Sunday, December 16, 2007

Spider Cage Match: To the Death!

"I knew this fight would come whilst in Africa. Praise the Lord I am the victor and not “he who cannot be named”. The evil one, the 8 legged 32 jointed fiend that lies in wait and preys on passerbys; the one the only, SPIDER!"

I can tell this tale better with pictures so go -Here- for the tale. Start with Picture 1 and proceed. If it doesn't work let me know.

PS the next morning Joseph told me that he almost came over because it sounded like "something was going down" like a cockroach or rat or something. But then it quieted back down shortly so he figured someone won and he would find out in the morning if I was the Victor or the loser. Naturally I was the winner.

Spider Death was Pronounced on December 14th, 9:47pm Nairobi Standard Time (Greenwich Mean Time +3 hours)

Sickness, Cellphones and Ant Attack

The title reminds me of an old B Movie. Probably just he Ant Attack part. Anywhoo, Picture links should be in the section 'title', as in, just click the 'Cell Phone' of the title "11/27 - Cell Phone"

11/27 - Cell Phone
Got a cellphone for my time in Kenya. The number is 0725 381 285 and that should include the country code and all. It costs me about 10 cents to send a text/SMS and about 40 cents/minute to talk; and nothing to receive. Thus I won't be contacting too many people outside of Kenya with it. Sweet phone though, got it for 40 bucks and it has a 'fixed' LCD screen. Black and white with super good battery life.

11/28 - Present (12/16) Surveying
One of my primary farm jobs are to survey and make a map of the compound. I've been working on that off and on now for about 2 weeks. Taking measurements is hard work! the Compound is about 2/3 mile long, 1/4 wide. And I'm measuring it with a 300ft tape measure. Which involves staking down one end, walking 300 ft with it, putting my hat down as a marker, walking back and rolling the tape measure back up, then walking back to my hat to re-stake and start again. Thus, for every 300ft I measure, I walk 900ft. Good exercise! And on some of the walls it isn't 'smooth' ground but some good rivers to forge, brambles to walk through, bugs to frighten.

12/5 - Sickness
On Wednesday the 5th I started to get sick. I don't know what kind of sickness but I was just exhausted all day with a headache and couldn't sleep well that night. One would think dehydration so I drank a lot of water that day and was fully hydrated by lunch. Ever since that sickness I've had much more flem in my throat than normal. Weird. Maybe due to the Malaria meds but I dunno. Speaking of Malaria meds, they do make my dreams a little more vivid. The other night I was dreaming about Zombies (not a scary dream as one would assume, just kinda intense. My dreams rarely are scarey, but sometimes kinda intense) but I did wake up suddenly cause I thought I felt someones hand on my back and heard something. In the dream it was a zombie naturally. That startled me a bit. Oh, and I have bats in my roof that consistently make noise at night so waking up at night from weird noises is also a common occurence. As long as they don't come into my room I'm okay with it. And despite what I thought, they fall a lot. I hear a thud from a falling bat quite often. I guess if I was trying to sleep upside down I would fall too.

12/5 - Gum Oddity
Oh, and also the day I got sick was the day I had some Gum disease. My gum on my back molar was a little sore and upon looking I noticed that a small section of it had receded and was red (more red than your generic gum red that is). This worried me as I like my teeth being healthy, but it didn't grow anymore and the redness and pain disappeared within a couple days. It's still receded, but I'm keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't grow. Hopefully the gum will grow back normal. I don't know what caused that. Either way, I don't know what sickness I had on the 5th of December. What causes restless sleeping, headaches, exhaustion, and gum deterioration? Again, I'm back to normal excluding the extra flem and a little less gum in my mouth.

