The rainy season is here. It has been raining lightly but consistently throughout the day yesterday and night last night. This morning it was still raining and we began to wonder if we were going to be able to follow through with our schedule. It was planned to visit three congregations today, but the first one was the farthest away. We had hoped to visit this congregation last year but were unable to because of the bad roads due to the rain. It wasn’t looking promising this year either.
We had arranged with our driver from yesterday, Cliff, to take us today as well. He was scheduled to be at the hotel at 7:30am to pick us up. I decided to check with Enosh and he said we were going to try to make it out to Olgumii in spite of the rain. When Cliff arrived we double checked with him and he said he would still be glad to take us, so we decided to go for it. Russ has been feeling a bit run down and decided to stay in town and get some things done here, especially since we were planning to be gone all day.
The roads were bad. They were muddy. They were slippery. They were rough. We saw cars, matatoos, and big tea trucks in the ditches and stuck in the mud. At one point we came to a spot where a tea truck was stuck in a ditch but was almost completely blocking the road. As we pulled up we saw a matatoo which had tried to go around it get stuck several times. There was an army of men with ropes pulling and pushing the matatoo out of trouble.
At this point I felt like we should turn around and head back. We weren’t even to Etago yet! But Cliff was adamant that we try it. After the matatoo cleared the road he made a run for the gap between the front of the tea truck and the ditch on the other side. He passed the truck but slid into the ditch on the other side. I almost thought we were going to make it, but not quite. I was looking out my rear seat window at a wall of dirt less than a foot away! But to our rescue came the same guys who had just freed the matatoo (here is free enterprise at work – see a need and fill it!). They came and after a bit of shoving and pulling set us free as well! We gave them 500 shillings (about $8) for their help and trouble and it was more than worth it. We were on the road again. There were a few more hair-raising situations throughout the remainder of the trip, but we made it safely to Etago to get Enosh and Fred and continued on to Olgumii. It was very muddy and there were several times where I thought we were going to be stuck, but our expert driver pulled us through every time!
We visited the Masaai congregation at Olgumii and had a long visit with the “chief” of the congregation about their hopes to moves the current church building and make it more solid than the original, and discussed the possibility of an orphan school here. It was an enjoyable visit and I was glad that we had made the effort to visit here.
From Olgumii we journeyed back towards Etago to the congregation at Kenuchi. This church is built on a hill and our car was not able to drive up it, so we had to walk. We almost didn’t make it up walking either. My shoes were full of mud by this time and I couldn’t get any traction at all. Climbing up that hill was like going up hill on a slip-n-slide! By the time we reached the top we were pretty wet from the falling rain and muddy from the knees down. It was nice to get to the top but we still had to make it back down again!
Slipping down the muddy hill at Kenuchi
While we were there the rain stopped and the sun started to peak out. We decided to go on and visit one more congregation on the other side of Etago in Omotembe. Once we passed Etago the roads became much better and we were more at ease. It was quite a hike from the road to the church of Omotembe, and the path was pretty rocky at first. This is a very beautiful area surrounded by fields of tea, sugar cane and corn nestled into the rolling hills. We had a sort visit with the congregation here and then they brought us bread and soda for a “lunch” while the choir sang a few songs for us.
The members of Omotembe church
One of the needs here is that of Bibles. They only cost about $8 each, but many of the people here are very poor. After returning to Kisii I went across the street to a local bookstore and asked about Kisii and Masaai Bibles. They had both available and told me they would give me a 15% discount if I bought them in bulk. I decided to buy them out (they only had 16) and plan to give them to Enosh and Fred tomorrow. In the past we have had the people pay a small amount for them - whatever they can afford - so they appreciate the Bibles, and I thin that is a good procedure. I will talk with them about that tomorrow as well. I would like to be able to supply more Bibles, but there is a limit to how much we are able to do with the funds that we have. It is a difficult balancing act at times. May the LORD give us wisdom...
In His service,Nathanael Mayhew
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