Habari!

What an eventful weekend we had! Tony and I enjoyed a visit to two churches on Saturday with Rev. Hosea who is the pastor of the circuit (which includes these two churches along with 9 others). Rev. Hosea and his wife had us over for tea before the services, and while we were at their house, we learned how Kenyans prepare food and what kind of stoves they use. We also learned about the 2 week process to make charcoal out of wood. It was a good time, and we had discussions about Kenyan marriage and the fact that arranged marriages are dying out. I asked them about men having more than one wife. I was confused by the fact that it seems that if some men have many wives, does this not leave some men out, because there aren’t enough women to go around? They explained to me that in the time when it was more common for men to have many wives (in the 50’s and 60’s and before that time), the people from one village would raid another village, killing all of the men and taking the women as captives. Therefore, the women would be given to the men in the village. I was so surprised to find that in the lifetime of my own parents, these things were happening in Kenya! However, having multiple wives is a tradition that is dying out here in Kenya.

After our visit to the first church, Rev. Hosea took us up on a walk in the hills. It was a perfect day with a beautiful view of the Maua National Park and the Sheba Hills (so named for the Queen of Sheba, who was understood by tradition to have come to Kenya via those hills from Ethiopia). At the top of the hill, we saw 3 shepherd boys and their sheep and goats. They even had the long sticks of traditional shepherds! We also heard people praying, and Rev. Hosea said that this is because some churches use these hills as an area for retreat and prayer.

After our walk back down the steep hill (I was glad of all of my hiking experience, and my good shoes!) we visited the second church, where they were wrapping up their meeting. We had missed the time of refreshments, so they had saved us two grape sodas and a coke for the 3 of us. They also gave Tony and me a loaf of bread each to take home. They said, “Here in Africa, when you are a visitor, we like to feed you. It makes us feel happy”.

Tony preached on Sunday at St. Joseph’s, the church that is right next to the hospital. Many hospital staff attended the service, and it was translated into Kiswahili (Swahili). Many people from the hospital came up to me today to tell me how much they enjoyed hearing Tony preach.

Yesterday Tony finished up the short hospital video, and I was back working in the Trauma Room. Today I am going with Tony to a local church meeting. We are enjoying our last week in Maua, and are looking forward to our upcoming Safari next week!

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