Day 6 – EIDO, Masai Names, & Hekima Place

We started today with a trek out to Kipeto to visit  with Maggie and her Emian Integrated Development Organization (EIDO).  Maggie is an MPPC-sponsored Daystar graduate.  Her organization has been well supported by MPPC since she established it after graduating from Daystar in 2004 with a degree in Community Development.  EIDO has broad goals to build capacity in the community to support a self-sustaining development path. 

Our team was again augmented by Serah Nizomo today, as we wanted to share some more time with her and expose her to our EIDO partnership projects.  Since Serah’s dream is to work with children, we also wanted to introduce her to the folks at Hekima Place as well.  In addition to Serah, we also picked up Maggie's colleague, Ibrahim, and his friend Jeremy along the way.  

We arrived at the Kipeto village site where several members of the community members of EIDO (nearly all women) were assembled for our meeting.  It was a beautiful day and the women were dressed in their traditional colorful Masai beaded jewelry and dress.  The scene was a “pure Africa” moment for us as we saw many zebra and antelope mingling on the open, rolling savannas with the Masai herds of goats, cows and sheep as we alternatively sped, bumped and crept along a variety of roads to Kipeto.  After some quick introductions we were greeted by wonderful traditional song led by Ibrahim’s mother.  Maggie followed with an opening prayer and followed with a summary of some of successes and challenges EIDO has experienced in the last year or so. 

Then several of the community members volunteered to share how EIDO has helped to improve their lives and their chances of surviving the next potential drought.  As Maggie translated from Maa (the Masai language) into English, each of these powerful personal examples from the EIDO community members helped to affirm in our minds that capacity for change within the community is real.  These women were sincerely appreciative of the tangible benefits of water (through the borehole well project) and knowledge (training and awareness of vegetable gardening) that they had received through EIDO.

 

As the EIDO women shared their stories and appreciation, they became more comfortable with the group and enthusiastically responded to a few questions that we had about their progress and plans for the future.  Despite the challenges of stolen fences around the community vegetable garden and its subsequent destruction by wild pasture animals and the unfortunate diseased chicks that infected and significantly reduced the initial poultry flock of 500 for the community, the women had learned a great deal.  They feel better prepared and informed and have even saved some corn to help stretch their food supply through the dry season.

Interestingly, we discovered though the conversation that most, if not all, of the EIDO community women have a bank account accessible by mobile phone where they can save money from beaded jewelry sales.  This ability to save even a little bit of money though handicraft sales was also recognized as a key enabler of sustainability for the community to reduce their dependence on cyclic drought aid in times of need.  

As the meeting with the community women concluded, Greg Nevers led all who were there to gather around the EIDO women in prayer circle.  His prayer for them and for our endeavors with EIDO was more than a symbolic gesture.  This special moment, and many other similar prayers with our Kenyan brothers and sisters through the last few days, helped to connect us together and build our relationships through Christ-centered communion with our mission partners.

Before the group broke up to attend lunch at Maggie’s home, we were all honored with traditional Masai shukas as gifts!  Check out these photos of our team sporting our honorary Masai regalia.

Lunch at Maggie’s home was another delicious meal of sodas, chapati, and fried beef.  Scott was able to present them with two crocheted blankets made by his daughter and Maggie’s daughters each received one with many thanks.  We each also recieved a special blessing of being granted a Masai name by Maggie's mother and elder members of her family.  This is a Masai tradition where guests and friends of Masai are sized up by the granting elders and "offcial" Masai names are bestowed upon the visitors.  Tim lucked out with the Masai name of 'Lerionka' which means "man with many cattle". 

After parting ways with Maggie, we made a stop at the Hekima Place.  Hekima is a home for orphaned or abandoned girls; especially those that have been left behind by parents who have died from HIV/AIDS.  Their 10 acre facility is beautiful and includes its own mini-farm and livestock to make the mission more self-sustaining.  Started several years earlier at a nearby rented space, their new facility was completed in 2010 and can house up to 70 girls of all ages.  The founder (now 74 years old)  has an inspiring life story and unstoppable drive to help children.  The organization is well funded by churches around the Pittsburgh, PA area and is guided by a local Kenyan board of advisors as well as a board in the U.S.  Hekima represents another successful model mission for us to study and potentially support.  In the immediate term we are connecting Serah to Kate, Hekima's founder, in hopes of matching her up with Hekima for her final “practicum” experience as she completes her course of study at Daystar in Community Development.

Leveraging our knowledge and connections with Hekima to help our sponsored student at Daystar is just another example of how important our relationships, and indeed our network of partner relationships, can be used to do God’s work in the world.    

Day 5 – From Dandora to Amani Ya Juu

The team had another action packed day – but we added one more member to the team for today’s activities.  Serah Nzomo, the Community Development student that MPPC has sponsored through scholarship assistance joined us on our journey to the Kinyago Dandora primary and secondary schools in the morning and to Amani Ya Juu in the afternoon.

