Vacating my mud hut, week of February 14, 2011

I realized later how fitting it was to have my final week begin on Valentine's Day

Sprucing up the compound

Over the course of three days, I had 20 such fires to burn off the rubbish

I was tuckered out!

The final load of wash hanging on the line

The final time to do dishes

The final sunset

Squeezing in some last minutes of daylight

A last time to view Mawe Tatu

Enjoying a cup of chai outside on one of the last evenings

Farewell house!

Wycliff is ready to take me to the stage at Matunda market for the last time

Through the years, I bought many supplies at Farmer's Hardware

The stage to Eldoret... nice road, huh? One of Kenya's major highways!

A portion of the market starts to wake up in the early morning hours

Farewell, Matunda market

My name is not mzungu; please call me Deb

My friend, Ken - who is the manager of Harvest Secondary School - requested that I do a 90-minute talk to the 50+ students and 7 staff members on the final day before their mid-term break. The title of my talk was, "My name is not mzungu!"

My outline was as follows:

1. Who I am - I introduced my kids and grandkids (with photos), explained what God has me doing in Kenya, and told about why I've had my mud hut for the past 8.5 years.
2. Who I am not - I dispelled some of the many very wrong assumptions about me based solely on the color of my skin. I informed them that I don't do the same things as other white missionaries.
3. Prejudice - We discussed the meaning - pre-judging - and looked up Scriptures about rumors and gossip. I informed them that - contrary to popular belief - I am NOT the sponsor of the school.
4. Uniqueness - God made each one of us different; we should not be lumped into large categories based on our race, gender, if they're from the village, etc. We looked up Scripture passages that illustrate how God knows each one of us by name.
5. Renew your mind - I challenged them to think in new ways after hearing my talk and to transform their thinking about white folks. Again, we looked up several Scriptures to support my point.

The students opened their weekly Christian Union session with singing

The final verse of Scripture we looked at was Proverbs 18:15 (in the New Living Translation) -

Intelligent people are always open to new ideas.

In fact, they look for them.

During the question-and-answer portion of the afternoon, I treated everyone to soda and biscuits. It was a way to celebrate me having my mud hut on the compound for the past several years. 

Purchasing and loading the crates of soda at Matunda market

Ken (the new director) and his wife, Joan, are friends of mine

Felling trees to make beds

I hired a "chainsaw-man" to fell three of my cypress trees. The two that were 20 feet tall provided enough 3" x 1" x 3' "timber" to make the mattress slats for two "double-deckers" (bunk beds) for the students at the school. The third tree (and shortest one) was unfortunately dying due to some inadvertent damage. It wasn't big enough around to be used for timber, and will instead be used for firewood.

Nathan felled two of his tall Eucalyptus trees a few days later. They made enough 3" x 3" timber to make the two double-decker bedframes. It seemed very fitting to me - as I vacated the compound - to bless the expanding school with beds for 4 students.

Slicing it into pieces of timber

The guy was very skilled with the chainsaw; he did his work carefully and quickly.

Removing the three trees really opened up the compound and made it more attractive, in my opinion. Over 30 trees still remain.

My pastor friend, Nathan, is on the left. The guy in the middle is the owner of the chainsaw. I guess the guy on the right just came along for company. A person pays to have a tree felled and cut into timber based on the size of timber requested. For the 1" x 3" pieces I wanted, the charge to me was 4-shillings per foot. Of that, the owner gets 3 shillings per foot and the guy doing all the work gets 1 shilling per foot. We ended up with 250 feet. All of the branches plus the top portion of the tree will be used for much-needed firewood.

These pieces of "off-cuts" will also be put to use.

Nathan and the owner of the chainsaw counting the timber

Some of the male students carried the timber to storage so it could properly dry

Photos around the school compound

This building serves as the girls' dorm and one of the classrooms.

Some of the girls that attend the school

plus the matron (in pink blouse)

Where the girls hang (or lay) their clothes to dry. 

The "live fence" (or hedge) is the one around my small compound.

Kizitu (the school gate-keeper and caretaker) getting mud ready to repair the walls of the kitchen.

The clay soil becomes very sticky when wet.

"Throwing the mud" on the crumbling walls.

As he throws it with some umph... it will stick to the existing mud.

Sprucing-up the place

Even though God made it clear that the time had come to vacate my house, I still wanted to leave it in fairly good condition. So... I did some more painting on the gate and the new "pillars" we made in August.

I also painted the sitting room floor.

In August, Nathan had patched several holes, so the floor was rather unsightly.

After I gave away most of my furniture, I found myself sitting on the floor to cook!

And... I stored my food and cooking utensils on the floor, as well.

Isn't this bougainvillea beautiful? 

It's even prettier when you see it in person!