Sundays

A Sudanese church. Most of the congregation was made of young men. They are pretty much all refugees. Only a handful of people over the age of 40. Maybe families preferentially sent off young men because they would be the most at risk of being killed? Not sure. There was a big Sudanese population in town, unmistakable when in groups, because of their tall, thin stature. Usually I would see them in groups around the bus station, especially those headed north to Kakuma, which is the oldest (or biggest?) refugee camp in Kenya (or East Africa?). I was surprised to learn that most Sudanese in Kitale also don't necessarily have a very good grasp of Swahili as they only learn it upon arrival in Kenya.

I got to attend their church with my friend Lois and and other woman who is part of the ICM Women's ministry group (mainly made up of staff wives at ICM). They brought with them treated mosquito nets and cookies and sweets which we all handed out at the end of the service. The women I came with couldn't get over how strange it was to sit in a church service and not understand what was going on, as the congregation did not conduct their service in Swahili. Still at the Sudanese church. Is this a man or a woman? I couldn't tell... The headscarf threw me off. Very mysterious... The person stood up front, but I never heard their voice (this is singing here).

A Sunday school class I got to teach. First I got to teach some fun action songs to all of the kids inside (three times this number) and then they broke into age groups, and I went with these grade 1-4 kids. The lady in green invited me- she is on housekeeping staff at ICM. I got to go to this church twice, which was quite nice. Each time I skipped out of the sermon to join the kids. Much more fun. And much more my speed in terms of language and enjoyment! It was an impromptu request, so we talked about the first thing that came to mind given the daily rains... Noah's Ark.

A street preacher by my friends Juliet and Dominic's house.

I obviously wore the wrong shoes to get home this day! Walking 20 minutes through Mitume, an almost-slum area of Kitale.
Our friends: Chege, Lois, Stanley and Grace. If you look at pictures from two years ago on this blog, you will find one of them by some bricks that they were firing to build this house. It is still not complete- still in need of all indoor things (they will have electricity!), but when it is, they will be able to host the multitudes of visitors much more readily! Grace, in Lois' arms was born when I was here last. Now she is a rambunctious two year old who never ever stays still for longer than a minute. At the moment they still live in a semi-permanent mud-walled house.

During the post election violence I was especially concerned for this family because they are Kikuyu, and most Kikuyus in the outskirts of Kitale were targeted. They themselves remained safe, although they did spend some nights on ICM campus, as well as acting as a shelter themselves for about 20 more people. Everyone couldn't even sleep at one time- there wasn't enough space. It was really a crazy time, but they all thank God they came out safely.

Chege is a pastor as well as the dean of students at ICM. I got on well with them, and attended their church whenever someone else didn't ask me first.