Gilbert.

As you can see I've largely given up replying to individual e-mail. Time is money (in the world of cybercafes anyway)I'm having trouble loading my blog page, I can read it but can't post anything new so I'll ask you to do the honours for me using the genius of copy and paste please.

I met Gilbert under a tree. I'm hoping after last weeks blog some of you went away and read Acts 6 (and then realised I meant 16 and so read that as well). In it you find a story about how Paul met Lydia which is all very co-incidental and convenient for Paul-long story short he happened to be at the river one day and this woman was there and she turned out to be pretty handy and sorted Paul out for a few weeks.
Having read that, this is all going to be a little deja-vuey (yes Tom I'm aware that that is appalling french-fantastic Franclaise though don't you think?). Turns out the same church I happened to be at on Sunday are holding meetings each day this week to with a Pastor from Zambia. So I went to the lunchtime meeting and afterwards thought it would be nice to get some lunch (cheesy bread and a gingerbread man) and take it with me to sit under a tree in the park. Hey, I could even get my Bible out. So I did that and a few minutes later a woman came and sat under the same tree. Let's call her Flora (that was her name afterall). She saw me reading my Bible and we got talking as you do. Then a guy sat under the next tree (sitting under trees is something of a national passtime it would seem) asked if he could borrow my bible since he only had a New Testament with him and wanted to look up something on the Old Testament (I only just yesterday made the link between testament, testify and testimony- as a linguist I hang my head in shame).Flora goes off to play football and I go off to check up on my Bible where I get talking to Gilbert, a travelling evangelist. He was also at the lunchtime meeting. Weird.
Turns out neither of us were meant to be there-I had afterall planned to be travelling to Nairobi on Monday and he was meant to be staying in a place called Eldoret for the next two weeks but decided to come to Kisumu to check out the Zambian guy. Very Weird.
We spent that whole afternoon talking and went to the evening meeting.Tuesday we met up and went to his home village which is 20 minutes (in a very fast matatu) from the city centre. Visited lots of houses and met people which was really cool. Wednesday went back to the village this time to the prayer mountain. It's kind of like a big (and I mean big) pile of big (like house sized) rocks all piled on top of each other forming this network of caves and passsages-looks like the set for an Indiana Jones movie or something. Very cool, you get to the top and there's an amazing view of the lake-you can see accross to Uganda.
Got back home in the evening to find a letter waiting for me-Samuel got the post off AJ and mailed it to me in Kisumu. Thankyou.
I like having my blog hijacked, it gives me an idea of everything that's going on (I say again, Tom's going to Isreal?). It's also good to see people who don't know each other forming weird virtual friendships. Hoorah.
So everythings going well in a strangely co-incidental way. Bob is right-it's much easier to spot God's plan unfolding in other peoples lives. And way more comfortable to live vicariously through their risks! Everything 'just happens' to have worked out this way because I 'just happened' to go to that church and 'just happened' to sit under that tree.Don't you love when things 'just happen'.
Tomorrow night is Kesha and they say it's going to a prophetic night, it's been two weeks so I'm about due another prophecy.
That's all I have to say for now. Cheers Sharon.

Welcome, welcome, sorry about the mess

Welcome, welcome, sorry about the mess

The best laid plans and all that

I've found a great church in Kisumu who're holding an Easter People type conferency thing from 2nd-8th April so I'm going to stick around for that. It looks interesting, it'll be an experience and (and this is the best bit) it's less than seven quid for the week including accomodation. Okay so it's just a church hall floor but when did that ever put me off. Evening service starts in a few minutes, just thought I'd blog whilst I was passing.
I'm still planning to do the whole Nairobi/Mombassa/Lushoto beachy thingy, I'm just putting it back for two weeks. I'll find something to occupy me until the conference starts-hopefully the church will yield some contacts for me. 'Tis all good and dandy (could do with figuring out the stone age looking shower contraption though)

And Dad, you'd definately rather I were there, I'd much rather you were here. For the camping anyway, I don't think Christian conferences are really your thing.

