Today

The "gang" skyping Lauren
Grace and I have had a great day. Last night we said goodbye to Bailey and Kimberly who should be arriving back in the US this evening. This morning we sent Anna, Karen, and Jessie off on safari and had a quiet morning at home with pancakes for breakfast (for some reason, pancakes taste even better in Kenya!). After church at Tigoni Fellowship, we brought 9 of the boarders to Brackenhurst for lunch (somehow we ended up with more than we had planned on - it usually ends up that way). We watched movies, ate birthday cake (celebrating John's new birthday a little early) and made homemade caramel corn. They left our house stuffed and probably more than one with a tummy ache! But we had a great time with them. Late in the afternoon we went to skype Lauren, but the connection was pretty bad. She could hear us but we couldn't hear her... so we would speak to her and she would type her responses. The kids got a kick out of it and every so often we would hear her voice - they were amazed. We're spending the evening cleaning up the house and sorting through everything that is left to decide where to take it. Hopefully the power will be more stable - it went about at least 10 times in 2 hours last night... as soon as I would get the candles lit, it would come on again. I finally gave up and went to bed to read (thank goodness for a Kindle with a built-in light). Everyone else was at Kentmere with Pat, so I had a nice quiet night at home alone.

I probably won't be writing much more since the trip is winding down. Just two more nights to sleep in Kenya! As far as prayers, please lift up the team returning from safari Tuesday morning and all of us as we travel home Tuesday and Wednesday. Goodbyes are always hard - would appreciate prayer for that as well.

Today

Had a wonderful day today school shopping for school for John. After visiting his school, we made the decision to board him beginning in May. He will live at the school full time and come back to the Center for his school holidays. He is so happy about it and is very excited. There is a list of items that boarders have to bring, so that was our challenge today... sheets, towels, shoes, special uniforms, pajamas, bath products, etc. We then took everything to a lady to have his initials embroidered (JKB - John Kahera Brown :). She embroidered everything (even his socks and washcloths!) for about $5 total - about 50 items! At Patrick's suggestion, we ate lunch at a restaurant (they call them "hotels" here) in Limuru. I avoided eating meat but the Kenyan vegetables I ate were wonderful.

Can't remember if I've written about this or not, but John doesn't have a birth date because he was found in the street when he was a very young child (after getting separated from his older brother). His family has never been located. Every few years they are required to run his picture and story on the news in Nairobi where he was found hoping to find his family, but no luck so far. They don't even know his tribe. We decided to give him my birthday (April 2). Patrick told me today that it's the parents responsibility to plan a birthday celebration at the school, so Tuesday we're bringing a cake and soda to his school for an early birthday. Should be fun!

I'm going to spend a quiet evening at home alone tonight while the rest of the group goes to the Kentmere Club to eat dinner with Pat Dixson (who runs the feeding program we were at earlier in the week). I am ready for a little down time. We have kept a busy pace for the whole trip.

Thankfully, our power was back on last night (after almost 2 days without any power). It's amazing how much you begin to appreciate the little things after being without them.

Will be glad to be home with David and Lauren on Wednesday. I realized on this trip that I've never been away from Lauren for this long before!

Would appreciate prayers for our safe return as we will be traveling home Tuesday and Wednesday.

Pictures from the past couple of days...

The wreck is the Rift Valley... a beautiful place to be stranded.
Tree planting in Jikaze village (the IDP camp)
Maureen and her fiance, Daniel (Lauren - he's a HUGE Alabama fan. I told Maureen you would approve)
Jikaze village (the IDP - internally displaced persons - camp)
One of our Care for Aids home visits.

