Cool Tent

No Unhallowed Hand

The recent difficulties here in Kenya have been troubling. Now I understand what people mean when they talk about corrupt governments. And I've seen how those county governments' decisions have drastically and negatively affected transportation and business for everyone. I felt like a minority early on, but know I sort of know what it feels like to be a potential target just for the color (sort of) of my skin.  

Hunter and I and the kids have kept safe and haven't felt personally threatened at all, thankfully, but I was especially worried and saddened when I had the missionaries over to eat last month and they arrived without ties and name tags. The mission president, who is extra careful to avoid jeopordizing their safety told them not to wear their normal attire so they could blend in.

I take comfort in this statement by Joseph Smith Jr.:

"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

I think of this quote whenever I see how the work is progressing here in the Mombasa branch. Last Sunday, we had three baptisms! It was awesome.

Betty (Miriam's daughter), and Kristabel (Juliet Mwangi's daughter)

And Nicholas (Agnes' son, and Judith's brother--Judith was baptized the same day as Paulo)

We also are beginning to teach another friend named John who wants to know more about the church. He's also a young single adult.

I find it significant that the people who have been being taught by the missionaries and by us have been young adult males. These men, when they are baptized, will be able to be ordained to the priesthood, and one day that priesthood will be able to bless their future wives and children. Like how Fred was able to baptize Betty--the first time he ever baptized anyone. Miriam's family is experiencing the blessings of the priesthood.

And our friend Michael, who was baptized in Madagascar a year ago, has been ordained to the priesthood, has completed the temple class, and is now preparing to return home and be sealed with his fiance in the Johannesburg temple.

 

I fantasize about a day, maybe 10 or 20 years from now, when these branches will grow into wards and stakes, and when the church will announce a temple in Kenya. I hope for that day. Perhaps these problems are a blessing in disguise. If they have to close the mission--I have no idea if they will--the members will have to step up and do missionary work themselves.

And so the work goes on.

Hair Cut

I decided to do it.

I've been threatening to chop all my hair off because I've just been way too hot. Well, I did it. It's a little less extreme than the buzz cut I was debating about, but I didn't want to cry afterwards. My friend Agnes who has her own salon told me where I should go for a trustworthy stylist who can do mzungu haircuts.

I went to Ashley's at city mall.

Here's my "before" shot, before he washed my hair, and after I just pulled out my ponytail braid. You can't really see the length.

It was definitely time.

And here are my glamour "after" shots:

Hair blowing (way too much) in the wind. :) It actually felt great.

And the one you might have seen on facebook:

Yup. I actually put on makeup for you guys. I'm happy with it. Reminds me of my Pasadena days.

Report Cards

The kids just started their final term of school. We had a lovely break. I was so proud of the kids' performance last term. They made goals to work harder in certain subjects this term, and they actually did it!

Paulo got straight A-stars in his main subjects 2nd term! He moved up from being ranked 13th to 8th with an average of 94%. Way to go, Paulo!

And Andre skipped up from kindergarten first term into year one second term. He was having some difficulties at first, and Hunter and I wondered if we made the right decision, but he's really adjusted well.

When I saw that the ICT score was the lowest of the key subjects, I laughed, because the kid knows how to write his own computer programs. Hunter jokes that it's because he knows how to use Macs and not PCs. Haha. He actually got nervous on the exam. The Art comment also is funny.

We're so proud of our AWESOME boys!

Wasini Island

Over Easter weekend, we planned a non-traditional vacation. We booked two nights on Wasini Island at Mpunguti Lodge just off the South Coast of Kenya. 

At first I thought the lodge was on the mainland, but when we parked and met up with the employees, they ushered us with all our bags, to the pier and we boarded a little motor boat. I've never traveled to my "hotel" by boat before, so this was pretty thrilling.

Here's the lodge--the buildings with the blue and white. When we arrived, the tide was low, so we stepped down from the boat about 200 meters from this cliff, and we waded through the water with flip flops in hand. Then we climbed some steep steps that took us up the side of the cliff to our lodge.

The view from our room was amazing! Here's Reyna hanging out on the patio outside our door.

Next to our little patio was this cool turret. The local island kids especially liked playing on and jumping from it during high tide.

After settling in to our room, and eating a nice meal, we took a short swim at the base of the cliff. By this time, the tide was in. As the sun set, we took a quick visit to the island's main attraction, The Coral Gardens. The island, by the way, is only 5 km long and 1 km wide, so we walked. No cars on the island. 

The gardens were just full of these coral formations that used to all be under the water. They had built these board walks so people could walk through the garden when the tide is low. We arrived late, so the water was covering the boardwalk in some places. It was awesome!

As we hiked through the village, it was nice to see how the people who lived on the island really did seem to live by this idea of "Pole pole!" (Slowly, or take your time). I saw some mamas doing their laundry, and they seemed even to do their laundry slowly. We also saw some farms, a coconut grove and other cool things as we hiked around the island.

The next morning, this is what we woke up to:

Couldn't you get used to this? I love the ocean.

We had big plans for the day. We planned to travel 45 minutes by boat to the Kisite/Mpunguti Marine National Park. This was our guide, Shay. He was awesome with the boys. They loved playing with him...

...and Andre loved playing with his phone.

There's the marine park.

There's no building. There's really only a small mound of land. The park is below the water! Under the water is a bunch of coral and hundreds of fish. We easily saw 40 different types of fish. 

Here's a nice picture of a dhow (boat), similar to the one that we were riding in. I wanted so much to snap a photo of the boys in the water, but I was so close to barfing, it just wasn't a good time. Once I felt better, Reyna and I were let out on the tiny island and we played in the white sand and tiny crystal clear waves. 

Oh! I almost completely forgot!!!! On the way to the marine park, we saw a pod of dolphins!!! Dolphins jumping around together in the wild! Sometimes 5 or 6 dolphins synchronized jumping together. It was awesome how they seemed to want to perform around the boats. Hunter will post a video later.

On Easter Sunday, we got out the Easter egg decorating kit that Magra mailed to the kids. She's the best at keeping up traditions. The boys were so happy. The staff at the hotel were happy to boil some eggs for our breakfast.

Paulo set up this cool little "beach wedding" for his egg and my egg.

Failed Easter family photo:

Pow Pow did some last minute fishing with Shay before we checked out. These skinny "crocodile fish" were pretty tasty.

Dickson's Baptism

What a wonderful day. Dickson was finally baptized. He's waited a long time.

It was so special to be able to have this missionary experience together as a family. I first met Dickson and invited him to learn from the missionaries. Paulo and Andre kept contact with him every day at school. Hunter and I taught him most of the lessons, and Dickson asked Hunter to baptized him.

The water was quite low, so they had to kneel down.

This picture was so dark, but I just had to lighten it and show you how the boys tackled Dickson as soon as he came out of the font. They were so happy.

I was happy, too. He's such a special friend to our family.

Here he is saying a "I'm one of you, now".

I'm so glad that when my children serve missions of their own one day, they will have had plenty of missionary experiences already.

I'm excited to see Dickson's progress from here.