Island Study - Video blog

A little bit of luxury

In Kenya the hotels are not too bad, but Anne and I were longing for a little bit if pampering. So we looked into our personal budget and decided to splurge out with a night at the famed Sameta Lodges in Ugembo (the village where the church is). It was going to cost us about $100 but when we looked around and saw the big bath (a novelty here in Africa) the large lounge area in the suite and the huge bed, we were won over. We arranged to stay there the next night.

That day I dropped Anne off as I went to the church building. They were very nice and they let her in the suite at 9.30 am, when she arrived. She spent the day relaxing, having a nap - all together well deserved.

I arrived at the lodge very tried from a very full day of teaching. The first thing that Anne told me to do was have a long soak in the bath. That was when things began to go wrong.

I started filling up the tub but before too long the water ran cold. That was when I discovered the hot water system. It held 23l or 5 gallons. That equates to one inch in the bottom of the tub. The bath was out.

We went down for dinner and waited and waited to be served. Eventually Anne went to the kitchen and told them we were waiting. The chef aroused a waitress we had not noticed. She was laying over a table in a dark corner, looking like she was asleep, but she was talking on her phone which was attached to a distant wall socket.

Each item we ordered something we were told they didn't have it. Eventually we asked what they DID have. We ended up ordering spaghetti and fish. Then the wait started. The kitchen is designed so the clients could look in (they told us this in the brochure). I wished that I couldn't. Their activity was not what I would call rushed. After a while I stopped looking. About an hour and a half later we got our food.

Never mind we said as we went up to our big suite and that lovely large bed. That was when we realised there was no mosquito net! Sure enough we spent the night hiding under the sheets as the buzzing little insects performed kamikaze tactics.

Before we left the dinning room that night they had asked what time we would like breakfast. I told them at 7.30. I headed down there at that time the next morning and found a sleepy, yawning crowd in the kitchen. I took pity on them and just asked for some milk (there was tea making facilities in the suite). They seemed to want to make up for their short comings and gave me some milk in the largest mug I have ever seen. So I took this with thanks and staggered up the stairs with about a litre of milk.

Our "little bit if luxury" was not all that we expected it to be, but Anne and I loved it. Each little "hiccough" started us giggling and sometimes laughing out loud!

I am sure that the locals here think that mazungus (white people) are crazy. At Sameta Logdes they are sure of it.

Kenya - From the Camunya Hotel

I am writing this from the Camunya hotel in Ugunja, Kenya. I traveled here over the last couple of days to assist brother George Odhiambo in his work here in Western Kenya. We plan to meet with and study with numerous people over the next 2 weeks or so.

Kenya and Tanzania are both part of the East African Union (a grouping of 5 nations that is modeled on the European Union). However the unity has not yet come, so the border crossing as I moved north into Kenya was still bothersome and slow.They are moving to improve things, but like other places in Africa, this process can cause absolute confusion. They have knocked down the border post on the Tanzanian side and without any signage it was very difficult to find the temporary building. I also had to get a temporary import permit for the truck, which was not difficult, but slow.

I made it through ok though and made it into the capital city of Nairobi just before peak traffic. The pre-jam was bad enough and I know how bad it can get. I stayed overnight in the Mennonite Guest House. One of many such guest houses that are over here to accommodate missionaries. I met a pentecostal group from Pensilvania who were over for a conference. There was also a large Canadian group staying too.

I left early in the morning and made it our of the city without any problems. I didn't have to go through the city center again, so the traffic wasn't too bad. The rainy season is in Kenya so I had rain most of the way. While it was a long trip and there were a lot of bad road, road works and "deviations" to overcome. With all that I still made it to Ugunja before dark.

The hotel I normally stay in is fully booked so Bro. George booked me into this hotel. Not quite as nice, but comfortable enough for me. I am sitting in the dinning "tent" writing this awaiting the arrival of George so we can plan this visit more.

Sunday at Ugunja

Things have been very busy here over the last few weeks and as a result I have not written as much as I have wanted about how we are getting on. Let me now go back to our time in Kenya.

