Maternity ward

These are pictures of the maternity ward in Kisii. Since I was not able to help with assessments that day, I was able to talk the head of the ward into giving me a tour. There were no women there that day. She told me that they try and get the women to stay 24 hours, but many of them leave after they take a nap. They usually walk back to their homes.

Kisii venue

The day after we went to the Mara, we spent the morning driving through the park again, and stopped on the way out to eat our sack lunches. At lunch, we started dropping like flies. Apparently something we ate at the fancy restaurant eventually made all but one of us sick. I was the second to get get sick, and spent most of the day with my head out of the bus window, because we didn't have any buckets in the bus. Our next venue was in Kisii. Five of us ended up staying in the hotel for the morning, and joined the rest of the group in the afternoon. This was the larget turnout we had for any of our sessions. Since we were missing almost half of our group, the team members who were there trained English speaking Kenyans how to give the assessments. It went really well! By the time we got there in the afternoon, there were only 8 assessments left to do.

animal pictures

Here are some pictures from the drive-through safari we went on at the Masai Mara park. It was a lot of fun! Yes, we were that close to the animals. What a great experience!

Dancing

These are pictures of the Maasai men and women singing and dancing for us. It was really spectacular to see the men jump!

Fire

The Maasai men demonstrated for us how they make fire. They turn the stick in a curcular motion back and forth until ashes form. Then the put the ashes on hay and blow gently until fire is ignited. It takes a great deal of patience!

Maasai houses

Here is a picture of Massai homes, and the bedroom in one of the homes. The man who showed us the inside of his house was eager to show it off! He had me sit on his bed (pictured here) and bounce on it. It was actually quite comfortable.

Maasai village

After the rescue mission, we drove to the Masai Mara park reserve. Before entering the park, we were able to go into a Maasai village just outside of the park, and were given a tour of the village by one of the villagers. It was really an amazing experience! This is a picture of the entrance to the village. There is a gate that they pull over the entrance at night. We were told that the women do all the building, and entrances to everything are all short so that when the men enter, they have to stoop down and show respect. Smart women. :)

Trinity Safaris

I'd like to tell you about the bus company that drove us all over Kenya while we were there. Their name is Trinity Safaris, and I highly recommend them if you ever choose to Safari in Kenya. Our driver was Samuel. Moses, the COO of Trinity Safaris, was also along for the ride. Samuel and Moses were two of the most polite, fun, informative people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. They knew the roads inside and out, and were always very willing to answer all of our questions about everything. They know so much more about their country than I know about mine. God couldn't have blessed us with two more wonderful guides.

Trinity Safaris does a number of different safaris, including a mission safari. If you're looking for a mission trip, check out their web site. www.trinitysafaris.com

Thank you, Samuel and Moses, for making out trip so special. :)

Nyagesa worship service

This is a song that the director of the Nyagesa church choir wrote for the service Jim was able to be a part of. It's a bit of a long story why the rest of the team could not go, which disappointed me a great deal. - But we all must compromise when "living" with 10 other people. Here is the song, which has been translated from it's original Swahili version:

Chorus:
There is a call of the Trumpet
There is a call of the Trumpet
The call is saying Jesus is coming
The call is saying Jesus is coming
Coming through the sky
Coming through the sky
Truly Jesus is coming
Truly Jesus is coming
Coming through the sky
Coming through the sky

1. There are many diseases in the world
There are many diseases in the world
AIDS is everywhere
AIDS is everywhere
And now in Nyagesa
And now in Nyagesa

Chorus

2. For there is no treatment , let us run to Jesus
For there is no treatment, let us run to Jesus
Women and Men
Women and Men
Youth and children
Youths and children

Chorus

AIDS has touched the life of every person in Kenya. The stigma and shame that is attached to this disease, especially in Africa, is overwhelming. Please pray for our spiritual leaders in Kenya, that they may be able to spread the gospel of forgiveness to everyone.

Nyagesa Rescue Mission

The morning after our assessment in Kisii, we loaded up into the bus to drive to the Masai Mara park. Before going, we dropped off two of our members at a church. Jim was scheduled to preach that day, and Don stayed with him. The rest of the team went on to the park, and we would meet up at our next venue. The place Jim was preaching at was Nyagasa Rescue Center. It is a rescue center for children orphaned because of AIDS, women cast out of their tribes because of their HIV status, and young girls who run away from their tribes because they do not want to be circumcised. It was an amazing place.

The center does more than just take care of people, it teaches them a trade that they can use. This is a picture of a man who grew up at the center as an orphan. He demonstrated his trade for us, carving soap stone.

Assessment mbili (two)

Our second assessment was in Kisii. That day I interviewed 5 women living with HIV/AIDS. One of them was a 20 year old woman who had just recently learned of her HIV status. Her name was Quinter. She was an absolute joy to be around. We exchanged contact information, and I am hoping to stay in touch with her. She was very positive, but the other women I spoke with seemed very sad and ashamed. They never looked me in the eyes. One woman told me that people tell her she is ugly because she has HIV. I did my best to assure her that they are wrong, God knows she is beautiful and has a plan for her life. That seemed to perk her spirits a little.

Pictures: Giving assessments in a classroom at Iterio school; a group of us after the nutrition class (Quinter is the woman standing next to me).

Tea plantation

This is a picture of a tea plantation we passed on our drive from Nakuru to Kisii. It was miles and miles of tea fields. You can see where houses are grouped together, and that is where the workers live. The tea is hand picked every 6 days.

