Weekly Update 1-31-07

Well we will start off with the bad news good news routine. The bad news is that Kenyans are still killing Kenyans. The good news is that Kibaki and Odinga have got together with Kofi Annan (former UN Secretary General) to attempt a mediation process. The continued strife is north of us in the Eldoret/Nakuru/Burnt Forest area. The local newspaper puts the death toll over 1,000 now but I am not sure anyone really knows. Because it has degenerated into a tribal ethnic cleansing type situation fatalities are mostly the result of bow & arrow, machete, rocks or fire. Nairobi has been pretty calm this last week but then someone assassinated one of the MPs (members of parliament) on Tuesday so who knows where this will end or if it will. The MP was from the opposition party but they currently hold a majority position because of their success at the polls in the December election. We continue to go about our business while keeping a wary eye on the church and embassy alerts we receive on our mobile phone through out each day.

Our efforts with our branches seems to have hit a plateau of sorts. The keyboard members continue to show but don't practice much through the week. The same is true of the English students so progress is very slow. Our investigators continue to insist that they want to be baptized but then struggle to respond to our efforts at prepatory interviews so they can or will express themselves when the assistants interview them for baptisms. Some would do well enough but I worry about those who fail becoming discouraged and just giving up but then I guess the plan is for each of us to progress at the rate we are willing to put forth the effort.

My patience is certainly being tried each day whether it is fighting to curb my road rage in their chaotic driving conditions, dealing with telephone repairmen who move at their own pace with no real thought of service, or trying to help people in some way who are struggling in very austere conditions just to survive to lift their heads and see the big picture of our Heavenly Father's Plan. Sure makes me appreciate my own heritage and comfortable living conditions. It also forces me to ponder why I am so blessed and would I have the same testimony that I do if I had come to earth in any other circumstances.We did make some progress this week with our prospective missionaries as we now have passports on two of the three form Kilili. We will get them back to Nairobi in another week so they can get their Patriarchal Blessings and finalize their applications to the Missionary Dept. with Pres. Taylor. I have appointments with the Doc and Dentist for Joshua from Ilima for next week so hope to have him at the same point within another month.

A local point of interest is that the newly elected Speaker of Parliament lives here in our compound. One of the couples who lives near him is trying to get him to come and visit with us during one of our Home Evenings.

Well that concludes my thoughts and ramblings for another week. We love and miss you all and thank you for your concerns on our welfare. Elder & Sister Bishop

Weekly Update 1-21-08

Okay so I am a little late this week. I got involved in finalizing the request to LDS Charities for the needs of the hospital in Kikoko on Monday. It is amazing to me how our days fill up even when we are not sure just which way we need to focus that day. Our schedule was a little different this week but not so much from the unrest as in past weeks. The wind screen in our vehicle had jolted loose so that it would whistle as we drove and popped forward every time we closed the doors without a window rolled down. They told us to bring it back anytime when we had it serviced last week and they would fix it right up and being the slow learner that I am I believed them. After our trip to Kilili last Tuesday I got up early Wednesday to take it in by 6:30 so we could have it back that evening. We were not able to get it back until Saturday and even then I had to wait almost 1 hour and then had to have them take it back to the shop and clean off the tape and other residue from their repair work. In the mean time we were using an old Toyota Stallion (a cross between a mini-van and a station wagon) that had been retired from the mission fleet but they have not had a buyer yet. It is only a 2 wheel drive and it was raining heavily on Thursday so we did not attempt the trip to Kymbeke that day. By the time we made some deposits at the bank for the branches, picked up some items they need but can't reasonably purchase up country, and made a mail run to the embassy there wasn't much day left. We traded for a 4 wheel drive with one of the Nairobi couples on Friday for our trip to Ilima. President Simon called while we were en route to alert us that it was starting to rain again but we determined to keep going with the hope that it might let up enough to accommodate us. We made it to Kikoko and stopped to finalize some things with Sister Mary Agatha at the hospital while waiting for the rain to ease. It didn't let up so we called and canceled our visit and came back to town and finished some copying and laminating on materials for the branches in support of their 2008 course schedules. With the return of our vehicle we headed to Kymbeke Sunday even though it was still raining lightly at intermittent intervals. We made it but the rain had really limited the native attendance as so many have to walk some distance. I left Sister Bishop at Kymbeke after Sacrament meeting and made a quick trip to Ilima to deliver some materials and check on our investigators . I parked and walked the last kilometer because I didn't want to risk another slide off. Fortunately the rain stopped for my jaunt up and back but my shoes and suit pants were heavily covered with gooey red stuff at trips end. It started to rain again as I picked her up for our trip home. We made it okay but I did have to hit a couple of the hills and bogs a little faster than what Sister B was comfortable with in order to keep from getting stuck. I had to have our vehicle back to the fleet office on Monday morning as it is being fitted for a shell this week so we can haul additional items in back and keep them reasonably clean. The couple from Chyulu are at the temple in South Africa this week with a group from their branches so we are using their vehicle.

