Hello everyone
It's been about a week since our last blog, and we're over a week and a half behind in our writing, goodness! Sorry for the delay, we're now under three weeks left here and our days are flying by at a 100 miles per hour.
I'm going to skip writing about Thika because we were there for a women's conference, and for obvious reasons I had little role in the event. I'll let the girls tell you about it.
We're here in Makueni now and its great to be here. The two and a half weeks preceding our time here had schedules that drained us physically and spiritually. Makueni has breathed a lot of wind back into our sails, our first day here was monday and like we have for the rest of the summer, we spent it in prayer and fasting. This week was different though because we prayed with the local pastors fellowship, and after an entire week with ~80 women, lets just say it was great to be around other Y chromosomes worshiping God. Even for Kenya, these pastors are full of joy, and also so full of life...its contagious, which is exactly what we needed after those draining weeks.
As we drove through the rural landscape and town to get here to Makueni (very rural and dry) I half expected to see John Wayne walk out of one of the general stores and hope on his horse and ride off into the sunset. speaking of sunsets, they're very pretty out here. There isn't a plant out here that isn't covered in spines, thorns or stickers of some sort. Yesterday I got a thorn stuck in my finger somehow? The river here is completely dry except for a couple of small springs and the "dirt" is very sand like, most of the plants aren't very big except for the MASSIVE Baoba trees. They're huge, just massive.
Um...back to the people. Like I said it's quite rural, theres a big demon presence and a lot of witchcraft here. The people here stare at you if you're white. Molly Ray put it best when she said that when we're in Nairobi, we celebrities, and here we're aliens. Its kid of creepy to be honest, yesterday I felt like a caged animal with the number of kids that gathered around me from a distance and stood there and gawked at me. yesterday we held a conference on the importance of saving and the forming of Co-ops. Molly Ray taught on saving and gave some biblical context for the session and Commander Ponton taught about Co-ops. Then a kenyan taught about more stuff but he spoke in swahili so we don't have the slightest clue what he said.
Pray for us that we finish strong and for the eventual transition home
Sam and the Mi2's
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
part of our samburu experience
Woah. It’s been a while since we’ve blogged. We’re currently just outside of Thikatown (~1hr outside of Nairobi). We’re here to help with a women’s conference that is being hosted by a team from the women’s ministry at Southeast Christian Church. We arrived here Sunday night after being picked up from Samburu.
I apologize now for the scatteredness of this blog. The time we had in Samburu was busy and we all have many, many stories that have come out of it. I’m going to do my best to capture as much as I can in this post, but the girls will have to supplement it with their own stories.
Samburu…wow. What a week. I’ve yet to figure out if the place we were at was actually called Samburu, but we were in the area of the Samburu tribe, and the mission we stayed at was called the Segera mission. The closest city was Nanyuki, but the only way to get there was on 4-wheel drive through the rocky/dusty country roads.
If you want to get a visual image of where we stayed, picture this: the lion king with a big barn like building and some smaller one-story buildings. It was rural and rustic. The area outside of the mission is very different from what we had experienced to this point. First off Segera is not a partner of LIA, so we didn’t have an LIA organized program/field oriented staff member to come alongside. We got to experience a more traditional mission during our time there. Segera operates a medical clinic that is the only medical facility for 400 square miles. Two nurses operate it, and they have help this summer from three American students (one medical student and two nursing students), and us while we were there.
It was an intense week for many of us, but it was a good week. We really felt like we were on a short term mission, which was really different for us. The climate was semi-arid, sort of desert like; all the soil was more dust than actual soil. It was as warm as Kisumu during the day and colder than Nairobi at night, (about 90 during the day and 40s-50s at night). The stars and moon were so clear at night, it was incredible; the cold made it unpleasant to lie out and watch them like we did in Kijabe (details to follow in another post, we went to kijabe before we came to samburu). Story time:
Like I said, the mission has a medical clinic and several of us spent a good amount of time in it. Our first day at the mission had a time for home visits (our specialty), so we split into two groups and went to two locations. My group (Rayray, Commander Ponton, Myself and Jayne (LIA Staff that came with us)) went to visit a widow who was living in a mud hut with a grass roof. The home was tilting quite badly, and was propped up by a log on one side. We took tea with the homeowner who shared her story with us. Unfortunately I remember few details of her life, but like many of the people in the area, struggled with tribal traditions. After taking tea, she showed us the inside of her home. It was a one-room building, and typical of homes the cooking fire was kept inside the home which had no chimney. We then took some time to visit her two neighbors. One of the neighbors turned out to be a pastor who had worked at the mission as a night guard for 7 years before resigning to become a full time pastor. We visited him (Tony) and his wife (Phyllis) and heard how, in addition to pastoring a church of 150, they had just begun their own real estate business. They both spoke fluent English, and Phyllis looked to be about 6 months pregnant (turns out she wasn’t). After the home visit, we got a tour of the mission from it’s director, Richard. He showed us the place and gave us all sorts of fun facts about where it’s come from and what his vision is for the future. When he was showing us the water cleaning system, I took a short gander at the source of the water (Filthy river is putting it lightly) and was informed by Richard that the tall grass I was standing in happens to be home to some spitting Cobras. I thought he was joking at first, then I realized that he never jokes and ran out of the grass faster than I ever have in my life. We took dinner in the dining hall, and during that time a mother getting ready to deliver came in. The nurse helped her get settled and we continued on with our night. Sawyer and Emily (one of the other nursing students previously mentioned) helped Samuel (the clinic nurse) with everything while we waited long into the night for the baby to come. At 12:03 am the baby came, and it came in a hurry, I barely made it in before it was out. It was a baby boy and surprise, the mom was Phyllis. Turns out she wasn’t six months pregnant, she was full term! Went to bed a few hours later.
