DANSO

June 3rd, Nairobi
Pictures for this posting are pictures 5 through 18.

Today we visited DANSO; which stands for Dandora Support Organization.  Truth be told, it wasn't until I actually re-read the picture of their sign that I realized DANSO doesn't stand for "Dandora AIDS Network Support Org"; which is totally what I thought it stood for the entire trip.  Oops.

Irregardless, DANSO is an organization run by and for people who are either "infected and affected" by AIDs.  Meaning, members either are infected with AIDs or someone close them (eg. mother or brother) is infected.  DANSO is a wonderful network of people who support each other through difficult times and difficult health conditions as well as keeping each other accountable for the DANSO microfinance fund.  DANSO seems to be completly run by Kenyans, sans the funding, some of which I know has come from Westside Church though I do not know how much came from DANSO itself.

Dandora is one poorest suburbs in Nairobi and borders a huge above ground dump.  There is a section of Dandora with the overly crowded slum-style living conditions, though the slums seemed to be a little better integrated with a business area than Kibera (which is just a huge area of seemingly infinite crowded buildings). 

Above are pictures of the nearby dump.  There were plenty of people scattered on the dump doing what people have done to waste for thousands of years, going through it and scavenging anything worth anything.

We visited a few of the shops of people who are members of DANSO and had received microfinance loans.  One gal who seems to be an excellent tailor took measurements of Heather and Kathy for a few dresses.  You will see Heather model her dress on Kenya night for sure! Below is a picture of the tailor herself and another store owner who sells goods on the roadway.  Our presence gathered a nice crowd.  We also visited a hair salon microfinance recipient.

While visiting the stores, we also made a few house calls.  One to a lady with HIV and Breast cancer.  Both diseases are horrible by themselves, let alone in pairs.  Later, we held a meeting with members of DANSO to give them a few hundred bucks for the microfinance fund (an additional 3 loans were given out) as well as to peruse some of their jewelry wares.  The ladies had a fine time looking though hand made jewelry.  Below is a picture of the DANSO members (not all were at this meeting) and the white (mzungu) gals.

Charles Kiloki & the City of Karen

We also visited a church in the Nairobi suburb called Karen who's head Pastor is Charles Kiloki.  It's quite a splendid church in a somewhat richer area of Nairobi though still pretty middle class.  Not with the poor people in the slums; nor with the rich politicians.  The church is actually set up as a part church, part school, and part business; which is arguably a more traditional idea of the church.  The church compound had a variety of buildings, the primary building is the 'typical' church building for worship and the general church service.  Surrounding the compound are smaller buildings for a young kid's school, a tailoring shop/training facility, a computer training room, and a bible school (semi-common on larger churches to offer a bible school).  I will be honest, I wrote down "wood working" in my notes, but I can't remember where that is, but I trust that somewhere on that compound is the beginnings of a wood shop training facility.

Besides all the training facilities that the church offers, it also runs a garbage pick-up service.  They seemed to have successfully beat out the limited competition with better rates and service; and use it as a way of reaching out to the Karen community.  I suppose it is also symbollic as Christ wants us garbage and all!  ;-)

One adorable side note: When we were walking around taking the tour of the compound (which isn't really that large, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of an acre or ~20k sqr feet) two young girls ran up to Heather and hugged her.  For no apparent reason than maybe she smiled at them.  Kid's love white people, but it is unusual for them to be that friendly to strangers, even if they are white.

We left the church compound to go check out the "dormitories" for the Bible School.  I was impressed.  It was two older buildings with a bunch of bunk beds in them, and farm that the students tend too.  Having the students tend the farm to produce their own food is a wonderful part of the instruction that many Kenyans (primarily males) avoid.  I was told then Kenyan boys don't like farming.

Lastly, we visited a nearby house who may be a member of the Karen church though I'm not positive.  She and her husband love birds it appears.  I so wish we had our camera for this part of the trip.  This house's yard is literally a bird sanctuary.  It had chickens of different types, doves, pigeons, turkeys, geese, parakeets, and peacocks with full colorful tails even!  There were other birds who's names I can not recall.  They also raised goats and rabbits there as well.

