Tall pews, charcoal irons, and napping cows....

Yesterday and today have been spectacular days - sunny and clear and warm! :) 

Beautiful flowers on campus, bubbling up over a fence.

I almost forgot to tell you about the amazing market here in Machakos....there is a large, very organized walled market just at the edge of town that our orientation coordinators have said is the best they have seen in Kenya.  We have been there 3 times, and I am just amazed at the variety of rices, beans, and produce they have.  We couldn't help but buy some wheat to have on hand when we get to our home and can grind our wheat again. :)  On another day, I went with some women in our group to a seamstress there and had a skirt made for Anna.  (Emily declined to go that trip.)  She didn't have a huge fabric selection, but she offered to take us somewhere outside of the market to look at other fabrics.  So, she measured Anna, and off we went.  We stopped at a stall outside of the market, found a wonderful fabric (see photo under Scott sign from yesterday's post), set a day to pick it up, and that was that!  I am still a little tentative about taking photos, but I did take one of the iron that they used in the shop....it uses the homemade charcoal that is available here.  My big question is how do they keep the charcoal ash from getting on the fabric while they iron?!

Here is just one of maybe 40-50 stalls in the market - this one sold only grains.  The produce stalls are in another area.

The iron on the shelf outside the seamstress stall - and it was "on!"

Yesterday, we visited a different church in Machakos town, since we are encouraged to visit at least two churches and not attend the same one each week while we are here.  It is a good perspective to see a variety of churches/worship styles, and it was interesting afterwards to listen to the kids speak about the 3 different churches we have seen.  This last one is quite a large, fairly affluent church; we attended the earlier, English service at 9:00.  It seems that if there are services in two languages, the English one is the earlier one.  When we sat down in these pews, I was struck by a couple of things that were different from the previous church.  First, the pews were stained and coated in polyurethane, while the others had been fairly rough hewn, raw wood.  Secondly, and most surprising, was that my feet BARELY touched the floor!  Most Kenyans are not super tall, so I can't really explain the significance of that, but it made me feel small.  Interesting feeling, after so many years of having my feet reach the floor. :)   

We were sitting about 2/3 of the way back.

Another difference here is that they had someone actually playing a keyboard and 2 people playing guitar.  I have been amazed that nowhere else that we have been have we seen anyone actually playing an instrument - all the music is recorded and played through a loudspeaker.  I don't know if this is becoming more common in Kenya or just a larger city phenomenon.

There were other differences, such as preaching styles (The pastor spoke very enthusiastically on Revelation 3.), and the way they collected the offering.  There was only one offering, and there was a very specific order to it - but the order was which rows went first and how it proceeded.  This is in contrast to having the order based on gender and age.  Similarities between the churches included the music (which I have recorded but haven't yet been able to post), the choir (although somewhat less spontaneous), and the way everyone goes to the front for the offering.  They recognized us as guests, but it was not quite as personal as the first church, which was likely a function of size...perhaps not unlike anywhere else in the world.  Larger communities struggle with welcoming guest warmly, and guest to larger communities often have a harder time connecting.

We caught a matatu to chuch - I said I would never ride one, but....

We walked to the downtown area to pick up a couple of things - very busy area, but that didn't disturb this napping cow!

This was our ride home - I love Tuk tuks!  Too bad they don't have them in Kijabe...too hilly!

I thought I would sit down to tell you about our celebration dinner last night but, alas, I will have to tell you about that tomorrow.  Thanks for following our journey with us - your interest and your prayers mean so much to us!

Love,
Sarah
Psalm 30