Time has run away from us and we are now getting prepared for the long journey home. We are looking forward to seeing all our family and friends but wonder how much we will miss our friends here in Kosele – they certainly say they will miss us!
The last few weeks have been busy and gone quickly and there are still some things undone on our “to-do” lists, people we hoped to visit that we have not seen.
We feel the church here is in a stronger condition than when we came in June. A lot has been done in practical terms – two of the leaders employed part-time to do church work, the start of a discipleship programme (Encounter), the launch of Farming God’s Way training, a bicycle to help Kennedy get around his pastoral visits, and now use of an office for the church leaders complete with computer and internet access. More importantly, God has been working in people, not least the men and there is a more positive, “can-do” attitude amongst the men. The young mums have also been encouraging – there were 11 of them here this week and they are now branching into crafts and hope to form a co-operative.
Hilda spent most of last Saturday trying to find a local hospital that could deal with an emergency – a little boy who had signs of an obstructed bowel. Finding a hospital that can do an ultrasound and even blood tests at a weekend is nigh on impossible, and after trailing round 5 hospitals in Oyugis and Kisii we eventually sent him with his parents back to Kisii in a taxi. This was on the strength of a promise that a doctor would be there. We expected him to have to be transferred to yet another hospital on the Sunday for an emergency operation but the Kisii hospital actually did it at midnight on Saturday night. This gave us hope that he would soon be well again, but something went wrong and he sadly died on Wednesday. We can forget sometimes that this is a third world country and the resources and standards of healthcare are very different from what we are used to in the UK.
The construction work at Hope and Kindness has been completed. The four new school classrooms are now occupied by the junior classes and they are finding the accommodation very spacious after the small rooms they were in temporarily. The visitor centre is also finished and is looking “very smart”, as they say here. It has a large lounge, a good kitchen and 6 bedrooms and could sleep up to 24 people. It has its own showers and Ecosan latrines – outside of course! The standard of accommodation for visitors here now is not luxurious by Western standards but it is very comfortable and great progress from what it was like on our first visit here.
It was finished just in time for the first group of visitors that we were expecting – a team of 5 people from the multinational IT company Cisco. They were only here for a few days, but did a lot of work and enjoyed themselves so much, especially getting to know the children. They are now on their way back to London but another Cisco team, this time of just 3 people, have arrived today. Also, a lady called Barbara from South Africa is here for a month to work mostly with the children in the Home. She has a lot of experience and we believe will make a real contribution to the work here.
We had a nice little break in Kisumu a few weeks ago – we acted like tourists for a couple of days and visited the impala sanctuary (actually a small zoo – really interesting) and the Museum. It has been really hot here and we didn’t have any rain from early December until mid-February but there are signs that the long rains are now approaching. We aren’t looking forward to a cold wet Paisley but it will be so good to see you all again soon.
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Friday, 20 January 2012
2012 already
Sorry again for our long silence on the blog – don’t know where the time has gone. Here in Kosele, Christmas came and went without any commercialisation. Having spent two Christmases here, we may find it hard to adjust back to Western excesses and
indulgences!
There was a special Christmas meal for children and staff in the Home – chicken and beef being a real treat where the diet is mostly vegetarian. ‘Sodas’ (Coke, Fanta or Sprite) are always a welcome treat as well.
The church was full on Christmas Day and then people were able to go home and cook with the rice, beans and oil that had been given out to church and community members on Christmas Eve. Also, after the service everyone had a soda and biscuits and sweets. All of these were bought, thanks to the kind donations of our church in Paisley and friends of Hope and Kindness in England. In previous years, a meal has been cooked for 200-300 people, which has been a lot of work for a few people. This year people were in their own homes and because of the amount of food given out I believe many more people benefitted.
We had hoped to go away for a couple of nights between Christmas and New Year but because of events here that was not possible. We may manage to do this by the end of this month.
Six of us were involved in delivering a two-day training seminar on Farming God’s Way last week to a group of people from the church and community. This was repeated for another group this week. The trainees appeared enthusiastic and we are hoping that most of them will put the things they have learned into practice on their own land, and that this will be a small beginning for a transformation of farming in this area, lifting people out of poverty and dependency.
