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.