|
Home
Diary
Topics
| |
We spent the morning creating the wall structure for Baba Jesse's
new house,  using
rafters and string. It was good to get stuck into some practical work. For lunch, we ate
the chicken that the chief had given us the day before, together with the
three-carbohydrate feast of rice, potatoes and ugali. After lunch, Baba Jesse took some of
us for a walk through Garsen and down to the water collection point at the
river.On the way back to the building site, we saw some
massive vulture-like birds. We were later to see tens of them and find out that they were
marabou storks. A shortage of building materials meant quite a bit of sitting about and
talking. Claire and I discussed Literature Studies, Apologetics and the Bible, amongst
other things. Meanwhile, Carolyn and I persisted in winding each other up, culminating in
me getting a load of sand thrown in my face: we were "having a domestic",
according to John. |
Meanwhile, Tom had returned to the ‘Y’ to get our
football kit. We were to play mid-afternoon. Tom had borrowed a bicycle at lunchtime
for the short journey to the ‘Y’ and back. Four hours and three punctures later,
he returned. We’d already sent out a search party, who had been unable to find him.
As it turned out, he had taken a slight detour to McDonald’s for doughnuts. Well,
sort of. Being incredibly hungry, he had gone to a nearby village and bought something
vaguely resembling doughnuts.Difficult
to see the Marabou Storks here |
| Our game of football started very late, and consequently lasted
only 20 minutes. We drew 0-0, which was better than we had done in Nairobi. However, Baba
Jesse and Tom struggled to find a matatu to take us back to the ‘Y’. After an
hour and a half, they managed to persuade someone with a pick-up truck to take us back.
Having looked at the thickness of the tyres, it actually felt safer than a matatu. We were
late for dinner, but no-one seemed to mind. The YWCA staff were laid back, and we were in
no real hurry to eat more rice. |
 
 The pitch
It went dark quickly...
Very quickly |
| After dinner, I sat outside, under the one solitary light,
preparing a sermon for the next morning. After the football, we had agreed that Alison
would preach at the Pentecostal church, and I would preach at the Anglican Church, the
team dividing between the two. I was still preparing, when Harrison Caleb Jillo, a Pakomo
gentleman who had been doing some repairs at the ‘Y’, came along for a
conversation. He gave me quite a bit of background information from the Pakomo point of
view. Apparently, his grandfather had been one of the first Christian converts in the
area, and had helped to translate the Bible into the Pakomo language. He had become a
Christian just a few years ago. I never did ask what he did about having three wives at
the time. |
|