The next day Katie Lane and I were in the Clinic. There are a lot of cases of water related illness, and lots of coughs. When you constantly have a fire going in a house with no chimney, you’re going to have a cough. Another common condition is thorn sticks. Everything that has leaves in this area also has thorns, big ones. On this day, a girl came in with a two inch thorn stuck under the skin in her head. I have no idea how it got there, but it was buried in there. With no anesthetic we had to remove this thorn or risk a life threatening infection from it. The girl was about 10 years old and tough as nails, but it took three of us to hold her still enough to get this thing out. I had to hold her head down in my lap so she couldn’t squirm there, her grandmother held her legs, and the missions mechanic had to hold her arms while Samuel did his thing with a scalpel and needle and Katie wiped up all the blood and pulled the thing out. Ouch. After we got the thorn out, the girl sat up and looked like nothing had even happened to her. The next day, we repeated with another girl who had one stuck in her foot, similar story.
There are so many water borne illnesses from the river and a nearby dam. Apparently a team of engineers from the US came out sometime in the past to examine the water from those places and determined that if they were in the US, a human being wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it. It’s ripe with E. Coli, Typhoid and all sorts of pesticides and other pollution. The mission offers clean water for free but not everyone takes advantage of it. Apparently, many people like the taste of the river water because it tastes sweet, and there’s also a traditional tribal history of drinking from the river.
Tribal traditions are prevalent in the way of life in the area, which really isn’t good for the women. Common traditions are female circumcision and full FGM. Girls as young as 7 (usually 12) are married off for their dowries. Women are also the source of income as the men just sit around all day. I can count the number of men I saw outside the mission on one hand, all sitting on the side of the road doing nothing. In this area, wealth is measured in livestock (cattle, sheep and goats). It’s really the only industry out there (90% unemployment, really puts our 10% in perspective), though there needs to be a paradigm shift for that to change.
Another cultural difficulty we saw involved a 10-year-old boy. He had a badly injured right knee, which prevented him from walking. It was swollen and it looked like his patella was not in the right place, but we couldn’t be sure of anything. What is sure, is that the treatment of his injury at the hospital in Nanyuki cost about 600 Kenya Shillings. His father said he didn’t have the money to pay for it and expected the mission to pay for the treatment of the child’s injury. Here’s the problem with said proposal: he had more sheep and goats than we could count…well over 100, probably closer to 300. Selling one adult sheep would have garnered about 2,500 Kenya Shillings. Two cultural issues, 1. Livestock are more valuable than children in this area. 2. Even though he had plenty, he still thought he was poor.
Much more to come
Sam and the Mi2s
I apologize now for the scatteredness of this blog. The time we had in Samburu was busy and we all have many, many stories that have come out of it. I’m going to do my best to capture as much as I can in this post, but the girls will have to supplement it with their own stories.
Samburu…wow. What a week. I’ve yet to figure out if the place we were at was actually called Samburu, but we were in the area of the Samburu tribe, and the mission we stayed at was called the Segera mission. The closest city was Nanyuki, but the only way to get there was on 4-wheel drive through the rocky/dusty country roads.
If you want to get a visual image of where we stayed, picture this: the lion king with a big barn like building and some smaller one-story buildings. It was rural and rustic. The area outside of the mission is very different from what we had experienced to this point. First off Segera is not a partner of LIA, so we didn’t have an LIA organized program/field oriented staff member to come alongside. We got to experience a more traditional mission during our time there. Segera operates a medical clinic that is the only medical facility for 400 square miles. Two nurses operate it, and they have help this summer from three American students (one medical student and two nursing students), and us while we were there.
It was an intense week for many of us, but it was a good week. We really felt like we were on a short term mission, which was really different for us. The climate was semi-arid, sort of desert like; all the soil was more dust than actual soil. It was as warm as Kisumu during the day and colder than Nairobi at night, (about 90 during the day and 40s-50s at night). The stars and moon were so clear at night, it was incredible; the cold made it unpleasant to lie out and watch them like we did in Kijabe (details to follow in another post, we went to kijabe before we came to samburu). Story time:
Like I said, the mission has a medical clinic and several of us spent a good amount of time in it. Our first day at the mission had a time for home visits (our specialty), so we split into two groups and went to two locations. My group (Rayray, Commander Ponton, Myself and Jayne (LIA Staff that came with us)) went to visit a widow who was living in a mud hut with a grass roof. The home was tilting quite badly, and was propped up by a log on one side. We took tea with the homeowner who shared her story with us. Unfortunately I remember few details of her life, but like many of the people in the area, struggled with tribal traditions. After taking tea, she showed us the inside of her home. It was a one-room building, and typical of homes the cooking fire was kept inside the home which had no chimney. We then took some time to visit her two neighbors. One of the neighbors turned out to be a pastor who had worked at the mission as a night guard for 7 years before resigning to become a full time pastor. We visited him (Tony) and his wife (Phyllis) and heard how, in addition to pastoring a church of 150, they had just begun their own real estate business. They both spoke fluent English, and Phyllis looked to be about 6 months pregnant (turns out she wasn’t). After the home visit, we got a tour of the mission from it’s director, Richard. He showed us the place and gave us all sorts of fun facts about where it’s come from and what his vision is for the future. When he was showing us the water cleaning system, I took a short gander at the source of the water (Filthy river is putting it lightly) and was informed by Richard that the tall grass I was standing in happens to be home to some spitting Cobras. I thought he was joking at first, then I realized that he never jokes and ran out of the grass faster than I ever have in my life. We took dinner in the dining hall, and during that time a mother getting ready to deliver came in. The nurse helped her get settled and we continued on with our night. Sawyer and Emily (one of the other nursing students previously mentioned) helped Samuel (the clinic nurse) with everything while we waited long into the night for the baby to come. At 12:03 am the baby came, and it came in a hurry, I barely made it in before it was out. It was a baby boy and surprise, the mom was Phyllis. Turns out she wasn’t six months pregnant, she was full term! Went to bed a few hours later.