Friday's adventure

Friday was an adventure. We drove to the Rift Valley (a very dangerous drive - curvy and straight down a mountain - dangerous because there are a number of big trucks that are overloaded and accident prone). We got about half way down the mountain (no guard rails) when we came up on a traffic jam. A truck had gone over the side and was being towed out. Our impatient driver took us down the shoulder (the van was at about a 45 degree angle and I kept thinking it would flip on its side) until we could go no further. We had about a 30 minute delay and got to watch the truck being towed out. We went about a half mile further and there was another truck turned over on the side of the road. We made it safely to the bottom of the Rift Valley and went to Jikaze (the Internally Displaced Persons - IDP - Camp). Many of you remember this place from our 2009 trip. At that time there were 145 families living in tents. They had pooled their money together to buy the land but couldn't afford to build homes. Our team helped raise the funds and provided some of the labor to build homes for the families. These are mainly educated people who were violently forced from their homes after the post-election violence in early 2008. It's amazing how the village has changed. Each of the 145 families has a home with a fence, a garden, landscaping, etc... It's quite nice by Kenyan standards, especially for people who have been displaced and have had to start all over again. Our job was to plant an indigenous tree at each home to help with reforestation. The Rift Valley is turning to desert as people desperate for wood to cook violate the law to cut down trees. It was a filthy, hot job (the holes were dug... we had to mix manure and soil to fill back part of the hole, plant the tree, fill the top with soil, gather dried grasses/twigs to use as mulch, and water. Each group had to plant 20-23 trees (the camp is divided into 7 blocks, so we had 7 teams - 1 for each block). It was rewarding to see the changes over the past 2 years and encouraging to see the trees that had been planted last year - many were 6-8 feet tall and already providing a bit of shade.

After Jikaze (and surviving the terrorizing drive back up the mountain) we went to Nairobi for a quick trip to the market and then dinner with friends. Joe and Linda are from the UK and have lived in Kenya for 9 years. They recently built a beautiful home where we enjoyed a wonderful meal together.

Today we're headed to the Center... Kimberly and Bailey leave tonight to return home. Everyone but Grace and me leave tomorrow morning for safari. Grace and I have lots of plans for our 3 days on our own. Eating pancakes, playing with kids, visiting our old friend, Mama Joan, etc...

Funny story...

Okay, so for a funny story from our trip... we are borrowing a car from Global Connections while we are here. The first time we got in the car, everyone started hacking and coughing. We decided it was the fine dust that gets all over everything here. Every time after that, we would have the same experience - mostly in the mornings. The day that Patrick and I went to visit John's school, I drove and Patrick immediately complained about the car. "This is horrible," he said. "It's burning my nostrils." As we bumped over the rough road, the sensation was worse and worse. You could feel your throat, nose, and lungs burning. We had all of the windows down, but nothing was helping. Finally Patrick said "I think it is some kind of chemical." and remembered that AB used to keep pepper spray in the car. A thorough search turned up a monster size bottle of bear repellant (mace) that was under the driver's seat. Every time we hit a bump, a tiny puff was being released in the car :) Only in Kenya...

Care for Aids

Today was a beautiful day spent doing home visits with Care for Aids. This organization is amazing. Just 3 years ago, 3 college students from Vanderbilt came to Kenya to film a documentary and met Cornel and Duncan - 2 people with a vision for reaching out to those with HIV/Aids who are being shunned by their families and communities. The college guys felt led to help, returned to the US to fundraise and within 6 months the first center was opened. Now there are 10 Centers with 25 additional locations identified (but funding is not yet available). I am so amazed at what has been accomplished by two humble Kenyans and three American college students who chose to follow God's urging.

As simply as I can explain it, CFA identifies communities with significant numbers of HIV positive people and finds a church in the community with a heart to serve those people. In each

"cohort group" 80 clients are selected and they go through a nine-month program together. The program has three areas of focus: spiritual, health, and economic empowerment. They come to the church one day each week for one-on-one spiritual and health counseling and receive a small amount of food (the HIV medications have extreme side effects if taken on an empty stomach). Twice each month they attend empowerment seminars which help them develop a skill of some kind or start a business so they will be self-supporting by the end of the program. The final component are the home visits which is what we helped with today. Each client is visited at least once each month in their home so the staff can assess their living conditions. The home visits also have a social impact because many of these people are shunned and discriminated against and it helps for their neighbors to see them having visitors.

Today we visited 5 different homes. The living conditions were unimaginable in some of the homes (but all were well-kept and clean). Several of the homes were made of mud with no electricity or water - just one room (about 8 feet by 8 feet). These clients were just in their third month of the program - most appeared fairly healthy but most had no income at all. Some of their children couldn't attend school because they couldn't buy the uniforms or afford the small fees.

