2010 Kenya Mission Trip Updates

06/27/2010 - From Cathy Jackson

We attend two services at church and taught Sunday School for four 10-year-olds when their teacher didn’t show up. About half of the kids didn’t speak English. Services in native Kameru last at least two hours plus lunch. We went to the orphanage in the afternoon and the kids are very musically talented. Had a late dinner with church leaders, presentations, gifts, thank-yous and pictures.

Early morning tomorrow with one more school visit and drive back to Nairobi.

06/26/2010 - From Cathy Jackson

We visited a Methodist Hospital, a program that enables orphans to form a group to learn farming or a trade.

We had a very long but outstanding visit today with the AIDS orphans our church supports. I was able to meet Kelvin, the little boy we sponsor. He was very shy but a darling little guy. I delivered our letter to him, along with a couple of little gifts. I took many, many pictures. My parents’ orphans and the Two by Two orphan were in school and weren’t able to come (kids attend boarding and private schools on Saturdays also). A little 3-year-old girl adopted me for a day. Sharon Catha was her name and she was precious. She either held my hand or wanted to be held most of the day. I didn’t get too many words out of her though!

We also played soccer against the youth and volunteers and even though we had a couple of their teenagers on our side, we suspect they let us win. The junior high age kids really enjoyed talking to us and we loved learning about them. One wants to be a neurosurgeon and another wants to be a lawyer. They love hearing about our families and telling us about theirs. I still have Ben’s graduation pictures on my camera so they all wanted to see the boys. The girls think Matt is very handsome. We gave the kids t-shirts, blankets and mosquito nets, although we still need to buy more.

We also visited a secondary girls’ boarding school late in the day. The girls were very talented and were also interested in learning about education and cultural differences in the U.S. and asked many questions of the group. As we were mingling individually though, they asked a lot of pop culture questions of Kody, Jeremiah and James. They have some funny stories to tell. We left this morning at 8 AM and didn’t get back this evening until 7:45, so we were all tired. But some of the guys are staying up to watch the U.S. World Cup game. We’re going to three different churches in small groups again tomorrow and then we’ll visit the Meru Children’s Home later in the afternoon, so it will be another full day.

06/25/2010 - From Cathy Jackson

Today we went to the Masai village that evangelists we support minister to. You can’t imagine how primitive it is. It took hours over rock potted hole, trench-like dirt. To call it a road gives the wrong impression. Along the way we saw a lot of game – giraffes, two kinds of zebra, warthogs, gazelles, elands and one elephant in the distance. There were grass and mud huts along the way, one or two small villages, a school, several goat and cattle herds.

The people were there to greet us with songs, which has been the custom everywhere we’ve been. We were able to spend a long time with them. Several people gave speeches, which had to be translated into another language and then into English. It was really neat. One tribe member, not a preacher, had a fabulous talk about Jonah not answering God’s call at first, but [he said] we did [answer God's call].

We dedicated the water well, bought some things from them, and then went to the school area where the teacher had the kids sing for us. We gave them pens, suckers and some friendship rings. It is amazing how much they love pens. Heartbreaking that even the adults clamor for even simple little friendship rings.

After we left, we ate lunch around 3 PM by a brook, and then gave some of our food to kids from another village who had gathered to watch us. The drive out was much harder because we knew how long and rough it was going to be. It was a good but tiring day.

06/22/2010 - From Cathy Jackson

Yesterday we went to the Methodist Synod, which is like our Conference Offices. We learned a lot about what they are doing here... They also had some of their volunteers there for a very big celebration for us. What we’re doing and the amount we’re giving is a huge deal for them.

Later in the afternoon we went to two households led/supported by children and those were heart breaking. One was very difficult and the other was beyond pitiful. Very heart breaking. The second one is six kids who have been orphaned for a long time. I was under the mistaken impression that all of the orphans that we supported were in an orphanage but that’s not true. Four kids in one bed, two in another. The “kitchen” is across a path and is a pot on top of charcoal. One of the girls knew the name of her sponsor and she’s from our church. So I took pictures for her. Then we went to a fish pond that the synod helped fund for a support group - 18 adults all with AIDS plus their kids. Thirty total people have recently formed to build/stock a fish pond which provide food plus income for the group. It is a model for future groups they hope to form. They intend to stock it with 1,000 fish but could only afford 350.

Today we went to the Methodist Guest House construction site, where absolutely everything is done by hand and the tools are poor. They said they didn’t need any tools, but we’ve thrown away better. They are cutting metal bars with a hacksaw with dull blades. We tied steal rebar together and carried it up to the second floor and tied more steal together. They also need fencing for security.

When school was out we went to the bishop’s school and played with the kids. Many of the primary kids weren’t wearing shoes. After about 15 minutes the secondary school girls came over and after a little conversation they wanted to know if I knew how to play football. I told them not really but they said they’d teach me. They picked teams. One chose Kody and the other chose me. Neither one of us knew who was on our team. We just knew we weren’t on each others’ team. Amazingly I kicked the ball twice. One led to a goal, I missed the ball once, but spent most of the 60 minutes we played running up and down the field. The girls tricked Kody once yelling, “Pass! Pass!” and he did but the girl wasn’t on his team. It was very funny. The game ended in a tie.

[Tomorrow] we have more construction, a tour of a couple of schools, including one for the deaf and we’ll go back to the other school to play with the children again.

06/19/2010 - From Cathy Jackson

We were supposed to get to Meru between 3:00 and 4:00 but didn’t make it until 6:00.

We had lunch at an amazing place today – The Trout Tree. It’s a tree house restaurant, open air, overlooking the water with fresh trout and other things. There were white-faced monkeys with long white tails in the trees around the tree house. The food was good too. We stopped at the equator on the way and took pictures. Saw the water spinning in different directions and got hustled by shopkeepers.

The rooms at the Thiri Cultural Center aren’t quite as nice as the ones in Nairobi, but they’re fine. Representatives from the area Methodist district/synod greeted us and had dinner with us tonight. We’ll be visiting some of their churches tomorrow.

06/18/2010 - From Cathy Jackson

In Dubai we took a two-hour bus tour at night to see the sights. The buildings are amazing and the amount of money spent on things is outrageous. We were able to go into part of the Atlantis Dubai and saw the huge aquarium. There were a couple of others that were even more amazing.

Our flight to Nairobi was fine and getting through customs was easy. On the way to the guest house we saw a cheetah. It was in the back of a mini van and it had a collar on its neck. The Methodist Guest House in Nairobi is similar to hostels... but each room had a bathroom/shower and there was a community dining area, meeting rooms and a pool.