Kenya in April

last day in Kenya

2007-06-01T21:13:00.001-07:00

5/3/07
Our last day in Kenya. We are ready to go home, I think, and none of us are looking forward to the trip...

We spent the morning doing last minute shopping at Baboo's - a friend of Stanley's who has a nice craft store. Lunch at Java House and a "Coke Light" (Kenya equivalent of Diet Coke). Frantic packing. It was funny, because I had had a cold coffee drink AND a Coke, and I was wired up. My friends were teasing me -- I couldn't find things and then I had to pack and unpack to find them. It was pretty OCD on my part I guess.

We had dinner at HEART and loaded up, then we were off to pick up Stanley and on to the airport. Stanley will be in Nairobi for a few more days. He tries to make more connections for Tumaini everytime he goes.

What can you say about a 32 hour trip home? 8.5 hours to Heathrow, 5 hr layover, 10.5 hrs to Cali. I felt wrecked. I will give kudos to Virgin Atlantic however. Very nice flight, good entertainment (lots of movies), they fed you every so often, and came around with water and juice at least once an hour which really helped with the dehydration that usually bothers me on the plane. About half way through the flight, I said to one of my friends, "Just shoot me now..." I did the reverse of the jetlag program going out. We slept a few hours from Nairobi to Heathrow, and then stayed awake until Los Angeles (with some difficulty). (Later note -- it actually worked pretty good. I was a little tired the first week, but did not nap at all. I still slept alright and did not wake up at all wierd hours).

At least when we got home, it was smooth sailing through customs and Ron (Laureen's husband) was soon there to pick us up in the new Pathway bus! It felt good to be riding on the right (literally) side of the road again. We were home by 6 p.m.

I was high for days and I still can't stop talking about the trip. Ask me a question and I can go on for hours. When we visited Texas, I talked about the trip for two hours the first time I met Laura's boyfriend Juan Pablo. He's a traveler, so he seemed to appreciate my enthusiasm -- thanks JP for your tolerance...

And thanks again to all those who have followed my journey and to those who contributed to my "special need" fund. Who knew it was going to be education for two very special young people? We were thinking goats when I went...God had different plans -- I was blessed to be an "instrument of his peace." My prayer always.

Amen.

last day of the Mara

2007-06-01T20:18:00.001-07:00

5/2/07 - early!

Very early rising again, 6:30 a.m. and we were off - this time off to the border with Tanzania and the edge of the Serengeti Plain. The Masai Mara is the Kenyan continuation of this famous wildlife area. As we left the lodge, several Japanese tourists were getting ready to go on a balloon ride - we were told it was $300 per person!

We saw more beautiful animals this morning - my favorites, the giraffes in the sunrise light, two Secretary birds in the tops of the tree, and for a special treat, the "Helmeted Guinea Hen Jogging Club" out for their morning run. A group of about 10 of these large ground birds (like a large partridge) were running in front of the Land Cruiser and would not fly. Alex was following them pretty closely but they were not ABOUT to give up the road. You could see little puffs of dirt fly out from under their feet. Very cute. We also saw Maribou storks and a bat eared fox - a little guy with HUGE ears.

We ended up at the west gate of the park and a mile or so beyond was the border with Tanzania -- not a soul there, so we walked across for a minute and back again -- and of course took pictures.

Riding back, I couldn't get enough of the view all around us. I stood up the entire drive back - I just wanted to drink it in and remember everything. I was starting to become aware of the end of the trip approaching.

Breakfast, packing, and then a long wait for the plane. We said good bye to our friends, Joel and Ole Kuya, who again asked us to write to them. I asked Joel if he would like me to ask for a blessing on his family and he beamed and said yes, so I prayed for his little family's peace and continued health and welfare.

The trip back was uneventful and we were met by the rest of our group - after lunch in Nairobi, we returned to HEART. The afternoon was spent frantically repacking and weeding out items to give to Paul to take back for anyone who wanted them in Masii -- several of us had WAY too much stuff (myself included) and I sacrificed several items for the space I needed to pack.

In the evening we went to Carnivore, a restaurant that specializes in exotic meat in addition to regular barbeque-on-a-spit type items. The exotic meats for the evening were ostrich meat balls (very good) and crocodile. Now, some people I know have tried croc and liked it, but to me it tasted just like the smell from the bottom of a fish tank when you clean it out. Nasty. One bite, that was it.

And that was it for the day. I had had it. My stamina was definitely waning by this time. Three mornings in a row up at 5:30 a.m. didn't help either. The lights were out when we got back to HEART, so we all crashed early.

late afternoon game ride

2007-05-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

5/1/07 -- late afternoon

We met up with Alex about 3:30 and off we went in yet another direction! This time to the hippo river. On the way we saw Ostriches (another die happy moment for me), more Grant's gazelles, Crowned Plover, large herds of Thompson's gazelles, a solitary hyena and a pair of mongoose (mongeese?). The Lilac-breasted Roller is one of the most beautifully colored birds we saw, with a patch of lilac, obviously, but also with turquoise blue wings that flash when it flies - stunning.

We also saw a mom warthog with a baby, running along with their little skinny tails in the air. This of course inspired a song from Kerry -- "I'm a little warthog, short and stout, here is my tail and here is my snout!" which became the theme song of the day...

The hippos were just hanging out in the river -- they seemed to be snoozing...they would float up and down in the water, and we never saw much more than their backs and noses. They are mostly nocturnal. The hippo river was one of the few places in the park that tourists are allowed to get out of the vehicles - so of course we took a picture. I nearly fell out of the vehicle when we got out at the lodge, my foot slipped on the step and I ended up with one foot in the van and the other about 3 feet down on the ground. Good thing I have long legs.

Dinner is late -- after everyone returns from their excursions. Tonight Tom awed us all with his dessert -- a big bowl of caramelized bananas in a thick syrup with a big chunk of bread pudding on top. The man can eat.

Norm and Gloria saw a huge owl in the tree at night.

Full moon tonight over the Mara. Wow! What a place.

Maasai culture

2007-05-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

5/1/07 -- afternoon

After lunch, we met with Ole Kuya (also known as Charles -- his English name) who gave a very interesting hour and a half lecture on Maasai culture. There was way too much to write about here and many books have been written about their culture, but here are some interesting points:

The Maasai believe that they were put on earth by God with their cattle, which are a sacred part of their culture and very important to them. They believe that all the cattle in the world belong to them. I was showing Joel some of the pictures I had taken in Masii, and showed him a picture of a Brahma cow, and he goes "hmmm, nice cow..." -- I loved it.
They have migrated from northern Kenya to the south over many years, due to pressure from other people groups and colonists, most of them are now in the south of Kenya and the northern part of Tanzania
Maasai "warriors" are a certain age group of young men (I think about age 15-22, approximately) who do not cut their hair for seven years and during that time, spend most of it herding the cattle and "learning to be men" as Ole Kuya says. After this period of time, they "graduate" in a huge ceremony and become "young elders" who are then allowed to cut their hair and marry. Joel was a "young elder."
First marriages are always arranged by the fathers of the young men and women. Men may have more than one wife and the group practices male and female circumcision. Joel said to me that he is only going to have one wife now that he is a Christian. Ole Kuya says that you have to have many cows to be able to have additional wives. The Kenyan State is fighting against the practice of female circumcision.
Their religion is monotheistic, based on a system of sacrifices. It seems that this is why Christianity is appealing to the Maasai -- the idea of Christ as the Lamb of God makes a lot of sense to them. Joel says that there are many churches in his area.

Both Joel and Ole Kuya went to a local town to go to school for primary, but left at about sixth grade as far as I could tell. They are both very well spoken and extremely intelligent, but have not been exposed to much of the outside world. They both read and write English very well and asked us to write to them. I have not yet had an opportunity to write but hopefully will soon. These two young men were one of the most interesting and unexpected joys of the trip.

EARLY game ride

2007-05-30T22:01:00.001-07:00

5/1/07 - early morning

Last night, after dinner, Joel and about 7 or 8 of his Maasai warrior buddies came to the lodge to chant and jump. These guys can jump 18 inches to two feet off the ground from a flat footed stand. They were great. Afterwards, we talked to another warrior, Ole Kuya (son of Kuya), who told us a lot about Maasai culture -- he gives a daily lecture about Maasai culture. We said that we would come tomorrow. He and Joel told us that all the chanting and jumping was developed when they were still raiding other groups of Maasai for their cows, they were egging each other on...it was a kick.

After we were done last night, Alex said, we'll leave tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. That meant we needed to get up at 5:30 a.m. Ohhh. I did not sleep well the first night, either. Coffee was the first item on my agenda.

Once we were out, though, it was gorgeous and beautiful. This morning, we headed in a different direction, towards a little plateau (or a pla-too, as the Kenyans call them) -- we saw giraffes (lots), zebras (more) and a lone wildebeest hanging out with the gazelles. He must have been left behind because in June and July, they have huge herds of wildebeest that migrate from Tanzania. I guess it is really an astounding sight, and many people go up in the hot air balloons to watch them. Apparently many Americans come in those months to see the migration. According to Alex, this is a bit of the "off "season, but you could have fooled me. We still saw huge numbers of all different types of animals...Today we saw many elephants all day long -- there was a small herd of different ages that hung out around the elevated boardwalk area -- Norm was fascinated and spent most of his time out there before we went out again in the afternoon. Other animals and birds this morning -- dik dik (a very small gazelle), Grant's gazelles, Gray-crested Crane, Yellow-throated Longclaw (like a meadowlark), Egyptian goose, Wattled Plover and the Lappet-faced Vulture (very ugly).

We also saw an interesting tree with large sausage-shaped fruit hanging off it, apparently the locals make beer from these pods. I don't think the giraffes like them, because they are not eaten up to giraffe neck level like the acacia trees are (the "lollipop" trees). Alex also told us a lot about Kenyan politics -- the current president is very popular because he has made elementary school free for everyone. He also says that most Kenyans like Americans -- we certainly have felt welcome here.

We finally returned to a great breakfast (as all the meals were). I learned more Swahili -- "Asante sana" means thank you very much and "Caribou sana" means you're welcome, very much!

While we were looking for the hippo in the pool at the "Hippo Bar", Joel and Ole Kuya came to find us. We found that they really enjoyed talking with us and when we were just "hanging out", they would show up! I think many of the tourists treated them as "exhibits" but we were all very interested in them as people and they in us. They mentioned that they really did not like all the posing for pictures so I only took one of them (see above) -- they were enjoying Gloria's MP3 player -- Ole Kuya (on the left) wanted her to send him one! They really liked the Latino music she had and were fascinated by the whole thing. They had never heard most of the different kinds of music she had on her player.

Kerry was teaching them American idioms, expressions such as "I could eat a horse!" and "I'm stuffed!" and I told them about "Out of the frying pan, into the fire!" for getting oneself into worse trouble than you are already in, they liked that one as I guess it made sense to them.

Another meal! Lunch! I'm starting to feel like the lioness in that picture!

First game ride

2007-05-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

4/30/07 - afternoon

Alex picked us up for our afternoon game ride and off we went -- we went on a total of four different trips to different areas of the park and saw something different every time.

