Jambo! Watu nyumbani hawajambo? (Hello! How are the people at home?)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Welcome to our new weblog page. In days to come I hope to be adding more links that will connect you to pictures, field and regional web pages, and perhaps even videos from ANU. Right now our Internet is so slow that pictures just can’t be loaded on, but hopefully that will change in the near future – or perhaps I can add them at a local Internet cafe. We will keep you posted.

The picture that is at the top of the page is of the road that we travel whenever we come or go from the school. Our buses and school transport drive this road many times a day. It is basically rock and dirt and changes drastically with the weather. It is approximately three kilometers long (about 1.8 miles) and is like driving in a dry creek bed most of the time. It has been promised to us that it would be paved long ago, but time is pretty much irrelevant on construction projects in Kenya.

Last Saturday was a quiet day for us. We took a trip to the Nacumatt and did a little shopping and stopped at an “On the Run” convenient store/gas station/restaurant for lunch. When we returned home I went for a walk throughout the area countryside. I must be quite a spectacle to the local children. They usually wave as I walk by and try out their English by shouting “How are you!” I just wave and say “Mzuri sana,” meaning, “I’m fine, thank you.” Every once in a while I meet up with another walker and greet them with “Habari Yako” (How are you doing?) and they respond “Mzuri” (I’m fine) and continue on. However, sometimes when I greet a local they want to talk and break into a full Kiswahili diatribe and I find myself wishing I had been studying the local language more. The walk took me a couple of hours and I even found a footbridge over the river so now I can cut some mileage off when I am away from campus.

Sunday found us having our morning worship service here on campus. Dr. Mark Pitts, our assistant vice-chancellor, taught our Sunday School class and I preached in the morning service. Mary Jane led singing from the keyboard while my assistant, Constantino Magaya and I helped out with vocals and guitars. We introduced the students to some American-style music and I’m sure it seemed as foreign to them as theirs does to us.

We have finished our last chapel service for the trimester. There are no chapels held during the two weeks of final exams because large rooms like the chapels are tranformed into classrooms for testing. Each day testing will be from 9 until noon and then from 2 until 5. It’s serious business. The whole semester of study depends on how they do on these tests. You can fail the entire semester, but if you do well enough on the exam you can pass the class. However, if you fail the exam the class must be taken over. There are no exceptions.

The landscaping around our home has really changed the looks of the place. There is a ten foot corigated metal wall around our yard now (I call it the iron curtain) and inside the wall the place has been turned into a garden showplace. Flowers and plants of all kinds line our driveway, which is made of handlaid bricks and grass is placed throughout the yard – one blade at a time. The work is quite a sight to behold and it looks beautiful. Our gardener, Samuel, is certainly an artist.

We are both fairly healthy these days and we are grateful for that. Though we are not as busy as usual right now, we are gearing up for the next semester. Very quickly it will be upon us and we want to get a running start this time. Graduation is also not far down the road (May 30) and we have a lot to do to get ready for that.

Well, I hope you like the look of the new weblog. There is a place for your responses and we would love to hear from you. Feel free to pass the site along to your friends and come back and visit as often as you like. I will send out a reminder link like I did today each week, but you never know when we will be adding things that are new to the site. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Lazima niende sasa. Kwa herini! (I must go now. Goodbye!)

Randy and Mary Jane James
Africa Nazarene University
Nairobi, Kenya