Sometimes God says, “Slow down.”

We’ve been keeping up a pretty intense schedule, seeing two facilities a day and traveling three to four hours round trip to do it.  It’s tiring, and sometimes it feels like we are just scratching the surface.  Perhaps today, God decided that we needed to slow down.

On the way to Uriri Orphanage, we stopped in Rongo to drop off Michael and Doris with Hilton Merit, an old friend of theirs we just “happened” to run into yesterday.  They spent the day with him, seeing Sam’s Place, a new orphanage for deaf students nearby.  We sped off to Uriri, our orphanage in the heart of the sugar cane region. 

All the kids were there, unusual on this trip because of school, and they looked great.  All the Kenyan orphans I have met are very well behaved, and act like one big family.  I’m sure that they have interpersonal problems, like any family, but they always seem so happy and at ease after they have been in the home for a while.  We hung out with them for a while, saw the facility, and all the new things that Kenedy Chadi has been doing.

Chandi is an entrepreneur at heart; he really knows how to make money for the orphanage, even having a dream of one day being self-sufficient.  Lately he has been dabbling in brick making and fish farming, with our help, and dong well so far.  Their sugar cane crushing operation yields a lot of money for the hoe, and the lorry we bought them is always busy.  Kenedy farms about 15 acres as well in cane, maize, beans and bananas. 

We went so fast at Uriri, we decided to head over to Nana Glasscock feeding station.  There seemed to be plenty of time so Kenedy climbed into our Land Cruiser and we set out.  After 30 minutes of dirt roads, we turned off onto a cart path that wound through some very rocky terrain, and narrow paths through the cane.  We were all marveling on how well the vehicle was performing, climbing over rocks and through small mud puddles with ease.

As we turner a corner near the feeding station we encountered a wet area beside a cane field that had been recently planted.  It was grass, and looked fine, but after a few yards it turned to a deep, black, wet mud.  Soon we were stuck.  We tried pushing; all the orphans and bystanders helped.  We tried putting things under the wheels, all to no avail.  Finally the neighbors all showed up, each with a team of oxen.  We hitched up six of them to the front of the vehicle, but they could not make it move.

Kenedy got on his cell and found a man with a tractor in Awino, the nearby town.  After about an hour he arrived and finally pulled us out.   I guess we had been going to fast and we needed to slow down.  After we got back on the road, we didn’t slow down of course, like all Americans we were in a hurry. 

While we were waiting, I realized that I was the one who was most worried and stressed over our schedule.  I was afraid of  missing our self imposed deadlines and not getting to do something I wanted to do.  The Kenyans were less worried, and not at all concerned about my schedule.  These things happen, just go with the flow.  Hakuna matata.

We picked up Michael and Doris, and still had time to shop for soapstone at Kisi.  We made dinner and got to interview the potential principal for the institute.  Everything got done, but I was not in control of it.  I guess God is trying to tell me something.  “Slow down.”

28 Sept