The next day Katie Lane and I were in the Clinic. There are a lot of cases of water related illness, and lots of coughs. When you constantly have a fire going in a house with no chimney, you’re going to have a cough. Another common condition is thorn sticks. Everything that has leaves in this area also has thorns, big ones. On this day, a girl came in with a two inch thorn stuck under the skin in her head. I have no idea how it got there, but it was buried in there. With no anesthetic we had to remove this thorn or risk a life threatening infection from it. The girl was about 10 years old and tough as nails, but it took three of us to hold her still enough to get this thing out. I had to hold her head down in my lap so she couldn’t squirm there, her grandmother held her legs, and the missions mechanic had to hold her arms while Samuel did his thing with a scalpel and needle and Katie wiped up all the blood and pulled the thing out. Ouch. After we got the thorn out, the girl sat up and looked like nothing had even happened to her. The next day, we repeated with another girl who had one stuck in her foot, similar story.
There are so many water borne illnesses from the river and a nearby dam. Apparently a team of engineers from the US came out sometime in the past to examine the water from those places and determined that if they were in the US, a human being wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it. It’s ripe with E. Coli, Typhoid and all sorts of pesticides and other pollution. The mission offers clean water for free but not everyone takes advantage of it. Apparently, many people like the taste of the river water because it tastes sweet, and there’s also a traditional tribal history of drinking from the river.
Tribal traditions are prevalent in the way of life in the area, which really isn’t good for the women. Common traditions are female circumcision and full FGM. Girls as young as 7 (usually 12) are married off for their dowries. Women are also the source of income as the men just sit around all day. I can count the number of men I saw outside the mission on one hand, all sitting on the side of the road doing nothing. In this area, wealth is measured in livestock (cattle, sheep and goats). It’s really the only industry out there (90% unemployment, really puts our 10% in perspective), though there needs to be a paradigm shift for that to change.
Another cultural difficulty we saw involved a 10-year-old boy. He had a badly injured right knee, which prevented him from walking. It was swollen and it looked like his patella was not in the right place, but we couldn’t be sure of anything. What is sure, is that the treatment of his injury at the hospital in Nanyuki cost about 600 Kenya Shillings. His father said he didn’t have the money to pay for it and expected the mission to pay for the treatment of the child’s injury. Here’s the problem with said proposal: he had more sheep and goats than we could count…well over 100, probably closer to 300. Selling one adult sheep would have garnered about 2,500 Kenya Shillings. Two cultural issues, 1. Livestock are more valuable than children in this area. 2. Even though he had plenty, he still thought he was poor.
Much more to come
Sam and the Mi2s
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
we're alive
hello faithful followers
we're in the sticks of africa right now. It's a small miracle that I've found this internet signal. We're alive and well, don't expect a blog post until sunday at the earliest. pray for safe travels as we drive around. we're currently at the segera mission serving the samburu people. it's crazy cool. sawyer and I saw a baby born last night, and katie lane is helping the delivery of another as I write this. lots of stories to tell soon. love you all. don't forget about us.
Sam and the Mi2s
we're in the sticks of africa right now. It's a small miracle that I've found this internet signal. We're alive and well, don't expect a blog post until sunday at the earliest. pray for safe travels as we drive around. we're currently at the segera mission serving the samburu people. it's crazy cool. sawyer and I saw a baby born last night, and katie lane is helping the delivery of another as I write this. lots of stories to tell soon. love you all. don't forget about us.
Sam and the Mi2s
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
God Moments
Hearken back to a time when the Mi2’s were accompanied by two teams from Southeast Christian Church. This was our first week in Kisumu. If you remember back to this, you’ll know that we spent a great deal of our time doing home visits to community members to encourage them and hear their story. On one such visit, my team visited a long widowed grandmother who was caring for four of her grandchildren, whose mother had died from AIDS. Three of her grandchildren are HIV positive and are young. When we entered her home, we saw one of her granddaughters sitting up on a bed crying from pain. She is HIV positive, looks to be about 9 years of age, and her legs are so thin that it makes her knees look like abnormally bulbous. She has spent the last month at home out of school, and the preceding month in the hospital but was sent home because they weren’t able to heal her. The grandmother hasn’t been able to run her business for two months because she has had to care for the granddaughter. We heard the family’s story, and prayed for healing and provision, and went to the next home. Four days later on Sunday morning, before Nicole preached, the congregation of 14 was asked if there were any answers to prayer that came during the week. Nicole and I are sitting in the seats of honor in the front row, so we can’t see who’s coming up the aisle, but to our surprise we see this girl and her grandmother come to the front of the church. The girl is walking under her own power and is experiencing zero pain. What an answer to prayer.
I know some of you may be wondering what else has happened in the time that passed between our prayers and that Sunday morning, and the honest truth is I don’t know. But let me ask you this: is it really that difficult to believe that there is a God capable and caring enough to do such a thing as to heal a little girl? I know I believe him to be real and even if he didn’t heal the girl and some new medication did, I believe he could and would. If you don’t agree with me, I’m sure you have your reasons for believing such, but I hope that someday you’ll see as I do that there is indeed a God that is that wonderful.
