Meanwhile I was back at Dreamland hospital

Meanwhile I was back at Dreamland hospital to see some patients with diabetes. The day started late as usual with only 4 patients present some with a relative. I needed a translator as their English was not so good. The doctor translated until he was called away and then Margaret took over. The patients took part telling their stories of how they first found out they had diabetes and what symptoms they had. We collected quite a list on the board. I then explained what was happening in their bodies and why they felt the way they did. We then went on to the complications and how to prevent these. The director’s father joined us towards the end as he had travelled a long way. I saw him individually and discussed with him what he had missed and tested his blood glucose. He was managing very well and was following a good diet and had lost weight so he would be a good ambassador for the treatments. I got caught by very heavy rain again and the road was a river of mud. The school bus had moved to the crossroads for safety so when I left I slithered up the mudslide to the bus for my lift back to base. The temperature had definitely dropped and I wished I had taken a cardie!

Day Nine

Today was the day of the handover of the house to the family. It was to be a day of celebration and singing. We arrived around 11 to find the family singing and dancing with the local community. The plan was to have some introductions and a few words from each of the area leaders, Chief and for Dominic, who was in charge of the local area to speak to the local community about the IcFem mission; Tatwa had also come along to say a few words as this was the area that he had come from. The day went brilliantly, all the speakers were received well and the people seemed interested in what was being said, Tatwa in particular got many laughs and agreement from the crowd. Their was also a choir who sang a few songs and danced intermittently, I think it was to get people off their bums every now and again…we were sitting listening for a good couple of hours. After the talking was over the family were given some time to express their feelings about the work, the mum said a few kind words expressing how they had felt worried when the rain was coming and how before she joined the fellowship she had felt low but now she felt happy and a part of something good; it was really encouraging to hear. The surprise came when the youngest daughter got up to speak, she told a funny story about how she used to worry that the roof of their old house would fall on them but now she was happy that they had a real house, she was so eloquent…she has been to school whereas the older ones haven’t been. The family where then given blessings by the community, gifts of clothes and shoes while the mission gave them two mattresses and blankets. We were really pleased to see how much was offered to them and see the happiness on the families faces. Then it was time to open the house, Mum and I were asked to do this so we cut the little piece of string across the door and opened the house up for the family! It was a good moment to see all the hard work pay off. We ate another good meal supplied by the local women and then decided it was time to leave the family with their new home. Just as we were leaving Matthew and I were presented with a chicken as a thank-you for our work...it was for our dinner…it was alive! When we got back I refused to let Matthew kill the chicken, especially after she laid an egg for us! So we named her Esmeralda and Matthew promises to look after her when I leave, if I find out she has been eaten there will be trouble…first plane back to Kenya!! We had a quiet evening in as we were tired from the day and the electricity board had been over to the Guesthouse compound saying that the bills had not been paid so turned off all the electricity, no lights, hot water or TV!

Day Nine

Still with no electricity we got ready for our visit to Bungoma, a town about an hour away, cold showers all round! We wanted to see a bit more of the local culture, and Bungoma was supposed to be quite lively and we wanted to get some food from the market for the curry we planned to cook on Sunday. We took the Matatu into town and spent the day wondering around and getting some food. We went to a nice food place that Matthew knew was ok (you have to be careful where you get food here) and they even have pool tables so we played a few games, though Matthew proved irritatingly good. It was nice to be somewhere different and a little bigger than Kimilili, Matthew said he often takes visitors here to see a bigger place; it seemed a little better off as well…cleaner and such. When we got back…the electricity was back on!!! Luckily there had just been a mistake with the payment so we got to have warm showers and relax watching a DVD that evening.

