Bwanabob

6/12/2000

From Bob:

Hello everyone, this is Bob. I took Ericka with me to work at some churches this last week and here is the way she saw things. Most things I just take in stride now, but I thought she gave a very accurate account of our daily routine.

From Ericka:

Hey everyone,

Well, I passed the bush and brains test.

The climate out here is hot but hot enough to handle. A life saver is during the hottest part of the day everyone lays down and takes a nap and then gets up around 3 and starts working again. We arrived in Katilu on Wednesday at 11. But we weren’t able to start work until 3:30 or 4 because of the customary chai, which is hot tea with milk and sugar, that is given to anyone who stops by, then it was time for lunch, ugali and sukuma, crushed and cooked corn with collared greens and then you have to talk for a while. We went to the church and started to knock out holes in the door frame to put a metal door up. Dinner time was the same as lunch chai and ugali and sukuma. This is Africa, so we ate with our hands. I believe out of our whole trip we ate with utensils 3 times. That night I slept in a tent and Bob slept under the stars.The next morning started out with chai and talking. Afterwards we were able to go out to the church and put the door in and cement it in. Bob and I make a great working team. We finished everything for the door in 2 and a half hours. Then lunch, more chai, ugali and sukuma. We were finished in Katilu and headed on to Lopur. We were hoping to get started in the church and get some of the work taken care of that day, but again this is Africa and people move at one pace, slow. We were greeted at the pastor’s house with more chai and much talk. Everybody was excited to see me and said that they had been praying for me. After a little bit a goat was led by where we were sitting and the people were excited and Bob said that was dinner. I’ve had goat before so I thought cool. What I didn’t know was that they wanted me to watch them kill and gut the goat. Quite interesting. The first thing served to us is considered the prize part of the goat, the liver. It was delicious. After a while the chai was brought out and then ugali and the meat. It was a great meal, only one problem I don’t care for fat and because I was the guest I was given a fair sum of fat, but I got all of it down. That night I slept in a little hut with the pastor’s wife and Bob and the pastor slept outside.

Chai! Always chai to start our days. Bob went out to the church first thing with a couple of people and started working knocking out hole for another door at the church in Lopur. I stayed behind with the ladies learned some Kiswahili and Turkana. I have gotten to where I carry a little notebook around with me and fill it with words and try using them whenever possible. The ladies always laughed at me and were excited that I was trying to learn their language. When I arrived at the church the holes had been knocked out and it was ready to have the door put in and cemented up. Four of us worked on it and got it kicked out in no time at all. Time for lunch, it was always a guessing game to see what they would bring out. Today, it was goat head! Nothing goes to waste out here. The goat head was brought in on a platter and then they started cutting off pieces, the lips, tongue, ear, etc. I only ate the lips and tongue, Bob was so nice and put pieces of meat to one side so that I could eat them. Guess what was next. Goat brains! They had to cut open the skull with a machete and then gave me 2 overflowing teaspoons of brains on my hand and gave Bob 1 and a half. Bob said this was a special privilege because he hadn’t gotten brains before. I got it down, praise God! After that the rest of lunch was served. After naps, then we were able to go back out to the church and put up wire mesh for one of the windows. Came back for dinner and chai. I haven’t told you yet, about how we bathe. We usually wait until after dark and then go an area encircled with brush and a basin of water is in the middle. I strip down, squat and splash water on myself, after getting wet suds myself up and then splash water on myself to rinse off. It is quite interesting but it is refreshing to wash off all of the dust, sweat and cement from the day.

Saturday morning we headed out to Juluk to visit the church. Only 12 km but we have to dodge thorn bushes like crazy. We park the truck on one side of the river and get out, for the guys they have to roll up their pants and for us girls we have to hike up our skirts. It was never any deeper than up to my knees. We crossed safely and walked into the village, we were greeted with singing from the choir at the church. It was a wonderful day. I was able to get up and say a few words and the pastors commented that my Swahili was better than Bob’s. Exciting news, Bob has started working on getting a permanent building for the church because the termite will eat any wood substance. He has pillars up for the new building and we just found out that money has been given specifically for the building in Juluk and so we will be able to get some more materials out there for that. After our visit we headed back to Lopur to work on another window. Anyplace that Bob and I are at we gain a large amount of attention because we are the only white people some of the Turkana have ever seen. There must have been 15 kids watching us work. Bob had plenty of help with the window so I sat down for a little bit, and the children, all ages 21-3, came over by me. One of the girls pointed at my hair, so I took it down out of the pony tail, flipped my head over and shook my head and they all screamed because they have never seen that before, their hair is short and curly. They absolutely loved it. Then I asked them to teach me a song, so we swapped songs back and forth. I would sing and teach them some actions, they would laugh at me and learn the actions, and they would teach me actions to the songs and I would do them and they laughed at me because a white person had never done that before. We all had a great time, and it worked out well for Bob that I was keeping the children occupied because they were able to get the work done faster without kids underfoot.

