Many of the students ask us to visit their homes during the Christmas break. We agreed and chose about eight students who were the most remote. This involved many hours of driving in a Chevy Luv pickup with a camper shell on the back. Our son sat in the cab with his dad and our daughter and I sat on a bench in the back. The question was, “Do you want to be scrunched in the front or the back?” We knew we would be picking up many riders along the way. Along the way, we had as many as 18 riders.
The Kenyan people have a saying about light-skinned people. “Those people have no color, they are born without skin”. Their flesh is white and covered with dark skin, so they think our skin is missing. We visited a tribe of people deep into western Kenya. The children were so afraid of us. Our skin was frightening to them and many young children cried when they saw us. The older children wanted to feel the skin and hair of our children.
We drove about four hours off the tar Mac roads across the bush area to reach these people. My daughter and I were a little concerned knowing how remote the area was that they would want us to eat a traditional meal. This meal is called blood sausage. It is an intestine-encased mixture of goat tripe, blood, and urine with seasonings. We were so relieved to learn upon our arrival that many years ago someone taught them how to grow potatoes. Potatoes never tasted so good!
These two weeks while traveling, we stayed in a small room or hut. Of course, there was no electricity so we used our flashlights after 6 at night. This required creativity for a large window of time before we went to sleep. In an earlier blog, I described shadow puppets on the wall. We added a game of stories to that. We challenged my husband to tell a story about any topic we called out.
We learned so much about the country and the people on this adventure. Also, our students felt encouraged. We had worship sessions with each group in their mother tongue. My husband did a short simple scripture teaching. Our student translated into their tribal language. This was a memorable experience for all four of us.
Philemon 1:7 says that our love to people gives them joy and encouragement and refreshes the hearts of the saints.