Kibera Slums

June 1st - Kibera Slums
We visited the Kibera Slums today.  Kibera is the 2nd largest urban slum in Africa.  It is crowded, dirty, smelly, unsanitary and would be unfortunate for anyone to live there, yet 1/2 to 2 million people are that unfortunate.  It has a 100 year history that can be found easily on the web so I won't go into that.  I don't have any pictures from our time here because it was recommended not to take any pictures.  Some might take offense at it, others might try to steal the camera.  So for safety concerns, no cameras.

We had two soldier escorts with us to ensure safety.  We drove all in one van down one of the main strips of Kibera which was littered trash and shops.  Shops selling anything from cell phones/credit, to tailoring, furniture, water, vegetables, meat, welders, grinders, hair salons, and even photocopying/computer services.  Any and all of the normal shops you'll see in any Kenyan city.  This blog post here has a great descriptoin and some pictures of such shops.  Oh, and I would not suggest the meat, they don't refrigerate.  My western stomach would hurl mightily if it attempted to ingest such food I'm sure.  Eventually we got as far as we could with the van, so we parked and walked 1/5 to 1/10th of a mile for a few home visits of people in the community that could use prayer.  On the way, we walked past a man who was peeing into the rain trench (which is generally filled with rubbish and feces).  I'm sure we surprised him more than we us, how often does he have a bunch of white westerns walk behind him in the middle of the slums?

Home Visits:

• Young boy (under 3 yrs old) with deformed feet.  He had a metal brace attached to his shoes that will force his limbs into a proper placement as he grows.
• Young girl (under 5 yrs old) who had been raped by a grown man.  This was hands down the hardest part of the trip.  Justice is the Lord's was something I had to consider.
• Family of 3 girls where the oldest girl (13 yrs old?) is taking care her sisters, one of whom doesn't talk or is deaf (couldn't quite get that figured out), and one who had a huge goiter on her throat.
• Happier visit to some kids that a gal from Westside sponsers.  Checking on how they are doing and such, they are in school and seem happy.

Kara Kibera School
WorldComp Kenya supports a school in the middle of Kibera and feeds the kids who attend one meal a day (beans and corn mainly with a banana) to help keep them in school and somewhat healthy.  The kids were delightful, and gave us some poems, songs and other such "presentations".  At the end some of the ladies associated with the school (moms?  teachers?) produced some of their bead work of which we brought home a bunch in order to sell at the garage sale and on Etsy.  Overall their going rate is about $1 to $1.50 per day of work.  So a bowl that takes 2 weeks may cost 12$-15$ bucks, but a pair of earrings may go for $2.  Which, surprisingly is enough to sustain their lives there (1 meal + rent basically; I doubt much if any is left over).

Back in Kenya

May 31st
We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya today.  Long flight, something like 17 hours flight time, not even counting the layover and travel to/from the airport.  We piled all of our gear and people into two vans and headed off to the Methodist Guest House; but first a stop over for gas station Chicken and Chips.  Which Valerie claims is the best Chicken and Chips in Kenya.  In hindsight, it probably is, as the chicken tastes like it was a plump western chicken, not the scrawny free-ranged and starving Kenyan kind that we got most of the trip.  But I'll take that over some of the other chickens I saw running around!  No disease please!  Other than that, it was great to get into Bed, which happened to be two twin beds for Heather and I.  Which worked out alright, it's too warm to sleep next to that furnace of a wife, especially when we aren't adapted to the heat.  A pleasant waking, but unpleasant sleeping ~70-75deg at night. 

Going Back!

Well, it's been a few years but it looks like I am going back to Kenya.  Except this time with a team of people and a wife!  That should yield some more interesting experiences at the minimum.  Below I have posted an itinerary and prayer list sent to me by Richard Vicknair, who has planned this whole trip.  For the most part rather than doing my own thing this time around my wife and I will be along for the ride.  Not saying that this will be 3 weeks of relaxing vacation, as we will be quite busy nearly every day, but I just don't have to deal with the planning as much, so that will be a pleasant break.

