The Wedding and more!
Sorry all. Just got so busy the past couple of days that by the time I got to blogging, I was very tired and decided to get some sleep instead.
I left off with a post on Thursday, so let’s go to Friday, AKA “The Wedding”. I was invited to attend the wedding of one of the priests in the Diocese and sing at the wedding. Since they are pretty up-beat here in East Africa when it comes to things like weddings, I chose “Your love is amazing” for the song. I had the congregation join in on the chorus “Halleluia, Halleluia, Your love makes me sing”.
The wedding proceeded very much like one at home, with one exception. They really celebrate the moment! First there was the groomsmen procession. They came in dancing and slowly (and I mean slowly) moved down the center aisle. Then there were the junior brides maids, followed by the brides maids and the ring bearers. Each danced their way down the aisle. Then the bride processed with her parents. In all it took about 40 – 45 minutes just for the procession. It was fun to watch really. They had such a good time in the moment.
Moving forward to Saturday, Nick came over to the house at about 10 AM. We took a bus ride to downtown Kisumu to purchase the rest of the items we need to complete the computer setup. This included a couple of Internet routers (one from Airtel and one from Safaricom). I was unable to really determine which carrier would be best for the college, so it was just easier to get both and find out that way. We also picked up mouse pads and RJ-45 network cable ends because the ones I brought from the USA were just not working out well for us with the Cat6 cable we have. These new cable ends have a simpler design and should work better for constructing the cables. I also picked up another set of crimpers so that two of us can be making cables to speed up the job.
Nick has been so helpful in navigating around Kisumu. I could not have done that without him. It’s been great to have his assistance with all of the purchases. I’m pretty much set for completing the setup on Monday so that I can start training Bon on running and managing the systems.
So today, we left at about 8:30 AM to go and worship at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Bondo. It was a special service that involved celebrating the Mother’s Union, which is an organization of women in the Diocese that does a lot of charitable work. Once again, I got to sing, but this time it was the Bishop’s entire family. I actually played guitar and came in mostly with harmonies and let them lead the song. The song was “Sing for Joy”. And one again, we engaged the congregation in singing the chorus with us. There was a lunch afterwards and then we came home, which is where I am now.
Spiritually speaking, everything I’ve been involved in has been a blessing for me. I’ve very much have seen the hand of the Lord on all that we’ve been doing. Even with the difficultly with the cable ends we have last week did not impact the joy of just being here. And as I was confident in, we were able to find a good solution for the problem. So I’m looking forward to tomorrow and getting back to work on the systems at the college. I’m expecting to be there until Wednesday and hope to just have a relaxing day back in Kisumu on Thursday before at travel back to Niarobi on Friday.
Thanks to all who have been holding us up in prayer. Keep them coming. I know that the success of this project is banking on them.
Bill
