meal ticket to the Africans, both members and non-members alike. We have to be so careful as the goal is to develop self-reliance not dependency. We are working with the branch in the low-lands to procure a little food until harvest time as they had a rather dry season last year. Their requested regimen is 10 kg of maize, 5 kg beans, and 100 grams of fat per month per member until the next harvest in January. Seems like pretty meager rations but is it a solution that fosters reliance or dependency? Maybe when the harvest comes in this year if we can figure a way to preserve the stuff we can get them to put those kinds of quantities away for next year. Wish there was a dry pack canner and supply of cans nearby. We are unsure as to whether there is a Bishop's Storehouse anywhere on this Continent. Another branch wants us to help them procure seeds and fertilizer for the impending rainy season, which seems like a better solution but since both us and the mission president are in our first season we have to wonder why there seems such a dearth of seeds in an area that has been devoted to subsistence farming for so many years. I tell myself that hopefully we are equipping them with a heartier variety of plant that will benefit them but then wonder if a portion of what we provide wont just end up for sale on the local market. You might accuse me of becoming jaded but until you live in the conditions here that accusation would be unfair. Even in relief efforts one must be so careful to use trusted African Agents as the price can escalate rapidly if the system detects that there are Wazungus (plural for white people) involved. After church services yesterday we were immediately challenged with a couple of situations of need. One was the 1st Councilor's wife that felt she needed to get to the clinic in Kikoko and wanted us to transport her. We have grown quite fond of this sister but our mission rules strictly forbid the use of the vehicle for non-missionary transport and we would have to have passed some of the members on the road who are aware of the rules we have to abide by. It is really tough to drive by faithful sisters with their children knowing that some walk up to 10kms one way whenever they come to church. The other situation was a sister who is a great support in our English Classes who needed to get to the doctor for some medication. She is HIV positive, thanks to her husband who died several years ago, and last year lost one of her 14 year old twin daughters to birth related HIV. The other twin is fortunately negative.
On the upside the Primary Program presented in the branch we attended went off pretty well thanks to the efforts of Sister Bishop who was called on to extemporaneously provide the closing remarks as the councilor was home with his sick wife. We had another potential investigator show up on his own and requested a Book of Mormon. He is a minister for another church but seemed very sincere in his desire to learn more about us. LDS charities has done some work in the area with some boreholes (wells) and are investigating a support need for a local school so hopefully our supposed kinship with the devil is being questioned somewhat. Francis and Sarah were at church again and we will make a decision on Thursday as to whether they are ready for baptism in the next few weeks. Francis thinks our message is important enough that he is of the opinion we need to go door to door to tell people about it (the lesson on missionary work is part of the new member discussions).
They have had a few light showers in the Kalunga Hills so they are expecting their rainy season to start any time now. Depending on the amount of moisture that could impact our access to that area thanks to the roads we have to use but only time will tell. Their weather patterns are different from what we experience here in Nairobi due to the difference in altitude. We continue to have several brief storms a week so the rainy season is going to be interesting to us when it arrives. As we were coming home on the Mombasa Highway last Thursday there had been a storm through that left one of the deviations we negotiate impassable to the heavy truck traffic as the hills were too slick for them to go up or down. We dodged around them and when we traveled the same road Friday morning it had already become a dust bowl again.
We rode out to the Kitengela Glass Factory here in Nairobi with another couple on our P-Day Saturday. Typical of us we forgot and left our camera home but if you what to see some weird whimsical stuff you might google that name on the internet. They even have some animals penned up around the grounds (they quit raising goats because the Leopords would come and eat them at night and they wouldn't make enough noise to alert the herdsman to scare them away). Elder Bishop was feeding some leaves to one of the ostriches when the big bird decided he wanted to see what the Elder's pointy finger tasted like. They have a really big beak!
Well that is it for another week. If any of you should get the urge to send us a quick e-mail please yield to the prompting. Your short thoughts are much appreciated. It is 6:30am Monday morning here and time to go to work (that makes it 9:30pm Sunday evening back in the Mountain Time Zone of Meridian). God bless you all.

