Kim in Gatab (Update 1)

Monday, July 13, 2009

Last night, the team and I separated. The team went to the airport to head back to the states. James, one of our three drivers for the week, took me to the Mayfield Guest House. This guest house is run by the AIM Mission. It was very nice. I spent the night here and then this morning was taken to Wilson airport to catch the AIM airplane to Gatab.

That was an experience. As I walked in, I thought that the man at the desk was teasing me in fun, but he was not. He told me that I had to wait outside - out front - until my "meet time". That was a 45 minute wait. It was not bad. I waited, but still no one came for me. So, I checked. A few minutes later, I was found. :o)

The plane arrived. It was a small, 6 passenger plane. Three other passengers, the pilot, his 7 year old daughter and I were on the plane. Our first stop was Korr. This was a place in the desert. There was a herd of camel near the airstrip. I do not have pictures from this area. The people have issues with pictures. They feel that the pictures take something from them. Apparently the camels have issues with pictures too - we were told. ??? We dropped off the three other passengers and continued on to Gatab. We landed at the Luai airstrip. This airstrip is at lower down the mountain than the Gatab strip. There were some issues with the Gatab strip, so we landed at the other.

The whole Woodworth family and their houseguest, Amelia, were there to greet me. It was great to see them. We headed up the mountain road to Gatab. It was about a 20 - 30 minute ride - another African massage - not as bad as the road to Maasai. The kids and I sat in the back of the truck. David told me all about the babboons. And we saw some as we traveled back.

Later in the afternoon we went to do some tutoring at the Haven House. The Haven House is a girls and boys home, like a boarding school for the surrounding villages where the students would have to walk a long distance to get to school. We will tutor again at the Haven House again tomorrow.

Things are so different here. For example .... Ellie had the chore of making dog food this afternoon. This required Ellie to go get fire wood, start the fire in between rocks, boil water, add some powdered dog food to the boiling water and cook it.

Well, we are about to walk around the Station (the mission's property). More later ... provided the internet conection will work. Maybe pitctures, if it will allow.