12/8 - Nandi Rock Hike
On the 8th (A Saturday) a number of us went hiking up to the highest point around. Nandi Rock. Which isn't too high but it was a good day hike and good exercise in 85-90 degree heat. Got a good sunburn on some exposed white skin (left shoulder wasn't tan and got exposed for a bit and got nice and red. Now it's peeling)

One tale not in the pictures is that Ants don't like me. At one point while standing and waiting for some people to catch up I was attacked by rabid ants. Maybe I was too close to their home, I dunno. At first it felt like plants were tickling my foot which I just ignored as plants tickling your feet are common when hiking in sandals. Then suddenly it was dozens of little stinging pains all over my feet. I think my reaction was "Ow! HEY!" The ants weren't big enough to break skin so it was just them pinching me with their pincers but it was still a surprise and not something I could just ignore. Then for the next 5 minutes wherever I stood ants would still try to get me. I must have been targeted with the "bite me" smell.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Thanksgiving and Busted Riveters

Thanksgiving
So Thanksgiving was pretty sweet. We drove to Kisumu and spent mid-morning/lunch and early afternoon and ate an excellent thanksgiving meal with a number of other "whites" who lived in Kisumu. the owners of the house, Swansons I believe, had known my parents (or at least went to the same church when I was younger) so I was recognized by a couple people. Recognized as in "you're Dave Jolly's kid?", apparently I look like him or something :-). And yes, even in thanksgiving in Kenya, we still had Turkey! I was actually rather surprised, but I guess you can buy turkey anywhere now-a-days around thanksgiving. Enough people want it, someone will bring it and make a couple bucks.

Gecko Sleep Death
That night I also killed a Gecko in my house. Didn't know that was possible. Those little guys are hard to catch! I must have caught him off guard as I just stepped on him when I entered my house (all lights were off and it was dark). Didn't even know what happened until I turned the lights on (after closing the curtains so as ti minimize how many bugs fly in as soon as the light turns on). Then I saw a gecko spleen on the floor next to exploded gecko. icky is a term I would use to describe squished gecko. That's right. Icky.

Riveters of Doom
The next couple days of work where spent in the Workshop where I was trying to be of service. Helped with a number of things, but the main one was putting up sheet metal on the Trailer. -Picture here- so you know what I'm talking about. In the process of measuring, drilling, riveting the dang riveter gave way. Granted, this riveter was on it's last legs and was 5+ years old (German made) so it had done well. But we only got 2 sheet metal plates up and still had one more. And that one more now only had 1/10 of the rivets in it, all on 1 row on the bottom. We tried to fix it by welding the riveter back together, but that didn't work. Just re-broke. So we tried to duct-tape the sheet metal to the Trailer so we could use the Trailer but apparently that didn't work to well either. It's too bumpy that the duck-tape gave way like melting butter. So 6 large clamps later, it was good to go for a trip. We got a new riveter from town on Tuesday (Initially broke prior Sat.) Unfortunately it already had a crack in the Riveter which wasn't noticed when it was purchased. So to prevent it from breaking we used a clamp on the Riveter to "hold it together" and got the sheet metal on and was good to go. Course, later that day I tried to rivet something else and it broke like a plastic toy. But not where the clamp was, as the clamp was keeping it from breaking at that point. Instead the handle broke. That's right, I broke a cast steel Handle. Awesome grip, booyah!! or it was just cheaply and horribly made... hmmm, I like the awesome grip story better...

Other notable events that week include but aren't limited to:
- Helped graze the cows (meaning I stood under a tree/shade until some cows strayed and chased them back into the area where they were supposed to be grazing)
- Saw what is called a "Sausage Tree". Apparently the fruit ferments on the tree, isn't really edible, but it makes elephants drunk, and thus they like it. Unfortunately no elephants where I am.
- There is a lot of illegal lumber harvesting everywhere in Africa. They chop trees, burn them and sell the charcoal. I saw a group of them today and one was bathing in the river. Nothing like a charcoal covered naken man to make my day!
- Oh, and 10/28, 2 weeks after I left home, was the first night where I actually stopped and looked up into the night sky. Thought that was odd that it took me 2 weeks to remember to look up. I was just walking to my house for bed, stopped, and thought "oh yah, stars, different sky, I should look". silly me.

and thus concludes some events around Thanksgiving time (11/22 - 11/28)

Sunday, December 9, 2007

My First Sermon

I was 'nominated' to give a sermon today. I think this is my first Sermon ever to a church. Not my first public speaking stint, but first Sermon. So below is what I came up with. It's not word for word of what I said, but I wrote this as my study so I knew what I wanted to say; so it's close. Plus I used this to write my sermon notes. Beware, for those of you who aren't Christians, heavy Christian content to follow! scary! ;-)

