Getting into work – finally

Today I spend the morning in my office and the afternoon with a couple of guests from the US connected with a ministry in Nairobi. It was mainly a walking tour of the tree nursery and the Farming God’s Way plot.

Craig’s wealth of knowledge always astounds me. It is good to hear it all again. I have heard Craig several times, but I can never retain all the biblical references, and the vast knowledge of what the trees are good for and how different exotic species arrived here. As many times as I hear the increased crop yields for this special kind of farming, I still can hardly believe it. Craig has been using Farming God’s way for 19 months. He’s currently got his fifth crop in the ground, now they are getting something like 6 times (or more) what the average Kenyan gets! Just think of all the farmers in Kenya were increasing their yields by 5 or 6 times! The food prices might actually go back down!

More on Care of Creation Kenya as I get into the groove.

1 month, 4 months, 9 months

I have been in transition a long time. It’s hard to believe I have been in Kenya for a month already. It’s been 4 months since I left the States. And it’s been 9 months of pure transition – moving from place to place, staying with friends, etc.

God is so faithful through it all. I am glad to be finally moving into my house next week and being in the office of Care of Creation fulltime. Wow!

Thanks for supporting me in whatever way you have through this rather long journey. It’s not over yet. It’s never really over. Also this coming week I will submit a bid on a vehicle. God willing, I will be more mobile then.

I hope to continue to keep you up to date on the journey.

Working on my house, but the gardens are great...

Speaking of my “new” house; I have been over there trying to get it ready to move in. It needed cleaning, paint and a few other things. Here’s a little look around the gardens. I will let you in when I get things together.

When the Lights Go Out

Living in Kenya means living with power cuts. It’s part of life here. I used to say that if one has water, phone and electricity all on one day it’s a good day. Nowadays hardly anyone has land line phones.

I had a restful Sunday afternoon yesterday and after a late nap and zipping down to my office to check email I decided to make dinner. That’s when the power went. My little cabin at Brackenhurst (still not moved to my rental house) has a gas stove. So I cooked and ate by candle light.

My house will have both electricity and a little solar energy. So if I have a lamp to move around the house I will always have light to cook by.

Quote of the day - 5 June

Aaron (almost 5 years old) –"Mom, what are we having for dinner?"

Tracy - "I'm making stir fry."

Aaron - “Aunt Jan knows how to make stir fry. Mom, can you come and jump [on the trampoline] with us while Jan makes dinner?”

I guess I have been hanging around the Sorleys house a little too much.

24 Hours of Firsts

Every day is different and new. But a couple significant things have happened in the past 24 hours.

First I now have an office! Yes, it’s a little too big for me. But it’s right next to Tracy’s home school room. And Care of Creation Kenya hopes to add a couple more staff soon, God willing and we have the budget. I moved a few things into it on Tuesday in the late afternoon. I will get something up on the wall eventually.

Also I took a trip down memory lane. Tracy and I were in town and doing a little work for my residence permit when we discovered that the Africa Inland Church (AIC/AIM) hadn’t ever officially canceled my work permit with them, however, it was long expired. While in the AIC office to get a letter for immigration, I got to look through my file there. I had never seen it. There was a passport photo of me from June 1993! Lovely. Salome, the office worker remembers me from way back then and typed up a very nice letter for me. In a way this was a “last” I watched as Salome scrolled “closed” over the file. I bit my lip and made a joke so I wouldn’t tear up.

While at the AIC office Tracy got suddenly sick! So I had to drive her to the Aga Khan Hospital Emergency through rush hour traffic. This was my first time to drive in Kenya since returning. The traffic is heavier, but the principles are still the same. The hardest part was remembering to shift with my left hand.

Tracy noted it was a first for them having someone else drive their Land Cruiser.

What’s next?

Patience Anyone?

If you think you may want to work toward being more patient, Kenya is the place for you!

An ample estimate of today’s activity time (mind you, just one activity) was 3 to 3 ½ hours. It took about 6 ½. I spent the night at a friend’s house in town. I had planned to go out for a nice breakfast this morning and then get a taxi to a hotel near the airport where I was to meet a driver, two helpers and a lorry (truck) for getting all the furniture that two friends and I purchased at the auction last week. Since today is Madaraka Day (the day Kenyans gained independent rule from the Brits) there was absolutely no traffic in town, making it the perfect day to get an errand like this done.

While still at the breakfast place I got a call from the driver, “We have a puncta! We will be an hour late. See you at 12.” Puncta is Swahili for flat tire. (I’m not kidding.) That’s fine I thought, at least he caught me before I left. Now I can have the cup of coffee I was wanting.

I left to get a taxi with 40 minutes to make a 20 minute journey. I was so glad to have a little extra time to drop a card to another friend on the way. I made it to the hotel 10 minutes early. But I called just before leaving to double check we were still on for noon. Yep.

Now in Kenya 10 minutes “late” is not at all late. If someone is 30 minutes behind, well that really isn’t late either. It’s really kind of on-time. But on-time can be stretched beyond that too. I figured that since I had two confirmations for noon from someone who works with wazungu I could give him until 10 past before I called. When I did call and ask where they were I got, “by Nyayo Stadium, we are on the way.” Okay I thought, that can’t be more than 10 minutes, probably less.

It took him another half hour to get to me. There was supposedly a traffic jam there by the Stadium. I knew that wasn’t so, but I didn’t argue, it gets you nowhere. Off we toddled to the hard-to-find warehouse of this auction, only a few minutes more down the road.

At the desk of Jennifer we handed over the bankers check for 104,100 KSH. I was informed that I was 400 shillings short. So I asked to go over the items one by one. Thankfully it was an item near the top. But she showed me the paper trail, it was not her mistake. Jennifer assured me she has been doing this a long time and she never makes mistakes.

Once she typed up the invoice and took the extra 400 shillings in cash, our paper went on the bottom of the stack. There are only three auction workers available to check people out. I would have to wait. “How long do you think,” I asked. “Maybe an hour,” was her reply.

I decided to go around and find all the items ahead so there would be no need to search for them when it came time to check us out. But it would have been too conspicuous to actually move everything into a pile. Finally we were the third ones from the top. That’s when all three workers went to lunch! Oh well, if they are all at lunch then at least when they all finish we will be up.

When I noticed they were all up with invoices in hand I looked down at Jennifer’s clipboard. The same invoice was on the top, and the second remained. There was ours third down still. What?! The three workers had stopped for a break in the middle of their three orders!

Believe it or not I really didn’t expect anything different. I only wanted to get back to Brackenhurst before dark. Once loaded it took just over an hour for the old lorry to climb up towards Limuru. We stopped first at my new place. Then another ministry house near the main gate of Bracken. And finally at Sorleys house.

The only thing that really got to me is that when we off-loaded my bookshelf it was damaged from rubbing on the washing machine next to it all the way. If I had known I would have wrapped my sweater around it.

But as my grandma used to say, “It’s only money.” In Kenya they say, Haraka, haraka, haina baraka. Which means something like; in hurrying there is no blessing.