We had a good drive to Manning. We drove out the short bad road from Ndhiwa to the paved highway and stayed on it for about 100 yards and then turned back down an even worse, longer road to Manning. This orphanage used to be the Ototo feeding station, and it’s on land donated by Alfayo’s father, who met us on our arrival. He greeted me with enthusiasm, and we watched the children entertain us with songs of praise.
The sounds of Kenya are every bit as memorable as the
pictures, but harder to convey. When I
get back to Kisii tomorrow night, I will try to post an mp3 of one of the songs
that I recorded. Their singing is on one
hand very church of Christ and on the other, very African.
Manning is maturing as an orphanage. The kids look good here and the newness has
kind of worn off. All except for the new
widow’s dorm, which replaced their old metal dorm, it’s still shiny and
new. The widows were very happy here, as
were the guards and the new manager.
We stayed for several hours, but decided to leave after
lunch. I still had month-end financials
for KWO to work on and a sermon to prepare for tomorrow. On our drive back, Alfayo paid me the highest
complement that a Kenyan can give to a driver.
He said that I was a “professional Kenyan driver,” and promptly went to
sleep as we bounced down the badly rutted road.
I was able to find my way back to the highway, and as we approached a
completely unnecessary speed bump, he woke up and said, “Bump! Slow down!” just
like he had been awake the entire time.
Later, after I had exhausted the battery on my Mac, (power
was off again) all the Ndhiwa kids came over to his back yard and performed
more songs and a traditional Luo dance.
It was amazing; I had never seen that before outside a resort. They were really good. Here is a short video, the entire performance was 17 minutes.
During evening fellowship, they sang some more and Alfayo
gave a short (for a Kenyan preacher) devotional. He told the story of the Good Samaritan and
finished by saying I was their Good Samaritan.
I blushed and stood up to say a few words. As I was making a point about how God sends
people to do his work on earth, (thanks Tod Brown) I pointed to one of the
girls and said, “…and you, too.” Just
then the power came back on. God has
perfect timing.
I have really warmed to these kids and they to me. We now share a bond different from just a visitor;
they made me feel like I really belonged to their family. This has been a great visit.
Tomorrow he head out for Nayongo, a feeding station that is
under construction to upgrade it to a full orphanage. We will worship with them, I will preach, and
then I will take Stephen Owino, a WBS worker, with me as my guide for the next
few days. We will have one night in
Kisii, then it’s off to Uriri for another overnight visit. Can’t wait to see what God has planned for
that.
 |
| Manning |
No comments:
Post a Comment