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Saturday, September 30th, we drove to town for some shopping and to use the Internet. The road between RITT and the main road to Eldoret is a real mess. The map says it is paved – however, it does not have one cubic inch of pavement anywhere to be found. We have been told that there was money given for the road to be paved but the person absconded with the money and it was never paved. When some of the RITT staff requested that the road be paved the Public Works Department said that according to the map it was paved so therefore it did not need to be paved again. EAWA!

While in town we had to pick up a maize/corn grinder for our small farm. This is the time of year for the maize to be ground. We were told in the morning that it was ready for pickup. However, when we arrived it was not ready. They had to readjust the pulley and so some welding, the hitch was not finished so it would not fit the Land Cruiser properly. We were told that the wait would be about 10 minutes (in African time it turned out to be over 2 hours). However, during that time some previous acquaintances passed by and we were able to greet and talk to them. One of them is a Dutchman who is advising/supervising our student pastoral trainees. His wife and two children are with him and we hope to get together for a meal/fellowship soon. Once the grinder was ready and attached, off we went at less than 10 miles per hour because of the roads. The first half of the road was paved but had lots of rough spots and pot holes. The rest of the road is like the one pictured above. Shortly after getting to the dirt road the grinder came off the hitch. Since it is so back heavy we had trouble righting it again. After if detached for a second time, we left one of our students with the grinder and we drove home to get some rope, wire, chain, nails and a hammer. Ray, Jackson and Martin went back with the car to try to hook it up more securely by using all of the above. It worked! Ray and Jackson were happy to get it home.

Also, while in town, we had another interesting experience. There are many, many poor in Eldoret. One man asked for money and Ray gave him a few shillings. He was very unhappy and wanted more. We told him that this was enough for today. After harassing us for a very long time he threw the coins back at me and continued his tirade. When Ray returned and I told him what happened he gave the shillings to the student who was in the car with us and the student told the beggar that he was very happy to have received the shillings. The beggar left in a huff. In so many ways you cannot blame them for wanting more from us when every idea they have about America is from Hollywood.

There are many wonderful people living in Africa and they have become what we call “rafiki” – friends. You try to win over the not so gracious by being gracious to them anyway..