Last night we got to worship with the kids at Kapsabet before dinner. I was surprised this time by a new addition, a sound system. They had an old Yamaha speaker and a powered mixer, two Shure wireless mics and a DVD/CD player. It made me homesick a little.
When we retired to bed, the rains came. It was very heavy this time. Last year the Kenyan government came to Kibet
and required him to add lightning arrestors at his facilities. I remember complaining at the time, but last
night I was grateful for them, as we took two very close hits. The orphanage sits near the top of a hill, so
Kibet says they get a lot of close calls.
I was worried about the roads with all the rain, though.
This morning, the sky was still overcast and it was quite
cool, probably 60 or so. I took my now
familiar Kenyan “shower”, a basin of warm water in the bathroom. It’s not as bad as you think it will be, and
it’s possible to get quite clean. Harder
to get used to is that many Kenyans do not use towels, they just drip-dry! I remembered to bring some micro-fiber towels
this trip and they have saved me. After
breakfast we left early for church in case the roads were bad, but they were
OK.
Arriving at Kipsenende, the kids were all lined up to greet
me. There were some familiar faces and
some new ones. The best surprise was all
the new buildings. Kipsenende has
recently been upgraded to an orphanage and Kibet has done a wonderful job
building here. The hall is big enough
for 150 kids and the dorms were spacious and well made. The latrines and bathrooms were similarly
sized for expansion, and the water well had been upgraded to a submersible pump
and storage tank. It was all really
first class.
But it was the kitchen that had me really floored. It was large, with great ventilation, and
Kibet had found these absolutely beautiful stoves. They are huge! The large, single opening stove was designed
to make enough rice or ugali for 400, and the smaller, two opening stove used
the more familiar 24in size pots. These
are wood burners, but they are so well insulated that Kibet says they are using
half of what the used in the old, feeding-station kitchen. The smoke removal system is very well done,
and I had to check to see if there was any fire burning, because the kitchen
had absolutely no smoke at all. These stoves
have become my new favorite upgrade, and I can see us adding them at all of our
places that need this capacity.
The site is big, 1.8 acres, and the buildings are well
situated for expansion. The church here
has been running a nursery school for some time, and this year they have added
1st grade. The church elders
told me they were planning to add a grade every year, until they reached 8th
grade. This school makes the church
enough money to pay for the orphans that go there and all of their incidental
fees. That’s good for everybody.
Soon, it was time for church. All of the members and kids from Kapsabet had
joined us for a community event, and so the place was packed. There was great singing, both accapella and
instrumental, and then they invited me to preach. Since this is Kenya, I added every bit of
detail I could think of to lengthen my sermon, so I was able to go 40
minutes. That’s still a little short for
them, so their usual preacher added another 30 minutes in preparation for communion. In all the service was two hours and 40
minutes. A little short for this church,
but acceptable.
While we were eating lunch it started raining again, and
Kibet suggested that we leave soon so as to be the first vehicle on the mud
road. I’m glad he did. It was quite slippery and at one point there
was some construction, which meant a large pile of dirt that was now a mud
pit. Now my driving skills were really
tested, as I floored it and skidded my way through with no problem. Kibet was all smiles. We made it back to Eldoret this afternoon
without difficulty, though it is still raining.
Kibet says this is the start of the rainy season now, so all the farmers
will be planting this week.
Tomorrow we head out to Londiani, assuming the road there is
ok, and we will spend the night there with our worker, David Koech. This will be my last orphanage for this trip,
only a brief stop at the IDP camp remains before we head back to Nairobi. I will be making a big announcement about the
IDP camp after that visit, so stay tuned…
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| Kipsenende Orphanage |
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