Fast forward to last night. Several weeks ago, I mentioned to the Mi2 team that I was interested in being baptized here in Africa. To my surprise, the idea was echoed by a number of team members. So on Saturday we asked the pastor of our “home church.” If he would be willing to baptize us this week before we leave for our next adventure. He agreed to if he could give us a lesson on the power of baptism beforehand. Last night five us (Myself, Molly Ray, Molly Russell, Elise Omi and Kate Sawyer) received our lesson on baptism and were killed and raised again in the pool of our guesthouse complex. The water was cold, but it worked out fine.
Today we went into Kibera again, we were split into two groups. One group went to a school to play with kids and love them. The other group, pair really (Myself and Molly Ray) did a home visit to a CHE (Community Health Evangelist). Our home visit was atypical compared to our previous experiences in the homes of the community. This one was far less structured and was more conversational than our previous ones. The woman we visited was not a widow, her husband is still living and is actually the pastor of one of the churches in the community. Her name is Mercy, and speaks amazing English. To keep this story shorter, I’ll leave our some of the smaller details. They have two children, seven and three years old, and live in a concrete home the size of my bedroom with her sister, two other children and another woman. Mercy’s business has been out of commission since she has run out of capital due to the recent spike in inflation and high oil prices (which cause the cost of goods to shoot through the roof). We sat and talked about many things, including some of the difficulties of life in the slum. One of these difficulties is the ever-changing price of water and of course the limitations that come with poverty. Nearly three hours into the conversation, Mercy goes out to get us Coca-cola, and comes back with a liter of Coke and some dinner rolls.
Now, so far in this internship, I have held hands ever so lightly with another man, had to lead a church in a worship song, preached, been put on the spot to speak publicly more times than I can count, and countless other awkward moments. However, nothing has come close to making me as uncomfortable as I felt when Mercy offered us the refreshments. Having to watch someone give up a need of their own to provide you with a luxury is something so backwards and uncomfortable in our culture and lives. We had just finished listening to Mercy explain the difficulties of how her business has gone under and how she’s trying to pay her school fees, her sisters school fees, her children’s school fees and live off of her husbands earnings (which are little). To top it all off, she gave us the water that she had just finished explaining the unpredictable price of, to us to wash our hands before we drank and ate. When you’re put in a situation like this, you don’t dare turn down their offer even if you know they might not eat later because they’ve given you the resources for these refreshments. It’s a huge honor for them to host us Mzungus, so you have to accept the offer. It’s a kind of love and generosity that I admit, I’m not sure I’d be so willing to replicate. It’s one of those forms of love, sacrificial, that tells you that you mean something important to these people. And we’ve only just met them. It’s been said that we accept the love we think we deserve, and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t think I deserve this kind of love. Watching someone else go hungry because they hosted you, I can’t even describe it. After I had finished my glass of Coke, she refilled it with what I had assumed would have been her portion. It was never going to be her portion, it was always intended for us. Mercy was willing to give from something she had no excess of; perhaps we could all learn something from her.
-Nabii (Sam)
I know some of you may be wondering what else has happened in the time that passed between our prayers and that Sunday morning, and the honest truth is I don’t know. But let me ask you this: is it really that difficult to believe that there is a God capable and caring enough to do such a thing as to heal a little girl? I know I believe him to be real and even if he didn’t heal the girl and some new medication did, I believe he could and would. If you don’t agree with me, I’m sure you have your reasons for believing such, but I hope that someday you’ll see as I do that there is indeed a God that is that wonderful.
Fast forward to last night. Several weeks ago, I mentioned to the Mi2 team that I was interested in being baptized here in Africa. To my surprise, the idea was echoed by a number of team members. So on Saturday we asked the pastor of our “home church.” If he would be willing to baptize us this week before we leave for our next adventure. He agreed to if he could give us a lesson on the power of baptism beforehand. Last night five us (Myself, Molly Ray, Molly Russell, Elise Omi and Kate Sawyer) received our lesson on baptism and were killed and raised again in the pool of our guesthouse complex. The water was cold, but it worked out fine.
Today we went into Kibera again, we were split into two groups. One group went to a school to play with kids and love them. The other group, pair really (Myself and Molly Ray) did a home visit to a CHE (Community Health Evangelist). Our home visit was atypical compared to our previous experiences in the homes of the community. This one was far less structured and was more conversational than our previous ones. The woman we visited was not a widow, her husband is still living and is actually the pastor of one of the churches in the community. Her name is Mercy, and speaks amazing English. To keep this story shorter, I’ll leave our some of the smaller details. They have two children, seven and three years old, and live in a concrete home the size of my bedroom with her sister, two other children and another woman. Mercy’s business has been out of commission since she has run out of capital due to the recent spike in inflation and high oil prices (which cause the cost of goods to shoot through the roof). We sat and talked about many things, including some of the difficulties of life in the slum. One of these difficulties is the ever-changing price of water and of course the limitations that come with poverty. Nearly three hours into the conversation, Mercy goes out to get us Coca-cola, and comes back with a liter of Coke and some dinner rolls.
