Week 10

On Wednesday we went to visit Testimony Faith Homes in Eldoret. John Green began the home in 1972 with Matthew 6:6 as his motto: “pray . . then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”. They have operated the orphanage for 40 years without asking anyone for money. Currently they provide a home for 140 children. The first picture shows their first home, a mud hut built in the late 1800s, well before John Green arrived They began their own school when they had trouble getting their children accepted at other schools. Many other children soon wanted to attend there as well. Currently they have 600 – 700 children attending their school, reputed to be the best school in Eldoret. Tuition fees pay for the operation of the school. Amazing story!

For the weekend we went to Kerio View Hotel at Iten, a small village about 35 km from Eldoret. Kerio View is in a quiet place with a beautiful view over Kerio Valley. We primarily relaxed, visited, read and ate. In the picture you can see a plateau far below Grace. At the edge of that plateau there is another steep cliff to the valley well below the plateau. In the distance you can see that there are also steep cliffs on the opposite side of the valley. There always seems to be a haze above the valley and the far side does not show up well in pictures.

Iten is the home of a High Altitude Training Centre. Many athletes come here from all over the world for months at a time. Now they are training for the Olympics. Of course, Kenya has won many gold medals in marathons and other running events. The picture below shows me with David Rudisha (holding his daughter), the current world record holder for the 800 m dash (1:41.01). On the right is Thomas Kipkurgat, Moi’s International Development Officer. Thomas was also a runner in his younger days. He has run a mile in under 4 minutes and completed a marathon in around 2 hours and 13 – 16 minutes.    

Our friends at home in Winnipeg are forecast to have temperatures in the mid twenties for a couple of days. We have had highs between 25 and 27 almost every day we have been here. It cools off nicely at night so we are really enjoying the climate. We had one week of cloudy weather with brief periods of rain on about three days. They say the period of the “long rains” should begin in the next few weeks.