Canadians in Kitale

An excerpt from an email I sent... sorry I've been so poor at posting to the blog... it seems that the biggest reason for me to be online is now sitting beside me, so waiting for slow internet connections no longer seems appealing! All is going well, and we are in the final feedback stage of the research... hard to believe it is less than two weeks before we leave this town and go for safari!

Last night we went to the monthly potluck gathering of most Mzungus in the Kitale area. Everyone except Me, Mike, and the friend we brought were connected with some sort of Christian children's organisation in town, so the conversation inevitably turned to the robbery and vicious assault of John and Eloise from Vernon BC, who had been living about 20km from town, near a small IDP camp, for the last six months and had been working with one of those Christian organisations.

Although no Kenyan here knows about what happened to them, because it doesn't make for a good news story to run by the government controlled media houses, I understand it was in the news a bit in Canada. I just wanted to let people know that everyone in the expatriate community felt totally shocked and angered that it happened. However, we feel that it was totally unusual for this area and that it was an isolated incident, so we all still feel quite safe. Especially Mike and I as we are on a large guarded compound filled with 200 pastors :)

The police did their jobs...out of the five guys plus two guards that were involved, all have been arrested, charged, and have had their trial dates set, except for one guy who is still seen sporadically in the slum in Kitale that they all came from. We can praise God for the miracle that John is alive since he was beaten for an hour with four men with machetes and clubs, and that Eloise has survived also, since she was also assaulted for an hour as well. As far as I know both John and Eloise are flying back to Canada shortly for further medical treatment. We can pray that they heal emotionally as well as physically, as well as for the police, court system, and their team here.