OUR NEW HOME

We've moved into our new home, hurray! It's located inside a compound with an iron gate in the front, a guard who lives behind the house, and the compound is surrounded by an 18-foot hedge. The home is quite old (probably 50 years) and needs much work. It’s humble by US standards but very nice by Kenyan. We have no hot water; there is a showerhead that will heat the water however, the water comes out scalding hot or freezing cold. We are working on that. We are doing fine, the house has needed MUCH attention and it is difficult to explain how difficult it is to get anything completed. For instance, we wanted to put our shower curtains up so we went to the Eagle Hardware (not like the one in the states) for a tension rod, but a Kenyan shower rod is three pipes to be connected with various attachments. Our house has all concrete walls so we needed someone with a drill. We picked up our drapery man who has a drill, we thought great ...today we can check this off our list. Well, the cord to the drill is 3 meters, the surge projector has a 3 meter cord but ....... there are no light sockets in the bathrooms and the closest one is another 10 meters away. So that was a bust. As I said getting things done in Kenya takes so much longer than expected. There just is no multitasking here. We took out after an extension cord there is no such thing here. But the good news is we have curtains, a bed, and a kitchen table. We purchased (will be reimbursed) a fridge, clothes dryer, and the mission bought a cooker (stove). The stove is part electric part propane and Elder Babcock is hooking it up right now. Anything that is in the house we have needed to purchase such as dishes, silverware, glasses, etc. etc. Quite a challenge.

This experience does come with a blessing for we are very comfortable going anywhere in town, walking in any of the markets, and talking to people. We are asked quite often about our little black missionary tags and that brings an opportunity to share the gospel. Here are pictures of two Kenyan houses one is ours and one is Kenyan. I bet you know which one is ours! We have a poinsettia tree, a banana tree, and a mango tree here on the compound!