Now, so far in this internship, I have held hands ever so lightly with another man, had to lead a church in a worship song, preached, been put on the spot to speak publicly more times than I can count, and countless other awkward moments. However, nothing has come close to making me as uncomfortable as I felt when Mercy offered us the refreshments. Having to watch someone give up a need of their own to provide you with a luxury is something so backwards and uncomfortable in our culture and lives. We had just finished listening to Mercy explain the difficulties of how her business has gone under and how she’s trying to pay her school fees, her sisters school fees, her children’s school fees and live off of her husbands earnings (which are little). To top it all off, she gave us the water that she had just finished explaining the unpredictable price of, to us to wash our hands before we drank and ate. When you’re put in a situation like this, you don’t dare turn down their offer even if you know they might not eat later because they’ve given you the resources for these refreshments. It’s a huge honor for them to host us Mzungus, so you have to accept the offer. It’s a kind of love and generosity that I admit, I’m not sure I’d be so willing to replicate. It’s one of those forms of love, sacrificial, that tells you that you mean something important to these people. And we’ve only just met them. It’s been said that we accept the love we think we deserve, and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t think I deserve this kind of love. Watching someone else go hungry because they hosted you, I can’t even describe it. After I had finished my glass of Coke, she refilled it with what I had assumed would have been her portion. It was never going to be her portion, it was always intended for us. Mercy was willing to give from something she had no excess of; perhaps we could all learn something from her.
-Nabii (Sam)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Rest Week update: Babies, Backpacks, and Back breaking Mount Longonot.
I am going to give a very brief overall summary of our rest week here in Nairobi.
Monday: prayer and fasting in the LIA Kenya office, so great.
Tuesday: Holly Garrett arrive back to our team safe and sound and we had our mid-term debrief. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT IS MIDTERM ALREADY, SERIOUSLY!
Wednesday: BABIES, the team visited the New Life Home in Nairobi and we were all so impressed with the facility. It was super modern and had the ability to see to the health needs of so many orphan children. Also we learned that the U.S. and U.K. are now allowed to adopt from Kenya which like two weeks ago was not an option. EXCITING! Also the love that these orphans receive is unbelievable, they have committed volunteers that come in everyday! We were able to spend some time playing and feed the little ones, so fun but also so heart breaking because you know these kids don't have parents. Afternoon time we just chilled and relaxed, some of us ventured on a walk around Nairobi. A dreams of ours was to be able to walk down the street in Kenya and see people we know-- dream come true we saw 2 different LIA people driving so cool.
Thursday: In the morning we went to visit a ministry that teaches and helps develop the skills of Somalian refugees. They make some really cool stuff from aprons, to bags, to backpacks that look so cool. In the afternoon we experienced some african time, before we had a meeting with a man from Life Ministries (same as campus crusades state side)
Friday: Chill morning for most of us, I went to Java to get some school work done and enjoy a cup of tea. In the afternoon we ventured with Jakes to visit baby/ orphan animals. It was so cool, except they we in cages, but still we saw african animals in actual africa. We also witnessed a little baby (3 days old) try to figure out how to walk, so tender (molly Russell's word). We saw some simba's get fed and Nicole got attacked by a monkey. We also drove through Kibera and felt very American because we were not walking, weird feeling. The girls also ventured out to Java for Shakes to celebrate Holly Garrett safe return.
Saturday: Well the previous Sunday at church we were invited to attend a fellowship event of "going on a little hike" to Mount Longonot. If a Kenyan EVER tells you to join on a little hike, remember a little hike is a straight up climb, hike, crawl, sweat more than ever in your life, fall more times than you can count, laugh so hard you can't breath even more because you already couldn't breath, use muscles you probably have never used in your life. So around 17 people made up of Kenyans and Mazungos climbed this mountain. Some facts about Mount Longonot and Kenyans that are interesting:
1: It costs foreigners (aka us) 20 U.S. dollars, it costs Kenyans approximately $2.27. haha, they really know how to capitalize on foreigners.
2: 5:30 a.m. is early now matter where you are in the world. (thats the time we woke up to go to the mountain)
3: Bring food, you'll need because Mount L will take all your energy before you even start climbing.
4.This park bears the privilege of being the host of the highest volcanic mountain in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, rising from the shores of Lake Naivasha up to 9108 ft above sea level. Mount Longonot is the most recent and one of the youngest volcanoes in the world, making Longonot National park the ‘hotKenya Vacations’ of all the parks in the Rift valley. The scenic beauties in the area are astounding both in length and breadth, making a concoction of many features of the Rift Valley basin. ( http://www.enhols.com/kenya_safari/mount-longonot/default.aspx)
9108 ft! Rift Valley! Best Day Ever, most painful but Best!
3 miles up, 6 miles around the rim, 3 miles down in four hours, less for commander, rayray and holly, and Mr. G who went around the whole thing crazy fast.
5. Commander Ponton, Rayray, and The Lovely Holly Garrett definitely have competition in there top ten strengths. Sam definitely does not.
6. I was told to use every adjective I could think of to describe the beauty of the masters hand's we saw on Mount Longonot. Here goes, it was beautiful, breathtaking (literally we couldn't breath at some points), wonderful, awe-inspiring, incomparable, gorgeous, fantastic, phenomenal. Some other words could be used to describe the experience are painful, Colorado ain't got nothin on Mount Longonot, very dirty, most difficult physical challenge many of us have ever been apart of, I will never wear chacos hiking ever again, bare feet hiking is the best, rain on the top of the mountain is also epic. Reaching the top of the summit is the best feeling ever and finally walking down the mountain is probably the most painful walk i have ever experienced.
7. Kenyans know how to barbecue, for real. Many interns tried lamb intestine, liver, kidney and the normal stuff too. It was delicious, I wasn't so keen on the liver or kidney though, I liked the intestine taste like chicken.
8. I will never forget seeing Pastor yell back to his wife who was like a mile away saying, "I am so proud of you", and "keep going baby, you got this". And then to see his wife make it all the way around the mountain was the coolest thing ever.