I was really looking forward to worshipping with brother George and the brethren at Ugunja. While I had been in that area in June, I had not been able to see many of the brethren.

The congregation there meets at 7.00 am. George told us the reason for this was that the brethren did not want to wait to worship, they wanted to worship God as soon as they could on Sunday morning.

It took us a hour to drive to the church, maybe due to my slow driving, or may be due to the rough roads. But it meant that we were a bit later than we had planned.

This did not seem to be a problem, however. While they were waiting, the brethren were singing songs and praying to the Lord. When we had got there, very quickly they organised themselves and the worship service started.

Even though they only had one song book, the song service went very well - everyone singing from memory. Delmer was then invited to teach us. We were taught very well from James chapter one. The brethren were very interested in the lesson, showing great interest.

Mike was then asked to teach a lesson on the Lord's Supper before officiating over it. I then was asked to teach on the collection. So the brethren got 3 lessons that day - and the looked very happy with it.

Before we left, the brethren wanted to give us some refreshments. So someone went and got some sodas for us. They are some very hospitable people there.

Afterwards brother George invited us to his house where his wife Jacqueline had made some lunch for us. We were able to get to talk to each other more and Jacqueline and Anne became fast friends.

Kisumu, Kenya

We have been out of internet access for the last couple of days and there are a lot of things I want to share will you all. Lord willing, I will, but first let me tell you about today.

For the last few days we have been in the Ugunja area of Western Kenya with Delmer Lee and Mike Criswell. We have been working with Brother George Odhiambo. We have had a very good visit and achieved a lot.

We left this morning and headed to the city of Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya. We were going to meet Mark Masese, a man whom I had heard about from Brother Paul Nichols. It seems that Mark had contacted David Risener through his web site. David had passed on this contact to Bro. Paul and Paul had been studying with Mark through the internet and sending him tracks through the mail.

We were very pleased to meet Paul and his friend and co-worker, Inocent, today. I had booked rooms at the wonderfully named Kisumu Beach Resort. It is a rather tired looking place that once would have been very nice, but Lake Vitoria had got clogged with water weed and the industrial area had encroach the area.

We get settled in here and then set off to meet Mark at the bus station. George Odhiambo had come with us from Ugunja and was a great help. 

We had a wonderful study with Mark and Inocent. From the studies Mark had with Bro. Paul, he knew about faithful worship and understood the concept of worshipping in spirit and truth (John 4:24). We then started studying baptism. It is clear that Mark had been studying this topic too. And it was not too long before he said he needed to be baptised.

Bro. Goeorge baptised him in Lake Victoria, having first cleared a way though the water weeds. We were so pleased to witness the new birth of a new brother in Christ.  Mark has told us he will go home and teach all the other members of the church he has been leading - teaching them the truth of the gospel.

Please pray for brother Mark and this brand new work in the Western province of  Kenya.

Western Kenya Part 2

We had been told by George we only had 100kms to go (60 miles), but when we saw the state of the road, were so thankful we did not try to drive it in the dark. The pot holes were so big and so many! Most of the time I had to stop the truck and gently roll it down into the hole and ease it out the other side. George told us it was the over-loaded trucks that come from Uganda that cause all the problems.

You never know what you will see!

 Eventually we made it to the village of Ugunja where we met with brother George. He was a very kind man and was worried about us and our long journey. The first thing he wanted to do was get us settled into our hotel. It was a little ways out of town, but very comfortable. A definite step up from the “Resort” of the night before.

We then headed out to George’s house to meet his wife and the rest of his family. George’s wife, Jacqueline, had made us a wonderful lunch and we felt very much at home. We were then able to talk at length with George about the work in that area and how we could help. I was so thankful that Allen was there, as he was able to bring up so many things that were relevant. Hossiana and Jacqueline made a very firm friendship and were sitting under a tree in deep conversation all this time.

Myself and George

Here we are with some of George's family

We arranged to meet the following day for a Bible study, and so late in the afternoon we made our way to the hotel.