Oh, and before I started I gave a short shpeel on how fast I talk when I speak in public and that I was aware and would attempt to slow down. I told them that if I got going to please let me know and slow me down otherwise no one will understand me and their wouldn't be a point of me talking. I get an adrenaline boost public speaking which while nice as it quickens my thoughts, it also causes me to unknowingly talk faster. Afterwords I was told that I still talked fast but if they concentrated they could understand. Oh, and I'm the only native English speaker, for everyone else on the compound it's English is a 2nd or 3rd language. Which doesn't help when it's ME talking. Native speakers have a hard enough time understanding me! :-)

Oh, and actually for this sermon there was a native English speaker in the audience. We had the pleasure of 2 visitors, one gal from North Carolina one from Germany. (They were doing AIDS research and the German gal had heard about the farm from a friend of hers).

Sermon:
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An elder Kenyan was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two lions. One lion represents fear, unjust anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, and ego. The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith." "This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too," he added. The grandchildren thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which lion will win?" The old Kenyan simply replied: "The one you feed."

Of these lions, we all know which one we want to win. The one who fights for peace. No one in their right mind wants to always be experiencing War or Anger or Fights between friends. Speaking of Friends, we all want the lion that represents Friendship to win, not envy and regret, which destroy friendships. Unfortunately we often feed the lion we don't want to win. The one that tells us we are weak, stupid, less of a man/woman than everyone else. The one that causes us to go into ourselves and take pity on ourselves. Pat yourself on the back and say, I know I know, I'm weak, their strong, I'm dumb, their smart. If any of you have seen Lord of the Rings, and I believe some of the young boys have, there's a part of the movie where Gollum, a very self tortured man, does just this. He pats himself on the back, rubs his back, pities himself, tells himself all the lies he wants to hear. Gollum's Lion that represents Self-Pity is very strong. Lots of food. Ultimately Gollum is lost. Killed by his own, corrupt desires.

So how do we feed the lion we want to win? How do we, unlike Gollum, kill our corrupt desires, instead of be killed by? Like I said, often we can't. We need help. And let me tell you friends, Jesus has food that only 1 lion likes. The lion that is Love. The enemies food is worthless to this lion, it is stinky rotting monkey carcass! However, the food we feed our lions is usually mixed. Good but tainted. Corrupt goodness.

Gen 1:26-27
"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

So God created us, in His image, our human nature resembled God's Nature. And what did he say after he created us? Vs. 31 "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good". Not just good, very good. And I'll have to admit, Very Good to God is a kind of good that I can't even imagine... but something happened. Something changed. Something, someone sinned.

Gen 3:22
"Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever"

We sinned and corrupted our Nature.

Romans 7:9
"I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died."

We all know we are not perfect human beings. Christ is, but we aren't. We are corrupt shells of what we are intended to be. We do good, and we do evil. We feed both Lions. And throughout human history, it's been apparent that while we can feed both lions; the food is really only fit for one lion. we've seen that this Lion, the one who represents Lies and Fear usually wins, and continues to win more and more.

Luke 2:10-11
"Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord"

As a gift to a fallen mankind, God became flesh and blood. Bones and marrow. So that HE might defeat the Lion that represents Guilt. We are all guilty are we not? I am.

Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

I've lied. I've lusted. I've been unjustly angry. I'm prideful and have a rather large Ego. And I've acted on my lies, on my lust, on my anger. I've fed the wrong Lion. Many times. But through Jesus, because he chose to be born as Man, that birthday which we will celebrate later this month, that Lion in me can be DEFEATED. In fact, it already has. He just doesn't know it yet.

Philippians 3:12
"Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus" I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:14
"For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

Back to Romans 3:23, but this time include verse 24.
Romans 3:23-24
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;"

That Lion, the Lion of Judah, Christ, has already staked his Claim on me. and on you. And there is nothing that other lion can do about it. Only I can choose to feed it. Only I can choose to not feed it. And Through God and with the Lord's guidance, grace and mercy I'm not feeding it. I'm dealing with or have dealt with parts of that Lion; I'm dealing with my issues. And I'm positive the same is with many of you.