9. It now almost Tuesday and I am still sore.
10. Words cannot seriously describe or detail the experience, what I have said does not do it justice. I just don't know how you can look down on the rift valley and not be struck by the thought that "man, God is so good, look at the detail he puts into everything, this was not world was not just an accident", that is just my opinion though, I hope one day you can climb a mountain too and tell me all about your experience.
Sunday: Went to innkeeper fellowship, the church we enjoy attending in Nairobi. And then it stormed all day. Me and Austin had quite an adventure walking home in the downpour. People and rain in Kenya is just so funny to witness.
With love and a lot of respect for babies, backpacks and back breaking mountains I wish all who read this blessings.
Mungu Akubariki
K. Sawyer
Monday: prayer and fasting in the LIA Kenya office, so great.
Tuesday: Holly Garrett arrive back to our team safe and sound and we had our mid-term debrief. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT IS MIDTERM ALREADY, SERIOUSLY!
Wednesday: BABIES, the team visited the New Life Home in Nairobi and we were all so impressed with the facility. It was super modern and had the ability to see to the health needs of so many orphan children. Also we learned that the U.S. and U.K. are now allowed to adopt from Kenya which like two weeks ago was not an option. EXCITING! Also the love that these orphans receive is unbelievable, they have committed volunteers that come in everyday! We were able to spend some time playing and feed the little ones, so fun but also so heart breaking because you know these kids don't have parents. Afternoon time we just chilled and relaxed, some of us ventured on a walk around Nairobi. A dreams of ours was to be able to walk down the street in Kenya and see people we know-- dream come true we saw 2 different LIA people driving so cool.
Thursday: In the morning we went to visit a ministry that teaches and helps develop the skills of Somalian refugees. They make some really cool stuff from aprons, to bags, to backpacks that look so cool. In the afternoon we experienced some african time, before we had a meeting with a man from Life Ministries (same as campus crusades state side)
Friday: Chill morning for most of us, I went to Java to get some school work done and enjoy a cup of tea. In the afternoon we ventured with Jakes to visit baby/ orphan animals. It was so cool, except they we in cages, but still we saw african animals in actual africa. We also witnessed a little baby (3 days old) try to figure out how to walk, so tender (molly Russell's word). We saw some simba's get fed and Nicole got attacked by a monkey. We also drove through Kibera and felt very American because we were not walking, weird feeling. The girls also ventured out to Java for Shakes to celebrate Holly Garrett safe return.
Saturday: Well the previous Sunday at church we were invited to attend a fellowship event of "going on a little hike" to Mount Longonot. If a Kenyan EVER tells you to join on a little hike, remember a little hike is a straight up climb, hike, crawl, sweat more than ever in your life, fall more times than you can count, laugh so hard you can't breath even more because you already couldn't breath, use muscles you probably have never used in your life. So around 17 people made up of Kenyans and Mazungos climbed this mountain. Some facts about Mount Longonot and Kenyans that are interesting:
1: It costs foreigners (aka us) 20 U.S. dollars, it costs Kenyans approximately $2.27. haha, they really know how to capitalize on foreigners.
2: 5:30 a.m. is early now matter where you are in the world. (thats the time we woke up to go to the mountain)
3: Bring food, you'll need because Mount L will take all your energy before you even start climbing.
4.This park bears the privilege of being the host of the highest volcanic mountain in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, rising from the shores of Lake Naivasha up to 9108 ft above sea level. Mount Longonot is the most recent and one of the youngest volcanoes in the world, making Longonot National park the ‘hotKenya Vacations’ of all the parks in the Rift valley. The scenic beauties in the area are astounding both in length and breadth, making a concoction of many features of the Rift Valley basin. ( http://www.enhols.com/kenya_safari/mount-longonot/default.aspx)
9108 ft! Rift Valley! Best Day Ever, most painful but Best!
3 miles up, 6 miles around the rim, 3 miles down in four hours, less for commander, rayray and holly, and Mr. G who went around the whole thing crazy fast.
5. Commander Ponton, Rayray, and The Lovely Holly Garrett definitely have competition in there top ten strengths. Sam definitely does not.
6. I was told to use every adjective I could think of to describe the beauty of the masters hand's we saw on Mount Longonot. Here goes, it was beautiful, breathtaking (literally we couldn't breath at some points), wonderful, awe-inspiring, incomparable, gorgeous, fantastic, phenomenal. Some other words could be used to describe the experience are painful, Colorado ain't got nothin on Mount Longonot, very dirty, most difficult physical challenge many of us have ever been apart of, I will never wear chacos hiking ever again, bare feet hiking is the best, rain on the top of the mountain is also epic. Reaching the top of the summit is the best feeling ever and finally walking down the mountain is probably the most painful walk i have ever experienced.
7. Kenyans know how to barbecue, for real. Many interns tried lamb intestine, liver, kidney and the normal stuff too. It was delicious, I wasn't so keen on the liver or kidney though, I liked the intestine taste like chicken.
8. I will never forget seeing Pastor yell back to his wife who was like a mile away saying, "I am so proud of you", and "keep going baby, you got this". And then to see his wife make it all the way around the mountain was the coolest thing ever.
9. It now almost Tuesday and I am still sore.
10. Words cannot seriously describe or detail the experience, what I have said does not do it justice. I just don't know how you can look down on the rift valley and not be struck by the thought that "man, God is so good, look at the detail he puts into everything, this was not world was not just an accident", that is just my opinion though, I hope one day you can climb a mountain too and tell me all about your experience.
Sunday: Went to innkeeper fellowship, the church we enjoy attending in Nairobi. And then it stormed all day. Me and Austin had quite an adventure walking home in the downpour. People and rain in Kenya is just so funny to witness.
