Reflection

What a full day again for us all! The drought and heat are something else this year; please pray for rain to settle the massive amount of dust and help with the existing crops and planting of new ones🙏🏻It was very humbling to see the response of the recipients of over 200 Bibles handed out today at our high school presentations ('Man of God' for young men and 'Hygiene/Days for Girls' for the young women). Praying for God to work mightily in the lives of many here! Rather than spend more time on details of our day, I thought I'd relay what team members have commented on over the last few days that they've observed and what struck them:*a widow spoke strongly that those born again cannot continue with the tribal/clan traditions of male circumcision rituals involving animal sacrifice, feasting, putting animal meat around the neck of a young man as part of the rite and his circumcision marking the transition to manhood*widows allow their neighbours to graze their cows on their yards for free with the deal being they get to keep the manure and use it for their crops and to construct their homes (mixed with river clay on the top coat of the hut) *mud hut homes are made of tree branches, rocks and mud, and cow dung mixed with river clay *the hymns here are chock-full of solid theology and all in their own languages, not translated from hymns we know and have available to us in English *you shouldn't ask an adult their age here but a few women we minister to have no problem telling you you're fatter than you were last year 😂*a woman will work all month (6 days a week) for $40CAD*the women are always keeping the area in and around their house tidy and clean. It's a common sight to see them bent at 90 degrees sweeping their dirt floors and yards*it takes a week for a family to eat a stalk of bananas so they rotate through trees when harvesting*there are 65 year old women here carrying 20L water jugs (by straps around their foreheads or on their backs/heads) from the river*kids here don't like Nutella or sugar on their chapatis*the generosity of the women and offense it is if you turn down what they offer you*there are chickens in the houses and even cows join them at night to prevent them from getting stolen *people walk on the graves in their yards and the children play on and around them*not every child enjoys the puppet poking out the window with a friendly 'Jambo(Hello!)' yell*people here are wearing winter coats and toques when it's 25 degrees*small kids are often terrified because many have never seen white people (mzungu) *there is so much meat hanging out for sale in the hot temperatures along the roads *there are no garbage cans anywhere in the rural areas. People drop their wrappers and garbage on the ground and burn whatever garbage they have*a 3 year old will walk along the road alone*many will go down to the river to wash their clothes and/or haul it back for miles *the mannequins here have big booty(matuta) *all schools have uniforms*ladies roll out their chapatis and mandazis on the sitting area coffee table*they drive on the left side of the road with right hand drive vehicles*all of the dangers of gold mining and the devastating effects on the people here*hundreds of people walking and biking along all the roads all day every day*beautiful smaller hand made clay pots sell for $1.50 each along the road*there are animals on stakes grazing all over (pigs, cows, sheep, goats) *so many different plants and flowering trees and the sizes of the aloe vera plants are impressive*we saw so many outdoor funerals. It can take 1-3 weeks after a death before there is a funeral depending on the financial situation of the family*there is an abundance of cabbage for sale alongside the roads*there's a different church on every block it seems*you can't go to school if you don't have a uniform and backpack and books even though school itself is free*the kilns for brick making are not reused. They pack dirt around a stack of bricks and burn firewood in there to dry and cure the bricks. The kiln is disassembled once the bricks are ready and they start a new pile*many older people have no idea what year they were born*on the family property, the house facing the gate or front is the parent's home, the others are the children or grandchildren *a simba is a young man's first mud hut built beside the parents when they get to be teenagers or before they have their own permanent house *it is so incredibly dusty during droughts*students(100s) carried their chairs from room to room when we gathered to meet them for the presentations*the high school students all wear collared shirts and ties(females as well!) *you can drip sweat off your elbows here*we have a twang accent when we speak English apparently *they don't pressure wash their curbs before they repaint them *teachers only instruct in Swahili and English in Kenya so the students today roared with laughter when Francis the teacher translated into Luo, their native tongue Do yourself a favour and ask a team member what they've learned and how a VOH trip changed them. Who knows, this conversation may have you prayerfully considering joining a VOH trip that you hadn't even thought of doing before!