Wednesday: The Sipili Conference

Today, we drove to Sipili about an hour from Nyaharuru. Half of the time was spent traveling about 5 miles over some really rough road. At one point, we switched over to a landing strip to avoid the washout road with bolders in the middle of it. We made it to the Olivet Hotel were the Pastor and Wives conference was being held. This was the first conference of this time that they had ever had. All total we had 28 people in attendance with 12 couples. First, we had tea. Then, Bernard asked the participants to share something that they were thankful for in their family, children, marriage. Then, they were to share one challenge that they experienced as the Pastor’s family. Bonnie and Floyd co-taught the basics of the relationship of husband and wife in marriage while laying a Biblical foundation for the relationship. The participants received this very well and were engaged in the discussion. The fact that Bonnie and Floyd “tag-teamed” teaching the session was a first for the group and gave a living lesson of the teaching. For lunch, the Olivet prepared a type of garlic rice, fried cabbage with carrots, greens, and beef in tomato-type thin sauce. All was very good. As an added treat, everyone had a soft drink of choice for dessert. In the afternoon, Floyd met with the Pastors and Bonnie met with the wives. Our translator, Peter, provided a great cultural lesson and a very funny experience that we will never forget. Floyd and Bonnie were sharing problems identified by Pastors/Wives in an international survey. One of the problems mentioned was sexual problems. Peter wanted to be a gentleman and in his culture did not want to offend. He translated “sexual problems” as “sleeping problems” . Some of the group knew English and started to give him a hard time. One said, “Surely, you know there is a difference between “sex” and “sleeping”. Everyone had a big laugh. But, this was also a great lesson in communication affected by cultural differences. When the conference ended, they were still giving Peter a hard, lighthearted time. Bonnie and I will never forget it. We finished the afternoon with tea and began the tortuous ride home. We took a “better” road that turned out to be just as rough just longer and dustier. Pictures nor words do the roads to and from Sipili justice. The ruts were dried and deeper than the car tires. Rocks covered the road. There was a whole lot of shaking going on, bumping, and banging going on. The day ended with a very nice dinner at the Thompson Falls Lodge. Tonight was a buffet that was outstanding. Highly recommend it. Tomorrow we are back to Bernard’s. We are having dinner with the newly weds in November Robert and Lucy. We saw Robert on Tuesday—he had picked up a little weight.