Saturday 16th Oct.
Unity of the Spirit

This morning is spent preparing the hall for the Trustees meeting.  40 chairs are taken for hire for an event elsewhere which leaves us with just enough for ourselves.  Patrick has fetched a mechanic to work on the car after trying to get the boys to bump start it.  The mechanic gets it going but it’s not running on all 4 cylinders  He pronounces that it needs a new spark plug – not 4 but 1!  They manage to drive it away despite the steep incline on the drive.  In the meanwhile Chrissie goes off to get some photocopying done before the meeting.  The get-together was due to start at 9.30am, but Patrick, Sammy, Grace and Christine have arrived by 10.05.  After Chai (very sweet tea made with milk boiled up with tea leaves and sugar), bread, jam and a chat it finally got going at 10.30.  Grace has to leave at 11.00, Sammy at 12.00 and Patrick at 13.00.  Apinja turns up at 10.40, she had a message that the meeting would start at 11.00am.  Then Emily appears at 11.15, she has had Malaria and is still not too well.  Despite all the interruptions the meeting carries on.  The outcome is that they are going to propose some more Trustees and invite them along to a further meeting next week.  Peacemakers Kenya will remain as a Community Based Organisation until May 2011 when the license runs out.  It was stressed by Brenda that they will now have to begin to generate their own funds as Peacemakers UK is very short of money.  Indeed the work on the site is slowing right down because of this.
Sandy read Ephesians 4 verses 1-6: Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Brenda then said "Blessed are the peacemakers, not Catholics, not Methodists, not Anglicans, not Baptists."  Everyone departs and Sandy and I type up the minutes, then we sit in the shade of a tree until Brenda, Christine and Cyrus return.  They have Phillip with them who is an ex-addict and he knows Cyrus.  Another gentleman turns up who is working in the area; his name is Luthman, which is a very interesting name for a Kenyan.  He is curious to find out about the Resource Centre as are many others in the area.

  After Chai we decide to visit Thuchi River Lodge which is just down the dirt road, for a Sundowner.  We have stayed at Thuchi before, it’s been really run down in the past and is looking a lot smarter than when I first stayed in 1998.  Just as we get level with the property a large blond man crashes out of the bushes at the side of the road.  He is immaculately dressed; it is Per, a Norwegian who is working at an East African Pentecostal Church (EAPC) Orphanage down the road.  We met him briefly when we were last in Kenya in 2007.  He explains to us that he was checking the water pressure at the gate valve which is just outside the Lodge; people keep messing with it which reduces the pressure for the Orphanage which is further down the road.  Per comes with us for a drink by the swimming pool, which is very refreshing.  Isaac and the boys arrive and we buy them a soda, which is the generic name for any fizzy non-alcoholic drink.  As we talk, we realise that Per was at the same Bible School in Kvinisdal, Norway as Brenda and her husband, Dennis.  He is a really interesting man and has been visiting this area of Kenya for the last 20 years but his wife never comes because she doesn’t like flying.  They have 3 daughters and 13 grandchildren.  Per used to work for the Post Office but is now retired.  He spends most of his time writing birthday cards….We finish our drinks and it begins to rain, the boys had arrived in the truck so we take it back to the site to prepare the meal, mushroom omelette, rice and tomatoes.  One of Chrissie’s friends had sent her some dried mushrooms so this is a real treat for us.  Just as Christine sets off to pick the boys up they arrive having walked from Thuchi.  We all eat together whilst the deluge hammers on the roof, it looks like the rainy season is upon us!  The boys do the washing up then go back to Plainsview.  We talk about the events of the day then sort out some hot water for washing, then to bed.  It rains heavily during the night.

Sunday 17th October 2010
The Benefit of Bananas.

We awoke to strange noises in the distance which turned out to be prayers and singing.  We were able to have an extra half hour in bed because it is Sunday.  Brenda and Chrissie are planning to go to the EAPC Church nearby.  I decide to do some clothes washing instead.  Everyone in Kenya uses OMO which is a UK brand of washing powder from the 1960’s.  It is very powerful and can be used in cold water.  Because the water is so soft it takes ages to rinse the detergent out of the clothes, but it leaves my hands and especially my nails, very clean.  They seem to have grown very quickly since being here (my nails, not my hands). I think it’s because of all the bananas I have been eating.
Before Christine and Brenda return we manage to finish typing the minutes from yesterday’s meeting.  The boys visit just as we are getting lunch together but they don’t stay long.  We have egg and tomato sandwiches which are really tasty, all home grown organic apart from the bread.  I am then tasked by Christine to sort out all the photographs of the construction on the site to date and put them into one file.  It takes about 3 seconds to ask and 3 hours to do it.  I even find some short video clips of everyone helping to put the roof frame on Kisimani House.

  We are getting to the point where the money will dry up soon so Brenda and Christine go through bills working out priorities.  We have our meal early for a change, it’s spaghetti, tomatoes and bacon with a glass of wine, lovely.  Afterwards I do a slide show on Christine’s laptop of all the photographs.They aren’t in sequence but that’s a job for some other time.  The rain which has been threatening all day begins and there are a few brief power cuts before bed time.  The downpour is so heavy that it wakes me up in the night and I wonder how much water is needed before we are swept away, being at the bottom of quite a steep slope.  It doesn’t happen and I fall asleep eventually.

