Took a walk

This morning Peter, Wendy, Nada and Janet went for a walk around the compound we were at to see what animals they could find. Turns out there were a lot of them, giraffe, zebra, gazelle, antelope, and lots of birds are just the ones I heard of. Those of us who are not so motivated slept until breakfast and then we all piled into the vans and headed to the ABC headquarters.

We learned a lot at ABC headquarters. They do something I found very interesting, after every second Sunday the women and men meet separately and talk about what they are interested in and their current ABC projects. The ABC headquarters is responsible for telling each church how much money they need to raise for some projects and other targets they set themselves. During these meetings they talk about how they will raise the money and more importantly how they will use the money. This is a really simplistic take on what they told us but the best I can do for now. Besides the meetings they also toured us through the rest of the headquarters including the church, the area offices, the bishop's house, the development office and also past the day care. The day care was by far a highlight for a number of us. The kids were VERY excited to see us and Peter and I took video and pictures of them and then showed them what they looked like on the screens. Their reactions were priceless and we were nearly knocked over while they clamored for a look. At some points we even had to stop and let the small ones at the back see. It was made more interesting by the fact that none of them spoke English so telling them to stop or getting one child to the front was all hand gestures.

As I mentioned yesterday we met the Bishop. He is a very kind man who has more recently taken over the 'bishopdom' (What do you call that?). In his past life he was a teacher who taught Math, English, and some other subjects that my mind refuses to recall the names of. He is now married to his second wife, as his first wife passed on some time ago, and they have seven children and two orphans that they care for. It makes for a large family and they are too large for the rooms they now have in the Bishops offices. They rent a house close to the compound where the boys live most of the time. It seems as if both this and the fact that he is 'always on duty' because they now live in the offices is very tiring for him. I know that in my own life while working with family I sometimes feel as if I can't leave it and so being a bishop in a huge church organization and having people feel as though they are entitled to your presence whenever they like would be frustrating. He must be a man of great patience.

Because of the Bishop's past experience as a teacher he is very dedicated to the church's newest mission of building a University. I'm sure that all the pressures of being the Bishop are easier to take now that he can help guide the church towards a goal which is so dear to him. They have made a plan to have the university open in 15 years but I would be surprised if it takes that long when you have such a dedicated leader pushing the project along.

The Bishop, Sam, Titus and Peter took a great deal of time to tell us about all the things the church is doing and how many churches they have throughout Africa. It was a very informative day but also very tiring. Even I had to fidget purposefully during our last session just to keep myself from nodding off.

We are now at the ABC Guest House in Machakos which has its own compound and garden etc. It's amazing to see all the flowers that I would normally see only in flower shops at home. This guest house will be our home for the next seven-ish days before we move to Nairobi. We actually got to walk most of the way from the ABC compound to the guest house and I must admit it was a little weird being stared at. All of the children and some of the adults we passed waved and were very excited when we waved back. We passed more of the small roadside shops and I'm dying to get a chance to stop at some eventually. Tomorrow we expect to get to Mitaboni and work on the water project we have helped with there. We'll do our best to take many pictures for all the folks at home to understand what we are doing here.

Lisa