Friday, February 13th.

What an incredible day.

The Shakespears took us to an orphanage run by a member of the church and his wife.

He started last year with 39 as that is all the government would allow. Now he has 96. It was heart wrenching to see these sweet children in such circumstances. Steven does as much as he can but he can only do so much. He told us the police come knocking on his door asking him to take more children and it breaks his heart to say no. When we were leaving there were two little boys, about 5 and 6 years old just standing there. Steven told us they want to be part of his orphanage but he just cannot take them. I just wanted to pick them up and bring them home with me. He already has his children sleeping 4 to a bed. I took a number of videos so will try to add one but videos do not attach too well and take forever to download. You will have to see them all when I get home.

A lady was getting lunch ready-broth and beans. He does not have much money for food for the children. They were so excited to see us. I will never forget this day..

There was a girl named Grace, who was 14. A pretty girl with a horrific story.

They put on a program for us and sang and danced. I have a video.

The church, through LDS Humanitarian Fund gave them: beds, bedding and a water tank.

                                           They were doing a dance and singing for us. I have a few other videos.                

                                                   This is the older children's classroom as there is no room inside.

Then we went to a school about an hour away.

The principal was a teacher at a school when there was an uprising, about 7 years ago. It was a tribal thing and they took all the children out of the school that were not of their tribe. The parents begged this teacher to teach their children after school so they would not fall behind. He taught at the school all day and at night taught these other children. The principal of the school found out and he was fired. He was afraid for his life and his family. Each night he would take his family to the police station to sleep and return home the next day.

He found some land to rent in the slums with a building and started his school. Last year the Humanitarian program of the church, through these Shakespears, gave them desks, small fire cooking stoves and water tanks. They are building a latrine for them now so we went to check it out.

You would not believe the classroom, how crowded they are. They are in there like sardines. The teacher, with hardly any room to teach and desks all around her. I took pictures. Each boy had a white shirt and tie on, the girls also with a white shirt. They looked so good.

They are excited to get a new latrine! 

We just do not realize how good we have it but I know the Lord is aware of these children and their needs and loves them. Hopefully we can make a bit of a difference here.

Just had dinner upstairs with two couples from the mission office. Such nice people.

Saturday, Feb. 14th.

Today we had the opportunity to visit the Giraffe Sanctuary. Giraffe’s are my favourite so it was a treat to be that close to one and actually pet and feed it.

Then we went to the elephant orphanage and that was also amazing.

Their were a few tour busses there and we were all encouraged to adopt an elephant. I thought, if only these people, when they get back on the bus, go over to any orphanage and see that the animals are fed more than the children and that they have better accommodations!! Sad.

A lovely day.

We will be leaving here on Monday and heading home. Our assessments are finished and the new projects will not be ready for a few months.

It has been a fantastic experience and look forward to returning.

Sunday, Feb. 8th, 2015
Drove to the Makutano  Branch today as it is the ward President Benjamin attends.
What a wonderful experience. Relief Society was first but there was only the RS president there and her teacher did not show up. The sisters came in slowly but the RS president gave me the manual and asked me to teach, so I taught the sisters. Then I went to Primary and the children sang a welcome song to me. I wish I could have recorded it. They are so beautiful. They were all dressed in their Sunday best. 
As I walked into Sacrament meeting two sisters in the choir were singing. Beautiful. I will try to attach the video I took as it was before Sacrament meeting.
Then we were asked to bear our testimonies by the Branch President so that was nice.
Afterwards we drove President Benjamin home to meet his family who had walked home. Well, again the road was unbelievable. I would never drive over it. Elder McBride was pretty stressed by the time we went to dinner. Elder Squires keeps telling hime he is doing great but the SUV is all scratched up!!
What a sweet family he has. Six children. We asked how long it takes him to bicycle to guard our place and he told us 2 1/2 hours each way. It is over these rocky roads, I do not know how he does it as it is dark. What a different way of living but you know, they are relaxed and happy and have so little. The funny thing is most of them have a cell phone!!! That really surprised me the first day as we were talking to this woman and her phone rang with a church song!!
The men are planning for a meeting tomorrow with the leaders and garden specialists.