                The Kinyago Dandora School is an oasis of hope in one of the most seemingly hopeless places on earth – the Dandora slum.  The slum surrounds the Dandora city dump where mountains of trash from Nairobi are piled higher than tractor-trailer trucks.  After we invited Serah to go with us to visit the school, she later told us on the van ride over that some Kenyans won’t even go into Dandora – ever.   The area is densely packed with makeshift housing and roadside shanty shops, has nasty unpaved often muddy “roads”, and such potential for crime and theft that it is considered too risky by some to even bother traveling through.

If you are curious about the location of the Kinyago Dandora School you can click on this Google map for Dandora to see where we were in Nairobi today.  With Nairobi traffic, the 11 mile journey from our hotel took us about an hour and a half.   If you are in the “map” view mode where you can see the names of the roads, you will see a large blanked out gray area on the map – that area is the Dandora dump.  The Kinyago Dandora School is located in the slum area very near the dump.   You can zoom in all the way on the Google map link in “satellite” view mode to see the vast area of shanty shacks and unnamed streets in this region of the city.  Here is a snapshot  from the surrounding area in Dandora.

Inside the Dandora school the children made us feel welcome immediately and many rushed out to meet us.  We got the chance to sit down and talk with Jane, Catherine and the rest of the Dandora staff and were able to work out some potential solutions for their video promotion needs that might include some training at Daystar or even some help from Mary Gathoni (the Daystar Communications major grad who had us over to dinner at her home in the Kikuyu / Kanangware Slum on Wednesday night.  Jane, the Director of both the Kinyago Dandora Primary and Secondary schools, gave us some great news:  the top scoring male and female students on the most national Secondary School exams for their region were BOTH from the Kinyago Dandora Secondary School!

The students at Kinyago then put on a joyous musical and dancing program for us in their courtyard which we all thoroughly enjoyed – it was wonderful to see all their smiles and they sang and danced for us!   After the show we got to visit each and every classroom; each time being greeted and touched by songs and welcomes before introducing ourselves in front of the class.  The faculty of the Kinyago school is a truly amazing set of people who are called by God and go above and beyond to create an incredibily safe, secure, and disciplined learning environment for their students.

                Next we visited the Kinyago Dandora Secondary school – a school that has been carved out of a former grinding stone factory that offers students the opportunity to receive an the outstanding “Kinyago Dandora” standard of education at the Secondary level.  There are some specific small and large needs at the Secondary school that we might be able to help with in the near term.  Peter, the Principal of the Secondary School, was an outstanding host and is truly doing God’s work everyday.

                Our day ended with a visit to the Amani Ya Juu mission where displaced women from all over Africa are highly trained in the production of sewn products from dresses to napkins to handbags and quilts.  We were again greeted with hugs and song as the whole place stopped work to welcome us and share their story.  The women there pray together every day and start work on making over 300 beautiful products (sometimes with hand dyed fabric and often with a toddler sitting next to them on a stool!) after meeting together for a morning devotional.  Their products are sold locally and shipped around the world through multiple channels.  Their organization left a lasting impression on our team and seems to be a shining example of a well-run, highly successful Christ-centered mission.

Day 4 – Mambu Badu (The best is yet to come!)

As we entered our last day of planning with our Daystar partners, we conducted our meetings today at Daystar’s beautiful Athi River Campus.  Besides our discussions, two highlights of the day were quality time spent validating our work with community development students and an energetic and highly entertaining performance by Afrizo,  Daystar’s premier singing group who many of you  heard and some of you hosted when they visited our church last year.  They send their good wishes to all those they enjoyed in Charleston.

After dividing up and joining student small group Bible studies, we also had the opportunity to meet with community development students from Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Burundi.  To say we were impressed with their passion, their visions and dreams for effecting positive change in their countries and communities, and their in-depth knowledge of how to accomplish community development work would be a gross understatement.  It is hard to describe where they come from, how hard they have worked, and how much they want to make a difference in the lives of their fellow countrymen and women.  Prior to meeting with the students, we thought we had accomplished the task of developing the detail of how a significant community development project would be selected, supported, and positioned to achieve goals.  After talking with them and hearing their support and enthusiasm for this Empower to Lead initiative and validating that these indeed were the types of students that with appropriate support after graduation could make a sustainable difference in rural or marginalized communities throughout Africa, we felt comfortable that what we had come to Africa to accomplish was indeed significant work.

Four days ago we came to Daystar University in Nairobi and began our day with the prayer, “Oh God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden,  through perils unknown.  Give us the faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord.” At the end of this first chapter of our work at Daystar, we finalize our time working not with unknown Daystar faculty but with trusted, respected, Christian colleagues.  We do not feel like our relationship is ending, but just beginning.  As we titled this blog, Mambu Badu – the best is yet to come.

The third highlight I failed to mention earlier was seeing our first zebras, Thomson gazelles, and wildebeasts grazing in the countryside on our drive to the Athi River campus.  To say we were “excited kids” would be appropriate.

