The banners go up!!

Friday afternoon, madly getting the banners finished. We are in the kitchen in the Upper Hill ward house where the Center is. They need to be finished by Sat. at noon. The guys ended up working on them until after 8:00 p.m.

Betterman, dad, and the 1st counselor in the Upper Hill ward, whose name I can't remember!

Here we are at Upper Hill Saturday around noon time, loading up the banners for their trip to the Stake House in "Bura Bura" (...don't you love that name!...) Dad, Betterman, and a returned missionary who served in Nairobi who thought all of the meetings were at Upper Hill. We took him to Bura Bura with us.
Arriving at Bura Bura. This was the Saturday afternoon adult session of Conference. The meetings were from 1:00 until 5:30, because as you know...we need to all be home before it gets dark.
Dad greeting Consolata in parking lot. She cleans our flat on Mondays. She also cooks very delicious african food. She is the one who just went to So. Africa with her three children, they were all sealed to her husband who died a few years ago. I have no idea how long it took her to save money to get to the temple.
Dad and Betterman putting up banners. The wind was blowing like crazy, so out came the duct tape!!

Dad and I standing by our newly standing banners!!...Ha...I guess you could tell!!.....
Yeah!! All the banners are up, and the wind did not get the best of us!! It was a little tricky with the "Foyer" being outside, but it all worked out. People commented on them, and even with many of the members not being able to read english, they stood around and did look at them. The swahili banners are coming in about two weeks.

Banners on Display at Last!!

I was going to do the whole blog about our Banners, and Stake Conference, but the internet is not co-operating, so I will try and add the rest of this later. The following pictures were taken after our Stake Conference on March 18. We (the Public Affairs people of Nairobi Stake and Solomon, the National Director) invited 10 "Opinion Leaders" to the conference. Five said they would be there, two showed up. Solomon said we should feel successful! Below is Former Ambassador to the US, Amb. Peter Ogego and his wife Rose, with Pres. and Sis. Broadbent. We had refreshments for them, and they were served up African style. It really did turn out well.
This is Ambassador/Professor David Kikanza on the left, with Pres. Jadmire Ndivo on the right, our Stake President.
This is dad with Gordon, he is the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency. He also represents the Stake in Public Affairs. He has the most beautiful voice. Way deep. I keep telling him he needs to be a Radio or T.V. announcer!
The Stake Primary Presidency served the refreshments. Please note there was no tablecloth, and I actually did not die!! Hee hee!! Also note the Pringles IN THE CAN, (they love pringles), juice, and bottled drinks. What you can't see are the biscuits in a big plastic jug, and hard tack candy, individually wrapped, and served out of the bag!! It was a total success!...When I get home, no more of this fancy stuff, okay??

President and Sis. Broadbent invited one of the "guards" where they live to come to Stake Conference. We had them come in for refreshments afterwards. They want to join the church! (Not just because of the great food we serve after Conference!!)

Great People!

I'd like you to meet some of the people we work

with at the Center. They are great people.

This is the conference room. Solomon is using it

right now until the new offices get settled and

remodeled. We will be moving then. That is

David in white..he is a chef at a little lunch

place down the road from the Center. He brings really

good african food around every once in a while.

We tease Solomon that he has the biggest office

in the whole compound!!

This is Charles, in charge of budgets...I called him

"Charley" one day, and that reminded me of "Charley,

You bit my finger".., so I showed it to him, he had

never seen it. He went up and down the halls

showing it to everyone else..He loves it...and now

every so often he will come in and say..."Chaw-ley" is

here...he comes in and eats our peanuts..well, in

fact, everyone does!!

This is Judith. She is one of the "cleaners".

They hire members of the church, which is cool,

because they are trying so hard to become self-

sufficient.

This is Catherine, our guard at the front gates to the Center,

letting dad in for another day at the office! He keeps calling

her Dorothy...she just laughs at him now...she's used to it.

This is Dorothy, (the real one) She runs the Distribution

Center. She has the greatest 'sense of humor'.

We laugh a lot together.

Do you remember the article in "The Friend",

about "Valentine from Kenya"??..I think it was in

the Feb. issue, any way, this is her mom!! She

is in the office right next to ours. Her name is

Beth, and she sneezes just like Adrienne!! I laugh

at her every time. She is Elder Usi's Secretary.

(Area Authority). She has to get up at 4:30 every

morning to get to work, and she has a 2 1/2 hr.

trip one way. She is great!

This is Elder and Sister Lurf...they are from Smithfield, Ut.

They just moved there from Washington before their

mission. He is an X FBI man...they are in the office right

around the corner from us in the Center. They are

Perpetual Education Fund missionaries, (PEF).

2nd Half of Nairobi Game ParK!

We were sooooooo close to the giraffes. You

can see they were right on the road we were driving on.


These were the two giraffes that were fighting.

I took some videos of them, and I have tried and tried

to download them, but I just can't get it to work. They

were really hitting each other hard. They were swinging

their heads around and hitting each others necks. You

could hear them smacking each other....sorry the video

won't work, you would really enjoy seeing them!!

The driver said it was a boy and girl fighting...don't

know if it was a boy-friend and girl-friend, or a husband

and wife, but either way they should not be fighting!!

Right??...Hey Jos...the videos are #'s 1065-1069 if that

helps!...hang on kids, maybe Joslyn can get the videos

to work!!...She is my in-house Blog Dr.!!!




Notice the next three photos, and how close

the animals are to the houses!...or....how close

the houses are to the animals!...whichever!!



The driver saw this "Monitor" and slammed

on the brakes...I have no idea how he spotted him.

I suppose they are just used to knowing where to look.

He doesn't look very big, but he was about 3 feet long!

Yep!! Your regular Striped Zebra!!
If you look very closely, you can see a mama lion

under the tree, taking it easy in the shade.

Every-Day-Life in Nairobi!!

This is "The Junction". It is one of the places

where we get groceries. It is really nice. It is like

a Mall, and it has a "Nakumatt" (the biggest and best

grocery store in Nairobi)...a chain, a monopoly really.

We try to leave the office at 3:00 Fri. afternoon to do

our shopping. We try to beat the 'go-home' traffic.

Even so, it takes us a long time to go a few miles,

and we don't usually get home until 6-7:00, and it is

dark by 7:15, and we have to be home by dark. These

photos show how Elder Pugs loads the "Gutless-Wonder"

with about $100.00 + worth of groceries...yes, they

are expensive, and we do not eat fancy....but we are

grateful we have stores.....



Yep!! They have a KFC at the Junction...actually

not too bad...they only have two in Nairobi, and they

just opened about 6 months ago!

These guys are cleaning out the rain gutters at

the Center. The "Center" houses the Upper Hill Ward,

The Mission Offices, The Public Affairs Office,

Humanitarian Services, PEF, CES, Elder Usi's Office, Temporal Affairs Offices, and all Budget Offices. It

is a pretty big complex, and they keep it very clean,

and the yards are beautiful. Needless to say it stands

out in the neighborhood....a VERY good thing!!