Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Parliament
June 14th
We are continuing our exit from this country. As stated yesterday we flew from Kakamega to Nairobi and today we fly out of Nairobi back to the states. But first, we have a full day planned.
Today we got to go to the Parliament building and meet with a few officials (Millie and Wilberforce). This is really more Valerie and Richard's thing but they let us tag along. :-) We initially arrived at the parliament building and eventually found a place to park outside the area as they have no real "guest" parking for visitors. We then proceeded to wait and wait in in the parking lot for at least an hour, I don't know how long as I didn't have a clock with me; but it was a long time in midday sun. No shade and they wouldn't let us in without a Member of Parliament's Personal Assistant; preferably Millie's assistant as she was who we were meeting. Eventually it came through that there was a mix up and we just weren't in the schedule for that morning.
After waiting long enough, we decided to try to see if the 2nd appointment with Wilberforce could receive us a bit early as we were already there and the first appointment didn't pan out so well. So in that process (which was somewhat complicated with sending messages back and forth) we found out that we had the appointments backwards. We were actually very late for what was our 1st appointment with Wilberforce and our appointment with Millie wasn't until the afternoon. Oh dear. Luckily, Wilberforce is a gracious gentleman and gave us some of his time despite having a full schedule and other commitments. My impression of Wilberforce is that he is a genuine gentleman, nice, good dreams for what he can do. That being said, he is also new to the office. My hope is that he will stick with his guns and not bend and/or break like most politicians due in their political career. Big dreams can often turn sour. Wilberforce, I hope to God you keep your foundation!
We then left the Parliamentary building for awhile to find some sustenance and wait until our scheduled appointment with Millie. We found a nice, neighboring restaurant where everyone essentially ordered the same thing; chicken (kuku) and chips. I had kuku and chapati but it's similar enough (fried tortillas instead of fries).
At the appointed time we headed over to the Parliament again to meet with Millie. Her assistant came down to meet us and informed us that Millie would love for us to join her for lunch. Doh! Well, so as not to insult we graciously accepted and prepared ourselves to eat another full meal. This was a fun experience as we got to eat in the MP "lunch room". Which is basically a 5 star restaurant (5 star in Kenya). We waited for about 45 minutes at the table, not eating or ordering anything. Valerie or Richard (I don't remember who) was texting Millie's assistant and she was keeping us somewhat up to date. We weren't quite sure what was going on at this point truthfully. Eventually Millie's assistant told us to go ahead and order food as Millie wouldn't be eating with us. So we ordered our grub, ate it and waited a bit longer. Heather and I ordered the "Meat on bones" which was some weird translated name but it sounded good to us! It was tasty, and it was meat on bones; with large arteries and everything. Yowza.
Overall we waited about 1.5 hours at the table before heading up to meet Millie. We met her in a private office. I don't know who normally worked in that office but it wasn't Millie. Either way we all stuffed in to the office and she came in a few minutes later. She was a pleasant enough gal though some of her priorities seem a bit off. One of her big things is that she's setting up a conference to discuss the amount of time teenagers are spending on facebook. Shoot, if those teens come from a rich enough family to afford the internet time necessary to sustain facebook I'd worry about something else. Like the large slums just outside the city. Sigh, politicians do tend to reside in their own warped world. Hence my comments above about Wilburforce, let's hope he keeps himself out in the real world. Not to drag on Millie however, I'm pretty sure she is one of the better Members of Parliament as she did seem to care and spent a lot of time dealing with some of the female issues in Kenya. But flack was deserved for the facebook thing.
After that we headed headed over to Juliette's house for a feast! It was supposed to be a light dinner but she prepared the Kenyan equivalent of thanksgiving. It was fantastic, corn, chapapti, chicken, beef, mandazi, mango, samosas. Yum. Now Juliette, she is a good woman. A widow who has done many great things with her lot in life. She isn't poor by Kenyan standards, keeps a nice standard of living but rather than isolating herself she keeps herself managing ~500 orphans and works on placing them in homes. An emotionally tasking job to be sure.