Ephisians 2:10
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them"

Someday, before I die, I hope to stop feeding him my unjust anger, my resentment, my lust, my envy and my ego, and whatever else cannot survive God's presence. With God's help I'll get there. With God's help, WE will get there. Me and Him. You and Him. US and Him. And I'll be able to feed my other Lion, my Love, my compassion, my friendship and my faith. And simply acknowledging what Christ has done for me, through His birth, his life, his death and ultimatly his resurrection, I am infinetly closer that I ever could have been on my own.

Course that's all fine and dandy some say. But where's the practical?! How do I feed the right Lion? I want to feed the Lion of Judah! Well the answer is the same. Jesus, the Lion Himself! Because God created us in His image, we have Free Will. The ability to choose rationally, disregarding the animalistic instinct. God does not infringe on our Free Will very easily. So what do you do? You ask!

Revelation 3:20
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

He's knocking, He's saying "Hodi"! You gotta welcome Him in. You gotta ask him! "Jesus, please come in, come in and change me, refine me, perfect me!" I warn you though, being refined is not easy. To refine precious metals, like Gold and Silver, you have to heat them, very hot, and then sift off the impurities. Are you ready to have it hot? You wanna change, you wanna stop feeding that lion of Anger, it's gonna be work. Do you think God just automatically changes you? Changes your personality? No! But he will give you an opportunity. He'll bring you food. Which Lion do you feed? Say your anger has destroyed another friendship and you are tired of it. You want to give it up to God and have him refine it like Gold. you pray to God to help you control your anger. Will God then keep all things that make you angry away? No no no, he brings them close. Gets them hot. You pray. The next day something happens that normally makes you Angry. God helps and you don't get angry. Rejoice! Praise the Lord! Thank Him for his Grace. But then He bring's something else, and something else. Soon, we are no longer getting angry at the litte things that used to make us so mad. We're being refined. It's not easy, with God, there are growing pains. But the pain is nothing compared to letting the other Lion devour us.
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I ended with praying that God would bring to mind things he wants to refine, and that we would in turn offer those up to Christ for refining. I didn't get anything, but I was also hyped up on adrenaline, sweating and very hot; which is normal when I speak in public.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Week 1 Events, Kakamega

So like i said prior, I visited a place called Kakamega. Now, one point of clarification before i start, when I say Kakamega, I could be referring to the Church OR the town. I'm sorry, it's just habit now to refer to the chuch as Kakamega. I'll attempt to utilize the term "church" but I make no promises.

So the Kakamega Church (see! told you I'd try) is loosely connected to my home church, Westside through work we've done with them and some financial help. Through that connection I am meeting up with these guys. I just stayed the night there and got back late the next afternoon (a bit before men's bible study); and in that 25 hour period, a couple key events:

Trip Over to Kakamega
I was picked up late due to a mechanical issue with the car (break line finally broke) so I got to see first hand the Kenyan mechanic shop! or rather, lane. It was a street of old cars everywhere, people everywhere, parts strewn everywhere. Pretty awesome. Dr. George showed the bad peice and off the guys when on a quest to find the part. 20 or so minutes later we got the part, they haggled for a bit, I was able to pick up that they were fighting between 5 to 6 hundred shillings for the line (8-10 bucks); and ended up with a happy 550.

We also stopped by one of the guy's parents or sisters house for some Chai and Ugali. Apparently Kenyan's just drink a tea called Chai. No other flavors. In fact it was directly mentioned that he didn't understand why so many flavors. Chai with a couple scoops of sugar is apparently the way to go. Ugali was pretty sweet though. Kind of a doughy, heavy bread that you squish in your hand and scoop up some boiled, spiced greens. First taste of authentic Kenyan food!! Then they brought out the milk; to which I was happy about. Sounded good at the time. Then they mentioned that I might not like it as it was fermented. Ever seen chewable milk? whoooooa there. While it actually didn't taste too bad (I could stomach about half a cup) it was one of the more 'odd' things I've seen. Pretty stomach turning to a Westerner, seeing milk slop into your cup! hehe. Like I said though, tasted alright. Like a mix of plain, unsweetened yogurt with the consistency of watered down cottage cheese.

