Sun., Feb. 20
Sunday School was scheduled for 8:30 this morning in the new residence still under construction. Not unexpectedly, not everyone was there but they began to drift in and things got started about 8:45, with kids from the neighbourhood arriving for the next 15 minutes or more. They started with singing led by Jotham, the ‘house father’ and then Leah, ‘house mother’ took over to teach the Bible Lesson. Eva and I took the older ones back to our cottage for a Bible study. Eva wants to teach them about the Bible, how and why they should read it and be familiar with it. We had 12 children. Including the 21 children in residence and the visitors, there were 74 children attending. [Eva: I don’t know whether the children were just shy, or unfamiliar with finding theire way around the Bible and reading for their own answers, but response to questions were slow. It is certain, however, that the neighbourhood children were not used to using a Bible.]

The rest of the day was quiet. Jotham and I went to get a photo of a boy hoping to enter the home. He is living with his parents and several siblings in a mud home about 8 by 12 feet and they are having trouble making ends meet because Brian’s father hada stroke recently and so is unable to work.


Mon., Feb. 21
While doing her morning bible study, Eva spotted a very large spider, about 3/4 inch body, on the wall. We got rid of it.

Later in the morning we went into Bungoma on a number of errands. Two buses passed us, filled to the brim so we decided to ride the backs of bicycles. These bicycles have a padded seat over the rear wheel, handle grips under the seat and foot rests at the axels. Going in toward Bungoma it costs 10 shillings, coming back it is 20 shillings because it is up hill. We rode these to the junction of the main highway and the cut off for Bungoma, then transferred to a very small van in which they could cram no more than 9. (The larger ones, about the size of a minivan will take 19 including driver and conductor.)

We checked in at the bank to see if a transfer had come through – no, and at the electric company to see about changing the status of the home from commercial to residential. It will make quite a saving. The computer was down so we have to go back. After other errands we again took a mini van to the junction. We then had a meeting with a welder/teacher of a young man who works part time at the home. This time we took a motorcycle with the driver, Eva and I + groceries on board, 40 shillings.

The office computer has one or more viruses that are causing a lot of problems and it won’t download either of 2 virus protection programs I tried. We have called for a technician and he’s here as I write.

11:30pm:
The office computer has been cleaned of its viruses and the system reformatted. Hopefully that will end the problems.

Tues., Feb. 22
Well, it seems our computer problems are not yet over. This morning I prepared to send to files to Robin Byrnes concerning 2 children for whom they are looking for sponsors. I checked my flash drive on my own computer first, then went to the office computer to copy the needed files to my flash drive. The computer won’t recognized the flash drive! It sees it as a folder that it can’t open! I tried other ports, and different flash drives – the problem continue. However this afternoon Jotham tried something different and it worked.

Dick replaced a faulty water tap and a broken latch on the boy’s bathroom this morning. Jotham brought out three boxes of screws he had, great, but they are ‘Robertsons’, (square head), that were left by some Canadians, and there are no screw drivers here that fit.

This afternoon one of the neighbours had a tractor come in to plow a field. They were using a disk plow and having trouble with the disks coming loose. They finally left for repairs but returned about an hour later to finish the job. We had few drops of rain again and they tell us the rainy season is near. Water is getting low so they are cutting back where they can until the rain comes. I discovered a rain barrel just outside our door was full of mosquito larvae so Jotham had the kids water the plants that are beginning to wilt. from it