Weekly Update 11-25-07

We finished teaching Joseph this week and he passed his baptismal interview with the Assistants yesterday so will be getting baptized next Sunday after church. We had a tentative appointment to teach two "Mamas" (a term of respect used in addressing any married woman similar to Mrs.) at the Ilima Branch yesterday and ended up teaching three Mamas and their three 15 year old daughters. They have been coming to church there for about two years and their English appears to be sufficient (although it is hard to tell when the group is that big and diverse) that they will be able to go all the way if they desire. We will meet with the Mamas again Friday but the girls are in school for one more week before they get their December break. Because of the distances most of the young people are required to walk to get to school their days are very lengthy and it is hard to schedule anything with them except on Saturdays. They have 30+ day breaks in December, April, and August so we need to spend time teaching those who were not baptized before age 9 during their down months. The last two years of their secondary school (Forms 3 & 4 which is 16 & 17 year olds) it is required that they board at the school only coming home during breaks and some weekends. For those who are praying for our investigators by name they are Pauline Kilungya and her twin daughters Leah and Rachel, Miriam Mutuku and her daughter Renae, and Joyce Kinini.Julius, the prospective Missionary from Kilili, did not finish up his physical until Wednesday of last week and will be coming back with us again Tuesday for some more blood work and his dental exam. I bought some motion sickness pills for him so hopefully the trip will not be as traumatic for him this time.We delivered 4 bed frames, 4 rubber covered mattresses, 10 pillows, 10 wool blankets, 12 quilts (the kind made by Relief Society for Humanitarian Aid), 20 sets of sheets, and 24 pillow cases to the Dispensary in Kyambeke. They already had 6 other beds and mattresses but only had sufficient bedding for two of them so that is all they were using. They should be able to house 10 patients in fairly sanitary conditions now. The next closest medical facility is 2 hours away by foot. We are trying to do some LDS charities support with that facility also in the hope that the thousands of people in that area will have a little better chance of sustaining life. We have some 400 hundred members that live in that impact zone.We think we have everything coordinated to deliver Mwende to her new home in Nairobi this coming Friday. We made another trip to it and delivered 4 more wheel chairs and 58 wool blankets this last Saturday. We coordinated for the proper paperwork from the village chief while there and they are expecting us to deliver her on Friday evening. I am not sure what her little handicapped mind will think of the bumpy ride strapped in the back seat of our pickup but hope that it will all come together to make the balance of her time here in mortality a little better.Our keyboard and English classes at each branch seem to be progressing with fits and starts but definitely forward. The Keyboard classes have leveled off with only the truly interested making the effort to attend now. Barb has coordinated with Salt Lake for the delivery of some more instruments so the availability for practice will be greatly enhanced. One young man came up to Sister Bishop several weeks ago and said that she was an answer to their prayers. We are starting to try and sound out words with different vowels in English now as a fair portion of the students can recognize the letters of the alphabet now. One tends to forget how truly confusing the rules for our language are until you struggle to share it with people in this situation. I find it some what amusing as I struggle to say the right things and they parrot them back. I sometimes forget and say okay now as I transition from one letter or word to another and they of course just repeat it back to me thinking it has some relevance. As I finished up discussing with Joseph in preparation for his baptismal interview he said he really appreciated when I tried to act out some of the words that he did not understand and were not in the bible dictionary. We spent 8 weeks just reading the Book of Mormon and I guess my antics to illustrate what amazed and dumbfounded meant were somewhat memorable to him. I think I am going to buy him a dictionary this week as I was really at a loss to help him understand what abortion, parole or probation, or homosexual meant as we discussed the baptismal questions.All the Senior Couples in Nairobi got together at the Mission Home for Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday. Not many butterball specials here so we feasted on roast beef, mashed potatoes & gravy, green salad, fruit salad, rolls, apple pie with ice cream, and popcorn balls. Barb did the fruit salad and it consisted of fresh pineapple, mango, papya, banana, watermellon, sweet mellon (kind of like cantalope), and strawberries. We then had some training conducted by President & Sister Taylor. The aftermath of Kenya's district run-offs (like our primaries) continues to yield deaths and injuries on a fairly regular basis. There is a chance we will be spending a good portion of December confined to quarters but are waiting on more definitive guidance from church security and the local US Embassy. As we were coming home from Ilima on Friday we got to the town of Kilome and its one street was just a solid mass of people that extended for several hundred meters. Not wanting to create anykind of situation we just turned around and went down out of the hills another way.On one of our trips out of town last week we passed an accident scene where there appeared to be at least one fatality. There was a matatu on its side in a construction zone and what appeared to be a pedestrian on the other side of the road. It was a rather sobering site and did nothing to ease my frustration with the matatu drivers that literaly dart everywhere regardless of the surrounding traffic. Remember these are vans that they are suppose to only put 14 people in but in the paper the other day there was an item where a matatu had run head on into a lorrie (truck) and there werre 8 deaths and 8 injuries in the matatu. It was a matatu that hit us head on up in the hills and require that we now bounce from one loaner vehicle to another pending the repair of our vehicle which they have been working at for some 3 months now.The upheaval in our flat continues as it was not until the weekend that the work was completed that was to be accomplished early last week. They will have to come back and finish a few bad spots before we part with any money. We did decide though that we would go ahead and get the walls fixed and painted rather than go through this turmoil of moving furniture and eating standing up again in the not too distant future. The guy working on our walls assured us he would finish up here today but I have learned not to hold my breath. The veteran visitors here have a saying of TIA (This is Africa) whenever one of the locals shows up hours after they were scheduled.Hope all who read this had a satisfactory Thanksgiving. We are truly thankful for all that we have and realize even more each day just how blessed we are to live where we do and enjoy the bounties of life that we too often take for granted. It truly baffles me as to why I was placed in the surroundings I was for this mortal sojourn as I have meant many more who seem to be much more worthy of such blessings than I. I read in D&C 130: 20-21 and can't believe myself capable of doing any better than some of the valiant souls I see struggling with life here and wonder if the "Big Guy" just knew I couldn't have made it anywhere else than where he placed me. Certainly we have some tremendous obligations since he tells us that where much is given much is expected. I had better get back trying to supply my meger offerings in the much is expected department. We love you all.

