Chickens, Tea, and Fellowship

by Laura Livengood

Amazing. Wow. That’s beautiful. These are just a few words or phrases that I expressed frequently today. It was a lighter day mentally (meaning we were not exposed to poverty or other hard issues like some of us have witnessed in slum areas), but it was very full of beautiful surroundings and blessings with friends.

We began the day by visiting a farm that is owned by acquaintances of the Brislens. It was great to see how a Kenyan farm operates. The owners are British and employ about 20 Kenyan workers to run the farm. Julius, the Kenyan farm manager, gave us a tour of their animals and fields. I discovered that Kenyan chickens must know English because they talked just like Mom’s chickens!

Our next stop was at the Kiambethu Plantation (“Kiambethu” means “traditional dancing ground.”) The elevation of the farm and tea plantation is about 7000 feet. We were treated to hot tea or coffee and the hostess shared some interesting facts about the plantation and tea. Some of us enjoyed feeding bananas to monkeys. We ended our stay with a delicious buffet lunch.

We enjoyed seeing Jill Milton’s kindergarten classroom at Rosslyn Academy and she gave us a grand tour of the campus. Nate and Jill treated us to a delicious curry supper in their home and we were blessed by some good a capella singing out of The Mennonite Hymnal, followed by a time of prayer for Nate and Jill.