The study was to be at about noon. And so we headed into the village, met up with George and went to a little house behind a shop, where the study was to take place. We studied three men, brothers, who came from a Catholic back ground. We were able to study in English, but when it came to reading the Bible, they wanted it first from the King James Versions (“easier than my NASB”??), then in Swahili and finally in Luow, their local dialect. It was a great study – we looked at the Ethiopian Eunuch, with many questions. These three brothers will soon be converted I believe.

After the Bible Study

Our time with George was just about over. He came to the hotel the following morning and had breakfast with us. We agreed that it would be a good thing to work together and make ties between the Tanzanian work and the Kenyan work. We then started out long drive back to Arusha.

I decided early that we would stop in Nairobi and I made bookings at Hampton House (not a plush hotel of the same name, but the Baptist Guest House). We had a long and tiering drive there, and this time we made a point of stopping as we crossed the equator – my GPS telling us the official marker was about 20 meters off!

Standing right on the Equator (with George's son, Ken)

Hossiana and Allen at Hampton House

After a restful night in Nairobi we headed home to Arusha, arriving about 1.30 pm, tired, but very satisfied with our journey.

Western Kenya Part 1

Last week Alen Mkita, his wife, Hossiana and I made a trip from Arusha to Western Kenya (the country immediately North of Tanzania). We were visiting brethren there and had a wonderful trip.

Looking on the map we thought it would be a long days drive – may be 12 or so hours, but driving in Africa is different. When we left Arusha we had a wonderful high speed highway, just newly finished. It then took us about 2 hours to get through Nairobi (Kenya’s capital city), but we then still thought we were ok with our time estimates.

A coffee break in Nairobi

On leaving Nairobi soon we came upon the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. This is a geological wonder that starts at the Sea Galilee goes through the Red see and into Africa and finishes with Africa’s great lakes.  We had to stop and take a photo, but soon we were “bothered” by vendors selling us the endless supply of curios. We politely told them we were not interested and moved on.

Allen and Hossiana at the Great Rift Valley

The traffic started to get worst as we hit the hills. They have overtaking lanes, but they are not used as they were designed. It was common to come to these and find three slow moving trucks abreast completely blocking every lane of the road, including the wrong side of the road!

We then hit a long section of road works and our rate of travel really slowed down. We realised that we were not going to make our destination so we contacted Bro. George and made for the city of Kisumu.  I did a search for some accommodation on my GPS and it too us to a lovely brand new shopping centre. I guess the guest house made way for development. So we stopped in the car park and I got out my Kenya Lonely Planet Guide which Anne had just bought me second hand. We found a budget lodge in the book AND its location was on the GPS. It had the wonderful name of Kisumu Beach Resort.

My room at the "Resort"

We made it to the resort without any problems and found a rather run down place with hundreds of dogs. Fortunately most of them were tied up!  There was no reception, you just have to find the bar! After being shown what the rooms were like we decided we would stay the night – after all we had been on the road for 12 ½ hours and were very tired AND the rooms were cheap!

We ordered dinner (a 45 minute wait) and sat down to rest. Allen went off to wash up but came back very quickly as his room was now full of dudus (insects). How they got in I don’t know, they weren’t there 10 minutes ago when we looked. I was thankful that I travelled with my own insect spray and mosquito coils!

Lake Victoria 

We had a good dinner (eventually) and a good sleep. Breakfast, however, didn’t start till 9 am. That just meant we were forced to leave a little later and it meant we were able to survey the resort.

Allen and Hossiana at the Lake

 While there was obviously a beach at some time, it was now overgrown. The wonderful Lake Victoria was there, but there was a lot of floating aquatic weeds (apparently at one stage a few years ago the lake was almost completely covered in these weeds). We now saw a rather down-at-the-heals resort that was over taken by time and development (it was on a large plot, but in what was now an industrial area).

After breakfast we headed off for our last 100 kms – which proved to be the very worst of the trip.

See Part 2 here