Sunday, June 12, 2011

Cindy Left, Church and Simeon's House

June 12th
Church Today!  Sizable church service at the Kakamega PEFA Church.  Pastor Richard spoke about producing fruit, or as he would say, frrrrrrruit with a rolling "r" that is quite difficult to type.  During the worship part of service there was a large dancing worm that was created - people train - that all the ladies joined in.  Sadly there are no pictures of it, but it was at least 50 people long near the end. 

At the end of church service Heather and I were asked to speak to the college age youth.  Now, I thought they wanted us to join their college group for the afternoon or something so we readily agreed to that.  But, like I said above, at the end they wanted us to speak to them for 5-10 minutes.  Oi!  Not prepared!  It worked out okay though, I spoke about "Work".  The general theme was that our two hands and our mind are gifts of God that can be used to produce and bless other people with our work.

Sadly, this was also the day that Cindy left.  After church we all went back to the hotel, Cindy prepped her stuff and got a ride to the airport.  :-(  Super fun to have her along.  It's sad to see her go, and sad to know that we will be leaving not long after she leaves.

We also had a big dinner at Simeon's house.  And by big, I mean big.  A large part of his family was there which means quite a few rugrats and at least dozen adults; and then throw in a bunch of wazungu into the mix!  I had been to his house before a few years ago but I never got a good tour, so this time we got the tour.  He's done quite a bit of stuff with his "compound".  That should sustain him well for the remainder of his life.  He has rental houses on the lot, crops, and are working on making another rental house.  But because bricks are so expensive, they decided to make them themselves.  Which, while uncommon in Seattle as our ground isn't suitable for that; the ground in Kenya works pretty well.  It has a heavy iron oxide content to it which makes it a vibrant red as well.  I also enjoyed checking out their water ditches and containers around the house.  When it rains in Kakamega, it really rains!  So to prevent flooding and such many houses have ditches built into the property to guide the water how they want it.  Into large containers, off the property or into garden irrigation ditches perhaps.  Simeon's ditches had ditches around the house to bring water from off the roof to the back of the house.  His whole plot of land is on a slope with the house on the top so that helps facilitate water to bypass the house on the way down the hill.  Also to hit the crops on the way down.

At the house, Simeon showed us a "Bathroom" plan he got from someone.  They were looking at it for the church and then to charge for use of it during the week to the surrounding community.  But it was a bit large and lavish if you ask me.  Something like 15-20 toilets and sinks.  You'd have to have quite the crowd to sustain that kind of toilet system.  While I think it's a good idea, I'd prefer to see it toned down a bit to save money and make it more easily profitable.

On the way home we really piled into the van.  All us wazungu as well as a few Kenyan friends that we were dropping off.  Overall it was 15 people in a 12 seat passenger van.

And then to bed!

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