It is even hotter in Kericho, some days above 30 degrees, it
got so hot that the projector overheated and switched itself off. On Sunday, I was speaking at the National
Kenyan Police College and the initial email said it was a 7am service. However,
that had changed by the time we arrived, and we didn’t have to be there till
7.30 for an 8.30 service and there was now one not two services. We had to be
there early for breakfast in the senior officers’ mess. The only downside was that we had to pack the
cases the night before and then get up at 6am to shower and dress and re-load
the car to leave at 7am – but I am on holiday Linda remarked. As we are now down by one bag, I had to less
to carry down the stairs. We had given
James a bag with about 20 books, hundreds of pencils, clothes and other bits of pieces for him to distribute.
Last time the items we had left had been taken to an isolate Massai village and
given to the children, who were really grateful.
There was a new programme about teachers in Eastern Kenya
and it was fascinating. The teachers walk 10 miles a day to the school, they
have no books, the children often don’t have any pencils or books to write
anything down, but they still come to class. The teachers have to teach three
classes at once, all in different rooms, walking between them all the time,
must keep you fit! I won’t mention the
toilets or lack of them!
We arrived at the Police College and went to the Senior
Officers mess, which has the heads of animals all around the walls. They have
been left on the walls since the British vacated 60 years ago. Breakfast was a sausage, fruit, potatoes and vegetables
with a boiled egg. It was certainly an interesting combination to have. Tea was
plentiful so Linda was happy. We also
met up with some old friends at the college.
The church service started at 9am and was meant to finish at
1130am. I was given 30 minutes to preach
(and took 32 mins 23 seconds as the minister recorded it) but didn’t start till
1115 – so it ended late. You would have thought police officers would have
turned up on time, but no they wandered in during the service at all different
times. There were some new recruits there that had just finished the
theoretical training and were going out to various police stations to do the
practical sessions. I was able to include words of advice during my sermon,
which was on Exodus 20, The Ten Commandments.
It was quite a charismatic and energetic service, with lots
of dancing, clapping and leaping about, you would not need to go to the gym for
a couple of days after that service. It was remarked on the English being
reserved and not quite as energetic as the Africans and a lack of constant
clapping. It was difficult when you don’t understand the songs.
After the service finished, I chatted to some of the
recruits and some had never met a white man (or woman) before, which is quite interesting,
now they have met me – they are probably hope they never meet another one! We were back to the mess for dinner, Linda
even tried a piece of chicken! And then
it was a few photo’s before we left for Kericho.
It was going to be a long drive, but the road has deteriorated
even more and it was very bumpy and I mean bumpy, you could probably create it
as a fair ground ride. We reached Nakuru after 3 hours, which is about 100
miles. We crossed the Equator several times, probably because they are not sure
where it is and if they have a shop in different places they can make more
money from the tourists – apart from us as we didn’t stop (been there, done
that).
At Nakuru we stopped for drink and a leg stretch. It was
back on the road to Molo and the road to Kericho. They are improving the road
so it was a in a state of disrepair and very bumpy. They have also put a
diversion on through a country road, but of course that is not tarmacked etc. It
took about 2 1/2 hours to do 40 miles,
it also got dark which made it even more difficult. We finally arrived at the hotel in Kericho at
1930 – totally exhausted and the car had a puncture.
We had our normal room and settled down for dinner, Linda
had rice and I had fish with rice. We were hungry by now so devoured it quickly. I then had to prepare for teaching the course Religious Education at
the Sitotwet college the next day, so it was gone midnight before I got to bed.
On Monday we had breakfast at 0730 and left for the college,
just after 8am. It has not changed much, the students started off with about
10, but there were 20 by the end of the day. It had been half term the week
before so they were still travelling back on the Monday, even though the course
started at 0830 – this is Africa. It is hot here, sometimes hitting the mid 30’s,
nice when you are on the beach, but not when you are teaching, especially when
the projector overheats in the middle of a powerpoint presentation. So it is back to the old fashioned chalk and
board. Linda went to visit Betty at the Orphanage and
gave some knitted toys, knitted puppets pencils and tennis balls to them. The
knitted toys and puppets had been knitted by some our older members at church. We had dinner at the college, rice and beans
and I continued lecturing in the afternoon, however, it was so hot and humid and they were tired (and so was I) so we
finished at 1500. We came back to the hotel, and I had a short catnap (well a
couple of hours) before continuing my preparation and finally getting to bed
just before midnight. It is quite hot even at night but you need to keep the windows
closed for safety issues and mozzies.
On Tuesday I went to the college and continued the studies.
It was hot again today, but we struggled through. Linda went shopping during the morning and saw
a women waiting for the matutu with a small baby, so she jumped the queue and
gave the women a knitted hat, the lady was very surprised! A young lad was walking along the street and
she felt sorry for him so she gave him a pen, he took and ran off, probably
scared of the mazungu. Linda was doing
this afternoons lesson and teaching them how to make cards and the different
materials that you could use. It was well attended as some of the secretarial
and computer students turned up as well. After college ended we went into town and had
tea with Pastor Mutai and caught up with him. Linda had also visited a few of our other
friends, so the bags are slowly going down. At 1700 we were at the AIC Church as I was
speaking at the evening meeting, which started on time although most people
didn’t turn up till about 1730. It went well, although they thought I was
coming last week, so some had turned up a week early!
In the evening it was back to the hotel, to start preparing
for tomorrows lessons and of course rice and fish for dinner.You can see some photos here