On Saturday we were up early to go to Africa Inland Church Nyandiwa which is about 90 minutes in the car. We met my former students Peter and Samuel and their families. I was leading a seminar on Christian Leadership for the local churches. In normal African style the time it was due to start was different from the time it actually started and people drifted in during the day, surprisingly the most people arrived around lunch time! We started with 4 and ended up with around 48. Lunch was chicken, rice and local vegetables, the chicken had been happily wandering around the compound prior to lunch....so at least the meat was fresh and free range. They cooked the meal on small fires in the pastors house. The afternoon session was going well till it rained, and then it was rain stop speaking. With corrugated iron roofs the rain thunders down and so you cannot hear the speaker, so we had to sit and wait for the storm to pass.
It hasn’t rained here for months and then we arrive and it
rains so the people are pleased, even if we preferred the sunshine. It
certainly made getting back to the main road interesting as the mud roads were
now very muddy so we slid our way back. We did stop at Samuel’s house on the
way back and met his father, who was 93. He was recently baptised at a youth
camp that Samuel had organised.
We arrived back at Kericho and they hadn’t had any rain,
until we arrived and the skies opened. It was so fierce we couldn’t sit on the
balcony and the rain started coming in the room. At one stage there were large
hail stones but it was entertaining.
On Sunday I was preaching back at the church and so we had
the long journey again. They had a problem when we arrived, someone had lost
the keys to the padlock securing the door at the pastor’s house and needed to
gain entry to prepare the fires and food. I therefore had to give technical
advice on door entry methods to gain access and it worked. According to the programme that we had the
service started at 0930, but as usual it was nearer 1030 before we started. The
service lasts several hours as everyone takes part, there is a lot of singing,
mainly in the local Dhulou language, we did have a hymn book but the words were
in Dholou so we just sang along making ‘a joyful noise unto the Lord’. I
preached on the parable of the talents to link in with the previous days
teaching. Following the service there was a time of thanks for our visit and we
were given some gifts, including some local craft, some nuts and a big bag of
bananas – we will eat some and pass the rest on to the college.
We came back to Kericho and arrived as usual just before the
rain did. Before lunch I went for a run and did some hill repeats, only to find
out there was no water on my return to the hotel. There was a problem with the
system. I had to wash in a bowl and was
a bit smelly for the evening meal. I had fresh fish with chapatti, Linda had
eggs and rice.
Monday was our first day at the college and I was lecturing
on homiletics. Linda was in charge of organising the photocopying. I have about
25 in my class, although some seem to dip in and out, some had been away for
the weekend and so were only joining us the next day, but that is life here. The day went well, I
had the students doing some group work and then delivering feedback to the
class, some of the girls are very shy.
Linda went to see the Prison Chief Superintendent to organise a visit to
the women’s prison the next day and to collect the photocopying. She succeeded
on arranging the visit, but failed on the photocopying. The shops had all
closed for a rally to protest against the business rates increase so she
couldn’t get our materials. There was a problem with the water again when we
got back to the hotel, we have none
again, but they are trying to fix it.
On Tuesday I woke up with a high fever and ‘Kericho trots’
so was confined to bed. We didn't have any water so had to use another room,
till that ran out. They said they are going to call a plumber today. Linda went
off to the prison where she spent two and a half hours with 15 female prisoners
teaching them craft which included how to make caterpillar cards and bunting.
The prisoners enjoyed it and she had two guards with her. She popped back to
the hotel to see how I was, which was not good, I had a high temperature and
was quite poorly. However, she did not stay long, as she now had to go to the
college to deputise for me and take the afternoon lessons. The students had
been given homework which was to prepare a 3 minute talk and Linda evaluated
their delivery. The feedback from the teachers was that it went well and they
enjoyed it. I had briefed Linda on the running plan before she left and so she
had the students out in the grounds warming up and then doing some speed work
around the field before warming down, which they enjoyed.
In the evening Linda had to have dinner on her own as I was
still ill and not eating, we still didn't have any water, but it was being
fixed and the good news was by late evening we had some. Linda went for a
shower in case it disappeared again.
On Wednesday I was still too ill to go to college, although
improving as I managed to get out of bed today. I ate some rice cakes to keep
me going. I had given Linda the material that I was going to teach today at the
college and she again deputised for me, very ably I hear. She enjoyed doing it and engaging with the
students and covered all the material.
Due to the slow internet I cannot upload any photos at this time.