Etago Orphan School

Monday, November 9, 2009

Today is our first day with the Etago churches. After arriving in Kisii last night we slept well at the Zonic Hotel. It is a fairly new hotel, but it is not well maintained. We came in to our room last night and found the door knob to our room was broken and the door would not latch; only one out of five light bulbs worked; the door knob to the bathroom was completely missing and the toilet seat was not attached to the toilet. (We guessed that was for portability!) There were also no mosquito nets, which I was a bit concerned about after our first two weeks here. But in spite of all that, we all slept well and felt rested this morning. After breakfast Russ and Larry went to exchange money and get the gifts for the children of the orphan school. Every year KINSHIP sends money to buy the children Christmas presents. This year we again decided to buy them toothbrushes and toothpaste, but Russ also bought them some school supplies.

They returned at about 10:00am and made our way to the bus station for the trip to Etago. We all piled into a Matatoo that was going to Etago, and suffered through the painful 2 hour ride. Part of the road has been completed since last year, but much of it is still under construction, and the rest is in very poor condition. But the poor roads are only a partial cause of the suffering!

A sample of the poor roads!

People are crammed into the Matatoos like sardines and the chairs are made for smaller people. Imagine: Your knees are tight against the chair in front and rubbing against the metal frame of the seat since there is little or no cushion. You can’t move side to side because there are people tight on both sides of you squeezing together. It is quite an experience. The good thing is that it costs less than $3 per person for the two hour journey. Most of that must go to wear and tear on the vehicle!

When we arrived at the school the children were waiting for us, lined up on either side of the path to the church, and were singing: “Welcome! Welcome!” We entered the church in a lengthy procession of teachers, students, members, church leaders, and visitors. The children continued by singing songs and doing short skits, many of which were in English. It was quite a ceremony. After this we walked around the site, ate lunch and then visited with the school board about the accomplishments and needs of the school. They are eager to build two more classrooms for the next two levels; they would like to fence in the school grounds and build a separate toilet facility for the teachers – separate from the student toilets. It was a very beneficial meeting.

Etago school teachers

After our meeting we walked back down the hill to catch a Matatoo back into Kisii. It was about 5:30 pm when we boarded the bus and it was another long 2 hour journey back into town. It starts to get dark here around 6:30pm and it can be a bit scarier after dark, but we all survived! We stopped at the Kisii hotel to make some final arrangements for our Pastoral Conference in the morning. Most of the men from Nairobi had arrived, but most of the men from Arusha had not yet made it in. We are also expecting one man from Uganda who has not yet arrived.
After finalizing everything, we returned to the Zonic and had a light supper. Tomorrow is the beginning of our two day conference and so we pray: LORD, bless the travels of our men to and from the conference, our coming fellowship together, and the study of Your precious Word. Amen.

In His service,

Nathanael Mayhew

“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14).