Here it is extremely hot and sticky just now. The rains have totally stopped. Planting will start again towards the end of February – so more rain will be appreciated then. There has been a lot of illness recently in the Home and amongst our neighbours – mostly a mild form of malaria but a few young children have been very ill and we have had to take them to get medical attention quickly.
Last weekend, Ian went to Nyahururu with Kennedy (one of our church leaders) to speak at a one-day Elim regional conference there. It involved most of the day travelling there by matatu (mini-bus) on Friday and the same coming back on Sunday. Ian thought it went alright but it can be hard to tell when everything is being translated. Nyaharuru is very close to the equator but because it is over 7800 feet above sea level, they found it much cooler than here.
The group for young mothers that we started recently has been going well. This week we are learning about dental hygiene, and next week a heavier subject – family planning! One of the young women, whose husband died last year, has had a new baby son. However, one of the twins, the little girl, who was the more severely affected by malnutrition, became very ill and died. The death of a child is never easy – this is the third child we have known here who has died.
The school has started back again and the new Agricultural College has opened. The five pupils who scored highest in their KCPE exams are going away to High School and the others will do the agricultural course – a mixture of academic and practical work - for 2 years and then sit International GCSEs.
All wildlife i.e. termites and bees have now been exterminated from the house. Occasionally we have a visiting frog or cockroach and last night we had a lizard but it didn’t stay long! The new buildings are nearing completion and the children can look forward to moving into their bright spacious classrooms at the end of January.
One of our neighbours and church members came last week looking for help – a “twister” wind had lifted the whole roof off her house and dropped it some 25m away. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the results with my own eyes, as there had been no wind here. We managed to find some “community assistance” funds to help her get it reconstructed.
It is less than six weeks until we return to the UK. We are hoping that the worst of the winter will be over by then! We’re looking forward to seeing family and friends again and catching up with everyone, having a rest, and reacquainting ourselves with some of the food we like – cheese, chicken bhoona and ice cream to name a few!
indulgences!
There was a special Christmas meal for children and staff in the Home – chicken and beef being a real treat where the diet is mostly vegetarian. ‘Sodas’ (Coke, Fanta or Sprite) are always a welcome treat as well.
The church was full on Christmas Day and then people were able to go home and cook with the rice, beans and oil that had been given out to church and community members on Christmas Eve. Also, after the service everyone had a soda and biscuits and sweets. All of these were bought, thanks to the kind donations of our church in Paisley and friends of Hope and Kindness in England. In previous years, a meal has been cooked for 200-300 people, which has been a lot of work for a few people. This year people were in their own homes and because of the amount of food given out I believe many more people benefitted.
We had hoped to go away for a couple of nights between Christmas and New Year but because of events here that was not possible. We may manage to do this by the end of this month.
Six of us were involved in delivering a two-day training seminar on Farming God’s Way last week to a group of people from the church and community. This was repeated for another group this week. The trainees appeared enthusiastic and we are hoping that most of them will put the things they have learned into practice on their own land, and that this will be a small beginning for a transformation of farming in this area, lifting people out of poverty and dependency.
Here it is extremely hot and sticky just now. The rains have totally stopped. Planting will start again towards the end of February – so more rain will be appreciated then. There has been a lot of illness recently in the Home and amongst our neighbours – mostly a mild form of malaria but a few young children have been very ill and we have had to take them to get medical attention quickly.
Last weekend, Ian went to Nyahururu with Kennedy (one of our church leaders) to speak at a one-day Elim regional conference there. It involved most of the day travelling there by matatu (mini-bus) on Friday and the same coming back on Sunday. Ian thought it went alright but it can be hard to tell when everything is being translated. Nyaharuru is very close to the equator but because it is over 7800 feet above sea level, they found it much cooler than here.
The group for young mothers that we started recently has been going well. This week we are learning about dental hygiene, and next week a heavier subject – family planning! One of the young women, whose husband died last year, has had a new baby son. However, one of the twins, the little girl, who was the more severely affected by malnutrition, became very ill and died. The death of a child is never easy – this is the third child we have known here who has died.
The school has started back again and the new Agricultural College has opened. The five pupils who scored highest in their KCPE exams are going away to High School and the others will do the agricultural course – a mixture of academic and practical work - for 2 years and then sit International GCSEs.
