[NAME],

Our visitor season kicked off with the arrival of Keith Butler, good friend and colleague from West Virginia.  This is Keith’s second visit to Kenya, and he wasted no time falling into old habits: waving to everyone on the road (most of whom wave back), stopping to talk to anyone who will listen (most Kenyans are too polite to refuse), and keeping a running commentary that keeps me in stitches around the clock.

Not long after his arrival, we returned with Bishop Zak to St. Peter’s Secondary School (where Keith and I were first inducted as Tesso Tribal Elders) to officially open the computer lab we installed last year.  There, the Principal made good on his promise to ‘complete’ our induction, and Keith and I were presented with traditional stools (from which, once seated, we are to dispense invaluable insight and wisdom), a spear (to protect the village) and a fly whisk, which doubles as both insect swatter and aspergillum for dispensing blessings.  Keith, of course, has never forgotten the name he was given upon his initial induction (Emojong’, meaning ‘old wise man’), but the recent pomp and circumstance have really gone to his head.   He now refers to himself exclusively in the third person as “The Emojong’,” and we in his company have been blessed with such recent utterances as, “ ‘The Emojong’ wishes to have pasta for dinner,” or “ ‘The Emojong’ isn’t feeling well and wishes to take a powder.”

Secondly, he has requisitioned Job Simiyu, the young mission house security guard and groundskeeper, into his personal valet.  Job (not the Bishop’s Chaplain by the same name, mind you) has been working at the mission house for about a year now, helping around the house while he saves money for college, which he is to start in the Fall.   Recently, ‘The Emojong’ added a few duties into his admittedly informal job description, and Job is now running high and low bringing groceries from town, repairing phones, ironing clothes, and doing repairs around the house.  As we speak, he is in the kitchen taking orders on the proper use of a box grater to process cheese.  God knows when he sleeps.

Lots more to report, but I’m going to keep this short as we are testing our new (hopefully) improved newsletter system.  After the last list-serve disaster, I am admittedly a bit gun shy.  If you have received this message in error, please go the Newsletter link on the Elewana website (Elewana.org) and you will be able to take yourself off directly.  I do apologize that the process of getting off the list has been harder for some than it should be, and I beg for both forgiveness and patience.  Internet and computer issues are not that easy to deal with here in Kenya.  Anyway, let me know if and how this works, and give me some news of your own while you're at it.  More soon, and, as always…

Mad Love, Zach