The Land Cruiser has a "pop top" which was great for standing up and looking out of. Alex had great eyes and could see an animal at several hundred yards. He was an excellent driver and guide. When he found out that I was also interested in the birds, he started stopping to point birds out. The others weren't prepared for all the bird life -- it had not really occurred to them that there would be so much -- we saw hornbills, bustards and vultures, Secretary birds, pintail Whydah, Lilac-breasted rollers, Snake Eagle, you name it we saw it...I was in heaven. By the end of the first ride, my friends were starting to understand the bird "wow" factor and why I enjoy them as much as the large animals.

We saw plenty of big animals too - elephants, giraffes topi, impala, Thompson's gazelles, Lions and a cheetah. Jackals. The cheetah was the best story. We were watching a big old bull elephant when Alex said '' look at the black spot" -- it was a cheetah's head, about 200 yards away. We casually drove away from the other group of vans and Land Rovers and drove up to within a few feet of him, he just chilled for a while then casually stood up and took off. After I saw the cheetah, I made some remark about the fact that I could "die happy" so of course everyone wanted to know when that was going to be...ha

The animals are not afraid of people, since they have a very strict code and rules for the vans and drivers. No one is allowed out of the vehicles except in a very few places. Any one found walking can be shot on the spot (discourages poachers) and no one is allowed to yell or throw anything at the animals. They basically didn't care if we were there or not.

We stayed out until it was almost dark, the moon came up as the sun was going down. It was gorgeous.

It just about killed me that Bill couldn't be there. He would have loved it.

Masai Mara

2007-05-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

4/30/07 - morning

Before I went to Kenya I had no idea about what a safari entailed...I figured we might see a few animals. I bought a Kenya bird book, just in case. I really wasn't prepared for the "Mara" as they call it in Kenya. It is a National Wildlife Preserve in Kenya at the northern end of the Serengeti Plain in Tanzania -- not that big of an area but oh my, what a place!

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning - a bird was singing beautifully in the night. I never did see what it was, but I didn't go back to sleep, either. I finally got up and got dressed and went downstairs to email home -- 40 minutes to log on, read email, send one email to family and that was it. Slow, slow, slow. Boy are we spoiled by high speed internet. After breakfast, we were off to the airport -- Joseph was there at 7:30 sharp and it took us nearly an hour to get to the airport. Only six of us are going on this part of the trip, Norm, Kerry, Gloria, Tom and Teri and myself. As I told several of my friends before I left, I couldn't go to Africa and not see large ungulates (biologist joke -- I think I used it before, oh well, too bad).

The plane was a small "Twin Otter" type, about 14 seats, you nearly had to double in half to get on. Gloria and I sat in the back row, by the door. Kerry climbed into the seat next to the pilot. Now, my sister's ex-husband was a pilot and they had a small plane when I was a little girl, and we went on many excursions -- for some reason, I feel very secure in a small plane, flying doesn't seem such an affront to nature as the big planes are, but Teri and Gloria were not as sanguine about the trip as I was. As we took off, I noticed that Gloria was hyperventilating (first step to a panic attack) and I told her to take some deep breaths and she did pretty well after that. The trip was uneventful, beautiful views of the Rift Valley and small villages on the plain.

The duty free shop and the airport terminal were quaint to say the least, a couple of shacks in the middle of nowhere (I will add my pictures if I can find them) -- we were met by Alex, our driver, who was another one who was "one" with his vehicle, a 10 passenger Toyota Land Cruiser.

We drove a few minutes to Keekorok Lodge -- one of the first safari lodges built in the area -- a truly beautiful place, were dropped off and instructed by Alex to be back out front by 4 pm. Well, we settled into the rooms and since it wasn't time for lunch yet, we went for a walk around the grounds. There is a marshy area to the west of the compound (which has no fence by the way, more about this later), which has a raised walkway, and several seating areas, where you can relax and observe animals. I had taken a picture of a giraffe taking a snooze under an acacia tree within a few minutes of arriving, and there was a beautiful impala close by.

A few minutes later, Gloria comes up with none other but a Maasai warrior in tow. His name is Joel Moseka Ole Nchoe (Ole Nchoe means "son of Nchoe" - his father's name). Moseka is his Maasai name and Joel is his Christian name. We had found a Maasai warrior who had converted to Christianity a year ago and wants to be a preacher -- he works at the Lodge to earn money so he can go back to school. A girl who visited the lodge gave him a Bible and he read it and decided this was the truth. He's 26, married to a girl named Mary, and has two sons, 2 yrs old and 1 yr old. And he has an email address! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him, and he was very interested in where we were from and what we were doing in Kenya. We told him about our trip to see the children and he was very moved by their plight -- we found out later that AIDS is not common among the Maasai, because they do not usually go out from their own tribe, but he identified with the orphans since many children and their parents die from malaria. The lodge hired him to keep away the wild animals -- he carries his stick and club with him all the time. He wore many bracelets and chokers and a special one that his wife had made for his wedding. He finally said goodbye for now as it was lunchtime, but we would see him many times in the next two days.

The walk and the small copse of trees by the boardwalk are also home to a troop of vervet monkeys. We were warned not to get too close and to never have any food on us, as they will attack. I watched a few of them play.

Lunch and as a matter of fact, all the meals were more like a cruise ship than a lodge. It was a nice change from the sameness of chapatis and stew from last week, but the excess was a bit much. I really enjoyed the fruit and vegetables though...Norm had a big sundae...it was good. Kerry usually had cheese and crackers and had trouble getting the right amount -- either there was too much cheese and not enough crackers or vice versa -- it always entailed another trip to make it turn out even!

We relaxed until it was time for our afternoon game ride.

church in Masii

2007-05-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

4/29/07 - morning into afternoon

As you may remember, last Sunday we went to church at one of the biggest Baptist churches in Nairobi -- it was an experience not unlike home, just enough different (praise songs in Swahili!) to make it cool...Well, church in Masii was another story entirely, but much more interesting.

We arrived about 10 am, not everyone was there yet, but we were met as we got off the bus by a little old lady (see above) who greeted us with "Huacha!" (as she was older than all of us!) and when she realized that we knew what the proper response was -- "Aaa!" - she started to laugh and went around the whole group, laughing, shaking our hands and greeting each one of us. It was great.

We had intended to sit in the back, but of course, they cleared out the kids who were sitting in the middle and gave us good seats. The whole first hour or so was taken up with prayers, singing, announcements, several choirs performed (different age groups), as people gradually filled up the room. We were introduced, other visitors brought greetings from other churches. There were several things that I enjoyed about the service.

Many things that were done that were straight out of the Bible. Of course, the singing and praying, but when the offering was taken, people brought their offering FORWARD, just as the children had done at the Tumaini VBS. Some of the church members did not have any money, and had contributed in kind -- fruit, eggs, beans, corn, dish soap and a couple of chickens. Much to our surprise, after the offering was taken, one of the elders of the church held an auction for the remaining items, including the chickens (see above). People (including us) bid on the items and either took them home, or donated them to the older members of the congregation.

They also took care of the widows and the orphans. I recognized several of the Tumaini children in the congregation and two or three of them were called forward to receive a bag with clothes and food. They also did this for the widows in the congregation. One of Tumaini's main scripture verses is James 1:27 "Religion which is considered pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world" -- I could see how it comes straight from their daily practice.

They also had what could only be described as a "drill team" for the young boys -- they marched in a formation, did several fancy maneuvers under the command of their leader, stood at attention while the second in command inspected all the boys, straightened collars and then presented them to the leader. After that, they marched out, all in very strict formation with the drummer and the keyboard player keeping the time. I thought to myself -- what a great way to channel the energies of these kids -- this showed a tremendous amount of self-discipline and apparently they practice all the time...

After the auction and other events, announcements and so forth, they turned off the generator, and Kerry preached with Stanley interpreting in Kikomba. It was quite an event and the best demonstration of "tag team" preaching that I have ever seen!

They wanted us to stay for lunch, but we had already been promised to have lunch with the Tumaini Board members back at the hotel, so we left fairly quickly after the service.

Lunch was very nice, we packed up and got ready to leave while they were having their meeting. I took pictures of Ellen and her husband Abraham and Agnes. Lovely people. Hard to leave.

The trip back to Nairobi was long -- there had been lots of rain during the week and the road near Nairobi was a mess. We had to get ready to leave early for the safari -- we quickly repacked and crashed back at HEART.

lunch at the shamba

2007-05-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

4/28/07 -- afternoon

We walked a couple of hundred yards down a little road to the Mutunga family farm still occupied by Stanley's mother, Grace Kanini (Kanini means "little" or "tiny" -- she is probably less than 5 feet tall), a couple of sisters, and various children. His older brother Francis, seen at the far end of the picture above, is a retired fruit wholesaler and now lives in a little house next to his mother's place. It is a beautiful farm, well tended, with all the crops seen frequently and some that I haven't seen before -- maize, cowpeas, pumpkin, papaya, mango, banana, and a huge patch of sweet potatoes.

We were seated ceremoniously under a pleasant sun shelter with chairs and low tables. Water was brought around to wash our hands (a nice Kenyan custom we saw in many places). The meal was a chicken stew, with potatoes and other vegetables, along with fresh homemade chapatis (the Kenyan equivalent of a flour tortilla -- delicious). We enjoyed a relaxed lunch with the family dog and a few chickens scratching around and afterwards, one of the nephews, Sebastian, brought around sodas in bottles (such as orange and grape Fanta, and Coke - it's everywhere!). After lunch, we walked around the farm, enjoying the nice day and the beautiful blue sky full of clouds. Kerry, Paul and Mike were investigating the small one room school house that the family used when the children (10 of them!) were young...Paul headed in first and the other two followed, when Paul suddenly backed up into them and yelled "Get out! Get out!" -- there was a hive of wasps! they ran for it -- fortunately no one was stung.

As we were getting ready to leave, we all gathered for prayer -- Stanley asked his brother Francis to pray. Now Francis had not said more than a few words the whole time we were there, but my goodness could the man pray! We were protected from all kinds of evil, he rained blessings on us, called down angels to stand around us, and bound Satan away from us (always a good thing...) -- afterwards, we were laughing that NOTHING bad could happen to us now! And truly, nothing did. We had adventures, but all was well.

As we were leaving, we walked back out to the road, and Joseph followed in the bus. As he was turning to get back onto the road he got stuck again -- this time because the rear tires were not touching the ground as he went over a bump. Kerry and Norm jumped on the back bumper for ballast and hung on and jumped up and down. As they did, the bus tires caught suddenly and the bus shot forward. They all swung out from the back of the bus but no one fell off. Everyone was scrambling for their cameras, but nobody caught the moment -- the picture above was taken as they were all jumping down and grateful that no one was hurt.

We decided to walk past the area where the local people were fixing their road -- we didn't want to have another incident. Watching everyone join together to solve a community problem was exciting, however, as there were no County Road Crews coming around to fix the road!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing -- we had had it!

Tomorrow is church at one of the churches Stanley used to preach at near Masii.

Wamunyo wood carvers

2007-05-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

4/28/07 -- late morning

After we left Masii, we headed off to the Wamunyo woodcarving village, about 30 minutes away, where we were absolutely overwhelmed by the amount and quality of the craft. I bought way more than I should have, but oh well. A little retail therapy for me, and gifts for the good people who donated back in the States. I chatted with the woodcarvers for a bit and they were delightful -- we watched them carve a giraffe out of a single piece of wood in just a few minutes.