All wildlife i.e. termites and bees have now been exterminated from the house. Occasionally we have a visiting frog or cockroach and last night we had a lizard but it didn’t stay long! The new buildings are nearing completion and the children can look forward to moving into their bright spacious classrooms at the end of January.
One of our neighbours and church members came last week looking for help – a “twister” wind had lifted the whole roof off her house and dropped it some 25m away. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the results with my own eyes, as there had been no wind here. We managed to find some “community assistance” funds to help her get it reconstructed.
It is less than six weeks until we return to the UK. We are hoping that the worst of the winter will be over by then! We’re looking forward to seeing family and friends again and catching up with everyone, having a rest, and reacquainting ourselves with some of the food we like – cheese, chicken bhoona and ice cream to name a few!
Friday, 9 December 2011
9 visitors and a wedding
Sorry for the long silence – where has the time gone? We can’t even say that it’s because we’re busy in the lead-up to Christmas because Christmas is such a low-key event in this culture – the other extreme from the commercialised Western Christmas.
We hear the weather at home has got cold and snowy. Here, after a few weeks where we have had a lot of rain (which really brings the temperature down) we are having a couple of hot sunny days. We are praying that the rains will slow down now, as people are complaining that their land is waterlogged, their houses are damp and the cobs are beginning to rot on the maize plants. A couple of weeks of sunshine would restore hopes of a great harvest.
We’re well, keeping going with supporting the church leaders, helping out here at Hope & Kindness, farming (!), visiting people and helping to assess needs, taking photos and practising speaking Dholuo.
Last Saturday we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of one of the teachers – a bizarre experience indeed. The invitation said “from 10.00am” but the bride was not in the church until sometime after 2.00. The procession of 8 flower girls, 11 bridesmaids, 13 men and boys forming the groom’s escort and various other bride’s helpers took a full hour to sashay into the church. Unlike British weddings, it seemed like they had the party in the middle of the service, at least in terms of the amount of celebration and dancing! A great experience, if you could avoid a headache due to the high noise volume!
We’ve had visitors staying with us here. Two Danish girls doing a “gap year” and spending 4 months in Africa stayed for two weeks and spent a lot of time working with the children, particularly doing art with them. In the middle of that we had another team from the international company Cisco, which supports the school and home. They were really busy for the few days they were here – painting the classrooms, helping to build a house, and organising the kids in a “talent show”, amongst other things.
All these visitors really joined in the work here so well; they all seemed to enjoy their time here and the kids loved them. It’s been a pleasure to have them but it has also been nice now that they’ve all gone away and we have the house to ourselves again. Even Terry has gone home for a few weeks and the school has closed for the long holiday. Most of those children in the home who have a grandmother or aunt or other relatives to go to have gone off for a holiday. Only 14 children are still here.
There’s still a lot happening here – building work is progressing well and there’s a lot of maintenance work getting done on the site. Yesterday we had another practice session for the people who will be involved in training others in “Farming God’s Way” – we hope to be ready to offer the training to church and community members from early January.
The group for young mothers has got off to a good start with up to nine mums and their babies and toddlers attending. They have been very attentive to the teaching on nutrition, hygiene and vaccinations that Hilda has brought so far. The men’s and women’s groups and the church generally are also encouraging.
This Sunday we will start with the Pre-Encounter teaching for the 4 people (English speaking) who will be our “guinea pigs” for the first Encounter – this is scheduled for 14th and 20th December.
We hear the weather at home has got cold and snowy. Here, after a few weeks where we have had a lot of rain (which really brings the temperature down) we are having a couple of hot sunny days. We are praying that the rains will slow down now, as people are complaining that their land is waterlogged, their houses are damp and the cobs are beginning to rot on the maize plants. A couple of weeks of sunshine would restore hopes of a great harvest.
We’re well, keeping going with supporting the church leaders, helping out here at Hope & Kindness, farming (!), visiting people and helping to assess needs, taking photos and practising speaking Dholuo.
