We're off to Masii

4/22/07 -- afternoon

After church, we ate lunch at Java House, a really nice little restaurant near downtown Nairobi with great food and better coffee -- Kenya AA, delicious! Norm and Stanley each had two milkshakes apiece. They are now known as Norm and Stanley "Two Shakes"! Norm Kelley is the oldest member of our group at 73 and makes no bones about the fact that he came for the safari...but he also brought 500 kazoos for the kids, so we're thinking that this is going to be a completely new cultural experience for the children, and maybe even the adults. I think the kids are going to get to him anyway, kids usually find a way to.

At lunch, I talked to Stanley Mutunga a long time about how Tumaini got started. His two brothers died of AIDS, leaving a total of 10 children. He came to Kenya to make arrangements for them and found that the situation in the region he had grown up in (Masii) was much worse than he had realized. He and his wife Rose decided to start Tumaini. They started with 25 children in 2004 and now have over 500 sponsored children from all around Masii. His current goal is to get the Kenyan government and other well off Kenyans to become involved. The most recent government in Kenya is more progressive and has instituted free primary education and they are hoping for free secondary education soon. Without sponsors, many children cannot continue with school after primary (1-8 grades).

After lunch, we were off to Masii which is slightly southeast of Nairobi, through the larger regional town of Machakos. The trip should have taken about 2 and a half hours but turned out to be a bit longer due to a traffic accident which had turned into a major dispute. Joseph, our intrepid driver, inched his way past the mess and we finally popped out at the end of the line of cars. (see above). We saw Thompson's Gazelles on the way.

We arrived late afternoon, still very humid and warm. The town of Masii has three streets and we stayed in the only "nice" hotel. Three flights up. We went up and down those stairs more times than I could count during the week. I was rooming with my friend Laureen and we unpacked as soon as we could because the room was itty-tiny, complete with two beds, mosquito nets and a bathroom with a drippy cold shower. Very clean however.

Opening ceremonies for Vacation Bible School were in the evening. Most of the children had arrived and the whole multipurpose room at the high school was packed with over 400 children and adults. The children sang and danced (Kerry joined in again -- he just can't resist and certainly shouldn't have to..) and the preaching pastor, Solomon Mumo Moto, gave an excellent short sermon on the book of 1 John - the theme of the VBS is "God is our Father," which is super important and a source of comfort for these children since they are all orphans. It is a source of comfort for me too, since my parents are also gone -- it occurred to me that I did have this in common with the children, but was fortunate to have had my parents for a much longer time. Later in the week, we would see just a glimpse of how much the loss meant to them.

Debbie Dowding was sitting in the front row and to her surprise the little girl that she sponsors was right in the front of the group of children on stage who were singing. She asked Paul if she could say hello to her and she impulsively hugged her and carried her around for a few minutes. The child wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she wasn't afraid either, I think somehow she knew that Debbie meant her no harm and just was loving her.

Returning to the hotel, I could see that many of the team members were exhilarated and others were wondering what they had gotten themselves into -- there were some major comfort zone breaches going on.

I laid in bed under the mosquito net for about an hour and finally dozed off thinking and pondering how we had gone from completely urban to somewhere between urbanity and the outer boonies and thinking about the hundreds of children I had seen tonight. The night cooled off about 3 am. We slept well.