sorry Kisumu, all is forgiven

Finally found the lake hard to miss it really). It was worth the trek to get there (I'm not the most geographically minded of people). It's all big and wet and shiny like a lake should be. I've got my route all planned out for the next week or so. On monday I'm starting to head towards the coast-avoiding Rwanda. I'll pass through Nairobi and then to Mombassa where the main attraction-for me anyway-is a Fort Jesus. Yey 'tis a good sign. Then I'll be crossing into Tanzania and to a place called Lushoto (at least I think that's how it's spelt, don't have my guidebook on me right now) where I'll be camping in the mountains. Hoorah.
I'm planning to stay there at least a week, maybe even more if it's as good as my guide book makes it look. Then I head for Dar Es Salaam and more camping, this time right on the beach. A week or so of swimming, chilling and trying to find a restuarant that serves shark-just to see if Sarah delivers the goods on her promise of never speaking to me again!!
Love You all, thanks for the picture. It did cheer me up.

Look out Amateur Blogger on the loose.

Testing Testing is anybody there.
Ahem never mind.
I have been invited by Wendy to post items on her blog when she can't, I can't think why she chose me to do this when I haven't got a clue what I'm doing but I shall do my best.
You all know how Wendy waffles but I think the general idea is that if she can't get to an internet cafe, she knows how we all worry when she doesn't post for a while, if she texts me i can put something onto the blog for everyone else to read (unless its private of course). I assume she has set this up for a few people to do so that whoever she sends a message to can post for her.
Hmm maybe it's not Wendy that waffles but me!
I think you get the general gist though.
Wendy this photo is for you if it comes through just to cheer you up.

All present and correct

I've taken all your advice and comments on board and I'm still incredibly chilled. I've left Nyahururu and am now in Kisumu. It's not bad but I'm wishing I'd stayed at the camp site. I'm here because it's the nearest big town that isn't Nakuru and I think I can do more from here. I'm happy to go my own merry way (though am now planning to avoid Rwanda) but I'm thinking of trying to join a project in Tanzania or Malawi later on. So I'm taking advantage of a faster interner connection and seeing what I can fix up.
In all the keffuffle I totally forgot about Sarah's birthday (that's a lie, I remembered but thought it wasn't until 28th). The day she becomes a responsible adult will truley be a sad one-I say the same for myself.
I spoke to Rev Julius but really just to thank him for stepping forward. I don't have much inclination to stay in Kenya so I don't intend to.
I certainly don't intend to stay to long in Kisumu-as far as I can see the fast internet is pretty much its only attraction. Will check out Lake Victoria which is pretty close and then get myself to Tanzania, find a camp site and chill some more. I can't wait to hit the beaches and get my tent out again but that probably wont be until the end of April depending on how things go.

All present and correct

I've taken all your advice and comments on board and I'm still incredibly chilled. I've left Nyahururu and am now in Kisumu. It's not bad but I'm wishing I'd stayed at the camp site. I'm here because it's the nearest big town that isn't Nakuru and I think I can do more from here. I'm happy to go my own merry way (though am now planning to avoid Rwanda) but I'm thinking of trying to join a project in Tanzania or Malawi later on. So I'm taking advantage of a faster interner connection and seeing what I can fix up.
In all the keffuffle I totally forgot about Sarah's birthday (that's a lie, I remembered but thought it wasn't until 28th). The day she becomes a responsible adult will truley be a sad one-I say the same for myself.
I spoke to Rev Julius but really just to thank him for stepping forward. I don't have much inclination to stay in Kenya so I don't intend to.
I certainly don't intend to stay to long in Kisumu-as far as I can see the fast internet is pretty much its only attraction. Will check out Lake Victoria which is pretty close and then get myself to Tanzania, find a camp site and chill some more. I can't wait to hit the beaches and get my tent out again but that probably wont be until the end of April depending on how things go.

