Miller Family Kisumu, Kenya: Some of our firsts in kenya, Africa!

(Saturday March 19th)
After our exhausting trip, we all slept in on Saturday morning, with jet lag I usually wake up around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning I didn't sleep again after that, I got up around 8:30 an helped mom cook up some brunch, then we as a family got oriented with various tasks around the compound here, anything from welding, cooking, laundry, and cleaning.
I took a long nap in the afternoon.

the three boys and Jadon went to a motel several minutes from the compound here, where they have a nice in-ground pool.

Tommy's once again brought in supper, which is SO helpful in this transition of change...
while we were eating supper, a native guy was washing our vehicle for a $1.50 inside an out! almost gave me a guilty feeling, how hard he worked he scrubbed, an scrubbed, an shined, an cleaned those vehicles till they shone, and for a $1.50! wow! he said he is saving up to be a doctor some day, amazing what an inspiration of, "where there is a will there is a way!"

often in the evenings it cools off, pretty much as soon as the sun goes down, before then it is usually very, very WARM!
so tonight after the sun dipped west, Dad, Mom an I went on a walk outside the compound, milling about with the locals an striking up some conversation, the Kenyan people are very friendly, an are always welcoming us an letting us know they are privileged that we moved to Kenya.

this AMA compound is not like CAM compounds that I have been to, most CAM compounds are only Mennonites, living on the compound, but here it is a big sized compound with local natives living in the compound too, also there are some Asians, an often in the evenings we can smell them burning their incense, which adds to the whole cultural experience, there is a big wall all around the entire compound, then each house has a wall/bush surrounding the house, each house has a gate so it seems kinda like little cells, but we are learning to like our little "lot" on the compound here, the weld shop, where the twins are planning on working at is right beside our house, an then there is a big chicken coop with about 100 chickens also beside our house, so that gives for some "pleasant" breezes in the evenings! :) believe me! when your so desperate for any little puff of a breeze you tend not to care anymore what scent it is carrying! ;)

Another thing that is something for us to get used to, (there are lots!) is that there is a Muslim Temple close to the compound here, so three times a day, we can hear their mournful wails and cries, it always gives me the chills, but in another way I really like the sound of it! I guess it brings back memories of when I was Amish, an the way they would sing.

we are planning to go to Nycocoa for church tomorrow, this is the church where daddy will be the pastor.
Also, we are invited with Tommy's to one of the church peoples houses for lunch so that should be interesting, we are trying to learn all we can from Tommy's since they will be leaving us to ourselves, along with the church in Nycocoa in about three weeks!

(Sunday March 20th)
I woke up around 4:30 a.m. Sunday Morning, was awake from 4:30 to about 6:30, then I hear mom an dad talking in the other room, an heard my brothers laughing an talking in their bedroom, I had to grin as we are all facing this thing called jet lag! then there is nothing to do but listen to the early morning traffic driving on the main road right behind our wall, an the amazing morning bird sounds! I am finding out that early mornings can in fact be sort of nice! an for those of you that know me well, will know what amount of "denying the flesh" that it took for me to say that!!

Anyway, so we woke up to no electric this morning, an just sticky, an sweaty, enough to remind us that we had in fact moved to Kenya.
Dad and Tommy left several hours earlier for church this morning, as Tommy is teaching a group in instruction class right now, an wanted to show Dad how he does things, so the rest of us left around 8:50 as it takes about an hour to get to church, Charity Yoder drove, Margi (Tommy's Wife) an family an the rest of our family, along with a native friend of hers ( Leah) to church, oh! by the way it takes a certain measure of skill to drive in Kenya, a skill that I am pretty sure I don't have!

Tommy had a message on nonconformity an how we show the unbelievers around us that we are from Gods kingdom.
I was in the the youth Sunday school class, we sat on backless benches out in the lawn of the church, where we sang songs, some in Lou an several in English, most of the younger ones an several of the older ones can speak English, but it is with such a British accent, that it is very hard to understand, While we had sunday school the rest of the church had prep. services in prep. for communion.

the usher took his job very seriously, he went up near to the front to vigorously rouse an elderly lady from her slumbering, an made the children walk a straight line, an when they were whispering too much up on the front bench, his long limbs carried him swiftly to the front where, he said not a word, but with a very, very stern face, shook his long black finger at their noses, needless to say they crumbled in submission under his stern stare, children here in Kenya have a great respect for their elders. I was sitting way on the back bench, an saw him stride back to his seat, an what was funniest of all was that once he almost reached his seat, his face had this smirk of satisfaction on it! :)

after church we stood at the back where everyone shook our hands an thanked us for coming, once everyone had spoken with "bishop Tommy" an shook hands with the "new Pasta" we left for one of the families from church to eat lunch, which I can honestly say I was slightly apprehensive about!
we drove about 10-15 minutes an got to this modest mud house, were they were waiting for us outside the mud hut with a water basin an warm water, they washed our hands an escorted us inside where the food was spread out in a feast! two kinds of ugali, rice, chicken, beef, coloured greens, and soda very tasty, for the most part, an eating with my hands took things to a new level, as far as cultural experience was concerned, you took the ugali which is the texture of corn meal, only more thick, then you roll it in a ball, an press your thumb in the center an that is your eatable spoon, a thin dog wondered in the hut to see if there were any left overs, but the owner quickly shewed him away, it was very warm in the hut, an I kept telling myself to just take slow even breaths, with this warm weather, often times, you can feel light headed an dizzy. after much conversation, we asked the host if we had eaten enough to satisfy them, an if we could be released an dismissed, an after yet another prayer of blessing we left for home.
we got home around 3:30 an found that the electric was still not on, so that meant sweaty naps.
we got up again several hours later, an took cold showers in an attempt to cool down, we found that is was cooling of a little, an so we made pop corn an sat outside, Whane an Clara Yoder stopped by for a visit, an ate pop corn with us, an identified with us about all the new things a person faces in the first several months...they were the new ones on the compound before we got here, so they could relate very well!
so now darkness has fallen an I am sitting out side on our porch, listening to traffic an enjoying the comfortable temps!! PTL for the coolness of the day!
keep praying for us, no sickness yet! praise the Lord!