I've noticed that most homes, businesses, organizations, hotels, etc. are either in compounds or behind guarded gates. Here is a photo of our hotel behind the electric fence. Those two little windows on the top floor and in the center of the photo are the windows to our room.
Our room fee comes with breakfast in a little café downstairs. Every day the menu is the same - we have a choice of fried eggs or Spanish omelet, toast and tea. For variety we get bananas or pineapple or watermelon after the meal. We see a lot of different people each day from all over speaking many different languages! We love the staff, they are so incredibly polite, adorable and friendly. I love it here!
Bishop Kamau was officiating at a wedding on Saturday and invited us to attend. Our driver picked us up at 9am for the wedding that was supposed to start at 10 but by the time we picked up other passengers we didn’t get to the wedding until 11:30! The ceremony was just getting started – that’s “Kenyan time”. The wedding was similar to our weddings in America, except the pastor preached in Kiswahilli and told a bunch of jokes that we didn’t understand.
The food was excellent and we were treated like royalty. We went to stand at the end of the long, long food line but a young man pulled us out of line and took us directly to the front of the line! We felt really embarrassed about cutting in, but the Kenyans in line were so gracious and wouldn’t let us go to the back of the line.
After the meal, all the Kenyan women dance with the bride and groom, leading them into the wedding party area. One of the Kenyan women pulled me into the dancing line so I danced with them! She gave me directions and helped me with the dance steps. It was so much fun!
We left the wedding before it was over so we could make it back to the Bible study on time. The Bible study is for the teenagers who are teachers in the children ministry. We joined them in chai tea and a delicious snack and finally met Becky, the Children’s Director, who was off on vacation with guests all week. She is incredibly nice and an amazing leader. She and her husband met Bishop at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California then later joined him in ministry in Kenya. They’ve been here 12 years and their 2 children have grown up in Kenya.
Sunday, July 25
I feel like we have hit the ground running and haven’t stopped since we landed in Nairobi. We are also a little jet lagged, so I find myself falling asleep each night as I am doing my devotional. We’ll probably need to plan some down time, but I can’t imagine sitting still for too long!
We arrived at church this morning at 7:30 am for prayer with the teen teachers, then attended the 8am service – mostly in English with some Kiswahilli. It was similar to our services and Bishop preached a great message on humility and thankfulness. He introduced us at the service and announced that we will be teaching a parenting seminar next Saturday.
Then we attended the teen class where we unsuccessfully tried to learn all their names and they learned how to throw the nerf footballs we brought with us.
Lanae and Ryana went into the younger children's class and I went with the older children. Here are a few photos of those adorable little ones! Ryana's little friend was so comfortable that she fell asleep in Ryana's arms.
I got to lead a small group of 12 year old Kenyan girls. They are so beautiful and sweet and soft spoken. They were very excited after the small groups when it was time to pull out all the equipment we brought; nerf footballs, Frisbees, double dutch jump ropes. They had such a blast and were so excited to have these new toys. I jumped rope with the girls too! Thanks to New Hope for the donations for these items!
Becky invited us to her home after church for Chinese take out. We had such a good time getting to know each other and sharing lunch with her family. Then our driver picked us up and took us to the market for some shopping. It was like a mini swap meet with all kinds of Kenya arts and crafts and it was crazy crowded with so many people! But we found a few treasures and gifts to take home and we had so much fun negotiating!
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