All present and correct

I've taken all your advice and comments on board and I'm still incredibly chilled. I've left Nyahururu and am now in Kisumu. It's not bad but I'm wishing I'd stayed at the camp site. I'm here because it's the nearest big town that isn't Nakuru and I think I can do more from here. I'm happy to go my own merry way (though am now planning to avoid Rwanda) but I'm thinking of trying to join a project in Tanzania or Malawi later on. So I'm taking advantage of a faster interner connection and seeing what I can fix up.
In all the keffuffle I totally forgot about Sarah's birthday (that's a lie, I remembered but thought it wasn't until 28th). The day she becomes a responsible adult will truley be a sad one-I say the same for myself.
I spoke to Rev Julius but really just to thank him for stepping forward. I don't have much inclination to stay in Kenya so I don't intend to.
I certainly don't intend to stay to long in Kisumu-as far as I can see the fast internet is pretty much its only attraction. Will check out Lake Victoria which is pretty close and then get myself to Tanzania, find a camp site and chill some more. I can't wait to hit the beaches and get my tent out again but that probably wont be until the end of April depending on how things go.

The most sensible thing I ever did

Was to keep the plastic cutlery that came with my meal on the plane. The knife is sharp enough to peel carrots but dull enough to double as a nail file. If it's possible I think I am in love with a plastic knife.
Last night-and the rest of the week I expect-I'm living on a diet of anything I can eat without cooking, so I'm being spectacularly healty: Tomatoes, carrots, bannanas and bread.
Dad-as far as my change in accent is concerned I have no defence. I can't say I've picked it up from anyone because I havn't. I'm going to be on my own for a while now so whatever accent I come back with will be totally Wendy, which is a rather scary prospect. No offence but your accent sounded really common. I'm going to try to fing somewhere to make an international call, probably to Sharon beacause I'm assuming she'll be in and will answer whereas ringing mobiles when people are at work isn't that reliable.
I will text later though when I've charged my phone a little.
After all that I'm going to explore the waterfall, it's 72feet and very noisy. It's right next to the campsite! Was strange to hear it thundering all through the night-with a drought on the north of the country you'd expect that they'd turn it off when no-one was looking.

forgot to take a deep breath before posting

that's better.

So many titles, So little space

There are thousands of possible titles for this blog. Here's a selection, you may chose your favourite.
-Who wants to be the first to say I told you so
-the missionary position (it's crude and but it had to be done, my parents will be appalled)
-Deep breath in
-Thank God for time differences (it gives me three hours to write this before anybody will read it)
-I WILL call you later to talk to you. Mum, Dad. Promise
-No I'm not coming home anytime soon
-Sarah, you know that field we talked about-I don't think mine has any fences!