Weekly Update 11-17-07

Well we are kind of sitting here in a frustrated state of turmoil in our flat today. We tried to take advantage of our reduced workload last week and make our apartment a little more comfortable for us. We were missing several pieces of wood in the parquet flooring and there were numerous deep marks in the floor from the years of missionaries living here. The apartment manager had a guy come in and replace the obvious tile discrepancies then we hired a member to come in and sand and varnish it. When he sanded it revealed a lot of damaged tile and a rather healthy termite population. The apartment management brought their guy back but because they are refusing to pay him any additional money he is less than enthusiastic to really solve the problem. Apparently the parquet they sell now days is of smaller dimensions so he has to try and scrounge used stuff that is big enough to replace our damaged tiles. The individual entrepreneurs such as are being used here have no vehicles so are at the mercy of the matatus and buses to transport themselves and equipment. The result is that scheduled appointments are only an estimate that can vary as much as by a whole day. I guess you have to admire their desire to sustain themselves but one has to really struggle to curb your impatience and frustration and as some of you might have observed over the years those are not my areas of strength. In the mean time we sit here with furniture stacked in our bedrooms, kitchen, and entry way hoping to accomplish a reasonable resolution without compromising our real reason for being here. It kind of brings back memories of working the way out of the fun we had trying to put the place in Meridian back together after the water line burst while we were away to Alabama seeing Bruce's family.The dust is still settling here in Kenya from last weeks run offs in preparation for the general election on 27 Dec. There was some disturbances, some suspected related deaths, and they still don't have solid tickets for some of the parties. Some of the losing candidates immediately transferred to different parties and are trying to get on their tickets. We have identified some 6 different political parties that all seem to have some relevance. We drove through some rallies coming out of Kalunga Hills the day previous to the elections that seemed aggressive enough that I was a little uncomfortable.We are trying to get back on schedule this week. We attended church services in Kilili then brought Julius back to Nairobi with us for a pre-mission doctor's physical we had scheduled with the mission approved doctor. I am sure he was a bundle of nerves, probably had not ridden in many vehicles in his life, we gave him something to eat and read and the roads are a mess so we traveled our new route which is full of curves. The end result is that we had one sick little feller in the back seat and left several plastic containers full of the used lunch I had made him along side the road between here and there. I am going to try and find some dramamine at the local chemist before we take him back tomorrow. Because our place is buried in displaced furniture we left Julius with the Assistants for his 2 night stay. The Mission President's wife has scheduled Thanksgiving at the Mission Home for Thursday so we moved our Kyambeke visit ahead to Wednesday for this week and will go out to Saint Mary's Hospital to assist there in the Pharmacy on Thursday. Because Thanksgiving is an American event it has no significance to the locals but they do show some interest when we tell them of all the food that is available.Well we must get moving with the hope that we can develop a reasonable solution to our self imposed turmoil in our living quarters here today. We miss not being there to share Thanksgiving with friends and family but do take solace in the people and events we are involved in here. We are thankful for all of you and your love and support. We especially appreciate the pictures all the grandkids dressed for Halloween that we received. God Bless, Elder and Sister Bishop

