Sabbatical Days 21 & 22

Sabbatical Day 21 (14 August)

Woke at 5.45. Up by torchlight, throw on some clothes, outside to the toilet and back in again for another hour’s sleep. Up again at 7 and over to Stephen’s house for breakfast. He makes very good yogurt. I notice that Kasoni, who while we were travelling was keeping her hair hidden, was now bare-headed. I ask Stephen about it. He says she kept it hidden on the journey just to keep the dust off it. It’s much finer than the usual African women’s hair. Kasoni is 24 and has not conformed to a lot of the local tribal customs. She is much more likely to take the initiative in doing things than most people in Tuum.

I have the opportunity to speak to Lynda by satellite phone – first communication since Sunday night. (11^th). 9.20 here, 7.20 at home. As BT used to say ‘It’s good to talk’ (for 9 minutes and 6 seconds precisely).

I have brought my Kindle with me, but the screen has frozen. Try doing a re-set with a needle but nothing doing. Anyone know how to fix a frozen Kindle?

Down to the church where I give the first talk – on Biblical Leadership as seen in Moses.

All have learned English at school (doesn’t mean all are fluent – think of the foreign language you learned at school) so there is no translation. This means the talks take less time. They appear to listen well. Some have Bibles and more take notes. As in Uganda some come and go as things proceed although none are answering their mobiles as there is no signal in Tuum. Afterwards I say to Stephen about the pastors in Uganda not being able to read out of the Bibles in their own language very well. He gives the opinion that this may be that they were never taught to read their own language. While they are fluent in it, they will have been taught to read in English with English books, so reading their own language out of a book will always be challenging to them. This makes sense.

We have a break for chai – tea, same word as in Uganda – and then have Session 2 – Nehemiah. Bigger turn out! J

Lunch is pancakes made by Kasoni. Delicious. Then talk 3 – Paul. Lower turn out! L

One of the men wants copies of the talks so I’ll transfer them later to Stephen’s computer. Time to sort out recent photographs.

After a nap it’s over to Stephen’s house for the evening meal. Stephen has a short-wave radio which gets BBC world service, so catch up with a few items of news. Another nice meal despite the warnings of Stephen’s wife, Angelina, who is currently in N Ireland.

Stephen is very chatty and isn’t short of an opinion or two (those who know him will be saying that’s an understatement!). I won’t go into our conversations in detail, but what follows in italics is what I glean are his thoughts (but filtered through my brain may not be what he actually said, so any reporting errors are mine!)

Leadership is not doing things for people or they never learn, it’s enabling them to do things for themselves, sometimes putting them into positions where they MUST do things for themselves. This means that sometimes they don’t and they suffer for it, but it’s the only way they learn and modify their behaviour. Mission agencies who do things for people, or who give them money, only encourage people to do nothing for themselves (if someone else does it why should I bother?) and in the case of money to expect handouts and not do any work. If people achieve things themselves, or earn they money they get, it’s much more positive. This means being firm about lending money but requiring it back, or not doing things for people that they can do themselves. A healthy young man who can work will get no handouts – but someone who has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own will be treated with compassion.

Meetings are interesting in that if there is a meeting and something goes wrong, the person who is NOT there will be blamed! Committees don’t work as Committee members are pressurised into favouring the groups they come from, or their families. The denomination’s central authorities are out of touch with local culture – trying to impose processions, robes and hymn-books on the Samburu is ridiculous. [I note that, although the local Presbyterian Church has been independent of the Church of Scotland for over 50 years, they appear to hold on to the trappings, including having ‘Kirk Sessions’. It might be questioned why we still do that in Ireland, although there is some justification in that in Ulster at any rate we retain something of Scottish culture, but in the middle of Africa???!]

Politically people use money to buy votes and then once in use their position to make money. One who came to stay a while ago handed out 10,000/- (about £80) to people when he arrived. One lady, who is an alcoholic, just used her share to get drunk. Seems that people give out money to persuade people to vote for them, and once elected expect people to pay money for them to do things for them. On the other hand there are good people in politics and if someone starts off with integrity and retains it, they could rise to the top in 20 years or so.