So who's been feeling a disturbance in the force this weekend (Little Sarah you can't tell me is coming as a shock to you-just read on)
Although I'm having a great time here and the people are famtastic for the last week or so I've been feeling...well useless. Like there's not a lot I can really do here so what's the point. Like the good little messed up teenager I am I wrote all this down in my good old diary. Which good old Samuel read. Let's just say it wasn't all a completely positive reflection on things.
That was early in Saturday morning. We spoke on Saturday night-at first I felt like it was a disaster, that I'd made a huge mistake. But we have to learn from our mistakes.
In some respects this is the biggest mistake I've ever made so it follows that I must be about to learm the biggest lesson.
The long and the short of it is that I'm leaving Nakuru, yes you did read that right-please stop shouting at the screen in disbelif and allow me to explain. Though as I said I will ring you later when it's a decent hour for you. It's a combination of things (namely being asked to leave whilst at the same time kind of wanting to.)
There are times here when I've felt like a lot of pressure was being put on me to provide financially for the church-which obviously I can't, there are times when I've felt like I was 7000km away from anyone who understood me and terribly sorry for myself. That was all in the diary.
There's also been times when I've felt like I was having the time of my life, that in this church I'd found a second family and some of the most fantastic friends I'll ever make. That wasn't in the diary, during those times I was far too busy enjoying myself to waste time writing it all down.
On Saturday night I was ready to blame Samuel for everything, for invading by privacy and breaking my trust but then I got to thinking. He wouldn't have read it if i hadn't left it lying around. I wouldn't have left it lying around unless God wantied someone to read it. Be as sceptical as you want but that's what I think.
God knew that the best thing for me was to be somewhere else so he tailored events that way knowing that as soon as Samuel knew what was happening inside me he'd take control of what was happening outside.
Two weeks ago I visiting preacher prophesied over me (again feel free to be as sceptical as you see fit) saying that comfort wasn't for me. I was thinking about that on Saturday before I spoke to Samuel and realised that in Nakuru I'm too comfortable, I have my own room, a hot shower in the morning and a hot meal at night. And I realised that throughout the prophesy (which said many other things but that don't need to be gone into right now) were so many things that seemed to be God shouting really loudly telling me that my time is up here. That he has a purpose for me and whatever that is I can't do it in Nakuru.
Then in the evening all of this happened-and I didn't feel scared, it wasn't a shock. Okay it was but not the really bad end of the world kind.
So I woke up on Sunday morning feeling really good about things. And then at church there was another prophet (don't you just hate when God does these things to you). She preached a fantastic sermon on freedom and faith (or at least that's what I got from it) and then invited people to the front for prayer.
When she came to me and asked me what I wanted God to give me for the first time in my life I was able to say from the bottom of my heart that I didn't want anything, I just wanted to give thanks that God has a much better handle on things than I do. She was praying as normal and then out of nowhere just said 'thank you that she is free and you know what God is not finished with you yet' and went onto say that if I want to fully recieve all that he has instore for me then I need to widen my horizons and see a much bigger picture. As before you can all be as sceptical as you like but to me that can only be a good thing.
My plan is to go and chill out this week in Nyehururu just north of here. There's a waterfall and a campsite and I figure I can just clear my head a bit. Then I'm going to go to Rwanda (my French is much better than my Swahili, plus it's a free visa for EU citizens, good old colonialism).
I might even make it down as far as Malawi (another free visa) then Tanzania as had been the plan all along. I've looked at it and I do have enough money. I know when I ring you you're all going to tell me to come home (that's if I ring you before you read this and ring me as is inevitable) but I hope you'll understand that this is actually the best possible outcome and I couldn't be more thrilled. If I were anymore optimistic I think they'd have to hunt me down and shoot me.
In answer to your inevitable question Liz, yes you can copy and paste the whole of that into the next magazine making reference to Acts 6:16 (I've not got my Bible with me so I hope that's right). It's where it says that Paul and Silas took that route purely because the spirit made them. The Spirit in this case is not being quite as subtle as it was then, I think it knows that subtlety doesn't work with me!
Samuel also has numbers and e-mail addresses so he'll be contacting you later just to tell you that I'm not his responsibility anymore. Don't get mad at him, he's done nothing wrong-but don't let him pin any of it on me either. I'm not ashamed of what I wrote because at the time those were my honest opinions, it would be wrong of me to not defend them. I'm sorry but I'm not ashamed.
Think this is the longest thing I've ever written so I'll call it a day there.

Closer to home.

Tuesday was the closest tom home I've been since February, 47 miles north of the equator. There are two Lakes: Baringo and Bogoria. Bogoria has hot springs which just shoot up and are amazingly cool. We saw an ostrich there to, we tried to get it to run away so we could collect some of its fethers that were lying on the ground but it just sat there hissing at us. Probably shouldn't have been throwing rocks at it really.
Then we went to Baringo and went on a boat ride. There were crocodiles and hippos. Samuel was terriffied of the crocodiles. And we bought some very fresh fish-straight from the fishermen who were stood in the water with the crocodiles and the hippos. Saw fish eagles as well, they're so beautiful. They've brown bodies but white heads and yellow necks.
I tried to make trifle this week but it all went a bit wrong. The stuff that passes for custard here is strange powder that the instand you ann it to milk it forms a bright yellow solid.
'tis all good. Have a dance practice this afternoon- Even tough I nearly killed myself yesterday doing handstands-havn't sone one for years.

Closer to home.

Tuesday was the closest tom home I've been since February, 47 miles north of the equator. There are two Lakes: Baringo and Bogoria. Bogoria has hot springs which just shoot up and are amazingly cool. We saw an ostrich there to, we tried to get it to run away so we could collect some of its fethers that were lying on the ground but it just sat there hissing at us. Probably shouldn't have been throwing rocks at it really.
Then we went to Baringo and went on a boat ride. There were crocodiles and hippos. Samuel was terriffied of the crocodiles. And we bought some very fresh fish-straight from the fishermen who were stood in the water with the crocodiles and the hippos. Saw fish eagles as well, they're so beautiful. They've brown bodies but white heads and yellow necks.
I tried to make trifle this week but it all went a bit wrong. The stuff that passes for custard here is strange powder that the instand you ann it to milk it forms a bright yellow solid.
'tis all good. Have a dance practice this afternoon- Even tough I nearly killed myself yesterday doing handstands-havn't sone one for years.

