We have been traveling for three days!!

We have been gone for three days visiting Kisi and Robert’s family. Robert is the man who helps us get all the products we need for our shipments to the United States. He is a wonderful and generous man and has asked us for several years to visit with his family when we return to Kenya. We finally made that trip this year and it was wonderful. I have a lot of stories to tell so will post them over the next few days!! It was a great adventure!!

Children's Home

Because it is hopeless

Street girls?!?!? Hmmm . . . . So much to say. My favorite day so far here has been the day we sat with the street girls. We always go to town and they always greet us. There is one who carries a baby on her back and sales jewelry she has made. She always finds us and talks with us. Each time I see her I want to buy everything she has!!!! There are the ones who yell Daniel and Meredith’s names from across the street and hurry over to visit. They don’t ask for anything, they only want to greet us. One is pregnant, most are high on glue. On this day we went and sat on the steps that overlook the slums. As we sit there the girls begin to come over and greet us. They bring their babies for us to hold. Most of them sit close enough to hold our hands or touch us and it is a friendly conversation one would have with friends in a park. Transformed International will be starting a ministry this year to begin rehabilitating some of these street girls. They will come off the street, get off glue, and learn a trade. TI has the money already to begin this program and is only waiting for the right land to buy to build on. The street girls know nothing of this project. The idea behind visiting the street girls on a regular basis is to build a relationship with them so when the time comes TI will accomplish two things. They will know which girls will be successful in the program and the girls will trust them because they have build a relationship with TI. These girls have nothing!! They have no hope! They beg and prostitute for money to feed themselves and their babies. It is very hard to explain in an e-mail who these young women are. One must see them, hear them and touch them to truly understand. They are the essence of poverty and hopelessness.

Because it is the right thing to do.

The last two days we have met with Kenyans who are taking care of children in need. There aren't many Kenyans who are doing this so it is exciting to see it when it does happen. Daniel Juma lives in this same neighborhood as Daniel in a more Kenyan style home. He has many (in the 20's) children he is caring for who are orphans. When we arrived the children came to greet us and Daniel Juma welcomed us into his home. He had chai waiting along with peanuts and this yummy sweet bread. Daniel has one main person who sponsors his work with others helping. He is amazing and very wise. He has several small businesses that also help support his work and his family.

We also met Walter and his wife in Soy. This is a project that mainly helps deaf children. Where this man found all these deaf children I will never know. Now he lives a mile or so from the main road in Soy in a VERY Kenyan setting. They bath and get their water from the river and live in mud huts. I don't know how he makes it from month to month but he also has several small businesses. Someone sponsors all the deaf children to go to school and school was out so we were able to see all the children. We visited for the day as Anne did some evaluations of other children who want to be in the program and Larry took pictures to send to the sponsor. Daniel helps a Canadian friend with this project.

I had been dishearten at the lack of Kenyan's helping their own people since I got here and of the government being so corrupt and wasteful. I am now encouraged there are people here in Kenya who are willing to care for those in need. Walter and his wife have nothing but they care for these children with great joy in their mud hut in the village. Daniel Juma and his wife are amazing. They are blessed to care for these children and happily take more into their home. So wonderful. They do this all because it is the right thing to do.

Because it is amazing . .

Today we went and took food to the Grandma with her 35 grandchildren. If you don’t know the story, this grandma is caring for 35 of her grand children, as all of their parents have died of aids. Once a month TI takes food out to them. But the TI team must shop for the food first. The first stop was the grocery store to buy sugar and a few other products like soap. After that we went to the store that carries the bulk maize and beans. At this point we have to wait for our driver with a truck to come pick us up and load the beans and maize onto the truck. Although Ann our social worker has talked with the driver in the morning and many times throughout the day letting him know our time frame we wait for an hour for him to arrive. It is not a bad thing to wait on the street for an hour. It is better than going to the movies!! So much is going on I am continually entertained. Someone some how steals two bags of fertilizer without the store workers realizing it. The owner of the store tells the workers he will not pay them their wage if they don’t find it. For some reason this does not faze the workers. They sit down in front of the store on other bags of fertilizer and apparently discuss it. Than a fairly nice small station wagon pulls up and other workers begin to load the back of it up with bags of maize, fertilizer and beans. As they put each bag in the back, the car sinks lower and lower. Before long the car is so low it looks like it may be sitting on the back tires. There is no way this can be good for the car, in more than on way. Our driver finally arrives and Meredith and I stand up in the back of the truck as we drive to the gas station to get kerosene for the home. Both of us standing in the back of truck seems to cause a commotion with the boda boda (bicycle taxi’s) drivers. They are pointing and talking. As we drive away from them Meredith rebukes them in Swahili telling they are talking bad. They laugh hysterically!!!!! I am thinking as we drive to pick up Daniel and Larry, Larry will tell me how dangerous it is for me to be riding in the back of the truck standing up but I am so surprised when we turn the corner and he takes out his camera and takes our picture and tells us how cute we look in the truck!!! They jump in telling us about all the people they met and talked to as they waited for us. It is never, never boring here.