With love and a lot of respect for babies, backpacks and back breaking mountains I wish all who read this blessings.
Mungu Akubariki
K. Sawyer
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Kisumu Community/Eugene
Hiiiii everyone! My apologies for the late blog post from me. I didn't get the memo that everyone else posted their update blogs last night, so I'm sorry that this is 24 hours late.
I'm excited to blog though, and tell you all about what is happening here in Kenya and what I am personally experiencing. When we were in Kisumu we all experienced many things and were all encouraged by the community we were surrounded by.
We spent a few days in the Nyalenda Slum visiting the homes of widows, visiting some of the small businesses people run to make a living (which include selling clothes, selling jewelry, making and selling maize or chapatis, etc...), and we also spent a day walking around the houses and evangelizing to random people. Molly Russell and I spent the day together with one of the TOT's in the community (her name was Eugene and she soon became one of our best friends), and by the Holy Spirit's power, we helped lead three people come to Christ and were saved by accepting Jesus into their hearts. We walked away from that day completely amazed by how God is at work in our lives, in the Kisumu community, and around the world. We were so grateful and humbled by these experiences and could only give the glory to God because it is by Him and through Him that all things are possible.
If you're not already aware of this, we absolutely loved being in Kisumu. The LIA staff treated us so well and welcomed us with arms wide open. We so enjoyed getting to know the different pastors of the churches that are connected with LIA, and we especially loved getting to know the members of the churches who are the TOT's. We really got to know the individuals because they told us about their families, where they grew up, and they even welcomed us into their houses. We were so blessed by the people there and miss them all so much.
When I was there, Eugene became my new "mom." She was such an influential and a literal "super mom"- she gave birth to nine children (two sets of twins, two single births, and a set of triplets!!!) After talking with her for five minutes, she started to call me her daughter and we really just bonded right then. Russell and I got to know her very well each day, we got to meet one of her sons, and were welcomed into her home, and needless to say, we really miss her a lot (and talk about her multiple times a day....).
We continue to learn so much each day, are praying for strength, wisdom, and for our loved ones at home. Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, and support. We love and miss you all!
With so much love,
Elise (on behalf of the Mi2 team).
PS if anyone knows how to contact or get ahold of our friend Eugene, please let us know.
I'm excited to blog though, and tell you all about what is happening here in Kenya and what I am personally experiencing. When we were in Kisumu we all experienced many things and were all encouraged by the community we were surrounded by.
We spent a few days in the Nyalenda Slum visiting the homes of widows, visiting some of the small businesses people run to make a living (which include selling clothes, selling jewelry, making and selling maize or chapatis, etc...), and we also spent a day walking around the houses and evangelizing to random people. Molly Russell and I spent the day together with one of the TOT's in the community (her name was Eugene and she soon became one of our best friends), and by the Holy Spirit's power, we helped lead three people come to Christ and were saved by accepting Jesus into their hearts. We walked away from that day completely amazed by how God is at work in our lives, in the Kisumu community, and around the world. We were so grateful and humbled by these experiences and could only give the glory to God because it is by Him and through Him that all things are possible.
If you're not already aware of this, we absolutely loved being in Kisumu. The LIA staff treated us so well and welcomed us with arms wide open. We so enjoyed getting to know the different pastors of the churches that are connected with LIA, and we especially loved getting to know the members of the churches who are the TOT's. We really got to know the individuals because they told us about their families, where they grew up, and they even welcomed us into their houses. We were so blessed by the people there and miss them all so much.
When I was there, Eugene became my new "mom." She was such an influential and a literal "super mom"- she gave birth to nine children (two sets of twins, two single births, and a set of triplets!!!) After talking with her for five minutes, she started to call me her daughter and we really just bonded right then. Russell and I got to know her very well each day, we got to meet one of her sons, and were welcomed into her home, and needless to say, we really miss her a lot (and talk about her multiple times a day....).
We continue to learn so much each day, are praying for strength, wisdom, and for our loved ones at home. Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, and support. We love and miss you all!
With so much love,
Elise (on behalf of the Mi2 team).
PS if anyone knows how to contact or get ahold of our friend Eugene, please let us know.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Being a Tourist
Clearly our work in the Kisumu area was excruciating, grueling and draining so we were begging for breaks at the end. Ok... not really. We LOVED our work so so much, and were blessed by LIA with the opportunity to be tourists for 2 days. It was fun!
Towards the end of our last week in Kisumu we were sad to think about leaving but were very excited when we were met by our LIA-Kisumu staff in a matatu, ready to head to the equator!! I think everyone was expecting some kind of large sign or line or indication at the equator, something official. I’m sure we were all mulling over how the government sign and drawn line would look as we counted the number of pregnant goats we saw along the drive and guessed how many kids they were going to have. Elise was so excited she even got out her camera to take a picture of the yellow indication statue informing us that the equator was near, only to find that the yellow globe was the actual equator “site”. Pretty hilarious. If it weren’t for the Lions Club International the world would not know that the equator runs through a large patch of grass next to a highway, behind some people’s backyards 45 minutes outside downtown Kisumu, Kenya. The understated equator was laughable, but we had a great time, regardless. First we wanted to make sure that we established where the equator was exactly, and found that the Lions Club had (thankfully) placed the support of the yellow globe in all correct directions of N, S, E &W. They just forgot to mark those directions. So we started taking photos of us straddling the hemispheres, climbing the equator, jumping off the equator, leaping across the equator, carrying one another across the equator, kissing the equator, licking the equator, burping, crying, smiling, sweating, highfiving, testing gravity, etc. ON THE EQUATOR! Epic. Much more fun than it probably should have been.