Day Ten

Our last full day in Kimilili, it felt like the 12 days had gone so fast and we couldn’t believe we would have to be packing up and heading home the following day! Mum had a lazy morning while Matthew and I went back to pefa to do the Sunday School again, we had a couple of exciting things planned and we were looking forward to working with the children. Again I was so impressed by their confidence in faith and good Bible knowledge; one girl got up and recited in order all the books in the Bible, a year of Theology study at University and I cannot do that! We had a Scripture study planned for them to do in groups to start with and then present back to each other, they did this well and were interested in what there was to learn. When we had finished this the allotted time was over but the children said they wanted to stay on and do our other, more exciting, activity. We had chosen 4 accounts from Jesus’ life for the children to act out in groups to each other, and we had found various props and had ideas about how they could be performed. They were split into 4 groups, 2 each, and we spent 30-45 mins rehearsing, people were assigned to be the characters and they all got involved even the little ones. When they performed them to each other it was great and hopefully now they will find it easier to remember the accounts. The last one to be performed was the Feeding of the 5 Thousand, so each child got some ‘food’ (a lollipop). And that was the end, we all said good bye and I was quite sad to know I wouldn’t be back again to see them, not soon anyway! When we got back Matthew, Mum and I set about preparing our curry and spent the day doing this, when in the evening it came to the eating it was great! So yummy! We had even made a chocolate biscuit cake for pudding and we were joined by some of the staff who had been looking after us for the last couple of weeks, so it was a nice good-bye meal.

Day Eleven

We were asked by Tatwa to give a short talk to the HQ staff about what we had been doing during our stay. Kathryn talked about the school visits and her house building with some photographs supplied by Matthew in a short presentation. I then filled in the gaps with my recollections and an account of my time teaching diabetes and at dreamland hospital. I then did a presentation for the staff about diabetes so they can pass this knowledge on to people they meet in the community units. I have left some leaflets as reference materials for photocopying. I also had a chat with Esther who does the cooking here about the fat, sugar and salt content of the food. The diet would be healthy if the rice, greens and beans were not cooked in so much fat with added salt, and the sweet tea is almost unpalatable to our tastes. It is served pre-sweetened so there is no chance to have a less sweet version.

Time to thank everyone and say good-bye, we leave this afternoon for Kitale to fly to Nairobi. One night there and an early flight tomorrow back to the UK. It has been a wonderful experience but I have to admit to missing some of my home comforts and finding the mud gets into and onto everything!!!.... Thanks to Matthew for looking after us so well and playing endless games of Yatzee in the evenings even by candlelight, also thanks for his supply of DVDs when we had power to watch them. He has terrible taste in films though!!!

Time to upload!

Today was my day for teaching the staff at Dreamland hospital.

Day Six

Today was my day for teaching the staff at Dreamland hospital. I arrived at the hospital at about 10am and the staff slowly assembled for the diabetes seminar. The clinical officer was away for the day as he had a previous meeting at the district hospital. Margaret was therefore Dr and pharmacist for the day so she wasn’t able to attend the whole day’s seminar but she joined in as much as possible. The sessions were very interactive which is the way we teach patients in the UK and I followed a similar format so the staff would be able to repeat the teaching in the future with diabetic patients and new members of staff. All the teaching materials will be left here for their use and the sessions are also recorded as presentations on a memory stick which I will also leave here as a resource. When we covered the session on blood glucose monitoring I demonstrated the use of the glucose meter by pricking my own finger and testing my blood. The staff were then given a chance to use the meter themselves with bottles of control solution. However they all wanted to find out their own blood sugars and were gaily stabbing their own fingers to obtain blood samples. Several had low blood sugars and when asked if they had eaten breakfast they confessed that they had not. So we took a break for some sweet tea!!! One tested his blood sugar after the break and it had risen from 3.9 to 5.3!! Proof that a sweet drink is good treatment for a low blood sugar! We continued until lunchtime when Margaret asked me to see a 60 year old lady who she suspected may have diabetes. She had come to the hospital with a history of all the classic symptoms which I had been describing in the morning session. I met her and tested her blood and indeed her blood sugar was very high! She was admitted for intravenous fluids and to start medication and monitoring. The afternoon sessions covered treatments of diabetes and finished with some information about insulins which they will be able to use when they have a fridge to store it! The seminars were well received and the staff all thanked me for taking the time to give them so much information.