The rain, though a bother, has been a real blessing. The short rainy season is supposedly over but their crops were still needing water as the seasonal rain had started a little late but this last week has given them enough of a boost that they should have a good harvest in a couple more weeks. It has also really slowed down the protest marches and looting. The government and its opposition have still not made it to the negotiation table yet and promises to not incite seem to bend and break daily. However things are a lot calmer. I will insert the last 3 sentences from the Churches most recent security alert to the mission here. 'The unrest in Kenya has largely subsided. However, isolated incidents of violence persist and renewed ethnic strife is possible. LDS missionaries have resumed activity in areas known to be peaceful.' The truth of the matter is that there are still deaths (15 each the last 2 days) and disturbances reported daily that were not happening before the election. For the most part it is confined to the slums and a fair portion of that seems to be vigilante type reprisals by groups who are just fed up with the mayhem of present and those who have taken advantage of the situation for personal gain. I think we are getting a good glimpse of Satan's efforts to reign with blood and horror. We are feeling no threats but are careful about where we are at all times and make every effort to be back inside our compound before dark each day. We were recently made aware of an article in the online Meridian Magazine that is a fairly true version of the current situation and I am including a link to that here for those who might be interested. The David Olawo it quotes is the man who does some day work for us as needed. http://www.ldsmag.com/exstories/080121kenya.html

I think I mentioned we hosted the Family Home Evening. I reviewed the 1st Presidency message and Mother made her lemon jello cake which was a real hit and hopefully made up for my meager efforts of instruction. In addition the hosting couple is responsible to coordinate our Saturday evening out each week. We made reservations at Fogo Gaucho which is a new Brazilian style all you can eat place near by that has just opened. I ate a lot more meat than I should have but these few hours with the others is a good pick me up as we prepare for our various tasks each week. Because this is Africa these Saturday evening events are usually a 3 hour event with the last 20 minutes spent just trying to get our seperate bills for the evening's feast. You might find it interesting that these meals usually cost from 1500 to 3000 Kenyan Schillings for both of us which converts to 30 to 45 dollars American depending on the conversion rate. A 50 schilling tip at one of these events seems to be above average judging by the appreceative smiles we get.

Well it sounds like Sister Bishop is up now so I need to get ready for our volunteer work in the Saint Mary's Pharmacy today. Because of our connections there we are coordinating with them for a shared container with the LDS Charities of supplys from Salt Lake. Thanks for your prayers and concerns in our behalf.

The first 4 are of the wedding we attended on the 29th of Dec.

Some of the guests and please note that Jane is carrying her present (live chicken). Sister Bishop is in the background with Elder and Sister Steinmetz (from Idaho Falls) who are presently serving in the office. They wanted to ride up with us as their assignment does not allow them to interact with the Kenyans as much as they would like.

That is the Elders President (in the red scarf), his wife, and Dickson preparing the chicken stew for the feast. They had 4 of these pots going and there were 5 of the same size full of rice that they had already cooked to go with it.

This is the canopy before the guests had moved down the hill from the chapel. The house is rented by the church to accomodate the primary and yes it is quite a bit nicer than what any of the members live in.

The chapel area in the church up on top of the hill before the wedding began.

This is a couple of the plants that Sister Bishop has gotten to add a little pzazz to our flat.

Pictures 1-14-08

This is Elder Bishop getting ready to pay our parking lot attendants at Ilima last Friday. Note that 2 of the little girls have their siblings tied to their backs. It is not at all unusual to see little girls like this carrying their brother or sister even when their mother is walking with them.

This is Sister Bishop paying the same parking lot attendants on Sunday. There were so many she made them get in line and asked one of the young women to ensure that they didn't just run to the back of the line once she gave them a sweet.

The mamas we pass are usually toting something and it is not at all unusual for the load to appear to be rather substantial. I think these two sacks are probably full of mangos.

