Homecoming

Of course homecomings are not near as much fun if you are returning to an empty home.  I didn't return to an empty home.  I flew up to Lodwar and arrived at my home around 4:45 pm.  Some of my friends were here to greet me.  Big smiles of welcome and exclamations over how long I was gone gave me to know that they were happy to see me.  Some of "My Kids" were also there and gave me huge hugs.  They knew I was coming that day and had stayed longer than normal to make sure that they saw me.  The visits continued for the next few days.  People just came to say welcome back.  It was very encouraging!

Samson, John Rich (my Dad's namesake), Lester and Joy Khisa came on Saturday to welcome me

My animals were also happy to greet me.  My dogs are very unruly.  I am not much of a dog person, but have two dogs as 'guard' dogs.  Even though they don't get a lot of attention from me, they still consider me their person.  They haven't been trained very well.  Its my fault, I know.  But, as I said I'm not much of a dog person so they didn't get that training.  Anyway, they were jumping all over me with excitement.  It was annoying, but also kind of fun.  :)

an old picture.  Robin is jumping and Batman is thinking about it

My kitty was hoarse from meowing for someone to pay attention to him while I was gone.  He can normally be heard outside in the yard yowling for attention.  When I got back, he just had a quiet yowl. It took a week or so for him to get into full voice again.  I was very happy to see him and I think he was pretty happy to see me.  He followed me around for a couple of weeks.  Shh...don't tell him, but he was acting a bit like a d-o-g.  He is back to his normal loving, kitty self now, so we won't tell him.

Chewy watching me type this post

I brought a new tower for chewy to play on.  He really likes the top sleeping place.

It was a very nice homecoming!  I'll leave you with a few shots of the kids as they are cute and I want you to love them as much as I do.  :)  This is not all of "my" kids that are in primary school, but some of them are in boarding school and couldn't be there when I first got home.

Emmanuel Ebei Ejore.  He must have been playing sock on a stick before I got there.

Edie (Idi) Ekidor - my Mom's namesake

Ichwa Ekidor - Idi's brother

Akiru is 5.  She needs a sponsor for school next year- want to help?  Contact me

Jennifer Adonga (Dance) Lobwel

Samson Lopeto Lobwel

Monday Lobwel being shy

Kelvin Losuru

Fix it time!

In June I spent some time getting things worked on.  When I came home, I found that my road sign had been removed.  It was very sad seeing the base and post without anything on it.  So, I decided it needed to be fixed.

I had some angle iron left from some project in the past.  So, I talked with a friend and asked him if he could get me a new sign made.  It needed to be something attached to the iron in more than one place.  So, he took on the project and came back with a pretty nice sign for me to put up behind the base that is seen above.

I thought this was great and would be plenty tall enough.  I didn't figure on my guard wanting to make sure it could not be moved at all.  So, this is what it ended up looking like on the corner of my road.

He must have buried it in two and a half feet of cement at least!  Now I need to find a hacksaw so I can remove the pole from the base.  I'm not sure what to do about the base as it is all cement too - the same guard did it.  He wanted to make sure it didn't get knocked down again by vehicles backing out of the lane.  It worked.  The sign was never knocked down again.  It just lost its top.

Next I found out that my generator was still not working properly.  It would only run my freezer and even then it was running poorly.  Since I had gotten a new refrigerator, I didn't want it to get messed up.  The power was out every day for 12 hours or a little more for the first six weekss I was home.  So, I really needed my generator to work.

I couldn't get it to work even though I took it to the generator fix it man in town and had the electric fix it men to my house to try to see if it was in the wiring somewhere.  My generator is the little one you see next to the flowery wall.  The bigger generator was one I was able to borrow from my teammates.  They were not back in Kenya yet, so I was able to use theirs.  After consulting with them about my problem they told me I just needed to get a new one.  Ugh!  A big expense, but it seemed to be really needed with the power being so iffy.  

I did buy a new generator when I was in Nairobi in August.  I ordered it over the phone so didn't see it before it was shipped up to Turkana.  I just knew the size I needed and the engine that might be best.  The expense for the honda engine was four times as much as the one I got.  I chose to go with an engine that we don't know a lot about, but has the name of the company that we order a lot of our water materials from on it.  I am pretty sure they will stand by it if there is any problem.  God is really good to me!  The generator is bigger than I had ordered.  It didn't cost any more and it will even run my a/c along with my fridge and freezer when the power is off.  One of the best features is that it has a key to start it as well as a pull rope!  My arm really appreciates that.  It was hard to get my teammates' generator started and I would sometimes have to call one of my workers to help me.

My fix it days were not completely over yet.  The fence around my compound needed some help.  There were a few places where the dogs had made holes and I needed to get those filled.  Also, on the side that faces Lumpy Bumpy Lane all of the makuti was old and falling apart.  Much of it had come off so that people passing by could see into the yard.  What you can't see, you won't be tempted to steal.    Also, lots of people walk on the road and will often pick up stones to throw at my dogs.  Of course my dogs also bark at them as they are walking by.  The makuti helps protect the dogs and me from prying eyes since my front rooms all face the road.

my fence looks like this with the Makuti now

My guards wanted the banda fixed as well.  They are guards for the yard and open the gate when someone comes.  They are not bodyguards :).  Just in case you wondered.  I agreed that it did need to be fixed and have new makuti put on the roof.  They wanted more than that.  They wanted the roof slope to be changed and for the rest of it to be renovated as well.  So, I asked them to call a 'fundi.'  A fundi is a handyman that is proficient in certain things.  The fundi they wanted to suggest was not available in June.  So, I had to wait until July to work on that project.  I did post some pictures on the blog in July about that fix it job.  You can look at that post to see how it was done.  

Catch up time!