The very next day we were blessed AGAIN with the opportunity to go view hippos with our LIA Kisumu staff! It sounds anti-climactic because hippos are fairly underrated in the 21st century. But in reality they are Africa’s number 2 killer, after the mosquito (and it’s bff Malaria). Much respect, hippos of Africa. We got into a boat with our blindingly orange life-jackets at 7am and were taken around the Kenyan coast of Lake Victoria (world’s second largest fresh water lake) to view the wildlife and disgruntled fishermen of the morning. The birds that we saw were fascinating but when we passed by a hippo having his traditional breakfast of lake deliciousness the birds became an afterthought. We saw the bull hippo first and found out that there can only be one male in a territory at a time and the fathers will kill any sons they have if the mother does not isolate or hide them. Being LIA we put our house-visit skills into action, but I don’t think our evangelizing and family reconciliation attempts were too successful. We didn’t get to perform a follow up visit so I guess we’ll just have to keep praying for daddy hippo. A few kilometers down the lake from the bull male were his two wives and 3 kids, also enjoying breakfast. I think the ladies may have gotten into a bit of an argument because there was a lot of splashing and we got to snap the stereotypical “hippo-with-its-mouth-open” shot. Pretty epic. As we continued on our tour of the lake we got to learn about the many birds of Kenya/ E. Africa and just drink in God’s awesome creation. The scenery/ lighting/ weather was phenomenal.
Needless to say our Kisumu experience was awesome, as can be seen in everyone else’s account (below and above this post). We loved the staff, our friends from the community, the short term teams and everything! These touristy activities were just the cherry on top. That made it tough to leave, but we know that Kisumu will forever have a piece of our hearts and a place in our prayers. Thanks for reading! Be blessed
-”Commander” Pontón
Personal note: God really showed himself working in Kisumu and that was really awesome to see. I have never been in a place of so much need and seen so much hope and felt peace spread. Granted, I still feel there is a lot that can be and needs to be done but I felt very little frustration because I knew our Father was taking care of everything in His own time for His purposes. I also just loved getting to know everyone in Kisumu, I was very happy to have time to build friendships, and quality time with Jesus was great. Miss you Kisumu!
Towards the end of our last week in Kisumu we were sad to think about leaving but were very excited when we were met by our LIA-Kisumu staff in a matatu, ready to head to the equator!! I think everyone was expecting some kind of large sign or line or indication at the equator, something official. I’m sure we were all mulling over how the government sign and drawn line would look as we counted the number of pregnant goats we saw along the drive and guessed how many kids they were going to have. Elise was so excited she even got out her camera to take a picture of the yellow indication statue informing us that the equator was near, only to find that the yellow globe was the actual equator “site”. Pretty hilarious. If it weren’t for the Lions Club International the world would not know that the equator runs through a large patch of grass next to a highway, behind some people’s backyards 45 minutes outside downtown Kisumu, Kenya. The understated equator was laughable, but we had a great time, regardless. First we wanted to make sure that we established where the equator was exactly, and found that the Lions Club had (thankfully) placed the support of the yellow globe in all correct directions of N, S, E &W. They just forgot to mark those directions. So we started taking photos of us straddling the hemispheres, climbing the equator, jumping off the equator, leaping across the equator, carrying one another across the equator, kissing the equator, licking the equator, burping, crying, smiling, sweating, highfiving, testing gravity, etc. ON THE EQUATOR! Epic. Much more fun than it probably should have been.
The very next day we were blessed AGAIN with the opportunity to go view hippos with our LIA Kisumu staff! It sounds anti-climactic because hippos are fairly underrated in the 21st century. But in reality they are Africa’s number 2 killer, after the mosquito (and it’s bff Malaria). Much respect, hippos of Africa. We got into a boat with our blindingly orange life-jackets at 7am and were taken around the Kenyan coast of Lake Victoria (world’s second largest fresh water lake) to view the wildlife and disgruntled fishermen of the morning. The birds that we saw were fascinating but when we passed by a hippo having his traditional breakfast of lake deliciousness the birds became an afterthought. We saw the bull hippo first and found out that there can only be one male in a territory at a time and the fathers will kill any sons they have if the mother does not isolate or hide them. Being LIA we put our house-visit skills into action, but I don’t think our evangelizing and family reconciliation attempts were too successful. We didn’t get to perform a follow up visit so I guess we’ll just have to keep praying for daddy hippo. A few kilometers down the lake from the bull male were his two wives and 3 kids, also enjoying breakfast. I think the ladies may have gotten into a bit of an argument because there was a lot of splashing and we got to snap the stereotypical “hippo-with-its-mouth-open” shot. Pretty epic. As we continued on our tour of the lake we got to learn about the many birds of Kenya/ E. Africa and just drink in God’s awesome creation. The scenery/ lighting/ weather was phenomenal.
Needless to say our Kisumu experience was awesome, as can be seen in everyone else’s account (below and above this post). We loved the staff, our friends from the community, the short term teams and everything! These touristy activities were just the cherry on top. That made it tough to leave, but we know that Kisumu will forever have a piece of our hearts and a place in our prayers. Thanks for reading! Be blessed
-”Commander” Pontón
Personal note: God really showed himself working in Kisumu and that was really awesome to see. I have never been in a place of so much need and seen so much hope and felt peace spread. Granted, I still feel there is a lot that can be and needs to be done but I felt very little frustration because I knew our Father was taking care of everything in His own time for His purposes. I also just loved getting to know everyone in Kisumu, I was very happy to have time to build friendships, and quality time with Jesus was great. Miss you Kisumu!
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