Juliette also works with a lot of gals on setting up their own businesses or things they can do to make a living. One of the gals living with her (or visiting, not sure which) brought out some of her stuff to share. She is an excellent seamstress and made a good array of dresses and shirts. Heather found a really cute shirt but sadly it didn't quite fit. Teresa found a nice dress and purchased that one.
After that we said our goodbyes and headed to the Nairobi Airport. All is well that ends well. Until next time!
We are continuing our exit from this country. As stated yesterday we flew from Kakamega to Nairobi and today we fly out of Nairobi back to the states. But first, we have a full day planned.
Today we got to go to the Parliament building and meet with a few officials (Millie and Wilberforce). This is really more Valerie and Richard's thing but they let us tag along. :-) We initially arrived at the parliament building and eventually found a place to park outside the area as they have no real "guest" parking for visitors. We then proceeded to wait and wait in in the parking lot for at least an hour, I don't know how long as I didn't have a clock with me; but it was a long time in midday sun. No shade and they wouldn't let us in without a Member of Parliament's Personal Assistant; preferably Millie's assistant as she was who we were meeting. Eventually it came through that there was a mix up and we just weren't in the schedule for that morning.
After waiting long enough, we decided to try to see if the 2nd appointment with Wilberforce could receive us a bit early as we were already there and the first appointment didn't pan out so well. So in that process (which was somewhat complicated with sending messages back and forth) we found out that we had the appointments backwards. We were actually very late for what was our 1st appointment with Wilberforce and our appointment with Millie wasn't until the afternoon. Oh dear. Luckily, Wilberforce is a gracious gentleman and gave us some of his time despite having a full schedule and other commitments. My impression of Wilberforce is that he is a genuine gentleman, nice, good dreams for what he can do. That being said, he is also new to the office. My hope is that he will stick with his guns and not bend and/or break like most politicians due in their political career. Big dreams can often turn sour. Wilberforce, I hope to God you keep your foundation!
We then left the Parliamentary building for awhile to find some sustenance and wait until our scheduled appointment with Millie. We found a nice, neighboring restaurant where everyone essentially ordered the same thing; chicken (kuku) and chips. I had kuku and chapati but it's similar enough (fried tortillas instead of fries).
At the appointed time we headed over to the Parliament again to meet with Millie. Her assistant came down to meet us and informed us that Millie would love for us to join her for lunch. Doh! Well, so as not to insult we graciously accepted and prepared ourselves to eat another full meal. This was a fun experience as we got to eat in the MP "lunch room". Which is basically a 5 star restaurant (5 star in Kenya). We waited for about 45 minutes at the table, not eating or ordering anything. Valerie or Richard (I don't remember who) was texting Millie's assistant and she was keeping us somewhat up to date. We weren't quite sure what was going on at this point truthfully. Eventually Millie's assistant told us to go ahead and order food as Millie wouldn't be eating with us. So we ordered our grub, ate it and waited a bit longer. Heather and I ordered the "Meat on bones" which was some weird translated name but it sounded good to us! It was tasty, and it was meat on bones; with large arteries and everything. Yowza.
Overall we waited about 1.5 hours at the table before heading up to meet Millie. We met her in a private office. I don't know who normally worked in that office but it wasn't Millie. Either way we all stuffed in to the office and she came in a few minutes later. She was a pleasant enough gal though some of her priorities seem a bit off. One of her big things is that she's setting up a conference to discuss the amount of time teenagers are spending on facebook. Shoot, if those teens come from a rich enough family to afford the internet time necessary to sustain facebook I'd worry about something else. Like the large slums just outside the city. Sigh, politicians do tend to reside in their own warped world. Hence my comments above about Wilburforce, let's hope he keeps himself out in the real world. Not to drag on Millie however, I'm pretty sure she is one of the better Members of Parliament as she did seem to care and spent a lot of time dealing with some of the female issues in Kenya. But flack was deserved for the facebook thing.