Laureen was not feeling too well, so she and another couple of people got off the bus at an intersection (Paul was on the cell phone and had the other Tumaini van come out from Masii to pick her up), and the rest of us headed off to have lunch at the home of Grace Kanini (Little Grace) -- Stanley Mutunga's 87 year old mother, who still lives just outside of Masii. We had to take a different route, as the main road to her house had been washed out recently in a heavy downpour. The local folks were out en masse re-doing the road (they would dig out the dirt from the side and throw it on the road) and the bus got stuck up to the back axle, just as we were getting to the turn off for Grace's shamba. We all hopped off, which helped a lot (since all the weight was in the back) and Joseph had the bus extricated from the mess by the time we had all walked down the side road to the house.

goodbye

2007-05-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

4/28/07 -- morning

Saturday morning was a bit of a stressful time. We got up early to go to the school to see the children before they went back home. Most of the morning is spent by the staff getting bus fare ready for the children and sending them off home. Some of the younger children are picked up by their mothers (if they still have her) or their guardians, but many of the children just take their bag and hop on the local matatu or other public transportation (there are some larger buses) and off they go. Still others who live in the local area walk home.

I said good bye to all the young people we had met, Ndunda, Annah and Ruth, Ruth Ndolo, Mutie, Lazarus, Miriam, Judy...several of them wanted me to take a picture so I would remember them...as if I could forget them. Ndunda finally gave me a good smile for a picture. We also said goodbye to the Tumaini staff that was not going to be going with us today -- we have one more day in the area and tomorrow we will return to Nairobi for the rest of the trip. We had group pictures to hand out, of course everyone wanted one, and it was impossible to give one to everyone. I made sure that the kids I had spent time with got one.

We finally boarded the bus and waved goodbye about an hour later with very mixed feelings. It was hard to leave these children. They have a way of attaching to your heart that was not what I really expected. I thought I might not have too much to talk about with the kids I sponsor and with the other children, but they are so bright and curious and so appreciative of our help that it is difficult not to feel close to them.

On the other hand, we were all exhausted. It was a very emotionally taxing week. Some of the stories of the families were truly heartbreaking, but in many cases, as in the case of the Mwanzia family, we were astounded by their resiliency and devotion to each other. We were also continually impressed by the kindness and devotion of the Tumaini staff, both to us as visitors, and to the children.

last day of VBS

2007-05-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

Our devotion this morning was on Psalms 68: 5-6...

" A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling, God sets the lonely in families...."

Something I have mentioned before is how seriously our children in Kenya take our role as sponsors -- we are now the mothers and fathers that they have lost. We are part of new families in Kenya...

We went to the school fairly early this morning. I was going to go to a class with Teri and Tom, who have been sitting in with the high school boys class all week, but Ellen snagged me to come talk to our young boy with nightmares again. You could see an immediate difference -- he had been in my memory book class and so felt much more comfortable with me this time -- but he also seemed much more relaxed. He said that he had not had any bad dreams this week. I told him that we were glad for him and shared with him the technique of having a plan prepared when he goes to sleep of what to do if he has a nightmare. He will be able to yell at the demons that he is protected by Jesus and will have power over them, not them have power over him -- and then wake up safely! He asked me to write to him in a few weeks, I am just about ready to be able to do that, after nearly a month at home...!

Ellen also asked me to talk to another girl about a behavior problem that had been reported by a teacher in her town. She was very sad and cried (I felt bad about it...) but Ellen told me that it was all right, as it was important that this girl know that people were concerned about her and were watching her behavior. An interesting cultural spin on an uncomfortable situation for me...

We also handed out the memory books (Mutie of the fancy shoes was in charge) and took pictures (of course) with everyone holding up their own book. They were very proud. We will send the individual photos back for Ellen to distribute in August.

Debbie and I also presented the stove to Mary and her children. That was really a moment -- this small thing will make a real difference to her. She will be safe taking care of her children at night, and will not have to leave her house after dark.

It was very interesting -- last day, about 11:30, the bus started to fill up. By about noon, nearly everyone from the team was on the bus. I think we had reached the limit of what we could absorb. The little children can be overwhelming -- they are so curious, crowd up very close to all of us, want to look at the veins in our arms, touch our hair and skin. It can be difficult to handle. After a while, we reemerged from the bus and found some of our favorite people to talk to...Ellen, the older girls and boys, Paul, Agnes. The younger children were off somewhere playing and it wasn't quite so anxiety producing.

Nthenya came for the last day after her class got out and came to find me. It was good to see her again before we left. I brought a little voice recorder with me on the trip and she sang a song for me -- it turned out to be the best thing that I recorded the whole week and a real treasure for me at home. I can listen to it and be totally transported back to Kenya. She has a beautiful sweet voice.

Lunch was LATE, we were starved and so were the kids, but it was worth waiting for -- a delicious stew, rice, chapatis and fresh fruit. After lunch, we had the final program, which went on for HOURS (about three hours), singing, dancing, presentations, a short sermon to wrap up the teaching by the same man who had been there the opening night, Solomon Mumo. Amazingly, again, the children hung in there and actually behaved themselves until it was nearly over, and even then, their behavior wasn't BAD, just a tiny bit rowdier. We were all sore from sitting on the hard metal chairs.

We were totally surprised by an offering they collected for the girls in Cambodia. The children had been so touched by the plight of the girls that they asked if they could take up an offering. In Kenya, offerings are brought forward and put in a basket at the front of the room -- we were all sitting there crying as these Kenyan orphans gave what little they could out of their poverty to help girls nearly half a world away.

The rest of the evening we relaxed -- a few returned for the final goodbye program (more singing and dancing). Many of us were just too worn out. I don't even remember turning off the light that night.

Cambodian presentation

2007-05-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

4/26/07 - evening
After supper, Kerry and several of the team members returned to the high school to give a presentation to the older kids regarding the work Kerry and other Pathway members have been involved in Cambodia, and the situation of the girls there. The children of Tumaini have all lost either mother, father or both and most feel as if they have many disadvantages compared to other children of Kenya.

Kerry has a slide show DVD that he showed them, and told them about how these girls at Rapha House in Cambodia have been sold by their parents into sexual slavery. The Kenyan teens could hardly believe that someone would do that to their children and they were deeply touched by the plight of the girls. He also told them how the girls at Rapha House had been rescued and what is being done to help them recover from their terrible experiences. The grief recovery workbook that Kerry adapted to use with the Tumaini college age girls was originally written for the Cambodian girls at Rapha House.

Everyone who went to the presentation was moved by the compassion that these children -- who by any standard have lost a great deal -- showed for these girls in Cambodia, and they all returned with serious faces.

We have all been through a great deal this week -- it's a bit of the emotional rollercoaster...

running amok with Paul and Jackson

2007-05-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Before I finish off the week in Masii, I need to write some about a few of the people who work and volunteer for Tumaini.

Paul Mutendwa is a fairly recent addition to the staff and is now the in-Kenya director of Tumaini. He is a crackerjack accountant and knows exactly where all the money for the children is, all the time! He has a wife and two little boys and is devoted to them but is also devoted to the children of Tumaini. He also has a great sense of humor -- the running joke during the entire week we were there was that when things were kind of up in the air we were "running amok", then when things settled down, we were "back on track"...this was an on-going thing, that has continued even in emails after we returned!

Jackson (never heard his last name) is one of the most indefatigably cheerful people I have EVER met in my entire life. He is the chaplain for Tumaini, and originally kept track of all the children. Now he supervises the volunteers who do this work in several regions around Masii. Jackson was always full of laughs, songs (he would break into a song at the least provocation -- including "Shut de door" -- a song that Laureen and I knew from way back) and jokes, but was also very intensely interested in the welfare of all the children. He knew where every one of them lived, and knew everyone's story. This is really amazing when you consider that Tumaini has over 500 sponsored children now. He also is the pastor of a church in the outskirts of Masii, and told me that his church is what keeps him going. He is truly a man of God.

Esther was another amazing person we met. She was the director of the VBS, along with James (I do not know last names). They were also extremely well organized and I was surprised to find out that she knew where every child was in the VBS and could run down any kid that anyone needed to see. Remarkable.

I have already written about Ellen and Agnes.

I have mentioned Joseph -- our driver. I have never seen someone who was so "one" with his vehicle. He knew exactly where he could go with that thing -- we only got stuck twice during the whole time we were there. One of the best moments of the trip was on the way back to Nairobi from Masii, when Joseph took us on a "short cut" through a town to avoid a terrible traffic jam. The pot holes could have held a Volkswagen and were full of water but we bounced on through and made it out the other side. In this little town, there were some people having a Sunday evening church service by the side of this muddy road, with several of them up on a platform, singing and dancing, and we started to wave at them with both hands as we went by -- they all became very happy and waved back -- it was a great feeling of connection with these Christians we didn't even know or have time to meet.

There were many other wonderful people we met, including the young men who cooked for us and the others who brought us a bucket of warm water every morning at the hotel. In general, the Kenyans we met were gracious and cheerful.

I felt very at home and welcomed everywhere we went.

road trip to Kitanga -- Mwanzia home

2007-05-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

4/26/07 -- afternoon

Annah and Ruth have been asking me all week when we would be going to their house, so I was happy to be able to tell them this morning during the trip to Machakos that this afternoon was the day! They were so excited and Ruth immediately called her brother on the phone (as an aside, many of the Kenyans had cell phones! We were amazed at the great reception everywhere...we would be out in the sticks some place with Paul in the bus and he would get three or four phone calls -- made us laugh. The phones are very economical and many people have them for emergency use). I spent lunch with Ellen and Agnes, talking about our families. Ellen has a daughter in Houston who I tried to reach while we were there, but I could not. I hope I had the right phone number -- I would like to send her pictures of her mother and father I took. Ellen will help Laureen this afternoon with the class -- finishing up their books. Since the Mwanzia family lives in Kitanga, about an hour away, a special trip had to be made.

About two p.m., nearly everyone else loaded into the bus and off we went. Ndunda, Ruth and Annah couldn't stop smiling. After about a good hour of bumpy road and hill climbing (Kitanga is substantially higher than Masii) we arrived at the home. The older sister Mary and brother Samuel met us and were surprised and pleased to see how many had come to visit. You could see how proud they were of their home and shamba, which was well-maintained and cultivated. Chickens were scratching around and they had the very first actual "pet" dog we had seen -- Simba was her name, very friendly. Ruth says she likes to play games. All the dogs we have seen so far have been scroungy generic types, little skinny tan things. She was more of a brindle color and looked healthy (no ribs showing).

They have a shady area with trees planted in a circle in front of the house and we soon were sitting on every possible thing available under the trees -- I think there must have been at least 10 of us plus the family of 5. The little dog made friends with Jackie Grignon immediately (she recognized someone who would scratch her around her ears). Jackson introduced everyone and Samuel (25)talked a little about the family. As I shared before, he has kept the family together since the mother and then the father of the family died. He was only 17 when their father died. He kept the family farm going, kept his sisters and brother in school, helped his sister Mary (23) finish teacher's college (she is now teaching in a local school). As Jackson said to me later, "he is a small man with the heart of a lion." I could see the respect the older adults had for him and for his accomplishment.

