Final road trip to western Kenya …

The week began with a farewell at one of the Nairobi Mennonite churches with lots of singing, worship and receiving some gifts. We will carry back to Canada the wishes and prayers of this congregation.

Martha with Stanley

Mzee and his new walking stick

Martha and her new purse

We are now back in Nairobi after a full and worthwhile, we think, visit to western Kenya. We left early Thursday for Kisumu, arriving there in time for a meeting at 2 p.m. For the first time, in all our road trips, we experienced some vehicle trouble with our trusty Landcruiser. We had trouble with overheating on the entire trip and experienced some of the help provided by Kenyans along the road. We fully realize that the “help” is given because of an anticipated reward, but nevertheless, a number of “helper mechanics”  — called fundis  — were quick to come to our assistance.

While in the Kisumu area, we met with several groups, including the bishops of the Kenya Mennonite Church, an HIV/AIDs project, and a food security/education/greenhouse/dairy goat/peace project late one afternoon. We stayed overnight in Kisumu and Kericho and then “babied” our Landcruiser back to Nairobi after getting advice from our regular mechanic. We made it home safely, albeit a bit slowly. Part of next week’s agenda is now to fix the vehicle.

We travelled with Rand and Selena Carpenter and their two children Reid and Sam. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Meeting with Kenya Mennonite Church bishops

Wheat fields and acacia trees

Majestic acacia tree

Our email addresses are martharatzlaff@gmail.com and ronratzlaff@yahoo.ca