Week 1

Our 25-hour flight to Kenya (starting January 8) was uneventful except that Grace’s suitcase missed a connection. We finally got it on January 15, a week later. We went to the Mayfield Guest House (picture 1) for a sleep before flying on to Eldoret Tuesday evening. At Mayfield we met a Bible School teacher who told us about some churches in Eldoret.

We were met at the airport be Thomas Kurgat who devoted much of the next few days showing us around Eldoret and introducing us to many university officials and taking us shopping.  We also got a better idea of what we will be doing. Grace will be teaching English Literature and Grammar Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Moi University main campus, which is about 35 km out of town. She likes the assignment but not the 45-minute drive each way. I will be co-teaching an introductory statistics course and two graduate courses. I was fearful of the challenge the latter implied, as I have never taught a graduate course. It turns out these were economics students who thought economics was a discipline in Arts that required no mathematics or statistics. The challenge will be to make sure I don’t go over their heads.

Grace is standing in front of the home of the people who own the house we are staying in - and sharing with a PhD student from Tanzania. She is a bank manager and he is the financial officer of Moi Uninversity. Our home is "further back" - see last picture.

On Sunday we went to the Sirikwa Pentecostal Fellowship and enjoyed a two-hour church service. After the service the district pastor and his wife, Rick and Carol took us out to dinner and then back to our home. All in all, we have had an excellent week. People are very friendly and we are expecting this to be an enjoyable experience. The weather has been fantastic - sunny every day with highs around 25 and lows in the lower teens.

Our home is through a door in the metal gate in the background.