Ongoro and Adingo Kingsway

The drive down from Kapsabet went smoothly, although it was sometimes interesting mixing the way Kenyans navigate and the way Americans do.  Most Kenyans have not used a map to find their way, they simply go where they have been before, and if they do not know the way they ask.  Americans hate to ask, especially men, I guess.  But the several maps on my iPad were enough for us to find the way.

We toured the site and saw the two new buildings that Tobias has built; a dorm for the widows and a manager’s house.  Tobias was able to build both very well, even saving enough on the manager’s house to include a place for the nurse to live and a small office for himself.  Next for Ongoro will be to add another dorm for the boys, since 44 are crammed into a building built for 32.  Tobias fed us well and we slept in his house.

This morning we visited Adingo Kingsway Church of Christ.  This is a church started by Tobias in 2010.  We reached along a pretty bad road, taking about 30 minutes from Ongoro.  The church is way back in the bush, on the opposite side of the Sondu-Meriu river from Dirubi, Lee McGraw and the Training Center.  It sits on ½ acre of land donated by a church member.  It has a small church building, a choo, and an outdoor kitchen.  There are about 40 members in the church.

Since the church began they have been very involved in evangelism and in caring for widows and orphans in their area.  Already they have planted another church, and are feeding 25 orphans and 10 widows, 3 meals a week.

When we arrived, we were greeted in song by the children and women of the church.  We enjoyed hearing their praise songs and touring the compound.  We shared a time of question and answer with the elders and church members, and then shared a meal together.  It was a real blessing for me to see how people with so little are doing all they can to help the orphans in their area.

We are looking at this site, and others like it as possible expansion sites for new feeding stations.  This one has all the makings of a good place to expand our work.

In the afternoon, we spent some time talking with the orphans here at Ongoro.  They sang for us and recited original poems.  Afterwards, they asked me questions. All of them were from the secondary school kids, mostly centered around further education.  Some questions were a bit hard to answer; decisions made in America in board meetings are hard to translate when you are telling an orphan bad news.  The simple fact of economics is that we cannot afford to send every child to the school of their choice after the training center.  Oh well, that’s why I get the big bucks, I guess.

Tomorrow, we drive to our feeding station at Adingo, picking up Thomas along the way.  I’m preaching agin, so keep those prayers coming.

Kapsabet

On Tuesday, the Safari travelers returned to Nairobi.  We met them at Kamulu and traded stories, had dinner, and packed for their departure that night. It was a great end to a very successful week in Kenya.  All of them felt blessed to be a part of it.  Susie left with the rest of the team so now I am on my own here.  Well, almost.  My good friend Stehpen Owino met me in Nairobi and has agreed to be my guide and translator for the next couple of weeks.

We left Nairobi on Wednesday morning and made the long drive to Kapsabet, about 7.5 hours away. The trip was uneventful, at least until we got to Kapsabet.  The short rainy season has finally begun here, so the road to the orphanage was a real mess.  I was ver nervous about getting down it, but I threw caution to the wind, slipped the LandCruiser into four-wheel drive mode and pushed on.  We made it, but were sideways most of the way.

Here at Kapsabet things are going on well.  The church here, with our help, is building a secondary school with the goal of making a profit, and providing a closer school for our orphans.  This should lower our overall education costs here, but it is the first time we have ventured into secondary education.  The construction is moving at a very rapid pace.  We only agreed to do this last month, and already most of the buildings are at the roofing stage. It looks like they will make the January start of school with no problems.

Today, Wilson Kiptoo of Pokot visited us so I could show him they way we wanted the buildings to be built.  He is so excited about the new orphanage at Pokot, and so am I.

Tomorrow, we will drive down to Ongoro to see our orphanage there and visit another church in the area that is a possible site for a feeding station.  I hope the rain doesn’t change our plans!

Kikitemo and Nairobi

Kikitemo and Nairobi

After our emotional and exhausting visit among the Pokot and the drive to Nakuru, we left from the Kunste to visit our friends at Kikitemo.  This former IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp is now one of our newest feeding stations.  The turn around here has been miraculous, worthy of an entire book one of these days.  We were very pressed on time so we saw the place, met briefly with the people and left medicines and gifts and got back on the road to Nariobi.

We landed at the Nairobi Java House in Gigiri, where we always have our lunch on the last day of medical trips.  Everyone really enjoyed themselves and Larry Conway, a Kenyan resident missionary from Odessa, dropped by to meet us.  Larry grew up with Vicky Durham at Eisenhower in Odessa, so it was a sweet reunion for them.

