Nairobi Eye
Fact
With all the rain we’ve been having, the bugs are coming out in full force. We’ve talked about the flying termites before, but another very unwelcome critter is the Nairobi Eye or what some Kenyans refer to as the Nairobi Fly. They are a fairly small, red and black flying beetle. They don’t bite or sting and they’re not aggressive. So why don’t we like them? Because their bodies contain a potent toxin, worse than a cobra’s venom. If they land on you and you slap them against your skin, you will most likely experience severe burning and itching.
Up until a few days ago I hadn’t seen a single Nairobi Eye since we’ve returned to RVA. But now they are everywhere, crawling on hand railings, climbing up our entryway and walls of our house, covering the rugby field and gym floor, and flying toward any fluorescent light to which they are attracted. Locals have said they’ve never seen it this bad. When we feel a bug land on us (especially at night) we must resist the urge to swat it! So far we’ve managed to avoid getting burned.
Family
- Please pray for our service/outreach to our community this weekend. Jonathan will be taking a group of students to Joy Home, an orphanage down the hill from us to play with the kids, talk about Jesus, and help with a project. These roads are pretty bad even when it’s not muddy – in fact we had to cancel a couple other outreach events.
- Okay, selfish prayer – we need sun! You think because we live in Africa, it’s hot and dry. We live in a rainforest at 7,500 ft on the edge of the Rift Valley. As we write we have a fire in our fireplace to get warm. Granted, it’s not a MN winter, but we’ve seen the sun five days out of the last six weeks. It’s no wonder they call this the School in the Clouds!
- Jonathan’s dad is now in another facility in Arizona as he recovers from Pneumonia and works to build up his strength again. We pray Grandma and Grandpa are both able to join us in Minnesota for Hannah’s wedding this summer.
- Thank you for praying for our chaplaincy team as we’ve learned so much about each other and how to work together. We are in the process of revising our job descriptions and adding a female student chaplain to our team to more effectively care for this body. Please pray for us also as we help the many staff who will be transitioning out of RVA in July to home assignment, another assignment, or a permanent move to their home country.
- We have a great need for a school counselor to join our team (we have a female counselor but really could use another one!). We also need a physical therapist to join us for next year!
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