Meanwhile back at the building site: We arrived to see the basic structure of the house complete and the roof was beginning to be constructed. The doors and windows also had to be put in place today, while Khafwafwa was still around to help. Much of this work was carried out by the men as they seem to think women cant handle a hammer and nail; ever determined to undermine a stereotype I set to work sawing off a piece of wood that still needed to be neatened up… it took a good half an hour and much gafawing from all the men present, I claim I was att an awkward angle and at least I wasn’t as bad as Matthew the previous day. For the rest of the morning I decided to settle for some more traditional work; I busied myself by caring for the young baby, feeding and getting him off to sleep…he was adorable! However, after accusations of ‘slacker’ started being thrown around I got back to work hammering the fitos (the horizontal wooden frames that hold the mud together) to the main frame, again I had an audience of men desperate to get the hammer away from the female, but I was a little better at this than the sawing. The day ended with some more digging of mud and mixing it with the water ready for the following day when the mudding would begin! But just as we were ready to leave Dominic got a phone call from someone from the mission, a lady living close by was very ill and needed to be taken to hospital,; obviously we jumped at the chance to help…but there was a problem. The road to the house was long and would use lots of petrol, so the wise men decided to drive our landrover across the pedestrian path to get there. The gap leading from the road to the path was barely a metre wide with a deep ditch on either side.After much discussion between the men and revving of the engine, the men filled the ditch with the trunks from the maize and our driver Elliott quite literally went for it. Amazingly he got through unscathed and we got the lady, who had diabetes, safely to hospital. Another day was over!

Day Seven

The day of the mudding…we had two days to mud the whole house, inside and out. We were ready! When we arrived the men and women from the community were already getting started, so we set to work quickly. Matthew and I set about getting a large pile of mud into balls and then piled into a wall. The Fitos give the wall some structure so it doesn’t all just collapse into a mound. We were working hard,I made the mud into balls and Matthew formed the wall..we were determined not to have a break untilthe whole mound was gone. After a fair while we were done but as fast as we worked more piles of mud appeared so we carried on working, and the local community were working so hard as well. The mudding is considered more of a womens job though the men give it a go sometimes. The women there are so hard working, I honestly think without them the community may fall apart! The men have a tendency to stand around discussing the job that only one of them is actually doing! By about 4 in the afternoon we were way over half way up the whole way round and we were really pleased with the progress and the community for all chipping in. We had Supper all together, some beef and ugali (this is the national dough like dish made from maize flour) I have to say ugali wasn’t really for me but the other local dishes were wonderful…again the women had surpassed themselves. We went home that evening feeling very happy with ourselves and expecting an easy last day of work. We had dinner over at Paul an Pat’s that evening, we ate Sukuma (spinachy dish) and cooked banana with peanut sauce…it was yummy!

Ruth’s 7^TH Day: I had arranged with Judith to accompany her to one of the community units in Nassoussi. She and Tatwa were hoping to meet with some of the community leaders to discuss plans for transformation in this area. The section which interested me was obviously the health issues which were very basic concerns of clean water and sanitation in each area. The day started as all days in Kenya with a late departure from HQ! I was learning that things never happen at the time arranged! When we arrived there was already quite a group assembled I didn’t realise that many more had been expected. The proceedings were held in a church building and started with Tatwa addressing the group. It was all in Swahili so I wasn’t very sure what was being discussed. I was asked to give a short talk about diabetes. Just to help people identify symptoms and when it was an urgent case which needed hospitalisation. One of the community group was my translator. I kept the talk short and simple in the hope that they would all take away some message from it. The more people who have some understanding of the disease the more the knowledge will spread and myths and old beliefs will be dispelled. I gave some general advice on diet and lifestyle changes which Tatwa told me the next day were well received by a couple of the people he spoke to. One lady recognised that her husband had some of the symptoms and was determined to improve his diet!!! As many people had not attended it was decided not to continue with the teaching about transformation plans but to invite the leaders to another meeting the next day in a nearby unit. There was then a period of worship and bible study. Then a short talk from a teacher who had come from the polytechnic nearby. At the end of his talk he asked if any of the young people present would like to go and study for a qualification at the polytechnic. Three young people volunteered and a collection was made to help towards the cost of their education. Bernard, who was leading the worship, asked me to give them a few words of encouragement which I was happy to do! They asked me to pray with them and I did my best to use the right words. I’m not an expert in this area!! Soon after the meeting broke up and we returned to Kimilili. I asked Tatwa to drop me off in town so I could go to the supermarket for a few goodies! Crisps, chocolate etc ( I don’t follow the health advice I give to others!!!) After shopping I set off on foot for the guesthouse but the weather clouded over and I realised it was about to pour with rain. I hailed a passing boda driver and asked him to get me back before the rain. He did a very good job and by the time I reached the gate the rain was just beginning in ernest. The walk from the gate to the door was enough to soak me to the skin. My skirt and top were dripping and I had a shower to warm up!!!

