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

Kapsabet

Thursday night we got to spend some more time worshiping with the kids at Dirubi.  I cant say enough about that experience.  They really welcomed me and many of them said too-kind things about me.  In reality, they hardly know me, but to them I represent you, all of those Americans who care about them and support this work.  To me, they look like Jesus.

Friday morning Kibet and I set out for Eldoret.  Its about a 4 hour drive from Sondu, and some very interesting roads.  Along the way, in the Nandi hills, we saw a few burned out buildings and many sugar cane fields that had been burned.  This is the boundary between two tribes that sometimes have some conflict, usually over cattle rustling.  There were even some UN inspectors, taking pictures and doing what bureaucrats do.  There were also a lot of national police, with guns.  Not something you see every day, but I was actually glad to see them here where order needs to be restored.

We arrived without incident in Eldoret.  We ran into a rather big traffic jam and had to make a detour.  This through off Kibet’s directions and I was forced to make a u-turn, in traffic.  Let me tell you, mutatu drivers do not take kindly to that, nor do they give you room to complete your turn.  It was a test of my patience, as many choice English words came to mind, (those of you who have ridden with me understand), but I held my tongue and we eventually made it around. 

After we ate lunch at the Sirikwa Hotel, we set off on foot in search of a battery for Kibet’s laptop.  You may think that is a fools errand, but we eventually found a little shop that knew a guy that had the original HP part in stock, cheaper than we could have found it in the US.  That was an interesting experience and I got to hang out in a computer shop in Kenya for a while and see what was available.

We spent the evening resting and had an uneventful evening; just what I needed.

This morning we made the short trip to Kapsabet, Bernard’s home and our second orphanage.  We toured the place and saw what was new.  Then I listened to several ideas that their board members had, some were even good.

I met their star high school graduate Winnie Osebe, who made a solid B on the KCSE exam.  That’s their exit exam for high school, the SAT and the ACT all rolled into one.  Coming from a poor provincial public school, that’s quite high.  With her score she could be admitted to university.  She wants to be a pilot, now we will see if we can find some money to send her.

After lunch we went over to Ngenymesut.  There I met with the widows and saw the usual things, it really looks good there, and then the kids asked me to join their volleyball game.  Now, no one would call me an athlete, but being six feet tall in Kenya is a decided advantage in volleyball.  Let’s just say I held my own, and scored a few points.  Unfortunately, they do not keep score very well there so the game went on for more than an hour.  I was looking for a graceful exit, and soon one was found in the form of a ball to the face.  No blood, just wounded pride and I bit my tongue for the second time.

While the game wound down, I got to spend time with the younger kids as they practiced their English.  We did body parts, hand elbow, ears, etc, and some of them asked me about my family and parents.  I answered them as best I could and was ready to disengage when one of them asked me what my job was.  Without thinking, I said, “You are my job.  I represent you in America.”  The boy who had asked the question got a very serious look on his face and said, “May God bless you.  Thank you very much.”  It choked me up for the thousandth time this trip and reminded me how important it is to spend some quality time with these kids.  They are starting to feel like my own family. 

We are back at Kapsabet now, where we will spend the night.  Tomorrow, I’ll preach again at Kipsenede so I’d better study.  This missionary stuff is hard.

Kapsabet Day one

Back to the Training Institute

One week left.  I’m remembering today how hard it is to be gone this long.  This is the point in the trip when I start to really long for some American things, food especially.  I really need a pizza.  Kenyans don’t know cheese.  I asked my worker today, how many had had cheese and the answer was, “What is cheese?”  Might be fun to learn how to make a simple cheese, since they all have cows. Hmm.

Last night, Bernard Kibet and David Koech met me at the Dados.  These men are our workers in Kapsabet and Londiani, respectively.   This morning we waited at the hotel for the other orphanage workers to arrive.  The plan was that we were all going to drive together to the training center.  I had told them all to meet us at the Dados Wednesday morning early.  To some of them, early meant 8am, to others 10:30 was fine, and one we picked up at the bus stop at 11:45.  Kenyan time.

We made the drive from Kisii to Sondu with no problem. The highway is paved, but full of holes, forcing me to weave and dodge traffic to miss them.  At home it would have been 25 minutes to go that distance, here it took an hour.  Once to Sondu, you weave through the stalls and kiosks of the town’s market area to pick up the bad dirt road to Dirubi.  It takes 15 minutes on this road and it’s only 1.5 miles.

