Well yesterday was Madaraka Day (celebrating 45 years of self rule and coincidently it marked 45 days of peace under the new coalition government) so today is a holiday. I figured those kind of things didn't have much effect on the folks up in the hills but church attendance at Kyambeke was rather sparse yesterday. For the most part things are pretty calm here in Kenya by local standards. The current big row is whether to grant amnesty to those arrested for violence during the problems in Dec/Jan. One side is saying what other recourse do the wananchi (I think that is Swahili for populace) have when an election is stolen while others counter that violent crimes are never excusable. Be interesting to see where this one settles out as life is pretty cheap here. Lynchings by the wananchi are pretty common. One that I found rather interesting lately was some guy got in an argument at a card game and stabbed his opponent to death before fleeing. The locals hunted him down and frog marched him back to the scene of the crime where they beat him to death and then put a tire around his neck and started it on fire. What kind of atmosphere would that make for our hand and foot games back home? I guess the thing that really is different is that the only repercussion for the vigilantes is the police will take the victims away if they get to them in time and if not they encourage the folks to let them handle it next time. I had thought from reading the news paper that the court system was pretty quick to hand down death sentences but there was an article this week bemoaning the number of folks on death row as it has been some years since an actual hanging of a convicted criminal by legal system. I guess they are not quite as quick to impose sentences as the folks north of us in Iraq and Iran but there are a good number done in by the vigilante style lynchings each week.
We officially held our last Temple Prep class this last week and came up with a final tally of 27 adults and 15 children who are planning to make the trip. Several of the adults are planning on having the children sealed at another time. It is still a good number more than what we were able to reserve rooms for in December so need to try and get an additional date scheduled with the Temple this week. We just need to keep pushing for their documents as only one of the group has a passport at present.
Our days with the branches will now shift back to a major focus on keyboard and English with a rotating focus on training with the different auxiliaries. When we arrived last Aug the branches were wondering about a youth conference of sorts so we are trying to lean a little forward in the saddle and plan with them for this Aug when the kids are out for their next month break from school. Still trying to come up with a map and information for a proposed split of the Kyambeke Branch for Pres. Taylor's review. We are not suppose to baptize folks that have to walk more than 40 minutes to church and there were people well in excess of that when we arrived. Google Earth does not get close enough in that area to give us what we need so I have been trying to get someone to check with the water resource board or a similar agency for something that would make sense to the folks in Salt Lake.
Well must run so we can get a few things done at Upper Hill before it shuts down for the day. The natives are taking the day off for celebrating their holiday so the wazungas are planning an event of their own in the early afternoon which will impact us as we are the FHE hosts this week. We also are trying to make some adjustments in our personal life styles as it appears that we will both be living with a couple of 60 year olds by the 24th of this month. Never thought I would live that long but I am kind of glad that it appears we will make that and beyond now.
Elder & Sister Bishop
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