We have spent the last two weekends traveling to visit possible ministry sites. The first place we visited was Kitale, located in the western part of the country. It is approximately 60 miles north of Lake Victoria and about 20 miles east of the Ugandan border. The travel guide says, “It is a small, market town at the center of the major maize growing area in Kenya. During the colonial times there were 900 settler families living there. Today there are four.” It has a beautiful view of nearby Mount Elgon. Click here to see some pictures we took while we were there.
It was so nice to leave the big city behind and travel in the countryside. The trip took us almost nine hours. We had been warned not to drink too much that morning as the bus only made two stops.
There were about two hours that were an extreme African massage (rough roads). It was so bumpy that you couldn't even read. That's when an ipod with podcasts comes in handy:) It was a beautiful drive. Probably at least five of the travel hours included the Rift Valley, extinct volcanoes, and mountains. It just takes your breath away when you come up to the edge of the Rift Valley. You’re traveling along gaining elevation when all of the sudden the ground seems to give way. The sheer drop of the escarpment looking down over 1000 feet and being able to see for who knows how many miles is amazing. The view is similar to what you see when an airplane is flying at low altitude and the fields appear like a patchwork quilt. Have you ever heard of a soda lake before? We went by two, Lakes Baringo and Lake Borgoria. We also crossed the equator. There was a small sign on the side of the road to mark it.
Our room here at Flora Hostel is adequate, but we loved being in a real house for the weekend. It was nice to have more room, to be able to walk into a kitchen, living room, have chairs and a couch to sit in, even a TV to watch!
Saturday morning we met with the bishop. He was very gracious, welcomed us and tossed around ideas for possible ministries. We sat on his veranda and talked for almost an hour. Then he took us on a tour of his front flower gardens and the farm behind the house. His newest addition is a greenhouse that allows them to germinate plants to transfer into their gardens and grow even more vegetables for their use.
We looked at a possible house if we decide to move there. It is in the same compound as another Maryknoll Lay missioner. It is a settler's house built in the 1930s. That area of town is nice and quiet, originally the British section of town. It has four bedrooms and one bath. There is both a front and back porch, plus a flagstone patio area by the front porch that would be great for sitting out to grade papers, read, take tea or chat. The banda (think gazebo with a grass roof) is out back, plus a nice open area.
Currently there are two MKLM in Kitale. Russ runs the Don Bosco Children’s Center. They work with orphans and vulnerable street children placing them in schools yet maintaining contact with their families on weekends. Kathy is a physician’s assistant that works at Kimini, a small town about 10 miles away.
Of course, we had to go into town. We went to two supermarkets to see what kinds of things we could buy right there in town. One of the stores is small and caters to wazungus (whites). The other was a large modern supermarket that has also started carrying those types of items and causing competition which means lower prices. (A Betty Crocker cake mix was about $6.) You can even get Ragu spaghetti sauce and Kellogs’ corn flakes, but no chocolate chips. There is a third, even larger store that we didn’t go into. We ate Sunday brunch at a lovely coffee house that also has an internet café, lending library and gift shop. The food was good.
The climate is wonderful. They said that the warmest day of the year was Saturday. It wasn't bad at all. In fact it was quite nice. Now is the dry season, but the dust was nothing like we saw in Olitokitok. Kitale is the maize basket of Kenya. Lots of farms, lots of corn, we even saw hay being baled!
Now it is time to pray and consider our options. Please pray for wisdom for us as we discern where we are most needed.
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