Day Eight

Our last day of building and we arrived in high spirits, Leonard the man in charge of Relief and Welfare for the time being came along with us as well. The work should not have taken very long but sadly due to the rubbish weather not many of the locals came to help out with the last of the work. We set about getting it all finished anyway, we had to finishing mudding up to the roof and fixing in the fetos and mudding the interior wall of the house, we also had to add the ridges to the roof so it would be watertight. The mudding outside didn’t take too long, but it was a bit treacherous as it was the high bits that had been left over, the ladder wasn’t the most stirdy thing I had ever stood on, but we got it done without any serious injury. The inside wasn’t so easy however, the mud was very wet today, I think it had rained in the night and it wouldn;’t hold any form, just went into a blob. So we worked on building the wall but it would just sort of crumple down and fall into a blob on the floor. I got blamed for shoddy workmanship, but after Matthew tried and failed we put it down to the materials… Just as the roof was finished the heavens opened and the rain came down, luckily we just carried on working on the inside and after not too long the interior wall was half way done. Just as we were sitting down for some food under the shelter of our newly built house a hole opened in the side of the house, the mud had fallen in… again it was my workmanship that was blamed but this time it really was not me; I hadn’t worked on that bit of the wall! We fixed things up and got the house ready for the handover the next day. We took a few photos of the family and got in the car. The journey home was probably the highlight of an already funny day. The roads here are terrible, most are unmade up and in the rain they just turn to rivers. Elliott our driver is brilliant and got us most of the way safely, until my dad phoned that is. We were going down a particularly muddy road and just as I answered the phone we slipped 90 degrees round and into the ditch by the side of the road. I squealed and then giggled down the phone and continued to as the car slid around as Elliott tried to get us out of our predicament! I hung up to get out of the car but chose to let the men slide around in the mud trying to get the car free of it. It took a good half an hour and again it was the maize trunks that saved the day..that and a little digging from Elliott. Matthew got a mouthful of mud and everyone was pretty splattered but the car was out and we were on our way home! Another eventful day was over.

The first real working day!

