Thursday 14 July 2011

The one where Tim was called Jesus

So this is my journal.  Pretty apt, I'm sure you'll agree...let me tell you a little about our 'on the road'-ness...


So we left you at Mayfield Guest House in Nairobi with nowhere to go!  On our last day we thought right, well God isn't sorting us out with anything miraculous so we'll make a meeting of our own accord with an organisation...but of course, God had other plans.  That morning of our last day, 3 Americans approached us and informed us of the 2 people that had dropped out of their team a couple of days before they left the US and would we like to join them in their mission trip for the next 2 week.  Bravo Mr God. Bravo. So Charlotte was now our team leader and Dan, Cheryl, Nikki and Tim were altogether starting a new adventure for us all!

So...off we went to Kitale - north-west of Nairobi about 7 hours drive, basically on the border of Uganda. A man called Pastor Timothy would be taking the 5 of us under his wing...not that Tim nor I knew what we were doing with him! And for some reason we didn't feel the need to ask!
This is the road we've been living down - its pretty much impassable after it rains - which is almost every day...unless you have Superman Pastor Timothy with you who can seemingly drive anything, anywhere with any number of people in the back...!
Pastor Timothy welcomed us into his home.  It was sparse, with a 3 inch foam mattress, a single pillow between the 2 of us and a bathroom that consisted of a squatting loo and a shower above it.  I was slightly worried about my resilience. HOWEVER, this was what this trip was about...

Pastor Timothy shares his small compound with an orphanage that houses 40 or so children (of the 150 that he has guardianship over by the courts), 10 cows, a dozen geese (plus goslings), random chicken (plus chicks), 2 dogs, 1 cat (that went missing whilst we were there) and his own family.  His children sleep with the orphans so as there is no favouritism - he loves them all as his own.

Let me share some pictures of his home.

Florence (Pastor Timothy's wife) preparing one of our 3 meals a day. Amazing cooking skills with such minimal appliances!  We bought her some tongs before we left so this routine of sticking your hand in the fire to move the coals was not a regular occurance anymore...!
Tim 'helping' in the kitchen
Orphan Anthony, terrified of everyone.  I made him cry twice.
Tim actually helping in the kitchen, pealing potatoes.
Pastor's daughter Karen helping too.  She's 7.

Tim entertaining the troops!
We wanted to teach them the song 'There's no-one, there's no-one like Jesus'...turns out it's originally Swahili and they already know it...oops...
Gorgeous ophans sitting among the Singer sewing machines that the girls use to learn how to sew. 
So it turns out that our stay with the Pastor was going to consist of visiting churches and preaching at them and visiting schools and teaching at them. So here are some pics of those experiences...!

A 'nearby' church...2 hours drive each way and a 5 hour service. As you doooo...
Gorgeous Africans at church...








At this school, we handed out de-worming medication.
The first classroom that we went into at this school exclaimed 'Jesus!' and pointed at Tim.
Jesus he is then...
Tim surrounded by Kenyan children all amazed by his hairy arms!
As a thank you, locals made us outfits.
It was soooo generous.
A low point.  Tim's stomach upset. I was teaching in the classroom behind Tim and he was running to and from the loo.   
When Tim asked to be shown to the loos, the head teacher led him towards the newly built ones.
Sadly they hadn't been finished, and thus, the shack behind (near the donkey) was to be his throne for the morning.


Children looking through the classroom window at Tim...


One of the gorgeous girls I taught Jonah and the whale to.
We left the local area of Kitale and travelled south to Kakamega and gave out medication to another school...

The whole school of 50 where we handed out meds.  I'm in the white (skin and top) on the left!
Tim's there too!
The truck that we travelled in (standing up or lying down if there was a mattress in the back!) got stuck in the mud when leaving the school...some superb positioning of sticks by me (and another girl) made sure it got out.  Yup, I pretty much solved that problem.


Accomodation that night at Pastor Timothy's daughter's house.  Tim doing a superb DIY rigging of the mozzie net!
As we returned to the school the following day for some teaching, Tim and Dan were whisked away to watch the goat that had been slaughtered for our arrival, skinned. Mmmm...tasty...

Collaging Jonah and the whale.  
Assembly time to show off the Muzungus (white people) and for the children to share verses from the Bible and poems that they knew.


Gorgeous poem in swahili.  No idea what she said, but it brought a tear to the Pastor's eye so it must have been pretty fantastic.


Still gorgeous.


Mesmorised by...

The puppet show the boys put on! Tim is 'Geoffrey the Giraffe' which you can barely see on the left-hand side of the sheet.
Every situation needs a bit of America's Next Top Model.
Elizabeth, Pastor Timothy's daughter, looking slightly more elegant on the truck.
Roadside kids
Another church.  This one is in a village called Chaptise.  The church was in amongst Banana trees and corn fields.
The cutest baby in the world ever. Fact.


Oxfam advert. (Or just children sitting in church!)
Our hotel for the evening


Each room was named after a football team.  This was our room.

New level of sparsity - single bed for 2 and no pillows.  But GREAT mozzie nets so we were happy bunnies.
The loo.
Happy chappies.
Might be thinking to steal the baby at this point...

Even Tim has warmed to baby Benwill
An evening church service - actually it was an all nighter - we were allowed to leave at 130am after we'd all preached...they carried on through til the morning and then through normal church time from 9-2pm
Timmy preaching!

More sparse accomodation.  We had an oil lamp here!
Another superb DIY mozzie net job.

Church the following morning!  On the right is the Worship Dancers Team.
Flat tyre when trying to get home...


...and it's not a particularly busy road...


...ah ha! Rescue - sort of!  Tim had to hold on for dear life at the back!
So we are now without our team of Americans...we feel like we're missing limbs...family is fostered so quickly out here... 


We're now in Nakuru - about to go to Lake Naivasha where the guide book says that 'outside your bedroom window your view will not be that of bouncing bunny rabbits but of bouncing hippos!'  Tomorrow we are going on a self guided mountain bike tour around Hell's Gate - we hope to see giraffes and rhinos whilst on our bikes!  Best hope the fitness levels hold up then!


Just to finish let me tell you what our future hold and what we'd appreciate prayers/happy thoughts for...




  • A BIG THANK YOU to Mr God for sorting out the last 2 weeks - the people we met, the experiences we had and the joy we engaged in was simply amazing. Plus He provided places to stay and food to eat and we have come out the other end fit and well.
  • We plan to be in Zanzibar to do 2 weeks of language school as of next week - we pray that the school we want to go to will have us and that all we learn will stick fast!
  • We are now expected in Iringa, Tanzania in August up until the middle of September to help set up a guesthouse and hopefully be helpful in other ways.
  • We have no idea what we are doing after this so we just pray that God will put someone in our path who wants us (just like in Nairobi!)
That's all folks.

TTFN,

Tic Toc xxx