Hello Family and Friends: (Hey, check out the date 10-10-10.)
I mentioned a few weeks ago that we went Branch Presidents house for lunch on a Saturday. While there, I asked him to explain the philosophy about the Kenyan’s asking for money from everyone they see (didn’t quite phrase it like that but that the intent of the question). He explained that Kenyans have the other person’s interest at heart and they love to make other people happy. If someone needs money or anything else for that matter, they love to provide it. It gives them a sense of satisfaction to help others. He gave his family as an example. He had eight siblings; they all have college educations and are all very successful. His father spent all his money on his kids for education etc so now he has nothing to live on. His kids now all send money each month to support their father. They are in the process of building him a house because he never had one while he was raising his kids. On a side note, the Branch President’s mother died when he was young and his father never remarried which is unusual. Most of the time a man here will remarry. So anyway, I’ve decided to apply those principals in my life, I’m going to give all my money away and depend on my kids in my declining years.
I am always amazed at what can make the folks here happy. After Debi got here, she wanted to get some things to make the house look a little more like home. So we got pillows for the bed, bath mats for the bathrooms, toilet brushes with holders and an ironing board cover. The ironing board cover made Christa’s (our house keeper/cook) day. Talk about the simple things in life that can make you happy. I remember giving Debi a camping saw for her birthday and I still hear about it 36 years later. I should have given her an ironing board cover. Christa likes having nice furnishings even if it isn’t in her house. She gets to take care of the house like it is hers.
Speaking of simple things that make people happy; there are many times I see people walking around with one tool. A pipe wrench, a hammer, a shovel, a hack saw, a wheel borrow, you pick the tool people will carry it. It’s like a rite of passage. They have a tool and now they are someone because they have a means of supporting themselves. The men line up when they are hired to get uniforms, steel toed boots and hardhats. They wear them with pride because they now have a job that provides income. The wage here is 80.5 Kenya shillings per hour (which equals $1.00/hour). Everything is provided however (housing and utilities), so not much is need other than food, which is cheap (goat and maze).
We are so blessed and most of the time we don’t appreciate what we have. I’ve said it before; you don’t have to be here for long to understand just how well we have it in the good old USofA. We can complain all we want but it would be a real shock to our systems to give it up what we take for granted. Running water and electricity would be two of the first things to go by coming to the bush. When I walk through the community here and compare it to what I have in the US it makes me very grateful for the opportunities I have been blessed with.
So just got back from church. I’d say the meeting was exciting but I was the concluding speaker and I spoke on home teaching so I’ll let the Langata branch be the judge of if it was a good meeting. But anyway, before the meeting started I asked the Brach President if we could use priesthood meeting next week to do some home teaching. We will call those people that are not in church and tell them we miss them and would like them to come next week. Home teaching here is so difficult. Few people have cars and those that do seldom drive them; too risky with all the crazy drivers. So I ask if we could count home teaching if we called and talked to the members. It will get things moving and hopefully let people know they are missed. The chapel was full today and extra chairs had to be brought in so activity is certainly increasing and will provide more strength for the branch to be divided.
Oh, and by the way, we saw a leopard along the road on the way home from church!!!! Debi almost got a picture of it (she will post what she got on FB). It shows a big cat in some bushes. It was kind of exciting to see one in the wild. After Debi missed the shot, I told her I would wait in the car if she wanted to run after it to get a close up. When we got back to Magadi, we talked to some local folks and they said that leopards are bad animals. The Maasai don’t like them because they kill their animals. So that was our excitement for the week.
Love you all, send us a note when anything exciting happens back in the US.
Paul/dad
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