A Robber! An a renewed Trust in God!

(Monday March 21st)
Monday morning starts with a crash, after a long tiring weekend of "first's!"
Dad was to be at the compound pastors meeting by 7:30 a.m. an the twins were assigned to be at the weld shop at 8:30 a.m. an so we all tried to assume our new routines...i worked on laundry, which was another one of those "firsts," as far as how they do things here in Kenya, i washed all the shirts an dresses by hand, simply because they have one tiny front loader, an it took to long to run them through there, in my opinion anyway, i enjoyed the work, even though my back got pretty tired, an i was sopping wet till i got done...i kept telling myself, i might as well face the music, an toughen up sometime! an the washer!?! yeah it is certainly a "missionaries washer!" you have to push the knobs terrible hard before they work, an i kept taking lunges at the door handle, an propelling my weight backwards, in order to get the door open, but i soon learned how to operate the buttons on the washer, an after the washer door, an i have our little game of "tug of war" things usually progress quite normally from there! :)

So the twins usually have an hour lunch break, an then work till 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening.
so far they have done mostly odd jobs, running errands, running to town, becoming oriented with were everything is in town, knowing were to buy things to keep the weld shop running smoothly, an according to their stories over lunch time, they are also learning how to bargain with the locals, which should prove to be an interesting part of their lives for me to eaves drop on, on occasion! :)
they also said they took some welding lessons from Jadon an Lavonn who have been running this weld/maintenance shop for the last 4+ years.
Mom took Dad his lunch at the pastors meeting, which they have on the compound here, an it usually lasts from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening.

Monday afternoon, i got some chicken out of the freezer an made a marinade, an grilled some chicken for supper, that was a new experience for me... to grill with charcoal, i was used to grilling with propane, but it went fine, an when Dad came home he was so tickled, since he said he was thinking of grilled chicken all afternoon, an almost texted Mom several times to tell her to make some! so i was glad our minds had been traveling the same! ;) we ate out in our carport, an enjoyed talk of what each one had done an experienced that first Monday in Kenya! an also very much enjoyed that the approaching dusk brought temps down to a more suitable temperature, but what we didn't know is that the approaching dusk also brought some curious, an unwelcome visitors!!

As most of you know by now, we had a robbery on Monday evening, we went to bed as normal, an were just getting over our jet lag, an enjoying our new home...dad usually locks up the weld shop around 8 p.m. an then just before we go to bed he locks our yard gate, as well as all the doors to the house, (which if you know our family, you know this is a foreign thing for us, since our house in the states very rarely got locked when we left, on extended trips we would maybe lock the front door!)
so anyway, is it any wonder that with a whole ring full of keys Dad happened to forget to lock the back door? which also happens to be the kitchen door.
So we all slept soundly till about 1:30 a.m. when Dad woke up to a beeping noise, which just happened to be me trying to find the highest setting on my fan, i woke up an was SO very warm an the fan had stopped, so i had just found my setting on my fan, an went to lay down again, an Dad had gotten up, because he was so warm too, an couldn't sleep anymore, so he was on his way to the office to check up on emails, when he was just ready to step into the hall, from his bedroom, a short slinky little black figure goes zipping past him, at high speed, scaring poor Dad completely out of his wits!! Dad lets out a loud shout! an that is what the rest of us woke up to, i woke up to shuffling feet an sounded like people running, then i heard Dad shout out in dutch! "there's someone in here!", then i knew we were having a robbery, i slipped of the back side of my bed with the covers over top of me, shaking like a leaf! praying hard, an in my fright basically repeating two phrases over an over...then i heard dad set off the alarm which sounds like a tornado whistle back home...i still didn't know if Dad had gotten hurt or not, an i didn't know if the robber was still in the house, so i got up trying to find a more reasonable hiding place, i started for the closet, but my arms an legs felt like jelly, i honestly could not walk! then just as i was finally reaching my closet, my bedroom door slowly opens up, an there was Stan, checking to see if i was OK, an assured me that the robber was gone an that no one was hurt! praise the Lord!! we then saw that he left both of moms purses laying in the yard with the contents dumped out, he took here iPhone, but didn't get the Kenyan money that she had just put in the inside zipper of her purse the evening before! he also left most of our chargers for our electronics.
he had obviously made several trips before we woke up, since he had stolen our laptop, iPad, iPhone,tablet, two iPod, and a camera! what a haul! that leaves us with one iPhone an a camera. but like Dad said "things are replaceable, People are not!" so as you can imagine there was very little sleep for us the rest of the night, an has been a struggle for some of us since! keep praying for us in that!