After that we headed headed over to Juliette's house for a feast! It was supposed to be a light dinner but she prepared the Kenyan equivalent of thanksgiving. It was fantastic, corn, chapapti, chicken, beef, mandazi, mango, samosas. Yum. Now Juliette, she is a good woman. A widow who has done many great things with her lot in life. She isn't poor by Kenyan standards, keeps a nice standard of living but rather than isolating herself she keeps herself managing ~500 orphans and works on placing them in homes. An emotionally tasking job to be sure.
Juliette also works with a lot of gals on setting up their own businesses or things they can do to make a living. One of the gals living with her (or visiting, not sure which) brought out some of her stuff to share. She is an excellent seamstress and made a good array of dresses and shirts. Heather found a really cute shirt but sadly it didn't quite fit. Teresa found a nice dress and purchased that one.
After that we said our goodbyes and headed to the Nairobi Airport. All is well that ends well. Until next time!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Lenana School in the Dargaretti Slums
June 2nd
Today we visit the Lenana School, who will be the happy recipient of some funds to build a library and class rooms. We came around and visited all the class rooms independently, saying high to the students and introducing ourselves. I tried an introduction that asked if any students wanted to work with Metal (as that is what I do at work). That question was met with an eerie silence, so I decided to not try that route again. Next time I went with "I'm John and hairy like John the Baptist" while grabbing my sideburns. Then at least I got some laughs. Better than silence I must admit.
We also got the opportunity to pray over the 8th grade kids who were preparing to take their state examinations. These examinations are like the SATs but to get into Secondary (High School). If they do well they can get into better schools. I believe most secondary schools are publicly funded, but good scores equal better school. Secondary and University is the holy grail of nearly all kids down here. Despite the fact that Kenya is actually over-educated as many adults with BA's can't find a job. Similar to what is happening here in America. I'll keep comments on that to myself. ;-)
EDIT: Pictures of Lenana School are uploaded. Pictures 1 through 4 of the Kenya 2011 Album
Today we visit the Lenana School, who will be the happy recipient of some funds to build a library and class rooms. We came around and visited all the class rooms independently, saying high to the students and introducing ourselves. I tried an introduction that asked if any students wanted to work with Metal (as that is what I do at work). That question was met with an eerie silence, so I decided to not try that route again. Next time I went with "I'm John and hairy like John the Baptist" while grabbing my sideburns. Then at least I got some laughs. Better than silence I must admit.
We also got the opportunity to pray over the 8th grade kids who were preparing to take their state examinations. These examinations are like the SATs but to get into Secondary (High School). If they do well they can get into better schools. I believe most secondary schools are publicly funded, but good scores equal better school. Secondary and University is the holy grail of nearly all kids down here. Despite the fact that Kenya is actually over-educated as many adults with BA's can't find a job. Similar to what is happening here in America. I'll keep comments on that to myself. ;-)
EDIT: Pictures of Lenana School are uploaded. Pictures 1 through 4 of the Kenya 2011 Album
Monday, June 13, 2011
Hampton House and Prepping to Leave
June 13th
Sad day. Today we really start to prep for leaving this country. I woke up early at around 6am and ran a few errands with Mesh. Got back at about 6:30 and at 7am we departed the Sheywe Hotel and headed for the Hampton Guest House.
We traveled for awhile to the Kakamega airport, which is the smallest airport I've had the pleasure of departing from. Sadly I don't have a good picture of it, but it is essentially one ~600sqr foot building adjoining a concrete runway. Our plane was a small, ~20 person prop plane. See pictures below.
The Hampton Guest House is a beautiful place to stay in Nairobi. It has a wonderful feel to it, relatively modern construction, private, lots of beautiful landscaping. Except, once again Heather and I had twin beds. haha, oh well. It's only one night and it doesn't bother us much.
Tourist time: We dropped by the Nairobi deluxe mall. I don't remember what it's actually called, but it is nice even when compared to US malls. Excellent food, souvenir shops, and your typical mall variety.
Next we dropped by Karen to see Pastor Charles again. We stayed at his church compound for awhile, doing I don't know what. I stayed in the van and had a great, lengthy conversation with Gerrison about education and homeschooling. Homeschooling is starting to be a 'thing' in Kenya, but generally it is regarded as anti-social and not as good. I attempted to explain my view that home-schoolers are seen as "weird" because generally the first people to do such a new thing are going to be fringe people anyways. Meaning, those kids would have been "weird" whether homeschooled or public schooled. Early adopters are by nature on the fringe; and again, as is often the case fringe people might be a bit 'odd' to some. He disagreed in the end.