After we had talked a little, I signaled Paul, and he told the family that funds had been made available for Samuel to go back to school. It turns out that he had started teacher's college this past January and was able to finish the term, but still owed money and was not going to be able to go back to school when it started back up again in May. The family had been praying for a way to be made for him to return. I was reminded of the song we sing sometimes "God will make a way when there seems to be no way." Samuel's eyes filled with tears and I don't think there were any dry eyes anywhere....He thanked me, but I told him that it was a gift from several generous friends who just wanted something special to happen with the money. I also told him that we would continue to support him until he finishes school at the end of next year. (A special scholarship fund has been set up for Samuel Mwanzia through Tumaini International -- it will only cost a total of $2000 for him to finish school and nearly one-third has already been paid, through the generosity of state-side donors.) He promised that he would study hard and make us proud.

After we returned to the States, Kerry and I were marveling at the way God can work. The family had been praying, they knew I was coming to visit but they had no idea that I had asked my friends and family to send me with money to meet some as yet unknown need. Several of the people who gave me money don't even go to church, but their goodwill was used anyway. I would not have even known that this need existed except for the fact that I had met Agnes (Tumaini Board member) who visited our class on Wednesday afternoon. What an amazing thing...God is great, all the time. All the time, God is great.

As is often true, sometimes when your heart is so full that you can hardly stand it, something happens that will break the mood -- here we were, all sitting there, very serious and tearful (Paul was openly wiping his eyes), listening to the story and then their thanks and gratitude to God for this gift, when all of a sudden we heard this awful noise coming from behind one of the small outbuildings. I don't know how to describe it, but it sounded like someone was being strangled, and not liking it very much! This went on for a while, we are all trying to ignore it, but finally I had to ask Samuel what it was, and he laughed and said it was a goat! Well, I had never heard a goat that sounded like that, but I took his word for it. Of course, later, Kerry was able to duplicate the noise perfectly and spent the rest of the trip occasionally bursting forth with the "goat whinny" -- I don't know what else to call it...it was hilarious. Later, we went to meet these goats (see above). After the presentation of the gifts to the family, they showed us the house. It was quite large, as the family had been fairly prosperous before the parents had died. Apparently their neighbors had been kind to them as well. It was a situation where they had just what they needed but no extra. Tumaini has been a godsend as well for the family, keeping Ruth, Annah, and Ndunda in school as well.

We stayed for about an hour and then headed back. I received so many blessings that day. I can't even begin to describe them.

Before I went to Kenya, I selected a postcard at Berean with a verse from Jeremiah 29:11 for Annah and Nthenya -- "for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Both Annah and her sister Ruth really liked that verse and seeing how God worked that week showed me again how there is a plan for each of us...you just have to be open to being the instrument of his works...

almost home

2007-05-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

We've had a wild few days. Good flight out, overnight in Houston with Matt and Danielle (after I got lost getting out of the airport), then off to Austin. Matt and Danielle have two cute doggies (Karma and Kizzie) - and we took them to the dog park for a good run and Danielle gave me a quick tour of the Rice campus where she is working now. Matt has a job with Chevron Natural Gas in downtown Houston. Checking into our hotel in Austin was a ADA nightmare. They originally gave us a so-called Handicapped accessible room that had a bathtub (not a roll-in shower). When Bill tried to use it with the shower chair that they provided he did ok for a while, then Laura and I heard a big crash and found Bill on the floor with two huge welts on his back and the shower curtain and chair on top of him. The darn thing did not fit in the tub, and shot him out onto the floor like a wet fish. My poor husband. Fortunately he was not seriously hurt.

I was hot. Laura cooled me down a little, before I went downstairs to growl. (Something happens to one of my family and the mama lioness comes out...watch out!) I ended up with a new room on the bottom floor (the other one was on the third floor), with the recliner for Bill I had requested, three days comp'ed (only paid for one day) . It may have helped that I took pictures with my cell phone and showed them to the on-duty manager. To cap it off, we had a fire alarm that caused a complete evacuation of the building at 3 am. If we had still been on the third floor, I would not have been able to get him down the stairs (the elevators don't work when there is a fire alarm).

The rest of the weekend was a blur of dinners, parties, barbeques and meeting new people. The hooding and graduation ceremonies were inspiring even to an old social worker like me. I really enjoyed it all, but now we are vegging out back in Houston. Tomorrow, we have to find Laura a car (her old Honda with over 200K miles died about a month ago) and then it's back home Wednesday afternoon. I will be glad even though we have had a good time. The good thing is that we have had really great weather -- in the 70s and 80s, not too much humidity. Other times we have been here in May, we have cooked...I was very happy.

I need to just slow down.,..Whoo eee.....

break

2007-05-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Bill and I are going to Texas tomorrow to visit my son and daughter in law in Houston and then we are all going to Austin for my daughter Laura's graduation from University of Texas School of Social Work. Soooo, all my dear readers, there will be a break in the story. Still to come, the visit to the Mwanzia's home, closing ceremonies and saying goodbye, lunch at Stanley's mother's house, getting stuck twice in the bus, three hour church service in Masii complete with chicken auction, the trip to the game preserve, Ole Kuya and Joel (my Maasai warrior buddies) and the trip home...If I am bored stiff (unlikely with my family) I might write, but otherwise I will return to finish this opus after Texas...probably about 5/24 or so. Take care all...Jean

tumaini complex

2007-05-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

4/25/07 -- late afternoon

I almost forgot one of the most important things we did all week. Wednesday afternoon, after our class, we all went out to the new Tumaini Community Center to see what has been accomplished. The guard building and the first large meeting center has been completed -- cost approximately U.S. $100,000. The building is huge and will serve for large meetings, parties and other events. The next building is to be the health center, for the Tumaini children and the community as well. They will not have to be transported a long distance away if they are sick and they will have a nurse to take care of them. There is also to be a study and conference center with rooms for visitors. It is a grand vision but very attainable. The dollars raised in the U.S. go a long way in Kenya. This center will be a very important step for the community and much good will come of it.

We were accompanied by the local Tumaini Board (see above) and you could see how proud they were of this accomplishment. Several of our group were very impressed with this plan and vowed to help with this project. Not everyone is called to sponsor a child. I was again impressed with the integrity and stability of the Kenyans involved with Tumaini in Masii. They are solid gold people...

Rain has been an issue as I mentioned before. While we were there, the clouds turned black (see the background behind Stanley above) and within a few minutes it was POURING! It turned off as fast as it started, but it was good to see the amount of rain that fell in those few minutes -- it was about as much as we have had all winter here in California!

shopping in Machakos

2007-05-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

4/26/07 - morning

Can you imagine taking 20 kids clothes shopping with only 6 adults to supervise in the United States and a $15 limit each? That is a recipe for chaos and disaster. We did it in Masii in less than three hours without losing a single kid, and everyone was happy.

Thursday morning, we rounded up all the Pathway church-sponsored kids plus the kids who were sponsored by individual Pathway members who were part of the team, took a group picture, then loaded up BOTH vans with kids and as many adults as we could spare, and off we went to Machakos. This in itself was an event, as many of the children had never even been to Machakos, which is about 40 minutes away. They were all delighted with the trip, and behaved very well on the bus -- I don't know what Paul said to them, but everybody was just happy to be going ANYWHERE! The fact that there was a shopping trip at the end was a bonus. The children each had KSH 1000 (Kenya shillings) to spend. Paul told them that this was for clothing, anything they wanted, but that they had to stay within their budget. When we got there, we each took charge of several children, with the older kids helping out. Lazarus, Mutie and Ruth Ndolo are all about 17-19 yrs old and responsible and very helpful. We started with the younger kids and worked up to the older ones. Each child had a shopping basket. Some of the kids ended up with several items of clothing, a shirt, a pair of pants, socks or a skirt and blouse. Two of the older boys had their hearts set on what Janice lovingly called "pimp shoes" -- very shiny pointed toes with a squared off toe. We laughed at them a little, but they were so pleased with themselves, it was hard to tease them too much. The next day was the final program and everyone dressed up, including Paul, and I noticed that he had the same style of shoe. I guess it is popular in their locality. They cost KSH 995. That was all they got, but it didn't matter a bit. They were stylin'!

Annah and her friend bought matching denim skirts and a blouse each. A few of the kids were doing the math on their hands, and we had a hard time convincing them that it was ok to go a "little bit" over (up to 50 shillings), if it was something they really wanted. One little girl bought a very pretty satin dress for church and dress up. At first she didn't know if it was ok, but I asked her if she liked it and she nodded and her eyes glowed, so we said, you can have it. Ruth and I spent about 10 minutes trying to find her a pair of shoes for school -- she is attending catering school and wanted to look nice. She enjoyed talking to me and later took my arm and said that I "was a very nice lady" to help her shop. I think the older girls especially miss having their mothers around to do such things. I know they sure enjoyed just being with us, especially the women. We talked all the way back to Machakos, and she asked me to write to her.

Our group is not particularly young -- most of us in our 40s and 50's, one 38 yr old and one 73 yr old. It was nice to be in a place where we were valued for our years and experience and our grey hair was honored rather than something to be dyed away.

I was continually amazed at the sweetness of these children. So many of them have an underlying sadness that is easy to understand but very little self pity. They depend on God, and each other.

memory books part two

2007-05-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

I mentioned that we did another class on Wednesday afternoon 4/25/07 with another group of kids. It went well - they had a blast.

I also found out what I was supposed to do with the rest of the money I took with me. Ellen of course came to my class, along with her friend Agnes, another Tumaini board member. She is a widow who owns a small hotel in another town close by. We were chatting and she asked me about the children I sponsored - I mentioned Ndunda and that I had met his two sisters and was looking forward to meeting the rest of the family on Thursday. She said, oh, I know that family, do you know about the older brother? Samuel? I said (I knew their names from the conversation with Ruth). She said, oh you know them! He is an amazing young man. She then proceeded to tell me their story. Both the mother and father died in the late 90's. Samuel was barely 17 when his father passed away. He kept the family together, made sure the farm was taken care of, and helped his older sister Mary get through teaching school. He started teaching school, but was not able to continue due to lack of funds, and he owes part of his fees to the school. The three youngest siblings (Ndunda, Annah and Ruth) all have sponsors and are doing very well, but he is too old for a conventional Tumaini sponsorship. The hair stood up on my neck. She had no idea that I had funds to help in some way. After considering everything and discussing the situation with Paul to see if he knew if Samuel was serious about school (he is), I decided to divide the remaining cash between Samuel and Annastacia (correct spelling of her name -- just recently found out) to assist them both in returning to school.

Annastacia will be sponsored with half of the money for about a year and then we will find a sponsor to pick her up (my sister Joan has agreed to do this...). We established a scholarship fund for Samuel with Tumaini and after I got home, I found a couple more sponsors (still could use some more however). Paul agreed to tell Samuel about the decision to set up a scholarship fund for him when we went to visit the house on Thursday 4/26.

It is amazing to see how God is working in this situation.

kerry's class

2007-05-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

4/25/07 - morning

This morning several of us had the wonderful opportunity to sit with the college age girls in Kerry and Janice's grief recovery class. He told us that they were having a hard time getting any discussion going, and that he was not going to give them an option this morning. They had each been given an assignment the night before to complete "My Story" which they were to share with the rest of the group. There were no volunteers to start, so Kerry picked up an empty water bottle and spun it in the middle of the room -- whoever it pointed to had to start!

