Daily Adventures & Heartbeats

Hi Friends!

I write from the humid & hot coast of Kenya, water bottle at my side, trying to keep fluids IN … they leak out so quickly.

I flew into Mombasa on Monday morning after quite a journey to the Nairobi airport. John Kibarita was to pick me up from Mukeu & take me to the airport Monday morning. What we forgot to account for was pouring rain the night before. This means there is no possible way a car can make it down the road leading to our farm.

I came home Sunday evening from Haraka (neighboring village) with Mike…in the rain…and dark (I know, I know, why did I wait so long to come home?), the motorbike tipped us off in a rut and we ended up walking the rest of the way home. That was when I knew we needed a plan B in order for me to catch my 10am flight from Nairobi the next morning.
Plan B was: park the car in Mukeu at the Pastor’s house, hike to it in the morning so that we could travel out on a better road.

John (and friend John) arrived at 2am Monday morning, cold & wet from the walk from Mukeu to the farm. We had a 2 hour “nap”, arose at 5am, loaded my 25kg backpack (full of liquid supplement for baby Anderson in Mombasa) onto friend John (bless his big heart! …and back muscles), slipped into gumboots and headed off in the dark. Important note: during the night my stomach decided to disown me and forced me to make a plan C for how to find the nearest bush on route.

We reached the vehicle (much to John’s sweaty delight) only to find that ….it failed to start. The alternator, uniting in opposition with my system, said “No way”. What to do? Long story short…eventually, 45 minutes later, the car DID miraculously start, we were on our way. Morning-rush-hour traffic in Nairobi had me praying. Faithful to incredible effort, commitment and driving mastery, John got me through the airport doors in time and I was off to Mombasa at 10am!

Mt. Kilimanjaro greeted me ‘good morning’ from the plane and Mombasa greeted me with rain, 30 degrees and a beautiful woman named Mary Wambui. My weary, achy body was carried by taxi to Mary’s home and a long rest ensued after tea.

Mary runs St.Timothy school (a day and boarding school) in Mtwapa for all ages. It currently has 150 children with capacity for 500.
I was told that 2 siblings of baby Anderson (the little baby I met last year in Mombasa, born without anus) went to Mary’s school. While I was visiting the school that afternoon with Mary, Santa Baya, mother of Anderson, came in with the little boy in tow. How exciting it was to meet again! I will never forget Santa’s smile, hand slap and shriek of excitement when she realized who the white girl sitting in the office was. I was equally delighted.

Little Anderson is a sweet little guy! Tiny, but a busy boy. I spent part of the afternoon together with them and then walked Santa and her 3 children to the road to catch a matatu home.

Currently the eldest Baya daughter, Mapenzi (14), and son, Sammie (12), attend St. Timothy school (at the expense of the school). They walk roughly 10 km (1-way!) to and from school each day. This is nearly 3 hours each way (and we complain about our commutes to work!!). ALSO: children must be at school class at 7am or they are turned away.

With this family weighing heavily on my heart, my hope and plan is to do some budget calculations & determine what can be done to help this family with 6 children ease their burden of survival and help establish consistent employment for a hopeful future. Your prayers are coveted! :)

Anderson was scheduled for assessment for his second surgery yesterday (he has been waiting for the 2nd ‘connect-the-plumbing-tubes’ surgery since November, but because he was underweight, surgery could not proceed when the specialist has been in Mombasa). If he checked out ok, surgery was to ensue that day.
I prayed fervently that surgery would go ahead.

Mary & I met with the Baya family at the hospital (including my friend, Tembo, cousin of Santa who introduced me to Anderson last year!) to wait for Anderson’s assessment.

The verdict was that the doctor was in a seminar that day and therefore unavailable to see the boy. What a frustrating surprise for me (!), but not for my friends (they take it so well). Anderson had diarrhea that day :(, was weighed and did not gain weight since his last visit, still 8kg (he just turned 1yr).
The hospital told us that doctor would call the family (re: possible surgery & conditions – after evaluating his assessment). A powdered supplement was prescribed for him along with the supplements I brought (and - he hates the taste! I watched his face when he first tried. Ah man!). He was tired that day, but had been off food since 3am. Poor little gaffer! What a road to travel. But the family takes it 1 day at a time!

And so …this brings you up to speed with where I am at and involved in this tenth of March. I am daily taught patience – in all things. I keep realizing that my ways and time-line is not necessarily God’s. And that is ok. So I focus on today, the tasks at hand and hope to handle well what ‘isn’t’ when I was set for something I thought ‘would be’.

A happy break yesterday: Tembo took me out on his boat in the afternoon and I jumped into the sea!…a treat indeed.

This morning I did my laundry (I was told Africans don’t believe that whites know how to wash clothes by hand…so I may surprise some when they see my clothes on the line. I guess we also don’t do dishes by hand and only eat canned food …??).
As I was washing, a little Brahman heifer calf walked up and took a drink out of one of the pails! I loved it. Made me laugh.
Mary has a cow to milk, but her worker just laughed when I offer to help him milk. I fear my hands are becoming ‘soft’ already.

Although I am in a very different world and I am not always understood…I still love it. I am incredibly blessed.

Thank you again for all your support, in so many ways.

-Kami