Just call us roadies

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Up and at it and once again on the road. Today, we were joining Father Alfred (Fred) for a drive to visit remote schools and church plants in the outskirts of Nairobi supported by a new priest. We drove for about 90 minutes before reaching Father Gideon's temporary residence. Getting there was interesting as we had to drive through the center of the market on a "road" barely wide enough for our vehicle, much less the cattle, goats, masses of people and the small vendor stands where produce and clothes and shoes and furniture and you name it, it is there, is available. You can purchase gently used second hand clothes for 25 cents for a shirt or pants- many have North American logos- GAP, DKNY etc and they look brand new.

We visited a little with Fr. Gideon and then headed out for the tour of the 4/6 parishes he supports. It took over an hour to drive 20 km to the first one- very rugged terrain, deep ruts, through dried up wadies (deep ditches cause by run off during the rainy season), over beds of lava rocks. All this and our teeth are still rattling... Seriously, not a house in sight. Where are the people coming from? Some walk 5-10 km to attend mass on Sunday morning. We stopped in to see a couple schools- literally in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Again, who attends these schools? One we stopped at has approx 120 students, the youngest being just over 3 years old. Since most people in these remote areas don't own vehicles, the parents carry the children as far as 8 km each way, daily, to ensure these kids get an education. If the school runs out of water, they shut it down till they find the funds to get some trucked in - usually donation from a private citizen or a church group.

We also stopped at the home of a family Fr. Gideon was acquainted with. The grandmother cares for the 2 children while the parents work or tend to daily business. We were invited into the 2 room home- one room is for sitting and welcoming guests/ friends, the other for sleeping. There is a separate cook house for meals. There is no running water or toilet other than the tin shack with a floor hole. These people have never even seen a bath tub or heard of a shower. The one picture I am posting today is of the grandmother's reaction when I told her, in Swahili, that her grandchildren are beautiful. Our excursion took about 3 hours longer than expected so, trying to get back to our lodging, after dark and over again horrible roads was a challenge. After a few wrong turns because there are no road signs and what roads there are, are definitely jot on any GPS, we figured out we were on the road to Mombasa rather than Nairobi. We turned ourselves around and eventually made our way back to familiar territory.

Happy to be heading to bed. Praying for clear skies tomorrow as we are at the mercy of solar heating for hot water and so far, no sun for the last 2 days and there is no heating in the rooms- sleeping single in single beds does not keep a body warm. Even though it is Friday, we have decided to forego the Friday tradition tonight and are planning on wearing layers to keep warm (this comment is for you Sandy-FYI!!!)

Mouahhhh

MnA

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Photos

If you build it they will come
20-30 ppl attend church here every Sunday.

The Hope of the future
School children- they love getting their photo taken then seeing the picture.