Weekly Update 1-14-08

It is Monday evening and we just finished hosting Family Home Evening for the 7 Nairobi couples. We spent the morning doing some banking for the branches, delivering reports, and picking up supplys at the Mission Office. We took the time to go visit Mwende in her new home at "The Sisters of Charity" and she is doing great. She acted a little shy while we were there and we thought maybe she was concerned that we were coming to move her again but she had her head up smiling before we left. The Sisters say they hear her singing with them while they are doing their morning vespers. They say she interacts with the other children by smiling and pointing. We have coordinated through LDS Charities for 10 smaller wheel chairs to be made by a local outfit and they are visiting tomorrow to get the specs. for constructing the chairs to best suit their needs.

We did get back on schedule last week and visited the 3 branches and were back to Ilima for church yesterday. We are leaving for Kilili again in the morning but are concerned that things could go crazy again this week. The negotiations between the PNU and ODM broke down without anything being decided. Parliment is starting tomorrow and the ODM are calling for increased demonstrations and even some strikes. Even though this last week was fairly calm and most of the holiday travelers that were stranded up country made it home the death toll is now over 600 with over 300,000 displaced villagers. No foreigners have been affected and the Church Security and US Embassy are keeping a close eye on developments. We really hate to cancel our visits as the people have to walk so far and most have no phones to alert them if we can't make it. Any potential baptisms have been disrupted to the point that nothing will happen before February. Kalunga Hills itself is free of any of the violence that is going on here in Nairobi, Mombasa, and the Rift Valley west of here.

We did experience a unique first in our visit to church Sunday. Rachel, one of the 15 year old twins we are teaching the discussions to, had asked if she could give a talk in Sacrament Meeting and she did a great job. I don't know how many times that has happened elsewhere in the church but I am sure it is not a common occurance.

Our struggle with Telkom for phone service continues. We do have a dial tone now and incoming calls work but when I try to dial out there is a recording that says "making calls from this phone is bad". I think the number for calling into Kenya would be 011-254-20-271-1122. Maybe if anyone has some minutes left on those phone cards we left they could give it a try and I am going to keep hounding the techs to solve our problem for outgoing calls. We sure wished we could have made contact at Christmas and for Bradleys birthday but we are really at their mercy for a solution. Bye for now.

Weekly Update 1-7-08

Well this was a different week. We did not go to Kalunga Hills at all because of the riots and unrest here in Nairobi. Things were peaceful up in the hills but Nairobi, Mombasa, and Eldoret were not so much. The death toll from post election violence is over 300 now and so much of it is just senseless looting and burning similar to that which accompanied race riots of the 60s or what was seen in New Orleans after the hurricanes. Some of it is tribal, Pres. Kibaki is Kukuyu while Odinga is Loi and they really don't seem to like each other. The burned Church full of refugees and hacking deaths in Eldoret were between these two tribes. It is unlawful for citizens in Kenya to have guns with out special permits so the only arms really are suppose to be those of the military and police. You have to wonder what would possess someone to show up to a gun fight with a machete but the authorities tend to shoot anyone that is armed because it is assumed they are gangsters. So I guess in frustration the citizens fight among themselves with clubs and machetes. We were out of our compound for a while on Wednesday morning to work at St. Mary's but then the opposition tried to stage a march that afternoon and things got ugly again. The opposition claimed they were going to keep marching until they got their way but Odinga has finally asked his supporters to give it up while politicians negotiate in talks for a solution to the supposed rigged election. Saturday President Taylor released us from our compound so we were at Kilili for church Sunday. Because we leave by 6:45 each morning we go up country and return by 5 or 6 we figure even if they do march they will be cleared by the time we get back to town. We will keep our phone on and if things get unsettled we can divert to Chuluy and stay with a couple and young missionaries there. I think though that with the exception of looters that everyone is frustrated and will do anything to return to the peaceful pre-election Kenya. I think any continued unrest will be confined to the slum areas such as Kibera and we can avoid those areas rather easily. We were never really threatened but are close enough to Uhuru Park that we could hear the rifle fire and tear gas canisters each time an effort was made to rally there. There is still a very heavy military presence camped there that we see each time we leave our flat. We had stocked up on groceries so our biggest inconvenience was when Elder Bishop had to switch to powdered milk. The Ice cream was sufficient to get us by until Saturday and then I braved the long lines to re-supply that critical item.

My biggest frustration about being confined was the work we were trying to get accomplished with the unbaptized member kids before they had to return to school on the 7th but the start was moved back to the 14th so we have this week to get them close enough that we can finish up on Sundays after school starts again.

It did feel good to just veg a couple of days with no obligations to speak of and I was able to read a couple of books but if I am just going to lay around I sure would rather do that in Meridian, Idaho. We are still waiting on our phone connection as commerce just ground to a halt last week. No one wanted to be caught in the middle of what was going on and the down town area was blocked by security forces to keep any sizeable group from forming up. One of the other retired military types here made a run to our APO boxes at the embassy last week so we got a bunch of the christmas remembrances to keep our interest during the confinement. Thanks for those items and your many prayers for our safety. They were truly heard and answered.

