We have been here at the Mission for almost two weeks and the days have gone by very fast.  Numerous questions have been asked as to the house we live in, what we eat, what are we doing, etc.  In this and future blogs we will try to answer those questions as well as give a sense of what the Mission does.  We live in a very comfortable house with running water and a functioning toilet!  The source of our water is from the rain collected in a tank (area here receives around 70 inches of rain per year).  This is the water we cook with, drink, shower, clean, wash clothes, etc.  though for drinking and cooking purposes, the water is filtered before using.  The washing of dishes has its own process – because we do not have hot water coming directly from the faucet water must be heated.  One basin holds the water for washing the dishes and the second basin is the rinse basin where two caps of bleach has been added and once rinsed you let them drip dry! For showering, we have an electric shower head – it works great but if the power goes off, it is a cold shower though a cold shower is better than no shower!  Our meals consist of more carbs than normal and we don’t necessarily have all the food groups covered at our meals but we are not starving by any means.  Since arriving here, breakfast is usually oatmeal or yogurt with granola; for lunch and /or dinner we have had baked potatoes and carrots, sweet potatoes, Cous Cous, pasta plain or with tomato sauce that has garbonzo and black beans, rice, fried rice, green grams (from the legume family), scrambled eggs, or when not very hungry a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or popcorn!  The dessert of choice for Wes and Fr. David is a NICE cookie with a dab of Nutella!  We have also had mandazi, a deep-fried bread much like a donut…something we all like!  This past week has kept us busy with several items in addition to the daily work done.  The first one is the process of applying for our work permits which has many requirements, some we were not aware of so our son in Williston has had to rummage through places to find and scan documents such as college diplomas among other things.  We have also been learning some basic Swahili from Emma, a young lady who was an orphan in the mission but has since graduated from school and obtained a certificate in Analytical Chemistry.  She is trying to teach us basic greetings and phrases to communicate with the children and adults.  When you say anything in Swahili to the people here, they get big smiles on their faces!  Emma gave us an “exam” on Friday and we both passed though Wes did try to bribe the teacher with an apple before we started the exam!  It is surprising how much we have been able to pick up in a short time…individual words are easy but it gets a little complicated putting a sentence together in Swahili. We will still be attending language school in Nairobi in January. We also traveled to Kisii to meet Bishop Joseph, a very kind, warm, and inviting man.  He has been the Bishop of this diocese since 1994.  We also bought groceries, went to the bank and then tried to go to the Safaricom store to get our cell phone issues squared away but that would have been a 3-4 hour wait or longer judging by the number of people in line so nixed that task for another day. Instead, we bought scratch cards to put minutes on our phones so we don’t have to borrow Fr. David’s phone.  The grocery store looks like any grocery store in America with maybe not as many choices but still very adequate.  This week we had a Water with Blessings water filter training where 15 women were trained by Lilian, the young lady who has headed the project for the past year or so.  Fr. David has many jobs to do with the Mission including saying daily Mass and three weekend Masses.  The water filter project takes a substantial amount of time to prepare, teach and to do the 6-month follow-up with the women so Lilian has been a blessing for the project.  On Saturday, we had Mission Saturday where approximately 200 orphans came to get their maize allotment, stipend, and to bring their report cards. The orphans have to meet certain requirements to be in the orphan education program one of which is to keep their grades up.  This coming week the orphan Christmas party will be held over two different days as there are a total of over 450 orphans in three different locations.  At this gathering, a Mass is said, talks given, and the orphans receive a loaf of bread and bottle of soda as a treat along with cooking oil and flour depending on the number of children enrolled in the program.  In addition, if the student has achieved high levels of academic success this year, high school students will receive a goat while grade school students are given a chicken…wonder how many children in America would be happy with a goat or chicken for good marks on their report card! See additional photos from this week in photo album below