A quick note this morning as this week looks like it will be pretty busy. We continue our current schedule of visits with peaceful conditions in our little corner of the mission in the hills. The only time we feel concerned is when we have to return to Nairobi. On our trips out in the mornings the town is just waking up so there is little to be wary of but on our return we just don't know what has transpired through the day especially if we have forgotten to charge our phone and it has gone silent on us. Most of the Kenyans are fed up with the violence and just want to get back to work as their monetary situations are so fragile. It is the unemployed youth in the slums and the opposing tribes in the Rift Valley that continue to keep things off balance. The Kofi Annan led peace iniative seems to be a ray of hope on the horizon but the lead politicians don't seem to be willing to be moving to any middle ground. Another MP (member of Parliament) was killed last week which is cutting into the oppositions narrow control of that body. Apparently the replacements come from another election and do not stay with the victorious party.
A couple of incidents that we experienced this last week that indicate we are still working on our transition to the culture here. The first was when we stopped at the Kikoko Hospital to check on George Maila (the 1st Councilor at Kyambekke). We received a call Wednesday that he had been admitted there and would we please check on his condition on our way up country. I finally got the duty nurse to understand who I was looking for and she picked up a file and said 'he rest in peace this morning' thinking that he was out of the woods and had finally got some peaceful rest I asked if it would be possible to talk to him this morning. She looked at me for a moment and then asked why I wanted to see the body. The other incident was during Sunday School Class at Ilima yesterday where the lesson was on the creation. Someone in back wanted to know why God had created so many colors of people and the teacher replied that maybe Elder Bishop could explain why God had made some people brown and others colored. Sister Bishop assures me that I was sufficiently evasive in my reply to avoid offending anyone.
Because of the George's death we will be attending another funeral this Saturday and our involvement will probably be a little greater this week. We have already been tasked to locate a casket and have it at the morgue early Saturday. Hopefully there will be a van there to finish getting the deceased to his home where the funeral and burial will be. When I took Anna, his wife, to their home last Thursday the last 1/4 mile was straight up what could best be called a cow trail. Fortunately Sister Bishop was still involved with her keyboarding class so was not along as my co-driver at the time.
I am picking up Joshua, one of our pre-missionaries this morning and will spend the day at the Dr.s with him getting his physical. Tuesday we will leave him with Victor to work on his passport and then spend Wednesday at the dentist. I had already scheduled to bring the 3 young men from Ilima in Saturday so they could get their Patriarchal Blessings Sunday then have their final interviews with Pres. Taylor on Monday. They will then return to Kilili with us Tuesday then just wait for their Mission calls to come. Their whole branch is getting pretty excited. I just need to work around the change of plans created by the funeral but will probably just give them some funds so they can come to Nairobi via a bus or matatu.
We were able to listen to parts of President Hinckley's funeral late Saturday but it came in spurts as the internet is not consistently that great. We are glad that his passing was not prolonged and look forward to the leadership of President Monson. Must be going as the day is rapidly approaching. How about them NY Giants?
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