Last Saturday we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of one of the teachers – a bizarre experience indeed. The invitation said “from 10.00am” but the bride was not in the church until sometime after 2.00. The procession of 8 flower girls, 11 bridesmaids, 13 men and boys forming the groom’s escort and various other bride’s helpers took a full hour to sashay into the church. Unlike British weddings, it seemed like they had the party in the middle of the service, at least in terms of the amount of celebration and dancing! A great experience, if you could avoid a headache due to the high noise volume!
We’ve had visitors staying with us here. Two Danish girls doing a “gap year” and spending 4 months in Africa stayed for two weeks and spent a lot of time working with the children, particularly doing art with them. In the middle of that we had another team from the international company Cisco, which supports the school and home. They were really busy for the few days they were here – painting the classrooms, helping to build a house, and organising the kids in a “talent show”, amongst other things.
All these visitors really joined in the work here so well; they all seemed to enjoy their time here and the kids loved them. It’s been a pleasure to have them but it has also been nice now that they’ve all gone away and we have the house to ourselves again. Even Terry has gone home for a few weeks and the school has closed for the long holiday. Most of those children in the home who have a grandmother or aunt or other relatives to go to have gone off for a holiday. Only 14 children are still here.
There’s still a lot happening here – building work is progressing well and there’s a lot of maintenance work getting done on the site. Yesterday we had another practice session for the people who will be involved in training others in “Farming God’s Way” – we hope to be ready to offer the training to church and community members from early January.
The group for young mothers has got off to a good start with up to nine mums and their babies and toddlers attending. They have been very attentive to the teaching on nutrition, hygiene and vaccinations that Hilda has brought so far. The men’s and women’s groups and the church generally are also encouraging.
This Sunday we will start with the Pre-Encounter teaching for the 4 people (English speaking) who will be our “guinea pigs” for the first Encounter – this is scheduled for 14th and 20th December.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
wildlife
We are fine here and trying to keep out of the rain which is still coming most afternoons. This has been a really wet “short rainy season” and people are now concerned that if the rain continues like this, the ripening corn cobs will not dry properly.
It’s Monday and I’m looking forward (can you believe this?) to our regular Monday lunch of boiled potatoes and beans. The potatoes (“Irish potatoes” as they call them here) are really tasty and are cooked in water with a little oil, onion and tomato. The beans are just normal beans but are delicious with a dollop of chilli sauce. (Terry maintains that chilli sauce makes anything edible here!)
We have a nice wee house here and we don’t mind sharing it with others. However, apart from the bees in the chimney, a few of which find their way out each morning and commit suicide trying to get out of the (permanently shut) back door, the other creatures we have found sharing the house have been a bit of a problem. On Monday evening Hilda noticed a little pile of earth on the floor in the hallway, and on close inspection found termites coming up through a tiny hole in the concrete floor. The night guards confirmed that they were indeed termites and we also found more evidence of their presence outside. In fact there was a large frog sitting beside a termite hole just waiting for more of them to emerge. Where there are frogs there are also snakes, the next link up the food chain, and Leonard’s torchlight then found a nearby baby black mamba, which he quickly dispatched with his hatchet. Life here is never dull! Today a fundi (expert) was brought in to dig round the house and spray insecticide, so hopefully we have seen the beginning of the end of the termites.
While we were out of the house this evening, waiting till the insecticide fumes drifted away, I joined some of the Home kids in a classroom doing “prep”. Some were revising for tomorrow’s Standard 7 maths exam, some were reading books or today’s newspaper, but six of them were gathered round a table reading the Bible and discussing its meaning. Encouraging!
On the other hand, a young man who recently became a Christian and seemed to be turning his life around has gone against the godly advice a church leader offered him and has got married. Arranged marriages are no longer the norm here, but this young man’s sister apparently found a suitable girl for him and he went off to meet her last weekend. The next we knew, he had brought her back to his house and they had “married”. While Western ways of courtship and marriage are not necessarily good either, the church here has a lot to do to help people to apply biblical principles to relationships and many other aspects of life.
Hilda and Dorine are starting a group for young mothers and the first meeting is Thursday morning. Hilda will be giving some basic health education and the first topic is “water”; Dorine will do a very short Bible lesson . The purpose of this group is to support young mothers who are struggling and to outreach into the community. We’ll let you know how it goes.