Monday 18th October 2010
A Grand Day Out?

We are going to Embu today, Christine, Sandy, Me and Abs (Absalom) who is one of Isaacs’s younger brothers.  I’m very excited because Christine doesn’t let us go out much.  Before we set off Brenda has an early visit from Apollo, a Pastor who she knew from a long time ago.  He has fetched a chicken and some eggs; the chicken is too young to eat so Chrissie is going to rear it until it is. The eggs are just right for scoffing before they get too old.  Another visitor, Caesar, the Head Teacher from Kivuria School which has a separate unit for handicapped children pops in to see us too.  Ardeley School near Stevenage has given money to build a toilet block for the disabled children and because of the rain, the holes that have already been dug in preparation have begun to collapse.  As work is slowing down because of lack of money on our site it is agreed with Caesar that some of the boys can start on the foundations tomorrow as the Ardeley money has been ring - fenced.

At last we go off to Embu with a food shopping list, a building shopping list and a visit to Chrissie’s mechanic planned, because the truck still isn’t well.  Christine, like a sailor with a girl in every port, seems to have a mechanic in every town!  On the way the Toyota starts making strange noises as if something is loose so we stop and take a look underneath but can’t see anything obvious, we drive on carefully, expecting something to drop off and clatter in the road.  It doesn’t happen and when we get to Embu there is some sort of parade which slows us down, but we dive down a side street to the office of Doctor James who is a retired Opthalmic Surgeon who helped us run some free eye clinics in 2007.


Doctor James & Dave

James is so glad to see us and we give him a large bag of blind canes that have been donated by the Hertfordshire Society for the Blind.  He is delighted to take them because he has links with a Blind School and is also planning a free Clinic in the North with the Embu Lions soon.  Then we go on to find the mechanic who has a shack on some rough ground in an even rougher part of town.  We have already ‘phoned ahead and he is expecting us.  We explain what had been done to the truck in Nairobi and he takes it off for a test drive.  He decides that he needs some time to investigate the problems so we head off to a wood yard for some prices for Kaka (which means friend) our Carpenter.  Afterwards we walk into Embu to a supermarket and Abs goes off to the hardware store with his shopping list.  Following shopping we leave the bags and join Abs.  The builders shop is a hive of activity and dangerous too, with men continually hurrying through the shop with big sheets of sharp metal.  Abs has got most of the things that are needed but we want a particular brand and colour of green paint to finish off the doors and the assistant keeps telling Abs that they don’t sell it.  After persisting we eventually get what we want, sometimes persistence pays off in Kenya.  It’s lunch time so we decide to leave all of our purchases while we go to a café.  Tandoori chips are the meal of choice, but they are too greasy for me so I leave half of them which is a pity because they are very tasty.  We have a soda too and are able to relax for a while.

For the first time since I started visiting Kenya I am beginning to feel the effects of the altitude and would gladly have fallen asleep!  Christine rings the mechanic who says he wants to show her something on the vehicle which sounds a bit ominous.  We agree that she and Abs will go, leaving her mobile with us.  We have instructions to mooch around Embu looking for a driving licence wallet for Isaac and buy some air time for Christine’s new internet phone.  Sandy and I decide to have a coffee before we leave so we are presented with two cups of hot milk, a spoon, two sachets of sugar and two of Nescafé.  The waiter snips the ends of the sachets and leaves us to it.  We drink the coffee slowly then pay the bill and go for the mooch which lasts hours, being punctuated by hiding from a drunk (twice), being offered a shoe shine - Sandy in Crocs and me in flipflops, a visit to buy a top up card, the offer of a plastic wallet (no thanks) and standing around breathing in diesel fumes and red dust at the side of the road looking anxiously at the gathering rain clouds.
Eventually Sandy rings Abs, the news is that the mechanic is just testing the truck and they will be with us soon.  I am so glad because I do not fancy a ride to Runyenjes in a Mutatu which are small, overcrowded mini buses manned by a squadron of ex Kamikaze pilots.  Christine and Abs finally arrive and we fall into the truck, dusty, hot, tired and suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.  As we approach Runyenjes the truck loses power and the temperature gauge goes off the scale.  We turn the heater full on and keep going, Abs rings the mechanic who tells us to take it back!  We press on to another mechanic who Christine knows, just outside Runyenjes and as we roll up the engine dies.  Sandy and I go on to a chemist to buy some cough medicine (not for the vehicle) and just as we walk back Chrissie and Abs appear in a white Toyota saloon.  It is a friend of the mechanic’s who only wants petrol money to take us home.  We drop Abs off at Kathageri cross roads and go on to the site, arriving at the front door in style to the amazement of Brenda.  Everyone has already left so I light the fire and clear up the dining room whilst the girls make corn beef hash, bananas and custard and stale cake, not I hasten to add on the same plate, although it would save on the washing up. 
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