Parents visit Kenya

My parents arrived in Kenya on a late Sunday night and while it was great to see them, I was also happy to learn that they brought me greetings from my siblings and friends. The only let down about their arrival, was that the bag they had checked on the flight had not arrived with them and it just so happened to be the bag that contained all the stuff they had brought me from the States. But, all the same I was happy to see them.

After a late breakfast on the following day I took my parents to the Kazuri Beads in the area of Nairobi called Karen. It was a great experience arriving there and learning the process that the beads go through. We also got to see the many women and men working at each station. Towards the end of the tour we got to see the room where they store the extra beads they make. It was by far the most beads I had seen in my entire life. They were sorted by color and resting in large jars on the numerous shelves on the walls of the room. At the end of the tour we visited the gift shop and saw the final products that were being sold; there were lots of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings…but mostly bead necklaces…I realized that all the stuff there was jewelry, very beautiful jewelry, but jewelry… and well, let’s just say shopping for jewelry is not my thing, so I got some help.

One of the more exciting adventures I had with my parents was when we visited the Hell’s Gate National Park next to Lake Naivasha. I believe it is the only National Park in Kenya where you can bike around in. The main reason for this is that there are no big game predators in the area and its mostly just zebras, giraffes, warthogs, and buffalo. The best time to arrive is in the morning because most of the animals are out and about before the heat of the mid day sets in.

The hour hike down into the canyons was amazing. We had a guide who showed us the hot springs and walked with us to the different areas in the canyon. I was amazed to see how high the walls of the canyon really got and too see how smooth their surfaces where.

Our guide told us that a few years ago, a group of school children and their teachers died because of flash flooding. There were 50 of them in total and none of them were not able to get out of the canyon in time. Looking at the height of the walls and a few tree trunks, you can see how strong the water must have been moving to carry entire trees down the canyon.

Later that day, we took a boat tour of Lake Naivasha

and were fortunate enough to see some hippos either in the water or sunbathing on the edge of the water. Its one thing to see animals in a zoo, but seeing them out in the wild is just something that can’t be matched or adequately described. It was also great to walk and bike around this area and not having to see the animals from the window of a car or van. Lucky for us we had a nice sunny day and the rains only hit when we were headed back to Nairobi.

A few days later we had a nice meal dinner with the Kenya YAVs and Oluniyi (a collogue from work). We went to a Brazilian Stake House that happens to be right next to where I live. However, on a YAV stipend, one can’t afford to eat there many times. I was glad that my parents got a chance to meet the other YAVs in Kenya and also some friends that we have made here.

 

We also had a great Easter lunch at Phyllis’s house (site coordinator) after a great Easter service at Nairobi Chapel. It was a definitely a different Easter feeling, celebrating it a ways from home, but it was nice to have my parents there. We also got a basket of candy so that sweet!

All-in-all it was a great week. It was a little sad to see my parents go but it came with a plus. In just a few days we would be flying to South Africa for the Presbyterian Church’s Africa mission retreat with my dad.

Watch for the next post!

I will be sharing my experience in Kleinmond for the mission retreat and my time in Cape Town.

Story Chair

Hello friends!

I hope all is well. It has been a while since my last post. I had a great time with my parents who came to visit for a week and then I got to travel to South Africa for the Africa mission conference. Know I am back in Nairobi and working at the OAIC office again.

One of the projects that I am working on is the painting of a story chair for a Sunday school class. The chair is made of dried reeds that have been woven together and fixed around a framework of metal. The idea was to paint the chair with different biblical sense so that it would be used as a storybook chair during the children’s time.

I have really enjoyed having an art project to work on that allows me to take some time from the desk and paper work. The front part of the chair depicts the ark and some of the animals. I really think it came out well and the colors are bright and lively. I also think that the wise men on the back and lower part of the chair are good. I was a little hesitant to draw human figures and even faces but they turned out well. It is quite a challenge to paint and have lots of details because the surface is so uneven. In addition, you have to paint in the cracks so that the pictures colors are as vivid as possible.

At this point, most of the chair is painted but there is still space for a manger scene on the back. I will be finishing the chair in the next few days and then it will go to the churches children’s program.

While it has been here many of the office staff have asked me who the chair is for and if I could paint one for them as well. While I have really enjoyed the project I am not sure that I would have the time to paint another one before my time here is done. But maybe some day I could do it again. It has been great to work on and to have others share with me what they think about it.