At the Institute, we toured the place.  Most of the workers had never seen it, and they were amazed that so much had been done.  It seems they were not as upset as I was with the delays, that kind of thing is normal here.  Like me, they are all excited at the potential this place hold for our work.  God will do some amazing things here, I believe.

After a very late lunch, we started our meeting.  There were many things to discuss, mostly about how we plan to begin measuring all the expenses of our orphanages for the first time.  Currently, each man accounts for all of the money we send him, but we know that we do not send enough.  We expect that profit making ventures and church donations will make up the rest.  What we don’t know exactly is how much we underfund them.  This makes it difficult to know weather to say yes or no to all kinds of requests that I get from them.  Hopefully our new system will be simple enough for them to use and give us in America better information to act on.

We also discussed various ways to reduce the cost of food, even in the months leading up to harvest when the maize prices are very high.  We made some progress there, but we still have a lot of work to do.  As our system of orphanages and feeding stations has grown, the numbers for maize alone have gotten to be pretty staggering.  At our current size, each year we buy about 14,560 kg of maize.  (That’s 32,100 lbs or just over 16 tons) The low price is 30 shillings a kg, but the high can be as much as 80!  Lots of potential savings there.

Later, after dinner, we were able to join the orphans for evening devotional.  Each of the workers encouraged the orphans, as did I.  These devotionals have definitely been the highlight of the trip for me.  100+ redeemed children and widows, singing praises to the king in the near-dark.  It reminds me of youth group or Single Parent Family Camp, only for them it’s every night.   On future trips I think we will plan on at least one night of “camping” at an orphanage.  Many mzungu need to experience this.  As we walked back to bed-down at one of the dorms in the training institute, it was sprinkling.  As we closed the door, the rains came.  Sleeping under a metal roof in the rain is very cool.

This morning we continued our meetings and finished about lunch.  After we ate, I drove all of them except Kibet and Thomas to Sondu to catch their busses home.  Kibet and I will stay here again tonight and leave tomorrow morning for Eldoret, and a night of rest at he Shirikwa Hotel.  Then it’s on to Kapsabet, Ngenymesut, and our newest orphanage, Kipsenene on Sunday.  I’ll write more when I can.

Glasscock

I’m starting to feel more Kenyan.  Last night we stayed with Kennedy Chandi at his home at the Uriri Orphanage.  At 2:30am, nature called and I had to go outside, in the dark, in Africa, to the cho.  I’m not sure I fully woke up; it seemed to come naturally.  Scary.   OK, that’s probably too much information, but it reflects what a difference experience this trip has been over all of my previous trips.  My goal was to get comfortable moving about in Kenya myself, not as a tourist, staying in the orphanages, getting to know our people.  It. Is. Working.

One of the cool things I am discovering is the interpersonal dynamics between husband and wife in Kenya.  Here, the wife is almost completely silent around visitors.  I hardly got to speak to Eunice at Alfayo’s place and it was the same with Kennedy’s wife.  During dinner, the husband calls for something and it appears immediately.  No conversation.  No, “Get it yourself.” Nothing.  The wife and kids eat in another room.

But later, when we are all in bed, and because there are no ceilings in their houses you can hear the conversations in the other room, it’s different.  I don’t understand the words, but the tone is clear.  Partnership.  Respect. Both of them.  The appearances shown to visitors are because of their customs.  The marriage is the same as ours.  Very interesting, as it reflects an authenticity that we seldom get to see as visitors.

We went to the Glasscock Feeding station this morning.  Faithful readers will remember that this is where we got stuck on our last visit here.  It was the rainy season then, and now it is dry.  I drove on the road that is impassable during the rains, and I understand why.  Very difficult, rocky, mud pits to avoid, but we made it.  I took a picture of where we stopped at Glasscock, about 50 meters short of where we stopped last time!

We looked at the site with a more critical eye than before.  This is a potential orphanage site now, and I asked a lot of questions.  “How far to the schools?”  “What about water?”  “Where are the boundaries of the land?” etc.  We renewed our friendship with the man who donated the land, a committed church member and former WBS student who has carved an acre from his farmland for the support of the orphans. 

Right now, they are carrying water from the river that they said was about 400 meters away.  I asked them to take me there and so we walked it.  GPS says it is 1.25km.  This is normal in Kenya, where they really have no reference points for distance or size.  Most don’t drive so they never get to measure distance accurately.  They were surprised, but believed me, I think.  It means the well that they have started is absolutely critical now.

