Coffee with Christine

In one of our Ladies Fellowship, two of students showed the rest of us how to make liquid soap. They bought a Soap Making Kit for 700 Ksh (about US10) and it made over 20 litres of liquid soap. We are paying about USD2 for 500ml at the store. We thought teaching the ladies a skill like that can help supplement their income. Some of these ladies are also ministers and pastors as well and they can teach the widows or members of their congregation how to make this liquid soap and help them sell it to generate a small income. Noella and Dorcas explaining the process and the ingredients. The ingredients Rose, one of our students, writing down diligently the process and ingredients. Mixing the ingredients...it's actually harder than it looks...takes quite a bit of elbow grease to get the chemicals well mixed. We sent everyone home with a baggie of liquid soap I bet you never thought a baggie liquid soap can make the ladies smile so big!!

I have been trying for days and maybe weeks to post some pictures but our internet connections has been so sporadic, I can hardly get any pictures uploaded. I decided to upload two photos at a time, and post more often instead of one long post. This Masai ladies are part of the WOW (Widows and Orphans of the World) conference. You will see Lucy at the far right (the only lady not wearing Masai clothing i.e the red ones). She is also the director of our orphanage. We met these ladies after I spoke. They have just arrived! They had walked close to 40 miles to get to the conference. They also presented me with a beautiful necklace. I will try to take a close up of that necklace sometime. DEAD snake...yikes! We don't like snakes. This little fellow was in our backyard. One of the campus gardener saw it and promptly killed it. We are very grateful. VERY dead snake....

Hey guys...sorry about the lack of posting lately and it isn't because of my lack of trying either! We have been having so many problems with our internet. The constant interruption on our power supply has affected our server and it's not working like it should. The server serves the whole campus, so this is quite a big problem for everyone, especially the students. I am glad it's working today, at least for now...:-)) Our electricity has been going off up to ten days a day since last weekend. Each time it goes off, we have no idea when it will return. Sometimes a couple of minutes, sometimes a few hours! This is driving everyone crazy.. I have tried to upload photos so many times but the power would go out on me, I am ready to give up BUT I received a sweet comment from Juniper and I was encouraged to try again. Will try later today.... Meanwhile, if you have been following international news, the situation in Goma is serious. We received news that the rebels have cl...

I had a wonderful time speaking at the WOW (Widows and Orphans of the World) conference last week. Before I go to that, let me finish with the pics of Mt Kenya.... These are Rock Hyraxes and they are supposedly distant relatives of the elephants!! I think, if they are truly related to the elephants, it must be quite a distant away :-)) Can you see the peak of the mountain between the clouds? Mt Kenya! Bush pig...Vickie loves ALL animals... Vickie named this baby buffalo, Babu! Hybrid of zebra and horse, Kathryn calls them Zorse~ I think they look mostly like horses except for the stripes Speedy, the turtle, giving free rides!!! We were told that he can carry up to 300lbs. Our favorite monkeys...all three of them :-)) There is a brick wall with the names of the donors to the orphanage...this is not our Kathryn's brick but she thought it was cool to take a pic of it anyways! I love the expression of Kathryn's face in this picture. She suddenly look like her two year old self...

Here we are finally at Mt Kenya, at the animal orphanage. Vickie feeding the crown crane This is a Bongo, it is an endangered animal. This orphanage was started as an effort to protect this unusual animal. The stripes on their bodies makes them very special and vulnerable as you can imagine how beautiful that piece of "rug" would be... Feeding the ostrich, Patricia...she pecks hard! Porcupine. ..we were told this kind does not shoot their needles...phew.. This tortoise is at least 100 years old and can live up to 300 years old. His name is Speedy - appropriate, don't you think? At the entrance of the orphanage...sorry my pictures are not in any particular order!! Some kind of wild cat, with special looking ears.. me and my roomate! this monkey is still a baby, I think he is 6 months old.. We didn't realise that Mt Kenya is at 7000 ft above see level. It got cold when we were there. A quaint little chapel. me and my pastor :-)) father and daughter, look at the way they...

Tony was invited to preach at one of our HIM (Harvesters Inst. of Min - the layman Bible school we pioneered) alumni, Stephen Wanyoike's church. It was almost an hour away but it was so worth it for us to see how he his church has grown and out of this "little" church, he started another 27 churches! He is in his 70s! Still expanding and building the congregation this is how dry the area has been, we have not had good rains for a long time...years, I think my favorite Pastor with Stephen and his wife. Early this month, Tony also preached at Nairobi Pentecostal Church, Parklands. He speaks regularly in this church. This is a strong, dynamic and vibrant church. We always enjoy their services, especially when my favorite preacher is preaching :-)) My goofballs! On our way to Mt Kenya! We took a wrong turn on our way there and had to get gas AND directions!! We saw this hotel sign on our way there - it even has the signature green!! Our destination! This time of the year,...