It’s Monday and I’m looking forward (can you believe this?) to our regular Monday lunch of boiled potatoes and beans. The potatoes (“Irish potatoes” as they call them here) are really tasty and are cooked in water with a little oil, onion and tomato. The beans are just normal beans but are delicious with a dollop of chilli sauce. (Terry maintains that chilli sauce makes anything edible here!)
We have a nice wee house here and we don’t mind sharing it with others. However, apart from the bees in the chimney, a few of which find their way out each morning and commit suicide trying to get out of the (permanently shut) back door, the other creatures we have found sharing the house have been a bit of a problem. On Monday evening Hilda noticed a little pile of earth on the floor in the hallway, and on close inspection found termites coming up through a tiny hole in the concrete floor. The night guards confirmed that they were indeed termites and we also found more evidence of their presence outside. In fact there was a large frog sitting beside a termite hole just waiting for more of them to emerge. Where there are frogs there are also snakes, the next link up the food chain, and Leonard’s torchlight then found a nearby baby black mamba, which he quickly dispatched with his hatchet. Life here is never dull! Today a fundi (expert) was brought in to dig round the house and spray insecticide, so hopefully we have seen the beginning of the end of the termites.
While we were out of the house this evening, waiting till the insecticide fumes drifted away, I joined some of the Home kids in a classroom doing “prep”. Some were revising for tomorrow’s Standard 7 maths exam, some were reading books or today’s newspaper, but six of them were gathered round a table reading the Bible and discussing its meaning. Encouraging!
On the other hand, a young man who recently became a Christian and seemed to be turning his life around has gone against the godly advice a church leader offered him and has got married. Arranged marriages are no longer the norm here, but this young man’s sister apparently found a suitable girl for him and he went off to meet her last weekend. The next we knew, he had brought her back to his house and they had “married”. While Western ways of courtship and marriage are not necessarily good either, the church here has a lot to do to help people to apply biblical principles to relationships and many other aspects of life.
Hilda and Dorine are starting a group for young mothers and the first meeting is Thursday morning. Hilda will be giving some basic health education and the first topic is “water”; Dorine will do a very short Bible lesson . The purpose of this group is to support young mothers who are struggling and to outreach into the community. We’ll let you know how it goes.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
bizarre?
Kenya is a place of bizarre experiences.
• The preacher on Sunday is wearing a Somerfield fleece jacket. No-one thinks there is anything unusual about this.
• The Standard 8 children are sitting their primary school leaving exams – this is taken extremely seriously and as well as an invigilator from another school we also have a policeman on site (actually he looks more like a soldier, complete with semi-automatic rifle) to ensure that there is no cheating!
• We came back from Oyugis in a shared taxi the other day. The taxi waits until it is filled with passengers, then the driver gets in – how is he going to drive when there is another man sitting in the driver’s seat? Not a problem – he just squeezes over. There are 4 adults in the front of the Toyota estate car, 4 in the back, and another 5 in the boot, not to mention babies and luggage!
As I said, this week our Standard 8 pupils are sitting their KCPE exams which will determine if they can go on to high school and potentially university. Last Thursday, in preparation, all the standard 8 pupils from the area met in one of the local schools for a “day of prayer” for the exams! Then here on Friday all the school gathered together, one of the teachers spoke on the David & Goliath story (the exams are their “Goliath”!) and we prayed for their success. It was something we couldn’t imagine happening in the UK! In church on Sunday they were again prayed for. So if they don’t do well it won’t be due to a lack of prayer.
Our main work continues to be to support the church leaders in developing and implementing a vision for the church. We seem to have an open door at the moment for leading them into new ideas. We have a lot of respect for them as we see how strong their faith is, and their love for God. Some of them have come through very difficult circumstances, and all of them struggle to a greater or lesser extent to feed and care for their families.
I have been out in the community also with Dorine. We visited a 19 year old who first came to the Hope & Kindness gate last week with her 17 month old son. The child has really bad Kwashiorkor (wet malnutrition) due to lack of protein. The mother was given a supply of food, vitamins, de-worming tablets, iron syrup and an antibiotic for his infected sores. We will keep a close eye on him. She had stopped breast feeding early because she had become pregnant with his sister, who is now one month old. She gave birth, all by herself, in her mud house! Her husband keeps leaving to get a job in a nearby town and disappears for months and does not provide for them.