Simon's Cell Group / Small Group:
Let me tell you, these African guys know to give an intro. When Simon introduced me to his cell group, I have to admit, I sounded pretty awesome! Hehe, just kidding... kinda. Seriously though, most of you know how I dislike being the center of attention but here I was crowded into a very small room with about 13 people where I was the center of attention; and then to have a pastor (Simon is one of the pastors at the church so he's a practiced orator) talk about me or at least a solid minute. Can we say awkward? No worries though, I thought I made a pretty good comeback, err... introduction and thanks, when it was my turn to say something. I don't remember what I said, but it's one of those times where God helps me out because I was not only articulate but had a solid message/greeting. And you all again know that's not me! That's one thing I do love about missions, God always seems to be a little more obvious in the simple things. Maybe it's that way normally, or maybe I just depend on Him less. but that's some spiritual thoughts for later.

"African Shower"
Slept at Simon's place. Nice house. But I found out later that their plumbing wasn't fully finished. I actually started to suspect when told "We'll make the preparations" when I accepted his offer of a shower. Huh? Preparations? His response to my look was a smile and something about experiencing an African Shower. About half an hour later I was led outside to their latrine/shower where one room had a hole in the ground (a good 40 feet deep) and some toilet paper; and the other room had a candle, a bucket of water (warm!! whooo hoo) and soap. So picture this if you dare! Me, bucknaked, crouching over a bucket of water holding soap. wait, actually I don't know if I want you to picture that. Bucknaked crouched men are not the best to have dangling in ones cerebral cortex. .... hehe, sorry, I never stop when it starts to get inappropriate... and i love it.... anywhoo, I started to wash but cut it short when I got the water soapy and then realized that with soapy water it would be difficult to wash off the soap on my body. I made do with what I had and ended the shower. Next time, avoid the soap in the clean water. Note taken.

Detention Center
I posted a number of pictures that describe the place pretty well, check those out for visual and text. I got to give a couple speeches there; let's hope I get good at this before God does the ol' "push the bird out of the nest".

And that's roughly it for Kakamega! oh, and politically, Obama is from the area I guess, so everyone there want's Obama to win. and yes, it was hard for me to "keep out of a political discussion" but I did it. aren't you proud?

Upcoming Events!
Awesome Farmer's Tan in the Making! Wait till you see how my sandle tan is turning out!
December 9th I get to give the Church sermon! my that's getting close.....

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Miwani Farm, Inital thoughts


So maybe a word or two about where I am in Kenya eh? I first arrived at the Miwani farm a week ago and have since then spent a majority of my time here. I visited a place up north called Kakamega Tuesday and Wednesday. More on that later.
Nehemiah International Farm @ Miwani, near Kisumu
I gotta admit, I was expecting a little less here at the farm. Or rather, my expectations were low as I was going to Kenya; but the Nehemiah compound is very nice, very livable. Which probably accounts for why the place has so many white, non Africans living/visiting. I was given the guest house as I'm the only unmarried male visiting, which is nice. It also serves as the water source (well beneath with a pump that pushes water to tanks on the roof, then gravity fed to the rest of the compound) and internet source (radio is beamed in from across the lake and distrubuted where I live and at the main house wirelessly. Anyways, as I was saying, the place is very nice, not too much of a hardship to live. A lot of work was put into the compound to get it to this state, so I'm just reaping benefits of past labor, but that's how most things in this life are huh?

So the day I arrived and the day after I just kinda walked around, talked with people and helped out here and there. Mostly, just looked. I did go eyeball the goats cause their kinda cute, and their pens are right behind my 'house'. We did lose a goat that morning though so when I entered one pen, there was a dead baby goat on the ground. sad. Guess that was due to someone not showing up to work and ignoring the goats. Babies are fragile and need care when their so young. Here's my favorite though, very cute little guy.

I got to feed him some milk from a bottle and he was all over that. All I can say, I'd hate to have that guy try to get milk off of my glands! Ouch!! Go easy! Though I have noticed that baby goats who do get milk from their mother (not the ones in the pens (milk goats), but in people's yards the babies have a tendency of sucking and ramming their heads into the glands. I don't wanna know what that feels like.

