Hello to June and all of you. We are still having a wonderful time in Nairobi. With our PEF assignment also comes an assignment with the CES. This assignment took us to the Chyulu area for some training of 20 teachers. This area is where the church actually began in Kenya. It is a remote area. It took us four hours (130 miles)to get there. There is a lot of road construction and several deviations. In America we call them detours. The roads were sooooo bad in the deviations the only way I have been able to come up with an explanation is this: if I bought a pint of cream before I left and set it in the back seat of the truck and drove the four hours, I would have butter when I got there. There are couples that drive that road every day and they say that it is a rarity that there aren't some of the big trucks tipped over. One day they saw seven. It is so dangerous. We were told that one of the sections of new road (divided highway) will be completed by November. That is the part we drive every Sunday going to our branch. We love going there, the people are so great. We begin teaching the Temple Preparation class tomorrow. I'm not sure who is more excited, them or us. What a wonderful opportunity for them to become eternal families. We have one student who lives there, he has served a mission but did not get the chance to go to the temple. There are many native returned missionaries that haven't been to the temple. This time of year is the beginning of winter, or so they say-- right now in our flat with the windows open it is 75 degrees, a cold winter day. Many of the Kenyans are wearing sweaters and coats when they come to work; when the temperature gets below 70 degrees it is cold to them. We visited the Bru Bru Chapel this morning, it is designated as the Stake Center for the Nairobi Stake. This building sits on about ten acres of property, the Chapel occupies about three acres and the rest of the land is a shomba (garden) area for the members who attend there. The Nairobi 1st and 2nd Wards meet in this chapel. The garden spot is divided into sections where the members plant and harvest for their own use or they sell their harvest. One of the young men in the PEF program was there spading his section to plant peas. He showed us one area with peppers. The climate is so mild here that the gardens can produce year around. They are able to get three growing seasons each year. What a tremendous blessing this is to the members. But like everything else here, those with ambition are the most successful and those not too motivated have weeds where their crops should be.
On the way home from a day of shopping - the best way to transport heavy bundles of just about anything. The ladies here carry large things on their heads. Most of them don't even use a hand to balance the packages. They must have very strong necks.
Not fifty feet from this sign we saw a man standing right on the side of the street urinating.
What a load! We see things like this all the time. We will post more pictures another time.
