Rocky Road to Eldoret

Last Thursday through Saturday, we went to a city north of Nairobi called Eldoret. We went there to visit one of Pastor Paul's church members who lives in a nearby city to Eldoret. Let me first set up the scene so you can experience what we felt. So there were eight of us packed in a Toyota Land Cruiser for a total of 5 hours. For the first hour, the road was nice, with an occasional pothole. After Naivasha, we continued north on some of the worse roads I have seen; some were paved and other weren't. The roads were so worn that there were huge grooves in the road from all the semis that travel this way. It became quite interesting trying to manage through the traffic and the potholes and the speed bumps. They put speed bumps of varying sizes once you reached a city/town to make you slow down. The roads don't really have lines, so it is a free-for-all with passing and being passed. Every-so-often, we would hit a police check, where the police would check registration and insurance and also capacity (especially for the matatus - their form of a bus/public transportation system). On our way, we crossed the Equator (0 degrees). So we finally reached Eldoret.


Our first stop in going to Julius' house was to his children's school. We caught the school during an assembly where they are announcing the school's scores on a test that they took. Many of the students have never seen a white person (mzungu), so we caused quite a ruckus. We had to sit in the front with the other teachers and special speakers so that the kids would look forward. We even had to introduce ourselves. Once Pastor Paul got up, he gave a short sermon and also asked if people wanted to accept Jesus. Many raised their hands and it was an awesome "appointment" from God. As the pictures show, there were tons of kids. We were told that there were more than 1,000 students at this primary school with only 16 teachers. Also, the teachers get roughly 9,000 Kenyan Schilling (about $130) per month. So, we think we have it bad in the States?! I was amazed. Many of the kids had no shoes and the classrooms were cement walls with wooden benches and a blackboard. We did enjoy the experience and at the end, the kids were able to come up to us and greet us and touch us.

Where Julius lives is about 40 minutes away from Eldoret, so it is a bit secluded, but very pretty. This is what I think of as more typical Kenyan life. He built his house out of wood frames, a tin roof and a clay / manure mixture for the walls. There is no running water or electricity. The toilets were another small structure with two holes in the ground. The "shower" was a three-sided hut where you can dump water (probably cool/cold water) on your self to clean up. It is a very serene place to live.

Julius' family and his house

Surrounding areas from Julius' house

A typical house

As everywhere we went in the bush, we drew a crowd. The people just started to come to Julius' house and very quickly, we had a crowd. There were tons of kids and also many adults came. We took this as a prime time to witness to them and we prayed with many of them for salvation. It was awesome to see God working everywhere we went.



I was very privileged to have gone on this trip. You don't know that many foreigners that would have gone that far into Kenya. It was a very good and fruitful trip. God moved! Keep praying for Kenya!!