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Happy New Year. . .sort of
posted Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Plenty of rumors seem to be flying around about the situation here in Kenya, so I will tell you what I know about the events around here.
To give you some background, the presidential election last week has divided the nation. The incumbent president was declared the winner, but the opposition’s candidate is alleging that the election was rigged.
The fighting has centered around the larger cities, the “melting pots”, where there are members of different tribes living around each other. The violence around here has been minimal--most of the people around here are all from one tribe.
Thankfully, the family who was here at Tenwek has made it into Nairobi and is flying out tonight. Thank God! They had a police escort to the airstrip, which is about an hour away, and they took a smaller airplane into the airport in Nairobi.
The visitors who are in Nairobi have been advised to go back to the States and they have made arrangements to do so.
Bob, the med student who has been stuck in Nairobi, is most likely going to stay put for right now, but will probably stay with some other missionaries there, rather than by himself in a guesthouse. Thank God for that, too!
We are very thankful for the peace around here, but that has not been the case in the rest of Kenya. Today, a mob in the town of Eldoret burned down a church full of people who were trying to find refuge after being chased out of their homes. Reports say that around 30 have died so far.
As much as it doesn’t sound like it, we are fairly safe here at Tenwek. We are not the targets in this situation. We are staying close to home, though, and are hoping that at least things will calm down enough in Bomet for us to go into town for supplies. (Although, at our meeting tonight, we did establish we have enough toilet paper for quite a while, just in case. In these emergencies, you have to think of the important things.)
We just worry about the Kenyan staff and what will happen to them, after the rally Odinga is planning on Thursday. So please keep them all in your prayers, as well as the leaders. I will try to keep you all updated on what is happening.
Lisette
To give you some background, the presidential election last week has divided the nation. The incumbent president was declared the winner, but the opposition’s candidate is alleging that the election was rigged.
The fighting has centered around the larger cities, the “melting pots”, where there are members of different tribes living around each other. The violence around here has been minimal--most of the people around here are all from one tribe.
Thankfully, the family who was here at Tenwek has made it into Nairobi and is flying out tonight. Thank God! They had a police escort to the airstrip, which is about an hour away, and they took a smaller airplane into the airport in Nairobi.
The visitors who are in Nairobi have been advised to go back to the States and they have made arrangements to do so.
Bob, the med student who has been stuck in Nairobi, is most likely going to stay put for right now, but will probably stay with some other missionaries there, rather than by himself in a guesthouse. Thank God for that, too!
We are very thankful for the peace around here, but that has not been the case in the rest of Kenya. Today, a mob in the town of Eldoret burned down a church full of people who were trying to find refuge after being chased out of their homes. Reports say that around 30 have died so far.
As much as it doesn’t sound like it, we are fairly safe here at Tenwek. We are not the targets in this situation. We are staying close to home, though, and are hoping that at least things will calm down enough in Bomet for us to go into town for supplies. (Although, at our meeting tonight, we did establish we have enough toilet paper for quite a while, just in case. In these emergencies, you have to think of the important things.)
We just worry about the Kenyan staff and what will happen to them, after the rally Odinga is planning on Thursday. So please keep them all in your prayers, as well as the leaders. I will try to keep you all updated on what is happening.
Lisette
comments (1)
1. Kami Rice left...
Wednesday, 2 January 2008 11:34 am :: http://www.kami-in-africa.blogspot.com
Thanks for posting these updates, Lisette. It's good to know how to pray. I
don't know if you remember that I met you briefly in August. I was visiting
Tenwek to do some writing projects for Linda Spreigel. I left shortly after
you returned.
