Where in the World is...

Today was the last day for us to work on the house.   While we were gone, the local workers had finished all the framing and windows and we just needed to put the roof on and the siding.  Brad earned quite the accolades from the local skilled workers and forever more will be called Pastor Fundi.

The girls again set out to make another round of rocket stoves.  Once again they found themselves playing with mud – Charlotte decided she’d offer a mud facial to the team members.

The real big excitement came when Lunch was served.  It seems that during the morning time, Charlotte and Jen were befriended by a couple of the local children who wanted them to see their house… which was “just right up here.”  So off they went…

When we gathered everyone for lunch it became apparent of their absence.  I headed up the trail to take a look but gave up realizing that although Girls were smart enough to keep themselves out of harm – It was in their normal scope of operation to have gone too far and be gone too long without knowing it.

As I returned to camp, the status of their whereabouts became known to Brad who lovingly (as did the shepherd in the parable of the lost sheep, mind you) set out on his own rescue mission.  The next think I hear is Brad calling out for Jen and I look up to see – what can only be described as an angry gorilla racing back and forth beating his chest.  If they were not found quickly I feared King Kong would ravage jungle in search of his woman…  Just then, off in the distance Charlotte and Jen were prancing gingerly down the trail, hand in hand with some local children.   Jen, full of wisdom, kept the children close and even had Brad take a photo with them – see the gleam in his eye towards his wife?  Oh, and that’s Charlotte quietly exiting in the back… 

Once back at the house, the kids were busy creating wonderful balloon sculptures for all the kids.  They created flowers, elephants, castles, solar systems, and even the Mona Lisa.  Of course to the untrained eye, they all looked similarly close to a snake or a worm.

We were not able to get the house completed before having to leave but will be able to provide the funding for completion do be done after we left.

After getting cleaned up back at RVA, we headed down to some old friends of Brad and Jen who were doctors at the local hospital.  On the way back we were again graced by some monkeys in the trees.

In the evening the church had a men’s group meeting which the guys attended.  Brad again was able to share a challenging message and we were able to hear some pretty cool worship singing in Swahili.

This being New Year’s Eve… we all decided to headed to bed early.  We were tempted to stay up and experience some of the local festivities (fireworks which would be illegal in the US are quite rampant here) but we figure we can just celebrate with the rest of the US – tomorrow morning at 11am.  Besides, Brad was quite exhausted from all of his…events of the day.

Dishes and Undies

Today the local women of Kijabe had planned a women’s conference at the church for Yvonne and Jen to share at.  The girls all headed off to the church in the morning and the guys had time to trek back out to the project site to see what work had been done while we were away.  The Kenyan time table is quite different than the US – the women were told the conference would start at 9am… by 10:15 the ladies started to show up.  So basically it doesn’t really matter where you are – the world waits for the women... Yes, I said it.

During the conference they handed out dish towels and ladies underwear.  They had been collecting them for quite awhile before the trip and ended up with some quite shocking sizes.  Brad had picked out a pair to complete his Superman outfit which he proudly wore to breakfast.  Unfortunately he kept us from capturing them moment with a bunch of doctrinal mumbo jumbo – however the image is forever burned into the teams memories.  Maybe that is the reason the counseling center was created.

Meanwhile the guys had to head back to the house we were building to deliver the meat for our meal – the next day.  This meant throwing a frozen piece of meat into a back pack and delivering it to a home without any capabilities of refrigeration… and tomorrow we will feast.   Oh well, as they say here… Hakuna Matata.  Along the way the boys found a chameleon which occupied them most of the day.  We also discovered that most Kenyans are afraid of these creatures – not sure why, but maybe it has to do with the fact that with all the dangerous driving conditions, any reminder of GIECO car insurance is quite terrifying.

Along the walk back we came across some local ladies cutting grass for their animals.  Brad observed the size of the bundles they had created and decided to see what it was like to carry such a load.  Once he was able to get it on his back and around his head – he lasted about 8 seconds before starting the universal man cry of help – the forced smile and crackle of laughter. 

