Thursday night we got to spend some more time worshiping
with the kids at Dirubi. I cant say
enough about that experience. They
really welcomed me and many of them said too-kind things about me. In reality, they hardly know me, but to them
I represent you, all of those Americans who care about them and support this
work. To me, they look like Jesus.
Friday morning Kibet and I set out for Eldoret. Its about a 4 hour drive from Sondu, and some
very interesting roads. Along the way,
in the Nandi hills, we saw a few burned out buildings and many sugar cane
fields that had been burned. This is the
boundary between two tribes that sometimes have some conflict, usually over
cattle rustling. There were even some UN
inspectors, taking pictures and doing what bureaucrats do. There were also a lot of national police,
with guns. Not something you see every
day, but I was actually glad to see them here where order needs to be restored.
We arrived without incident in Eldoret. We ran into a rather big traffic jam and had
to make a detour. This through off
Kibet’s directions and I was forced to make a u-turn, in traffic. Let me tell you, mutatu drivers do not take
kindly to that, nor do they give you room to complete your turn. It was a test of my patience, as many choice
English words came to mind, (those of you who have ridden with me understand),
but I held my tongue and we eventually made it around.
After we ate lunch at the Sirikwa Hotel, we set off on foot
in search of a battery for Kibet’s laptop.
You may think that is a fools errand, but we eventually found a little
shop that knew a guy that had the original HP part in stock, cheaper than we
could have found it in the US. That was
an interesting experience and I got to hang out in a computer shop in Kenya for
a while and see what was available.
We spent the evening resting and had an uneventful evening;
just what I needed.
This morning we made the short trip to Kapsabet, Bernard’s
home and our second orphanage. We toured
the place and saw what was new. Then I
listened to several ideas that their board members had, some were even good.
I met their star high school graduate Winnie Osebe, who made
a solid B on the KCSE exam. That’s their
exit exam for high school, the SAT and the ACT all rolled into one. Coming from a poor provincial public school,
that’s quite high. With her score she
could be admitted to university. She
wants to be a pilot, now we will see if we can find some money to send her.
After lunch we went over to Ngenymesut. There I met with the widows and saw the usual
things, it really looks good there, and then the kids asked me to join their
volleyball game. Now, no one would call
me an athlete, but being six feet tall in Kenya is a decided advantage in
volleyball. Let’s just say I held my
own, and scored a few points.
Unfortunately, they do not keep score very well there so the game went
on for more than an hour. I was looking
for a graceful exit, and soon one was found in the form of a ball to the
face. No blood, just wounded pride and I
bit my tongue for the second time.
While the game wound down, I got to spend time with the
younger kids as they practiced their English.
We did body parts, hand elbow, ears, etc, and some of them asked me
about my family and parents. I answered
them as best I could and was ready to disengage when one of them asked me what
my job was. Without thinking, I said,
“You are my job. I represent you in
America.” The boy who had asked the
question got a very serious look on his face and said, “May God bless you. Thank you very much.” It choked me up for the thousandth time this
trip and reminded me how important it is to spend some quality time with these
kids. They are starting to feel like my
own family.
We are back at Kapsabet now, where we will spend the
night. Tomorrow, I’ll preach again at
Kipsenede so I’d better study. This
missionary stuff is hard.
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