Hello from Kenya...

Kids eating lunch at the IDP camp. We brought a bunch of food and they cooked a huge meal for the entire community plus all of the workers (over 1000 people). Keep in mind there's only an outdoor kitchen which consists of a tent where the ladies hold vegetables in their laps to peel and cut and cook everything over an open fire. The kids, especially, were thrilled to see the food!

These pictures are all from the day we spent at the IDP camp almost two weeks ago helping them build homes. This is one in the earlier stages. We were able to complete 5 homes that day.
Another house under construction.

Celebrating with the residents after the work was done.

. While this camp was incredibly clean (compared to many of the villages we visited), it was infested with flies and most of the children were covered with flies (especially around the nose, mouth, and ears). We gave them huge bags of vitamins (probably 50-60 pounds) to help with malnutrition and also all of the used clothes that we brought

Another week has flown by and we just have 3 days left before returning home. We’ve had a wonderful week focusing on the children’s centre. We’ve hosted 3 groups of kids so far and had a great time with all of them. They have been so well-mannered and well-behaved. Each night, we take the group to Brackenhurst (the Baptist retreat center where we stayed in 2007) for dinner (chicken fingers and French fries!) and then to our house for games, movies, and a sleep over. In the morning, we’ve been cooking pancakes and scrambled eggs, and I’ve been amazed at how much these little kids can eat! More than an adult man would in our culture! It’s been great to be able to spend time with them one-on-one and get to know them better. Saturday night we have the last group coming – a group of older girls.

Wednesday night we hosted the staff who work for the family whose house we’re borrowing and their families for dinner. It was great to meet their spouses and children and to be able to fellowship and share a meal together. Mama Joan (housekeeper) was so funny – she kept wanting to serve and help and we had to force her to sit and be taken care of. She even wanted us to leave all of the dishes for her to wash the next morning (which of course we didn’t!). Geoffrey (our guard) was hilarious eating spaghetti and was so proud that he mastered it and eventually succeeded in “beating” the noodles and cleaning his plate.

Thursday morning, we did Care for Aids home visits – this was an amazing experience. We visited two HIV positive clients in their homes and talked together. I’ve already written about Care for Aids and what they do, but it was really meaningful to see it in action in the homes of their clients. Two days each week, they hold “clinic” where the clients come to a central location (usually a community church) for counseling and medical care. The other three days, the Care for Aids staff do home visits. They manage to visit each client at least once a month at home where they can assess their living conditions (especially cleanliness and hygiene to avoid infections) and just spend time together. We visited with Jane (whose husband died of AIDS in 2002). We spent time in her small home and had tea and mandazi (fried doughnuts) together. Her brother told us that in American culture we let people know before we come over and tell them how many people to expect. In Kenya, people just show up and the hosts are happy to share whatever they have with them (all Care for Aids home visits are unannounced so they can truly assess living conditions without pretense). We also visited Frederick who I met a few weeks ago at the clinic (and may have blogged about him – can’t remember!). He was a member of the mungiki (a very violent Kenyan cult) when he was hospitalized with multiple infections for almost a year and a half. He found out that he was HIV positive while in the hospital and his wife took his daughters and left him when she learned of his status. The mungiki don’t allow members to leave under the threat of death. When we were here in 2007, the mungiki had slaughtered and beheaded several people in a nearby village called Banana and posted their heads on spears outside their homes – these were people who had offended them in some way. Anyway, Frederick’s former friends threatened to kill him and he told them that they were no longer his family since they hadn’t visited him during his long illness or offered any kind of assistance and that if they were going to kill him they should just go ahead and do it (they chose not to). He is now a man of tremendous faith and courage. He is very open and honest with his positive HIV status which is highly unusual here where people are discriminated against and stigmatized for this. All in all – it was a very moving experience to meet these people and talk with them about their faith and their lives. They are living “positively” with HIV/AIDS on a continent where 4500 people die every day of the disease.

This will likely be my last post before returning home. We’ll spend most of Saturday at the LCC playing with the kids. Anna and I are planning a time of fellowship and bible study with the “moms” and teachers from both branches of the LCC – that should be fun. Sunday we’ll have church and fellowship with some of the young adults from the community – as well as packing and organizing. Monday is our day for goodbyes – we have a few things left to distribute and lots of people to say goodbye to… we’ll head to the airport mid-afternoon. We have a long (and somewhat miserable) journey home with a 21 hour layover in Dubai so we won’t return home until Wednesday. I look forward to seeing everyone soon!