Of course the ladies loaded up and started to head down the train tracks without much effort…  If an NFL recruit ever made it down this way I think they’d find several worthy candidates.

To help out with the women’s conference, the guys showed up at lunch to serve the ladies the food.  Seems it was pretty rare for the women of Kenya to see men doing kitchen work – not that they saw us doing much work anyway. 

The real test was doing dishes from the 130 women… it took us about an hour of searching before we realized there wasn’t a commercial dishwasher to run them through – and the only way to heat up water was over an open fire.  After 2 hours of work, we decided it would have been better to just go down the street to the town center and pay a few hundred schillings to some people to do the work for us.

That evening we had the privilege to attend the JAM (Jesus and Me) meeting for the local youth.  Charlotte sang and Brad taught… but really the highlight of the evening was the dancing.  Guess Kenyan’s aren’t Baptists…

Party Like its 1995

I awoke this morning with a strange woman beside me.  Seems overnight my wife had a botox injection into her lower lip.  She is really starting to believe she is Kenyan - even if it means having to sunburn your lips.  I never have been worried about her leaving me for another man – but another country?  Please pray that my wife will refrain from continuing this adulterous affair.

We have noticed our team is starting to feel the effects of different sleeping conditions, hauling heavy bags everywhere we go, as well as the constant jarring in all of our excursions in the vehicles.  Next time I think we’ll have to have part of our trip sponsored by the National Chiropractor Association.  I’m sure they will generate much business from us once we return.  It is a daily occurrence to see our team members sprawled out on the floor with another member doing a rendition of Lord of the Dance on their back.  I think the theme song for our trip will be John Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good”

We left the Mennonite guest house and headed back to Kibera for the Christmas Party.  The Bell’s were ready to jump right in – especially Brad.

When we arrived back at the school all the kids were sitting inside their building and we had a chance to sing, perform some skits and Brad shared a gospel message.

It wasn’t long before all of our team had at least one or two children on their lap.

Afterward we headed outside for some more games (luckily it wasn’t the 60 minutes again) and a couple of more skits which was fun for me to narrate since I was able to make the other team members do whatever I asked.  Brad certainly got a bit too comfortable as the role of Goliath and I’m not sure if he’ll ever take off the armor again – Jen thinks he’s hot.

It took a bit of logistical magic to set up feeding the 400 kids.  Needless to say we had purchased 400 plates and quickly realized that it wasn’t going to be enough.  All in all I think we ended up close to 600 people we feed. 

Since our time was beginning to become short before we needed to leave we then needed to transition into passing out the gifts we had brought.  Unfortunately this did not go as smoothly as the food handout.  Several of us ended up in the back room with hundreds of kids trying to press into us without an additional exit.  Needless to say, from an Emergency Responder – the circumstances were deteriorating quickly.  We hope things worked better once we left.

We arrived back in Kijabe and celebrated Julianne’s 14^th birthday with some cake and ice-cream.  After that we had a short debrief over the events of the day and settled down for the night.

Hey, Hey, The Gangs all Here!

We finally get to complete our mission team.  Brad and Jen will arrive tonight after having their own layover in London last night.  From reading what Brad posted - seems their London experience was quite different than ours.  I guess I shouldn't be jealous - he is my pastor after all and I don't think Europeans like pastors anyway.

We headed back to Nairobi where we will pick Brad and Jen up at the airport tonight.  Tomorrow we have our scheduled Christmas party in the Nairobi slum so we decided it best to go visit and see what will be in store for us tomorrow.

We entered Africa's 2nd largest slum called Kibera.  Wikipedia lists the population as between 235,000 and 1.2 million... all within a 1 square acre.  You decide which figure is more accurate.

We made our way to a school which is run for those kids who cannot afford the normal school fees.  We were told before that there would 400 kids.  I think there was more than that and we were told that many would probably bring their friends tomorrow... should be fun!

