Well, tomorrow is the day I leave. It has been very hard to say the good byes. This afternoon I will go to MCCH and see the children for the last time (last time this trip - who knows!!!). We all were invited out for dinner last night to friends of our host family. They produced a delicious African dinner for us - you do make friends here easily as the Kenyans are so welcoming.
Two little photos I'll post. The Mama's Bible Study Group was one of my favorite times of the week, so I took that photo yesterday so I could remember them.
I have learned when the children at MCCH hear a mzungu is coming to stay for awhile, they 'claim' a person. One who 'claimed' me was little Brenda, who is 7, and became my dearest little friend. She loved playing with my hair, sitting on my lap getting hugs and attention. She's on my lap in the photo - it will be very hard to say good bye to her.
Will write to you again soon from Melbourne, Australia.
It is 11 PM on New Year’s Eve and I am sitting in my bedroom typing the draft for my next blog entry. It’s been a quiet evening: David and Candice are sleeping over at MCCH, Trudy has an infection in one ear and really not well, Helen has malaria and Geoffrey is getting over pneumonia (our hosts). So for a treat tonight I bought some Krackles Ola Tortilla Chips that ‘leaves you with that kickin’ feeling’ – the first chips I have found that taste like ones in Canada!
Must share my Birthday and Christmas experiences before I forget all the details. On December 23rd, I woke up to balloons in the hallway with “Happy Birthday Nancy” on them. Trudy and Dane gave me a lovely birthday card, David gave me a wooden rhino and Candice a wooden giraffe and a very cleaver homemade card. Lots of birthday wishes at the breakfast table as they sang Happy Birthday.
MCCH held their annual Birthday/Christmas Party on that day, too. We had prepared a bag of little gifts and another bag with popcorn and candy for every child. The night we made and bagged the popcorn/candy was such a positive time as we all worked together with a Christmas CD playing in the background and our little Christmas tree lit. It was the first real “Christmas activity’ feeling we had experienced.
We returned home to a delicious meal prepared by Helen. When I lifted the lid of one of the bowls that was on the table, I noticed Helen had a little smile on her face. I asked, “Fred?” – she nodded. He had a good life. He was very tasty!
On Christmas Eve day we were introduced to a live kulu kulu, our turkey for Christmas dinner. Not long after our introduction, Gladys (the lady who works for our hosts) asked if we would like to see the process of getting the kulu kulu ready for dinner. I chose not watch but did ask for some of the feathers to save as souvenirs. David took his camera and photographed the experience! After plucking the feathers, the turkey was boiled in a pot over a fire until all the water was boiled away. Then the meat was cut up into small pieces and BBQ’d on the grill. This procedure saves a lot of electricity, which is very costly here. The turkey meat also had a different taste being SO fresh and BBQ’d. I learned that when a child is around 10 years old, they are taught how to slaughter and defeather chickens, as they will be doing that a lot during their life here.
On Christmas Eve Trudy and David stayed overnight at MCCH, which left Dane drinking coffee with Geoffrey and Candice and me to celebrate together. The rubbish was being burned in a corner of the yard, so Candice asked if I would like to go out there and sing Christmas carols by the ‘fire.’ While there I asked Candice what were some of the traditions her family did on Christmas Eve. One was eating sausage rolls. Our creative minds came to life - we remembered we had eaten carrot, potato and sausage stew for dinner and we had crackers in our room. So we crept into the kitchen and took pieces of sausage out of the left over stew, ran to our room and plunked the sausage on a cracker – a Christmas Eve Kenyan sausage roll was developed! We toasted the evening with our water bottles, and we each opened one gift. Not the Christmas Eve we were used to, but we did have lots of laughs as we photographed ourselves. Hope to add those photos.
Christmas morning Candice knocked on my door, greeting me with “Merry Christmas.” I went to her “house” and watched her open her stash of cards and gifts from family and friends. We made our Kenyan Christmas away from our families a fun time. But, again, I must say, had we not been sent cards, presents and greetings from our family and friends, it possibly would have been a different story.
We went to MCCH around lunchtime to enjoy Christmas with the children. We were served a special dinner of chicken, carrot and potato stew and rice. Later that evening the kids would be receiving fruit and cookies. That evening we enjoyed turkey dinner with our host family and others from the compound.
The students from MCCH have been on holidays and will return to school January 4th. So I took advantage of the week to get set up in a classroom and call in each child to write their sponsor in Canada and to take their photo. That was really enjoyable as I chatted with approximately 90 kids who live there – they are precious.
Since it’s New Year’s Eve, I should be partying tonight but my comfy bed beckons and I will give in!
Now it’s New Year’s Day. Enjoyed a long conversation with Elizabeth and Angus, who (because of the time difference) were celebrating New Year’s Eve. We have just returned from a wonderful lunch at the home of Gerishom and Monica, the manager and chaplain of MCCH. Monica had made a New Year’s cake. The oldest person was to cut the first slice of cake – that was I. She had baked it on a gicko, a little pot with charcoal in it that they light and cook/bake on. We arrived home only to learn that the water has gone off again – hope it won’t be off five days like the last time.
I will be leaving Kenya on January 13th, flying to Melbourne, Australia, to visit Jim, Claire and my grandchildren. Will be stopping in Qatar, transferring planes there. What a world traveler I have become. So my four-month-less-one week adventure to Kenya will end. I have learned so much about the area, the people and country and also a lot about myself! So this will be my last blog while I’m in Kenya. I will continue writing on my blog as I go to Australia, so keep checking it out. You can keep up with the rest of the team’s activities in Kenya by the two blog sites listed below. There will be a new member of the team joining for five weeks – that’s Candice’s grandma, Dettie Edgecombe, whom some of you should know from her years of work at Super Valu . After that Dane and Trudy’s son and wife, Graham and Brenda, from Marissaus plan to come to MCCH for a short stay. The Team will be flying out Marh 10th from Nairobi to Canada.
It’s now January 7th. Happy Birthday, Todd (Eric’s youngest) – 5 years old!! Yesterday we went to Captain Davis’ Wildlife Park, which was about 30 km from Kitale. It did give us a good taste of wildlife from Africa, although there were no elephants of cheetahs! I will enclose some not so great photos of me while feeding the beautiful giraffe, but I did want the students at GES especially to see a few of the wildlife that are native to Kenya. One person who will enjoy the giraffe photos is Julianna C. Julianna, I even fed the giraffe, whose name was Thomas. You put the food on his long purple tongue and he rolls his tongue up and it’s gone!
It will be hard to leave my lovely host family and the others who live in the compound, the staff at MCCH (who are the most dedicated people I’ve met – their purpose for being there is the children – and they have made a difference in these children’s lives), the children at the orphanage, and of course the rest of the Team. This experience/adventure I would do again – you want something that will be rewarding, think of doing something similar to my trip. It gives you a whole new dimension to your thinking of the world. In our country and the USA, we are blessed with every basic requirement to live. The majority of people here work very, very hard just to exist.
So I will sign off from Kitale, Kenya, East Africa, as time won’t permit me to do another blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading my views of our trip – I sure have had fun sharing them! Do keep in touch if you’d like to the address I will be at in Australia. And thank you all again for your prayers for safety and health. Keep praying for the Team as they stay here that they will be kept safe while on the roads and that their malaria pills will keep them from catching it as it is a bad season for malaria right now.
