Friday, Oct 23rd, 2010--It's Only Flat on the Bottom!

Although today did not have a heavy agenda, it included a lot of time traveling Kenya roads. Zippy’s driver had arranged for a taxi to take us to the Cherengany Hills and then cross back through Sibanga and go on to Mois Bridge. Who would have predicted that the “taxi driver” Gideon arranged for us was none other than the landlord of the building where the Watergate cyber café had first been established!

The trip to Cherengany Hills was to visit with Pastor George Mufoya, one of the Kitale LCM pastors. It’s not all that far from Sibanga but the roads are atrocious, even by Kenyan standards, and it was recommended that we make this a morning visit in order to avoid being stranded there by the afternoon rains. The road to George’s home was so bad that we stopped the car to help a poor little “punda” (donkey) who had gotten his cart stuck in a large mud hole! We had a wonderful time sharing with George and his wife Jessica and of course, couldn’t be allowed to leave until we had shared a meal with them! Little did I realize during the ride back to Sibanga that someone had put a life chicken (cucu) in the back of our car! The car had so many rattles and shakes that if that poor little chicken HAD been squawking, no one would have been able to hear it! Flat tire number 1 occurred right at the end of the lane leading to Zippy’s shamba (farm) so we walked to the house and waited for our driver to fix the tire and pick us up for the second leg of our trip.

On to Moisbridge where we met with Timothy and Faith Nyongesa who have planted a new LCM church in this largely Muslim town. The church seems to be doing well although the family, like many in Kenya, is struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis. After a sharing a meal with the Nyongesa’s, Dawn left to meet two new friends; someone she met on the internet through World Gospel Mission. It was good to exchange cultural observations and to learn more about each others ministries. Returning home, we came through Kitale instead of going straight to Sibanga because one of Dawn’s new friends lived there and we offered him a ride. Not far outside of Moisbridge was where flat tire number 2 occurred. Imagine our surprise when the drive pulled out the “spare” which seemed to be showing almost as much belt as rubber and was sporting a bulge on the side about the size of a golf ball! We were convinced an angel was holding up that side of the car all the way back to Sibanga!