Lukes Mission Blog

We attended the 35 year celebration in Chyulu with Elder and Sister Lewis. We helped and took a few pictures and lots of video, which we made into a DVD. The day started with sports, football (soccer) and basketball.Then they all gathered together for a video, “The Testament.” They don’t get to watch movies very often. There is no electricty, (We used the generator at the church building) and so this was a treat for them. Then they showed how well they had memorized the scripture mastery scriptures.

Sister Lewis awarded everyone who had completed their notebooks a CTR ring. Elder Luke is checking notebooks and passing out rings.This is one group of students with their completed notebooks and CTR rings.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. I said, “Smile” as I took the picture of these beautiful girls. They wouldn’t smile. I told them, “You have to be teenagers”. and then I asked them how old they were. You guessed, it 13 and 14. Of course they wouldn’t smile. Teenagers are the same all over the world. I did get one of them to start laughing, but I didn’t get that on camera. I wasn’t fast enough.

 

LDS Charities donated an Ultra Sound Machine to a medical clinic in Kibera Slums. The Kibera slums are the largest slums in all of Africa. We have heard that close to a million people live there. We drove as far as a police station and left our trucks there, then walked down the narrow alleys to the clinic. The clinic is a small building with a waiting room, a small pharmacy, and an examining room, where the ultra sound machine would be set up. The inside had been painted and nicely fixed up. The train tracks run through the slums and while we were there a train engine came through. The people who were using the tracks as a walk way just got out of the way. Someone grabbed the children who were playing on the tracks just as the train came by. When the Ultra sound machine arrived we walked back out to as far as they could bring in the truck and took pictures of the men carrying the machine in. It was very heavy and they had to carry it across the train tracks and down a narrow alley to the clinic. The machine will allow the expecting mothers to have examinations that they normally couldn’t afford. They hope this will save many baby’s and mother’s lives. They said they were going to start by charging 300 shillings for three ultra-sounds. That’s about $4.50 USD. The clinic is located next to a butcher shop and there were various other shops such as beauty shops, fast food stand, (French fries), fruit and vegetable stands, along the alley. We noticed you could buy just about anything you could think of from the stands, even barbequed goat head.

We had heard that the slums were a terrible place but actually felt better about them after visiting. Even though we saw open sewer and litter, we also saw a community of people trying their best to make a living. The stands were full of all kinds of food, clothes and other items, and the prices low, so that hopefully people living there could afford to buy them. The crime rate is very high there, so we were always with a native as we walked to and from the clinic.

 

Enos was baptized two weeks ago, confirmed a week ago, and this week stood to bare his testimony in fast and testimony meeting.  He told a story about when he was a little boy. He was playing with his sisters some other children and at his grandfather’s banana farm.  His grandfather called out to the children to come help him get the chiggers out of his feet. His feet were old and the toes were gnarled from walking bare footed his whole life, so all of the children ran away except for Enos. He went over to help his grandfather get the chiggers out of his feet. The truth was there were no chiggers in his feet. He told Enos since he was the one to obey and come to help he could have the key to the bin of ripe bananas. He could eat all wanted, but he could not give any to other children who ran away. When the other children saw, they came running and said give us some.  Enos had to tell then no, because his grandfather had told him not to give them any.  He had a wonderful feast of delicious ripe bananas.

 

Enos likened the story to living the gospel, obeying and being willing to serve, then when it is time for your reward you will be blessed, but that reward is not something you can share with others who did not obey and serve.

 

We went with LDS Charities Couple, Elder and Sister Pocock, to a handover of a water system to two communities in Chuylu Hills. LDS Charities had drilled wells and purchased storage tanks, pumps, generators, pipe and other necessary supplies for the system. The communities had to dig the lines for the pipes. Men and women worked together digging kilometers of ditches for the pipe lines. We first stopped at the district office and met the man in charge, the district officer. He met with us and told us about the communities and how much they appreciated the water. Especially the schools it would benefit. Then we went to the first handover which was held in a school yard. All the students from the elementary school and secondary school came out to listen to the speeches. There were many speakers, but the district officer kept reminding them to just say a few words and when someone talked to long he would pass them a note telling them to stop. (might make a good bishop). After the speeches, we went to the water distribution point and had a ribbon cutting ceremony. Elder Pocock had the most fun here, as they turned on the water he filled up a container with water and threw the water on the crowd. They screamed, ran ,and laughed.