Then it was time for shopping at the downtown market.  It was really fun for me to watch the Americans interact with the semi-aggressive hawkers as they searched for the perfect souvenirs.  Danielle was really concerned, she doesn’t like bargaining, but by the end she was a pro, holding her ground on price and getting what she wanted.  Susie was pretty tame, but she knows we still have a couple of days in Nairobi to fill her checked bag with.

After that, we went to the Capital center, where last minute repacking for the departing people, (Brad, Ruth, and Bob Sears and Dr. Cochran) was accomplished in the parking lot.  We hung out there for a while at their Java House until it was time to take our leavers to the airport.  The rest of us went back to Kamulu for one more night before we split up.  One of the Made in the Streets guys drove the Safari people to Wilson airport Sunday morning and the Mbuvi’s and I went back to Kikitemo for church.

On my last trip here, I promised them I would preach at their church, so we came to fulfill that promise.  They made the most of the mzungu visit.  Grace invited four neighboring churches to worship with us and have a day of baptism.  They dug a temporary baptistery on the top of the hill, lined it with poly and filled it for the occasion.  When we arrived, John asked me if I would baptize the people they had been studying with and I agreed.  There were 22 of them.  I have baptized two others in my life, a good friend and my daughter, so this was quite an experience for me.  I know that they were not being baptized because of me, but they were waiting to be baptized by me, and that is a high honor.

After the baptisms we had church.  John Kariuki brought all of the kids from the Training Center for church, (two of them I baptized) and with the neighboring churches we had a full house.  Church went on for 4 hours, with my short (35mins) preaching at the end.  There was a meal for everyone and it was a joyous time.

A rainsquall came through, giving us a timely reason to be on the road, so we headed back into Nairobi.  We had invited the Mbuvis to be our guests at the Safari Park Hotel for two nights, so we could rest and enjoy some time with our good friends.  Last night we saw the newly revamped dinner show featuring all kinds of African dancing.  It was really a hoot.  This morning we slept in, and after having breakfast we are about to head out for a day on the town.  I’ll blog more in a couple of days.  Pictures on Facebook a little later.  Thanks for caring.

Among the Pokot

Well, we made it.  I apologize for the lateness of this blog, but exhaustion overcame me last night and I just couldn’t get it done.  We have had an amazing couple of days, an adventure that I’ll always remember.

We left the Sirikwa Hotel in Eldoret early, for the long drive to the Kinyach Feeding Station in the Pokot tribal region.  We actually have two feeding stations here, Kinyach and Kipnai, but we just call them both “Pokot.”  The drive is a study in contrasts.  Leaving Eldoret to the northeast, we pass through Iten, home of 800 meter Olympic champion David Rudisha.  Leaving Iten, we begin a 3,000ft decent into the Kerio Valley.  The views on the road are spectacular, as you can see from the pictures on Facbook.  We stopped at the overlook site and took a break and dozens of pictures.  The road condition here is excellent for Kenya with good pavement and striping, even a few guardrails.

At the end of the decent, you make a hard left turn onto a very bad road.  What makes this road so hard is not just its bad condition, there are worse in Kenya, it’s just that it is so very long.  3 hours on this road, with a stop just to stretch your legs is a very hard ride indead.  I’m driving one of the LandCruuisers, so I can tell you It’s quite a workout.

When we arrived at Kinyach about one o’clock, the entire village came out to greet us.  Never in anyone’s memory have so many white people visited their town.  Of course many of them want to see the doctor or dentist, but we made sure that the children of the feeding stations were our top priority.  We unloaded and set up clinic in the smallish dining hall of the Feeding Station.  Our team has now had three days of practice, so they went a break neck speed.  We ran through the orphans and widows of Kinyach very quickly. 

The dentist did a few extractions and fillings, but overall they were impressed with the teeth of the kids.  The water here is has a lot of Fluoride, which stains the teeth but makes them quite strong as well.  I taught Wilson and another man how to build a tippy-tap for hand washing.  Dr. Cochran identified one girl with a cyst on the back of her head and near the end of the day, he successfully removed it.  There were a lot of flies, so I stood over him fanning the area with a dental tray to keep the flies away.

