Reflections on Kenya

Reflections on Kenya The thoughts below are my impressions. I hope you enjoy them. This is not a day-by-day journal of the events of the trip. For more information about our work in Kenya go to http://www.caringforkenya.org/

I feel very blessed to have taken a trip like this. Kenya is unlike any country I have ever visited even though I have traveled to third world countries since the late sixties! This trip to Africa took me to my fifth continent. We left Urbana in the church van pulling a trailer filled with three large bags per person and our carry on bags. We left from Chicago on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Nairobi on Friday evening. It was two eight-hour flights going through London. We spent the first night in Nairobi and then after shopping for groceries we headed to Tulia which is about four hours from the city. On the way we stopped at a large market that was very rustic.

The men have been going to Kenya for 10 years, but this is the first trip that in which women have accompanied them. I think it makes the trip even more special. The ladies in the group are pictured below at the Tulia market.

This is a picture of a few of the gifts we took. We took school and Bible school supplies, hotel toiletries, clothing for men and children, tools, irrigation kits, Bibles, footballs and soccer balls, a typewriter, 16 dozen pairs of eyeglasses, medicine, towel sets, kitchen supplies, etc. No wonder our suitcases were so heavy!
Ruth Ann is showing the adults how to use the Bible school materials she took to each church we visited.

When we arrived to Tulia we went immediately to Erastus and Redemptor's home and were greeted by lively singing. We received a royal welcome. We then enjoyed a delicious meal. This was the beginning of incredible hospitality for two weeks. The people are extremely hospitable and constantly say it is a blessing to have visitors in their homes. Stephen and Japheth generously opened their two homes to us and made us feel like honored guests. This picture includes their parents.

I am profoundly touched by my experiences on this trip. Life in Kenya is very hard for most of the people, especially those who do not live in the cities. In the bush the majority of the people do not have transportation other than bicycles and a few buses, so they have to walk to get from place to place. Even the little children walk a long distance to get to school or church, often without shoes.

Ruth Ann organized a special afternoon for the children called Super Saturday. You can see how cute they look in their scarves. Each age group had a different color.Many of them had them on their heads at church the next day. Here we are outside doing a craft. In one of these breaks we gave the kids a soccer ball and they went crazy playing with it!
Our second Sunday in Tulia we walked to church because the vans were needed to go to Masani which is two hours away and Zombe which is four hours from Tulia. Carl, Ruth Ann and I were joined by Erastus. It took us almost two hours to get there, but it was very pleasant visiting with people along the way. We talked to two children that were going to another church and were taking their plastic chairs with them.

Ruth Ann is sharing suckers with the children after Sunday school.

After church was over we headed back to town and a local bus stopped to pick us up. It was the first time I had seen it. And would you believe they didn’t charge us to ride because they were so blessed to have Americans ride their bus! David rides his bike about 15 km. to go to church in Masani and Eric rides his bike for two hours to get out to the little plot of ground which he farms. Even if you have a car or a van it is difficult because about 98% of the roads are unpaved and are like corduroy or have deep ravines in them. The few paved roads we traveled usually had deep long potholes. William, our van driver, literally zig-zagged down the road to avoid the potholes and ravines. They looked even worse at night when the shadows were on them.

Most homes do not have running water, so you have to go to a well or a river and haul water. If you are lucky, you have a donkey to carry the large containers of water to your home. In this picture our two drivers are helping the women put the containers on the donkey.
Otherwise you can carry it on your back. It is not unusual to see young children carrying containers of water. This woman has found a hole that has water. I am certain that the water is contaminated. As a result of this many people get typhoid fever.Clean water is a serious problem. Carl is getting water for the first time from a well that supplies safe water to 10,000 people. Our church provided some of the money for this well. They were within two days of canceling the project before they received our money. You can imagine how exciting it was to finally see the results!Because of lack of water Carl has taught them how to use a drip irrigation system. It costs $11 and can water a garden large enough to feed a family of four during drought conditions. The men and women who use this are very pleased with the results and were eager to show Carl their gardens!


Erastus and his brother spent two years digging this well by hand, so that he would have water for his garden! We complain about putting the sprinkler on our lawns!

Most homes do not have electricity either. Even the doctor’s home did not have it. They used a kerosene lamp for light. The two homes where we stayed did have running water and electricity and an indoor bathroom, so we felt very pampered. Below you can see a mud hut which is common in Kenya.

Some homes are made from handmade bricks.
The thing I was most concerned about in preparation for the trip was how to squat down in a long skirt and use the latrines and not fall in. Then how was I going to get up with my 61 year-old legs? The answer, a portable toilet which we took with us. It was used a few times when we were traveling in the bush!The ladies work very hard preparing food in a little kitchen that is detached from the house. They cook over wood or charcoal sitting on a little stool. They wash dishes in plastic pans on the floor. It is back-breaking work. In spite of this we were treated like “honored guests”, blessings to our hosts. We shared meals twice in the homes of Erastus and Redemptor and James and Doris. In both homes we enjoyed meals that had several courses. They do not usually eat like this. I think it would be comparable to a Thanksgiving meal at home. Examples of some of the dishes that were included were pigeon peas, chicken, goat, rice, slaw, tomatoes & onions, chapati and fruit salad. The food was delicious. We were always served first followed by the men and then the women and children. We put our food on our plates and then went to the living room where we found several upholstered couches and chairs. It was a very pleasant experience. Before each meal a lady would bring a pitcher of warm water and a basin to wash our hands.
On Super Saturday they served us a bowl of beans and squash mashed together. It was tasty, but very heavy and filling. At the end of these meals we were served Kenyan tea, hot tea with milk and sugar. A couple of times we had samosas which are similar to Jamaican patties. You throw nothing away in Africa, not even the little plastic bags that our plastic ware came in for our lunch!