Anywhoo, I'm tired. Got sunburned today and it's past my bedtime.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Except replace Trains with Buses.

Hello!!! Sorry it took me so long to write up something. All I did initially was send off an email to some people so word could pass that I was at least alive. So anyways, I can blab when I write so here goes.

Travel (53 hours total, 36 hours actual travel time)

Plane Ride
At Seatac I was given a starter motor for the Tractor on the farm. That guy weighed about 30 pounds so it more than doubled my weight. My bag actually then weighed 55 pounds but the check in girl was nice enough to let me pass without paying the 50 dollar overweight fee. Or was it just my inescapable charm? Hey! stop laughing, I have some charm. Oh wait, I drool in my sleep sometimes and forget to chew before swallowing sometimes. :-)

The 20 hour plane ride was fairly uneventful. 10 hours to Italy and 10 hours to Ethiopia. Same plane but we switched pilots I think and some crew. Luckily the plane was 2/3rd empty so everyone got their own sections. I chose a window seat and thus the seat next to me was empty. Though I did sit next to an Ethiopian guy for a little while to talk. Nice guy, was moving from Minnesota to Ethiopia as he got a job there with their new central bank (poor guys, if only they new...). His wife and kids are still in the states incase this doesn't work out, but if it works out he will send for them later.

Got to Ethiopia alright, but about 1.5 hours late. Which was bad considering my connection was supposed to have already left by the time I arrived. Thank God everything was on Africa time and my connection didn't actually leave for another hour. Luckily I was asked to switch seats so some older gentleman could sit with his friend/wife. Luckily I say because then I got to sit next to a cute German gal who was teaching in Tanzania. No, she's married so don't ask! Ha! Overall I ended up about 2 hours late into Nairobi where I was picked up by a guy named Osbourne. Nice fella'! He works in the slums with HIV infected people primarily. The slums are for the dirt poor, and a majority of them are infected as HIV infected people often can't get jobs. HIV is the new leporsy. For those who don't read bible stories, Lepers (those infected with Leprosy) where shunned from cities and has their own leper colonies. African's shun HIV people because they are afraid of catching it. Yes, we know that HIV is not really contagious in the normal sense, but the terms "Poor African" and "Any kind of Education" don't go hand in hand, that and the heart still fears even if the Mind says it's okay.

Nairobi
Anywhoo, total sidetrack. So I was picked up and dropped off at the Karibou Hotel (no that's not a misspelling of the animal, it actually means the Welcome Hotel as I found out later). I bought some dinner there later for 230 shillings, (about 3.5 - 4 dollars). Roast chicken and vegetables. Attempted to stay awake as late as possible but I only made it to about 8.30 before I had to sleep. I was falling asleep standing up. Felt great and woke up around 4:30. My bus wasn't until 7 so I repacked, went downstairs and ate breakfast around 6, and shot for the bus. Oh yah, breakfast consisted of initially some tea and cornflakes. The cornflakes included a small thing of hot milk, which wasn't lumpy, but it was kind of stringy. I think it was cream, but I dunno. Then afterwards came eggs and sausage.

Bussing it Hardcore
On the bus I eventually met some Ethiopian guys in the same row as me. They were going to Kisumu (same destination as me) for some training associated with their job. I dunno what there job was, the accent was strong and I didn't understand. They were good to have on the ride as they would explain some of the things we saw. For example, the monstrously huge Tea Farm. Huuuge! In the middle all I saw was Tea all around me for as far as I could see. And I could see far. Hills upon hills of tea behind, in front, and to the side. All hand picked. I repeat, All hand picked. Much like American's Coal Towns that we had a couple decades ago, there was a large Tea Town called Kericho. Seemed faily booming, but was in the middle of this tea farm. Most probably employed by the tea people.

On the bus ride, a couple other things worthy of note. We had 3 potty stops. The one time I used the restroom was one of those "don't touch anything" experiences. There was a large tub of standing water in the restroom, and I don't know what it was for. Large as in one of those 50 gallon metal drums, full of water. Full of water in a somewhat dirty, smelly restroom. And the other thing to mention is guess what came on the radio? Deep Forest! I know only a couple people will find that awesome, but for those "not in the know" Deep Forest is one of those music styles that most people look at you funny for listening too. It's Indeginous' people's chants remixed. In some cases it's african, or asian or islander or pygmy. Their chants have been recored and then remixed with some modern music/beats/tunes laced in. It's fabulous. I was so happy to hear it on the radio, you have no idea.

