After 2 uneventful flights, we Kauffmans and Fishers, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday evening. (We had met the Fisher family in London.) One of our 24 tubs did not come through and Lees had 2 out of 27. Glen and Rosanna Helmuth, whom we're replacing, were there to meet us. Randy and Wilma Lapp came for Lees family. We were a weary bunch and glad to sleep at the Mennonite guest house before doing anything else. The next morning, Glens took us to "The Java House" for an outdoor breakfast. The drive to Kisumu is an experience in itself; people, people, PEOPLE everywhere.....and God keeps track of all the hairs on everyone's head! The 5 hour drive pretty BREAKFAST AT THE JAVA HOUSE much involves speed bumps, pot holes and inching through conjested towns. And of course, being the typical toursists we still are, we "oohed and aahed" at the zebras, gazelles, and baboons feeding in the ditches along the way. ( This is the first animal picture I promised my Bender nieces and nephews.) What unusual ceatures to see in the wild! We would only see these in world books and never thought we'd ever set foot in Africa.

We FINALLY arrived at our house in Kisumu and guess who the children went to see first! Rosalie, Joanne and Bethany Beiler! They live behind our house in what they call the servants quarters! They had just returned from 'mudding' a house and didn't think they were too presentable! We didn't care, we were just glad to see a familair face in such an out of the way place! Later, the compound folks got together for supper and welcome for us. It was good to meet everyone. We are now dealing with jet lag and as tired as we are, sleeping is difficult until 2:00 in the night. Did I say difficult? I meant impossible! This is compounded with barking dogs, and finally when blessed sleep finally does come in the wee hours of the morning, we are awakened by the chickens in our back yard and unfamliar squawking birds noises. We womenfolks also have dealt with a 24 hour flu bug we picked up somewhere. We did see some masked people in London.....perhaps trying to avoid the swine flu.....

The weather here is beautiful! The equator sun is very warm but the shade is surprisely cool, due to the low humidity. Brightly-colored birds and flowers are fascinating to say the least. We'll have to do some studying to indentify these tropical items. The fruit we'll be missing in the Kauffman's orchard are being replaced by delicious pinapples, mangos and banannas.

We likely will be updating on Monday mornings. Our internet service is very poor in the evening. Please stay posted. Mattie