I have recently met another 19 year old, who has twins as a result of rape - they are very malnourished.
Seeing these two young mothers has made Dorine and I decide not to wait until next year to start a Young Mothers Group but to start next Thursday. Neither of these girls have support from families. They don’t attend church but both have been responsive to what we have shared with them, and one of them just cried when Dorine prayed with her yesterday.
We have a church leaders meeting on Sunday afternoon so we will seek their approval first – but I’m sure there won’t be a problem. We plan to do some basic health education and will have some spiritual content also. Maybe I’ll just play with the children!
With the leaders this Sunday we will sort out dates for the first Encounter weekend, which will just be for a few English speakers, including Dorine and Kennedy. Hope it’s not too hard going with just the two of us taking it! We are going away this Friday for the day to start working on it.
We have been invited to the wedding of one of the teachers on 3rd December so will be interesting to see how things are done here. It is only the better-off here who have a wedding. Most girls just go and live with their husband when a cow or two are handed over as a dowry. Often even this does not happen and the husband can still be owing the cows many years later!
• The preacher on Sunday is wearing a Somerfield fleece jacket. No-one thinks there is anything unusual about this.
• The Standard 8 children are sitting their primary school leaving exams – this is taken extremely seriously and as well as an invigilator from another school we also have a policeman on site (actually he looks more like a soldier, complete with semi-automatic rifle) to ensure that there is no cheating!
• We came back from Oyugis in a shared taxi the other day. The taxi waits until it is filled with passengers, then the driver gets in – how is he going to drive when there is another man sitting in the driver’s seat? Not a problem – he just squeezes over. There are 4 adults in the front of the Toyota estate car, 4 in the back, and another 5 in the boot, not to mention babies and luggage!
As I said, this week our Standard 8 pupils are sitting their KCPE exams which will determine if they can go on to high school and potentially university. Last Thursday, in preparation, all the standard 8 pupils from the area met in one of the local schools for a “day of prayer” for the exams! Then here on Friday all the school gathered together, one of the teachers spoke on the David & Goliath story (the exams are their “Goliath”!) and we prayed for their success. It was something we couldn’t imagine happening in the UK! In church on Sunday they were again prayed for. So if they don’t do well it won’t be due to a lack of prayer.
Our main work continues to be to support the church leaders in developing and implementing a vision for the church. We seem to have an open door at the moment for leading them into new ideas. We have a lot of respect for them as we see how strong their faith is, and their love for God. Some of them have come through very difficult circumstances, and all of them struggle to a greater or lesser extent to feed and care for their families.
I have been out in the community also with Dorine. We visited a 19 year old who first came to the Hope & Kindness gate last week with her 17 month old son. The child has really bad Kwashiorkor (wet malnutrition) due to lack of protein. The mother was given a supply of food, vitamins, de-worming tablets, iron syrup and an antibiotic for his infected sores. We will keep a close eye on him. She had stopped breast feeding early because she had become pregnant with his sister, who is now one month old. She gave birth, all by herself, in her mud house! Her husband keeps leaving to get a job in a nearby town and disappears for months and does not provide for them.
I have recently met another 19 year old, who has twins as a result of rape - they are very malnourished.
Seeing these two young mothers has made Dorine and I decide not to wait until next year to start a Young Mothers Group but to start next Thursday. Neither of these girls have support from families. They don’t attend church but both have been responsive to what we have shared with them, and one of them just cried when Dorine prayed with her yesterday.
We have a church leaders meeting on Sunday afternoon so we will seek their approval first – but I’m sure there won’t be a problem. We plan to do some basic health education and will have some spiritual content also. Maybe I’ll just play with the children!
With the leaders this Sunday we will sort out dates for the first Encounter weekend, which will just be for a few English speakers, including Dorine and Kennedy. Hope it’s not too hard going with just the two of us taking it! We are going away this Friday for the day to start working on it.
We have been invited to the wedding of one of the teachers on 3rd December so will be interesting to see how things are done here. It is only the better-off here who have a wedding. Most girls just go and live with their husband when a cow or two are handed over as a dowry. Often even this does not happen and the husband can still be owing the cows many years later!
