A New Week

Notes for this week-June 24, 2011

Neal went with branch president to visit less-active family, who lives in the middle of a slum. We’ve visited this family a few times before, trying to get dad to come to Church. They walk a long way. Mom usually comes dragging 4 kids behind her, but he doesn’t come much. He has a sewing machine he operates out on the street, but they live very hard lives. He told Neal he is 4 months in arrears on the rent, and he can’t come to Church because if he does, when he padlocks his door to leave, the landlord will come and put a bigger padlock over his, and they will either have to pay or move (probably without their “stuff”). They are very hungry he says.
We went to see Jane up in the hills—one of our most “distant” members. We’ve sent information about her going to the temple earlier. (See new pictures on the blog). She is so ANIMATED…almost possessed in a funny way. We went to see her and her married daughter, who just had the first grandchild, a baby boy. The daughter is 20, married to a 35 year old man. The daughter came to mom’s house to have the baby.
The branch president accompanied us. He and the women explained that the girl would not have any say in naming her child. Her husband or his parents determine all three names the child will have. She is experiencing a lot of pain (2 weeks after birth). We asked if she had told her husband she is unwell. She shook her head as if that wasn’t something to be discussed. We felt badly for her and urged her to go to the doctor.
Jane was explaining how excited she was that 2 weeks ago, their area was made into a branch. She was jumping up and down and waving her hands. She said, “I have been so sick…high fever…with Malaria. I feeling so much pain, but I pray, ‘Don’t make me to die. We have branch coming, and I’ve waited sooo long and walked so many, many kilometers to get to Church. I must live to be able to go to the new branch’.” She makes me cry!
We visited another family. Leah (the mom) has investigated 4 years while living in Eldoret. The family moved to this area, up in the hills. She walks a long way to Church, and was baptized 2 months ago. She brings her entire family: 5 kids and husband. They are really an impressive family. Dad had Malaria about a month ago and was in a coma. The missionaries came and gave him a blessing. He was almost immediately healed, so they have great faith in blessings, although only mom is a member. Their 17 daughter died of Malaria some time ago.
When we went to visit them, their 16 year old son was sitting in a plastic chair outside the doorstep. He had sores all over his head, and his nose looked very painful with white crusting under it. (see picture on blog)

Apparently, last week after Church, he (the boy) took a motorcycle (picky picky) home. It was raining hard and very muddy. The motor was going very fast, and they now suspect the driver was drunk. They hit a patch of thick sand. It is like silt in places. The motorcycle stopped, and they went over the top, with this boy landing on his head. The driver had a helmet on. The driver immediately ran, leaving the boy unconscious on the road.

Bystanders thought he was dead. When he regained consciousness, he somehow made it to where he was to pick up his bicycle. He finally made it home to be met by the horrified reaction of his parents, who seem to be very loving and concerned about him. They took him to a doctor, but he still doesn’t seem to be doing very well.

They asked for a blessing. We had just taught our prospective missionary class how to give blessings and baptize. This boy’s cousin is in the class and was in a nearby field. We called him in and had him anoint the boy while Neal pronounced the blessing. I don’t think the branch president has ever given a blessing, and perhaps has never seen one given because no matter how much urging Neal did to get him to give it, he would not.

It was a very spiritual experience and so nice for our prospective elder. We love him anyway. He is an orphan, who was been disinherited from his rightful land by his father’s brothers. By rights, he is supposed to inherit his father’s portion of the extended family’s property, but they have taken it. We hope so that he will be able to serve a mission. He is so faithful and has gone out with the elders to proselyte faithfully for so long.

On the way home, we were driving along the highway, and a man dressed only in a Masai blanket thrown over one arm was walking in the direction we were proceeding. We had seen him earlier in the day, but not noticed at that time his state of undress. We were a bit shocked because this was NOT a remote area. No one else seemed to notice or react! Oh well! There is a saying here, “TIA” it means “This is Africa” It refers to all things…good and bad, that are different than our culture.

We tried to brainstorm with one of the branch presidencies about FUN things they could do with their branch because so often when they think of activities, they can only think of serious meetings. They came up with cleaning the Church, cleaning the area around the Church, planting slips of flowers, etc. We tried to think of a game day, a dance, a movie, fun songs, etc….it just doesn’t compute, but we are working on it.

One of the branch presidents was explaining why one of our members had been given 100 acres of land by the government. I don’t understand completely, but this is what he said. After the Mau Mau rebellion, when many whites were forcibly removed from their land, Mr. Kenyatta, the new president had Thurgood Marshall (U.S. Judge) draw up a Constitution for this country.

It provided that land belonging to Europeans would be redistributed to Africans, who were being relocated from other areas of the country. The Europeans were to be compensated for their land. Africans could purchase the land for 140 KSH (about $1.50-$1.60) for 10 acres, and 1,000 KSH (about $13)…this is today’s exchange, and this happened some time ago. Anyway, 1,000 ksh for 100 acres.

Places that went for 1,000 ksh often had nice homes on them. The Settlement Office determined who got what land. Europeans who were owners of large businesses like the Delmeres (remember “Out of Africa”)—cattle owners…were allowed to stay, and some of those remain here today. Others were sent back to Europe or wherever they chose to go. It is interesting. Many of the large estates were broken up into small plots. He said these have been hard to be profitable—to grow enough maize to sustain and also be able to sell. We are learning bits and pieces about the history.

The member who has 100 acres is so generous. He has allowed the members to worship in his business building without rent for some time. He also has given land to Jane and some others to build on when they had no place to go. So, he has blessed many people with his good fortune.

We met this morning for several hours with the District President, who travelled 2 hours to get to Kitale by matatu (crowded rickety van). He came to pay some bills because the District (2 weeks old) still doesn’t have an account. He is a WONDERFUL man—so wise and so kind. He puts us to shame with his non-judgmental, kind perspective on people. We talked with him about the new changes in the CES program and how it will affect the district. We always feel uplifted after being with him.

As you can see by the pictures (if the Internet and power ever come on again) that the rainy season is back again. Wish us luck!