 

At the second ceremony, girls from a nearby boarding school sang for us and ladies from the community danced for us. They also presented Sister Pocock and me kangas. A kanga is a large piece of cloth that women use for everything from carrying babies on their backs or as apron to keep their dresses clean. We were told that the new water system wasn’t working because a road grader (the first one in about 10 years) had been over the roads and broke the water line. Just after the ribbon cutting ceremony ended they got the water working. Elder Pocock was not prepared with a container to throw water so he filled up his hat and again threw water all over the crowd. He ran after the people in the crowd throwing water on them. Elder Luke thought it was a little unfair that the people didn’t have any thing to throw water back with so he quickly devised a container and tried to help the crowd even the score. Though they were a little shy about throwing water on the crazy old “wazungu”.  They all laughed and had a great time. I wanted to get my picture taken with the ladies who gave us the kangas. While poising with them the ladies behind me kept running their fingers through my hair. I guess they just had to feel the strange stuff. We had fun taking everyone’s picture and showing them how they looked. There were three elderly men watching me, so Elder Luke told me to go take their picture. I did but when I tried to show them the picture they didn’t look. I don’t think they could see very well. At least I tried.

 

A lady named Susan from the US sent us an email and wanted to know if someone could take some school kits and chalk boards to a Maasi village in Ambseli National park. She had visited there and wanted to help. She had met with the leader of the village Chief Joseph and told him she would try to get his the school some supplies. We volunteered to take them. LDS Charities supplied the school kits and we arranged to have the chalkboards made, which Susan paid for. Two other couples, Dickmans and Demars, also went with us. We arrived at Ambeselli National park on a Friday, June 13th. We called the Chief and made arrangements to visit his village at 2:00. (Yes, he had a cell phone) After checking in at the Serena (A nice resort in the park), we arranged for a guide to take us to the village. He was also Maasai but from another village. The Chief was very gracious and explained a little about the Maasai people and customs. They preformed dances and songs for us and invited us to dance with them. Then they took us to the school. Chief Joseph explained how part of the children come in the morning and then they do a split and the other children come in the afternoon. He said that children from other villages come for school there, as well.  After meeting the teacher, we gave them the chalkboards and school kits.They were very happy to receive them. The chief opened up the school kits. He showed everyone what was inside and told them how they could use them. Then he demonstrated how to use the chalkboards. The children sang us a song and we asked if we could teach them a song. We tried “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” – they already knew it. The chief then showed us inside the village and told us a little about it. We also went inside one of the mud and dung huts.  Then they asked if we would like to see where the women work. Of course we said yes. This was the part where they wanted us to buy their crafts. As we were leaving I gave the chief a bag of sweets to give to the children. I didn’t know if it was appropriate for me to do give them to the children as I wasn’t sure if it was something they were allowed to eat.(Their diet is meat and a blood and milk mixed drink)  But I noticed some of the men enjoying a few sweets, so I guess they’re okay. I hope the children got some.

 

The next day before we left the park we drove around to see some of the animals. We had close a encounter with the elephants. They are huge there. We also saw lions, a cheetah and lots of zebras, wildebeests, gazelles, hippos, etc, etc…  We also had a great first time view of Mount Kilimanjaro before the clouds covered it.. It was even bigger than the elephants.

We accompanied Elder and Sister Lewis to an orphanage that their family donates to each month. This month they took out rice, beans and cooking oil. The orphanage had moved to a new and better building, so this was the first time the Lewis’ had been there. We picked up one of their PEF students for our guide and away we went. When we arrived the children greeted us with songs and smiles. The teachers proudly showed us around their new facility. It has two floors, with girl’s dorms on the first floor and boy’s dorms on the second floor. The first floor also had a kitchen where the meals are prepared and each floor had toilet rooms, and classrooms and an outside area for bathing and washing clothes. The conditions were humble but the children seemed happy and the teachers dedicated. It was fun to listen to their song and then to help Sister Lewis pass out sweets (lollipops) to each child.

 

On our way home we saw several banana salesman and decided to buy a few bunches (bananas not salesmen).  They were very ripe and the road was rough, so every time we bounced over a bump a banana would fall from the bunch. By the time I got home I had a lap full of individual bananas.

In Relief Society Sunday the lesson was on food storage. Imagine teaching food storage to people who eat one or two meals a day because that is all they can afford.  Most have a very strong testimony about the importance of storing food after the post election violence. They usually go to the market (stalls on the side of the road that sell food) everyday to buy what they need for the day. (A lot of them don’t have refrigerators) They didn’t worry about food storage because they could always get food. Or so they thought. After many went without much to eat during that time, they are now storing a little food. They don’t know how to preserve food by canning it here because the climate is so mild and something always growing that they can eat. They only have trouble if it doesn’t rain much during the dry seasons. The teacher taught that they should buy just a few shillings extra of rice or beans when they could and store that.