Monday Feb. 9th.

Had a four hour training meeting today with the Leaders and garden specialists. Elder Squires did the training so we know what to do when we have to do it. Long meeting.
Afterwards James and Elder Squires met for an hour or so with the District Presidency and I chatted to three men and had an interesting conversation. Most speak English as it is taught in schools but it is difficult to understand a lot of the time so you really have to listen.

Tuesday Feb. 10th.

Just spent the most amazing day. Elder Squires and the Shakespears wanted us to experience African wildlife so arranged for us to spend the day at a Safari Park (only 1/2 hour from where we are staying). It is the Kilaguni Safari Park.  There is a lodge here so we are spending the night.
We checked in and spend the day driving around the “park” 21,000 kilometers-well not the whole park. We were looking for elephants and could not find any but did see Giraffes, lots of zebras, gazelles, and other animals similar to antelope, guinea hens and I cannot remember the others-but no elephants. We stopped at a place for lunch and I sat down, put my lunch and two apple bananas (that I love) on the bench. All of a sudden this monkey rushes over, snatches BOTH bananas and takes off!! Then others came so we had to get in the truck and eat our lunch there. It was funny. Walked down to the river and saw a few crocodiles and water buffalo. There was also blue fish swimming around. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

At the lodge they have two watering holes about 100 ft away from the verandah and we can also see these watering holes from our balcony.
We sat out there for awhile and watched lots of monkeys and gazelles. Then 3 big elephants came to drink. They are so beautiful to watch. I watched for ages, spellbound.
We watched the sun set behind Kilimangiaro. It is so high that the top is in the clouds but then the tip sticks out through the higher clouds.
The men were in the gift shop and found an African Nativity. I was happy that James told me about it and bought me one!! Not sure how I will get it home but I will!
We went down to dinner at 7:30 on the verandah overlooking the waterholes. during the two hours we were at the table-it was dark but they put lights on the watering holes-more elephants, zebras, giraffes, gazelles, monkeys, hyenas, storks and even a leopard came. Some stay away until others are finished and some drink together. We watched the leopard for awhile as it hid watching the giraffes-three adults and three babies. Then in the bushes we could hear this snorting noise. It was two antelope type animals warning the others of danger. Very interesting.
What a beautiful world this is.

Wednesday, Feb. 11th.

We are going back to Nairobi this morning. 
On the way the Shakespears wanted to stop at a member who is a wood carver. They had ordered  a Noah’s Ark with animals and some other items. I was excited to see his work. He has three men working for him and they were sitting in the shade under the trees carving the wood. They do such beautiful work. The ark and animals were amazing. 

Our assessments here are finished and the project has been very successful. I took a few videos of some of the members talking about its success and the difference it has made in their lives to be self sufficient. Headquarters wanted the videos but they are nice for us to have also. This is the end of the program for these people but there were six branches in this area that were not involved and now would like to be involved. We were to work with these branches to get the work started these next two weeks. 
We are in the apartment in Nairobi-a very busy city and the way they drive!! I would never drive here.
Good to be back in nice apartment. Not that the apartment was terrible that we were in at Chyulu but…..Three other couples and the missionaries live here. All the couples are from Utah.

Now this is the video from market day on Saturday.
Today it was training meetings for four hours and meetings with members afterwards.
Had an interesting conversation with President Benjamin about Africa and how many organizations trying to help have actually done more harm. Since these organizations have introduced chemical pesticides the people are developing cancer and other diseases that the Africans did not have before. They are now looking for ways to get back into organic gardening. Yah!! just up my alley.

Saturday, Feb. 7th.

Today was preparation day so we went to the market up the street. Very interesting. We are low on water in our apartment from the city so we have to be very careful in using the little water we have. On Monday we will order water to put in the tanks out back. These are the same tanks that the members are given in the projects.
Hopefully the video works!! I have another one but will see if this goes through.


Sunday, Feb. 8th.

The power went off in the middle of the night and did not come back on until 9:45, just before we left for church.

