Once I checked in, I floated through fast track security, after undressing of course, shoes, belt, coat.... And then to the business lounge for some breakfast. The flight boarded on time, then someone had to be ejected, not sure why, maybe wrong name, wrong papers, but they allowed him to use his mobile phone whilst being ejected. They then had to check all the hand luggage belonged to somebody and of course some numpty did not listen to the announcement, so we played the game of whose is this bag, the numpty then puts their hand up and says it's mine why? This all happens in economy of course, we are just sitting back and enjoying the champagne in business class, or water in my case.
The flight was just under 9 hours, slightly bumpy over North Africa. Once landed it was through immigration and wait for the bags. They were pretty quick and for a change mine came out amongst the first batch. I then had to load up the trolley and speak to the customs officer. He did ask about three bags and I explained they were items for churches and he was happy with that. Fortunately, he didn't want to look inside as I am not sure if I took everything out, I would get it back in again.
Chris the driver was waiting for me and took me to The Stanley in Nairobi. There was an accident on the main road so we were delayed. They appear to have ANPR cameras now, which record the index plates (or so I was told), shame they don't record the driving as the standard seems to be decreasing. I booked in at The Stanley and had a room on the third floor.
On Thursday I was up early and had breakfast. It is probably the last normal food for a few days. I was so busy I did not have time to visit the Kenyan equivalent of Starbucks - Java House. The first job was to get some SIM cards for the phone and IPad. I went to the normal shop, they didn't do them know you had to go the Safaricom office. I went there and was told to stand in one queue, then when I was reaching the front, I was told to go to another queue. Finally, I reached the right desk and managed to obtain the SIM cards, it was not straight forward, as though she could give me the card, it was too big for the Iphone so she had to go to another office for them to cut it up, there must have been a queue to use the scissors as it took ages. Last time I did it in the hotel room in 2 minutes.
Next on the list was a kettle, mozzie killer and some food for the journey. I found a shop that did all three and they had a kettle. The very helpful shop assistant wouldn't sell it to me till he had demonstrated it worked. So he got some water and put it in the kettle and boiled it, yes the kettle worked. After emptying out the water he gave me the wet kettle in the box.
After a few other jobs I went back to the hotel. The IT system was down so the room cards wouldn't open the room. I had to wait for a member of staff to come to the rooms and open it for me. I then repacked my main case and checked out and met the driver.
We finally left about 1130am and bought some petrol and then it was on our way. We stopped at Naivasha for a coffee, as I was getting withdraw symptoms by now. The coffee shop at the service station used to be a little shack, but it now looked like a proper shop with the right equipment. The cappuccino was great. We arrived at Kericho around 3.30pm and I checked in at the Tea Hotel. It's quite expensive but the only place available as our normal place has changed hands. I was given the Kericho suite, which is a large room. The good news (for Linda) is that it has HOT water, unlikely our previous stays here. The assistant explained that I switched on the cold water tap if I wanted hot water, never would have thought of that (although I have since found if you switch on the hot tap - the water also come out hot, in fact much hotter than if you use the cold tape). One of the lights does not work and most of the sockets are not connected. The wi-if only works in one room downstairs and they market themselves as the best hotel in Kericho.
I needed to iron my shirts so I asked at reception for an iron. They looked at me blankly, what would I need an iron for? I explained that I wanted to iron some shirts. They said the laundry was open in the morning, this was not much help as I needed to wear the shirt in the morning. I explained I was well trained by my wife and knew how to use an iron, if they could provide one. They would see what they could do.
There is a local election for a senator going on this weekend, so a lot of rallies, speeches, people and noise. According to the newspaper there have been a few problems but apart from not being able to sleep from the noise, I haven't seen any riots. The competition is between the Jubilee and KANU parties. There was a news crew outside the hotel and I thought they might have come to interview me, but no it was for some local politician.
I went out for a run and found a nice hill to run up and down several times and covered around 5k. It is very hot here mid 80's and humid. It is also difficult to run at this altitude as we are 7000 feet above sea level, but I managed it.
In the evening the iron appeared and the man was very concerned about what time I would have finished with it as he would need to collect it. It was a very basic old fashioned iron, I think my grandmother had a similar one, so I am not sure what he thought I was going to do with it. However, he did not provide an ironing board, although to be fair I didn't ask for one, so I used a table and managed to iron my four shirts to a reasonable standard.
On Friday I was up early for breakfast and then left for Bware church, which is near Ringa, about 90 minutes in the car. It is the other side of the mountain and was an interesting journey. We arrived about 10am for the conference and Samuel was there. This is Kenya so even though we were going to start at 10 no-one had turned up so we just sat and waited. Samuel's wife had gone to the market and left her mobile phone behind (reminds me of someone else who has a habit of doing that). As there were no women there was no tea or anything.
We started the seminars just after 11am as people had turned up. I had about 15 and we worked our way through Christian Leadership, listening to some clips, some front loading and group work. Dinner was delayed as Samuel's wife was still at the market and we worked through till about 3pm when dinner was served. I was starving so enjoyed the rice, meats and vegetables, I was even given half a fish.
After this Samuel wanted me to visit another college on the way back, it's not far he said and it's on the way back. It was far and it wasn't really on the way back unless you followed a diversion. However, we visit the college had a quick look round and said hello to everyone. The Principal has been at Sitotwet several years ago, but I didn't remember him. I have been going to Sitotwet for 10 years, how time flies.
I eventually got back to the Hotel and was exhausted. The weather is so hot and humid, it was hard work teaching. The church had a tin roof and this made it hotter I think.
On Saturday I was back to Bware AIC for day 2 of the seminar. The ladies were there so it was better organised, tea on arrival with dinner at 1 (ish). There was about 25 people there and we had a good time developing our knowledge about Christian Leadership. Samuel is the chairman of the local group of inter-denominational church pastors, so we had leaders from different backgrounds and denominations. On the way back Samuel wanted us to go to his village, it was slightly on the way back with a detour on an unmade road of about 45 minutes, but we saw his house, met his dad and then made our way home. It was a long day as it was dark when we got back to Kericho, another hot day. It was great meeting some other students like Peter who I had taught at Sitotwet and I made some new friends. Everyone wants you to visit their church on a Sunday, but they all hold services at the same time.
It is really encouraging to see Peter and Samuel putting into action the teaching Linda and I have given over the years, to see the fruits of our labour.
On Sunday I was preaching at AIC Bware, but all the five local AIC churches were there as it was a joint service and so the church was full. It was a great time of worship with all taking part, each church presenting and then I preached on the Good Samaritan. We were all fed again, the ladies do an excellent job, especially on the cooking facilities they have. The children seemed to be attentive and we phoned Linda to say hello during the service.
It was still around 80 degrees today, although slightly cooler than previous days, but still hot in my suit. We left around 2pm and so we're back in daylight in Kericho. I sat in my room to read the paper and was so tired I fell asleep. I dozed for about an hour and then decided to go for a run, It was still warm but I ran out of town, not too far as it can be dangerous, not just from the trucks. I managed 5 miles. The kids were waving at me, shouting Mazungu (white man) and laughing, most Kenyans just looked in amazement at this man running through town in the heat.
The evening was spent reading and preparing for Sitotwet tomorrow. I eat in the restaurant at the hotel, but although they have a menu it's easier to ask what they have as every time I ask for something on the menu they don't have it!
You can see some photos here.