(Tuesday March 22nd)
I slept in late because of, late hours the evening before, then i got up an did quite a bit of ironing.
the twins came home for lunch, an Dad was out doing odd jobs with Tommy, trying his best to glean all the wisdom from Tommy that he can before Tommy leaves.
Dad an Tommy also visited the neighbors challenging then a little on why that the robbers have come over the wall from their side to ours 3-4 times already, an have stolen things from our compound, but they have not encountered a robbery yet!? they said that they don't have anything that a robber would want to steal, who can you believe an trust in Kenya!? Dad seems to think that they are some how connected with the robbery we had, but we also, don't want to falsely accuse our new neighbors, an we want to leave the judging up to God.

In the afternoon i went to visit Carolyn Rodes, which lives right behind our house, a alleyway connects our houses, she is one of the teachers here at Kisumu, we chatted for a while, an i looked around her cute little apartment.

later in the late afternoon, Dad had come home a little early, an so him an mom an I went  on a drive through Kisumu, just seeing all the strange an new sites, an getting a acquainted with our home town, it proved to be an exciting trip, with Dad trying out his skills of driving a stick shift, with sitting on the right side of the vehicle, an shifting with his left hand, an driving on the "wrong" side of the road, he did exceptionally well for one of his first times!
all the people!! Wow! an the smell!? incredible! only the bad sort of incredible! cows lumbering around on the road,chickens, roosters, goats, sheep, an donkeys scattered everywhere! seems everyone is selling something, an first you smell frying chips (french fries) an then you smell animals, an then sewer, an over ripened fruit all mixed together! it reminded me a lot of when i was in Nicaragua several years ago, also seems they deep fat fry anything that holds still long enough! one comfort with that is that, there probably are not as many germs on food if it is deep fat fried like that!
we got home from our little trek an had supper, an went to bed early, slept several hours from 9:30 to 11:30 then i was awake from 11:30 to 3:30 :/ sigh!!
Jadon an the twins had worked on setting up motion detectors that set off a very loud alarm when motion is detected, the one back in the alley behind our house went off 5 times that first night. we didn't see anyone an assumed that it was just false alarms, since it was getting very windy over the time they went off, an then soon after that a huge tropical rain storm came through an knocked out our power, so we didn't have ANY motion detectors, so we comforted ourselves with the fact that generally robbers probably don't want to get wet, just to steal something, an went to bed leaving the protection entirely up to God! but the detectors going off sure didn't help the frazzled nerves any, but we are learning to trust God on a deeper level through all of this.

(Wednesday March 23rd)
Dad an Mom were gone all day today, along with Tommy an Margi, visiting people, an getting marriage licences to legalize a couple from church, that was living together without a legal marriage.

I made lunch for the twins an Whane (Shannon) they had been doing some painting on the outside of several of the guest houses here on the compound.
In the afternoon i sent Whane to deliver eggs to the allotted family. (each day a family gets all the eggs.) then after that i got him to round up all our empty water jugs, an take them to whane an Clara Yoder to fill them back up with filtered water.