There are now 10 centers (each serving 80 clients at this time). Each center runs on a budget of just $1,500 per month. I am just amazed at the work that is being done here for a relatively small amount of money - with incredible, life-changing results for these people.

Our power is out (has been out all day and it's now dark). Hopefully it will be back up and running by the morning. Tomorrow we head to Jikaze - the refuge camp that we visited in 2009. We are planting a tree at each of the 145 homes there and then heading to Nairobi in the late afternoon for a quick trip to the market and then dinner at the home of a friend. It will likely be a late night, so I will not have internet access again until Saturday.

Thanks again for your prayers and support of this adventure... Much love from Kenya!

Pictures from today

Grace with the newest (and smallest) addition to the LCC - Mary. She's precious!Giving out the godparent gifts...

Endless potatoes...

Where to begin... today was a wonderful day. We started at Pat's Feeding Program this morning helping to provide food to about 300 elderly and HIV+ people. I met a great girl from Mexico who just graduated from college and is spending 6 months in Africa by herself. She's beginning with a month at Brackenhurst volunteering with African Impact. Then, she's heading to another part of Kenya to work in an orphanage for a month (living there, eating only 2 meals a day). Next, she's living with a family in Kibera slum for a month, and finishing her time in Kenya with a month living in a Masai village. What an experience! Then she's spending a month in Tanzania and another month in South Africa.

After the feeding program, we went to the Center and Patrick took Karen and me to visit John's new school. Wow! It is beautiful! It's located up in the hilly tea country where the views are breathtaking. Many of you know that David and I felt led to send John (who is very bright) to a private school nearby so that he would have more educational opportunities. The school year in Kenya starts in January each year, so he's just getting settled in. I enjoyed meeting his teacher and his fellow classmates (there are only 8 students in the class). He loves his new school and the headmaster said that he is doing very well.

We spent the afternoon distributing godparent gifts to the boarders. Another beautiful experience. We took each one of the 45 kids into a room privately, presented their gifts, and prayed over them. Kimberly took video and photos to share with the godparents. The children were so happy.

The painting is turning out beautifully. Kimberly stayed at the LCC all day and painted today. She is so artistic and the rooms are turning out so nice. The moms picked the colors and they are thrilled with the results.

For those of you who have been praying, my sleep is finally getting better as I adjust to the 9 hour time difference. I'm missing home and family some but am so happy to be here.

Almost forgot to explain the title of this post... while waiting for Patrick to take me to John's school, I helped the moms prepare lunch. I peeled potatoes - endless potatoes. Can you imagine how many tiny potatoes you have to peel to make lunch for over 100 kids? I sure didn't... I kept thinking that we were pulling from the entire potato storage bin - not that we had to peel the entire bin for one meal. Humbling because the moms could peel three in the time it took me to peel one. After about an hour of solid peeling, I have a perfect blister on my index finger to remind me of the experience. Enough whining... I'm off to bed. Love to all...

one more picture from today...

The school at Kibera...

The pit latrine at the Masai village. Yes. I used it. And no. It's not as hard as it looks.

Beautiful Masai woman
Part of the Masai family. These are two of the four wives - holding their grandbabies.
Masai women singing to us.
Part of the Masai village. The hut in front is made of cow dung.

Back from our Nairobi side trip...

We're "home" - to Brackenhurst, that is. We had a wonderful side trip to Nairobi beginning on Sunday morning. We went to an African church (service lasted over 3 hours!), visited with the pastor, and then went to the Serare School where my friend, Rachel, is the principal. The Serare School is a very nice boarding school. Girls from all over Kenya attend and it has an excellent reputation. It is a very nice school (by Kenyan standards), and they have recently added guest quarters. We were the first guests to stay there and they completely spoiled us - anticipating our every need and preparing wonderful meals. Today they sent us off with a barbecue lunch under a tent in the beautiful garden.

When we arrived at Serare School Sunday evening, we were greeted by Rachel and Rose (the director). We had dinner and visited. Monday morning we left for the 2 hour drive (very bumpy drive!) into Maasailand where the Masai people live. Rachel is half Masai so she took us to visit her family. I've written about the Masai in previous posts, but as a reminder, they are a nomadic, cattle-farming tribe who still live in the way they've lived for thousands of years... it's huts made of cow dung, living off the land, with no real modern conveniences (but they do have cell phones with solar chargers). We had a wonderful visit with her family. Her late uncle had four wives - we met all of them and their children and grandchildren. They prepared a large meal for us (roasted goat, rice, stew, vegetables, flatbread). We visited and ate together. Then, they sang and danced for us and we had to sing a song in return. Then we presented them with small gifts and they gave us some of their beautiful beadwork. It was very different than my previous visit to a Masai village because it was like being welcomed into the home of a friend rather than visiting a tourist attraction. Wonderful day. We came home dirty, hot, and exhausted, enjoyed dinner, and went to bed early.

Today, we briefly toured Rachel's school and the three youngest members of the team (Grace, Bailey, and Kimberly) met with the senior girls to visit. Then, we left for Kibera. As always, Kibera is a hard place to describe. It's the largest slum in Kenya. There is extreme poverty and pretty terrible living conditions. But, many local people are doing what they can to make a difference - especially with educating children so they can escape the cycle of poverty.

After Kibera, we returned to the Serare School to pack up and enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the garden. We then went to shop for souvenirs in Nairobi and just returned home.

We have a wonderful team of seven now (Bailey joined us Sunday night) and are having an amazing time reconnecting with old friends and making a few new ones. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers that you are sending my way!

Pictures

Decided that I had time for a few pictures...

The school at the Nest...

Peter helping to bake

bread in the kitchen at the LCC

Our new godchild, Patrick Kiare. A very sweet boy.
My godson, John Kahera, trying to take a picture of himself. He was quite the photographer when he spent the day with us Thursday...
John Kahera

Heading to Nairobi

In a few minutes we're heading to Nairobi to attend a Kenyan church with our friend, Dunstone. From there, we'll go to the Serare School to see Rachel. Many of you will remember Rachel from last year - she's a wonderful lady and friend... a high school principal and former university professor who works in Kibera slum with teen girls and adults with HIV. We stay in touch through email all year, so I'm very excited to see her. Her school has guest quarters where we'll be staying tonight and tomorrow night. We'll return to Brackenhurst on Tuesday night. Our plans with Rachel include visiting her relatives in Maaisailand and seeing her projects in Kibera.

We had a great day yesterday (Saturday) at the LCC visiting with the moms, playing with the kids, and finishing up the painting project. Very interesting to paint a room in Kenya, as I learned first hand yesterday. The paint is very different than what we have and the brushes are terrible. Even with the lack of good supplies, the team did an amazing job of painting the two mom's rooms in the girls dormitory. And Kimberly is adding some beautiful artwork on the walls.

The kids are doing so well. It's neat (and a little sad) to see all of the kids growing up. Many are very tall and gangly now. Their English is getting better as they have more years of schooling.

That's all the news for now... hope to have some great stories from our Nairobi side trip...

Tired but happy...

This is from Anna's post on Friday:

Friday, March 4

Today we stopped by to drop off Reagan’s gifts for his family. They were so kind and invited us in for tea; but we had already set a time to meet Goeffrey so we declined. We did commit to a cup of tea tomorrow morning and are looking forward to it.

We went from there to begin our painting project at LCC. Patrick had asked us to repaint the mom’s bedrooms; retouch the girls dorms and repaint the kitchen. We were pretty gung ho when we arrived - but through the process we quickly realized (as many of you could have told us) that painting in Africa is simply not the same as painting in America! It is sort of like digging post holes with a sharp stick!!

We attempted to clean and scrape the walls - which led to a huge mess on the floor....there was no water in the tanks (a block in the line somewhere) so every drop of water used to clean was like pouring out precious gold! There was not a ladder; we got to step on a little plastic table (veeeery carefully) to reach the higher spots. There were no rags! We ended up taking off our extra layers and tearing them up for cleaning. Karen said she hoped we didn’t get down to having to tear up our underwear - but with the mess we were making it seemed pretty imminent! We had to use oil based paint in these small rooms. Kimberly was pretty sure we left there with a loss of about 15 IQ points

Our scraping and cleaning left quite a mess on the floor which we then tracked all over the place. The LCC had rollers (Thanks, Zach!) but no pans to roll them in so we just had to put the roller into the can and try not to drip all over the place. Try is the operative word there. After getting one coat on each room we went down to clean the kitchen walls...this time we did not scrape - but even the most energetic of us quickly realized that we could not paint the kitchen this trip.

Returning to put on the second coat we found the walls still completely wet - so we went to work trying to clean up the floors. The final solution (after many ineffective efforts) was to scrub with mineral spirits, scrape paint chips and buff with a dry rag. At this point, mom Susan came up, complemented our paint job and looking curiously at us on our hands and knees; scrubbing, scraping, buffing....said kindly - “well, maybe next time you would like to put some newspaper down before you begin working....” Speechless.

Unfortunately we only had one dry rag and the option of ripping up our underwear so we decided to go back to Limuru to get some rags...and two new rugs!!

We came back to the house feeling a bit overwhelmed and guilty for not being able to accomplish more - but Kate had the great news of 22 African Impact volunteers who were more than able to paint the kitchen. Praise the Lord!

Kate and Grace had stayed back at Brackenhurst with John Kahera (Kate’s godchild) and we held them in high esteem for their choice! They also had the dinner catered and house set for our dinner guests this evening...Mom Susan and Mom Jennifer joined us and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer. It is such a blessing to be able to get to know the staff of LCC outside of the context of work.

Tomorrow we are planning the day at LCC. Painting, cleaning/covering up our mess and playing with the kids. Wish you were here!!

Now from my point of view... I picked John up early Friday morning (my first time driving this trip... did well except for one stall at a speed bump). He and Grace watched movies whie I read, cooked pancakes, and did housework. Then, we walked to the coffee shop for lunch (boy can that kid eat!!). We stayed in the coffee shop to talk and color while we waited for Lauren to wake up (we're nine hours ahead here). Then, we were excited to be able to Skype her and catch up a little. We had a great day together, and I feel so lucky to be able to have spent some time with him (especially after hearing how the rest of the team spent their day!)

Sorry I'm not writing more... it is a quick trip and there is so much to do. We often have guests in the evenings and it just doesn't leave much time for internet. Do know that we are having a wonderful time... the weather is absolutely beautiful (75-80 and full sunshine).

quick update

Today has been full and busy. We stopped by the Center this morning to pick up Geoffrey (our guide) and John (godson) who is out of school for a holiday this week. Then, we visited the Nest - a baby orphanage and children's center for children of women who are in prison. It was my first visit, and I was so impressed with the facility and the staff. We spent a couple of hours there. We also learned about a halfway house they run in Nairobi where the women go when they are released from prison to help them reintegrate with their children. We hope to visit there on this trip.

Next, we went to a school, but didn't get much of a tour because all of the classes were sitting for exams. Part of the team took Frances to deliver lunches to the boarders at their schools and Grace and I stayed with John at the Center. I ate lunch with the moms (secuma and ugali - traditional Kenyan food).

We made a trip to the grocery store and to the fruit/vegetable stands late this afternoon and just arrived back at Brackenhurst. Tonight, we have workers from "African Impact" coming to share about their organization. Tomorrow the rest of the team is going to the LCC to paint. Grace and I are bringing John to Brackenhurst and spending the day with him here. It's a wonderful treat to be able to spend time with him during the week. I had no idea that he would be on holiday, so we're really looking forward to it. Tomorrow night we're hosting three of the workers from the LCC who are all single (Mom Susan, Mom Jeniffer, and Dad Ronald) for dinner and looking forward to a great evening of fellowship.

Our schedule is incredibly busy so I'm not able to post as much or as often as I would like. Not sure if I'll even get pictures up this trip...

So far... so good...

It’s been a busy couple of days… I’m writing this at 1 am local time. Haven’t slept well so far. I think it’s jet lag and adjusting to the 8 hour time change. Today we went to the K Branch of the Limuru Children’s Center in Karimaithu, had lunch with the kids, and played all afternoon with them. We brought several soccer balls that a club in Tupelo donated. The K Branch has 60 pre-schoolers divided between 3 classes, There are an additional 90 students who went to K Branch for preschool but are now in primary school. On our first trip in 2007, we me the first “batch” of preschoolers who are now in 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grade! They came to the K Branch for lunch today and it was wonderful to see how much they’d grown since the last time I’d seen them in 2007. The older ones are doing beautifully with learning English. I also met Phyllis’ brother, Elijah. Phyllis made a huge impression on us in 2007. She was HIV+ and tiny for her age. By all accounts, she is doing well (she stayed home today – some kind of problem with her leg). I also met Mary who had a club foot. She recently had surgery to repair it and is in braces from her foot to her shin. Appears to be very confident and happy. Teacher David is still in charge of the school and is amazing and full of love and commitment toward these kids.

After the K branch, we went to the LCC main branch to greet the kids as they arrived home after school. John Kahera (my godson) was there early and has the rest of the week off of school. We were able to spend some time together. He loves his new school – a very competitive private school where he is in a class of 8 students (as opposed to 55 in a public school classroom). He just started there in January. There is a large bus that picks him up and drops him at home each day – that’s a real rarity in Kenya. I also met our new godson, Patrick Kiare. He’s a tall, pleasant, and quiet young man. He doesn’t get home from school until after 6 p.m. so I haven’t been able to spend much time with him yet. Looking forward to getting to know him better. We plan to spend all day Saturday there and will have the opportunity to spend a lot of good quality time with them then. The kids are growing up and seem very happy. The moms are doing great. I hope to do better about taking pictures and get some of them posted soon.

One great surprise – today, Anne Wambui came to visit me. I met her in 2007 and each visit, she’s managed to hear through the village grapevine that we are in town. When we met she was in 3^rd grade. Today, she’s a beautiful 7^th grade young lady!

Geoffrey, our guard from 2009, is with us this year as a translator and guide during the day. He is a joy to be around. We hope to see his famly this trip and also plan to see Mama Joan and her family. She was our housekeeper in 2009.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we’re going to visit some area schools and a couple of baby orphanages. In the evening we’ll meet with a team from African Impact to hear more about their work. We are expecting our great friend, Cornel, to come by to see us.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers – for safety and good health for our team, and for sleep for me.

It is wonderful to be here to see the children and to reconnect with all of the wonderful friends we’ve met through the years. It’s fun to drive down the road and stop to visit people we know.

We made it!

We are here in Kenya and that's pretty much all the news! Our flights were uneventful but long. From Atlanta, we had a 14 hour flight to Dubai where we had a 3 hour layover. Then onto Nairobi by way of Muscat (I had never heard of it either). We stopped there for an hour to pick up more passengers and then continued on to Nairobi (about 7 hours in all). So, we left Columbus Sunday afternoon and arrived in Kenya Tuesday morning around 5 a.m. All of our luggage made it except for one bag (Grace's clothes). Hopefully that will turn up in the next day or two. We made a quick stop at Nakumatt (Kenya Kmart) for groceries and bottled water and then stopped at Java House to eat breakfast. We arrived at Brackenhurst around 10 a.m. and have spent the last couple of hours settling in and unpacking. Our "Team House" is a beautiful 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home that has been recently renovated and will be perfect for us.

Our plan is to head to head to the Children's Center in a couple of hours and be there to greet the kids when they get home from school. Hope to have pictures and more exciting news in the next post...

Going back...

Well, it's official. I'm headed back to Kenya in just 5 weeks. I didn't think I would be able to go this year, but David surprised me at Christmas with a trip. I'll be leaving February 27th and returning March 15th. I am so looking forward to seeing all of our friends there and to hopefully having some new experiences. We have a small (but mighty!) team going this trip - just 7 of us. We are staying in the team house at Brackenhurst (a new experience) and will have our own car while we are there (a real treat!). Not sure how great the Internet access will be, but I'll try to keep everyone updated as much as possible.