Last week in Kenya

Our last weekend in Kenya was spent with friends from church. We had supper with one of the elders, Solomon, and his family on the Friday evening. This turned into an evening of African dance, a highland fling from Jenn, and singing. We had lots of fun, and we even managed to talk the family into letting us de-cob some maize before heading home for rest before attending a football tournament the following day.

We were collected early by George and Henry who walked us down a fairly steep hill toward the football fields. The last week had been youth week in the PCEA (Presbyterian Church of East Africa) so each district would organise events for their young people. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side, it was fairly drizzly and the games had to stop a few times so the youths could take shelter in a nearby school. This gave Jenn an opportunity to show off some football skills and add to her collection.

After the games, we joined some of the boys for lunch in a nearby café, well I say nearby but it didn’t feel too nearby after the walk back up the hill, which the Kenyans seemed to take in their stride; and after hours of football too! We enjoyed some chips and Jenn and I prepared to leave, when the waiter appeared with half a goat, gravy and ugali (corn/maize flour and water cooked to the consistency of mashed potatoes, it resembles mashed tatties a bit too much for my liking!). We watched as the boys polished it off and headed back to the church for a game of Chinese checkers before being taken home before dark.

The next morning we were collected for church, we arrived on time to have a little interaction with the Sunday School before the main service. We sang a few songs and prayed together before sharing some sweeties and joining the rest of the church. Kiambaa Church were trying very hard to talk us into staying with them till the following Monday so we could join them for church the next week, but Jenn and I were already late in leaving for Uganda as we’d had problems getting out of Scotland with the volcanic ash situation. So we said a formal goodbye during the service, thanking everyone for the hospitality, friendship and kindness they’d shown us over the last week and how we were looking forward to our last few days in Kenya, especially our visit to Abbey Academy on Friday before we were leaving.

During the service the congregation had a ‘fundraiser’ for the youth. This consisted of a basket at the front of the church, and each group in the church (youth, guild, districts etc) would take it in turn to go forward with an offering. I can’t remember the exact total but I was amazed at the generosity of the congregation. Especially when I hear that this fundraising took place every month, for a different church group.

After the service we joined the youth for lunch before the football was being screened for the locals. Thankfully Jenn and I had found a new passion in chinese checkers so we sat in the garden for a game with some of our new friends when the football began, we slowly had an audience around us, I was a little confused as to why until I realised there was a power cut which meant the football had stopped, of course as soon as it came back on there was 7 or 8 of us round the board again. We were walked home early evening by another 4 youths who stopped at the hostel with us, singing praise songs and chatting in the lobby till after dark.

During our last week in Kenya we spent time with different elders, visiting sick, bereaved and general members of each district. We met some really interesting people but unfortunately did not get to spend much time with anyone as we visited, prayed and moved on. Kenyans like to host visitors, so they were all keen to give us a cup of tea or some ginger snaps, but we could only stop for a couple.

Unfortunately Jenn and I took a short vomiting bug during our last week so had to take a day to rest in bed, but we’re both feeling back to normal now so nothing to be concerned about. After our day in bed we had to visit Nairobi to collect our Ugandan Visas. One of the youth accompanying us was celebrating his birthday so we went for a typical Kenyan lunch of sausage and chips, and to the park for a bit of birthday cake and a pedal boat ride before heading back to Kiambaa.

We spent our last day in Kenya with Tabitha at Abbey Academy. We met her in the morning to visit a few of the children at home who had attended the school but were now unable due to financial difficulties. We were sad to hear of the progress the children had been making before they had to leave the school, but in some cases the money just wasn’t there.

We returned to the school to spend the day with the children, we started out in a play room with the children with autism. There was a lady in giving the children massages to relax their muscles and set them up for the day. The other children played with beads, building blocks and 4 very special puppets, which had been handmade by Jenn’s mum, Caroline. Although I think Tabitha had the best fun with the puppets!

After lunch the children washed and brushed their teeth ready for their weekly games afternoon. Jenn and I were split into two teams with some of the kids and we took part in skipping, bouncing, blindfolded races, tire races and three legged races for points. I’m not sure how but Jenn and I ended up running together in the three legged race as we were competing in different teams? Perhaps God wants us to work on our teamwork…

When we finished games the children returned to the classroom to draw pictures for us to take away with us. Jenn was then asked to draw a friendship tree for visitors to sign and I was allowed to paint a frog on a log on the wall of one of the classrooms!

We said goodbye to the children before heading back to pack for our journey to Uganda the following day!

Some elders visited us in the evening to say goodbye and ask us how we'd enjoyed our visit, of course it was all positive feedback and I'm looking forward to another trip to Kenya in the future; God willing! hehe

Laura x

p.s. Will get photo's up soon, sorry about the lack of them so far, this is due to a very slow internet connection.