Weekly Update 11-12-07

I think we are beginning to understand what is meant by rainy season. It has become very obvious in the last 48 hours that we have only been flirting with moisture up till now. We did some major mud bogging in traveling to Kyambeke for their Branch Conference yesterday. The deviations were snarled with big rigs that just could not negotiate in all the mud but our smaller outfits were able to maneuver around with some effort and get through. Fortunately for the guy who washes our truck for us our vehicle was not the dirtiest one in the parking lot here this morning. I drove the Pococks rig yesterday as they are the new charities couple and wanted to become familiar with the country there as they have some projects kicking off there soon. We then rode home with President Taylor after conference. The members sure made an effort to welcome him as it was the first time he had been able to visit since his arrival last July. We had the baptism for Francis & Sarah after the conference sessions and before the training. The branch has had a failure in their potable water system recently so we filled the font from the rain water storage. Although the water in the font was less than 3 feet deep the bottom was not visible because it was rather murky but they did throw a little chlorine in to reduce the threat of bugs. It was obvious from the excitement of the converts that the water was sufficient to do what it needed to. They are going to be a real asset to the branch there. Another investigator we are working with was there for the baptism and it looks like we will be having similar event in 3 more weeks.
We have been pestering the apartment manager for several months now to come and replace some missing wood tiles in our floor. He finally sent some guys over Saturday to do that. They found that termites were what was causing the problem so treated for them then returned today to replace the damaged tiles. Since this is an all cement structure the termites must have been in the original tile that was put in. Hope it solves the problem and that not too many of my remaining brain cells were destroyed by fumes as we stayed here during the process. We have contracted for another guy to come and refinish the floors this week in the entry hall and sitting area as they have been somewhat abused by the missionary tenants over the years. It should make our living conditions here a lot more tolerable but then when we visit with our members in their mud huts I realize how spoiled we are.
We think we have found a home for the little crippled girl we talked of several weeks back. There is a Mother Teresa Sisters of
Charity home for handicapped children that we found through our volunteer work at St Mary's. The branch in Ilima needs to do some paper work with the Village Chief to verify the death of her parents and the expected disposition of remains upon her death and then it should be a go. We visited last week and were impressed with the work they are doing. They currently have 54 residents of which only 7 are ambulatory. We left them a new wheelchair and the promise of some crib sheets, quilts and a few more wheelchairs on our return. The grandfather will be able to visit whenever he is able but at 84 years of age they don't expect that will be for very much longer.
The branch president at Kilili called today to cancel our weekly trip there tomorrow. It has been raining fairly steady so the roads are very bad plus the majority of the members are busy planting their shambas now that the moisture has arrived. We have also canceled our trip to Ilima this Friday as they are doing a run off of candidates there in preparation for their National Elections scheduled for 27 December. The branch president doesn't think it would be good for a couple of Mazungus to be near during the rather volatile environment of their electoral process. All the missionaries have been advised to avoid all the political rallies that are organized here in the Nairobi area for the next month as it is not uncommon for opposing parties to have some rather violent clashes at these events.
The Christmas decorations are starting to be evident in the shopping areas here but the weather is certainly warm enough that it sure don't feel like Christmas. We were able to add zebras to the list of animals we have spotted while traveling the Mombasa Highway en route to our branches this week. Saw a bunch of them feeding with some gazelles this last Thursday.

