2009 Kenya – Pictures & Video

Here are some of the “select” photos – admittedly, I (Clay) relied heavily on video vs. pictures – seems easier to me because video can tell a story inside itself – and you don’t have to line up the people for the picture! Just shoot and bingo! BUT what I didn’t count on was basically a catastrophic camera failure that to date – has left the video (almost 3 hours…) useless. Am being patient and hoping I can get some of it extracted from the tape…but for now…some great pictures of a great week!

Finally at Heathrow in London after quite an effort at Kennedy to get there!! The weather in London as you can see was “heading south” – we’re still praising God that Airtran prompted us to have Jill fly out on the 24th vs. the 25th! If we’d left her departure to Atlanta to Christmas day – this picture and so many others would probably not have been possible…

We just had to smile! At Jomo Kenyatta International Airport – Sunday evening and we just passed through Immigration without a hitch! Only lost one backpack – Preston’s – and it showed up – on Saturday at the end of the week!! He had an awesome spirit about it all – we ended up taking Preston shopping for “essentials” and he just made it work…

In JOSKA!

Here’s the team – Monday morning before setting out for Joska and Streamtree Children’s home.
Bottom: Jane (our Kenyan guide), Sara, Jill, Sheri & Margot
Middle: Clay, Shayla (team lead), Peggy, Michelle, Preston, Sharon, Edward & Tiffany
Back: Keri, Dana & Jason

The children at Streamtree Orphanage sang to us as we were pulling up in the bus. Big smiles and beautiful singing from them that warmed our hearts! Our first welcome from the people we were visiting.

Making friendship bracelets with the kids at Streamtree. This little one was excited to have her picture taken, maybe surprised. They were all so helpful to one another and to us. The older children always helped the younger ones. The beauty of children engaged in play.

Once all the strings were twisted and maybe a braid or two, it was time to size the bracelets and check out the wonderful job the kids did. They were so proud to have those bits of colorful string to wear and show all their finished products.

We formed a “production line” to package up Christmas. Using backpacks, we loaded each with some strange – well, from our “Western” perspective – gifts. A bag of flour, a small 1lb tub of lard, a bag of sugar, a biscuit/cracker and some “sweets”.

As we helped to package up the “Christmas in Kenya”, the children of Streamtree were waiting in the building across the way – the dirt you see in the middle there has been planted with trees (fruit bearing…!) and other “crops” so to help Streamtree be more self-sustaining and as well teach the strong work-ethic of the Kenyan children. Everything is purposeful…

Like pretty much any little child – to see themselves in the “eye of the camera” is always fascinating. Preston had as much fun taking and showing as the little one had in looking!

It was after lunch…being there…I had to wonder how many of these children had never been held this way…or that it had been so long that they could not remember. All of our hearts long to be held and to fall into a protected, comfortable sleep in the arms of someone who loves us. Praise God for His love for us – and that Jill chose to share that with this little guy…

Admittedly, the “home visits” were a challenge. In the case of Joska, the “women” went out to help the wife do some chores. Men don’t do that. They stay in and “tell stories” – well, I need to be better prepared on two accounts – first, we (men) need to help our wives right ladies?!? Second, I need to be better prepared with some good stories!!

This family was blessed with four of their own children and another four that came to live with them after a family member was not able. Life is busy with eight children. They all need love, clean clothes, food and a place to sleep at night. Knowing that they are loved by their family and Jesus was obvious during our visits.

The craft project got started after we ladies “hand washed” clothes for the family we were visiting. I can’t imagine the amount of time spent daily going to get water to wash with, then carrying it back home and scrubbing the clothes one at a time until they were clean. Don’t forget- we hung the clothes on the clothes line to dry. No electric washing machines or dryers here!

Standing next to the Director of the community in Joska, we posed in front of a 20,000 liter water tank – clearly not yet being used. Ultimately, it will be positioned on a platform to the left and filled – providing clean water and a bit of water pressure to push into the faucets and land below. This effort has been held up as they wait for a water purification system to be installed at the well about 400 meters away… This picture was taken at the Christ Compassion Rehabilitation Center in Joska where mostly young men and women from the streets of Nairobi or nearby have found a place to call home.

In this picture is a new friend I made while she walked with us on the home visits. Sharon is in her last semester of college. Her mother is a pastor of a church in Joska so she was familiar with the families. We became close in the short time we had together. I asked Sharon so many questions about Joska, the life people had, what kind of future the children would have, I just wanted to know so much! She always was happy to answer me. The peace and faith in God that I observed in the people we met was amazing.