Pictures

We found that Mwende is about 23 years old. Her parents died of aids so her granpa has custody when he is able. The RS sisters are currently caring for her but need to do it at her place as they don't have a place for her in their mud homes. She does have a wheel chair but it is not very practical in her rugged surroundings. We are still struggling for a good solution for her future.


Here is Sister Bishop and her keyboard class at Kilili.

We finally snapped this one of Gieco the gecko in one of her less bashful moments.

Weekly Update 10-9-07

Okay we are a little late this week. We did get some portions of conference on the computer but not without some time and effort. With the 9 hours difference of our time and Mountain Time the sessions were available here 7-9pm & 11pm-1am on Saturday and Sunday. Because all of the couples here in our apartment compound work through the charities router and the generally reduced capabilities of the internet available here we listened to the first session until it cut out in the middle of Elder Uchtdorf's talk. I stayed up and was able to get all of the Saturday afternoon session. Sunday was a bust though as none of us were able to get any of the morning session and I was not able link up to the afternoon session until Elder Nelson's talk and did get President Hinckley's thoughts at the close. It is not broadcast in any of the chapels here so to all appearances it was just a normal Sabbath to the East African Saints. That meant that we did travel up to Ilima for services there. Sister Bishop was concerned that I might fall to sleep after staying up so late the previous evening but I assured her that my adrenaline level necessitated by the driving conditions was not going to let that happen. We did stop and pick up Mwende, the little crippled girl we mentioned previously, on our way up the final mountain so she could be at church with us. Not sure what her little spirit gets out of it but the saints there will surely be blessed for all they struggle to do for her. The couple serving in Eldoret was here for the weekend and rode up with us to see what it was like. They are the Scott's from Ogden, Utah and have been here for 16 months so were able to share some information on successes they have had. Two of the couples here have changed out over the last few weeks. The PEF couple, the Bushes of Ogden and Washington, Utah, were replaced by the Lewis's from the Denver area. The LDS Charities couple, Ann and Morgan Harris of Las Vegas were replaced by the Pococks from Northern Virginia. We are no longer the newest couple here but as their respective calls were just for 18 months we will still have the privilege of seeing them off on their return home. Our schedule is fairly established now with Tuesdays being in Kilili, Thursdays are at Kyambeke, and Fridays at Ilima. Our Sundays are spent at the branches on a rotating basis so that we visit each on every third Sunday. We will continue to spend a couple of Saturdays to support special activities and meet with Pres. Makiti, the school teacher. Because of the time and effort spent by the young people to attend school (several of them actually live in dormitory situations in other locations through the week) most of their activities or confined to Saturdays and then only once a month. The upside of this is that the next generation is a lot more familiar with English. Our current English students generally range from their mid 30s to mid 70s and it is a challenge to feel like we are really making progress with them but we do see some positive things happening in their lives. I know you are wondering why the church just doesn't include them in their translation efforts but there are so many variations of their language that the decision was made to just use what ever their colonial language was prior to their liberation and for here that is English. I am aware that a review of the above schedule does seem like we have a lot of down time on our non-travel days but the preparation required to provide them with the support materials they need (remember there is no electricity) takes up most of the time here in Nairobi. We are going to be spending a few hours at St. Mary's Hospital helping in their pharmacy section starting next Wednesday and we will tell you more about that once we know what it entails. We did host the family home evening for the couples this week and I was able to down load an MP3 version of President Hinckley's Sunday morning address off of LDS.org so we listened to that then had brownies and ice cream. I will close this week with some facts from the Mission's monthly newsletter. There are currently 51 young missionaries (4 sisters & 47 Elders). They were blessed with 45 baptisms last month. They currently have a teaching pool of 646 progressing investigators with 280 with baptismal dates. We are the only couple that really has an opportunity to do any teaching of investigators as all the others work in areas where there are young missionaries assigned. Almost all the teaching is done in a chapel so that the investigators can see that there are no 'black magic' areas. One of Satan's tools in this area is to spread the rumor that the LDS are devil worshipers. How ironic is that? One young member in a rural area was expelled from his primary school recently because he would not renounce his Book of Mormon. Well that is it for this week. Please remember the missionaries everywhere in your prayers.