Day Five

The first real working day! I was to go to Dreamland hospital to observe the child health clinic and help if possible. Kathryn was off to start her house building she can write about that! When I arrived at Dreamland, via a lift from Paul and Pat, it was quite quiet with no patients around. Sister told me that the mums and babies tend to arrive all morning despite being told to come at 9.30 for education before the immunisations. This seems to be the way in Kenya, the church service starts with one or two in the congregation and is quite full by the time the service finishes! So the clinic proceeded the same way. Sister started the education about immunisation, which diseases would be covered, how many injections this would be and the reason for immunisation. There were about 9 mums there at the beginning but more than 25 by the time she finished. It was all very relaxed with mums wondering in and breast-feeding when babies cried. The education was in Swahili with the odd word of English but I managed to get the gist of it!. Then another sister talked about family planning this I didn’t understand but there was quite a bit of amusement amongst the ladies. Then the mums all registered the babies and they were weighed. They then queued up for immunisations. I had the job of keeping records of which injection in the course each was receiving. After a while sister was needed to run the ante-natal and family planning clinic so we handed over the immunisation to others and we moved to the clinical rooms. We saw 3 ladies, one who wanted contraception but had a breast lump which needed further investigation. She had to be referred to the local district hospital as Dreamland still has no electricity so scanning is not yet possible there. The next lady wanted to resume her injectable contraceptives after a break to have children. The final lady was too late for family planning! She had a baby in December last year and didn’t realise she was pregnant again!! Sister estimated that she was 8 months!!! She thought she was just getting fat!! Many women still believe they cannot get pregnant whilst breast-feeding maybe this was to blame! Anyway it was now lunchtime and Paul was ready to leave so I had to go or miss my lift and lunch. After lunch I went to have a meeting with Judith about the health plans for the community units and I offered her some diet sheets which cover healthy balanced diets for each group of the community and were in English and Swahili. She felt these would be useful so I promised to photocopy them for her so at least one of each could be left in each community unit. I arranged to go out with her on Wednesday to visit at least one of the local units. Now Kathryn’s day!

Today was my first day of constructing the house in Mbakalo. The house is for a family with the mother and grand-mother, 7 children… and a recently born child to one of the children, a girl who is still at primary school! The father of the family was killed by his brothers after a fight about the land, the whole family live in two tiny buildings, one for the boys and one for the girls, the cooking is done in a falling down outhouse. Hopefully, the house we will build will make a big difference to them, it will consist of a bedroom and living room. When we arrived noone else was there so we had to wait for Khafwafwa, who would measure out the house and do all the difficult measuring! Not wanting to look lazy to the locals Matthew and I sat and started to help harvest and shell the maize. Not too soon in I had blistered fingers and my skin was raw, the ladies showed me how to do it without causing myself so much injury. I think they thought I spent all my time having manicures as I had ‘soft’ skin, I was determined to show that I was not soft! I regretted this the following morning when my fingers were raw and trhe blisters had all popped and I had to continue digging. Anyway, once Khafwafwa arrived we started the real work. We had to dig 2ft deep holes for each of the poles that would hold up the roof, we had only a metal stick and a bowl to do this, so it took longer and harder work than I expected. Once this was done the women started digging up the earth which would make the mud for the walls; this work looked good and reasonably easy, little did I know how strong the women were! As soon as I started they all laughed at me getting the ‘jembe’ (a kind of hoe) stuck in the ground, they told me to use more energy, but I was using it all! Anyway, I got the hand of it eventually, but they still laughed at how slowly I worked… and I kept on hitting myself in the head with the jembe as I flung it in the air. We had a well needed lunch and lots of water. By the end of the day the house was starting to look like a house and we were just neatening up the edges. The doors still had to be done and the mudding, but that was to come!

Ruth and Kathryn's Blog

Our day in Nairobi

September 17th Flight arrival at 6.05 am into Nairobi.
Met by Andrew from Kenya-adventures. Taken for drive around Nairobi National Park
Saw giraffe, many zebras, oryx, buffalo, panda, deer, a warthog, a monkey, ostriches, an eagle and many other smaller birds.

Went for some breakfast. Feeling very tired, falling asleep in the

car.

Andrew took us to his friend Massey’s guesthouse for a sleep

until lunchtime. A basic but clean and comfortable house, very reasonably priced and friendly people,
‘Carnivore’ restaurant for lunch of barbequed meat…all you can eat…I think we ate a whole cow while we were there! Not keen on the crocodile!
Wilson airport for check-in for the flight to Kitale
Arrived in Kitale met by Matthew, Mary and Elliot
Drove into Kitale town for some shopping, the town was very busy and full of life.
Arrived at IcFEM guesthouse about 7.30pm for dinner served by Helen.
Fell into bed and straight to sleep at around 10pm.

