There is really NO way I can even begin to describe the ride there. I don't have pictures, and I doubt whether a video could even capture it. I will try to give you a word picture....
We left the city of Kisumu and with it, smooth roads. We hit a bumpy dirt road with relatively much traffic on it, and considerable dust. The children informed me as bumped along that we were in 'heaven' compared to what was to come. I couldn't imagine, and neither can you if you've never experienced it.
One of the things I love MOST here is waving and smiling at people. Young boys, young girls, old men, old mamas, toddler boys and toddler girls alike will almost ALWAYS respond. They will drop what they are doing to grin BIG and wave, often with both hands. Today, one guy smiled soo big that the piece of sugar cane he was chewing fell out!
So, back to the road. We turned a corner to the right and hit the back road. And it was a BACK road. Pot holes and ledges and places where the shoulder obviously got more traffic than the road itself. Places where we would drive with one set of wheels on the 'road' and the other on the shoulder which put the van at a definite incline. And more pot holes and bigger pot holes, all of which we are doing our best to avoid, which can only be done by literally driving from left shoulder to right shoulder, always yielding to traffic in the appropriate lane. Marlin said and I agree, that if his worst field lane would have looked like this back in the states, it would have been appalling...
Unlike the other roads we'd travelled so far, this road had very little vehicle traffic. The children were allowed once again to put their arms and heads (don't read this, Grandma:) out the windows. Most of the traffic on this road was bicycles loaded with 'feed sacks' of charcoal or sugar cane or in one case 12 ft fence posts. 
There were many people walking alone or in groups, often sporting large hoes or machetes headed to his/her day's work in the shamba (garden). Some of the ladies had katambas on their heads with a bucket of water or a sack of merchandise. Cattle and goats being herded by either a young boy or an old man and an occasional tractor and wagon filled with sugar cane.
And on past all these people we bounced. Bumpety, bumpety, bump. Waving and smiling. I could not stop smiling! And each person that smiled and waved back simply made that smile grow...
And when I thought that we were simply in the middle of no where, right there along the road would be a person, quietly chopping away at the weeds in his grown up garden.
And then we finally arrived at Block 4. Dirt lane off the Back Road. We travelled for 1/2 mile and met another guy who was there to show us the way. He said he thinks we can make it without having to get out and walk. I took a look at the mud and secretly hoped he was right. And we did make it, after sliding and spinning and houncing and bouncing some more and then we lurched to a stop in front of what looked like a mud church building. 
Bible Study consisted of some singing, an interpreter who helped out with a devotional and prayer and then the actual Bible Study taken from Acts something where it talks about meat offered to idols. There was a lot of discussion and was interesting how they are currently dealing with this in their lives. Their tradition would be to take a sacrifice to the graveyard and slaughter and eat it at the grave in ceremony to appease the spirit of the dead person.
The benches were definitely not padded and after about 90 minutes I needed to stand.:)
and only when I got up did I realize how badly I needed to stand. Owie!
I slipped outside and there were about 4 or 5 little people out there. I took a picture of Natalie with them and they loved it. Her white face and blonde hair contrasting starkly to their black and black. But the white teeth when they smiled. And did they smile, especially when I showed them their picture.
And suddenly there was 8 or 10 children. I don't know where they came from. I dug in my bag and pulled out some life saver mints. They each took one when I handed them to them. But they didn't know how to open the wrappers. So I opened them and place them in their grubby hands.
I was in my glory. And suddenly there was 15-18! All with big eyes and shy smiles. I pulled a book out of my bag and they giggled when they saw pictures of monkeys and elephants. Giggled and pointed and grinned.
At this point my girls came out and I didn't have the heart to leave the children or to tell my girls they needed to go back into church. So we stayed and enjoyed the children.
We fell in love with them and we gave them the attention that they hadn't gotten today. (or ever.?) We hugged their distended bellies and kissed their black cheeks and hands. We patted their heads and held their hands. And they loved us back. They touched our hair and our white skin, patted our arms and fingered our ears. They were as enthralled with us as we were with them.
I told Tara that when there is a language barrier a smile and touch bridges that gap.
I gave them juice plus gummies and wiped their sticky hands. Mostly I was cleaning way more than sticky vitamins off their skin.
They watched when I put germ-x on my hands and so I put tiny drops in their hands and they proudly rubbed their hands together and showed the others how to do it. It was just way too cute!
I know I am going on and on!!...
And then service was over and a trip to the choo (Kenyan potty)Hole in the Floor style....
And then water poured over the hands to wash...
And then the meal....
The white food in the bowl is cassava(boiled root) and the darker is mandazze (think donut without the sugar) It was all very good, tho' I couldn't eat a lot of the cassava before I was full. All of that was washed down with hot chai, which we all liked a lot.The lady who hosted the Bible study and fed all of us lived right behind the little church. We took a winding foot path back to her house. The path lead past the village well, through the shamba(garden) where yams grew close to the stream and where a hen, surrounded by her brood pecked beneath banana trees. Trees bearing large papayas grew among the maize and bananas.
Her house...
Next to her house stood a smaller version of the same where she did her cooking. In the corner was large kettle of beans? cooking over an open wood fire. 
And then back to the vehicle. While we waited for the guys to come back, we enjoyed the children some more. Actually, they had trailed us the whole time, except while we went inside the church to eat. They quietly waited outside with a little cassava.
When I got back to the church where the van was parked, my heart dropped as I realized some of the children who were still hungry had gone into where we had left our food and chai and were going from place to place cleaning up what we all had left. My heart went out-again...
And by the time the guys came, there was probably 8-10 extra children in our van:) But they politely got out when we were ready to go and after hugs and lots of waves and even more smiles, we left the group, and a piece of our hearts, I think...
All of it was such a rich cultural experience which left our hearts full and struggling to find words with which to describe what we were feeling. We were blessed to be able to experience a few hours in the interior of Kenya, and we want to go back again soon...
And we bumped back to Kisumu, to our walls and electric and to our friends. And we had chicken tetrazzini and snap peas for supper with rhubarb pie that Alison made for dessert. And we sat around as couples and our oldest two joined us as we drank coffee and talked and laughed and simply enjoyed each other....
And now it's off to bed. We are all healthy, thank God. We are sleeping well. We are grateful for your prayers and we are glad it's not snowing here:) But we ARE glad that we will come home in time to experience that...
Good night from across the water and God bless,
~Mariellen for the family
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