Spiders, Bats, and Chickens

Well, over the past couple of weeks we've had a few strange things happen. The first of them took place when I (Matt) was leaving Kisumu to drive back to Limuru. I had just dropped Peg and Kenya Grace off at the airport, packed up the car and left to go pick up Steven and his family for our 5-6 hour drive across the country. Steven's family live on a farm (shamba) about 65 Kilometers (40 miles) outside of Kisumu Town. This was my third visit out there in our 5 day stay, so thankfully I was well familiarized with the unmarked dirt roads and how to get to their place (through a maze of sugar cane fields). After greeting the family again, and having some small talk, we got in the car and started our journey back to Limuru. But as we were nearing the main cross road leaving their house instead of turning left to start the journey home we turned right to make a brief stop for Steven's wife to say farewell to her mother. While we were there Steven said it would be okay for us (he and I) to stay in the car as he knew that if we had got out of the car it would take even longer for us to start the journey back. Well, about 5 minutes later or so, his wife (Maureen) came back to the car carrying her son in one arm (who had been with her the whole time) and a live chicken in the other. Immediately I wondered, "Are we going to drive all the way back to Nairobi with a live chicken in the car?" And sure enough we were and did. Steven could see the look of slight shock on my face and made a comment about how it was traditional in their culture for the mom to send a chicken home with her daughter when she had visited. He also noted that I probably wasn't too used to having live animals in the car. To which I said I wasn't, but I was sure it would be okay. Thankfully the legs were tied together, and she stuck its back end in a plastic bag (which comforted me). Most of the trip home the chicken was quiet, only a few times it would struggle and cluck or squawk, probably wondering where it was going... or why the road so bumpy. So, I can now officially say that I have driven with a live chicken in my car.... and most likely, it will not be the last time.

The next day or so after we had returned from Kisumu, we encountered to strange things which added to our 'wild-life' experiences here in Kenya. One was that Peg discovered a GIANT Spider up in the corner above our front patio. Often we'll eat out there when it's a nice day and we don't feel like being inside. When she first looked up at it she thought it was some sort of nest, but after I got a closer look I quickly found that it was a very large spider (slightly smaller than a tarantula but close in comparison). Just after the escapade of killing that spider we found a bat that was crawling in front of our door. Since bats are nocturnal, we never really see them, in fact, Joyce, our Kenyan friend who watches KG in the mornings saw it and said she'd never seen one before. We found out the following day from a missionary friend that bats are our friends as they eat thousands of mosquitoes every night, and in fact they are starting to bring bats into areas that are laden with malaria to eat the mosquitoes as one way of trying to cut down the malaria epidemic. We relocated our bat friend to the bushes... we weren't sure if it was sick and dying or if it was a baby and had fallen from a nest and perhaps that was why it was out crawling in front of our door that morning.

Well anyway, those are some fun stories as of recent that spice up our life here as we interact with nature. God is so good, and we are so blessed!
- Matt for the P3