Day to Day

Sunday, Oct 10, 2010 or 10-10-10.

Sunday afternoon and the kids are playing with Joyce.  It’s been a lazy day around the Maier home today.  Did the watering – that was about it for my duties. 

Joyce easily talked me out of attending church today.  The AIC church we attend is just not very inspiring – mostly because I don’t understand the songs we sing in Luo and occasionally Swahili.  Every so often there is a bit of English in a song, but even then it sometimes takes me a while to recognize that is what it is.  And the sermons are very repetitive, going over the same point again and again – often somebody trying to explain a verse in 1000 words or more.

I do wonder about the fact there are many small churches like this one in the area.  I’m not sure if these are started by a local group who wants a particular type of church close by or a foreign missionary that zooms through and starts up a particular church and jets off to the next one.

I wonder if the church members would be going to another one of the many churches close by or this is the only church that they want.  Or maybe they think this is a good one since at times there are several (4 or 5) whites in attendance, or a good one to at least maybe get something from the whites.

Our church is located on a nice parcel of land.  It has the mabati (tin) church itself.  If Bethlehem had used the construction methods of this church, we could have had 5 to 6 times more room inside our new building.  There is also a house (at least I think it is a house as they talk about the pastor being able to stay in it when he is around) and another building which I have no idea if it belongs to the church or the previous owner of the property.  The pastor does serve about 6 congregations I think, so having a place for him to stay when he is here is not a bad idea I guess.

But just last week the chairman (I think that is who he is) of the congregation got up and talked about how nice it would be for the house to have running water and power.  What the heck, power and water? Really I’m thinking.  I got to be temporary treasurer for this church for abut 6 weeks, of which I only attended about half the Sundays, and the most I saw in offerings was like 400 shillings, about 5 bucks.  I hear hooking up power is about 500 bucks.  Not quite understanding even why they are thinking about it.  Most of the offerings go the the AIC managing organization.  Maybe there is a rich parishioner I don’t know about.

I’ll have to quiz Steve some on the origins of this particular congregation and his thoughts on the number of small churches in the area.

Speaking of Steve, him and Judi are in country now.  Nairobi.  The plan is for them to be driving to Mbita on Thursday.  Makes it seem like our time is quickly winding down here. 

I had to extend my visa this past week.  It required a trip to Kisumu to the immigration office.  I was surprised how quickly it went, the man doing it was actually multitasking and moving quickly.  But he still had to fill out his own form, even after I had already filled out two myself.  They don’t seem too concerned about some of the info you put on the forms.  I wasn’t always sure if they were asking for local info or US info, such as for mailing address and residence location.  So I used a Kenya PO Box for one and my Beaverton address for the other.  Only question I got was from the cashier that asked about the US address.  I said it was my home address and I was using the other mailing address in Kenya.  She was satisfied and went on completing the payment process.  The main man did ask about the address I was actually living at.  After trying to explain to him I was staying in a house on the Sindo – Mbita road with no house number I knew of, he asked if he could use the Catholic Parish address I had on the last registration.  Sure I said, figuring if anyone every asked about me there, someone might know who I was, but really, it it allowed me to complete the visa extension, I didn’t really care what he put down.

It was nice to spend a little time with Morgan.  I hung out with her for part of the couple of days and got to see her in action at the pre-school she manages.  I got a chance to take some video and snaps of her in action.  We are going to be putting together a promotional video for her.  She needs to raise some fund for her time here next year.  So get ready to be asked to pony up some dough for her. 

Oh and keep your eyes and ears open on jobs for Joyce.  One of us really needs to work when we get back – might as well be her.

Byron’s in here disturbing me while I write this – burping in my face.  Joyce is close to getting him accepted in CGA for next year.  His uncle seems to have all the papers needed – birth, death certificates, etc.  Let’s hope they are all legit and the final application gets completed.

The third modem was not the charm.  The Orange modem sucks.  I can’t get the high speed connection anyplace I’ve tried around the school or the house.  I even went to the highest point on the school land and up to the peak of the roof here at the house.  Well, maybe this one will be going to Morgan in Kisumu when I leave.

Going to try for number four, but that requires that Steve pick it up for me in Nairobi.

Got some huge avocados on Friday – 4 of them.  Each big enough to serve 4.  All ripe and ready to be used.  All for 60 bob – 75 cents. Total.  More quac tonight.  Probably will be making chapatti chips as well.

Time to move on.

Reporting from Mbita,

Paul