Pictures 11-12-07

These first two pictures show the traffic we negotiate to get to our area.



Here are the APs finishing up the Baptismal interview at our investigators house.

The baptism (note the pristine color of the water).

Elder & Sister Bishop with Francis & Sarah the newest members of the Kyambeke Branch

Weekly Update 11-5-07

This was not a real good week for generating new news. Our schedule is full enough now that the week really goes by fast. We took the Assistants to Kyambeke with us on Thursday and stopped off in Mitini to interview Francis and Sarah for baptism. It is scheduled for next Sunday after Branch Conference. This is probably a good time to try and explain how they do their names here. The husbands name is Francis Kimeu Wambua. When Sarah married him her name became Sarah Francis (his christian name) and then the children take his middle name for their last name so his children are Kikoko Kimeu and Evelyn Kimeu. How is that for a family history nightmare? Just to increase the challenge most of the births and marriages are not recorded. I am helping a young man get his mission application in and he has to have a passport in hand before he can send them in. His ID card lists his birthday as 00/00/1988. He thinks he was born in April but his mother, who was a single mom, died when he was young so he is applying for a birth certificate after the fact and it will be for the same date as his ID card. The branch president at Ilima and his wife are having a wedding the 29th of December. Even though they have 3 children and were married in a tribal ceremony some 7 years ago. The temple requires they have a civil certificate before being sealed and so these guys turn it into a pretty big bash. We committed to help with the cake and have come to understand that there is suppose to be one layer for the couple, one layer for the immediate family, and then one layer for the other guests (they are expecting about 400). We will let you know how that turns out next year. We taught a first discussion to Joseph (he is 60 years old) whom I have been reading the Book of Mormon with in our English class there in Kyambeke. He is pretty sharp and our reading together has helped us both understand each others accents a lot better. He is very desirous to be baptized so it should happen before too long. His wife is in our intermediate English class so will not be baptized right away but it will really help her English once we get Joseph reading the BOM with her.
We spent all last Monday in the Immigration Building and after some six hours we are now official residents of Kenya. The guy who was helping us joked that we were turning into real Africans when they completed our finger print process. For those who missed the humor there remember that we were standing there with very black fingers because of the finger printing process. There was a new CES couple that arrived in the mission Friday evening. They are staying with us in our extra bedroom until they finish their CES training at the Mission Home this Thursday. They will then depart for Kitale, which is NW of Nairobi. They are Gary and Judy Stutz from the Seattle area. Rowan was his father. He is the older brother to Ron, Doug, Linda and Laurel. For those who never lived in the Uintah Basin with the Lee Bishop Family, Rowan was the Superintendant in the Duchesne School District who hired my father to teach there and us Bishop kids used to ride the school bus with all his brothers and sisters. If the truth be known, I was a little partial to Linda as a member of the opposite sex and Mike got in a fight with Doug on the bus one night. It sure is a small world sometimes. They do not celebrate Halloween here. It was great to receive pictures of some of the grandkids in their costumes. We are still hoping to see shots of Bridger, Charlee, Anson, Eden, Bo, and Ian. We did see 17 giraffes, one ostrich and 3 monkeys on Friday this last week as we traveled the Mombasa Highway and the road to Ilima in the Kilunga Hills. The rainy season has not fully arrived yet but we have seen a bunch of it. There were a couple of days when the vehicle was pretty dirty. I am sure glad that David shows up to wash it a couple of times a week.