All the girls finally told their stories, one by one. Some of them were so poignant that it was hard not to cry a little. I sat next to Ruth Mwanzia, the older sister of my sponsored child, Ndunda. She later gave me a copy of her story -- I will share it with all of you...(most of these were listed in a column -- I am stringing them together in sentences).

My Story

My name is Ruth. This is the story about the loss of my parents. I want to tell you about my life before my parents died. At home, I felt happy and joy with my parents. I was secured. I had parental love and care. I had hope. We had lots of fun when all the family members were present. We shared ideas and stories concerning future life. We had unity and togetherness. We lived as a family filled with harmony and peace.

Then my parents died and I felt loneliness, hopeless, stressed, depressed, inferior, embarassed, worthless, sad, uncomfortable, empty, worried, desparate, useless and frustrated.

My story doesn't end there, I was accepted by Tumaini. I felt happy and joy. I thanked and appreciated for what God had done to me. I was optimistic and hence I could visualize my life. I was secured. I was protected and knew that somebody somewhere loved and cared for me.

Now, I am happy. I know that God has a good plan for my life. God has enabled me to pursue in my education. I am hopeful. I have light in my life. I have realized that the death of my parents was God's will.

I am Ruth. Thank you for hearing my story.

At teatime after this class, Ruth brought Annah to see me (see above picture -- Annah is in pink). I had not had a chance to meet her yet. They are both delightful girls, full of cheer and smiles. We will go to visit their home tomorrow afternoon and they are really excited about it. Laureen and Ellen will finish the afternoon class for me (my dear friends).

Speaking of Ellen, I now get a hand slap and double kiss when I see her -- somewhere between Monday and today, we have started calling each other "Sister"--I don't remember who started it.

memory books - the class

2007-05-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

4/24/07 -- mid afternoon

When we returned after lunch, we had a few minutes to prepare and then the 25 kids descended on our room. My other Pathway girls had helped to clean up the room and the desks were arranged in a circle. This school is normally used by high school boys (it is a boarding school) and we were amazed to see electromagnetic theory and formulas written on the chalkboard. Physics! Many of the children have said to me that their science classes are their favorites.

We passed out the books and the kids (all Form 1, approximately the same as 9th grade) looked at them curiously. I started to explain what the idea of the books was -- we felt that each of them was "fearfully and wonderfully made" (one of the Bible verses of the week) and that they were special and unique in God's eyes. The book was for them to record their own thoughts, dreams and wishes and tell special things about themselves, as a memory book to pass along to their own children to tell them how they thought at this age. There were places for pictures, we had many many pens and markers of different colors and stickers which we passed out. I got a lot of blank looks. Ellen told me that 9th graders are just beginning to be taught in English (they can already read and write it) but that they were having trouble understanding my accent! So she explained again in Kikomba -- I started to see heads nodding, and the kids got busy. Some of them were a little afraid to start -- they were not sure what they were supposed to answer. I told them, with Ellen's help, that there was no particular right answer, just what was true and right for each of them.

The hour and a half allotted for the project this day flew by and many of the kids were enthralled drawing detailed pictures and didn't get very far with the written part. We decided to have the kids skip the picture drawing for now (tomorrow's group) and have both groups return Thursday afternoon to finish. We all assisted the kids in understanding the questions, but I found that as soon as they understood, the light would come on and they would immediately have an answer. We took pictures of the kids (see above for a few) and since we had decided not to print them here due to voltage issues, will print them and mail them back to Ellen for the August VBS. She will make sure that each child receives his or her own picture for their book.

Later, it occurred to me that it was possible that these children were never asked these questions and something that we often take for granted may have been an entirely new experience. Some of the kids really enjoyed using the colors -- Michael (see above) decorated his book so beautifully it was a work of art! Many of the kids had incredibly thoughtful responses. Here are some of their responses to some "complete the sentence" questions:

I wonder... why God loves me so much.

I wonder... why my father died.

I wonder... how Americans can love Africans like I so different.

I worry about... my mother and father who loved me much and left me but I am not alone.

I am ...a very funny and storytelling boy!

I am ... active and I love everybody, even my enemies.

One of my big regrets of this trip is that I didn't have time or the resources to make some copies of the books. They were wonderful.

The next afternoon 4/25/07, we repeated the activity with 25 Form 2 kids. They understood me much better and really had a good time with the activity -- they understood immediately what it was about and really got into it. Both groups will return Thursday to work on them some more and the finished books will be handed out Friday morning.

cross cultural counseling

2007-05-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

4/24/07 - late morning
I find that writing about the events of our week in Masii is expanding. I originally thought I would write one post per day, but as I am reliving the time in my mind and reviewing my journal, every section of each day has a story connected with it. While we were in Masii, I told Laureen that something very strange was happening to my sense of time. While we were leading up to the trip, time seemed to fly by and so much had to be done, I was nearly frantic by the time we left. Once we were gone, however, our time was filled with so many new experiences that it seemed to slow down -- very strange. I wrote at one point on 5/24/07 "I can hardly believe that we have only been in Kenya 5 days..." so much has happened. Now, writing about it has had the same effect...

After returning from seeing Nthenya, I went looking for Ellen and Esther told me where she was. I found her in a classroom with a young boy. He had been having terrible nightmares while he was away at a boarding school. Apparently the mother of a friend of his at the school did not wish him well (there is still quite a bit of stigma attached to being the child of an AIDS sufferer), and he believed that she was sending demons to torment him in his sleep. He was very unhappy and said that he is usually fine at home with his relatives. Much of the sadness and fear that bothers the children is related to the grief they suffer with loss of their parents -- the world now seems to be a frightening place without their parents to protect them. As I mentioned before, the theme of this VBS is "God is our Father" which encourages the children to take their fears and worries to God. We encouraged the boy, and prayed for him (we took care of business -- Ellen bound Satan away from him and I lined up angels to protect him!). Ellen told him to pray, read his Bible and sing some songs before he went to bed, to keep good thoughts in his head, and to remember to ask Jesus to protect him from evil - we reminded him that the demons cannot hurt him since he has given his heart to Jesus. He seemed a little brighter when we were done. We would see him again later in the week.

After the session, I told Ellen that a technique I often used with children who were having a recurrent nightmare was to help them plan a way to fight back when the bad thing was happening in their dream, and then tell themselves to "Wake up!" so that they would have some control. She liked this idea very much and we decided that we would tell him about it the next time we talked to him.

It also was interesting to find that in this very Christian country, there is still fear of witchcraft. Ellen says that it is not common, but that this is what she believed was going on with this boy. I found that the people are very spiritual and very aware of the "powers of this world" as the Bible calls them. Spiritual warfare is not a catch phrase to them...it's real.

It is surprising that more of the children are not depressed, or have behavior problems. I attribute this to the structure built into the society for the care of children. Their role is well-defined and their behavior is also. The Tumaini children are the more fortunate ones of the AIDS orphans in Kenya, in that for the most part, their guardians care about them very much. Ellen did say that when they first started the organization, there were some guardians that were unkind to the children, out of fear or misunderstanding of what had happened. Educational sessions have helped increase better treatment of the children.

mother and father

2007-05-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

4/24/07 - morning
Immediately after breakfast today, a few of us made the trip to see the girl I sponsor, Nthenya Mutinda. She was not able to come to VBS this week since she just started back to school, and it was felt that it was more important for her to be in school. I met her pastor yesterday at VBS, and it was arranged by Paul, Jackson and this gentleman that we would pick him up and he would take us to her school, pick her up, return to her home to meet her family and then she could go back to school and we would return to VBS.

As an aside, as Tumaini has grown, it has become necessary for more volunteers to help out in the supervision of the children's welfare. Jackson, Tumaini's chaplain, did it himself for quite a while, but now he supervises a group of volunteers who each keep track of the children in their region. Each child is seen at least once a month, needs are taken care of, school is arranged and paid for as needed. When Jackson saw Nthenya, he immediately noticed that she needed a new sweater. All the children will be receiving new school uniforms soon.

Anyway, off we went. Again we traveled through an area of well-tended shambas and thick hedgerows of tall lantana bushes (a plant which is also very common in California) over incredibly bumpy roads. Nthenya's school room is a 12x12 ft room with benches and a chalkboard and that's it. They were studying English when we arrived to pick her up. She was very shy, and had a little trouble looking at me at first but soon was holding my hand tightly as we walked back to the bus. We didn't say much for a while, but by the the time we arrived at her home she was smiling. Nthenya (pronounced "Then-ya") lives with her grandmother (87) and her grandfather (93), a WWII veteran who fought in Burma, getting deaf, and her uncle, her deceased mother's only sibling. One of her uncle's sons was visiting this week as he is off school. Her uncle has come from Nairobi to care for the farm and look after the grandparents and Nthenya, leaving his family in the city. His wife and other children will not come to the farm. He told me that he is very lonely and misses them very much. He of course feels the duty to take care of his parents, but it is hard on him. Nthenya did not know her father, and her mother is buried behind the small house where she lives with her grandparents. She has another brother (10yrs old), who is also sponsored by Tumaini who was at VBS (I didn't get to meet him).

We chatted with the grandparents with Paul and Jackson interpreting, Nthenya showed me around, and we presented the family with the gifts we had brought. The uncle (I did not get his name or those of the grandparents -- I will though, soon) accepted the gifts on behalf of the family and also thanked us graciously for the support they receive for the children from Tumaini. His eyes were full of tears.

Nthenya told me that she likes science very much, especially biology and that she gets 90's in her science classes. I encouraged her to study hard -- this is what Tumaini encourages the children to do in order to show their sponsors that they appreciate the support they receive.

Before we left, Nthenya took my hands and looked at me and said, "thank you so much for choosing me, you are my mother and father now..." (I nearly lost it on the spot...) I kissed her cheek and told her that I loved her and would pray for her.

Her uncle has a small hardware business in the little town called "Tumaini Hardware" and we gave him a ride back down the road as we left. He sat across from me on the bus and to my surprise, asked me how my family was, how my husband and sister were faring, had my daughter graduated from school yet...

I realized that the letter I had so casually written to the family had been read and re-read by everyone and was treasured. They truly care about me and my family and pray for our well-being all the time. Sponsors are considered to be a valued part of their family. If there is one thing I would tell State-side sponsors (or would-be sponsors) it is that. It seems like a small thing to us, $30 a month is two lunches out, but to these families it makes the difference between a future for these children and poverty.

Have I mentioned recently that "Tumaini" means "Hope" in Kiswahili?

flexibility

2007-05-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

4/23/07 - late afternoon

My favorite Beatitude for Africa is "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape...." We are learning quickly the meaning of "African Time." Time and arrangements for nearly everything are flexible and flow and change as the days and even hours pass.