The leaders had the kids sing and quote scripture for us and then we got the chance to sing and play some games with them.  We quickly realized we needed some strategic planning to happen before tomorrow.

We helped feed the kids a snack (one bread roll and a cup of juice) which was a bit like feeding the five thousand.  We also were told that the meal we are providing tomorrow (with meat) will probably take a bit longer...

After the meal, we were led through some of the parts of the slum to see what it was like.  Words really can't express (nor the photos) what we saw/experienced.  These photos will have to suffice.

We headed back to the Mennonite Guest House to wait for Brad and Jen and spent the evening practicing the skits and going over what the game plan for tomorrow will be.  All we ended up with was - Brad will take care of it all.  Everyone headed to bed as Ben and Colleen when to the airport to pick them up.

Here's the first glimpse I got from Brad... I couldn't tell if he was stuck or just getting used to being the butt of my jokes.

So we're all here.  Well, by the look of these two - sort of...

Church in the Bush (or at least under it)

It's hard to believe it's Sunday - really it's hard to believe any day we are told it is.  I guess that way if they get tired of us being here I guess they can just make it the day we are supposed to leave - we wouldn't know the difference.

We get the pleasure today of another matatu (Kenya bus) ride... We're heading down into the bottom of the Rift Valley to an IDP or Internally Displaced Persons camp.  This is an area refugees came from the different areas in Kenya during the last election cycle which was quite violent in some areas.  One of the matatus we ended up in was quite tricked out.  This one had a TV screen and wall graphics all over the inside - although an hour riding in a van with Swahili Christian music videos playing didn't seem the dream ride I originally thought.

I also discovered that the back seat on these vehicles are higher so that it creates some cargo space in the back.  I spent the entire ride with my head pressed against the ceiling and my back in a permanent arch... with each bump I think my spine compressed a half of an inch.  I guess I'll need to get my driver's license changed to reflect my new height of 4'7".


We arrived down to the camp and found a large gathering under an Acacia tree.  Due to the rain and overcast weather we have been having we seem to have forgot that this is Africa and we are white people.  When the sun came out it was like being a piece of garlic bread placed right next to a broiler set on high.  My measly SPF 30 protection was thoroughly mocked by the sun of Hades.

We were told that services could be quite lengthy in Africa so we were told to have the service end and leave by 11:30.  That was good advice since we pulled out about 12:15.  It wasn't that the service didn't end it - which it did on time - the locals were very happy to have us there.  The girls instantly found themselves under the hands of 30 kids who were training to be the next Vidal Sassoon.

After we left we headed north to Naivasha Lake and to Crescent Island with is a private nature reserve.  This is the same location they used for the movie Out of Africa.  They also filled a scene from Tomb Raider 2 here but really, who saw that one?  This was our African Safari... or African WALKING Safari.  I think we put in at least 5 miles - and all the time you could see the clouds forming and we were getting farther and farther away from our vehicles.  We got to see Zebras, Impalas, Dick Dicks, (you'll have to look it up) Gnus, Giraffe, as well as a bunch of other animals I either didn't know or couldn't pronounce.  Fletcher and Kylen had fun chasing the impalas while imitating their bounding strides.

Our tour guide was named Moses.  (Oh great, here comes the 40 years in the wilderness)  He told us that all of the animals here are protected and are only killed by each other.  We saw many bones scattered across the land which we were thankful that now they "rested in pieces."


There was supposedly a large python which had just recently ate an entire impala around but we could not find it.  We did see tracks of the creature outside of a hole in the ground.  Our guide decided to see if he could "find" the snake... not sure who is now responsible to find us a new guide.

After the excursion we headed into the town and had some Indian food at a local restaurant.  Colleen had to explain to the Kenyans who were with us what was on the menu.  We ended up leaving a bit later than we had wished and had to drive back to Kijabe in the dark and fog.  That was not something I think we will ever try to do again.  On the bright side we finally recorded our first day in Africa without rain - not that it didn't rain in all the places we were, just that we seemed to miss it at each one.


