Blogs from Maua, Eastern Province, Kenya, Africa

Hello, for the last time, from Maua! It is Sunday afternoon, and the internet café is closed, so I will be posting this blog tomorrow during my lunch break. We have had a wonderful last weekend here. Thursday we had Rev. Muriki over with his lovely family. His two children are 2 and 5, and they were so cute and energetic! Tony was very sad to say goodbye to him. Friday night we went to a potluck at the Savuto’s house. After the potluck, we all sat on the floor and played the card game “Nine’s”. We are truly going to miss all of the mission partners we have gotten to know during our few weeks here. Saturday, I wasn’t feeling too well: I felt that I had a bout of flu or a bad cold. ... read more

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 ... read more

Well, our time seems to really be winding down here! At the annual Synod meeting, Rev. James told Tony that he is already beginning to miss him. They seem to really have enjoyed working together, and I know they both have a great amount of respect for one another. Tony did a great job preaching on Friday and Saturday for the annual meeting! The theme of the conference was, “Service to God is Service to Humanity”, and Tony said his main goal was to encourage the pastors to continue doing their work. We got to meet the Presiding Bishop of Kenya, who wanted Tony to travel to Northern Kenya (on the border of Somalia) to see that not all of Kenya looks the same, and to see the work of the Methodist Church of Kenya (MCK) ... read more

Hello there. We are 3 weeks into our working time in Maua, this means it's the halfway point: we will leave to go on Safari 3 weeks from this Wednesday. Time is going by pretty quickly for us, with many new experiences. This weekend was a good one. Saturday we hiked around a ridge in Maua with the Sarsons and Katherine. We hiked to an area that is apparently an old volcanic crater. Very beautiful and lush, and I think I've mentioned before that the area reminds me so much of Costa Rica. On the way down, we ended up in someone's yard/garden area, and couldn't find our way back to the trail. A young man with a US Marines shirt on helped us to find our way back. Tony took a picture with him, and ... read more

What a full weekend we had! On Saturday, Tony’s birthday, we had the chance of seeing 2 Jackson’s Chameleons in a tree! They are for sure the most photographed chameleons of Maua, as Tony took many pictures!:) We think it was a male and female, and we think the female was pregnant because she was much larger than the male. They were so cool! After this, we had the duel birthday party for Tony and Katherine, the German IT missionary at the hospital. It was so much fun, and we ended with a very lively game of Guesstures (my team won!). Such good food… Claudia (another German missionary who is an occupational therapist) was a baker in her former life in Germany. She made a wonderful Black Cherry Chocolate cake! Tony said it was a very ... read more