We worked until dusk and then walked over to a recently built community center building that the government had put up.  It was nicer accommodations that we expected, though we did have to hang our own mosquito nets, which was a good team building experience.  The locals had setup up temporary “showers” on each end of the building for us, which was greatly appreciated.  Overall, it was like a camping experience, and not as rough as many I have had.

Dinner was brought to us, and afterwards Cherie and I with the help of Mauryn, sat down for a visit with the local church elders.  Recently KWO has been given a large donation for the conversion of one of our feeding stations into a full orphanage.  I sent Thomas and Alfayo to three places to determine their suitability.  Kinyach stood out as a strong church with a great need and so after much prayer, I selected this site.  We discussed at length what responsibilities the church would have with the new orphanage, and what KWO would do.  They were very pleased and so were we.  So there you have it, orphanage number 14.  We started the year with 10 and God has continued to bless us beyond belief.

The next morning, we returned to the clinic to finish up those orphans and widows from the area.  We were able to squeeze in a couple of church members as well.  There were a few more extractions and a mother with a new baby with Cerebral Palsy, nothing we can do for that even in the U.S.  We were able to wrap up and get loaded by noon.  After a brief sendoff we were on our way back down the long road.  This time we took a different route out of the valley, since we needed to arrive at Nakuru instead of Eldoret.  The road this way was in great shape with light traffic and we made Nakuru by dusk.

Tomorrow we will visit our friends at Kikitemo (formerly IDP camp) Feeding Station and head into Nairobi for a day of shopping before some of our team departs for the US.  Many are staying a few more days to go on Safari at the Masi Mara.  Be blessed.

Nakuru Game Park

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We began the day with a later breakfast than normal, hoping to let everyone catch up on their rest.  We arrived at the Nakuru Game Park around 10.  Checking in there is a case study in Kenyan government inefficiency. You have to go in to the service counter, pay your admission fee, they add your entire party’s fees together, add a fee for the vehicle, and load your admission “key” on a smart card.  Then they give you a receipt.  Then you re-board your vehicle, drive to the gate, which is actually attached to the office building, show your smart card, and receipt, sign a register, list your first born sons, and wait 5 minutes.  Then you can go in.  There are no maps available, and very few signs.  Fortunately between Mauryn, Arrington, and myself we figured out where we needed to go, sort of.

The area has had tremendous rains, the lake is overfull so some of the roads near the lake are underwater a couple of feet.  The park service has been busy building up the roads, but they were still working on some of them today.  Our first road choice was bad, we found a dead work truck blocking the road that had water on both sides.  After a turn around we got on the right track and encountered baboons, water buffalo, and zebras.  Then as we rounded a turn we saw, not 100 ft from the road, a very large rhino.  Rhinos do not usually like to be seen so they can be one of the hardest of the “Big Five” to witness.  But this one was a show-off.  He stood up and turned around, showing us all his sides.  Doug was sitting next to me and I heard him whisper, “I can’t believe I’m in Africa, shooting a picture of a Rhino.  This is amazing!”

As we moved on, we came to a place where the road was underwater. Most of it had been raised, but there were still workmen and three trucks on it, finishing the job.  They motioned us to come on, so we drove out, water on both sides, only to find that where they had stopped working, the road was invisible under the water.  After letting one of the trucks squeeze by, they directed us to cross, saying even the smaller vehicles had made it.  It was a lesson in trust, for sure.  But we cruised along, seemingly driving on the water, and made it to the other side.  We encountered another flooded place further on, and it was a little deeper, but we were emboldened by our previous crossing and charged on.  No problem.

We made our way up to the overlook, and were able to get out and take pictures of the entire park.  Our driver asked some of the other drivers where lions could be seen, but they said it was not likely.  Lions like to sleep in the heat of the day.  But the did show us where to find some twiga, or giraffe.  It was a longer drive, but worth it, when we cam across a heard of about 16 giraffes, eating from acacia trees and milling about.  That’s number two of the “Big Five” and at a small game park, no less.  Very cool.

We wrapped up or visit to the park with a late lunch at the restaurant there.  Here we experienced some more classic Kenyan moments.  As the waitress was taking our order, many of us wanted hamburgers.  She took orders for eight of them, but when one of us asked for a cheeseburger, she said, “Cheese on the chicken?”  we said no, on the beef patty.  “Oh we don’t have any beef, I was going to bring chicken hamburgers” she replied.  Time to re-order, and we ended up with lots of Hawaiian pizza and Margareta pizza.  Both were good. 