First day at IcFem
For our first day at IcFem we woke up 2 hours late!!... Our alarm, still set on English time, went off at 7, which was in fact 9. We had planned to meet Matthew at half past 7 for breakfast and then the devotion, we had missed both of these!! Luckily our very friendly hosts forgave us, and we still managed to get some breakfast and then met Matthew for our tour around IcFem. With our guide Rachel, we met everyone that we should have met at the Devotion, again I think they excused our absence as we had such a long journey the day before, little did they all know it was just our studipity that meant we didn’t get there! There were many people working at the offices and everyone was incredibly friendly and happy to see us. We felt like honoured guests! We walked around the nursery school there as well and the children all stared out of the windows at us and waved, all saying ‘how are you?, how are you?’ After a rejuvenating cup of tea we went to visit the market in Kimili, it was midday heat by now and the sun was blazing on the red earth, but it was an exciting walk into town with lots to see around. The market was quite an experience, the stalls, laid out on the floor, sold everything you could possibly want, mostly second hand, but it was still quite a sight. There was a cattle and fish market as well, the fish was all dried and Matthew explained that it is put in boiling water to make soup, not sure if it would be to my tastes!

After a big, lovely lunch at the guesthouse of avocado and salad (mum’s favourite) we went to visit Dreamland school and hospital. We travelled on the bicycle taxis mum was asked to get off and walk at the inclines ‘cos she is too heavy!!!! Firstly, we went into the school and were shown around by the school secretary, Rose. The classes were much smaller than I expected, normally around 28 children amounting to 300 being taught there in all, ageing from 6 upwards. The children were all so well behaved, even standing up when mum went to take a photo of them all. That is, until the storn came, as soon as it started to rain outside the all went wild! It was amazing!

They were all playing and stamping in puddles laughing and shouting…I was pretty sure that their lessons were still supposed to be going on. The classrooms all seemed well equipped and clean, there is even some boarding rooms which look just as nice as the hostels I stayed in whilst travelling around Europe. The one thing the school really lacked was electricity, once the storm started and it was darker outside it was so dark in the building, they desperately need lights and electricity. But overall, although the resources seemed basic, especially compared to England Dream land Education centre definitely has the right idea and the children seemed very happy.

We then moved onto our tour of Dreamland Medical Centre. After a slippery walk through the mud caused by the heavy downpour we got to the amazing building that IcFem has built. Again, we were given a very warm reception. As mum plans to do some work there next week and the three inpatients had been discharged that morning we were given a proper tour around, getting to see all the rooms. It was an amazing building but as with the school, the hospital really needs electricity. The lines have been set up but they are still waiting for the final touches, to get the work done quickly normally people bribe the builders, but the mission doesn’t believe in this, understandably, so the work will only happen when the builders feel like it. It must be incredibly frustrating for the staff there, they have X-ray machines, dentist chairs and generators still boxed up waiting for the electricity. Once it is supplied the hospital will be able to offer such a wide variety of services to the local community. The hospital currently offers mainly outpatient clinics for Child health care, ante-natal care and family planning services. There are also general outpatient clinics and very ill people can be admitted for care, although the planned wards are not built yet, so only a few inpatient beds are provided. There are great dreams for the future with the whole upstairs to be completed to provide an eye department, ENT and dentistry then to join up to the wards which are yet to be built. They already have on the ground floor a basic laboratory, orthopaedic workshop who make prostheses and work closely with the physiotherapist. There is also a pharmacy where the medicines are dispensed and when patients return for a repeat prescription they are given a check up at the same time..

We were very lucky to be driven back to the IcFEM office by Eliot as we were wearing flip-flops and the ground was a mudbath! The power was down so no blogging could be done. Back to the guesthouse to wash the mud off our feet and to have our dinner. Kathryn prepared her Sunday school teaching and I made notes of the last 2 days experiences until Matthew joined us for tea, hot chocolate and a game of yahtzee!