I give up

I HATE COMPUTERS. Can't access my e-mails and it's really slow. Grrr. Hate hate hate.
Went to a different church yesterday morning but Samuel hadn't told anyone so when they saw that I wasn't there they all thought I'd gone home without saying goodbye.
I had chocolate today, vert naughty but very much needed. You may yet get another post out of me today- I might go to a different internet place to try to access hotmail and comments because it's not letting me read those either.
Stupid computer.

Hold all cream eggs

I'm seriously trying to cut down on sugar. I figure if I can go a few months without biscuits, sweets atc then I wont want them as much when I get back. Not sure if it'll actualoy work but it's a good theory to work from.
Yes I am doing some work whilst I'm here. I'm painting banners and teaching guitar and all sorts of silly things. I'm teaching french too which hurts my head because I havn't done French for three years.
'Tis all good though- if my memory serves me correctly (which it probably doesn't) it's Samuals birthday tomorrow. I think.
Not eating sugar sucks, there's only so much satisfaction you can get from bran flakes. Believe me it's very limited.

lions and tigers and bears oh my

bit of an exagguration there-didn't see any lions, or tigers, or bears for that matter.
Did see just about everything else. There's a guy in the chuch called Keffe (pronounced Keff-a) who works as a tour guide so I went with him, we saw more eagles, giraffes, black and white rhino, zebra, buffalo and a whole lot of birds. A monkey stole my milk! We saw a bit of a leopard to we think. It was so cool. You're getting a lot of random midweek blogs which i hadn't planned but hey, we all like surprises.

And todays accent is

Why oh why dopes the only other white person in Nakuru have to be Canadian, do you have any idea how bad my canadian accent is. Oh well, 'tis all good fun. I'm going to the game park tomorrow which will be the most amazing thing ever then on Wednesday goping to Lake Bagoria where there are hot springs and hippos and all sorts of fun things.
On Saturday we went all the way up to the crater rim, it was amazing. You climb this big mountain and then the path just drops away and woah there's half of Africa lying at your feet.
Sarah-there's a watchtower (which sways in thw wind and is very scary) and eagles up there so make all the analogies you like about that.
Have to go grab the guitar before class, havn't practiced in a while.
I'd love some english chips in the post but don't think it'd work somehow. Cream eggs however...

Is Harry Potter Demonic

One word answers only please we havn't got all day (I'm speaking to you here Susie!)

how many calories in a malaria tablet?

Because that's all I've had since 8 on Tuesday. Stupid pastor making stupid me do stupid fastinmg making me stupid crabby hence calling lovely pastor stupid. So my body is now running entirely off the malaria tablet. I finish in less than two hours though-have just been to the supermarket to buy chocolate biscuits to celebrate with.
Wasn't aware that it was world book day, as far as I know it's not celebrated here-had i known you can be assured i would have painted a scar on my head at the very least-though I needn't bother with the paint after walking into an open window frame on Monday night, all together now...Only Wendy...
Invisible biscuits to everybody except for mum, if you hadn't addmitted you cheated you'd have got away with it. tut tut, am terribly ashamed.

By the way if anyone wants to send anything: letters, postcards, food parcels (mini cream eggs don't weigh alot!) you can send it c/o Samuel Kimitho PO Box 3932 20100, Nakuru, Kenya.
So absolutely no excuses, apart from the fact that it's probably ludicrously expensive.

time, time, time see what's become of me

need to change the time settings as all my posts say i wrote them three hours earlier than I actually did, it thinks I'm still in England.
An invisible biscuit is on it's way to the first person who can identify the song I stole this title from.

English class is interesting, what do I teach to a load of people who already speak English? They just fire questions at me about why English is so unnecessarily complicated, like do we really need 8 different words that all mean big? For that matter why is there only one word for synonym?

By the way mum and I did an experiment-not sure how much it costs you to text me but i don't pay to recieve tham and it costs me less than 10p tp reply, so now you've no excuse...