Lastly, we went and had dinner with Pastor Charles and the whole World Comp team for a closing board meeting. It was a full table! We all said some final words, I had some stuff prepared in my head but I got skipped, so I promptly became unprepared. However, I was called to speak out of order a little later so my "speech" may have sounded a bit off, but I hope my points and desires came through. I basically stated that the first time I came to Kenya I came expecting to see a destitute country full of people unable to do anything; but was generally pleased to find that there are huge amounts of very competent people. In coming back, I simply just had to introduce my new wife to all my friends. :-)
Sad day. Today we really start to prep for leaving this country. I woke up early at around 6am and ran a few errands with Mesh. Got back at about 6:30 and at 7am we departed the Sheywe Hotel and headed for the Hampton Guest House.
We traveled for awhile to the Kakamega airport, which is the smallest airport I've had the pleasure of departing from. Sadly I don't have a good picture of it, but it is essentially one ~600sqr foot building adjoining a concrete runway. Our plane was a small, ~20 person prop plane. See pictures below.
 |
| Kakamega Airport's only building. |
 |
| ~20 person passenger prop plane. Heather and I are near the back. |
Tourist time: We dropped by the Nairobi deluxe mall. I don't remember what it's actually called, but it is nice even when compared to US malls. Excellent food, souvenir shops, and your typical mall variety.
Next we dropped by Karen to see Pastor Charles again. We stayed at his church compound for awhile, doing I don't know what. I stayed in the van and had a great, lengthy conversation with Gerrison about education and homeschooling. Homeschooling is starting to be a 'thing' in Kenya, but generally it is regarded as anti-social and not as good. I attempted to explain my view that home-schoolers are seen as "weird" because generally the first people to do such a new thing are going to be fringe people anyways. Meaning, those kids would have been "weird" whether homeschooled or public schooled. Early adopters are by nature on the fringe; and again, as is often the case fringe people might be a bit 'odd' to some. He disagreed in the end.
Lastly, we went and had dinner with Pastor Charles and the whole World Comp team for a closing board meeting. It was a full table! We all said some final words, I had some stuff prepared in my head but I got skipped, so I promptly became unprepared. However, I was called to speak out of order a little later so my "speech" may have sounded a bit off, but I hope my points and desires came through. I basically stated that the first time I came to Kenya I came expecting to see a destitute country full of people unable to do anything; but was generally pleased to find that there are huge amounts of very competent people. In coming back, I simply just had to introduce my new wife to all my friends. :-)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
More Interviews
June 10th
More Olive Tree interviews today. We interviewed a lady selling beans in the market place. I hope she can stay in business as there were many bean sellers in that same area, I hope they can all stay in business somehow. Back home in America that many people selling the same thing wouldn't work out all that well. Below is a picture of how beans are sold, I don't remember the prices but it effectively goes like: 50cents for small can, 2dollars for large, .75cents for medium. Excellent pricing scheme, by fixed volume instead of by weight - which is much costlier to do in terms of equipment. As always, all the below pictures can be seen bigger when clicked.
Next we visited a small shop in a residential area. She was doing decent, great location as she was at a 'Y' in a "major" road zone. A couple blocks off the main thoroughfare. So hopefully she gets sales by saving people the time of walking all the way to the market or to the main street. She seemed to be doing alright in business.
Thanks to the Lord for our next one. We hadn't planned on having another interview but one of the gals, who sells garments from bags and walks around near peoples homes, just happened to be walking by as we were walking towards another ladies house. So we did an interview right there, and I got to pray for her. Valerie bought a brown dress which just so happened to fit her quite perfectly. Awesome job Lord! There was a little boy watching us during this time who happened to be wearing men's sized shoes. They were probably the only shoes available to him at the time, so that is sad, but it was still an adorable picture.
