There are several churches around Tenwek, all African Gospel Churches except the hospital church where most of the long term missionaries attend. You can hear singing from the African Gospel churches all around the guesthouse, it's very beautiful. The hospital church is attended by native Kenyans as well as the American missionaries. Some of the Kenyas are hospital employees who live locally, others travel from farther away to attend church because they have heard about the church and its ministries. There are even some Maasi people who come (they are the tribal people most often associated with Kenya, with large holes in their earlobes, brightly colored clothes, and lots of beaded necklaces). We had English and Swahili songs and a worship band that included two 5-6 year old Kenyan boys with guitars.
After worship, there was an intense game of ultimate frisbee (pictures to follow) followed by lunch at a local Kenyan's house. The favorite meal in Kenya seems to be rice, some kind of beef stew served over rice, and chipate- a flat bread made of flour, sugar, water. It's kind of like naan except a lot thinner, but used for similar purposes. There always seems to be amazing fruit. Apparently mangos are grown east of Nairobi and brought over and pineapples are grown locally. They are served at every meal and are fantastic.
I also opted to run the hill to Motigo again, which I may be regretting tomorrow. It was definitely more difficult today; there was more dust, more trucks, and I am still adjusting to the altitude. But not including brief stops for pictures or to catch my breath, our time was faster than yesterday. There were several groups of children who ran along side of us for a few hundred meters. I tried to get a picture of one group, but it didn't turn out as well as I'd like. It was still fun to see them running though; they all say 'Hallo' 'How are you?' See below for some pictures of the trip-the pictures are slightly out of order and there is a random picture of a Kipsigis gourd in the middle; sorry.
The conversations over lunch and dinner have included a lot of discussion of world politics. Uganda, Kenya's neighbor to the west, held elections in the southern part of the country this past week to decide whether or not to create their own country and separate themselves from the northern part of Uganda. I'm learning that most of the population in the north is Muslim and most of the population in the south is Christian. I'm told that although the election results will not be official for several more months, plans are underway for developing a new government and political structure for a new southern country. We've also received insider information about the political climate in Egypt as one of the visiting doctors is Egyptian, although he has been in the states for 20+ years, and still has family in Cairo. Both these countries continue to need prayer right now.
After a fun and enjoyable weekend getting settled in to the community and getting to know the other visiting doctors, it's back to work again tomorrow. Next call is Tuesday.
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| view from top of Motigo; fertile farmland areas surrounding Bomet. city of Bomet in the distance |
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| view from top of Motigo; Tenwek hospital is the clump of red-topped buildings behind the treeline |
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| one of the kids who ran part of the way with us; the others were scared of the camera and ran away. on top of Motigo |
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| farmlands around the Motigo area |
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| an attempt to get a group shot of me running with the kids; they tend to run from the camera |
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| tea fields to the right of the road and a Kenyan woman carrying a child up the hill on the left. traffic supposedly travels on the left of the road |
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| tea fields beside the road on the way up Motigo |
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| sadly I left my real running clothes at home because I didn't expect to run; so I'm making do. this is in front of the tea fields |
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| farmland around the area; it was a cloudy afternoon, so it's not as sunny and bright as yesterday's run. |
