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| Team Tumaini (Hope) At Kijani Farm - Kenya, Africa |
Friday, June 16th, 2017
Last
night, after dinner and time around the campfire, our Team talked about our
highs and lows and what we thought we’d take home from this trip (We found out
later that the Maasai men were apparently getting a cow out of a ditch or hole
somewhere). I enjoyed hearing the
response from each person on our team and their insightfulness. When it was my turn I went with my low first
so I could end with the positives.
My
low was the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi simply because before we left the
terminal I had been so tired I couldn’t even keep my eyes open and then the
flight itself was cramped and seemed long.
My high was threefold.
I’ve
enjoyed the morning runs. They were my
personal time to commune with God, and nature, and the people I saw along my route. It was a time where I breathed Kenyan air
into my lungs. At the same time, it was
during my runs that I tried to make sense of it all. I loved my runs, but they were emotional too.
I
also liked learning names and words for things (even though I sometimes felt
like I was a slow learner), and talking to the men who came to Kijani. As an example, when I was out butchering the
last of the roosters two days ago, I had a good discussion with Andrew. He was curious about other countries and the
United States. He was the prodigal son
who had literally just returned to his family, while we have been here, after a
couple of years’ absence. I’m guessing
he probably has experienced some things.
One question he asked, that kind of caught me off guard, but one that he
asked honestly, was if America had black people. That led to a good and interesting
conversation in our broken English; from slavery, to the Civil War, to Abraham
Lincoln, to civil rights, and then finishing with Barack Obama our first black president. Any way you look or feel about it, the
discussion was raw and exposed. Later I
showed him maps of where the countries were located in the world. Part of what has made this trip memorable has
been building the trust and being honest; and so I did and I was.
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| Showing Andrew The Maps That I Had Brought |
The
last thing that has been on my list of highs has been the camping. I can’t imagine doing this trip traveling
back and forth each morning and afternoon to a separate hotel. It was the early mornings and evenings that
helped make the trip what it was, and connected us to Kijani Farm. I loved hearing the new sights and sounds so
directly. Thin nylon doesn’t hold a
whole lot back!
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| My Last Picture Of The Black Hill-Next Time I'm Climbing It! |
What
I shared, that I felt like that I would take back with me, was the
connections. I connect with connections
because it makes sense. If I do
something, I want to know and feel its worth.
I don’t care to waste my time with the things that have no purpose. I want to bring the characteristics that make
me who I am, that have been brought to the forefront through this trip, and be
open to sharing that with those who are around me when I return to the
States. Perspectives can change when you
stand in the boma of people you call friends; the house and family these friends
are proud of. This same home made of mud
and sticks and roofed in scraps of tin and cowhide that are teaming with clouds
of flies; the result of their main possession, the herds of goats and
cows. They are proud though, as I’ve
mentioned; like John and Moses, when they brought out their father’s spear (The
Old Mzee). Moses showed us how he could
hold the end of it and beginning with it stretched out in front of him, and
without bending his elbow, he raised its tip into the air directly above him. It was a show of strength, but why not? It was an active tool and you had to be
strong and comfortable with it if you were going to use it. He offered it to some of us that day while we
were waiting for Mama Nora to fix us the tea.
I was able to lock my elbow and lift it.
It was indeed heavy, and I was glad I’d been doing those pushups! He laughed when I was able to do it.
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| Mama Nora With Our Tea Cups |
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| The Heavy Spear We Lifted With One Hand |
Another
“take home” has been the way you can see God working at Kijani Farm. From what could have been frustrations with
the supplies not showing up on time to the wrong supplies trying to be
delivered, it ended up being a lesson in patience and fortitude. It allowed us time to work on other projects
that needed to be knocked out at some point anyways, while building the camaraderie
of our Team. In addition, when the
building materials did show up, the lumber was all directly rough cut in nearby
saw mills from logs that are imported in.
A 2x4 board was really a 2 inch by 4 inch board. In America a 2x4 is really a 1½x3½; they can
get more boards per log that way. And
although the question lingers as to the ethics of that, and why we still call
it a 2x4, at least every board is the same; it makes it easier when
building. Every board was different that
we received at Kijani. Sometimes it was
truly 2 inches thick, but it may also range anywhere up to 2¾ inches
thick. Or else the 4 inches was closer
to 5 inches. The wood was also so fresh
that when you put a screw or nail into the boards, water would squirt out. Warping was a real issue we had to think
about. It made for “creative
construction.” The cool thing is that
with no real building codes per se’, when people are living in make shift homes
in the nearby bomas, you do what you need to do to get things as straight and
secure as possible, and then move on.
Many was the time we took sections apart by backing out screws or using
the “cat’s claw” (small crowbar) to dig nail spikes out to redo a board and
make it fit just a bit better.
