Funeral and beyond

At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, January 15, the King'atua family piled into David's safari van (Sammy driving) and headed to Nakuru where Ann was to be buried. It's a beautiful trip!

I was supposed to be the official funeral photographer. We first went to the mortuary for the viewing. Ann looked awful - why they had a viewing I'll never understand. Fayth, Ann's niece fainted and a couple of other people almost went down. But other than that it was pretty uneventful.

The trip to the burial site was long and the last part was over VERY rough bush roads (and by roads here, I mean paths). Two of Ann's siblings live on this land and there is a plot set aside for Ann. So according to Kenyan Kikuyu tradition, Ann was buried on a piece of that belonged to her. And here I would have put a very nice picture of the grave BUT my SD card got spoiled and I couldn't get the photos off it. So now the SD card is with the computer guys that have been trying to get a modem to work on my computer. Let's hope their recovery software is successful, because thus far they have not been able to get a modem to work on my computer.

Luckily, another family member with a very nice camera was taking pictures, so they have photos if mine decide to reside for eternity on my spoiled SD card.

I actually had a very nice time at the funeral... well, minus the fact that the speeches went on forever (in Kikuyu) and the preacher man didn't even know Ann and was completely full of himself! Her church dictated that he be there... much to the disappointment of the family.

I enjoyed my usual status as token white person, which truth be told, I don't even notice much anymore.

We arrived back at the compound in Ngong at 8 p.m.

A few days later I was in the Ngong Hills Supermarket (one of many small supermarkets in town) and the cashier made small talk with me (this has never happened to me). She asked how the burial went? It was nice I answered... but as I left I thought to myself. How did this lady know I attended Ann's burial? I sometimes forget I live in a fishbowl. People are constantly telling me... I saw you walking in Ngong, or talking with so-and-so, or buying such-and-such. It's kind of like being a celebrity with none of the perks!

I live about 300 meter off the main road into Ngong down a treacherous hill and yes people drive down it. Along the first 50 meters of road and just outside my gate are small kiosks (shops). For the first two months I lived here people barely acknowledged my existence or stared or made comments under their breath. But recently something has changed... maybe their just got used to seeing me around, but all of the sudden we are friends. They smile and wave, we greet one another, it's nice. I've noticed that there are not many wazungu who live here... I don't actually know of anyone else who lives in Ngong... although their probably is.

In other news...
I got an email today that another one of our children has a sponsor - at least for this year!
So Grace Laton, a Maasai girl, who is going into Form 1, will go to school!!! I spent last Monday taking her to see two high schools in Nairobi. One was absolutely horrible. It was under construction, but it looked more like a war zone. The other one was very nice... a bit too nice, kind of stuck up... if a school can be stuck up. We won't be sending her to either one of those. The only thing I gained that day was a severe backache from hours of riding in 6 different matatus!!

Oh and I stopped by the offices of the Kenyan NGO Board and completed the last step in the process to change the name of Grace's organization from Adopt A Village in Africa/Kenya to Wezesha By Grace. Wezesha is Kiswahili for empowerment.

Judie's school was attacked by thieves. The students were all safe in their dorm. The thieves made their way through the school compound to the convent where they stole money from the nuns. The shot and killed one watchman. Scary stuff! It seems the convent was having trouble with their alarm system and didn't get it fixed by closing time on Wednesday night. So it would seem a possibility that somebody linked to the alarm fix-it guys tipped off the thieves. Hmmmm...

The rest of this week has been devoted to getting ready for our first board meeting with NEW members and working with the accountant to get the year end financials done. Those of you who know me well, know this is NOT and I repeat NOT my area of expertise. But I CAN type and make copies and bind reports! So while not fodder for blogs, it has kept me most busy!

Pray for me this week as I get ready for the BIG meeting. It's Saturday at 10 a.m. so you will all be sleeping, so Friday prayers are welcome!

I had not seen photos of all the snow in Minnesota. But my friend Terry Gydesen, that fabulous MN photog, had some great ones on her Facebook page today... so thank you Terry for showing me what I am NOT missing!