Sunday, May 17, Reuben's House

Sunday, May 17

This morning we headed out to the estate of Reuben Matthews. His business is drilling bore holes (i.e. wells). He has the best reputation for bore hole digging in the country and is very influential in the development and planning of water supplies throughout Kenya. He volunteered to look at the well at the Vijiji home (see previous post) and said he would look at it and see what happens!

Reuben has been studying Hebrew with Yeshaia for a while. Reuben is from the United States. His family is Hebrew, and came to the United States in New Orleans in the 1800's. Originally his name was Dijong, but when the slaves were freed, his family took on the name of their last owner, which was Matthews.

Reuben's father was a Rabbi, one of the first Black Rabbi's in New York, NY, according to Reuben. One of Reuben's brothers was killed by the KKK in North Carolina. Reuben moved to Kenya in the 1980's.

For the Hebrew class, Yeshaia taught a little about the history of pronounciations of the tetragrammaton, and then Reuben talked to us for a little while, telling about his family history. Reuben has 8 sons and 8 daughters and 3 wives. The most recent daughter was born a week ago; they named her Kenya. They also have 4 grandchildren.

Reuben provided a scrumptious meal of goat, beef, and chicken (from his own animals) along with fruit, beans, rice, and chapates. Delicious. David, Kayla, and I played some music after dinner, and then we headed back towards Nairobi.

On the way home we stopped at Patricias's house in Rongai. It is a new house, and Patricia and her husband, Bob, are still finishing parts of it. It was a long drive up very rough dirt roads to get there, but our quest ended on a beautiful hill overlooking a lush valley. The trip home was equally bumpy, but we finally arrived back at home for supper and sleep.