The ladies in Massani are preparing very "fresh" chickens for our dinner. Heather is eating a doughnut that we were served as a snack when we arrived to Masani. They are kind of like Spanish churros.

The men prepared noodles with potatoes, carrots and chicken for the women for our Saturday morning ladies day in Tulia. We discovered that the children came to Super Saturday without eating so we fed the rest to them and then prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of 13 loaves of bread! We met with women from three churches and gave them gift bags filled with a quart of rice, costume jewelry, a scarf, a handmade bookmark, hotel toiletries and a knitted dishcloth. The ladies were thrilled with their treats. It was especially fun to see them try on the jewelry!
Everywhere we went we were given gifts. Our first Sunday in Tulia we were given lesos or congas and given Kamba names. The leso is a piece of fabric that is tied around the waist and goes to the ankles. It is perfect as an apron, baby carrier, shaw and can be uses for modesty. The women seem more concerned in covering their legs than their breasts! My Kamba name is Mwende which means "loved". I really like my name and think it is a common name since I met several ladies named that. In Zombe we were given purses that ladies were carrying because someone said she liked it. We have so many purses and they gave us theirs! We were all very humbled by this.We were also given wooden birds and many handmade baskets. Don't we look great in our new hats?

The ladies in Zombe spoke to us about an idea they had for supporting themselves. They wanted a treadle sewing machine to make school uniforms. Four members of our group went to Nairobi the next day and bought three machines and many yards of fabric and thread. You can imagine their stunned delight when they received these machines on Sunday! The machines were purring when the van pulled away that afternoon!

The older children take care of the younger children in the family. I saw many children with babies on their backs. The children have very few toys. I saw one little doll and some kids playing with a homemade soccer ball and bottle caps and a bicycle tire. Can you believe that they still use this ball?

We visited three pre-schools, a primary school and eight secondary schools. The children in the schools were very well behaved when they were in their classrooms. We visited our scholarship recipients and gave them gifts as well as presenting the principals of each school with a football and soccer ball. I'm not sure they knew what to do with the American footballs!The students were thrilled with the pictures they received of their sponsors. At school the children have their own bowl and get one thing to eat, no choice. I think the teachers eat this, too. The high school kids kept their books in little cardboard boxes under their desks, no lockers there. They sat in their seats very respectfully.

When they were not in class they surrounded us and often caressed our arms and touched our hair. When we were in the shops in town the kids would gather outside and stare at us. In the picture below you can see me at the first school we visited surrounded by kids. It was a unexpected and somewhat funny. Children who do not have the opportunity to go to high school have few options to earning a living other than manual labor or being house servants or shepherds. On our way to Zombe we stopped at this baobob tree. It is huge! It took 13 of us with outstretched hands to circle it. They think the tree is about 2,000 years old!

Suddenly we saw a pretty women and 24 little kids staring at us. We discovered a new preschool made of poles in the woods . We visited the school and found almost no school supplies. The teacher had five pencil stubs to lend her students. Ruth Ann raided the supplies we were taking to Zombe and gave them pencils, crayons, paper and coloring books, and the group that went by there the next Sunday also left her more supplies. I'm sure that young teacher was very happy when she discovered the unexpected treasure on Monday! The kids then sang a couple of songs to us. They were precious!

Can you believe that the school has a door that locks?

When we arrived to the church in Zombe we found a pre-school class with 53 students taught by Mali, the preacher's wife. She is very animated and as you can see in the picture below, so are her students. They sang several songs and were extremely funny! They certainly have rhythm!Poverty is widespread. I saw many children that were very dirty, not like our kids who get messed up playing outside. A lot of them were without shoes and wore clothing with large holes in it. We encountered our first AIDS orphan when we visited the first school and then saw several children that were true orphans at every school we visited. It was a very emotional experience for all of us.

The church at Zombe was the poorest congregation we visited. I was able to give them several pairs of reading glasses.

While I was doing this Carl was adapting an adding machine ribbon to the typewriter we took. Suddenly he was surrounded by kids and adults who had never seen a typewriter. I stopped my "eye doctor" work to take this picture! The ladies in the churches were very enthusiastic and were very involved in worship. Their singing was animated and they did a lot of hand and hip motions. It almost felt like dancing. When the ladies really liked something they would trill their tongues loudly. We had trouble duplicating that sound.

The people are eager to learn about Jesus and the Bible. It is an inspiration to see how the church is spreading. This is a picture of Lewis' brother, Kennedy, being baptized. It looked like there were more women and children than men in the churches we visited. Worship services are not just an hour. I suppose it takes so long to get there that you are not eager to get up and leave right away!


I am pictured here with Jen who washed our clothing and did some light cleaning while we were there. She and I are the same age. I am collecting pictures of myself with ladies my age in every country I visit!
This picture was taken in Tulia, Kenya on the morning we left for the national park. I am seated next to Steven and Japheth who generously gave us their homes for two weeks. Next to them are our wonderful drivers, William and Mungai, followed by Redemptor, Erastus' wife. Standing on the right is Jen who washed our clothes. Erastus, the man who started it all, is standing on the right back.


When we left Tulia we drove for 10 hours to get to Ambaselli National Park. The roads were mostly unpaved and extremely bumpy. We arrived just in time to see the animals, so we drove around for a couple of hours. The next morning we went out at 6:30 AM and saw herds of elephants, zebras and wildebeast as well as cheetas, gazelles and giraffes. We watched a couple of cheetas for a while and then one ran in front of the van. I was thrilled to get a picture of it running! You can see how bad the roads are! I liked seeing the animals, but I loved getting to meet the people. Lord willing, I will return to Kenya in the future.