We're Safe!

Sister Bishop tells me that I need to let anyone that has been following Kenya's election results and subsequent riots that we are doing fine here. President Taylor had encouraged all missionaries to lay up a few stores in case things went south after the elections so we were prepared for what appears to be happening. We were up country to a wedding Saturday when riots were starting here in Nairobi but by the time we got back to town the traffic was the lightest we had seen ever as all we really passed in the down town area were army and police vehicles. Thursday's election results were not released until last evening (Sunday) when the challenger declared himself the winner and hours later the incumbent had himself sworn in for another 5 years. After the swearing in President Kibaki declared today as a national holiday and has since imposed a media blackout so we really have no feel for what is going on outside the compound. This morning's news paper showed burning vehicles and houses in the heavily populated areas but those are all some distance from here. It only reported two deaths because of yesterday's violence. Because we live just a short distance from the President's Compound there is always a fairly strong security presence in our neighborhood. The rioting is focused in those areas where there are a lot of people or down town near the government buildings and electoral commission. All of those places are at least a couple of kms from our residence.

The wedding on Saturday was another new experience. We had neglected to recharge the camera battery so didn't get many stills before it died but President Simon had asked me to borrow a video camera and we got most of the ceremony on it. It was definitely a blend of cultures. The ceremony itself was right out of the Church Handbook of Instructions but there were a few processions and chants thrown in that could only be described as African. A couple of the young women did a rap style chant with the chorus of take it to the temple. It is our hope that we can get a group of people from the 3 braches to Johannesburg to the Temple during 2008. We had ordered the cake from a bakery here in Nairobi then it bounced up the hills with us so looked a little bedraggled but Sister Bishop worked her magic and it looked pretty good for the ceremony. The couple cut it and had a small piece then went around and gave a small piece to all the attendees. This was before they had their feast of rice, chicken, and goat stew. We had to excuse ourselves before they got into the feast because of the security alerts we kept getting on the cell phone we knew it was critical that we get home before dark. The office couple, Elder & Sister Steinmetz from Idaho Falls, went with us and their company was certainly appreciated. An interesting side note is that we found that Sister Steinmetz had been a missionary companion to Sister Cliffie Johnson when they both served in Italy as Sister Missionaries some 48 years ago.

Our plans for a new year celebration are playing games and watching videos with the other couples in the compound here. We increased in number this week as the Lukes from Green River, Utah arrived to replace the Sudweeks as Public Affairs Specialists. We look on this as kind of a landmark as this is the last couple that will leave Kenya before us in 18 months. Turns out that one doesn't have to volunteer for 23 months to ensure that they will be called on a foreign mission as we are currently the only couple here called for more than 18 months. It is not unusual for a couple to request an extension when nearing the end provided it does not exceed the 23 month limit. It is hard to believe that we have been here for 5 months already.

Time could really slow down though if we have to stay in the compound for too many days however. The slower schedule has been a welcome relief for a couple of days but now Sister Bishop is working on a "Honey Do List". Just vacumed and bug sprayed our bed as she thinks we might be sharing it with some bed bugs. Since I know she is definitely more palatable than Elder Bishop I am taking her word for it. We got introduced to a new delicacy this last week. The Apple Mango tastes to me kind of like a combination peach and apricot. Barb encouraged me to get the blender I have been desiring since our arrival here and I can vouch that these mangos make a very tasty shake. I also used some of them to make chocalate chip bread yesterday. We couldn't find any chocalate chips so I diced a very big Cadbury bar. Didn't turn out quite the same but I really got to craving some of the goodies we have always enjoyed during the holidays.

We hope this finds everyone home safe from their Holiday Travels and that 2008 is a great year for all.

Pictures 12-26-07

Sister Bishop with the Relief Sisters at Kilili sipping sodas, eating Chipatas, and Sister Bishop's No Bake Cookies for Decembers Enrichment Activity. Sister Bishop is getting more adventurous in her cooking despite the lack of products she is used to. The Peanut (they are called ground nuts here) Brittle was a different flavor because Karro Syrup was replaced with Liquid Glucose. The popcorn cakes were made with pink and white marshmallows and wine drops in place of the gumdrops.

Christmas Eve FHE with the other couples and some visiting family members from the states.

Christmas Dinner with the other couples and some visiting family.

These last 3 pictures are campaign posters on rock fences, trees, street signs, and bus stops near our flat.