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
Sunday, June 19, 2011
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.
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| Kakamega Airport's only building. |
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| ~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!
Cindy Left, Church and Simeon's House
June 12th
Church Today! Sizable church service at the Kakamega PEFA Church. Pastor Richard spoke about producing fruit, or as he would say, frrrrrrruit with a rolling "r" that is quite difficult to type. During the worship part of service there was a large dancing worm that was created - people train - that all the ladies joined in. Sadly there are no pictures of it, but it was at least 50 people long near the end.
At the end of church service Heather and I were asked to speak to the college age youth. Now, I thought they wanted us to join their college group for the afternoon or something so we readily agreed to that. But, like I said above, at the end they wanted us to speak to them for 5-10 minutes. Oi! Not prepared! It worked out okay though, I spoke about "Work". The general theme was that our two hands and our mind are gifts of God that can be used to produce and bless other people with our work.
Sadly, this was also the day that Cindy left. After church we all went back to the hotel, Cindy prepped her stuff and got a ride to the airport. :-( Super fun to have her along. It's sad to see her go, and sad to know that we will be leaving not long after she leaves.
We also had a big dinner at Simeon's house. And by big, I mean big. A large part of his family was there which means quite a few rugrats and at least dozen adults; and then throw in a bunch of wazungu into the mix! I had been to his house before a few years ago but I never got a good tour, so this time we got the tour. He's done quite a bit of stuff with his "compound". That should sustain him well for the remainder of his life. He has rental houses on the lot, crops, and are working on making another rental house. But because bricks are so expensive, they decided to make them themselves. Which, while uncommon in Seattle as our ground isn't suitable for that; the ground in Kenya works pretty well. It has a heavy iron oxide content to it which makes it a vibrant red as well. I also enjoyed checking out their water ditches and containers around the house. When it rains in Kakamega, it really rains! So to prevent flooding and such many houses have ditches built into the property to guide the water how they want it. Into large containers, off the property or into garden irrigation ditches perhaps. Simeon's ditches had ditches around the house to bring water from off the roof to the back of the house. His whole plot of land is on a slope with the house on the top so that helps facilitate water to bypass the house on the way down the hill. Also to hit the crops on the way down.
At the house, Simeon showed us a "Bathroom" plan he got from someone. They were looking at it for the church and then to charge for use of it during the week to the surrounding community. But it was a bit large and lavish if you ask me. Something like 15-20 toilets and sinks. You'd have to have quite the crowd to sustain that kind of toilet system. While I think it's a good idea, I'd prefer to see it toned down a bit to save money and make it more easily profitable.
On the way home we really piled into the van. All us wazungu as well as a few Kenyan friends that we were dropping off. Overall it was 15 people in a 12 seat passenger van.
And then to bed!
Church Today! Sizable church service at the Kakamega PEFA Church. Pastor Richard spoke about producing fruit, or as he would say, frrrrrrruit with a rolling "r" that is quite difficult to type. During the worship part of service there was a large dancing worm that was created - people train - that all the ladies joined in. Sadly there are no pictures of it, but it was at least 50 people long near the end.
At the end of church service Heather and I were asked to speak to the college age youth. Now, I thought they wanted us to join their college group for the afternoon or something so we readily agreed to that. But, like I said above, at the end they wanted us to speak to them for 5-10 minutes. Oi! Not prepared! It worked out okay though, I spoke about "Work". The general theme was that our two hands and our mind are gifts of God that can be used to produce and bless other people with our work.
Sadly, this was also the day that Cindy left. After church we all went back to the hotel, Cindy prepped her stuff and got a ride to the airport. :-( Super fun to have her along. It's sad to see her go, and sad to know that we will be leaving not long after she leaves.