On Sunday we went back out to Katilu for the service there. It was a good time, Bob preached, we had lunch and then headed to Lopur to pack up our stuff and the people that were riding with us and then head back to Lodwar. Bob took me out to a nice hotel area for some food and cold drinks. I had a wonderful time out in the bush and am looking forward to going back again.

From Bob:

This is Bob again. Ericka is really doing well here in Turkana and I know that when we are married we will make a great team. She does so well with the children and ladies both. She has always eaten anything they offer to her and is always trying to learn new words.

For those of you who haven’t heard we are planning a wedding for September 23rd, this year in Springfield, Missouri. I’ve tried many times to talk Ericka into having a wedding here, but that’s one thing she doesn’t want to do here in Africa.

Those of you who sent money for vitamins, thank you. I am able to buy them in Nairobi for the cost from the manufacturer. My pastors are distributing them and I’m having the pastors keep a list of all the people receiving vitamins and in what amount. The drought here is only getting worse, so please pray for rain here in Turkana.

One of my supporting churches sent money to put the roof on the church at Juluk! Please pray that we can get a good part of that done before I go back to the States for our wedding. I’d love to have it completed, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Last but not least. I’ve had lots of trouble with my E-mail account. I am using my old address bwanabob@net2000ke.com the new address @africaonline had a different server and I could never get logged on, support for the new server was nonexistent. I had tried to send some messages before telling everyone to use my old address, but I think they never made it past the server.

Please pray for Ericka, she still hasn’t eaten everything Turkana has to offer. Thank you for your prayers and if you don’t receive a formal invitation to our wedding know that your invited.

In Christ, Bob and Ericka

6/3/2000

Dear Friends,

I have a pretty big announcement to make. I found a young lady who is all I could ever ask for in a wife. She has a real love for the Lord and a call to the mission field. I asked her to marry me and thank God she said yes! Her name is Ericka Mann and she is from Springfield, Missouri. I met her last year at a meeting while presenting my mission call to Kenya. When I met her she helped me set up and take down my display, since then we’ve discussed her coming to work beside me here in Kenya. Last week she came in Kenya for a two month visit and I was finally able to ask her the big question. We’ve set our wedding date for September 23rd in Springfield, Missouri. Ericka really wants to be married in the States, I couldn’t convince her to have a Turkanan wedding, so I’m planning to go back to the States for about 6 weeks and then return to Kenya with her. I must give testimony that the Lord has supplied everything needed for my ministry here in Turkana, Ericka seems to be just the one I am needing to help round out the ministry here. Please pray for her and I as we prepare for the wedding and continue to serve the Lord.

I was only in Turkana for a short time this last month, but while there we held the Bible Institute and also had a pastors conference.

The Bible Institute classes went very well with one new Turkana teacher. I am really trying to involve the Turkana pastors as much as possible and also keep a high standard of training for the young men. Please pray that the pastors/teachers will do their best in every class. We are needing much prayer for the students of the Bible Institute. We lost one student, Solomon to immorality and another, Michael is living in a village quite some distance from any of our churches. Please pray that the one student will leave his sin and be restored to fellowship in his church, also pray that the second student will be able to move back to a village where he can assist a pastor.

After Bible Institute classes we held a pastors seminar. It seemed to be a great encouragement to our pastors and they asked if we could have seminar lessons every month. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or means to have a monthly seminar but we are going to try for once a quarter.

When my work was done in Turkana I traveled to Nairobi to buy supplies and pick up Ericka from the Airport. I ran the gauntlet of Nairobi traffic and finally found the Bible Society of Kenya. They had the Turkana New Testaments that I was looking for and I was also able to buy a case of Swahili Bibles for a good price. While in Nairobi I met some great folks who directed me to the Medicines Without Borders warehouse. There I was able to buy vitamins, dewormer and antibiotic ointment for very reasonable price. These things will go to assist drought victims in churches and villages I am working with. Please pray that we can work out an orderly distribution plan for the pastors and students to implement.

It seems my distaste for Nairobi grows every time I am there. While traveling down THE main highway in Nairobery I passed a policeman trying to redirect all the traffic around the university. Unfortunately, I saw the policeman too late and went down the street he had tried to direct me from. It didn’t take long to see the problem was ANOTHER student riot with broken glass all over the street and roving bands of student thugs. It took a good hour to get around the whole mess, and thank God I didn’t fall into the hands of the students.

This month I’m returning to Turkana with lots of supplies and even doors for a couple of churches. Please pray for safety as we travel with all the stuff. I’m planning to stay with a couple of pastors and put in the new doors.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. Please remember to pray for Ericka as she is getting used to the culture, learns some of the language on her visit and then prepares for the wedding.

God bless you all. Bob Clark