February 6, 2008

Scooby Doo – Where are you?

We got our second dog on January 10th. Scooby, a 16-month old female German shepherd, is now part of the family. Our other dog, Paska, has not been too happy about it, which has resulted in some skirmishes and one pretty nasty fight. If you look at the pictures you can still see the cut on Paska’s left eye. Scooby is much bigger than Paska and beats her up badly, but Paska keeps picking fights (and keeps losing). Scooby still has a lot of puppy in her and always wants to play with Paska; however, Paska is rarely in the mood. It has been good for Paska because she will soon be 8-yrs old and she was starting to get too lazy and inactive. Scooby keeps her up and about much more. Speaking of keeping someone up…Scooby has been doing that to us as well. We noticed that the first two weeks that she was here that she never barked. We were concerned that something was wrong. Well, I wish she still didn’t bark because now she does it all night long. I don’t think she knew how to bark and has just learned. Sometimes she just barks at nothing while she is lying down. It reminds me of a young puppy when they are first learning to bark. I hope she gets over this soon because she is greatly disturbing our sleep.

Scooby is a sweet dog and the boys really like her. We are being careful not to ignore Paska and pay extra attention to her too. It is interesting how much Scooby likes Christian and how she immediately took to him. I think it is because her previous owner had a teenage son and she relates to older boys.

Kenya Crisis
I hope that you are keeping up with the crisis in Kenya so that you will know how to pray. I have not written about this for a while, but it is still very serious and could easily grow worse. The news media is reporting over 1,000 dead and 350,000 displaced. Our Kenyan friends, who witnessed much of this first-hand, believe that the number of dead is probably 2,000 to 3,000 and possibly more. One man told us that he was in Eldoret the first day of the violence and saw at least 300 people that were killed. He said that the bodies were stacked in the back of a large truck like firewood, with one layer of bodies stacked in one direction, and the next layer turned 90 degrees and stacked in that direction. He saw two trucks of this nature. One was filled with women and children and a second truck was filled with bodies of men. He also saw many bodies still in the streets. On this particular day the news media reported that less than 250 people were killed in all of Kenya. There were also three churches burned in Eldoret that day, yet only one was reported in the news. The Kenyan government is controlling what the media see and report. It is a horrible tragedy and tensions do not seem to be easing even with all of the recent attempts at mediation. The 350,000 people who are displaced likely do not own anything now except the clothes that they are wearing.

One friend of ours knows a very rich Kenyan man. Because this man is from the Kikuyu tribe but was in a non-Kikuyu area, they burnt his home and his business. He lost everything, which was worth over a million dollars. He now owns one shirt and one pair of trousers. This is happening all over Kenya. Another friend of ours has a father who is an attorney. They burnt the home, the law office, and even all of the law books. They also lost everything but the clothes they were wearing. It is tragic and sad. The people in the refugee camps don’t have enough clothes, food, or blankets. There have even been reports of killings within the refugee camps between tribes. There is some deep-seeded animosity between the tribes and especially against the Kikuyus because the Kikuyu tribe has been very influential in government and business. Kikuyus are known for being hard working and good businessmen. Most of what the have was not just given to them. However, the animosity is still there and the election results have spawned all of the violence. Most people believe that the election was not the cause of the violence but rather the spark that ignited fuel that had been built up for years. Tribalism, or ethnic violence, has long been a problem in Kenya, which almost any Kenyan can explain to you. None of them seem surprised by what is happening in their country, though very saddened.

At our campus church, it is about 80% Kenyan and many tribes are represented. Please pray that there will be unity in the Body and that their love for one another will be an example to the rest of the campus. They are trying to help refugees who have come to Uganda and made a mission trip last weekend to the Kenya-Uganda border town of Tororo.

Blessings from the Tribe,
Kevin