Lots of new experiences

August 9, 2011

COMPUTER AGE
Four of our five branches got computers this week. They are so excited. It was really fun to be in the room when they all came (branch presidents and clerks) to see them unpackaged and to be able to see a new world open up for them. Many have no experience whatsoever with computers. It is amazing how much vocabulary there is to the computer world: things like mouse, software, cursor, etc.

In several of the branches, there is one or two people who have at least used a computer before to do email, but it is a sharp learning curve. It will make their lives so much easier. It is amazing how much that will be true.

One of the branches has no electricity, but that branch presidency was devastated to think that they couldn’t get one of the computers. “Well, can’t we just use it in one of the two mud houses in the branch that has electricity?” “NOOOOOO” So, they will just have to push to get electricity into that building.

Next we visited up on top of the opposite mountain, through the maize field, over craggy rocks—both visits quite a climb for me. This time we visited the R.S. Pres. She appears to be about 37 I would guess. She had been out hoeing in her maize field in her bare feet, with several children hanging on her. She was literally in rags.

This woman is very sweet and humble. She lives a very hard life—so hard in fact, I just don’t know how she does it. Her husband does not live with her. He lives in Eldoret (3 ½ hours away) where he works to sustain them. They couldn’t afford to live together there, so she came up on this mountain to live on his family’s land. When he is home, 8 of them sleep in a rickety bunk bed separated off from the main room by a curtain. She lives by herself with her 6 children ages 13 down to 3 or 4. She said her twins were 4 years old, but Neal thinks they were about 3. They were crying and pulling on her. She sat down on a 3 legged stool, took one on her lap to nurse. The other twin walked up to her and nursed on the other side at the same time while he was standing next to her knee. All the while, she tried to talk to us of the problems the sisters in her branch who were suffering from hunger. I looked at this poor, sweet sister and thought, how on earth do you do it? She has no phone, lives a long way from the Church (to which she walks), and has so much on her plate.

She agreed to hike down to another sister nearby to visit, but she was covered with mud from toe to crown. She went into the next area (separated by a cloth) to wash. As we climbed up another mountain over very rough terrain, she far out-distanced me. We asked her how she did it in bare feet and didn’t she get jiggers (maggots) in her feet. She looked amazed and said, “Oh no, I wash my feet very hard every night!” We thought, “we wash every day too, and wear socks and covered in shoes, but we still get them.”

As we walked down off her place, the branch president and counselor, pulled back some of the maize stalks and said to us (out of her hearing), “She will get nothing off this maize crop this year. She must not have had any fertilizer because no ears matured.”


Sickness
One of our members who lives in this very far distant village has been a rock about coming to Church for years since her baptism. She has walked great distances to get to Church when there were no buildings near. She recently went to the temple, the highlight of her life, but she has been absent from Church for 3 weeks. We went to visit her as well. We have visited her up on her mountain many times, and each time we visit, she tells us she isn’t feeling well. We have referred her to the branch president, and he has tried to help her. He has no funds, however, to do so. We worry that her illness is more than recurrent Malaria. So, we had a good visit and hopefully lifted her spirits. The branch president will continue to monitor her situation.

The Wood gatherers
It is VERY common for us to see kids and women with huge piles of wood upon their heads. Sometimes the wood extends 8-10 feet total in length. Many times, especially with little children, it looks like there are just bunches of wood with legs walking down the street. This wood is used for cooking.

We were somewhat amazed on one of our trips to the forest this week to see some far-distance members, to see many groups of children of all ages, traveling in packs, carrying huge loads of wood out of the trees. There were so many all along the way, we commented to the branch president. He explained that school got out August 4 and as soon as school gets out, the kids’ duty is to bring wood in from the forests to keep the family stocked for the 3 months until they get out of school again. They are out for 28 days and then return for 3 months, then out for another 28 days, and return for another 3 months. This goes on all year. Every day of break, they are expected to bring in the wood. The kids get up early in the morning after they’ve got the water for the family for the day, and call to other kids in the village to go with them so they travel in groups to prevent being raped or accosted alone in the forest.

Interesting sayings:
We visited in a home of an older gentleman, who very kindly asked us to sit down in his house. The branch president said he would stand because there were not enough chairs for everyone. The man looked up at him and said, “In my tribe we say, ‘If you stand, you drain my blood. Sit down!’” He sat.

One young woman (20 ish) stood in testimony meeting and said that it had been hard for her to move to our area from a bigger city because she ran into so much opposition. She said neighbors said to her, “If you live here, our children will all die because you are a devil worshiper.” She said she is working hard to help them know that we worship the Savior and use the Bible as our scripture.

Another pre-missionary spoke relating how he joined the Church. He said he was afraid of the Church because he had heard we were devil worshippers. He finally attended, and everyone was speaking English and there were muzungus (whites) at the Church, so he REALLY did believe we were devil worshippers. He later gained a testimony and found we worshiped Christ, not Satan. It was a real eye-opener to him.