Travel Day

Today we drove from Nakuru to Nairobi to meet Francis Mbuvi, who had just retuned from the US, at Java house.  He was a little late, but it was great to see the reunion of spouses, separated for the last 6 weeks.  After that we just did some shopping at Nakumat for the guest house and then we returned home to Kamulu.  

So this is not really a blog post, more like a status update.  Thanks for caring.

Londiani 30 May 2012

We slept well last night at the training center.  The widows brought us mandazi (Kenyan Pastry), bread and butter, and chai for breakfast and I covered the last minute details for next week with Thomas.  I think the medical team, and all who visit will really be impressed with what we are doing here.

The training center and Londiani orphanage are about 40miles apart as the crow flies, but it took us 3 hours to get there, that’s 13 miles an hour.  Today’s roads were the worst ones we have seen on this trip.  The road from Dirubi to Kericho is OK, but then there is the killer diversion again, 1 hour to go 5km.  The Londiani road has always been bad, but they are working on it now.  The Chinese road crew is building a really nice highway, but some of their detours are downright scary.  Check out the photos on Facebook (facebook.com/kwoministries) for some pics of the road and us crossing a Lego block bridge!

As we approached Londiani, we passed the Chysliot Feeding Station, but we did not have time to stop.  Richard Koech knew we would be passing by, so he had all his kids dressed in their Sunday best, run out to the road to greet us.  It wasn’t a fair trick, but we stopped by the side of the road and spoke to them for a few minutes. 

Londiani looked really good.  We spent some time with the nurse who will be joining all of us at the training center next week for some training with the American doctors.  They have a microscope at Londiani and can do malaria, typhoid, and some other tests on the spot.  Mauryn volunteered to do a malaria test for us so we could see the process.  Pretty neat.  They have made some good improvements to the kitchen there as well.  We met with the widows and loved on the kids.  It was a great visit.

We left there happy but tired and made our way back to Nakuru to stay at the Kunste.  We will go back to Nairobi in the morning and meet Francis Mbuvi, fresh back from the US, at the Java House for our weekly fix.  More tomorrow.

Training Institute

The Kenyan power company teased us last night with the power coming on and off.  This resulted in a cold shower and blogging by flashlight; very African.  This morning the power was on and we were on our way to the Training Institute.

 

In case you are behind, let me update you.  Last year we decided to do something about the orphans who were graduating from secondary school and leaving our orphanages.  We built the training institute across from our first orphanage at Dirubi to teach our kids life skills and trades to help them find employment and break the cycle of poverty in their families.

 

Now the center is open and we are using the location to host a medical clinic next week and training for all of our orphanage nurses from the American doctors who are coming.  We will have 14 mzungu (white people) here next week so I wanted to make sure that everything was ready to receive them.  I'm happy to report that everything is in hand and will be ready for our visitors next week.

 

Susie, Mauryn, and I are staying here tonight, though our generator hookup is not quite ready, hence the flashlights.  The guest houses will be fine for all of us.  The water is flowing, the toilets are flushing, and we may even have hot water in the showers. 

 

To make sure we had what was needed, we made a quick afternoon trip to Kisumu to the Nakumat City Mega store.  If you have read this blog before, you may remember my love for our Wal-Mart wannabe, Nakumat.  This store has a little bit of everything, like Wal-Mart, but not as big a selection.  There are dozens of Nakumat across Kenya, but the granddaddy of them all is the one in Kisumu.  You could put the Midland Wal-Mart and Sam's inside it!  We were just able to stay for a short time however, to buy a generator and some household items for the guest house. 

 

We took Thomas and his wife Sharon with us shopping.  It was fun to watch Sharon open up and flex her shopping muscles with Mauryn and Susie.  Thomas dropped a bomb on us by revealing that Sharon is pregnant again.  She's due in August, and they are hoping for a girl.  Great news!

 

Driving back, we just made it back to Dirubi before dark, after a brief rain shower.  This is the tail end of the rainy season here, so everything is gloriously green and slightly muddy.  The rain didn't cause us any problems today, though.  We were back in time to share evening devotional with the orphanage kids at Dirubi.  This has become my favorite time in Kenya.  The medical team will be blessed to share it with us next week.

 

Tomorrow we are on to Londiani, staying the night at the Kunste Hotel in Nakuru.  Then Thursday we are back to Nairobi to reunite Maureen with her traveling husband Francis Mbuvi, who has been in the US for the last six weeks.

Back to Kenya

 We arrived last night safe and sound with all of our bags.  In itself that is a small miracle.  The trip was hectic, with short layovers and very long security lines in London, but we made it.  Joel from Made in the Streets and Mauryn picked us up from the airport.  The drive to Kamulu at night has been my first view of Kenya every time I have travelled here.  This time it seemed very familiar.  Gone is the feeling of differentness; this is another home for me now.

This morning we got to spend a few minutes with Jay and Remy before they went to school, then we saw the Coulstons before we drove into Nairobi for a Nakumat run.  (Yes, I drove.  No one died.)  The new bypass highways around Nairobi make getting out of the city a lot quicker.  Even with the Village Market diversion, we were out of Nairobi faster than I have ever been.

We drove on to visit our fiends at the Kikitemo feeding station.  No longer internally displaced persons, they are now landowners and their generosity combined with yours has resulted in the construction of our newest feeding station.  The buildings are nearing completion, with some finishing work and the floor still needed in the Dining Hall, and the Kitchen is only waiting on the mortar to dry in the new stoves.  They are excellent stoves that will save us a lot of fuel cooking for the orphans and widows.  The new cho was just ready to use, and Susie got to be the very first one.  They used a kikoi (big scarf) for a door since the wooden ones were not on yet, but she was fine. 

