This has been a busy week, Sister Flinders has been working with one of our PEF participants to update our files. For those of you who know Brenda, Sister Flinders or Mom will recognize her as the perpetual organizer. She just said, we should take a picture of what those files looked like before and after. Those who follow us will certainly appreciate this great work.
We have met so many wonderful students. By our standards in the US they are not even on the radar screen as we define poverty. Their living conditions are more primitive than people in the US over 100 years ago. There is an area called Kibera, one slum area in Nairobi, over 1 million people walk the main road in this neighborhood every day. Someone told us about walking down this road and having to dodge flying toilets. Flying toilet defined: A plastic bag used for a toilet, tied up and thrown into the street where raw sewage is running. Many of the people living in this area are members of the Upper Hill Ward in the Nairobi Stake, their chapel is connected to the mission offices and service center where our office is located. We are so blessed to be assigned to this area and to have a beautiful modern air conditioned office in which to serve.
Here it is Thursday of this week. We have to get better at posting on our blog. We don't know what to post that anyone would be interested in so we are going to just post things that we are learning or want to remember.
On Wednesdays We teach an institute class from 1:00 to 2:00 P.M. It is Presidents of the Church. The Couple before us taught an Eternal Marriage class for the whole time they were here. I guess you could say that not many graduated from the class because there are soooo many young single members here. They also served the students lunch every week. That's my part. Peanut butter and jam sandwiches, some kind of sweet or fruit and punch. We can get little bananas, at home they are called fingerlings, I think. They are very inexpensive here. Everyone seems to like bananas. There are many different sizes here. Anyway, sometimes we serve one of them with the sandwich and sometimes just a biscuit (cookie from the store) or a homemade cookie. They really like the homemade part as most of the people in Africa don't have ovens. Many of them cook on electric hot plates but most use charcoal to do all of their cooking. Anyway, back to the class. Brother Gideon Matwale asked us to teach this class.
There are mostly young men that come to the class. A couple of young ladies have attended, but are sporadic. They get fed spiritually as well as physically. For many, that is probably the only meal they get. We love the class. Some of the members of the class are the custodial workers at the church complex so we see them every day.
We see a lot of young people in our office. Many of them want to use the phone. And let me just say - everyone here has a cell phone. They buy what is called a sim card to be able to call out on their phone. They can receive a call for free but they have to pay to call out. Their phone will ring and then the caller hangs up. They call that being "flashed". Then they come in to the office to call back. Funny how that works. For the people that live "Up Country" they have rigged up a car battery with which to charge their phones. We don't know how long that lasts or how that works but the people "Up Country" don't have cars!!
The stake had a Young Single Adult activity on Saturday. They invited us to the planning meeting. They told us that there would be between 150 and 400 people there. WOW! When it came to Saturday - probably there were about 100 there. They always serve refreshments which consists of sloppy joes, banana and punch. Let me explain about the sloppy joes. It is nothing like you have ever seen before. Onions, green pepper and spices cooked up in a lot of oil and then they add what they call mince - we would call it hamburger in America - about 50/50. Fifty percent meat and fifty percent fat. Then they put about a tablespoon of it on a bun and call it good. They like it. IT IS NOT FOR ME!!!
We have been asked to attend the Athi River Branch for church. This is about a 45 minute drive on horrrible roads. If the roads were like even the worst road you have ever seen - it would take about 20 minutes. The branch president has asked up to teach three families the Temple Preparation Class. We are excited for this opportunity. There are several other couple missionaries who have taught that class and then they get to plan and prepare the trip to the temple. This is a wonderful experience for these humble souls. It is really a sacrifice for them to be able to go. They will probably only get there once in their lives. Other couples have said that the experience of going with these people to the temple is the best highlight of their entire mission.
We love what we are doing and hope all is well with our family and friends.
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