I cleaned up the house, an voxed a little with Gretchen Miller.

the twins came home from the shop an said that we are meeting several families from the compound, an Mom an Dad an Tommy's down at the Yacht Club for supper, which is a beautiful place right on lake Victoria, about 5 min. from the compound, they have a well kept grounds, with outdoor pergolas, for their seating area, then that they carry all your food quite some distance out to your group.
The wind off of the lake felt so good an refreshing, it cooled off nicely then. I really missed my camera that night, as i would have loved to take pictures, an put then on the blog! I had to forgive again...
We got home around 9 p.m. an headed out for bed.

(Thursday March 24th) 
Dad an Mom, Whane, an Tommy's went to visit people again today, (Tommy's are visiting all the people from their church yet before they leave for the states.) they say that Kenyan people would take great offence if the "pasta" didn't come to visit them before he leaves for America.
Dad an Mom came home with wild stories of them riding on the back of little dirt bikes,(piki-piki's)  i so wished i would have been along, not only to experience the thrill, but to get a picture of my mom on a dirt bike! i cannot imagine this! :) the people they were going to visit, were not accessible by vehicle, so they rented five Piki-piki's an had drivers take each one separately. poor mom had blisters on her hands from hanging on so tightly, for several hours!
Dad brought home a report on the food, he said they were served soup at this one place, with the "favorite parts" of a chicken, floating around in it, an as you can guess Kenyan's "favorite parts" of chicken an our's very quite a bit!! he said that whole chicken feet were bobbing up an down in their soup! I was glad i had stayed at home that day!

About 10 a.m. i went an cleaned the guest house, as there was a guy from Pa. (Lyndale) staying there i believe. there are more visitors coming Friday, lots of visitors! an hopefully lots more!! hint hint!
after that i came home to make lunch, but the twins said that they are going out to eat with jadon, Lavonn an Lyndale, and that was fine with me since the electric was off when i got back from cleaning, an i wasn't sure what to make for lunch, the eletric came back on a hour or so later, an i did some baking, an other odd jobs, an took a short nap, since sleep is still hard to come by at night with hearing every little noise...Dad an Mom came home around 5 p.m. an we borrowed Marlins laptop an checked up on our emails, our favorite part of the day! ;) we then got ready for staff prayer meeting, which was at Tommy's at 7 p.m. we all sat in their carport as the rain fell in torrents an the temps dropped, cooling us "newcomers" off, an making the "seasoned Kenyans" shiver running for their shawls, etc. they had a little snack afterward to officially welcome our family to the Kisumu Compound, we then sat around an visited till 9-10 an came home, to once again "try" to sleep.

(Friday March 25th)
after yet another fitful night of rest, we got up Friday morning.
Dad was off with Tommy to do baptismal interviews, Mom was at home today, which was nice, she was doing laundry, an cleaning, i did some outside work, an caught up on emailing, then by 5:30 all us single girls, an the teachers from Kisumu, an Nakuru  all went out for supper, at a very pretty resort, it was also right on Lake Victoria, an their food was top of the line, very good, i had chicken filled with butter an garlic sauce, an sukuma-wiki greens was very delectable! we sat by the lake till our food was ready, (takes a long time till your food is ready here in Kenya) but the strong breeze by the lake was nice an we didn't mind waiting outside till our food came.
we got back to the compound at 7:30 an the youth guys were setting up the vball net in the street. (the main street inside the compound.) where we usually play vball, we had to stop playing twice to step off to the side an lift the net to that the Asian people that live in the compound here could pass through. there were also two guys from Nakuru along, so we had quite a tribe to play vball, usually there are only two teams with 4 on each, but we had 19 players tonight, we had some great games, an even got extended curfew!! yippee!

Dad an mom an the three boys went to Joseph an Becky Hostetler's house  for supper.
 an everyone watched the youth group play vball later in the evening.
i came home an had a long voxer conversation with Kate Yoder from home, was so good to hear her voice...an that wrapped up a great Friday!! an our first week in Kenya!
love an prayers,
Sylvia (for the Miller's)

P.S. sorry for no pictures this time, i am hoping i can get a camera an laptop sometime soon!