Cross-Culture Ministry in Kenya, Part Five
All Kenyans old enough to remember will, for the rest of their lives, remember exactly where they were when they heard the news just like those of us old enough to remember John F. Kennedy's assasination. Kenyans have been shaken to their core by the blast. Ask them about it and they will pause before answering you, and then express much sorrow as they recount their recollections of that day.
I have been to the site of the old embassy. The rubble has been cleared, it is now a vacant lot, a new embassy has been built far outside the city, and the adjacent hotel has been repaired but the psyches of the Kenyan people will be forever grieved.
June 22-24
On Friday, we visited Oriang Pottery. David has not visited there for 10 years and says it is nothing like it used to be. It has fallen victim to modernization. In the past, people used pottery for storing water, cooking food, storing corn flour, rice and beans and other food items. Today, food is stored in plastic containers, cooked in aluminum pans and water is stored in 50-liter plastic jugs. There were only about 6 very old ladies making pottery and their stock was very low. They mostly sell to tourists now.
Saturday we visited Maranda High School. It is the premier boarding high school for boys in Nyanza Province. The deputy head master is David's childhood friend and classmate. When we arrived we had morning tea and mandazis and visited for a while. Later, he gave us a tour of the school. There are 700 boys living and learning there.
When we arrived they were still in class. On Saturday, they attend class from 7-10 a.m. and then do their laundry until lunch. Seeing 700 boys doing laundry outside on the lawn is quite a sight. There is no running water. Each building has gutters that go all the way around the edge of the roof to catch rainwater and empty it into big concrete tanks. This creates the water supply. Each boy has a round plastic tub, which he fills, from the water tanks.
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