I won't go into many details now about what we will be doing on this trip as the itinerary below documents some of that pretty well.  I linked up some of the locations below with prior posts if you care to go back into the past and see what was done last time I was around.

May 30 Mon Depart Seattle

• Prayer for safe travel and health. Our flight is 22 hours total
• Pray for our team. That we will be sensitive to the Lord and His Promptings
• That God will prepare the way before us and that we will have “eyes to see”

May 31 Tues Arrive Nairobi 8:15pm

• Prayer for sleep so we can be prepared for the rigorous schedule ahead

June 1 Wed Visit Kibera Kids Center in the Kibera Slums

• Prayer for our protection in the slums from criminal elements and disease
• Pray for our Kibera Preschool Children. They are so vulnerable!

June 2 Thurs Visit Lenana School (Our School for Slum Children) Dargaretti Slums

• Pray for these precious children who are being raise in the harshest of conditions
• Pray for our 12 School teachers, that God will bless them for their sacrifices
• Pray for the finances of the school. They struggle to survive.

June 3 Fri Visit with Danso AIDS Ministry (Dandora Aids Support Network Organization

• Pray for the wonderful people who are members of Danso. They all have AIDS. 
• They are looking to the Lord for His healing, Health and Provision

June 4 Sat A day at the Nairobi Game Park (Tough Duty Huh?)

• Pray that we will see animals. That God will send them into our path.

June 5 Sun Kimbo Church – Launch of Kimbo Community Well Project

• Pray that as we literally serve water to the poor people of the Kimbo community that their hearts will be open to the Lord
• Pray for the Kimbo Church and the safekeeping of this well. That many will come to Christ as they see the love and generosity of his people

June 6 Mon Morning Flight to Kisumu – Straight to Miwani Farm

• Pray for our safety as we travel
• Pray for the Miwani Farm and its ministry
• It is now totally being run by African Nationals. Prayer that God will give them wisdom and especially give them a unified heart and vision for the work

June 7 Tue Leave Miwani - Lunch at Nancy O’s (Visit Olive Branch Microfinance Project)

• Pray for Nancy O and the leaders of the Olive Branch Microfinance Project, which ministers to more than 300 widows

June 8 Wed Visit Shikusa Boys Detention Center (Big Baptism Service for 100 or more boys)

• Pray for the boys who are coming to be baptized. That their faith would grow strong and that they would learn to walk with God and hear his voice. That they will make an impact on the world - they have come from the ashes into the beauty of the Lord.

June 9 Thursday Meet with Women with Olive Tree

• Pray for us as we make a video documentary of the amazing things that have been done through this microfinance fund. We need wisdom to do this right so that it will be useful as a model for other microfinance funds throughout Kenya
• Pray for the 6 women that run this ministry and put so many hours into mentoring the women who have started businesses to support their families.

June 10 Fri Visit to a PATH project in Kakamega with Kathy L. and team

• Please pray for this contact that the Lord has given us PATH is a global health organization funded by the Bill Gates Senior Foundation. They specialize in AIDS, Malaria, and women’s health.
• We are asking God to give us this connection so that we can work with them in our medical camps.

June 11 Sat Rest Day


June 12 Sun Celebration with Kakamegatown PEFA Church

• Pray for Cindy B. begins her journey home (she is leaving ahead of us)
• Pray for Pastor Simeon O. and this wonderful church that has had such a powerful influence in the Western Province of Kenya.
• Pray for the Western Bible College which is run from the church. Pray for the students, their finances and their future.

June 13 Mon Team Fly back to Nairobi from Kakamega

• Pray for us as we connect on this day with leaders in the Kenya government. Several have responded and want to meet with us and Kathy L.. Having a relationship with members of the Kenyan Parliament will help us enormously in the future as we continue to work to relieve the suffering of the people of Kenya.

June 14 Tues Last Day – Possible meetings with Members of Government

• Pray for us as we begin our journey home. 
• Pray for our health and energy levels

June 15 Wed Arrive in Seattle