PS  We now have the ability to connect to the internet more regularly.  As such, my wife has now been able to read the posts and has pointed out my many grammatical errors.  Since I am sure this is quite bothering to you - please stop reading...  no really stop...  See, you don't listen to me either.

Whistle While You Work

Another morning with more baboons and rain.  I’m realizing all my packing of short and t-shirts was not all that smart.  This is supposed to be their Summer time here and all those 80 degree days we were told about seem far off.  At least the rain has been consistent – a drizzle in the morning and a 3pm downpour.  Watching the baboons made us start to ask questions about the theory of evolution.  If we really came from these creatures how come I am not flexible like them and the one area they don’t grow fur is the one area I can’t seem to have it stop…I’m just saying.

Today is our first full “Work Day.”  We met our van drivers and helpers and headed out to the location we are building the new house.   Mind you these are primarily early models of Toyota Previa vans which had been gutted to bolt in as many seats as possible.  We’re figuring that once Brad get’s here, he’ll have to walk because there is no way he’ll be able to get inside one of these machines.  Due to the extended rain the roads are becoming more and more adventurous to travel along.  During our trek we came across someone in what looked to be a decent pick-up truck which had not been able to traverse the hill and had become stuck blocking the road. 

Since the driver had since abandoned the vehicle it was up to us to walk the rest of the way.  I am learning that when some in Kenya says “Oh, we’re almost there.  It’s just up ahead” it roughly translates to “we should only have to hike 3 miles and climb 2000 feet in elevation.”  At least my kids won’t need to fudge their PE requirements for school.

The guys started working on the house.  We did have some local experts on hand to lead the project.  Basically, they didn’t let us do anything which required any skill.  So they just told us to dig out the hillside – I’m sure this was just to keep us occupied for the day.  One bright note – the only radio station they could pick up was playing 80’s music.  Nothing like being half way around the world and having the sweet tunes of Journey, Boston, and Michael Jackson resonating over the landscape.

The gals headed to some other homes in the area to build new environmentally friendly “rocket stoves.”  I guess it has something to do with saving the rain forests or making Al Gore something to talk about in his next movie.  All I know is the girls got to play in the mud which for Ashlyn was probably her favorite memory so far.

For lunch the ladies of the village put together a wonderful meal and even taught Yvonne the proper way to cook tortilla type patties on an open flame.

Our plan was to have the van drivers pick us up at 3pm but once again we saw that we would be graced with yet another sprinkling of heaven.  We ended up walking the entire way back – reminiscent of our days traveling the countryside as hobos.  We arrived back at RVA right at 3pm... unfortunately the rain had started at 2:30pm but at least it help rise off all the mud all over us.

I'm Dreaming of a Wet Christmas

To most, Christmas morning was the first morning of a good night’s sleep.  We decided to allow for a relaxing morning so breakfast a bit late.  That gave me time to take out the garbage and see our first Christmas present – baboons.   Seems the wanted their Christmas presents as well. (our trash) 

We headed out to family we visited the first day to drop of some gifts.  Along the way we came across a family which was just about to slaughter their Christmas goat… and invited us to watch.  Only some of us took up on that offer.  The photo is fairly tame – but we do have video for back home…

When we arrived at the house the family was preparing their own meal.  While the women were out front talking, the men when to the back of the house to a Kenyan style “smoking parlor”.  Fletcher got to get his hands a bit bloody which he didn’t mind.  You can't tell but every time Fletcher squeezed his hand his eyes would open up...

We had our team gift exchange and time together before several of the families of RVA came over to share a Christmas meal with us. 

As tradition for the families here they had a white elephant gift exchange with we partook with our gifts from the US: Kool-Aid, chocolate chips, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  I’m not sure the total effects of living down here, but they took to the gifts like crack cocaine.  I think I just found a black market to fund future trips down here.

We had originally planned to go back to the hospital to deliver some gifts to the patients but due to the rain and Ben’s deep slumber we called it a “stay at home” night.