The next lady we visited was a member of the finance group, though I'm not sure if she has a loan or has started a business. But she let us use her house as a pitstop on our journey. She was heavily pregnant so we prayed for her as well, and I guess she successfully had her baby 1-5 days later. Told you she was heavily pregnant! As we left her house school just happened to be released so the road was utterly filled with kids. While kids are always nice and they are always pleased to see white people (wazungu) it was a "nice" reminder of how we are generally viewed when I was walking with two boys and they asked for 50bob (shillings). "Give me 50bob!" My response was a natural "No". After which they asked "Give me 5bob and I will go eat". My response was still a "No" maybe with a 5 second lecture on working instead of begging as they ran off to find a more kind hearted white person (mzungu).
Lastly, we did more interviews in Kathy and Cindi's hotel room this evening. I made the mistake of putting this down as yesterday's evening activity; but it was actually today. We had 7-8 gals over and did a round table interview. Most of them are leaders in the Olive Tree and manage money, distribution, accountability, .... and are all outstanding ladies. As the interviews commenced I mainly stayed in my room and read, but would venture in and out to see how they were doing. Near the end I went to grab menus from the hotel's restaurant and collected a list of what people wanted for dinner then went back and ordered it. I don't know what the bill equated to, probably $175 for 15 people or so. Room service for 15 people worked out to be 500 shillings, which at the time was approximately $6-7. Not to shabby!
More Olive Tree interviews today. We interviewed a lady selling beans in the market place. I hope she can stay in business as there were many bean sellers in that same area, I hope they can all stay in business somehow. Back home in America that many people selling the same thing wouldn't work out all that well. Below is a picture of how beans are sold, I don't remember the prices but it effectively goes like: 50cents for small can, 2dollars for large, .75cents for medium. Excellent pricing scheme, by fixed volume instead of by weight - which is much costlier to do in terms of equipment. As always, all the below pictures can be seen bigger when clicked.
 |
| Bean Stall |
Next we visited a small shop in a residential area. She was doing decent, great location as she was at a 'Y' in a "major" road zone. A couple blocks off the main thoroughfare. So hopefully she gets sales by saving people the time of walking all the way to the market or to the main street. She seemed to be doing alright in business.
Thanks to the Lord for our next one. We hadn't planned on having another interview but one of the gals, who sells garments from bags and walks around near peoples homes, just happened to be walking by as we were walking towards another ladies house. So we did an interview right there, and I got to pray for her. Valerie bought a brown dress which just so happened to fit her quite perfectly. Awesome job Lord! There was a little boy watching us during this time who happened to be wearing men's sized shoes. They were probably the only shoes available to him at the time, so that is sad, but it was still an adorable picture.
 |
| Filling My Father's Shoes. |
The next lady we visited was a member of the finance group, though I'm not sure if she has a loan or has started a business. But she let us use her house as a pitstop on our journey. She was heavily pregnant so we prayed for her as well, and I guess she successfully had her baby 1-5 days later. Told you she was heavily pregnant! As we left her house school just happened to be released so the road was utterly filled with kids. While kids are always nice and they are always pleased to see white people (wazungu) it was a "nice" reminder of how we are generally viewed when I was walking with two boys and they asked for 50bob (shillings). "Give me 50bob!" My response was a natural "No". After which they asked "Give me 5bob and I will go eat". My response was still a "No" maybe with a 5 second lecture on working instead of begging as they ran off to find a more kind hearted white person (mzungu).
Lastly, we did more interviews in Kathy and Cindi's hotel room this evening. I made the mistake of putting this down as yesterday's evening activity; but it was actually today. We had 7-8 gals over and did a round table interview. Most of them are leaders in the Olive Tree and manage money, distribution, accountability, .... and are all outstanding ladies. As the interviews commenced I mainly stayed in my room and read, but would venture in and out to see how they were doing. Near the end I went to grab menus from the hotel's restaurant and collected a list of what people wanted for dinner then went back and ordered it. I don't know what the bill equated to, probably $175 for 15 people or so. Room service for 15 people worked out to be 500 shillings, which at the time was approximately $6-7. Not to shabby!
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