This is a picture of the outside of the building where we are staying. Gail and I are downstairs, the children upstairs.Thursday started out very pleasant with breakfast, then David and Kayla were hit with upset tummies. Kayla’s turned into jet lag, and she and Sarah stayed home to rest. David and Gail and I went with Mary to visit the homeschool group that she is part of. This was for a Hebrew class. The leader asked Michelle, Mary’s 17 year old daughter, to explain Hebrew. About 30 minutes later we had heard the alephbet, all of the basic grammar rules, and examined the historical forms of the Hebrew letters. Then Yeshaia, the leader, shared some of his history and a few things he had learned.
Next, they asked us to share about ourselves and how homeschooling works in the United States. We did our best to represent the varieties of approaches, and then shared songs with them. David played his hammer dulcimer, and I played guitar.
After class, we went with Mary through Nairobi to visit a homeschool resource center at the Baptist Mission of Kenya compound. Traffic was bad. When we go into the city, we encountered a burning tire and large rocks blocking the way. Crowds of people were pointing and looking, then they started running. All the cars in front turned around (we did too) and went around a round-about to get away from the action. We passed police in riot gear, and as we slowly left the area, heard tear gas being shot into the area we had left.
We think the incident was the police discouraging hawkers from selling their wares in front of the shops. This has apparently become a problem and the police are attempting to get them to move away from the storefronts.
The detour caused a lengthy delay, but we did arrive at the Baptist Mission of Kenya center. David and Kayla had a chance to play football with a fairly large group of homeschooled youth. The resource center was opened to homeschoolers for a while, but currently they are not accepting additional members as their primary purpose is to serve missionary families in this area.
The ride home was traffic riddled, but otherwise uneventful. Still no Internet, so we are going to Java House tomorrow.
PS - Internet on :)
We will still go to Java House - we hear they have good brownies and coffee.
Tim! Love the updates! We will be in Nairobi in 18 days :) When we get to NBI is there anyway to reach you and Gail?? We may be travelling to Kisumu and would like to visit MTTF the Orphanage there. Any tips for us before we arrive???
ReplyDeleteJanell and Bob
We found out recently that the riots in Nairobi are about an argument over a plot of land. The mechanics (people who fix cars) took over a vacant lot some time ago. Recently, the land was sold, and the owners want the area cleared so they can build a building. They put up fences at night, the mechanics tear them down in the morning... so there have been daily eruptions of violence.
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