A Little Rest and a Lot of Work

We are doing well in Eldoret, but it has been a very busy month. Sorry about the absence of posts for awhile, but it may not get much better as our schedule intensifies with the arrival of summer volunteer teams and the uncertainty of internet service at the village when we move out there in the next few weeks.

We started out May with a new term at school and the arrival of three new children: Ken, Zadok, and Victor, all brothers who were rescued by another agency and sent to us by the local district children's office. We also have just received a fourth new boy at the village this week named Martin.

We have had quite a lot of activity at the village: Sunday morning services with the children, a new youth group and children's church that Matt and Cheryl started, Wednesday afternoon Bible Study with the construction crew, and of course the day to day activities at the farm. The new dairy cow at the village has just given birth to a calf which has turned out to be quite a blessing for the village - maybe too much of a blessing - since the momma cow is giving at least 30 liters of milk every day. Along with the other dairy cow, this leaves more than enough milk at the village, so Matt has become a milk man along with an egg salesman.

The absence of two volunteers from the UK for five weeks, Dave and Linda Munsie, has also increased Matt's duties, since both of them were drivers for Open Arms (available drivers are scarce here since most of the Kenyan Open Arms staff don't have drivers licenses or driving experience and much of the other UK and US Kenyan staff are too scared to drive in Kenya - including Cheryl - can't say I blame them - I was driving in downtown Eldoret a few days ago and a matatu driver or what we might call a taxi driver in a van came out of a store parking lot and rushed across busy traffic just missing me by inches only to park on the other side of the street - that is a normal everyday occurrence in Eldoret).

We got a break from the business of our schedule and spent two nights at a lovely lodge outside of Nakuru next to the Menengei Crater. It was a beautiful view to wake up to every morning, and the food at this lodge was by far the most spectacular food we have had in Kenya. It was a lovely way to spend our 2nd anniversary! And a wonderful two years it has been!

On the way back from Menengei Crater, we stopped at Lake Nakuru National Park. We decided to just go to the entrance and the gift shop to forego the expensive entrance fee since we are planning on going back there with some friends later in June. However, sitting outside the gift shop was a treat in itself as we were beseiged by playful monkeys that made several attempts at sneaking inside our vehicle and wanting food from us.

After we got back from Lake Nakuru, we celebrated Diana's 2nd birthday that night. We bought a nice doll for her in Nakuru and everyday for the next two weeks she sang happy birthday everyday and reminded us that she was now two years old.

We hope this month we'll be as exciting as May, but a little less busy.

We'll blog again soon,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman