Sunday

We went to church this morning.  The 7 of us climbed into the pickup. We stopped en route to collect Mary, the house maid, and 4 children. It was getting slightly cramped in the back where there was not enough headroom to sit up straight, consequently driving over any bump in the road meant another bang of my head against the roof and there are quite a few bumps on any journey around Kisumu, there often being more potholes than road. We bumped across dirt tracks to the church compound. The vehicle pulled up  next to a large metal frame supporting a blue and white striped canvas roof over a dirt floor. This turned out to be the church. The meeting started unexpectedly whilst we were still shaking hands with everyone – the traditional Kenyan greeting. Most of the 20-30 odd congregation were Kenyans and very welcoming. The singing was excellent, of course.

After the church service, we climbed back into the pickup – the original 7 of us, plus Mary and her 4 youngsters and then another 3. A particularly solid lad ended up on my lap. Mary described him as “healthy” which basically means fat. This was evident when we set off headed back out into the potholes. I appreciated the extreme healthiness of this boy with every crater. It was then a relief to drop them off at their next church meeting before driving on to the local Masai craft market –  ‘You come my stall, all good stuff, you buy lovely presents for family, I make deal, you come in back – come on, come on!’ It‘s relentless. There’s no chance to browse or consider anything, you just have to grab, haggle and hope you get something you wanted, trying to convert Kenyan shillings into pounds as you go. I ended up with some carved wooden animals and a mobile for nursery.  It was all very cheap.

And so on to lunch by Lake Victoria at the Kiboko Lodge restaurant. It was slightly surreal tucking into fish and chips and a banana split with hippos surfacing in the background.

Afterwards, we drove to Hippo Point. Pippa who used to live in the area, met an old friend, Titus, who showed us around, pointing out the bird life – kingfishers, cormorants, weaver birds, storks, egrets etc and the different trees, including the ‘crocodile tree’ which has enormous spikes on its bark.

It was a wonderful experience.  Titus’ business partner – John arrived. They own a boat which Pippa’s husband had repaired for him on a previous visit. We arranged to go for a trip on the lake in their boat on Friday morning.  John’s daughter had contracted malaria many years ago and he couldn’t afford the £8 to pay for a blood transfusion. Pippa had paid for it. Today, John told her that she had saved his daughter’s life.

In the evening, we sorted out the remaining suitcases which we had packed in England with donated toys, clothes and resources. Once everything was emptied and spread out, there was a lot of stuff. Bev was delighted, especially with the Special Needs resources.

9pm, time for bed. Tomorrow we are off to spend the day with the children and staff at the New Life Home.