Kisii hotel

The drive from Nakuru to Kisii took 3 hours longer than we expected (about 8 total), and we ended up at the hotel at about 11:00 PM. We were all very tired and hungry, because supper was planned to be at the hotel. Once we finally got there, checked in, and were able to order our food, it was then frustrating for some that it took about an hour and a half for our food to come. - Africa time is great. :) Jill and I shared a room, and just outside of our room was the car washing service for the hotel. We fell asleep to men washing cars literally right outside of our window, and woke up to it, too.

Pictures: Car washing outside our hotel room, our group at Lake Nakuru.

More Lake Nakuru

Before we entered the park, there was a group of students outside who wanted to take a picture with us. - It's not common for them to see mzungus (white people).

Tourist time

Day 5 was spent in the bus, traveling from Nairobi to Kisii. We made a detour through Nakuru National Park, which is well known for Lake Nakuru and the flamingos. At Nakuru, we saw flamingos, monkeys, babboons, cape buffalo, giraffes, gazelle, rhinos, and zebra. This was our first day experiencing Kenyan roads. I felt like I was still bouncing on the bus when I went to bed.

Reflections on Nairobi

I would like to share with you you some of the things I wrote in my journal about our first assessment in Nairobi.

The assessments were both easier and more difficult than I thought they would be. What amazed me the most about the answers is the amount of people everyone knew who died from or are living with HIV/AIDS. One deaconess I spoke with was raising 5 children who were orphaned because their parents died of AIDS. (This is commonly found in Kenya. The people we spoke with who are living with HIV/AIDS seemed to have avery different opinion about the disease and the way thery are treated, compared to the other people we interviewed. The was a large gap between how people believed we should treate those living with HIV, and how they are actually treated.

Pictured: A plant outside of the hotel in Nairobi. The name of it is flaming birds.

Maasai warriors

A very intersting discussion happened during the second nutrition class in Nairobi. Joy was explaining why meat needs to be cooked well before it is eaten, and how to properly prepare foods for consumption. There were some Maasai men (pictured here) attending, and they asked if it was okay for them to eat the meat raw just after they kill the animal, while they are still in the field.

After this discussion, Joy decided to talk about that in her next class. She found out quickly at that class that the Maasai are really the only people who consume meat in that manor. (Nairobi was the only venue where the Maasai were represented.)

In this picture: Maasai men who attended that day in Nairobi graced us with songs and jumping before leaving. :)

Assessment Nairobi

Our first assessment and nutrition class was in Nairobi, at a hotel that would soon be opening. These pictures are of the outside of the hotel, a small group discussing in the nutrition seminar, Dana doing an assessment with a deaconess and an interpreter, and the large group closing at the end of the day. This was the perfect place for us to begin our ministry. Most of the people who attended spoke English very well, and this area seemed to be the most educated about HIV/AIDS. We had 41 participants at this location, the Central Diocese.

Day moja (one)

Our first full day in Kenya was very laid back. Breakfast in the morning (I think it was 7:30), the devotions, unpacking, internet access, and some shopping in the scripture mission gift shop. Then in the afternoon we spent a good amount of time practicing giving the assessment tool and scoring it. The assessment tool was filled with questions about attitudes, practices and beliefs about HIV/AIDS. We used the tool each day, interviewing 50 -100 people each day. Then at the end of our trip we scored them all, and Jim turned them into about a 150 page report for the Lutheran Church of Kenya (TLCK) to use in establishing funding and programing for their HIV/AIDS education program.

Later that afternoon a few of us took a walk down the road. We ran into an elementary school, where the children were more than happy to pose for pictures.

Most of the roads in Kenya are dirt, except in the larger cities. We thought this was not the best road when we were walking on it, until later in the trip when we had spent 3 days on Kenya's bumpy, pot-hole-filled roads. Those roads really put this one in perspective for us. The woman in this picture is carrying a bundle of firewood on her back.

The other picture is a shot of the roadside as we were approaching a small community. The piles you see are of garbage. Kenya does have a waste disposal program, but the government does nothing to make sure it is carried out (that we know of). Most often garbage is thrown on the ground and raked together and burned by those who live there.

Jambo!

Jambo is the greeting we heard most often in Kenya. It means hello in Swahili. This picture is of the airport. When we first arrived at the airport, I remember thinking that it was dirty. When we left after spending 2 weeks in Kenya, it was so exciting to be in the airport because it was so clean. What a difference 2 weeks makes!



One of my first experiences with a Kenyan was speaking with one of the men helping with baggage claim. He asked what we were the for, so I told him we were doing an AIDS mission project. He misunderstood what we were doing and thought we were doing HIV/AIDS testing. He held out his arm to me and asked if I would test him then. He then proceeded to tell me of the many friends and family of his who have died from AIDS. It was truly a wake-up call to me of the need for this ministry God had sent us to carry out.

Please pray: for the people of Kenya living with HIV/AIDS, the threat of HIV/AIDS, and those taking care of family members and friends with HIV/AIDS.

The beginning

These are pictures of the scripture mission where we began and ended our trip. The accomidations were surprisingly very nice and comfortable. The food was much more americanized than any other food we had while we were in Kenya. The mission was inside of a compound. Joy and Paul Mueller and Claude and Rhoda Hauge, the missionaries we met with in Kenya, live just outside the compound.