This afternoon, Laureen and I met with Ellen and Esther to figure out how we would use the memory books we had brought with us. We had originally thought we would take pictures of the children and print them, turns out we would probably burn up Laureen's printer with the , so we will print and send them back to Ellen for the August VBS. We were going to start on Monday afternoon, but that didn't work out, so we will start tomorrow with 25 kids, then another 25 on Wednesday and finish up on Thursday. What amazed me was how gracious they were in accommodating us -- we come in with our "project" and they were very willing to make arrangements for us to do it, and Ellen will come along to help. We had been unsure if something like this would be a fun and interesting thing for the kids to do, but Esther (director of the VBS, a Tumaini staff member), said that everyone would want to do it and that they would have to pick who actually GOT to do it, since we only had enough material for 50. She will get a list of 25 kids and have them in the class for us. More about that when I get to tomorrow, 4/24/07.

Later in the week, I will be seeing the family of Ndunda Mwanzia (see picture). I met him today, he is very shy but sweet and he LOVES his purple shirt. Later in the afternoon, I was tracked down by the older sister of Ndunda (pronouned Dun-da, silent "n"), Ruth Mwanzia. Ruth is an athlete (a runner) and one of the smartest girls in Kenya (according to Stanley). She is 19, speaks excellent English and is now in teacher college. She may eventually come to the United States to study, but right now, is concerned with her family. I will write more about this family in the post on 4/25/07. She is a really nice girl and tells me that her brother (Ndunda) has been slightly brain damaged from a bad case of malaria when he was a small child -- he nearly died -- and their mother did. She says that he is having trouble with English, but is a good boy, and loves the animals and works in the crops at home. I am looking forward to meeting everyone else in the family, she also has a sister Annah (17), who I have written to, a sister Mary (a teacher- 23) and a brother Samuel (25). But we don't know what day yet -- that is still in flux and will probably be until 30 minutes before we leave! They live quite a distance away (about a 45 minute drive), so it will take some additional coordination.

Hakuna matata!! (No worries!) (People actually SAY this here -- the Lion King was probably set in Kenya!)

home visits

2007-05-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

4/23/07 - late morning, early afternoon

The first family we visited was the home of the sponsored child of Mike Pierson's teenage daughter Jackie -- we found them to be a very nice family, and relatively well off, as the area goes. They had an approximately 5 acre "shamba" (not sure if this spelling is correct) which is a subsistence farm where they grow maize, beans, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, pumpkin, papayas, bananas, mangoes and oranges and have chickens, a couple of cows and a few goats. The uncle of the girl proudly showed me around when I told him about my interest in plants and animals and he commented that they were needing rain quite urgently. Later, after the presentation of the food gifts and prayers, I reflected that we had been praying for NO RAIN, selfishly, when they were in desperate need of the rain. There is no irrigation here, as we do in California when it doesn't rain. If it doesn't rain, there is no water. I felt shamed, as we all did, and we started praying for rain for them -- it rained Tuesday night and they said we brought the rain with us...

The next home was the home of Joel, the sponsored child of Jackie and Shawn Grignon. They discovered that there was another child in the home who was not sponsored and they immediately decided to add him to their "family." The parents of these children died, then their grandparents died (very old) and the children were on the street for a period of time. The aunt went looking for them, found them and brought them home with her so they would not suffer on the street. There was quite a large extended family with several houses in the compound including another sister and her daughter. The girl, Anastasia, came up to me, and after I had greeted her with "Huacha" and she said "Ahh" she started to talk to me about the fact that her mother had lost her job (she was obviously ill, very thin -- see the picture) and that she could not go to high school since they did not have the fees. She asked me to find her a sponsor -- she was obviously very bright, she said her goal was to be a neurosurgeon! Her English was exceptionally good for her age (about 14) when most of the kids are writing and reading English, but not speaking it very well yet. I told her that I could not make any promises, but I would do my best.

As some of you know, I took a fairly large sum of donated cash with me to meet any pressing need that I found. Here was a need, but it was barely the first day, so I tucked it away, wrote down her name and sent it to God, and asked for more guidance. I was pretty sure that what I was supposed to do with the money would become clear by the end of the week.

The last house we visited was the home of Mary and Neva, and two other siblings who are sponsored by Debbie Dowding and her husband. You might remember Debbie as the team member who scooped up her little girl off the stage and danced around with her the night before. Now we had a chance to meet the mother and see her home. It was modest but very clean --her husband died of AIDS two years previously, leaving her with three children and a small farm. She struggles along. Ellen knows her well, she goes to her husband's church (Abraham Waila Wambua, Ellen's husband, is a pastor). Mary sometimes comes home late from church and is afraid to cook for her children out in the small outbuilding where she has her charcoal stove because of bandits who frequent the road nearby. It is not safe. We decided to buy her a small parafin (kerosene) stove, that would be safe to use in the house, so she can warm up food and make tea and porridge for the children inside. She is a very sweet lady. We found out later in the week that the children are HIV negative and that they are going to ask her to test, herself. Medicine is available, but she needs to test.

During our bouncy trips between houses, Ellen has given me much information regarding the state of the AIDS epidemic in Kenya and the challenges that are being met. The infection rate has stabilized at about 6%, down from 13% (the other 7% have died) and is not increasing, due to a great deal of education and publicity. Medication is free, and things are getting better, but they are still having a hard time convincing people to test. 300 people a day are still dying, but this is down from a much higher level. She said that poor single women often prostitute themselves to earn money to care for their families and end up infected. This is a huge problem in the Kibera slum in Nairobi.

It's easy to forget why these children are in this state, with their beautiful sweet faces. Behind each face is a story of terrible loss.

first full day of VBS

2007-05-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

4/23/07 -- morning

After breakfast (freshly prepared eggs, rolled pancakes, sausages, fruit and chai tea -- the national drink) we headed out to meet the kids after their first morning session. They get up at about 5, clean up, have a little breakfast and morning devotions, then go to their first class at 9. We rolled in about 9:50 and the younger children were lining up for morning tea, which consisted of a large cup of sweetened milk and tea and a big chunk of bread and butter (3-4inches thick!). Teri and Tom Jakl (our truck driver husband and wife team) joined me and Jackie Grignon in handing out the treat -- to nearly 500 kids! What a job. We went through several huge buckets of hot tea which kept appearing from the kitchen. I really don't have any idea how they did it. The kids didn't look at us much, still shy, but once in a while one would glance up and grin - and then you would see the light, and God's face in the child's eyes...the Jakl's were handing out the buttered bread and got to see first hand what reaction to chronic deprivation looks like. They had extra bread left after everyone had had a piece and when the children realized it, there was a frenzy while the kids nearly pushed them into the wall to get what was left. Teri said afterwards that it scared her a little but she realized that they didn't mean anything by it. The children often still don't know in their hearts where their next meal may come from -- even with sponsorship, which helps a lot, the children are still somewhat underfed (not a chubby one in the lot) and an early experience with chronic hunger is something that creates a need to eat whenever food is available, even if they have already had a good portion. It was sobering and eye-opening.

After everyone had tea, we were to do some home visits. Part of the trip is for the visitors to meet their own sponsored children, and encourage the relatives who take in these orphans. While the sponsorship is a help -- particularly with school fees, medicine and clothing, it cannot pay for everything and the families must do their best to meet the needs of the children. It is vitally important for the relatives to see that the people coming to visit really care about them and their families -- a love gift of corn and wheat flour, beans, corn, cooking oil and other staples is always part of a visit, and is presented with some ceremony, pictures are taken and prayers offered for the visitors, the family and in thanksgiving for the opportunity to share.

Before we left, however, I was able to finally meet Ellen Waila (not Helen -- just the way they pronounce it, with an "h"). Ellen had replied to Laureen and I regarding our "memory book" project with excellent suggestions and I had been looking forward to meeting her since she and I have very similar interests -- I am a social worker who has counseled children and families in the United States' (California) child welfare system for several years, and I know about grief and loss, as many of our children have huge issues with grief, loss and abandonment by their parents, even if they haven't died. These children's parents have mostly died -- they often have nursed them through the illness and now have a certain amount of stigma attached to them as orphans, not unlike our foster children. Ellen has been counseling the Tumaini children for a while now, and I was anxious to hear about her experiences. Meeting her was like finding a long lost sister. I can't remember the last time I had this experience. The picture above says it all. We were instant, and I do mean instant, friends. By the next day we knew we were sisters under the skin -- we have the same heart. (And the same name -- my middle name is Ellen). She decided to come along with us on some visits as she knows most of the children, and actually teaches some of them (her regular job is as a primary teacher, first-third grades).

About a dozen of us headed out with Joseph at the wheel.

We're off to Masii

2007-05-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Church in Nairobi

2007-05-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

4/22/07 - morning
Having successfully negiotiated the time change -- now I know how a baby feels after it is born and has days and nights switched, no wonder they are cranky -- we are ready for the first part of our adventure.

Sunday morning was church in Nairobi - we went to the largest Baptist church in town -- Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC). We arrived early and had our choice of seats (s0 we thought) but it turned out that just like in the States, people sit in the same place week after week and were a little miffed that we had filled up an entire row with white folks! People were nice however, and we were welcomed and introduced.

The service wasn't much different than in a large church at home -- lots of singing, announcements, preaching and so on. We really enjoyed the singing -- many of the songs were familiar to us, old praise tunes from the 80's, with one major difference...some of the songs were in Swahili! Fortunately, Swahili is fairly easy to pronounce, they had the words on slides and we sang along merrily with the rest of the congregation -- the church was full by the time the service started. What a wonderful experience. I think this was a little piece of heaven...

The lay leader shared a story I felt was worth passing on.

The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box. "There are 5 things you need to know," he told the pencil, "Before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.""One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in Someone's hand.""Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you'll need it to become a better pencil.""Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.""Four: The most important part of you will always be what's inside.""And Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write."The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.

Now replacing the place of the pencil with you. Always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best person you can be. One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God's hand. And allow other human beings to access you for the many gifts you possess.Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, by going through various problems in life, but you'll need it to become a stronger person. Three: You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make. Four: The most important part of you will always be what's on the inside.And Five: On every surface you walk through, you must leave your mark. No matter what the situation, you must continue to do your duties.

I loved this story. Afterwards the pastor preached on Philemon, on faith expressed in love. The two together were a perfect message for us before we left to see our children in Masii.

we're home

2007-05-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

We returned home Friday 5/4 after 32 hours on the road and in the air and airports, Nairobi to Heathrow to LAX. What a trip. I am still a little goofy, trying to switch from day to night. This afternoon, I nearly went to sleep standing up. My body is still on Nairobi time (10 hours later). My jetlag theory worked on the way over -- we stayed up the first leg on Virgin Atlantic over night (because it was day in Nairobi), then slept on Kenya Air from Heathrow to Nairobi, arrived in Nairobi at 6:30 am, then stayed up all day as I described in the post I was able to make on 4/21. After that, I was fine for the whole trip. We did the same thing coming back, slept on the Nairobi/Heathrow flight and stayed up on the 10 1/2 hour Virgin Atlantic trip to LAX. I feel ok today (more or less), but the test will be tomorrow...

Well, the best laid plans...as the saying goes. As I half expected, the plan to post to the blog in Kenya was foiled by many glitches -- the only access to a computer with internet that I had was only for brief times while I was in Nairobi, and they charged an arm and a leg and half of your first-born child (sorry Matt, they'll be coming to get you next week...). HEART, where we stayed coming and going from Masii and Maasai Mara (game preserve) had access but it was so slow that I only was able to post once and send a couple of emails.