As we were sitting at our table on the patio of the restaurant, a family of baboons came near.  Baboons are cute but kind of a nuisance, and some Kenyans seem to really hate them. Especially Arrington.  We took lots of pictures of the little buggers, and some even ventured close.  As we got our food, the baboons decided they were hungry too, but they knew better than to come on to the patio. They decided to look through our vehicles for lunch.  I stupidly left the sunroof open on my truck and one climbed in.  We saw it happen, but before we could react, he found the avocadoes that we bought at a roadside stand, and made off with one.  We watched him eat it on the good of he truck, daring us to intervene and not sharing a bite.  He even licked the hood to make sure he got every morsel.

It was time to go, so we set out for Eldoret.  Along the way we stopped at the equator sign on the highway.  There is a curio shop there and its always been pen, but not today.  There is usually a man who can show you the "water trick".  That's where you can see the difference in the rotation of water going down a funnel between the north side and the south.  Brad and I tried to duplicate it with some trash bottles we found there, but we couldn't make it work.  Stink.

It’s a long drive and we started late, so it was dark when we finally arrived at Eldoret.   Mauryn called Arrington in the other vehicle and told him to lead us to the large, new Nakumatt.  He was headed the wrong way by then, so he decided to make a U-turn in a very busy street.  I guess he forgot I was behind him and he didn’t wait for me to make the turn.  Moments later he was gone in the rush of traffic.  What followed was a comedy of errors as we tried to figure out which way to go, Mauryn was on the phone with Arrington, neither could tell where the other one was, and we all got frustrated.  Finally we gave up and found the hotel, while Arrington and his people made the Nakumatt stop.

So here we sit in the recently updated Sirikwa Hotel in Eldoret.  Tomorrow, we will set out very early for Pokot.  The schedule there is unbelievably tight so I may not be able to blog until we get back to Nakuru Friday night.  Thanks for reading and remember to check out the pictures on Face book here.

Londiani Feeding Station and Chesyliot Clinic Day

We started today very early, departing the hotel with the rising sun to get to Londiani in time for a very long day.  My goal was to try to finish both feeding stations at Londiani and Chesyliot today, so that we could have an easy travel day Wednesday.  I knew it would be a stretch but based on what I saw yesterday, I was confident we could do it.

When we arrived, Dr. Cochran got right to work on three orphans from Londiani that he had seen yesterday who needed to have procedures done.  One had an abscess/parasite in a wound on her ankle, another had warts on his face, and the third had an ingrown fingernail.  He was able to successfully operate on all three as the rest of the team ramped up the clinic.

Anington, Susie and I took the vehicles over to Chesyliot to pick up those kids.  Its about 3 miles from Londiani, easy walking distance for Kenyan kids, but we wanted to treat the kids to a vehicle ride, something they seldom get to do.  We piled about 20 n each van and drove back to the orphanage.  As soon as we started rolling, the kids in our van began singing.  “Mrs. Susie, do you know we love you? Sure! We welcome you to our feeding station!”  Susie lost it.  So did I.  If you can’t feel like you are doing the Lord’s work while driving twenty singing orphans to a medical clinic, then you cant feel anything.

The clinic really got rolling then, taking on life like a living thing.  We were teaching, treating, and loving on orphans at warp speed!  When we lookd up, it was lunchtime and only 30 orphans remained to be seen.  We completed those by 2:30, leaving time for treating some of the support staff and their wives and kids.  Several difficult extractions were performed by our dentists, Brad and Bob Sears, including one on our nurse from the Muhoroni Orphanage, Bibiana.  She had a molar taken out and jumped right up to start helping more kids.  Can you say MVP?

As we wound down, Susie and I loaded up the van to take the Chesyliot kids back home.  The singing, crying, and great feelings returned again.  There is something about these kinds of trips, where you can do real, effective, life improving work for those who can do absolutely nothing for you that is just beyond words.  This is how God intended for us to find our true joy in Him.  Serving in His name, bringing glory and honor to him, helping the lost and suffering, this is what we were made to do.

We packed, loaded, said our goodbyes and rolled for Nakuru about 5pm, finishing over 140 patients in 9 hours and earning ourselves an easy day tomorrow.  After dinner, we surprised Ruth Sears, whose 60^th birthday is tomorrow, with a cake and party favors bought at the local Niavas store.  She was (briefly) speechless with joy.  She has been such an important part of organizing many aspects of these mission trips.  I don’t know what we would have done without her.  Another example of God sending just who you need, when you need them.

