We Went Grocery Shopping At Church Today

Last night Dorcus Chemingich telephoned us to let us know that there would be a special combined Thanksgiving service at St. Lukes Anglican Church this morning. So we altered our plans and arrived on time. Once in the service (which was about 90% in Swahili), we learned that it was a Thanksgiving service for the bean harvest which has just been completed. At the offering near the end of the service many of us gave cash, but there were quite a few people who brought the first fruits of their harvest. We saw beans, maize, eggs, potatoes, greens, a live chicken, a live goat and a live sheep. The animals aren't in this picture - they were kept outside.

Then it got interesting. One gentleman whom we've met before took over as a combination M.C. and auctioneer, and began taking bids on the produce from the congregation. Our friend and boss Emmanuel Chemingich explained that the church was converting the produce into cash which would be credited as donations for the people who contributed the produce. The MC/Auctioneer was really good and kept things moving along. In the picture he is moving a bag of potatoes. It was a lot of fun to watch, and eventually we got drawn in.


So, we got some quality produce at church today - in the picture you can see that we got some potatoes, some avocados, some bananas and some beans. We also got a small bag of eggs. It was quite an experience and once again took us back to what Thanksgiving services might have looked like one hundred years ago in small towns all across America.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to cook the beans!

The Terminex Guy Came Yesterday

Well, David doesn't work for Terminex, but he is a pest eradication specialist. He didn't arrive in a truck with a picture of a Black Mamba being crushed on it, he walked up to the gate with his gear in a small canvas bag. He comes three times a year to spray for mosquitoes, and, since he works for many others in the Milimani Estate, we don't see that many mosquitos.

While he was spraying outside for mosquitos (he also sprayed inside - which necessitated a one-hour evacuation to our front porch), he noticed that we were beginning to have an ant problem (have I mentioned how BIG African black ants are?). The ants were beginning to push up mounds in our lawn and next to the house. We'd noticed that we were seeing more of them in the kitchen. Since he was on the topic of pests we asked about the bees that were apparently creating a hive in the eaves of our house. No problem, he said, he could take care of it.

I drove him downtown to get the poisons he needed for the ants and the bees. That done, we let him get on with it. He dug into the ants' nests and then sprayed them - this picture is of him working on an ant nest. To get the bees he had to use a homemade ladder to get high enough to spray them. To remove the honey combs, he had to climb up on the roof and work from there (I wish I had a photo!). We were hoping for some wild honey, but apparently we got to the hive before they got into production. He said that he did one home and got 2 liters of honey...that must have been a really BIG hive!

He gives good service - he came back this morning to make sure he got the ants, and he'll be back next week to check on the effectiveness of the mosquito control.

Total cost? About $50.00, of which half was for the chemicals.

At Home in Kitale

So, this is not the once per week schedule I thought I'd maintain on this Blog... Life gets complicated in a transition like the one we've been going through. Mostly our experiences have been very good, especially the time we got to spend with family and friends as we traveled from Bakersfield to Seattle. This is a shot I took of Kathy with her brother Scott and sister Mary Ann at a lunch we shared just before we left the Bay Area

We've just published our July Newsletter (if you don't get it and want it, email us and we'll be glad to sign you up) which shares a bit about our experiences settling into our new home in Kitale. It was a real process. We went shopping for the big household items in Nairobi, knowing that we'd have a better selection and possibly better pricing. The store we brought from agreed to deliver the goods to our home for next to nothing, less than $15.00. They could do it because they make weekly shipments to their store in Eldoret (about an hour's drive from Kitale) and then could send the goods on from there. We thought we'd get the goods within five days, but it took about a week and a half. But, eventually I got a call from the store that the goods were on their way.

Given that our access driveway is narrow and has a ninety degree turn halfway to our gate I was wondering about the delivery, but the truck that came was small enough to navigate the turns. Soon the two men were off loading the cooker (stove), the washer and drier and the refrigerator. Here is a shot of them unboxing the refrigerator. Once it was in place we had to let it sit for 24 hours to allow the mercury in the system to cool and stabilize (don't ask for further explanation - it's what we were told). But the end product is that we are keeping and preparing food, though that is a subject for another time.

One last thought - at the end of the afternoon where we had all the help unpacking from our Kenyan staff wives, we finally got to sit down at our dinning table, in our dining room in our home in Kitale and have our first meal together. One of the ladies snapped a shot of Kathy and I. If it looks like the day has been a little long...it had!