DAY 2

Made it to devotions at the HQ! Waiting for Matthew we had a bit of time so we went to speak to Elizabeth about having some traditional clothes made for myself and Kathryn. The first visit of the day to Kamusingu Primary School. The headteacher met us and showed us round the school we visited lots of very crowded classrooms with over 100 pupils in them. They were all very polite and well behaved. Greeting us and asking questions. The younger children asked if we were well and how old we are! However in the older classes the questions became more taxing such as what is the main export from our country and are boys circumcised in England!! The school was a group of lovely buildings so much better than the mud houses we saw along the roads and we were told that classes used to be held under a tree. This would have been impossible in the rain. However, there is still a need for more classrooms so the large classes can be split into smaller groups. Then they will need more teachers!!

Time was moving on so we left to get a bicycle taxi to the second primary school in Lutonyi. Again we were given a very warm welcome and shown around the school to greet the children and invite them to ask questions about the UK. Lunchtime drew near and we had to return to the guest house for our lunch. After lunch we set off for our final visit to Buko primary school. We took some mango trees to plant in the grounds. The headmaster had gathered many of the teachers in his office to meet us. We had a meeting with them and heard about the school then we went out to plant the trees. (video and photos) The children had finished lessons and gathered around us particularly excited to see themselves on my digital camera as I took their pictures. I have promised to send them a copy of some of the pictures. The grounds of the school were large to give playing space and there was more construction taking place to replace an old mud storehouse. One teacher told me that all the school had been mud buildings previously. All the schools have no electricity and are overcrowded, the largest class was 140 pupils! The facilities are very basic but so much better than what they had in the past. Attendance is good because the children love to go to school and are eager to learn.

The thunder was rumbling so we set off for IcFem HQ in the hope of beating the rain. We arrived back just before a short downpour. Kathryn fell asleep immediately, the heat and dehydration taking it’s toll. Most evenings after dinner we spent relaxing in the guesthouse, watching dvds and playing card games, this evening we taught Matthew to play Yahtzee, a dice game that we used to play on holidays. Matthew proved to have a spot of beginners luck and beat us both by a mile!

Day Three

On our free day on Saturday, Matthew took us to Webuye Falls, some magnificent waterfalls about an hours journey away. They were quite a walk from the centre of town, and we all got very hot and bothered! They were amazing to see though and very worth the walk and we carried on up high to their source were a choir was making a video; all the locals were out to watch. After the walk we travelled to a swanky hotel and got some sandwiches and chips, a good fatty lunch to fill us up after the mornings exertions. Our journey home in the Mutatu was quite an experience as well, a strom started and the rickety old van leaked everywhere, I was drenched by the time we got back, but it was funny all the same. I spent the evening planning for Sunday School the following morning and playing Yahtzee again!

Day Four

We woke sleepy on Sunday morning, we were still not quite used to the sun and high altitude. But nevertheless we got up and ready for church. Mum planned to go to the Anglican church with Anne and Matthew and I were off to the Pentecostal church ‘Pufa’ where I was to run the Sunday School. I was very nervous, not really knowing what to expect, but we arrived and all the children were so friendly. They were amazing, getting up to worship and sing songs that they had made up and reciting their favourite verses. We started with a game that they all seemed to enjoy and I was so impressed with their Bible knowledge and enthusiasm, just like at the schools. The activity I had for them went really well and they all seemed to enjoy the extra materials that I had brought with me. Matthew had told me that there would be 30 children, but, although it started at that many, throughout the morning more arrived, I think that by the time I finished there were 60-70 children and only me and one translator. But the children were so well behaved and during the offering at the end they all took up some small money they could spare. Once the Suday School was over I went into the adult service to ‘catch the end,’ in fact I ended up staying for 4 hours!! The longest church service I have ever been to… but so enjoyable, and all the children came and sat with me, which made me feel so welcome! Mum enjoyed her service at the Anglican church, apparently the worship was really good there. The rest of our day we spent relaxing and recouperating before our busy week started. After dinner we met Paul and Pat a couple from England who are moving out here, they were wonderful and invited us visit them one night.

Arrival Date

Hi everyone, welcome to our blog, we will be with the IcFEM Mission for two weeks starting on the 17th September. We will be involved in medical seminars, diabetes screenings and house construction. So please keep updated with our journey through our blog.