Travel Day with a Twist!

The team did so well this week.  We were able to see almost 400 people in three days!  It was an amazing display of Christ’s love poured out through the hands and feet of these great people.  Our Kenyan partners were spectacular as well, chipping in everywhere they could and loving all the kids they saw.

This morning we were able to pack, load and depart the training center before 9:30.  We drove into Kericho, seeing some of the spectacular landscapes that we missed on our dark drive in on Sunday.  Passing through Kericho we met up with Francis Chepkwony, our WBS worker and Feeding Station Director for this area, who had arranged a tour of a local tea factory for us.  Everyone was very excited for this surprise as we drove about 5km down a bad road to the Toror (“higher” in Swahili) Tea Factory.

See the pics at our facebook page, www.facebook.com/kwoministries

Toror is a plant of the Kenya Tea Development Association, a cooperative for small tea farmers in Kenya.  They produce tea for other companies who blend it into finished tea products.  They are different from the multinational corporations in that they are owned by the small farmers.  One of these farmers is on the board of directors for KTDA and also a member of Francis Chepkwony’s church.  That’s how we were able to get this invitation.

The Assistant Production Manager for Toror, who put us in lab coats and hats and handed us off to two supervisors, greeted us.  The supervisors walked us around the plant, showing us how tea leaves went through the various processes to make them ready for use in tea blends.  First they are received, with weights verified from the pickup records. Then they go through a process called wilting, which standardizes their moisture content.  Then the leaves are cut down to a small size, fermented, and dried.  The result is graded by size and shipped off to auction at Mombassa.  They also are sold at the gate of the factory at a greatly reduced price.  We were able to buy some very high grade tea there to take home.

It was a very cool side trip, with no cost and a small time investment.  The team was very grateful; as this is something you would never get to see without some connections.  I really enjoyed it as well, and will always be grateful to Chepkwony for setting it up.  When we had finished, we set out on the long, bad road to Nakuru.

About 25km out from Nakuru, we encountered a new diversion.  We are still not sure why it was there, but they had rerouted all traffic from the highway to a small feeder road and onto a different highway that entered town from the North.  It added almost an hour to our journey, but we made it just fine.  After a brief stop at the Nakumat, we loaded up for the Kunste Hotel.

Now, after a nice dinner and a hot shower, the first one in a while, I feel a lot better.   Tomorrow, we are stopping briefly at the Kikitemo IDP camp and then into Nairobi for shopping and our late night departure for home.  I’ll write some final recollections from the airport, as I always do.  Be blessed.