Regarding the railway, it still travels from Nairobi towards Eldoret through Gilgil, but the branch to Nyahururu has been closed for some time. Eggs used to be transported to Nairobi from Nyahururu by rail – which makes sense considering the state of the roads and the traffic jams in Nairobi. The government has recently introduced a Railway Levy to develop them. So the total tax on most goods is over 22% consisting of Excise Duty, VAT and Railway Levy.

Both my arms have been bitten a lot. But I’ve wondered if they really are bites as I’ve never felt ‘bitten’ and haven’t heard any buzzing insects at night. Stephen is of the opinion that they are hives brought on by the anti-malaria medication Doxycycline. The options are thole the hives and continue the medication or stop the medication, losing the hives, and risk malaria. As the hives aren’t too itchy I decide to thole them and continue the medication.

It’s dark and time for bed with the help of the hurricane lamp.

 

Jim

 

Sabbatical Day 22 (15 August)

Talk 4: Jesus as shepherd, farmer, disciple – attendance low at beginning but picked up once I started. Some seem to wait until you start and then come in. Teabreak and then Talk 5: Come, Follow, Wait, Go. Attendance further increases.

Afterwards I walk out of the compound to take some photographs. You can’t go anywhere but be mobbed by children who love seeing their photographs on the camera’s display.

Lunch is chapati – seem the same as yesterday’s pancakes but maybe that’s the same thing. Stephen’s fridge is acting up. It’s powered by kerosene, not electricity. The reason is that from 10am to 4pm there is enough solar power to run a few appliances at 240 volts (there is, for instance a washing machine that runs on this). It also charges some batteries which power some 12 volt lights after dark. But as the fridge has to run 24 hours a day it can’t use this, so is powered by kerosene instead. It’s a bad batch and keeps going out. The hurricane lamps are powered in the same way and the glass on mine gets black very quickly. Another thing is that phone communication is by Satellite which is expensive so calls are kept to the essentials. And while Stephen has access via Satellite for texts and for email that’s it. Nothing else, no web access.

After lunch sit in on organising meeting for the Youth Camps. Kasoni is in charge of this – I’m impressed how she handles the meeting. There are about 9 of us altogether and all but her are men. There will be two sections, a Junior under 9s and a Senior one 9-14a. The Senior one will be after I am gone. The children arrive tomorrow and the meetings will begin on Saturday. Each day the programme is:

9.30-11 session 1

11.30-1 session 2

2.30-4 session 3

4-6.30 games

7.30-9.30 revival meeting.

So not a lot happening then!

(Sunday is different – the church service is 10.30-1.)

It’s agreed that I will do Saturday session 1, preach at the Sunday service, and speak at the Monday evening revival meeting.

The theme of the camp is Discipleship and I spend the afternoon pulling something together for the Saturday morning on Peter.

The cost of the camp, by the way is 50/- for Juniors and 100/- for Seniors (38p and 77p approx.) This will be significant for some families but by fixing a charge will give the thing more value in everyone’s eyes.

A Canadian called Jay arrives for the evening meal. He is a Christian who worked in this general area for some time until his wife took ill with brucellosis. Back home he retained as a teacher and is back working as one on the other side of the mountain behind Tuum with Africa Inland Mission. He’s in Tuum to get his vehicle fixed and is accompanied by an African with an AK-47. I remark on this and Stephen says it’s not necessary as the watchman on the gate of the compound has a gun. I’m not sure whether to be assured or disturbed by this information. Jay is of Irish and Scottish descent – father Callaghan tracing back to Cork, mother Watt tracing back to he knows not where in Scotland. Pleasant fellow, and I continue to be impressed by the number of Christians who devote their lives in the service of Christ for the benefit of Africa, especially people like Jay who have to raise their own finance.

The garage in the compound in Tuum is always fixing something.

Another cultural observation. Samburu Honey (delicious!) is produced commercially in Tuum, put in jars, labelled and bar coded for the supermarkets in Nairobi. Sometimes, however, the jars have been found opened on the shelves. People have opened them and checked to see that the honey is not contaminated. Kenyans will buy Australian honey in preference to Kenyan honey because they trust that mazungo (white man) products will not have been tampered with, whereas they don’t trust their own products in this way.

Throat is sore tonight. Don’t know whether that’s due to giving the talks (no translation, so no pauses for me, and no PA, so have to raise voice) or taking a cold – I have a runny nose.

Jim