Oh, and on the bus ride, I found out how bad the roads where, and how fast the bus drivers still drove. The last half of it was the worst. My butt continually swing danced with the bus seat. In fact, my bum had moves that I didn't know existed. Once my Jolly Bum even caught air. After that one pothole I heard a lot of seatbelts click together. hehe. Naturally I didn't connect mine as the bus was swaying a lot at that point and wanted a quick escape if needed. John Kruegar picked me up at the bus station and said that driving on these roads requires skiing technique as you have to maneuver on the road to avoid potholes like skiers have to maneuver on the snow.

Pictures Available
http://picasaweb.google.com/JollyJohnD/20071118KenyaTravelAndMiwaniFarm

There are a couple other pictures available on my Picasa site that I haven't wrote about yet. But will soon. Note that a number of those pictures were taken for Westside specifically, but I think I put in enough context so it will make sense to non-Westside people.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

More Information about Kenya

So I learned the following the other day:

I will be able to help out at multiple locations in Kenya.

Miwani:
The Farm. This is where I will spend a majority of my time. The people on the farm are working hard to try to make the farm self sustaining (as in the money it makes from goods, support it's costs). Right now it still relies partly on donations from churches (like mine). They have multiple projects going on that involve things like: Methane Gas produces for houses (utilize cow manure to make gas. Apparently local kids deliver cow manure to houses for methane gas production. High Quality Goats Milk, the wife of the current "manager" down there is a horticulturist and produces specialized feed for their goats. And apparently goats milk helps alleviate a number of AIDS symptoms. I don't know if the Farms special goat feed is primarily towards helping aids people or not. Irrigation, I guess the farm also attempts to utilize, cheap, never before seen in Africa, irrigation systems. Some kind of drip irrigation, I don't know any details, but I'm assuming as it's a 3rd world country it has a lot of 'bang for it's buck' and is easy to repair and maintain.

Kakamenga: About 30 minutes north of the Farm in Miwani, there is a Church there that supports a number of humanitarian activities and is involved with the people at Miwani. The head pastor there has 3 boys (1 son, 2 son in laws) who all do a number of humanitarian activities. 1 son in kakamenga became the head of a boy's detention center and totally revolutionized the place. Right now there are around 350 boys and I guess before he was head it was in pretty sorry conditions (the boys had worms, bed sores, were fed gruel, totally oliver twist). Presently I guess it's a lot better and the boys are happy. Another son in Nairobi, works with orphans. I won't interact with him too much as he is in Nairobi and is about an 8 hour bus ride from the Farm in Miwani. But he will meet me in Nairobi as that is where my plane lands and provide a place to stay for the night and get me to the bus the next morning.

I don't know how accurate all of this is as I'm going off of memory from a meeting I had, but the general ideas should be correct and it looks like there is a lot of opportunities to really make a difference and help out. Should be good.

T-8 Days!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Africa Blog!

Greetings all. This shall be my blog while I'm doing 'my time' in Kenya. Here's what I know so far... okay, so I know very little. At least things that are of interest I suppose. I'm leaving November 15th a bit before midnight and arriving in Nairobi Kenya something like 20 hours later. A short 8 hour bus ride later I will arrive in Kisumu and hopefully get a ride to the Miwani farm. Other than that, thing should be pretty sweet. Generically I will try to post a link at the bottom of the blog to pictures, like below.

As for keeping in touch with people and such things, cell phones do exist in Africa for surprisingly cheap so I will probably obtain one of those. Cell phones are easier to manage then land lines so they are the predominant form of long distance communication down there. Internet access is also available either at internet "cafe's" at the town or slow DSL at the farm. So hopefully pictures will be updated somewhat regularly and all that jazz.

Pictures showing where I'm going, via google maps.
http://picasaweb.google.com/JollyJohnD/TravelMaps