So. The plan is now to go back through my notes and pictures, sort it out a bit and start posting as if I was there from the beginning of the trip. I still would like to share what happened - the trip was an experience of a lifetime, and I think in retrospect, I will be able to pick out the most significant events. I hope to be able to do a few this week, with a break for our trip to Austin and Houston to see Matt and Danielle and see Laura graduate from University of Texas with her MSW week after next!! (Yay! mom is proud...) I have tons of pictures, some of which I will post here and some on a website TBA as soon as I can.

I hope I will be able to paint a picture for you - the children are beautiful and sweet, the Kenyan adults who work with them are absolutely some of the finest human beings I have ever met in my life, Kenya is a spectacularly beautiful country and I traveled with some wonderful friends, and made many many more (including two Maasai warriors! stay tuned to hear about them!). This will not soon be forgotten -- but it's good to be home.

I am in love with Kenya

2007-04-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

How do you account for love at first sight? Kenya is a truly beautiful place, filled with amazingly charming people. Everyone says "Jambo" or "Welcome" and seems to mean it. We are staying at HEART which is a conference center for AIDS education and which also hosts other mission delegations, delicious meals and comfortable rooms for $35/night and their entire staff is lovely and very gracious.

Adjusting to the time change turned out to be easier than we expected. After yesterday, when there was a resounding crash when the whole bunch of us hit the wall about 3 pm, naps were indulged in and last night most of us slept pretty good. The attitude this morning around breakfast had improved at least 200%. I do feel like I have made the switch. We did stay up the entire first leg of the trip and then some were able to sleep the leg from Heathrow to Nairobi. (by the way, I tried to post here in Heathrow, and was shut out because the site was considered to be "porn-related"... I guess I have a rep -- please be sure to report me if you see porn any where around here!)

There is a very upbeat feeling in the capitol. The country elected a new president two years ago who is cleaning out corruption, has instituted free primary education and is planting beautiful bushes and flowers all over the city, which is actually pretty clean. They haven't done so well with exhaust, very smelly, but the city looks pretty good. I saw Maribou Storks, which have got to be some of the ugliest birds on the face of the earth. There were giraffes in the field next to the airport (a game preserve). It's quite a place.

We have been doing touristy things the last two days, shopping, went to a great cultural center show today with dancing, drumming and other local music and some of the best acrobats I have ever seen. Two of our group members including our pastor Kerry Decker got pulled into the dancing -- it was great blackmail material and good for a wonderful laugh. We also bought two televisions and two DVD players for Tumaini. Paul, who is the local manager of Tumaini, was deliriously happy and nearly popped out of his skin -- he is a delightful person and we enjoyed spending the afternoon with him. We have a driver of our van named Joseph who is amazingly skilled at navigating the crazy traffic -- it's all on the left hand side of the road and lots of traffic circles. I don't watch.

Tomorrow we're off to Masii, after church. We put the Memory Books together tonight and bought supplies today (markers etc.). For those of you who donated, we will be visiting homes this week to see where the money can be used and I will be posting a report when we get back. There is a chance that I will be able to do something from Machakos (next door town), but it is slim. Check this site about the middle of the week.

Love to all.

whooo what a day

2007-04-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the last day before you go on vacation or a big trip everything falls apart? I thought I could avoid it but today at work was CRAAAAZZZZYYYY. Everyone was coming by to say good-bye, people were still giving me money (amazing), my boss was giving me things to do, I had letters to write and the computer letterhead was being really cranky, I had to fax a letter of recommendation to Oklahoma for a former foster parent who is going to social work school and I couldn't get it to go through, my In Box is too full, etc etc etc, you get the picture. Plus a never ending stream of phone calls for a variety of reasons from at least 10 different people.

I think things are under control, though, everything is going to be ok.

I don't know what else to do except pray. Everything is ready, now I am going to commit the whole thing to God. We leave for LAX at 3 pm tomorrow, plane at 8:50.

Love you all, I'm planning to try to write from Heathrow Airport in London. We'll see.

I'm going to miss my garden and my dogs. Everyone else can email me, they can't!

Sunday was significant

2007-04-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

I realized Sunday that I have now let go of control over the trip. All wheels are in motion, bags are mostly packed, I have that tiny short list of "stuff" I still need (I had to pack to find out what it was), we were prayed over at church both in my women's Sunday School class (thank you Mary) and in the service. WE ARE READY...

Now for the really important decisions -- what reading material do I take on the plane, what snacks to pack, do I get an aisle seat? Can I get Internet access at Heathrow?

Also where are my life insurance policies, how will my family pay the bills if need be, what do I want done with what's left of me if something awful happens. I know it's morbid, but leaving Bill 12,000 miles behind made me think about a lot of things I needed to do to make sure he would be ok. Actually, I took care of most of this a couple of weeks ago, but it's still on my mind.

Laureen has finished the layout for the "Memory Book" pages and I think it's going to be just fine. I am praying that the children will enjoy the activity and that it will be something they will remember and treasure for a long time.

I saw Stanley at church and bid him godspeed, and said "See you in Nairobi!"

Whoo hoo! it's almost here....

photo trouble

2007-04-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

After I posted last night, I spent about two hours trying to figure out how to put pictures on the blog while I am away from my own computer. No luck so far. I think I can probably upload them to another website and then insert the URL (I thought I could do this with the Kodak site but no dice). So right now I am not sure whether I will be able to post pictures or not.

What I might do is (if I can) download photos to a webhost and then tell everyone where they are.

If anyone reading this knows how to do this -- let me know!

jet lag management

2007-04-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Oh, the things that I am obsessed with right now. Once I got the itinerary from Laureen, I realized that not only are we in the air for nearly 19 hours, we have a long layover in London and lose 10 hours along the way (since we are going east). Basically, we switch night for day. I have trouble changing to Daylight Savings!

So. Since we are leaving about 9 pm Wednesday our time, that is nearly dawn in London. We are going to sleep late on Wednesday, and stay up all night (except maybe for a short nap). We get to London at 3:30 local time and then we will TRY to stay awake until we get on the plane to Nairobi. That is an overnight, arriving at 6:30 am. Then we stay up all day, until that night. This is supposed to help you make the switch easier. That's the theory. And you're supposed to do all this without caffeine!

Sure.

I can just hear Dr. Phil saying, "So how you think that's gonna work for ya?"

The rain keeps moving forward in the forecast. I don't know whether to believe that thing or not. I think I'll try another weather service. I wonder if the Kenyan weathermen are any better at predicting than our guys.

I am almost packed. How's that for a little OCD....?

rain?

2007-04-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

The 15 day forecast is starting to show some blue sky about half way through the second week. Oh joy!

I really don't care as long as it doesn't rain 24/7.

Of course, more rain means more bugs, as in more mosquitos as in more malaria exposure -- those of you who have read this entire blog know how I feel about parasites....ewwww! Maybe I need two bottles of bug repellent. It's not very hot right now, however, so I don't know if maybe that will keep them down a little. Where ARE my malaria pills? Bed nets are our friends.

It also means more green, more birds and more wildlife..

One week from tomorrow!

peace

2007-04-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

I have come nearly to the end of my multitude of lists, recopied, scratched out, reorganized, redone, retyped and torn up. All that remains is to find a little gift for my kids in Masii and put it all in suitcases. I have everything I need and I have been overwhelmed this past week by the generosity and kindness of my friends and family. Everyday, I hear from another one who either says they will pray for us or sends a check or both. I value the prayers as much as the money. We will be blessed by this trip no matter what happens. Rain, shine or earthquake (do they have earthquakes in Kenya? - I don't care...I'm not afraid of no stinkin' earthquake! we from California! )

After consultation with Stanley, we have discovered that the mission in Masii does not have a television or a boombox of any kind and they have been renting them for each VBS. This is a way that we can really leave something that they will be able to use, so we will shop in Nairobi before we go to Masii. This doesn't mean that we can't meet other needs. After all, there are 12 people going and most of us have love gifts that we are carrying with us to be used as we are led to.

Tonight, I received a text message from a friend of my daughter's who calls me Momma Jean who says "let's get together this week, I have goat-buying money!"

Tyler, you are my favorite "adopted" son.

There is going to be a goat in Kenya named the "Ice Man."

rain

2007-04-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

I knew it was probably going to be rainy while we were in Kenya, but the reality of it set in today. I looked at the 15 day forecast, rain, rain, rain, rain.

I am hoping it is not SOLID rain. I'm ok with showers with a break here and there.

Well, not much I can do about it, is there? I am taking something waterproof to throw over everything and it won't be very cold. I am flexible! The last Beatitude - "Blessed are the Flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape!" I think Jesus would like it....

We're so used to being dry in southern California!

We had a wonderful Easter service today at Pathway with many visitors, great music and a great sermon. After a sad weekend for some personal reasons, it lightened me up considerably.

Thank you, friends.

a kenya letter from Helen

2007-04-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from the last trip our church made to Masii -- I love these little boys.

Today we received a letter from Helen Waila, who is the therapist/social worker for the Tumaini organization in Masii. I had written her last week about our Memory Book idea and encouraged her input. She knows all the kids and knows which ones will be helped by this project. She was encouraging and had a few suggestions for changes (Laureen and I had asked her to review the pages) and I found out some more about our kids. I had been under the impression that most were full orphans with no mother or father (both of our kids do not have either mother or father) but apparently some still have their mothers -- that was good news to me, but many of the mothers are still HIV+. I imagine I will find out more about their reality and their stories when I arrive. Those of us going have discussed not attempting to do things our way except to share fun with the kids (games and so on). I learned in Chile and Peru when we lived there that even though we will be very welcome, it is still their culture and not ours. I am going to learn, and maybe share, but only teach where it is wanted. I do not want to impose.

I asked Stanley at the dinner last week about greetings and who greets whom. He tells me that the older person always greets the younger person, so that we will need to speak to the children first. He also told me what to say, it sounded like "Huacha" and then the other person replies "Ahh" -- I'll see how close I get and if anybody understands me! Good things most of the kids speak some English too! People shake hands and adults do not kiss or hug in public. Adult friends of the same sex hold hands while they walk, and married people do not show affection in public! The children are shy at first but quickly become friendly. So much to think about.

I am starting to get scattered again. Only 12 days left!

I need to make a list. My primary coping skill....

My laundry room is almost done. One less thing to worry about.

April is HERE

2007-04-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

18 days to Kenya.

Packing is starting. Friends who have children they sponsor are asking us about taking gifts. My dear friend Laureen (partner in "crime" and plots) is not feeling well but is going to go on the trip anyway. She has a great attitude and we will just slow down for her. The whole pace of life is much different there anyway, so, no worries! We'll pick her up and carry her if we need to. She must go. She who must be obeyed has spoken. (ha)

Today was spent starting to get my affairs in order. After all, I am going many many miles way aways far away -- that part is just starting to sink in - an 18 hour plane trip. I have trouble flying to Boston. oooohhhhh. My friend Janice gave me some good advice -- she washes her face and brushes her teeth when it is time to "go to sleep" on the plane, she says that sticking to her regular routine helps her settle down -- Makes sense to me. I am listening to all advice and am currently doing research on avoiding jet lag -- actually, not being able to sleep is my biggest worry.

I re-wrote my list this morning. Not so bad. I will accomplish a few things every day, and what doesn't get done, doesn't get done.

