The seminar on Saturday should have started at 10am, but of course this was 10am African time. This was actually fortunate as I had been given the wrong location for the seminar, I was at the college and everyone else was in Kericho. We had left early after scrambled egg on toast for breakfast, and the day was already starting to get hot and we got to the college to find no-one there. I was then informed that everyone had gone to town for a seminar and so I worked out I was in the wrong place. We had tea before we left as it was rude to refuse and then picked some delegates up on the way, and arrived at the church about 10.15.
I had been told 200 were coming but Africans always over estimate. I was surprised when there were only about 15-20 for the delayed start. It was going to be translated into the local language (which I can’t spell – let alone speak). I set up the digital projector and powerpoint and we started. As usual people turned up during the day, the last person turned up at 12.45 just in time for lunch. Overall we had about 85 people from all over the district. Linda was giving a pen to everyone who attended – so they could make notes. It was all going fine, till the electricity went off and suddenly no powerpoint! This was a slight problem but we found a blackboard and chalk and continued. Dinner was provided – rice, meat and beans, it was ok. Linda seemed more fascinated with the velvet monkeys than she was eating her dinner. Her camera was constantly out taking pictures of them.
The seminar day finished about 3pm and the feedback was that people enjoyed it and found it helpful.. They wanted a copy of my notes so I will need to find a photocopying shop to do that. After this we went into Kericho to do some shopping and then back to the hotel. It is very hot and humid today and Linda can’t last without her tea so she had bought a kettle for the room, so it will be on tap.
We were very tired and exhausted so we had a nap in the afternoon, I fell asleep to Liverpool beating Manchester United. We had our tea downstairs, I had fish fingers and Linda a fried egg sandwich as everything else on the menu she asked for they didn’t have. We still have no hot water so we had to shower in cold! The problem this is the best hotel in town so we can’t even move to another one as they are even worse.
On Sunday we had a lie in and didn’t leave till 9am. It was boiled egg and bread for breakfast. I was preaching at Kapsoit church which is run by Pastor Mutai and it meets in a school. It is in the process of building a church in the village and has just bought some land. There were about 40 people there from young children to OAP’s. Of course they all turned up and left at different stages during the service. It lasted about 3 hours, we had singing, and then more singing, and then the Sunday school sang, the youth sang, the ladies sang, and the men as well. I preached on the Good Samaritan and highlighted the tribal differences between Jews and Samaritans and linked this in with the tribal issues in Kenya. They had an offering and those who didn’t have any money gave their produce like pineapples and greens. Linda didn’t have any money so she gave two packets of biscuits (not just any old biscuits but one you get in club class on BA ) and a packet of tissues. These are then auctioned off to raise money for the church, I think the biscuits went for about 20p.
We went to the Mutais for dinner and had fresh ‘holy’ pineapple straight from church, followed by rice (just for a change), beans and meat (Linda didn’t have the meat) and chapatti. The Mutais have two young boys – Iain and Emmanuel (the oldest). When I was here last time Emmanuel had asked me to bring him a football as he didn’t have one. So we had bought him a big football and Iain a small one. They were over the moon and played with them all day, they even wanted to bring them to church. Evidently Iain was very worried about losing his ball and woke up in the middle of the night asking his mum where it was. He then found it and took it to bed so no-one could steal it!
I introduced them to a new game, I kicked the football downhill as hard as I could and they had to run and get and bring it back for me to kick again. This lasted for about 30 minutes before they were tired out. We then went out to a forest area outside Kericho so we could kick the balls, walk around and talk. There was a river area and it was very pleasant. I ended up carrying one of their friends children on my shoulders as he was tired.
We stopped for a cup of tea in town and tried a local pastry, it was a bit like a donut and was nice. We then walked back to the hotel for some exercise. In the evening we had marmite sandwiches and some biscuits for our tea. We stayed in our room and started getting ready for college on Monday - Linda is still reading the book. Still no hot water.
The photos are at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett