It’s been just over a week on the ground here in Kenya and God has been blessing us so much! As most of you know, Naomi and I were apart for our first week – and after a week of engineering in a rural area near Kisumu, Naomi and I are happily reunited in Nairobi. She may decide to blog about her first week on her own, so I won’t go into too many details, but she has really enjoyed her orientation, has an office full of wonderful Kenyan co-workers, and is getting used to walking the streets of Africa’s most dangerous city (OK, J-berg may be a little more dodgy…). And although her week was definitely more difficult than mine, she has been blessed and is full of joy.
This is going to be a long blog, but if you want the one minute quickie version, here you go:
-we’re healthy and doing well
-our travels were long but enjoyable
-Kenyans just may be the kindest people in the world
-My project in the village went well
-please pray for direction and the Spirit to fill, lead, and empower us
-pray for St. Luke’s ministries with the widows and orphans in Ombeyi
There are so many things that I have experienced this past week that I have set the whole of today aside just to reflect on them. There are so many things about Kenya that have impressed me; that have opened up my eyes to new experiences; that have changed the way I see and know God… I know that I won’t be able to communicate them all with you. But I will try to get some of these things down, just so I can remember, and so you can maybe learn with me.
My Kenyan experience started when we landed in Nairobi. There was a mix up and we were waiting for our ride for over an hour, while he was standing about 30 feet from us (neither of us knew what the other looked like; we were expecting an IJM t-shirt, and he was expecting a single traveler…). We finally made the connection after we called the director of the office who came from home to pick us up, only to laugh when he saw us standing practically next to our ride that “didn’t show up”. So after Naomi got on her way with our new friends from the IJM office, I went over to get my boarding pass for my flight to Kisumu.
Unfortunately, my flight had been rescheduled from 10AM to 9, and because of our delay I didn’t go to the counter until 9:05… But what I thought was going to be an unpleasant setback became a wonderful blessing. In case you don’t know, one of the great things about Kenya is that just about everyone speaks English. Now, it does take some getting used to the British bastardization of our refined tongue, but in my experience, the language barriers here less significant than any other of the 7 countries I’ve been to (and that includes Canada and the UK). I had the pleasure of first experiencing Kenyan English (and Kenyan kindness) at the ticket counter where the Kenyan Airways attendant apologized for the inconvenience, and then escorted me to the VIP lounge where I could wait for the 2PM flight on East Africa Air (which was also good because we were on a DC-9 rather than a bumpy turbo-prop). In the lounge I met 3 new friends who were also supposed to be on the same flight. We all started talking and continued our conversation through lunch were we discussed Kenyan politics, American/western views on Africa, and, among other things, religion. One of my new friends was a Kenyan Indian named Muhammad.
Kenya is home to many ethnic Indians, who were brought to Kenya by the British to help with the construction of the railroads in the late 1800s. Muhammad’s family has been in Kenya for many generations, and as most Kenyan Indians, Muhammad’s family was Hindu. Muhammad however converted to Islam as a teenager and is now a devout Muslim. We had wonderful conversations about the shared origins of our beliefs, and on our differing views of Christ. Muhammad and I have traded cell #’s and plan to get together soon for some good Indian food next time he is in Nairobi on business.
Speaking of Muhammad’s business, he is an importer/distributor of India-made nylon belted tires. I had never heard of the company, and he told me that’s because most Americans don’t drive nylon tires. He said that they are better suited for Kenyan roads because they are less susceptible to damage from potholes. I hadn’t seen too many roads, but the ones I had seen seemed pretty good. Muhammad assured me I was in for a surprise when I saw some real Kenyan roads. Around here we call asphalt “tarmac”, and in my travels last week, I saw a good deal of these famed Kenyan roads. I can’t begin to describe the horrendous condition of some of these “paved” roads. In many places the potholes are so severe that drivers prefer to drive on the dirt on either side of the tarmac (which isn’t much better). Traveling on these roads averages about 40 KPH, and a “2-hour drive” can easily double depending on the condition of the roads.I sent Muhammad a text message once I’d seen the roads, letting him know that his tires must be pretty tough if they can last more than a couple weeks of the tarmac’s abuse.
But back to the deconstruction of my views on Africa – in just in a couple hours of conversation with my new friends at the airport and on the plane, many of the ideas I had about Kenya, and Africa in general were shaken. I was completely impressed with how modern and developed this country is. For example, my other 2 friends were traveling to Kisumu for their work as a branding company – an advanced form of marketing strategy, to help their client (in this case a Kenyan bank) develop their brand. In my mind I was thinking businesses around here would be worried about tiling their dirt floors, not developing their brands… It’s hard to put a finger on all the wrong ideas I had about Kenya, but I can say for sure that many of them have since changed.
Once to Kisumu, my friends and I went separate ways, and I waited for Pastor Joshua, of St. Luke’s Ministries, to come pick me up. It was Sunday, and my delay actually worked out well because it allowed the Pastor to preach and then come pick me up without adjusting his schedule. I was greeted by two “wazungu” (white) members of my team and 5 Kenyans in a hired “mutatu” (mini-bus, which literally means something like “there’s always room for 3 more people”). We then began the hour-long drive to the church compound. At this point I had been on 3 flights in as many days, 2 of them red-eyes, and had crossed 8 time zones; so I was a little disoriented. As we drove from Kisumu through the smaller and smaller towns and villages to the compound, I was shocked at the poverty I saw. The Kisumu area of Kenya is known for being poor with a high malaria rate. It is just about on the equator, but the weather is comfortably warm due to the high altitude, and the land produces good crops due to the frequent rain. There were no World-vision babies with bloated stomachs (that’s in the drought area of northern Kenya) – it seemed most people grew their food and were well-fed, but money is hard to come by and poverty is the way of life for most of the villagers in the St. Luke’s area. As we drove off the tarmac, and about 20 more KM into the village, we passed markets that were crowded and scary to me. It’s been a week, and I would definitely be more comfortable with the experience now, but it was so much worse than the poverty I’ve seen in Mexico and China that I was emotionally overloaded watching the villagers sell their eggs, beans, potatoes, and vegetables (that’s pronounced vej-ji-tuh-bles fyi). There are cows everywhere – African cows… I’m not sure what their name is, but in general they are about half the size of cows you see in the states. Everyone rides bicycles, kids go barefoot or in flip flops, and all the men wear slacks and collared shirts.
Once I arrived at St. Luke’s, I was once again in for a bit of a shock. The people I met there were so AMAZING. I think my teammate Seth Slocumb put it best as we thanked our hosts at the end of the week: “Nobody has shown me the love of Jesus like you (the community of St. Luke’s) have”. St. Luke’s is a widows and orphans ministry led by Pastor Joshua, his wife Abigail, and a team of elders and prayer warriors. The ministry’s most notable feature (in my opinion) is the powerful daily prayer of the widows. I could tell that we were just surrounded by spiritual protection – it was like their prayers were an umbrella of God’s love. God not only protected our health (I don’t think I got even one mosquito bite), but our team experienced the love of Christ in powerful ways – from each other, but more notably through the locals.
Our hosts cooked great food for us (chicken, goat, ugali, rice, potatoes, bananas, eggs, avocado salad, toasted maize (corn), and the AMAZING chapati – Kenyan unleavened bread… kinda like a thick, chewy tortilla), gave us their beds to sleep in (I was sleeping in the bed of an orphan girl), washed our clothes, cleaned our rooms, made our beds, and even prepared warm buckets of bath water for us (this involved pumping the water, carrying it on your head to the back of the house, boiling the water, then carrying it up the stairs to the bathroom). Shortly after I arrived, my prayers changed from “Lord use me to serve these people” to “Lord give me the grace to accept and be blessed by these people”. Being a recipient of their service and prayers was such a humbling and powerful experience, that I’m afraid I was not able to absorb or comprehend the whole of it.
Now, concerning our work, our team came with the idea that we were going to design a single school building. When we arrived, we found that Joshua and Abigail’s vision was much greater than that, and at the end of the week we had designed the school, created a map of the property, and prepared a master plan for the whole site which included dormitories, orphanage buildings, a kitchen, dining areas, and even an on-site medical clinic. My primary role for the team was as a surveyor. We didn’t bring standard survey equipment, but the site is almost completely undeveloped so millimeter accuracy wasn’t necessary. We ended up using my GPS device – (accurate to +/- 6 meters) to do a survey of the several properties the ministry has acquired. I don’t know exactly how Kenyan property ownership works, but boundary lines are demarcated with a yucca-like plant called “siso” plants, and the properties we surveyed had irregular shapes. Without the GPS, and an almost miraculous critical path of devices, homemade cables, computer programs, and a seat-of-the-pants conversion from longitude/latitude readings to X and Y coordinates, the architects would have had no idea what the properties looked like.
Once we had a decent map, the architects met with Joshua and Abigail to discuss with them their vision for St. Luke’s. We had a completely great team of people, but our architects were outstanding. Wayne Bissky and Russ Manning were able to put together a great-looking master plan for the site, as well as a complete architectural design of the school building.
Now, the remaining work is for our structural engineer, Seth, to put together the structural plans, our electrical engineer, Jeremy McClintock, to do the electrical design, and our EMI interns Nicole Ahnen and Amy Phares to finalize the plans and project report. Bruce Lewis was our team’s water supply engineer, and he and I were excited to find that the groundwater in the area is abundant and of high-quality. We’ve even discussed the possibility of St. Luke’s starting a water company – which would be a great benefit to the community as well as a source of income for the ministry.
Another critical step for the project is the funding of the school’s construction. Joshua has been blessed with several partner churches, and we know that donors will soon come through. The final cost estimate has yet to come through, but for the whole master plan including the secondary school (high school) for 300 girls, dorms, teacher housing, increased orphan housing, kitchen, dining facilities, medical clinic, and water distribution, I’d guess they’d be looking at total of 20 – 40 million Kenyan Shillings (somewhere around $400,000 US). Joshua and Abigail have been blessed with big dreams, and I thank God for their faith and hope.
Apart from the engineering work, our team also came with a couple teachers who helped with the ministry's pre-school, as well as two doctors and two nurses, who held a clinic for the community, providing medications, vitamins, and medical advice. I think in the week they saw over 250 patients. Good stuff!
One of the great things about Kenya is that there are so many believers in Christ here! Statistics say 80% of the country is Christian or Catholic, and in my experience most people I meet have truly accepted Christ as their God and Savior. Our last full day in Ombeyi was a Friday and we all took a trip over to the primary school across the street from our compound because we heard some singing. It turns out on Friday the students spend a class period in worship, and all the classrooms were filled with some of the most beautiful praise choruses I’ve ever heard. Most of the songs were call and repeat style, and every classroom was full of joyful singing and clapping, from the mud-walled first grade to the more modern 8th. I was so moved by their singing that I’m considering taking another trip to the school with some recording equipment to make a CD which I could then sell to benefit the school. These kids have such amazing voices and smiles. I didn’t even have time to start hearing their stories, but I know they would be equally powerful.
After our week in Ombeyi, we traveled to Masai Mara park for 2 days of debriefing and Safari! I hadn’t really given it much thought, as I had been so absorbed in absorbing the school… but I can tell you, there’s nothing like seeing a lion with her cubs in the wild, or seeing giraffes walking out on the horizon. It was like driving though Jurassic Park. I was just giddy with joy watching the animals. As a thank-you, we took some of our hosts with us, and I had the pleasure of sharing my “tent” (it was pretty nice – there was a hippo living about 50m from my bed!) with the 70 year old pastor James – one of my favorite people ever. Each morning as we woke up, James would start with 5-10 minutes of prayer in Luo (the mother tongue of the St. Lukes area), and I only learned a couple words, but the power and sincerity of his prayers moved me.
I know it’s already too late, but I think I’ll wrap this up before it gets too long. I’m enjoying learning my way around Nairobi, and am looking forward to the work I’ll get to do here. More on that later…
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Godspeed.
-Josh