Lets just say that life got in the way of my blogging.  Sorry, I do know that some people really enjoy reading these posts.  Thanks for your encouragement to keep doing this.  I will attempt to try to catch you up on what has been going on with me this year.

In case you didn't know, I was on furlough from June of last year until late May of this year.  Furlough is not a vacation.  I do get to see a lot of the country, but I am usually pretty busy with reporting to churches and individuals about what has been going on in Turkana.  That is not to say that I did not get a little vacation time while I was on furlough.  I did.  I just don't want you to think I had an eleven month vacation!  I didn't!

From January to May, I visited 10 supporting churches.  A couple of them I went to more than once just because I was still in the area.  I traveled in and through several states to visit these churches.  The churches were in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.  I put a lot of miles on my car!  I also got to see many old friends and to make some new ones.  It would be really hard to choose who to highlight and who to leave out, so I will not be telling you the names of all the churches, individuals and families that I spent time with during these months.  It is fun to see so many old friends.  It is great to get to talk about Turkana and the work the Lord is doing there!  Even so, for this slightly introverted person it was also tiring.

In May I spent my last few weeks in Colorado with my parents and niece.  I was busy purchasing the things I needed (and wanted) to bring back to Kenya with me.  I had a couple of days when I searched for some trunks to bring stuff back in and I eventually found what I needed.  I got a lot of things - it is embarrassing to think of all the stuff I bought, but I really am glad I got it.  :)  

Then I returned to Kenya.  When I got here, I needed to spend about a week in Nairobi.  I had to buy groceries, repack those trunks, ship most of it up to Turkana, buy a new refrigerator and a new wash machine and arrange to get those shipped as well.  It was a busy time.  I'm glad God helped my stay on track, because a lot of the time I just wanted to be sleeping since I had jet lag.  Thanks to everyone who helped me raise the funds I needed to get these two appliances!  I love them both and thank our Lord every time I use them!

I finally made it home to Lodwar on May 30th.  When I got here I spent some time just visiting with people, hugging kids, petting my animals and readjusting to the heat.  I was excited to see some fresh green things in my yard too!  Turkana had gotten some rain in April and early May, so things were doing well and not as brown as when I left last June.  I'll leave you with a few pictures of the things in bloom around my yard.

A blooming tree at the back of my dinning room

kids smiles blooming every time I saw them - even when clearing out brush because they lost school books

one of my workers planted these not knowing what would come up.  I like them!

another blooming tree.  These are fuzzy buds.

a plumaria plant

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I loved seeing signs of plant life when I got home and just wanted to share a little of my blessings with you.

ESL beginning class

Hello!

I know it has been a while since you heard from me!  Sorry, but the internet and phone system in Lodwar has not been conducive to blogging lately.  I am currently in Switzerland and Nairobi for a time and will try to do some updates for you before I head back to Turkana. I am in these places for a couple of weeks of meetings.  The mountains in Switzerland do make up for the long meetings!

I thought of using my phone in class to record some songs, but didn't think about the fact that you would be looking at the floor mostly.  I will try to do better in the future :).

Even with that, unfortunately, I have not been able to figure out how to get these videos to upload.  I tried last week and now again while I am in Switzerland.  I'm not having much luck.  It uploads the video but then gets stuck on processing the video.  So, I don't think I will be able to do this.  I got some help changing the video to audio and thought I might be able to do that, but I don't know how to upload that since it isn't a picture or a video.  So, I am going to go ahead and just tell you about it.  If anyone can help me for the future I would love to know how to do this!

My beginning class started out with the students learning several new commands.  They learned how to stand up, sit down, turn, turn around, walk, stop, go out, come in, point to..., look at ..., write your name, circle your name, spell your name and a few others.  We did them in many different combinations and even spent time outside under the sun finding various things near the school.  The students needed to learn the official names of the letters and they need to learn the order so they can eventually put things in alphabetical order.  So, I sang the ABC song for them and they in turn sang their ABC song for me.  It was a bit different tune and they called "Z," Zed.

I also wanted them to learn how to greet people and how to say goodbye.  So, I put simple greeting and goodbye phrases to the song "So Long, Farewell...." from the Sound of Music.  The students really enjoyed singing this song.  I was getting hoarse singing it over and over loud enough for them to hear, so I sang it into my phone and just kept hitting play for each of the verses until they got.

This class was a lot of fun and I look forward to working with them more in the future.  I also had my intermediate class as part of this class for about half of the week.  It was a good review for them.  When we got to the greeting learning time, I sent them out with a English speaking Turkana man to help them do a simple English Bible study.  They spent some good time practicing and remembering all they had learned in the past.  They were able to help the new students as they practiced greeting them.  I am hoping that this will continue to work out, but I am not sure about the teacher I am working with so you could keep that in your prayers.

Sorry no pictures this time or video, but I will see what I can do in the future.  Have a great week.

July's projects

Right after I get back to Kenya, people begin talking to me about fixing things.  One of the things that needed fixing was the banda that my guards sit under during the day.  This is just a cooler place out of the sun for them to sit.  When I looked at the structure, I had to agree with them that it needed to be worked on.  This banda was built by former CMF missionaries a few years before I came to Kenya.  I have added some Makuti (palm leaves woven to make a type of thatch) over the years, but not done much else.  

So, as you can see it needed some help.  My guards also wanted me to make the roof higher.  That required a carpenter and a bit of extra thinking.  The posts for the banda were only so high.  They were also still good and were imbedded in the concrete.  So, here are a few pictures for you to enjoy the process of repairing and improving it.

this is how we made the center post taller

We added plastic to help keep out any rain that might fall :)

This is the way it looked in the end - without all the 'trash' around it

left over 'murrim' - stalks of palm leaves