Sunday, 23 October 2011
together
One late afternoon we had gone with three of the children from the Home to visit an elderly grandmother, and the sky darkened just as we arrived at her house (the usual mud walls and floor and tin roof variety). We managed to have a brief conversation with her before the skies opened and the rain came pouring down. She quickly organised her four- and six-year-old orphaned granddaughters who live with her to run out with all their basins and containers to catch the rainwater from the roof. They returned and we all sat, unable to verbally communicate because of the noise on the tin roof. We could only smile and wait for half an hour for the rain to stop. We seemed to share together in a way that speech would have spoiled. Even the chickens that followed the girls in seemed to sense the moment and sat down on the floor between us until one got hungry and began to peck the ants off the floor!
The crops had been watered again and no one would complain about the mud that followed. A neighbour rushed to assist me as I was leaving and got a firm hold of my arm and did not let go until we had reached the end of the muddy path!
The chickens joining us there were preferable to the swarm of bees that decided to join me in our house while Ian was out in the community. They had been living in the supposedly blocked off chimney! However three of the guys who work here came to my aid with Doom (an appropriate name for an effective insect eradicator) and they were soon exterminated!
Last Monday we went with Terry and some of the staff to a seminar in Kisumu, held by the charity Teach a Man to Fish. This organisation aims to help rural schools like ours which are dependent on outside funding become more self-sufficient, and in the process teach children skills in agriculture and business which will enable them to support themselves when they leave school. It was an interesting and useful day, especially hearing how other people are tackling this.
We continue to work with the church leaders and have set up another “away day” with them next Wednesday. We have been able to set up part-time paid roles for two of them – Kennedy will be working particularly in preparing and leading programmes of preaching and teaching, while Dorine will have more responsibility in pastoral care. We are looking forward to working more closely with both of them over the coming months. Kennedy has already started a preaching series which will introduce the biblical themes that underpin Farming God’s Way.
The schoolchildren, led by Duncan who is enjoying his additional role as “farm manager”, have already got the first crop of maize and beans growing well on the Farming God’s Way demonstration plots. There has been a lot of rain recently and this has really helped. We hope to see the concept being taught to church members as well and help them put it into practice in the next growing season starting in January. We believe it has the potential to change people’s attitudes and greatly improve what they can achieve on their very small farms.
We hope you enjoy our blog but you can read much more about what’s happening here by following Terry’s blog at http://terryathopeandkindness.blogspot.com/
The crops had been watered again and no one would complain about the mud that followed. A neighbour rushed to assist me as I was leaving and got a firm hold of my arm and did not let go until we had reached the end of the muddy path!
The chickens joining us there were preferable to the swarm of bees that decided to join me in our house while Ian was out in the community. They had been living in the supposedly blocked off chimney! However three of the guys who work here came to my aid with Doom (an appropriate name for an effective insect eradicator) and they were soon exterminated!
Last Monday we went with Terry and some of the staff to a seminar in Kisumu, held by the charity Teach a Man to Fish. This organisation aims to help rural schools like ours which are dependent on outside funding become more self-sufficient, and in the process teach children skills in agriculture and business which will enable them to support themselves when they leave school. It was an interesting and useful day, especially hearing how other people are tackling this.
We continue to work with the church leaders and have set up another “away day” with them next Wednesday. We have been able to set up part-time paid roles for two of them – Kennedy will be working particularly in preparing and leading programmes of preaching and teaching, while Dorine will have more responsibility in pastoral care. We are looking forward to working more closely with both of them over the coming months. Kennedy has already started a preaching series which will introduce the biblical themes that underpin Farming God’s Way.
The schoolchildren, led by Duncan who is enjoying his additional role as “farm manager”, have already got the first crop of maize and beans growing well on the Farming God’s Way demonstration plots. There has been a lot of rain recently and this has really helped. We hope to see the concept being taught to church members as well and help them put it into practice in the next growing season starting in January. We believe it has the potential to change people’s attitudes and greatly improve what they can achieve on their very small farms.
We hope you enjoy our blog but you can read much more about what’s happening here by following Terry’s blog at http://terryathopeandkindness.blogspot.com/
Saturday, 8 October 2011
rain
Hi. We are well. We are now into the short rainy season, although we had a lot of rain since August so the contrast hasn’t been too marked yet. On Thursday we had a particularly heavy thunderstorm – with huge hailstones – in late afternoon. People here have planted their second crops for this year and the maize is growing up strongly.
