A Little About Nirobi

Here's a little history. Africa is a continent which has 53 countries. Kenya is a country about the size of Pennsylvania. Nirobi is the capital. It's a very dirty city. Today we actually road through downtown. The city itself isn't very modern, but there are large buildings. The roads are awful, not well kept up at all. There are alot of roadside stands. We road down one road the had 15 or so roadside stands side by side and they all sold the same thing. Bananas were hanging up, and all kinds of fruits were sold. I have seen meat markets that had raw meat hanging in the window (pork and beef). Today I also saw a market were they had chickens in cages for sale. There are hawkers that try and sell you stuff while you are at the stop signs. I mean all kinds of stuff from sunglasses to lampshades and pictures to hang on the walls.

It's really kind of hard to describe because I've never seen anything like it. There are lots of cars in the city, but today our journey took us about 30 minutes out of town and a lot of people were walking on the side of the roads. Coffee is a big cash crop here and we went by miles and miles of coffee plantations.

The hotel that we are staying at is like a resort. Very nice. In fact when we are inside the compound you wouldn't know you were in Africa. It is gated and guarded. We are right across the street from the Israli Embassy. The first night we got here I saw armed guards on the street and thought what have I got myself into. Today we went by the American Embassy. Nothing flashy in fact if you missed the sign you wouldn't have known it was there. We've had some sick people today. Our eye docter, Doctor Curtis spent the night throwing up, but was able to go out today. Please pray for him, he didn't come to dinner so I don't think he's much better. We had another man who is still sick (he didn't come with us today) and he is diabetic and having trouble with his sugar. Pray for him also.

Never fear - I'm taking my malarone for malaria and cipro for every other kind of infection. I'm brushing my teeth with bottled water and disinfecting my hands after every visit. Now to today. This morning we went to Gitathuru Boys Rehab Center. These are boys who have done petty crimes, rioted in school, or can't get along at home. They stay at this center until the 8th grade no matter when they go in. (That's the information I was able to get today). There were about 125 boys. The funniest thing happened when we got there this morning. The boys were lined up and being counted. When all of sudden the whole bunch of them went running into the pasture. A cow had fallen over and they had to pick him up and put him back on his feet. Which they did and came back and got in line. It was one of those things you probably had to be there to get it, but we are still laughing at how it all happened. We brought soccer balls and candy to this group and if you could see how excited they get with a bag of sweet tarts you would want to sent 1000 bags over for them.

The second thing we did was go to Kirigiti Girls Rehab Center. This was a small school also. Today is a national holiday here so the girls had the day off from school and when we got there they had just finished washing some clothes so they were laying all over bushes and the grass to dry. This school does quite a bit of vocational training and Gateway Missions had donated a couple of sewing machines for them so they were very appreciative of that. They were very excited that we were there.

We stopped for our snack lunch, (protein bar today), and then we went to the Kamita Prison for youth. These men are only in for 4 months. They have commited petty crimes like rioting, or picked up off the street, etc.

At each place we each have the opportunity to say something, then a message is preached and they are given the opportunity to accept Jesus. After that, if appropriate and time allows, we spend a little one on one time with them before we move on. Now here are some of the pictures I promised. The first picture are the little children we saw on the first day. They kept calling for the wezongas to come take their picture.

This next picture is after we had given out friendship bracelets at one of the schools and I was helping to tie them on.

This shot is at the Langata Women Prison. As you can see, if their children are under 5 years old they keep them with them. There were quite a few children there that day.

This picture is of Charles Styles. He was the one who preached at the Womens Prison. The black man behind him is Simon. He is part of Gateway International and he was translating that day.

This is the sea of green. These kids are from Mbagathi Rd. Primary School.
That's it for now. It's bed time!