Mid September

New chairs for the church.

The things we had hoped for that we spoke with Elder Usi about showed up on Sunday the 11th at about 3:00 PM. So we gathered some members and a couple of the Elders to help us unload. The roads are so narrow that the truck could not get to the branch building so we unloaded into our truck load by load and hauled everything to the church. We were very pleased because we received 100 nice chairs, which means we do not have to move chairs in and out of the classrooms for sacrament meeting and they are padded!! 25 small chairs for the Primary, now all the kids can sit down, 4 folding tables, again so we don’t have to keep moving tables around in order to have one for the things we do during the week and for activities outside. And we received 4 white boards, hooray no more chalk dust all over everything. And we will mount them on the wall so there is more room in the classrooms. We even received the generator we requested so we don’t get in the middle of some activity requiring electricity and have it go off (which happens every day here).

Sept. 12

Elder and Sister Byrd arrived about 4:30. They had scheduled a workshop on Career Development for the 13th and 14th. They really gave a good workshop. We had 13 or 14 people show up. Several non members.

Note the beautiful new chairs, the tables and white board:

While they were here we visited the Maasai Market.

Sept. 16

We went with Bro. Elias (the first counselor in the branch pres.) to see his home, and meet his family.  He lives about 200 km away.  We left at 6:30 a.m. and didn’t get home until 6:30 p.m.  He is a real maasai, with holes in his ears and dresses in the authentic dress, with a Bone Axe club and a big knife called a Boma.  

He comes to church on Sunday in a white shirt and black pants but during the week when he’s at work as a guide or a guard, he dresses the part.  He’s really a great guy and his family was so kind and gracious.  He was so excited to have us go to his home. His wife is named Agnes. He has 5 children. Pres. Spear (the Branch Pres.) also went with us.

We drove almost to the border of Kenya to a little village called Longido, stopped to buy some provisions for Elias’ family, 

then turned left off the road. We drove for about an hour, saw all kinds of animals

and there was a maasai lady on the side of the road who motioned for us to stop. She wanted to know if she could ride into the village to buy medicine. So we took her with us she sat in the back seat between the two brethren. 

We drove for a long time to a village and we thought that was where Elias lived but after the Maasai lady got out, we drove for another hour and a half (in low 4 wheel drive up the mountain).

Yes, that is the road. Note the beehive in the tree.

The higher we went the worse the road.

 As we were driving up the road, we met Elias’ brother 

modern masaai - checking his watch:

and sister in law. 

The sister in law gave Sister R. a blue beaded cross off her neck because she said Sister R. was a “church woman.”  

Further up the road, we met Elias’ herd of cows. We counted about 25 but they all looked very young, like only a year old maybe.
Finally parked, met some of his family,

then he showed us where he lived.  It was down the side of a mountain into a canyon and up another mountain (Kitumbaine). No road, we had to walk.

He sent word for the family to come down and help carry food up.  When they came, we all carried bags of food and water up to his home.  It was a long and hard hike!

We met his grandmother, and several other family members, his mother,

his sister in law, an elder brother (different mom), a sister (widow  2 yrs) and his father.  

His mother had made 2 beaded bracelets for Sister R. (called umpendeza) Her bones are so big, it did not slide over her hand but she was determined.  She and 2 other ladies worked until they got it on, (nearly broke her hand).

While we were there, we sat in Elias’ home which was a round house made of sticks with mud and cow dung mixed together and spread over the sticks.  The walls were thick about 6” or so and it had a thatched roof. It was very dark and cool (on a hot day, probably warm on a cool day).

We sat on little 3 legged stools made of wood and only about 6 “ off the floor.  The only things we could see in the house was a place where fire had been, a cup hanging on the wall, and he showed us a gourd that had been cleaned out and fixed for the baby to suck on. 

Here you can see the 3 legged stool.

All the family lives in little houses that are similar, placed in a circle surrounded by a wooden fence of sticks. Inside the circle of houses is another circle of sticks where they keep the cattle at night to protect them from wild animals.
This is Elias in the animal pen with 2 of his children.

This is Elias, his wife and their baby.

Their custom is that the children come to their father with their head bowed and he pats them on the head, then they raise their head to him.

We sat and talked about the gospel and Bro. Elias’ concerns for his family and the challenges he faces in life. We told him, that things sometimes seem impossible but with God all things are possible and that He knows Elias and what a good man he is and He will bless him and cause miracles to happen in his life.

Also while we were there, he insisted that we try some of their native food.  So we did.  Maize and beans (cooked together and called Makende).  His wife brought us a big bowl and 2 spoons (we ate out of the same bowl). Sister R. told Elias she wasn’t sure we could eat that much and so he should get a bowl and we would share with him, which he did. The food tasted ok, just like corn and beans.  We did have a cup of orange soda that he had bought and carried up to the house.

When we finished, we sat outside for a while.  We couldn’t visit much (language). They all speak their native tongue and Swahili. But they were so kind and we hugged a lot and said asante sana a lot. Elias went to visit for a few minutes with his father and then we started home because we were afraid it would be dark before we got back.  

Before we left, they chased chickens around the inside pen where the animals are kept and caught a beautiful rooster which Sister R. was afraid they would give to us (and she is so scared of chickens!)  

But we found out that it was for the branch president.  We worried how it was going to get home. We assumed they would chop its head off. (We were wrong!)  We thought it should just be put in the truck bed under the cover. (wrong again!) They did however put it in a plastic bag with it’s head sticking out and it rode in the back seat, squawking all the way home!  It made Sister R. very nervous. But she survived.  We asked the branch pres. if he was going to chop off the head.  He said no, he didn’t know how.  We asked him who would kill it.  He told us his wife knew how and would do it.  (We haven’t checked to see how the chicken dinner was)

A sister in law needed a ride to Arusha to visit her mother.  So we brought her back with us.

Anyhow, It seemed like we would never get back to the main highway.  We kept thinking it was just not far but it took hours and the road was very rough and mountainous.  When we came back a ways, we took pictures of the mountain where Elias lives, 

it was a couple mountain ranges over from the main road.  By the time we got back to the main road, we couldn’t even see the mountain range where he lives.  It was a most exciting day and very exhausting.  But what wonderful people he has in his family, so kind and gracious.  (His father was a polygamist, with 7 wives but 5 of them have died, there are only 2 left.)

Saturday Sept 17th we started the YSA program. We had a really good activity. They were really skeptical of what we were going to do but before long they began laughing and everyone had a good time. We played Savez-tu Passer, the magic game with 9 books, taught them the double clap polka, and did a relay race carrying a boiled egg in a spoon held in your teeth. We had refreshment of chocolate cake and strawberry punch. Then we all helped clean the chapel.

Sept. 18, Sunday

Today we gave the talks in Sac. meeting. Pretty scary but I think the spirit was good. We spoke on “Love Thy Neighbor” along with home and visiting teaching. The second counselor in the branch presidency translated for us. We are still not up to speed with the language. We may never get there. We are getting pretty good with the greetings (they have dozens) and with counting but that’s about it.