Hey mom, could you please ignore the banana trees being chopped down over your head..you're makinga scene!

Today is Monday December 20 and we had an amazing day.  The group and several others went for a walk to one of the pastor's brothers' house...he is a farmer.  He has an amazing banana plantation down closer to Lake Victoria. It was a nice visit with many members of the household who came along and the sun was warm and pleasant.  He showed us the boat he was building from timber on his place, and the hippo tracks and the hut where he even would sleep out to keep watch for the hippos, that would destroy his crops.  They are big and dangerous animals.  We also saw monkeys swinging from the trees. He walked us down the shores of Lake Victoria where we watched the men digging for sand at the bottom of the lake.  They put the sand in boats and take it to be sold.  He chopped down some bananas for us!  With a machete!
Then he took us back to his mud house and fed us ... cassava and maize and bananas.  Probably the most..um...interesting snack I've had in a long time.
We walked back to the pastor's house for a lovely lunch of fried Tilapia, sukuma wiki (kales), rice and ugali (a corn meal paste), after which we sat outside again.  During the afternoon we gave out  a soccer ball and the compound rang with happy laughter as all the boys and young men gathered to play together.
I  spent a good part of the afternoon visiting with the women..in particular two lovely ladies who are preschool teachers.  They grilled me on my teaching methods, asking me very searching questions.  We came to the conclusion that it is not too different ...children are children and they seem to have the same needs...wherever they are...and that no matter where you are it seems that early childhood education is an undervalued profession. So we joined hands together for all the children we teach...wherever we are.


I have to say again..the women in Kenya are amazing.  They work so hard all day long for their families and their husbands and children.  Their hospitality puts me to shame. They are devoted.  It reminds me of Proverbs 31.  "A virtuous woman who can find, she is worth far more than rubies."