The kids started to arrive about 10:30am.  This is unusual since they should be in school.  Turns out they were all very disappointed to have missed us last time so they insisted on coming home to greet us.  They sang for us and I gave my now familiar mini-sermon, and then we had lunch. 

Afterwards we departed for Kisii.  We carried Kennedy and another church member to the next town and I dropped my guide for the last three days, Steven Owino, off at Rongo.  Then I drove the last few kilometers to Kisii by myself.  That was weird and a little scary.  But God was with me and I arrived, safe and sound at the Dados where the desk clerk greeted me by saying, “Welcome home, Tim Neale.  Your usual room is ready.”  It’s good to be Kenyan.

Glasscock

Uriri

This morning, Steven and I set out for Uriri.  We stopped at our soapstone friends on the way out of town.  I had a scare because I had locked the keys in the truck, but fortunately, Steven did not know how to lock his door so we were saved!  This was the easiest drive I have had.  It was a pretty good paved (they say tarmac) road almost all of the way, and the dirt road was not bad.

We toured the place and saw all that Kenedy has been working on.  The new girls dorm, built to ease overcrowding is coming along nicely.  It was good to see it in place, near the widows dorm and the first girls dorm.  When we added orphans to this place the girls were very small.  Now that they have grown, they needed the extra space.  Kenedy as almost 100 people here, so they needed it badly.

We saw all of his profit making ventures, including the fish farm, brick making operation, (they are using their own bricks on the girls dorm) and the cane crusher.  The lorry is out on a job.  Kenedy is keen to make improvements and he loves new projects to make money.  He has a real nose for it.  But by far the biggest improvement is in the kitchen. 

Kenedy’s improved flue system for his stoves is working very well.  I watched the widows cook lunch for half an hour and there was hardly any smoke in the place.  I watched the widows cook ugali, and the little dagga fish that they like and it was very enlightening.  I had always thought that cooking ugali took a long time, but really it is very quick.  The longest part is boiling the water, after that it’s just left to add the maize flour to make a thick mass.

Later, during our conversation with the widows, the ladies were all very happy with the improvements.  They only asked if there was any way to speed the cooking process.  I asked them if any of them had ever cooked with gas, and three said they had.  I asked them if they were afraid of it, and they all said no.  We agreed to try a pilot project here to try a propane cooker for them.  They were very happy to try.

We attempted this at another orphanage a couple of years ago and found there that the widows were afraid of the gas and did not want to try it.  This is another example of how having the extra time to have an extended conversation with the widows has paid off.  On a normal visit, there would be little time to discuss such possibilities, but we are staying here tonight so we have time to chat.

This evening we had evening fellowship with the orphans, another great time of singing and teaching.  I’m enjoying getting to do these mini-sermons for the kids, yet another unknown passion that I have discovered.  Weird how things work out…

Uriri

The Grace House

Sunday morning marked the end of my visit to Ndhiwa.  Alfayo and I loaded up and drove the 45 minutes to Nayongo Feeding Station, soon to be The Grace House Orphanage.  We arriced when church had already started.  I found that the Ndhiwa youth choir had come and so had a few church members from Ototo (Manning).  That made for a pretty full house, and some great singing.  They started with the preaching, which was me.  I adapted Tod Brown's sermon from last week on Moses for them because I thought it really made a lot of sense for them.  If you want to see Tod deliver it, check out the GCR website at www.gcrcc.org.  If you want to see me deliver it, you are out of luck, I was the only one with a camera, and I kept it in my pocket.

After worship, we toured the site.  It's under construction, about half way finished.  In six weeks or so they will be done.  The dorms are complete, all that remains is the dining hall, a new kitchen, new latrines, office, clinic and manager's house.  The work looks really good.  They are a little hampered by the roads that lead here, they are only passable in the dry season.  We crossed a very low, concete bridge that completely floods during the rains.  When it's wet, you can drive as close as 1km and then you are afoot.  Here are some pics of the site.

Nayango

Later, we had lunch at Joseph's house.  He is the man who donated the land for the orphanage and lives just beside it.  He stays there all the time and helps care for the kids and some aged widows in the area.  Likely he will be the manager there, once construction is complete.

Soon it was time for mee to bid farewell to Alfayo and his kids from Ndhiwa.  My new guide for a few days in Stephen Owino, a WBS worker from this area.  We helped me get back to Kisii and the Dados where we will refresh and prepare to travel to Uriri Orphanage tomorrow.  Be blessed.

More Like Family

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