Political Parties and A Tea Party

What else is there to blog about except being stuck in the compound for days in a row, weeks in a row as turmoil boils over outside our little haven. Much has already been said on other blogs so I'm inserting exerts from 2 other women's blogs here on the compound. The first is from Clara Yoder while we were gone. (August 14th)
  

  Friday night as the youth were playing volleyball on the lane the announcement of the winner of the election finally took place.  It wasn't long til we heard awful hollering and chaos. It seemed strange after an almost eerily silent week, to hear such noise and commotion.  Then the gunshots and tear gas started.  That was the worst!  Also some of the youth who went up on a house roof saw lots of fires in town.  But our gate man soon ordered them to come off the roof because of the danger of stray bullets.  

  Saturday morning there were also MANY gunshots and some sounded very close!  I was freaked out to be outside.  But thankfully in the afternoon things calmed down and it has been fairly quiet since.                 ******************
 A month later Sylvia Miller at  "Miller Family, Kisumu" wrote :

 
As for Elections, I'm sure most of you know alittle about the elections, or maybe you know a lot about them...either way here is to a little update of what happened in the last week....


So Like I had said earlier the opposing party were certain the elections were rigged, an thus after the election announcement was made with Uhura proclaiming himself the winner, Raila took the whole thing to court to let them decide, an this past Friday the court announced their verdict.
They said that the election had irregularities an that the past election is void, an reelection is scheduled for casting votes again over the next 60 days. sigh....seems this election drama is just dragging out so long, with days when we cant go out an have to stay inside the compound, I think we are all just ready to have this election over with, an whatever brings peace...when the announcement was made within minutes of the breaking news announcement, we heard yelling an screaming as the luo people in Kisumu here went absolutely crazy, I clambered up on our roof to see if I could see anything of interest...an I saw old mama's running in the street blowing on whistles, motor bikes driving along just holding the horn in for a long loud screech! people were beside themselves with the announcement!
And while I'm thinking about it, I have been wanting to share a song with you all that us youth randomly wrote at a youth night...we came together to practice songs an ended up writing a song about the elections, this song was written right after the announcement had come out that Uhura had won, an the Luo people were rioting in anger.
We took the song "The Battle Belongs To The Lord" an sang it to that tune, only changing the words to fit our present circumstances, I know some of you have already read this song on other peoples blogs from our compound here, but my people have not read it yet so here goes: a lot of the wording is the way the Kenyans talk, an we made sure we sang it with their accent too! haha it was fun!


                                        = THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD =

1.

       Raila has lost, now Uhuru's just there

The battle belongs to the Lord.

The Luos are raging, they think it's not fair

The battle belongs to the Lord.

= Chorus =

And we sing Glory, Honor, Power and Strength to the Lord.

We sing Glory, Honor, Power an Strength to the Lord.

2.

The power is gone, wifi now is onge

The battle belongs to the Lord.

The natives are calling the pastors each day

The battle belongs to the Lord.

3.

When the gunshots an tear gas resound, do not fear

The battle belongs to the Lord.

Don't worry, Mzungu, Fires disappear

The battle belongs to the Lord.

*Onge (gone, or not there.) **Mzungu (White People) 

**************** 

 And  October 27th, Clara at "Kisumu Yoders" shared :

 
The heart of the King is in our Father's Hand. I'm so glad I'm not in charge!!! This Political mess seems impossible but to God it's a small thing. He's in perfect control! Opake Jesu!! Our lives are in the Father's hands as well. I've wondered if angels have been hovering over the compound. We have been hearing so much violence. Even at night above the noise of the fan we can hear shooting. Late one night it sounded like a drunk man was walking the street behind our house chanting, “NO ELECTION” over and over. It's so unnerving to hear all the shooting, screaming, and sirens. Oh God have mercy on the innocent ones who are suffering!! News reports tell us that yesterday 20 people had gunshot wounds here in Kisumu... some serious. I think at least 3 people died. Police were raiding homes, shooting and wounding even women and children. Such hopelessness and despair! And people are hungry. There is nothing like “business as usual” right now. If people can't find work they may have nothing to put on the table in the evening. It's such a helpless feeling to be stuck in the Compound, unable to help the suffering. We are so grateful though that our dear church families are mostly all in the interior, away from the city, and they are okay. The worst thing is finding work and having enough to eat. There was an Election yesterday but Kisumu and 3 other counties have refused to vote. In fact some of the polling stations were burned and anyone who would have attempted to go to the polls would possibly have been killed. Raila and his coalition are boycotting the Election... and Uhuru keeps pushing his way, not seeming to care whether things are done lawfully or not. Now they are saying that Kisumu and the other counties are to vote tomorrow. Hmmm.... I'm quite certain if it didn't work yesterday it will most certainly not happen tomorrow either. But God knows...GOD KNOWS!! What a comfort to know we can trust our lives into His capable hands!  
****************

Last week it was a bit frustrating. Elections were to be Thursday so stay in the compound. Then 4 counties were to vote on Saturday but roads were blocked, etc trying to keep those in charge from bringing in the polls or whatever. so once more things were postponed till further notice (need to bring in more soldiers or guards. Sunday service was cancelled and plans made for a service inside the compound at our house. Then when things where postponed it was decided to have church after all.   Don't know if those counties got skipped then or what. But Uhuru won the election and his opponent was to give a speech and we were to stay in the compound till that happened due to not knowing how the Luos around here would react. Monday came and went. He's to give his speech Tuesday at 10 or 10:30. The time came and went. Then we hear, he's giving his speech at 1:00 instead. That came and went. Finally around 5pm, about 6 hours after he was originally supposed to speak, he got around to it. And that's pretty much how Kenya rolls with  "keeping" time :} We didn't really hear a lot of commotion and now this morning the pastors are meeting to decide (I guess) if we can get on with life now or if there are more things threatening. We are to go to Nakuru on Friday for Unit meeting if nothing changes.

This and the next couple photos Jake took when he was out n about and things weren't too crazy

Mild remains of a road block

Often at intersections they would burn tires and other things

 On Sunday when it was time for testimonies, Silpa stood up and told a chilling story of how she and her 16 year old Granddaughter Christine (who also attends our church sporatically) were headed to another town and somehow got into the mob.  People blocked them and began to harass them. As I understand the story, Silpa asking to be aloud to continue on and was crying out to God when suddenly a voice in the crowd commanded everyone to let her go and amazingly she was allowed to continue on but the woman coming right behind her was attacked and killed. Surely God's hand of protection was over her that day!!! Many other innocent people were also hurt and killed in different of the many frays. 
Lately at school the children played "Lemonade" where one team acts something out and the other has to guess what it is. Hannah said one of the things they acted out was the riots. I guess it's what's on the children's minds too as they can often hear the shots and yelling and screaming at recess time. Sunday evening we were sitting around out on the lane visiting and snacking with the other families. Some parental intervention was needed when the children began throwing hand-fulls of dust and dirt from the lane into the air and clouds of it would drift on the breeze. "It's tear gas !" said they.
 Now a couple random shots:

Jediah at Joshua Juma's house after bible study

 

 

A Masai relaxing under a tree along our road. They are easily distinguished by their traditional garb. 

 

 

One Wednesday when we couldn't go out to Bible study, the women and girls had a tea party and cookie exchange. Stacy and Clarissa out did themselves with the lovely attention to detail and decor.

washing the dust off our feet in flowery water.

 

Tiffany enjoying her pink lemonade to the last drop.

All the littlest ladies on the compound (plus Elliot)eager for the party to begin.

And the last random photo..one of my favorite from the day we took a church family for a ride out on the lake.