The Kikitemo residents had relocated their structures to their new plots and were already busy clearing ground for planting.  The man from GEMA, a tribal organization, came by to see the progress.  He noticed our vehicle and just stopped in.  He helped the Kikitemos purchase this land and was happy to see so much progress.  When we met the first time he seemed a little skeptical that we would actually build what we said we would, but today he quipped, “You weren’t joking, where you?”  I told him we never joke about saving orphans and widows.

The drive out to Kericho was beautiful.  The rains are just ending, we got a little shower but not much, and the country is colored so many shades of green it’s hard to describe.  Coming from brown and dusty Midland, green looks awful good.  Susie got some amazing pics shooting from the window as we navigated the world’s longest detour, arriving at Kericho at sunset.

(Picassa Web Albums are messed up, again.  Go to either my or the KWO Facebook Page to see the pics.)

Tomorrow we go on to the training institute to make sure all is ready for our medical team next week.  If you are reading this guys, get ready for an amazing time.  This place is beautiful and there is much work to be done.

Final Thoughts

I am sitting in Jomo Kenyatta Airport, waiting for my flight home.  This has become my usual time to rehash what has happened on this trip and think about the future, so here goes.

I learned a lot on this trip.  My focus this time was "understanding."  I have been seeking to better understand the Kenyan experience, at least through the eyes of my workers here.  So I spent several nights in their homes, hanging out with their kids and the orphans, and generally try to understand their "context."  I think that I was successful, to a point.  I learned a lot about how these people live, work and do church, but there is still a lot left to learn.  There is only so much that can be conveyed in English; their language is a large part of the Kenyan lifestyle.  Until I learn Swahili, I will always be the mzungu saying, "What did he say?"

I practiced preaching a lot.  I expected to preach two Sundays, but every night at an orphanage and even at MITS, they wanted me to speak.  Years ago I took a Dale Carnegie course on public speaking, and did very well, but it has been a skill that has been dormant until this new Kenyan calling.  I really enjoy it.  I especially like that rare moment when you can see in their eyes that they just "got" what you were trying to say.  Now if I just had something worthwhile to say!  I'm counting on what God said to Moses, "I will teach you what to say."

Another goal on this trip was to become more self-sufficient.  On all my previous trips, I have completely been at the mercy of drivers and other Kenyans to get anywhere.  I made some good progress here, though I would want my language skills to improve before I would be completely comfortable alone in Kenya.  I drove for almost two weeks, and covered all the major highways that we use here.  I learned how to see the 'bumps' that are everywhere and how to chart a course through the mine-fields of pot holes.  Alfayo Bodi called me his "International, Professional Driver," and complemented me by falling asleep while he was supposed to be navigating.

The amazing news about the IDP camp from yesterday's post, punctuated by their astounding generosity with their new found land, was a great high point for this trip.  Many Americans have expressed their interest in helping build a permanent feeding station there, so we will begin that process soon.  God has shown up in many ways on this trip.  From keeping me from danger, to opening the hearts of his children for my visit.  I'll forever be grateful for this most incredible journey that I am on in His kingdom.

I'll leave you with my final words for Bernard Kibet, when we parted a few days ago. Know what you believe, and why you believe it.  Theology is important.  It's not OK to just keep doing the same old church that you learned as a kid, you must discover what God's kingdom purposes mean to you, and how you can participate in His redemptive process.  Thank you for listening and thank you, Lord for taking me on this journey.  I would not have it any other way.

Kikitemo Settlement

Tuesday morning we went by the IDP camp on our way into Nairobi.  The government has finally found some land to give them to resettle so they will not be forced to live in this camp.  The land is just one mile up the hill from their current location.  It consist of five acres that they can subdivide into plots that each family can farm.  Obviously, this is great news!

But something has happened to this group of displaced people while they wandered through the wilderness together; they have become a family.  More importantly, they have become a church.  Their first decision when told of their five acre gift, was to all agree to give one acre of it to the Lord, a first-fruits offering that is really hard for me to imagine.  They want our ministry to help take care of the orphans there, on the land God has given them, and they are willing to give 20% of it back to the Lord to make it possible.  That’s a God sized story that I would not have believed if I hadn’t been around to watch it unfold.

So in my meetings with them we have agreed that as soon as the funds can be found, we will build a full size feeding station on the land they have given us, which will include a hall, a widow’s dorm, and a kitchen.  Grace Njeri will run the feeding station make sure the orphans have someplace to sleep among the other families, just as they have been doing all this time.  We have agreed to purchase an additional acre of land adjacent to the one they have given us, to provide space to eventually build an orphanage when monthly funds become available and they have had time to establish themselves on their new land.

The paperwork for the land transfer in already in process, and the IDP’s expect to move next month to their new place.  This is an amazing opportunity to partner with God and a really great church in expanding His kingdom on earth.  If you would like to financially participate in building the feeding station at Kikitemo Settlement, please send me an email.

After our visit at IDP, Mbuvi and I went home to Nairobi.  Wednesday morning we will brave the city traffic to try to buy medical supplies for the medical trips that will be coming this summer.  More tomorrow.

Kipsenende Orphanage

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 1^st grade.  The church elders told me they were planning to add a grade every year, until they reached 8^th 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…

Kipsenende Orphanage