Good Morning!
It is Friday morning here, about 5:45 am. I woke up at 5:00 am after a good night’s sleep so I decided to come out to the lounge and let Mark and Emily sleep some more.
We had a good day yesterday. We all slept well Wed. night so we woke up refreshed and ready for the day.
After breakfast we headed off to Rift Valley Academy (RVA). First we stopped at Nakumatt (Kenya’s equivalent to Wal-Mart). Mark was able to get the Emily’s cell phone set up with a Kenyan phone number there. Also, Emily and I went into the grocery section to pick up a few supplies for lunch. It took quite awhile to find what we needed since the store was so huge and they don’t organize the aisles the way we would. We ended up with some rolls, peanut butter, yogurt, juice boxes, napkins, and plastic knives and spoons. The store was well stocked with a good variety of foods. In my first impression, I think they had pretty much everything they used to have but offered more options. For example, it used to be that we could get peanut butter but only had 2 or 3 types to choose from. Now there were 6 or 7 types or brands to choose from. It seems that the economy is doing okay here.
We didn’t have too much traffic heading up to RVA and got there in about the expected one hour. The weather was great with the blue sky and huge puffy white clouds that are the norm out over the Rift Valley. It seems that they’ve had some rain because the valley was greener than I remembered it being in the past.
It is Friday morning here, about 5:45 am. I woke up at 5:00 am after a good night’s sleep so I decided to come out to the lounge and let Mark and Emily sleep some more.
We had a good day yesterday. We all slept well Wed. night so we woke up refreshed and ready for the day.
After breakfast we headed off to Rift Valley Academy (RVA). First we stopped at Nakumatt (Kenya’s equivalent to Wal-Mart). Mark was able to get the Emily’s cell phone set up with a Kenyan phone number there. Also, Emily and I went into the grocery section to pick up a few supplies for lunch. It took quite awhile to find what we needed since the store was so huge and they don’t organize the aisles the way we would. We ended up with some rolls, peanut butter, yogurt, juice boxes, napkins, and plastic knives and spoons. The store was well stocked with a good variety of foods. In my first impression, I think they had pretty much everything they used to have but offered more options. For example, it used to be that we could get peanut butter but only had 2 or 3 types to choose from. Now there were 6 or 7 types or brands to choose from. It seems that the economy is doing okay here.
We didn’t have too much traffic heading up to RVA and got there in about the expected one hour. The weather was great with the blue sky and huge puffy white clouds that are the norm out over the Rift Valley. It seems that they’ve had some rain because the valley was greener than I remembered it being in the past.
At RVA we met Tim Cook, the school superintendent, in the office and made sure Emily was ready to go. Then we went to her dorm and found her dorm mom’s house worker who let us put Emily’s things in the apartment. We spent a little time chatting with her. She is a nice woman and was encouraging Emily to just trust God when she was away from family at RVA. Her faith in God was evident.After walking around a little and showing Emily the important buildings (the cafeteria and the library!) we walked over to see our good friends, Steve and Melinda McMillan. Steve and Mark, of course, ended up in the garage looking at Steve’s “new” car. While they were out there a neighbor walked over, having seen the garage door open. Mark was surprised when he turned around and saw Tim Brown standing there! So Tim came in and we chatted for a bit. Tim is the son of Paul and Ellen Brown who we worked closely with in Zaire for many years. He was in jr. high when we first went out in 1984. Now he and his wife are teaching at RVA.
As we walked back to the car we were driving, we saw another car parked nearby and Mark said, “That’s our old Pajero (Montero).” Emily dared to question how in the world, with all the cars around Kenya, he would possibly know that it was our old car. So Mark began listing off all the unique features of the car that he himself had added to it. Even I realized that indeed it was our car. Also, as we were getting into our car, I saw a man I recognized (Mark Kinzer) talking with another man. So we went over to say hi and discovered that the other man, who we don’t know, is now the owner of “our” car. He bought it from whomever it was we had sold it to and knew that it had been “our” car. It is now a pretty old car but looked in good shape.
Anyway, we drove back to Nairobi hitting more traffic but not as bad as we imagined. We went directly to Waldo and Lynette Goossen’s house where we had dinner. Then Steve and Melinda Moffitt and girls came over and joined us for dessert. It was fun to visit with all of them and admire how big all the kids are now. Emily’s friends, Naomi Goossen and Natalie Moffitt are both really tall and make Emily look short! The Moffitts and the Goossens are Emily’s guardians when she is at RVA which means that during the long weekend breaks she will hang out at their houses. Also, if a problem comes up and Emily needs something, she can call on them.
We got back to Mayfield around 9:30 last night and were pretty tired so we were in bed by 10:00. I am being attacked by a mosquito here so I will close this long epic for now and get ready for breakfast. Talk to you later!
Lisa