We had another beautiful day here -- I spent some time unloading the wonderful load of horse compost from June and discovered the culprits who have been eating my lettuce -- little house sparrows! bird nets were quickly installed to foil the little boogers. They sit on the edge of the garden box and have lunch! Also the paint and linoleum for the laundry room have been picked out -- more progress!

Right now I am counting everything as progress! Now if I can just make sense of my camera, I will be fine.

the picture

2007-03-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

I just posted is WAY too big. Smaller next time. They won't let me remove it!! I love my silly dog, but that picture is out of control. At least I figured out how to do it!

Stanley told me tonight that there is internet access in the next little town over (about 30 minutes away), Machakos, so I might be able to post at least once or twice while we are in Masii -- otherwise I will post before and after we go, from Nairobi. Here's a link to the weather in Machakos http://wwwa.accuweather.com/world-index-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&locCode=AFRKEKE003MACHAKOS&metric=0

a little better

2007-03-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

We had our pre-trip Kenyan dinner tonight at Stanley and Rose's house. Very delicious meat stew with vegetables, little packets of fried dough with meat inside, a very good tomato salad, and several other delicious dishes. We also picked up several bags each of toiletries that the staff at Hope University in Fullerton collected for the children and since we are all taking two suitcases, we are each filling one with these extra things for the kids. Rose and Stanley are delightful people, very happy and joyous, and are an inspiration. They are truly an example of the difference one or two people can make and they have reached out to many people in southern California and Arizona. Tumaini now has sponsors for over 500 children. Here's the website for anyone who is interested in what they are doing. www.tumainiinternational.org

When Bill and I got home, the moon was coming up. It was full, and it occurred to me that the next time I see it full will be in Masai Mara on safari...pretty cool.

I built my rock tower (my Ebenezer stone) today. (4-6-07 -- I finally took a picture and added it to the blog -- see above)

I still feel like time is going faster and faster but I did make a little progress today. Once I get to the airport, there will be no watch, no worries and I will be in the moment.

Tomorrow is April!!

confusion

2007-03-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

I have had the most awful week. Much confusion everywhere. My lists keep getting longer instead of shorter. The time is slipping away.

At home we are having the laundry room redone (the laundry room?). People take for granted the ability to do laundry at home. Due to very old plumbing in this old house of ours, wash water frequently overflows in places you would rather not know about, making doing wash at home virtually impossible. After nearly 5 years of laundromat visits and waiting for the promised sewer line -- I have given up and we are installing a "grey line" to put the wash water into a sump in the ground where it will water a lovely tree. This will improve our quality of life enormously. But in the meantime, everything is torn up, decisions about the floor and paint need to be made and a new washer and dryer must be bought.

All of this added on to travel preparations, the training I am doing for work, gardening, cooking and doctor appointments. It goes on and on. I am feeling as if I am swirling in a drain trying to grab the edge of the sink and my hands keep slipping off.

Things are starting to get lost. I can't find the accessories for my camera. I think I left them at work but I don't know. I still haven't been able to figure out how to post pictures to this blog.

I need to get a grip.

Maybe tomorrow.

rock towers

2007-03-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

I got a letter from one of the children I sponsor today. Ntenya is 14, lives with her grandparents and has lost both her mother and father. Sometimes in the excitement of the process of getting ready to leave, I forget why we are going and who we are going to see. It was hard to lose my parents when I was nearly 50, imagine what it would be like at 10 or 12, and to see everyone around you losing their parents too, maybe even having to nurse them through the end. We can't even imagine what they have been through.

On another less somber note, my flowers are starting to bloom and I think I am going to miss the best part of the spring show. Ranunculus are beautiful, I don't know why I never planted them before. I also planted cucumbers, tomatoes and squash this past weekend, and some zinnia seeds in six packs. I hope we don't have any cold snaps to set them back....

I am going to build a rock tower (idea compliments of my old school friend Claudia) to mark the occasion of this trip. Anybody remember Ebenezer stones?

I took a drive with my Weimaraner Athena tonight to get the car washed (there she is taking a nap - her favorite evening activity, her after-dinner-pre-bedtime cookie nap). She loves going anywhere with me and is happiest when she can see me or my sister anywhere near her. A closed door is a challenge.

We take so much for granted. Life is good.

suitcase anxiety dream

2007-03-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

I bought suitcases a couple of weeks ago - the whiz-bang spinner kind. The next morning before I woke up, I found myself in a hotel room trying to pack. My friend who was with me kept pointing at the clock saying "it's 10:45, it's 10:45!" and I knew the plane was leaving at 11:00! I kept trying to pack, and I couldn't get everything in, then I couldn't get the suitcase closed. This went on and on until I woke up laughing....

my gear is here!

2007-03-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I spent hours on the web researching and buying my "stuff" for this trip. Monday and Tuesday it all came. First was the new Bible I bought with LARGE print -- what a wonder. My only concession to being 58. Turned out it weighs too much to take on the trip, so I will suffer along with the next best thing I can find...Next was the bird book I got for Kenya and Tanzania. It is amaaazinng...I had forgotten what tropical diversity is like. There are literally hundreds of species of birds in the area. I will be lucky if I see even a few of them -- well, my life list should grow at least a little. We will be in the Kenyan Highlands, and the weather has been wet, so I am hopeful to see many wonderful things. I already have some pretty funky bizarre birds on my life list from the time we were in Chile and Peru, including Andean Condors, several species of penguins, a solid green hummingbird the size of a small robin from Bolivia and the pato corta corriente, a duck which runs on the surface of rocky rushing streams, so this should be fun to see what else I can see - ostriches? that would be very cool. I also got a self inflating sleeping mat -- bad hips. I am an extremely cranky person if I don't sleep well. Ask my family. I have been in too many horrible motels with hard beds. This is just self protection. But the most beautiful thing I got is my new digital camera -- I haven't had a good camera since the Peace Corps Nikons and all the lenses etc we had were stolen from our house in the 1980's. It is simple, mostly just point and shoot, I got a big memory chip and rechargeable batteries and I am already playing with it -- the 5x zoom is the best part! I have been taking and erasing pictures for two days. The first set of batteries is nearly dead and I haven't even downloaded a picture yet!

ha

2007-03-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

I seem to be obsessed with the wonderful array of parasites I will be exposed to. I just realized that I wrote the last two entries about the same thing...

things are getting serious

2007-03-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

I spent the last two weeks spending money -- a camera, a sleeping mat (for hard beds, you don't want to be around me if I can't sleep!), all the odds and ends you need in the way of bug repellent, etc. Finally, the day for my shots arrived. I think this actually was the thing that made me realize, that, yes, I am going to another place, a very long ways away from here. Four shots, including yellow fever, and malaria pills. As I recently mentioned to a friend, I took a parasitology class in college which gave me a healthy respect for the myriad of nasty little critters which can make you sick in tropical countries -- malaria is just one of the more well known of them. There are any number of nasty worm diseases that just make me ill thinking about them. You bet I will not be eating anything I can't peel or cook, and staying out of any bodies of water. Fortunately I have had several years of practice from the time we lived in Chile and Peru, both of which had their own set of creepy diseases -- hepatitis, sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) -- passed by "kissing bugs", hydatid cyst disease....the last one is particularly ugly...it is a tapeworm disease that normally gets passed back and forth between sheep dogs and sheep, but if a person becomes a secondary host, huge cysts may form in any part of your body with hundreds of tapeworm heads (only heads) in them. It makes me nauseous just to think about it. I never touched a dog the whole time we were in Chile.

aaaaahhhhh!

2007-03-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

I had the unnerving experience of realizing all of a sudden that time is ticking away -- 42 days to go before we leave! And I have a million things to do -- collect my clothes, buy supplies, get a camera, etc etc. My list is nearly a page long and of course Laureen didn't help by adding several things to it that I had forgotten. Nevertheless, it is hard for me to contain my excitement and I am afraid that I am boring people with my enthusiasm. One of the first things to do was scheduling the dreaded shots -- yellow fever, tetanus, Hep B and one more which I can't remember. We have to take malaria pills too. Unfortunately, as an undergrad biology major at UCR years ago, I took a parasitology class which made me very cautious when I travel -- there are lots of nasty buggies out there (the protozoan parasites such as malaria are just gross, not to mention the various types of worm-related diseases, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, etc -- just ugly stuff). I don't eat anything I can't peel or cook. Bill and I made it through three and a half years in South America and the only bad thing we (actually I) had was amoebas in Columbia -- it was enough to convince me to behave. No ice or lettuce for me...

Bill

2007-03-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

Going to Kenya without Bill has been a hard thing to do. I agonized for a couple of weeks last September before I even asked him. I had to decide for myself that I really wanted to go. Once I did ask him, of course he said yes. We travelled all over South America together in the 70's but have not been any where since we came back from Peru in 1981. He is no longer able to do the difficult trips (like this one) due to his MS and the wheelchair, but you KNOW he will be there with me in spirit -- and I am going to take lots of pictures! It was actually much harder for me to decide to go without him than it was for him to say yes. I will miss him, we used to have a great time travelling. At least this time I will have my Pathway girls -- Laureen, Debbie, Janice, and Teri -- and watch out Nairobi, here we come!

Memory books

2007-03-03T14:53:00.000-08:00

Laureen (left) and I (right) have been matched as "co-mentors" and are also planning to go to Kenya together. We are sure this is a "God-thing" -- listen to the circumstances. Laureen has been one of my "gold" friends for about 20 years, our kids know each other and we have been at Pathway forever. However, she and I do different things and we don't always get to spend much time together, but everytime we have time to sit down and really talk we don't have to explain anything -- we both know each other's history and we pick right up where we left off. A few months ago, after we decided to go to Kenya, we both ended up on the steering committee for the Women's Mentoring Ministry at Pathway. Long story short, after everyone had been prayed over and matched, Laureen and I were left. We just kind of looked at each other and giggled -- and just said, ok, if this is what you want, Lord, there must be a reason...Turns out that over the past few years, Laureen has been leading people in a grief recovery program and I have had a lot of interaction through my child welfare job with children who have suffered much grief and loss because of their families' dysfunction. We decided to do something along these lines for the children of Tumaini and after several brain storming sessions came up with the idea of memory books to help these children remember their parents who now have been lost to them. We will take pictures, help the children write stories about their parents and what they remember so they won't forget. Children often are able to deal with loss better than adults, but we would like to help them remember the good things about their parents. Full blown grief counseling is not practical for the one week we will be there, but we would like to leave them with something concrete. Both Laureen and I get into trouble if we don't have anything to do...

countdown

2007-02-27T22:24:00.000-08:00

This is a new venture, writing for the whole world...I want to share the experience and excitement of this time in my life with my friends and family. Tonight I am just setting this up but plan to continue writing as we prepare for the 16 day trip that we have planned to visit our sponsored children in Masii, Kenya from 16 April to 4 May. It is hard to put into words the feelings I have about this whole trip. I know I am not the first person to take a trip like this and it is not the first time in my life that I have done something like this (Bill and I were Peace Corps Volunteers in Chile after all from 72-75) but it is the first time I have done it without Bill and it feels like I am going to outer space -- it has been so long since we left the states that I just don't even know how to feel. I can hardly wait.