We also had a big dinner at Simeon's house. And by big, I mean big. A large part of his family was there which means quite a few rugrats and at least dozen adults; and then throw in a bunch of wazungu into the mix! I had been to his house before a few years ago but I never got a good tour, so this time we got the tour. He's done quite a bit of stuff with his "compound". That should sustain him well for the remainder of his life. He has rental houses on the lot, crops, and are working on making another rental house. But because bricks are so expensive, they decided to make them themselves. Which, while uncommon in Seattle as our ground isn't suitable for that; the ground in Kenya works pretty well. It has a heavy iron oxide content to it which makes it a vibrant red as well. I also enjoyed checking out their water ditches and containers around the house. When it rains in Kakamega, it really rains! So to prevent flooding and such many houses have ditches built into the property to guide the water how they want it. Into large containers, off the property or into garden irrigation ditches perhaps. Simeon's ditches had ditches around the house to bring water from off the roof to the back of the house. His whole plot of land is on a slope with the house on the top so that helps facilitate water to bypass the house on the way down the hill. Also to hit the crops on the way down.
At the house, Simeon showed us a "Bathroom" plan he got from someone. They were looking at it for the church and then to charge for use of it during the week to the surrounding community. But it was a bit large and lavish if you ask me. Something like 15-20 toilets and sinks. You'd have to have quite the crowd to sustain that kind of toilet system. While I think it's a good idea, I'd prefer to see it toned down a bit to save money and make it more easily profitable.
On the way home we really piled into the van. All us wazungu as well as a few Kenyan friends that we were dropping off. Overall it was 15 people in a 12 seat passenger van.
And then to bed!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Weeping Rock and Barasa
June 11th
Today Richard, Valerie, and Kathy Lambert had a rather long breakfast with a member of the Kenyan parliament. In the meantime, Heather, myself, Teresa, Mesh and Garrison went to go see what's called the "Weeping Rock". Which you can see below from the road, and that is generally the only view I've ever had of it. It's called the weeping rock because I was told that there is a constant stream of water coming out of the rock from the top. From the road I've always been able to see what appears to be water falling out of it, and you can see it in the below picture.
However, once we got close we were informed that it really only weeps during August. So we weren't able to see it weep. Either way, that's still pretty cool. The rock must be porous or have a thin crack running to the ground so that when the water level gets high enough surface tension draws it up. You can see a close up picture below and one can easily see the erosion and staining that the water has done over the years. So now, it always looks like there is a little water coming down. Overall it cost us about $7 to go see it, as Mesh had to pay the local ladies in the area to be allowed passage through their lands to get to the Rock. Not a bad fee to allow strangers to pass through, plus I think Weeping Rock Tourism is one of their main sources of income.
After the weeping rock, we picked up everyone else at the hotel and headed to the Kakamega PEFA church. It was great fun as I got to see Simon and Grace Barasa and their family again. I stayed with them previously during the whole election thing in 2008. More about that Election stuff can be read here, and a little about Simon's house and Kakamega can be read here. Pictured below are 2 members of Simon's family, Barbara, who is their eldest daughter and Gloria, their new daughter. I say new, but obviously she's been around for awhile; just new to me. Belated Congratulations Simon and Grace! Heather and I took a visit to Simon's house to see Benjamin (only son) and Kristen (niece or cousin?) as well as the new improvements to his digs. He's added a house for rental, and is working on another one. Having 3 houses on his property is a great investment in Kenya and should secure his finances over the next few years.
On a side bar, we finally met and talked to some English ladies who we had seen numerous times at the hotel. They were very sweet and took us to go see some recent puppies next door. They were quite friendly and adorable.
Today Richard, Valerie, and Kathy Lambert had a rather long breakfast with a member of the Kenyan parliament. In the meantime, Heather, myself, Teresa, Mesh and Garrison went to go see what's called the "Weeping Rock". Which you can see below from the road, and that is generally the only view I've ever had of it. It's called the weeping rock because I was told that there is a constant stream of water coming out of the rock from the top. From the road I've always been able to see what appears to be water falling out of it, and you can see it in the below picture.
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| Weeping Rock, as seen from the Road |
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| Weeping Rock |
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| Valerie with Barbara and Gloria Barasa |
On a side bar, we finally met and talked to some English ladies who we had seen numerous times at the hotel. They were very sweet and took us to go see some recent puppies next door. They were quite friendly and adorable.
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| English ladies, who's names I sadly have forgotten. |
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| Puppies! |
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