 

 One of the sisters mentioned that it was hard to find places to store food. The Mission President’s wife was there and she raised her hand and told about storing food under the bed. The other sisters started to laugh and then they told her that wouldn’t work because the rats and mice would eat right through the plastic buckets they stored the food in. Then one sister told how her bishop had said to store the food under the bed so she bought beans and rice and put them in a sack under her bed. The mice got into the food and mixed it up and so she spent a lot of time separating the kernals of rice from the beans.

May 25, 2008  We went to Upper Hill ward because we had a public affairs meeting there after church. Lillian who works as a guard at the service center at Upper Hill gave the lesson in Sunday school. The lesson was on fasting. There were some interesting questions asked by class members. One asked if you don’t have any food to eat does it count as fasting when you don’t eat? One member answered that question by saying fasting is depriving yourself of something, so you have to show a sacrifice. For example he said if have a plate of chapatis and you decide to fast and not eat them that is fasting. If you don’t have a plate of chapatis and decide to fast and not eat them that is not fasting. Another asked if you don’t have any money to pay fast offering have you really fasted? She said she had food but no money to give for fast offering. She was told she could give the food. The class determined that God knows your heart so if you don’t have food and fast or have no money to give for fast offering he still will except the fast, but if you even have just a little money you should give it. (Bet you don’t hear those questions in Utah)

For a perk to our mission couples conference we were able to travel to Tanzania and visit three game parks.  Dad did a great job setting everything up and even assigned seats so everyone had a turn in the best seats and a turn to ride with  each couple. Believe it or not the couples loved this and thanked Dad a lot for all his hard work. Have you ever heard of the Serengeti? We were there, we even flew over it on our way home. (In a single engine airplane) We also visited Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara. This lion came over to our van and decided to take a nap in the shade.

I could have reached out and pulled its tail as it walked by. It was tempting but I resisted.

The missionary couples in the two vans behind ours were trying to get a close-up picture of the lion.

We saw this fellow as we were leaving Serengeti. It is a puff adler. One of the most deadly snakes in Africa.This limping cape buffalo was trying to buffalo the lions into thinking he was still strong and would not make a good choice for dinner. He chased the lions away. Cape buffalo are one of the most dangerous animals.

Did you know lions climb trees? They do in the Serengeti.

We stayed at the Serena Lodges in the parks. They can’t fence around the lodges so they escort you to and from your room when it is dark at night and early in the morning. One early morning (Dad was too macho to call for an escort) (He claimed a guy with a flashlight was not going to be that much protection), we were walking up to breakfast. I was commenting  on how he wouldn’t call for an escort and then had to take the path by the pool where we were told lions had been seen the previous night, when we heard a noise in the bushes. I jumped in front of Dad to protect him. (Well I did jump)and made Dad jump too. (mostly because I landed on his foot) It was a fierce dik-dik. Actually they aren’t that fierce, but very shy. They are a tiny antelope that weigh about 10 lbs. On our way back it was almost light enough for a picture. His eyes glowed blue because of the flash, but that makes him even more scary.We had a great time during the conference and got to know the couples in our mission.

This is the short version of our trip, If you want to read more go to the Ethiopia page. 

Ethiopia had a lot in common with other African countries and several differences.

There was the beauty of the land and the sadness of the poverty. We saw lots of buildings being built. The scaffolding made from logs, is much the same as other places but this was the first place I noticed the ramps also built with logs. There were a lot of beggars in the streets and again a lot of traffic. I also noticed several donkeys that were used as beast of burden. Sorry about not taking very many pictures, I would see something interesting and by the time I got the camera turned on we were way past it. The grounds at the church building where we taught the training were beautiful. I did think to snap a picture there. Everyone has their electricity turned off two days a week. They never know which days that will be and they run out of water often. We didn’t have any electricity for our training so used the computer until the battery wore out. The visit to the Leper’s hospital was heart wrenching but they are doing the best they can to provide for their needs. I wanted to take some pictures of the people spinning and weaving but I didn’t have change in burr to pay them.  I took a few pictures of some of the things they have for sale. (those pictures were free) If you want to purchase anything let me know soon. Haptu is coming to Kenya in May and said he would bring anything I wanted with him.