The Longest Day

I didn't sleep. Whether it was the time change catching up with me or
something else, I don't know. But I slept fitfully from 11 to 1am and
that was it. After a couple of hours, I gave up and turned to my
trusty ipod to provide a soundtrack for my insomnia. I listened to
some praise music and fell into a long rambling prayer; so much to
pray for, so many things going on. Probably the best insomnia I have
ever had.

When we decided to reverse the order of the orphanages, we knew that
the first day would be the longest. We departed Kamulu at 6am, (a
minor miracle) and headed for Nairobi. Kamulu is on the East side and
our destination was well to the west so we had to brave Nairobi
traffic once again. All was well until we came upon the scene of an
accident. We couldn't get very close but we could see that a van had
lost it's battle with the train, (don't they always?) That set up a
series of detours and traffic jams which put us an hour behind. We
arrived at Ngenymesut, near Kapsabet at about 2pm.

Everything was rushed, since we had a three hour drive ahead of us to
Kericho, but they were ready for us. Bernard has done an excellent
job setting up this orphanage. The buildings are well done, and well
laid out on the site to allow for future expansion. They fed us a
snack and we took many pictures.

I must say that the Creech family was awesome. They jumped right in,
loving on kids and thanking and blessing the widows and other
volunteers. Cherie taught the kids a new concept, group hug. There
were many of those and she said a great prayer over them when it was
time to go. Before we left they had five saplings ready for us to
each plant a tree to commemorate the visit. That was the highlight
for me. Gifts and hugs were exchanged and our ever diligent Mbuvi
rushed us on to spend "no more that 10 minutes" at the Kapsabet
orphanage.

Seth has been incredible, and he proved his worth at this one. Given
the time crunch I could never have gotten so many pictures made. He
was loving on kids and smiling and was a blessing to everyone.

At Kapsabet they are building the new residences for the widows that
run the feeding program. That was interesting for me to see. There
were 10 guys and between them they had one hammer, one shovel, and a
chain saw. But they were getting it done!

More hours passed nodding in the van, getting covered with dust.
Kenya is way dusty this time of year as the rains have not come. The
countryside is more brown than green, that was a surprise to me.
Finally we arriced at Kericho and here i sit in the tea hotel.
Tomorrow we make a short drive to Londiani and then on to the Kunste
Hotel in Nakuru. God is sure doing something on this trip, at least
he's keeping us on our toes!