Tomorrow we will spend a few hours in the Nakuru Game Park, before driving up to Eldoret.  There we will stay the night, preparing for the two day overnight visit to our Feeding Stations amoung the Pokot tribe, Kinyach and Kimnai.  Check out pics from today on Facebook at http:\\www.facebook.com/kwoministries.

Getting Out There and First Clinic Day

What an eventful couple of days!  On Sunday, when I left off writing, Dr Cochran was removing a benign tumor from a MITS student’s shoulder.  I’m happy to report the boy survived!  Seriously, the surgery went well, though they were not able to get all of the tumor, so the boy will keep his appointment with a Nairobi doctor to finish the job.  He was very grateful for their work, and was happy that at least it was reduced in size.

When that work was done, we loaded up our two Land Cruisers and set out for Nakuru, a city in central Kenya that will serve as our base of operations for the next few days.  The trip was easy, though longer than we wanted and it was past dark when we rolled into the Kunste Hotel parking.

This morning, we set out for Londiani Orphanage.  This site was one of the first ones I visited on my very first trip to Kenya in 2008.  John DeFore was coming to negotiate the land deal and agreement with the church here to build what was then our seventh orphanage on this beautiful site.  While we were touring the land on that day, I snapped a picture of kids standing on a ridgeline.  These were the orphans that would later call this place home.  The picture was so memorable that we made it our logo.  You can see the original picture on the KWO facebook page and as an outline on our logo wherever it appears.

We were greeted by singing orphans and widows, just like I have grown accustomed to.  I never tire of watching the new visitors seeing grateful orphans for the first time.  The smiles on all the faces are as genuine as you could hope for.  The orphans are so happy to have visitors from America and the Americans are so happy for the warm reception.  As Ryan and Cherie entertained the kids, the rest of us pitched in and got the clinic set up.  Our good friend Bibiana, who is the nurse at Muhoroni Orphanage was there already and had all the furnishings in place and ready for us.  What a time saver!

Serving the kids went about as smoothly as could be expected for a first day.  Each child was given lessons in tooth brushing, flossing, and hand washing, as well as a vision check, fluoride treatment, medical and dental examination and a visit to our own pharmacy.  We were able to see 79 people in only 5 hours.  After we got back to the Kunste he had a short meeting to recap the day and brainstorm solutions to some people floe challenges we had.  I’m really impressed by the positive attitude of all of our team.

Tomorrow we will be treating the kids from the Chesyliot Feeding Station and possibly some Londiani Feeding Station kids as well.  We will get an early start, leaving the hotel at 6:30 to give us the best chance for a light day on Wednesday, when we must travel to Eldoret in the afternoon to be ready for the great Pokot adventure.  Thanks for reading, and be sure and check out the pictures on our Facebook page here.

Travel and First Day

Our flights through Dallas, London and Nairobi were mostly uneventful.  Everything was on time and there were no mechanical problems.  The only issue we had was kind of bizarre.  Doug Cochran, our physician on this trip was reclined and sleeping in his seat on the London to Nairobi flight, when he was woken by the passenger sitting right behind him.  Apparently the woman was perturbed at his reclining and decided to encourage Doug to move his seat up.  She did it, however, by hitting him very hard on the top of his head and then kicking the seat back with such force that he hit his face on the seat in front of him!  Needless to say, he woke up.

After advising the flight attendant, he expected them to alert the air marshal and have the woman restrained, or something of that nature.  Instead, the flight attendant said to the woman, " Now, that' not nice.  We don't hit people."  Apparently there are no air marshals on that flight.  Doug was reseated and the woman made no further problem.  I've never had that happen before.

At Kamulu, where Francis and Mauryn Mbuvi live, we enjoyed a short night of rest and then went to church with them this morning.  After church, Francis brought a young man to us who is at Made In The Streets, his mission to the street children of the Nairobi slums.  This boy has a large benign tumor on his shoulder.  When they asked Doug if he could do anything, he said, "Sure, et's take it out.  So we are delaying our drive to Nakuru a couple of hours while he operates.  Even as I am writing this, Dr. Cochran is removing the tumor in the upper bedroom of the Mbuvis house.  I am always amazed at how God will use His people to do His good works, wherever they are as long as they are willing.

Later we will drive on to Nakuru to stay at the Kunste before we start clinic (officially) at Londiani tomorrow.  I'll write more later.