We have to drive a short distance on a dirt road to deliver the food. The grandma does not know that we are coming and we hear screams from the children as we drive up. The grandma now has five houses for her children and an acre of land to plant crops. But by American standards she has nothing!! I mean it, nothing!! But she is happy and grateful to see us. She is all smiles and the children crowd around to shake our hands and great us!! What an honor to be in her presence after all the stories we have heard. It was amazing!! When she found out we were Daniel’s parents she was so happy!! She gave us a speech about what a wonderful job we have done raising Daniel and about how much he has helped her. It was so sweet.

It is truly amazing to be here and see all that is being done. What a blessing!!

Because it is Kenya shopping for groceries takes all day

Because it is Kenya shopping for groceries takes all day. Our first day in Kenya it was shopping day for our weekly groceries. We sat at breakfast and made up the plan for the week and the menu. In Kenya you have to go to many stores to get the food for the week. There is the supermarket, the outdoor market, the “White” people store and the butcher. I was so excited to be back in Kenya and couldn’t wait until we got to do the walk in town. It is so beautiful here. The sky is fantastic and goes on forever. The birds make the most amazing noises. And the scenery is unbelievable. The hustle and bustle of the small town of Kitale is wonderful. I just love it here. Daniel had just come back to Kenya after being gone for five weeks so everyone on our way and in town wanted to greet him. It seems as if the whole town knows Meredith and Daniel. The businessmen, the boda boda drivers, the street kids and the locals walking on the streets. EVERYONE knows them.

After not being in Kenya for two years nothing has changed in this town. Maybe a new business here and there or a new restaurant but all remains the same. It has the same feeling as before but I have a different perspective. For the first time I feel there is some hope for some of the people. After working in the United States with Transformed International and seeing from that side what we are able to do, I get here and see the work being done.

The street girls here are very sad to me. It breaks my heart to see them. They are so lost. Some have babies strapped to their backs and some are pregnant. There is no hope and the only way to live is to prostitute and sniff glue. Transformed International is planning on starting a street girl project. They have the money and are looking for land to buy to build a house on it. It is really exciting as they could help all the street girls in Kitale in a matter of years. So thrilling!

We will see what God will do.

Because it is Reno

Because it is RENO we wake the morning we are leaving to Kenya and it is snowing! Only in Reno after it has been 80 degrees. We get to airport and get checked in and wait for our plane to leave at 9:00am. At 8:45 my phone rings saying my plane is cancelled. What a weird feeling to be waiting in the airport to leave at your gate and getting a phone call saying that your flight has been cancelled. Sure enough, everyone else’s phone begins to ring! The flight was indeed cancelled because our plane would not land due to the wind. We were rebooked on another flight at 11:00 getting into San Francisco to connect to our flight leaving to Paris. It as close but we make it without any problems.

Has anyone ever flown Air France? Well, I don’t know if it is the airline our just our plane but this plane was horrible. Dirty to the point that where the lights are located above us it was full of dust and cobwebs with one light out and the wires hanging. The plane was in terrible repair and Larry and I just looked at each other and laughed! We were so looking forward to our plane ride with the individual screens where you could choose your movie and the great service. They did play movies but you didn’t get to choose and they were on the screens in the aisles. Gosh!! We arrived in Paris for our 9-hour layover. It was long and we hadn’t slept much. One hour before our plane loaded I found these great chairs where you could stretch out and take a nap. I had spend 8 hours in this airport, exhausted and wanting to nap only to find the chairs an hour before we left. We had to hop to Amsterdam and than to Kenya. Air France will no longer fly to Kenya until the political situation in Kenya stabilizes. We flew Kenya Air, again looking forward to the movies. BUT . . on this plan the “entertainment” system was down so there were no movies, music or even your overhead light.

Dan was waiting for us at the airport; we took a taxi to the stage to get a bus to Kitale and arrived in Kitale 48 hours after we left Reno. It was good to be here and to settle in for 12 hours of sleep!

Daniel Leaving and Getting Ready

Daniel leaves on Tuesday and we leave the next Tuesday. We will be meeting him in Nairobi after landing in San Francisco, Paris, London and lastly in Kenya. Daniel will fly out of Dallas and head to Canada for a week before leaving the same day that Larry and I leave to Kenya. It has been two years since we have been to Kenya and have never seen any of the Transformed International projects. It is exciting after working so hard in the United States to support those projects to finally be able to see them. I am anxious to meet the children in the orphange, to see the grandma and her 35 grandchildren and to visit the children and widows in Soweto Slums. We may even be there when the widows start their new project in making the paper beads!! So many adventures await us!! It will be sad to leave Luke and Andrew this year as we have never made a trip without them. But they have their own return trips planned and I will rejoice for them when it is their turn.