Elly and Violet

One last thing I want to tell you about Mom and Dad’s time here in Kenya was the chance we had to go to Elly’s house again. If you remember from previous blogs, Elly works on our compound as a gardener, and Trevor and I have gotten to know him and his family, and have taken the opportunities to help them whenever we can.
We drove to Kawangware, the slum here in Nairobi where Elly and his family live. He and his wife, Violet, and their two sons, Wesley and Timothy, welcomed us enthusiastically, and we walked through the corridors of the slum and entered their home. One of the first things I noticed was a picture that they had enlarged and framed and put up on the mabati (tin) wall. It was a picture of Trevor and I, holding Wesley and Timothy. They have also made another one to take to their up-country home to show their families. What a humbling feeling it gave us to see that.

They served us delicious chai, and we had the chance to visit with them for a few hours. What a wonderful family! I had mentioned in one of the blog posts from February how sick Violet has been since last year. I am happy to tell you that she has improved so much, and does not look nearly so frail and sickly as she did the last time we saw her!! She is now able to cook and take care of their children…the only thing that she still has trouble with is lifting heavy things as she is still gaining her strength back slowly. We were so happy to see her looking so much better!

Something that Elly has been mentioning to us for awhile, and something he mentioned again when we were at his house, is that he is looking for someone to sponsor his youngest son, Timothy for his school fees. He has a sponsor for Wesley, but needs one for Timothy. Both boys go to a private school (the thing you do if you value education for your children here…the government/public schools are not good for many different reasons.), and so there are many costs involved. Elly would like for someone to pay for the school fees, then Elly covers the costs of books, uniforms, and food for the day. If you are interested in helping out with this, please let us know and we will give you more information on this. There is no pressure, and we do not want anyone to feel like they have to, but we just told Elly that we would get the word out and see what happens.

Visiting with Elly and Violet and their children is always a joy, and we always leave feeling so blessed and encouraged. I was glad that my parents got to meet the rest of Elly’s family and get a better idea of some of the challenges of a family trying to make it here in Nairobi.


So as you can see, we were able to show my parents a lot of things during their 2 ½ weeks here in Kenya. Besides doing these things that I have already written about, we enjoyed going out for meals at different places, for Chinese food, Indian food, good old Java House, and a new place that we went to for an early birthday lunch for Dad, called The Simba Saloon. (not an actual saloon, don’t worry!)
We also enjoyed taking them to different markets and introducing them to the wonderful world of bartering!
It was nice, too, to take them to our Church here and introduce them to some of our new friends.
We spent a morning at New Life Home as well, and enjoyed spending time with some adorable babies and toddlers! Even Dad got to feed a little boy, which he was not expecting! :o) It was a good time!

Saying goodbye to them at the airport was a little more difficult than I had anticipated, but we are okay! We are still not wanting to go back to Canada yet, it’s just that goodbyes are never fun. We are very thankful that we had as much time with them as we did, and were able to share a part of our lives here with them. Now it’s back to normal life (well as “normal” as life gets here in Kenya!), but we are thankful for that too, and looking forward to making the most of the rest of our time here.