Last week we had a trip to Kisumu and Nairobi. In Kisumu we renewed our visas and applied for registration as “aliens” – visions of little green men? In Nairobi we met up with Terry and two of the leaders of Elim Kenya who helped us in the process of applying for work permits. Hopefully these will get approved soon, which will allow us to stay in Kenya and work as “missionaries” for 2 years before they need renewed. We enjoyed our trip, doing some shopping, staying in guest houses and getting some meat in our diet again! Nairobi is getting increasingly busy, and the traffic jams get worse!
Back here we are continuing our work with the church leaders. We are planning an “Encounter” weekend for them, based on those done in Paisley Elim. We think the first one will need to be just for a few English speakers, some of whom could then help us with the next Encounter. Running the event over a weekend may not be suitable so it will probably be run over two days in two successive weeks. This weekend Ian is speaking in church on Sunday. Today we were at a special church meeting held at the home of a man who got into some trouble, was in jail for 2 months (it could have been 10 years if he had been found guilty of assault) and has subsequently come back to God and to church and turned his life around.
Some things are frustrating here, like inefficiencies, erratic internet connection, and the length of time it can take to achieve some things. And Hilda’s very slow progress in learning Dholuo! But on the other hand there are lots of encouragements, so we have lots of hope for the future. Health is such a major issue for people here. Recently we visited a young man who is HIV+ and who had been very ill the last time we saw him – his father had lost hope for him. But this week he was so much better we didn’t even recognise him!
We’ve established that people can get onto the national health insurance scheme if they make contributions of KSh160 a month (just over £1). This will basically pay for any hospital costs, but not surgery or out-patient costs. Even this amount will be beyond the means of many people, so we are looking to see if we can set up sponsorship of people to get this insurance provided.
We’ve just finished reading “When Helping Hurts” for the second time together. It’s by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and we would recommend it to anybody interested in working with the poor either in the developing world or at home. We’re now reading “The Purpose-Driven Church” by Rick Warren and finding it really useful for our situation here.
Last week we had a trip to Kisumu and Nairobi. In Kisumu we renewed our visas and applied for registration as “aliens” – visions of little green men? In Nairobi we met up with Terry and two of the leaders of Elim Kenya who helped us in the process of applying for work permits. Hopefully these will get approved soon, which will allow us to stay in Kenya and work as “missionaries” for 2 years before they need renewed. We enjoyed our trip, doing some shopping, staying in guest houses and getting some meat in our diet again! Nairobi is getting increasingly busy, and the traffic jams get worse!
Back here we are continuing our work with the church leaders. We are planning an “Encounter” weekend for them, based on those done in Paisley Elim. We think the first one will need to be just for a few English speakers, some of whom could then help us with the next Encounter. Running the event over a weekend may not be suitable so it will probably be run over two days in two successive weeks. This weekend Ian is speaking in church on Sunday. Today we were at a special church meeting held at the home of a man who got into some trouble, was in jail for 2 months (it could have been 10 years if he had been found guilty of assault) and has subsequently come back to God and to church and turned his life around.
Some things are frustrating here, like inefficiencies, erratic internet connection, and the length of time it can take to achieve some things. And Hilda’s very slow progress in learning Dholuo! But on the other hand there are lots of encouragements, so we have lots of hope for the future. Health is such a major issue for people here. Recently we visited a young man who is HIV+ and who had been very ill the last time we saw him – his father had lost hope for him. But this week he was so much better we didn’t even recognise him!
We’ve established that people can get onto the national health insurance scheme if they make contributions of KSh160 a month (just over £1). This will basically pay for any hospital costs, but not surgery or out-patient costs. Even this amount will be beyond the means of many people, so we are looking to see if we can set up sponsorship of people to get this insurance provided.
We’ve just finished reading “When Helping Hurts” for the second time together. It’s by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and we would recommend it to anybody interested in working with the poor either in the developing world or at home. We’re now reading “The Purpose-Driven Church” by Rick Warren and finding it really useful for our situation here.
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