Feel free to let me know how it looks in the comments section!

Peace Bench Event

So thing are going great. The office held the first peace bench event, which included a group of youth leaders from different informal settlements around Nairobi. We also invited a group of pastors and bishops from different communities in Nairobi. Together we had a discussion about peace, being agents of peace, what is our role as a leader, etc. The second part of the event involved working on the peace bench. Weeks before, the office has told the youth leaders to collect plastic bags. The person who collects the most bags (calculate by weight) would receive a prize. Once all the bags were brought and weighed, we got stated working. The group helped stuff plastic bottles with plastic grosser bags. These plastic bottles become hard and will be used to construct the peace bench. At the end of the event, we were able to fill 70 bottles in just 3 hours time. We are hoping to hold another event to reach the 200 stuff bottles we need for the bench.

I really enjoyed hearing the discussion about peace and hearing the different question and issues that people brought up. It was great to meet all the people and talk with them about their communities. It was also good to see everyone working together and taking the first step toward our goal.

 

The next week we saw the office close as people lined up to vote for the elections. During this time I was just watching the local news coverage of the elections and seeing the numbers come in.

I am now back at the office and starting work again. It is nice to see the people at the office again. Things are still a little slow around here and the rain has made the streets muddy. I think it might be time to buy some rain boots and an umbrella.

Bday & Conferences

The month of January came and went a lot more quickly than I had anticipated. I had a great birthday party. It was a joint birthday with Atieno a weekend earlier than the 27. Our site coordinator took the Kenya volunteers out to this really nice hotel where we had a great meal and some chocolate cake. We had a great time and got to see the different elevated bungalows where guest can stay located in the Karen area.

I also had another party, this time with a friend of mine named Ben. We had a group of people over and shared some great cake and some great lemon meringue pie! It was great to have all of them over and nice to meet a few new friends.

As we moved into February, there came to be more and more office work to be done. We had another training session for community leaders in which we got to hear different people share how they have begun to organize their communities so they advocate for the needs and issues that they are facing. In addition, the office did a small civic education so that the people, even ourselves, could begin to understand the changes that will be made in government in the coming months. The whole thing was a great success and it was also insightful to hear the different leaders share what difficulties they had when working in their communities and the strategies that they use to overcome them.

I was also called to help with another conference, which another person from the office was leading. Dr. Seed joined the office about the same time I got to Kenya. He is developing a curriculum for theological education in different schools and colleges in Kenya. This past week he had his first lectures at Carlial College for three days. I was helping managing the time and making sure that all the participants had received the right materials and handouts. This was my first theological education discussion that I have ever heard and I must say that I enjoyed learning more about this topic and understand a little more about how it plays out in the context of Kenyan culture. 

Carnivores Restaurant

Thursday 3rd was a great day. A visit from Rob’s parents and an afternoon in the Masaai market with Fiona was a good way to start. We had a great time bargaining for prices and some of us bought a little too much that day. Unfortunately I did not buy anything that day but it was nice to spend time with all the YAVs.

Afterward we all went to wait for the taxi that was going to take us to dinner. Minutes went by and then hours. Finally the taxi got there, but we found that it was only one car when we had asked for a van to take all 7 of us. So, instead of waiting for another taxi to get there we did it the Kenyan way and all pilled into the back of the car. It was a great bounding experience and we had plenty of time for bounding on the way to the restaurant, which was like a 30-minute drive.

In the end all was mostly forgotten after we got to the restaurant. Carnivores is a buffet style restaurant that caters to meat lovers. With a variety of different meats that include beef, pork, lamb, crocodile, ostrich, chicken, among others it’s hard to keep track of what you are eating at any given time. I ate way too much that night and tried some very interesting things.

One of the more interesting parts of the restaurant experience was seeing three cats that would walk around in between the tables. They didn’t really do much more than just walk around as if you were not there. It’s also important to note here that the cats that I saw were all fat. You could just tell that they were well fed.

Another cool thing about that night at Carnivores was that there were about 3 or 4 different people who were celebrating their birthdays. This means that the staff would come out and sing happy birthday 4 different times. So we did a lot of clapping because when you are satiated that is pretty much all that you can do.