Drove to the Makutano  Branch today as it is the ward President Benjamin attends.

What a wonderful experience. Relief Society was first but there was only the RS president there and her teacher did not show up. The sisters came in slowly but the RS president gave me the manual and asked me to teach, so I taught the sisters. Then I went to Primary and the children sang a welcome song to me. I wish I could have recorded it. They are so beautiful. They were all dressed in their Sunday best. 

As I walked into Sacrament meeting two sisters in the choir were singing. Beautiful. I will try to attach the video I took as it was before Sacrament meeting.

Then we were asked to bear our testimonies by the Branch President so that was nice.

Afterwards we drove President Benjamin home to meet his family who had walked home. Well, again the road was unbelievable. I would never drive over it. Elder McBride was pretty stressed by the time we went to dinner. Elder Squires keeps telling hime he is doing great but the SUV is all scratched up!!

What a sweet family he has. Six children. We asked how long it takes him to bicycle to guard our place and he told us 2 1/2 hours each way. It is over these rocky roads, I do not know how he does it as it is dark. What a different way of living but you know, they are relaxed and happy and have so little. The funny thing is most of them have a cell phone!!! That really surprised me the first day as we were talking to this woman and her phone rang with a church song!!

The men are now planning for a meeting tomorrow with the leaders and garden specialists.

Some cute pictures from church today.

We arrived safe and sound in Nairobi on Monday after a very long flight. It was late at night and Elder Squires (who is training us) picked us up with a driver.

We stayed overnight in the missionaries apartment complex with Elder Squires and next day went with the Humanitarian couple to buy a phone and food to take with us to Chyulu.

It took us about six hours to drive there and arrived in the small village at the apartment we were to stay in. There are two apartments and one is occupied by the missionaries. It is air conditioned which is such a blessing here. The mosquitoes that carry malaria come out between dusk and dawn so we keep the air conditioner on all night. They do not like the cold.

There is a high wall around the two apartments with broken glass and barbed wire. At night there is a security guard sits outside our door. He is a member of the District Presidency.

The next day, the District Presidency visited with us and we had a meeting with them. Wonderful men.

Yesterday and today we went to visit the members of this district who received help from LDS Charities a few years ago. The purpose of these visits was to do an assessment to find out if the project benefited the families and if they continued with the project. How it benefited the families and how it helped them to be self sufficient-which is the purpose of LDS Charities-Food Initiative. They were taught how to plant a sack garden and were given sacks, seeds and fertilizer. They were taught how to make a holding tank for water and then later were given water tanks. 

There is such drought in this area that during the rainy season they gather as much water as they can and save it to use on their gardens during the drought.

Each family we visited were so appreciated of the knowledge given to them and they have benefited greatly. It was wonderful to hear their stores. I do not have time to add any but will add some pictures.

They are such gentle, humble people.

It has been a very busy two days but so worthwhile.

We are going to have a meeting and will add more when I have time.

Oh, we were driving with a member of the District Presidency, President Benjamin, yesterday and today, as he had to give us directions to the members homes. You would not believe the “roads” to these places! Lucky we had 4 wheel drive. When he heard we were from Canada he told us there was a missionary from Canada serving in their district a year or so ago. We asked if it was Elder Diodati and it was. We had our picture taken with him to send to him. What a small world.

We were given some raw honey, fresh from the homemade hive. The honey was amazing and I do not like honey! They insisted that we take some back with us. They were 85 years old! We were given melon at another place, tomatoes at another and sweet bananas at another. They have so little yet, are so generous.

Well, today is the day! We leave in a few hours so thought I would add a picture. When we had it taken at church, yesterday, someone asked if it was part of a before and after picture. Maybe!!

We have been asked to start a blog by some of our friends and family so....here it is. I have never done this before so another new experience.
On Monday, February 2nd, 2015 James and I leave on our mission to Kenya, Africa. We are a part of LDS Charities working on Benson Food Initiatives. We are very excited to be a part of this great program.
If you would like to know more about what we are going to be doing then check out this site:
ldscharities.com.
Check back in a week and hopefully I will have added some of our adventures!