Paula Greer

Day 3 - From Devotional to Dinner

We started Wednesday with a MPPC group devotional. Patti shared part of her favorite Psalm - #43 "Be still, and know that I am GOD." Tim continued with a personal story rooted in running on the West Coast and the Swahili motto Mambu Badu (the best is yet to come) and Pastor Bullard's benediction that concludes with seeing the face of Christ in everyone you meet. This was our way of contributing to the impressive series of devotionals & prayers of our hosts.

Our Empower 2 Lead program discussions became very detailed today. In the morning, we built out the structure of the DayStar University (DU) faculty support, and the process of selecting a graduating student to run an E2L project.  Serah Nzomo, the student that MPPC is sponsoring through a scholarship this year, also stopped by our meeting room to pay us a visit today.  She is majoring in Community Development and seems to be an excellent candidate for E2L if she were to apply.  It was wonderful speaking with her and we got this great group picture with her as well. 

This afternoon, budgeting with numbers was roughed out on a white board & on an Excel spreadsheet on faculty member Mary Mogute's laptop. Because crunching numbers that represent a 4-year time horizon is not Mary's favorite thing, I traded my iPad for Mary's laptop and did some Excel magic (and she immediately took pictures of Tim at the whiteboard).

We worked through extensive discussion at both the general category and specific details levels, and produced the funding level requirement.

During lunch, I walked to the library to compose email messages to finalize arrangements for our team's activities Saturday at Kipeto. Discussions with the librarians yielded their keen need & desire to acquire many e-readers. Although they accept donated models of lesser capacity, their strong preference is for using Kindles. Paper textbooks have become very expensive, versus borrowing or renting electronic versions.

We returned to DayStar's River Valley Road campus this evening to pick up a DayStar graduate student named Mary Gathoni. She graciously invited our party of 6 to her house for dinner. Mary is photogenic and very articulate. DayStar US features her in a video of student interviews. Her very generous and gracious family served a veritible Kenyan feast - the guests outnumbered by the hosts in a slum dwelling room the size of the Fellowship Hall's men's bathroom. Their joy and warmth was overwhelming.

- Scott Wells

Here are a few pictures taken at Mary Gathoni's house by Mary's cousin, Kaith, who was 7 years old - his youger brother Derek, age 4 helped out and Greg Nevers was the photography coach-

Mary Gathoni's Grandmother and sister (Derek and Kaith's mother)

Paula and Tim (Mary Gathoni's sister and brother in Christ)

Day 2

Our second day was very good.  We began by attending Daystar's regular Tuesday chapel service for students and faculty.  In addition to great music we heard a brief and powerful sermon from Daystar's Vice Chancellor, Dr. Wachira. We continued our E2L working group meetings and completed outlining the student selection process for the proposed program.  Our afternoon ended with a brief visit to a community development class that was discussing and learning about project proposals and project management.

Our devotional this evening caused us to reflect on how things are different here from our homes.  It also caused us to recognize, and be grateful for, our shared Christian values and beliefs.  Each of us has experienced God present with us and we pray these moments will continue.

Here is a group picture from our first day.  From left to right and front to back we have Dr. Alice Munene, Paula Greer, Dr. Timothy Wachira, Mary Mogute, Solomon Nzyuko, Scott Wells, Patti Horton, Dr.  Kennedy Ongaro, Tim Limbert, Greg Nevers.

Great First Day!

We had a great first day meeting with our partners at Daystar University here in Nairobi!


This morning we met with many key players here at Daystar:

·         Dr. Solomon Nzyuko, Program Coordinator for Empowered to Lead (E2L)

·         Mary Mogute, 17 year veteran Lecturer (Professor) in Development Studies

·         Dr. Kennedy Ongaro, Department Head for Development Studies

·         Dr. Alice Munene, Dean of School of Humanities and Social Sciences

·         Dr. Timothy Wachira, Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs

It is clear from these first successful introductory meetings today that there is a shared vision for the E2L program between MPPC and Daystar.  We are learning a lot about the established and growing academic programs available to Daystar students.  The “practicum” experience that is part of the Community Development Bachelor’s program was of particular interest to our team.  This hands-on field work element of their program (similar to what we would call an internship here in the U.S.) showed that the faculty and students are keenly focused on “engaging for transformation” in their communities.

As we discussed the annex to our Memorandum of Understanding of E2L, our team was able to learn how Daystar approaches community development for maximum impact and sustainability.  Though Solomon’s examples and his colleague’s input, we have a better understanding of the four stage approach to achieving real community development – from Level 1 Inputs, through Level 2 Outputs to Level 3 Impact, and finally Level 4 Sustainability and Quality of Life improvement for the community.

Overall, today was a wonderful learning experience and foundation for the next few days of collaboration to establish a pilot E2L program!

Below is a snapshot of Paula, Scott, and Patti when we arrived at Daystar this morning and another picture of Solomon and Greg during one of our breaks for tea this morning.   FYI – Kenyan tea, brewed with milk, of course, is delicious!    

We leave tomorrow mid afternoon.  If you want to read a little background about our partners and Kenya you can visit this blog set up by team member Tim Limbert.  Thanks Tim.  Thanks in advance for prayers and support.

http://mppckenyateam.wordpress.com/