Unfortunately, I relied very heavily on the video. While at Joska – and specifically at the CCRC, I took a bunch of video of the kids learning to play “kick-ball”! It was a blast to watch – especially as the younger ones just ran and ran and ran – regardless of their status as “out” or not!! Pray for that video…

In Kwambekenya!

On Wednesday morning, we packed up and headed north and west to the community of Kwambekenya. At a much higher elevation, Kwambekenya had little struggle with having plenty of water to nourish the crops and drink. As well, the community has 2 church partners in addition to the direct hope provided through the 410 Bridge relationship. This community was very different from Joska…

Hi!!

A great video by the 410 Bridge crew – it’s a great history of this community that came together with the hope and support of a couple of churches – it was SO evident in the people’s hearts for their community and each other!

So green…

Shayla gets a bit of a lesson on how to shake those hips while singing and walking towards the community! You can see Jill there on the edge gettin’ down her-fine-seff!! About 20 women from the community met us at the bus singing and praising God – it was just awesome – to be celebrated as a gift – but the truth was – they were the gift to us!!

Each child was anxious to know our names. They are taught in two languages, Swahili and English. They also use the native tribal language. Being a speech therapist it was interesting to hear the way that the kids used inflection to first get the language meaning used correctly and second to hear emotion in their voices. All of them were so friendly. I’m sure that they were just as curious about us as we were of them.

Everywhere we went the children were with us. Sometimes just to help you up a hill. All of the time to give you smiles and attention.

Such warm, loving greetings.

410′s influence with the church community clearly spans past their Alpharetta, Georgia roots! Praise God for churches like Praier Lakes – it is within the context of this “long-term” relationship by these local churches – that “short-term” people have a chance to be a part of something so, so GREAT!!

We were given a tour of the medical facility in Kwambekenya. The nurse and laboratory technician were constantly busy! He stopped separating a sample BY HAND to answer questions we had. There was some medication but not a lot. A small amount of antibiotics, bandages, wound cleaning and general health care supplies.

If I recall correctly, it takes about $200 every other month to restock this room with medications…not much ‘eh? We spend that on a single visit to our Dr. and that’s before we get the prescriptions!!

A cooler for medicine that needed to be refrigerated.

And they use liquid propane as the coolant…? Huh? Need to explore how THAT works…

So cute…

and sweeet…

This guy’s hands were just freezin’!! So sweet and always wanting to make friends.

All children in the community understand that they are to help with the younger ones. This young lady was nine years old and carried this baby on her back the entire time we were there. When I asked her if that was her brother or sister she kept saying, “no”. I finally realized that it was not a sibling but a neighbor child that she was caring for that day.

The numbers got larger when a camera came out!

The children “hanging out” after playing games and sweets were passed out to them. We ended up with approximately 400 plus or minus a few. The favorites seemed to be “head, shoulders, knees and toes” as well as the “hokey pokey”. They taught us a game similar to duck, duck, goose. In the background a thunderstorm coming over the mountains that would eventually pour massive amounts of rain on the area.

Uh – - – Peggy?? There were what? 400 children and 4 of us??

I was checking out a room filled with food supplies inside the medical clinic. People were able to get the Christmas in Kenya gifts at the clinic.

The painting pro…

Clearly…OSHA is not involved here. I think there’s a pic out there with Jill on this thing. Hey – it was solid though! That first day we spent some time sloshing a bit of watered-down paint (it does farther that way!!) on the interior walls of the clinic. The 1st coat was put on too early – admittedly – when the concrete was still wet – they need the place OPEN and it had to be painted first!

Our “Jambo” girl…

Clearly she knows how to “play” to the camera…

One of the little girls – as all did – loved the camera! She wanted to take a picture – it was one of those things where you’re watching the little one point the camera a little too far to the left – - y’know? Then the pic turns out like this…awesome!!

Keri was giving us display of her gymnastic skills. Impressive!

Donkeys and carts…they work!! Their fuel is right there – about 8′ to the right – on the ground – ahh – grass!!

We were asked to help line the massive amount of kids up in rows so they could receive their “sweets” like a Jolly Rancher and a shortbread biscuit. Minus the fact that there were so many, the kids did line up and were cooperative. They are still kids so there was a bit of disintegration of the lines after a while.

My roommate Sheri from Indiana. Poor girl was assigned to the same room with me. She was always ready with her outlet adapter and alarm clock. The first night four of us shared a room. In the morning Dana told Sheri and I that one of us was talking in our sleep. I know that I was so exhausted from that day I could have given an enormous speech and not been aware. There was some talk of strange dreams as a side effect from the malaria medication…..