Friday night, our team slept in the IDP camp. (Well, that is
not entirely true…Let me explain).
On Friday we all went down to Camp Tumaini and the children
helped us unload the food for our Christmas Feast. Knowing that we would not be
in Kenya this Christmas, we did not want to miss the opportunity to celebrate
with our friends in the camp, so we planed a big celebration this past weekend.
After arriving in the Camp on Friday, we gathered the
children for one last practice of the Christmas songs they have been preparing.
We had a special guest, Noniie, from Nairobi come to visit. It was “an eye
opening experience� for her. She expressed that most Kenyans have moved on
after the 2007 elections and give little thought to the families still living
in tents. Her visit was enjoyed by all. Friday afternoon we had our weekly
Fellowship time, where we worship, pray and share what God is doing and
saying.
Remembering the last time we had a camp-wide feast, which
took about 6 hours to cook for, we decided to try and do some of the work the
night before. The women decided we should cook the chapatti (thick, tortilla
like Kenyan favorite). We began at 9:30pm. A giant bowl of water, add in some
salt and 12 bags of flour… You would think that wouldn’t be too difficult,
however if you start with too much water it becomes a challenge. About an hour
or two later we had a total of 21 bags of flour and could begin rolling and
cooking chapatti. We had about 15 women working together and made over 250
chapatti, finishing by around 2am. After hours of rolling, Kelli, Jenna and I
went to Veronica’s house to attempt to sleep, 3 people to a twin bed, before
getting up early to begin prepping the potatoes and carrots and cabbage. Another 5 or 6 hours of cooking and our
feast was ready!
It was a long couple of days, but watching the children
stick out their bellies to see who’s is the most full made me smile! As did the
children’s Christmas performance. We had a time to share testimonies and Pastor
Paul preached, as a rainbow stretched across the sky. We said our “see you laters�
(not goodbye, since we are coming back) and headed home.
