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But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15

We like our little home. It’s not perfect, but it’s comfortable and it fits us well. It even has a name – it’s called the Waring duplex, after a family who lived here a number of years ago. Sharon, a young gynecologist, just moved next door, into the other half of the duplex.

We’re close to the hospital, so I have much less of a walk than others do. That’s handy at night, or even during the day when I forget my glasses or my pen runs out of ink. We’re also across the road from the cemetery, where the gravestones date back to the beginning of the 1900’s, when Kijabe Station was first established. Our windows look to the west, over the Rift Valley and out to Mt. Longonot. I love to walk down the hill a ways and watch the morning sunlight on the mountain, or the sunset just behind the summit. Birds seem to enjoy our yard, and we enjoy watching them.

We’ve enjoyed having new friends over for a meal or just a visit. Edward comes twice a week to teach us Kiswahili; he must shake his head as he walks away each time, wondering if these gray-haired wazungu will ever catch on… Our bedroom is on the main level, and we have two nice guest rooms upstairs, ready for you to stay in! The water heater is tiny, but the thermostat is set pretty close to the boiling point, giving us nice, hot showers.

The kitchen is small, but it has most of what we need. We filter our drinking water to be extra safe, and we keep a pitcher of Kool-Aid, our beverage of choice this year, in the refrigerator. Kathy cooks everything from scratch, even making her own tomato sauce from original ingredients. There’s a little market up the hill, where we buy fresh fruit and vegetables, and even homemade tortillas and English muffins. It’s about a 10 minute walk from here, along the nursing school, around behind the hospital, up the road past the matatu stand and the boys’ school, then around the post office and up the hill to the next road.

The produce is wonderful – even the carrots taste sweeter here! And affordable – an avocado costs 10 shillings (13 cents), a tomato 7 shillings, and carrots 50 shillings per half kilo. Mangos are big, sweet, and cheap enough (20 shillings) that I plan to eat one a day for the rest of the year. Today Kathy bought a half kilo of peanuts for 50 shillings, and brought them home to roast. And none of the farmers can afford chemicals or preservatives – so it’s all organic!

Across from the market is a row of tiny shops called duka’s in Kiswahili. The first duka is run by Sarah and her family; they stock necessities such as UHT milk, margarine, rice, corn flour, Wheetabix, and ice cream. We’ve made friends with Sarah and her brother. They’ve offered to stock anything we ask for. Down the row is a tiny hardware store, about the size of the masking tape section at McDaniel’s Do-It Center. In fact, I think we’ll nickname it the Do-It Center. Perhaps we'll call the market Top Foods, and the duka will be Safeway!

Like every house, ours is not without its problems. The winds that blow from dusk to dawn bring a fine layer of red dust through the seams of the windows, settling on every surface. The metal roof shakes and groans all night long with the winds. The walls are cracked, and most of the faucets drip. The bathroom mirror isn’t quite satisfactory, and it gets chilly here in the evening, even with a fire burning.

But it’s our home, and we’re thankful for it. We pray that it will be a place of blessing for us and for all who visit us here.

- Doug