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| Todd And I After A Night's Sleep |
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| Gabe Down In "His Room" |
Last
night after our Team shared their highs and lows, and after a splash bath to
rinse away the day’s sweat, I again joined Todd and Gabe back in the STEM House
to sleep in our hammocks. We were
prepared this time, and had the hammocks a bit higher up off the floor joists;
starting out with our sleeping bags. We
each slept great and were glad we did it.
I was thankful that my cousin Brad had made my hammock for me last
summer. Who knew it’d end up in Africa?
When
we woke this morning, the Team all had oatmeal and then finished packing up as
we took down our tents. Patty and
Kristin found another black mamba snake. This one was curled up under their
tent’s ground cloth. Moses killed it
instantly with a smack to the head with his herding stick that all Maasai men
carry (called a “fimbo”). The first
snake we had seen 2 or 3 nights previous, when it came crawling through the
dirt right in front of the shed, well after nightfall. John Fay had spotted it in front of him with
his headlamp as we were putting dishes away, and it was Brian who had beheaded
it with his machete. Although beautiful,
they are not the kind of thing you want around where you live, as they are
deadly poisonous (the venom from one bite is said to be able to kill 15 men).
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| Me, Moses, Todd, Raphael, And Andrew In Front Of The STEM House |
Jeff
Ingersoll led the morning devotion, once we were packed, reading from I
Corinthians and talking about being the same person back home as we have been
here in Africa. Afterwards we signed a
board on the shed next to the names of people who had come over as part of the
February and March Teams. We also left a
signature on some boards in the STEM House and took pictures with our Maasai
friends, before loading up into Brian’s rented truck and the two vans that were
hired again to come “baja-ing” in on the two track road to pick us up.
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| Names Of The Teams At Kijani |
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| A Signature In The STEM House |
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| Andrew, Me, Todd, John, And Moses - Saying Our Goodbyes |
Finally! Even though I couldn't get a picture of the tiny dik-dik antelopes, I was able to get a picture of their little tracks next to a print of my shoe just before we left.
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| Prints Of The Dik-Dik Antelope Next To My Shoe |
The
drive to Nairobi took close to 4 hours.
To describe the traffic the closer we got to the city is difficult. No traffic signals exist anywhere. Occasionally there are round-a-bouts. A four lane road is really an eight lane if
you count the outside and inside edge of rutted dirt on both sides of the
tarmac that is regularly used. Cows,
goats, and sheep may cross at any given time, even within Nairobi, and people
are walking and crossing everywhere.
Somehow it all works, and so you count it as part of the adventure. Our driver, Sylvester who had taken us on safari,
actually patted a cow from his window as we passed on by.
VIDEO OF THE TRAFFIC:
By
mid afternoon we made it to a mall where we had lunch. Many of us got burgers. We visited a nearby market afterwards. Anything you bought was done strictly by bartering
as nothing had a price. It was part of
the game the vendors liked to play. It
reminded me of when you bought and sold sport cards back in the day at trade
shows, only then you at least had a starting point price. From there we traveled to the First Love International
Ministries Orphanage within Nairobi. It
has ties back to the Rockford, Illinois area.
It was here that the Dellamaters first began working within Africa;
giving two years of their sweat equity 7 or 8 years ago when all of it was just
a rough plot of land and a small house within the city. Since that time, it has grown to include a
separate boy’s and girl’s dorm, and dining hall among other buildings. The landscaping and play areas for the kids
were awesome. It provides a place of
hope for children who need it and a safe work environment (teaching them how to
sew) for widows or single mothers from the world’s largest slum called Kibera
in Nairobi.
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| The Outdoor Restaurant At The Mall |
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| The Grounds At First Love |
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| Our Team Meeting Some Of The Children |
We
were at First Love as guests, to take advantage of a place where we could
repack and freshen up. After a tour we
ate an awesome pasta meal prepared by some of their directors before heading
out (Larry and Rhonda Voss, who were the cousin and wife of our Team member
Jeff Ingersoll).
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| Team Tumaini Dinner At The Voss' - On The Grounds Of First Love Ministries |
I
messaged my wife Cindy that we were coming home. We left around 8:30 from First Love and
arrived at the airport shortly afterwards.
We quickly unloaded, said goodbye to Brian Dellamater and Jeff, who
would be staying for another week, and then entered the terminal. We navigated the Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta Airport
much quicker this time, although we did have to go through multiple checkpoints
and security. We boarded the plane by
11:30 for our 8 hour trip to Amsterdam.
Again, Todd and I were in the middle section, but I had an aisle seat
and Todd who was next to me had an open seat next to him. We had a little breathing room. Todd was asleep before takeoff and I was soon
after. Goodbye Kenya, Africa; to our
hearts we hold you. “Ahsanti sana”
(thank you very much) as we head back home to the flip side…of the planet.
See
you along The Way…
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| Kenyan Mural At The Airport In Nairobi |
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