Worship at Kibengei, and a day at the office

You'll be pleased to know, I've now successfully worked out how to put my mosquito net up without getting myself completely tangled in it..and waking up with 15 bites, using a little ingenuity, a torch to wedge it to the bunkbed, and some string! No more bites for me. (Am also using about half a bottle of jungle spray per day..just to be sure!).

Anyway, moving on to the main story. On Sunday I attended two services, one at St James' Church, which is the 'mother' church of the parish, and a second at Kibengei: its 'daughter' and our link church. The service at St James' was in English, and relatively similar to our services at All Saints. I often stand and give greetings and love from All Saints' Church: Sunday was no exception. After the service, I was taken to Kibengei, where I received a magnificent welcome. As our car pulled up, the entire congregation paraded out of the church, singing and dancing. I was then awarded a wreath of tinsel, and given a place of honour at the front of the church with Grace, Father Josef, and another preacher. I've got some of the service on video....but it's all in Swahili! Maybe I'll have learnt enough by the time I get back to translate...

Maybe not.

Anyway, back to the service. It was rather long, mainly due to the fact that each member of the congregation was eager to stand up and welcome me personally, and give their thanks "to God and All Saints' Hale Barns." Although this became slightly repetitive, the love in their hearts shone through: they were so glad and so excited to welcome me, and so grateful to our church - it was really very moving. We spent some time giving out the prayer cards - it was clear that everyone who received them would be extremely dedicated to praying for their partner at All Saints. After the service, I was taken to one of the congregation's houses for lunch, where I spoke more with the Vicar - Josef, and some of the elders. I got my camera out to take a few pictures, which may have been rather unwise, as the children were fascinated by the pictures, and wouldn't let me leave until each of them had had at least 6 photographs taken of themselves! I'll try and upload some of them later in the week.

I took a matatu back to the guest house with Grace, Lucy, and one of the children - Rachel. A matatu resembles our 14 seater taxis...only thing is, the Kenyans somehow manage to squeeze over 20 people in. I sat on my nice plank of wood bridging 2 seats, with everyone curiously staring at this mzungu trying not to fall into the lap of the woman next to her as we travelled over 80mph through a small village. An experience, to say the least!

That evening, there was a power cut, (a frequent occurrence when it rains, which it does here almost every day), so we had no television to entertain us. However, all of the gap programme students ended up having a long and interesting debate - being from different backgrounds, we can learn a lot from each other.

The next day wasn't as busy - I took a tour round the IcFem offices, meeting the Chaplain - Edward, and speaking with Solomon (the Director), and others about their work here. I also met two of the students who've been sponsored by All Saints': Fenny and Josef, and did a short filmed interview with them. In the afternoon I attended an agricultural seminar, which is currently being run by IcFem for residents of many villages in Western Kenya.

I'm due to meet other sponsored students later today, which should be very interesting. I'll let you know what happens in my next blog.

Bye for now!

Emma