Yes, we have arrived. Thanks for your prayers. We are doing well, and have had lots of typical Kenyan days so far. Edwin picked me up at the airport on Thursday night. On our drive home someone had a flat tire and was changing it on the side of the road. It was about 11:30 p.m., which is an extremely dangerous time to break down. Edwin seemed pretty worried for the man and kept saying, "I hope he's going to be all right." The road we were on was the road to the airport...so there's a decent amount of cars passing by that time of the night, but it can still be common for thugs to be hiding in the trees and jump out and attack people. So I suggested that perhaps we should go back and help the man. After all there is safety in numbers, and it seemed like the Jesus thing to do. So we turned around and drove up behind him with our blinkers on. Edwin was planning to just stay in the car and keep the lights on so that the man could see better while he was fixing the tire. But he was really struggling and didn't seem to know exactly what to do. So Edwin got out to help him. And right before that he reached under his seat and said, "Here, take this in case something happens." He proceeds to hand me a panga...or in English, a large machete. So there I am sitting in the car, with the doors locked holding a weapon, standing guard. Of course I looked ridiculous, and I couldn't help but laugh, until a serious thought came over me--what would I actually do if someone came? I can't imagine that I'd really start whacking someone with a machete! No worries though. Edwin changed the tire in a snap, and we were on our way.
Yesterday we picked up Ashley from the airport and met up with Tall. Where we're staying we have some modern anemities that I'm not used to in Kenya. There is a fridge, freezer, t.v., couches, and a real mattress for Ash and I to sleep on. The space is small and simple, but clean and safe--big blessing. I noticed today that there's a small slum behind the apartment building where we are. It's small unlike Kibera, and you might actually be able to take a car through it. Clearly there's never been too many white people in this part of othe city, so the kids all seem a bit suprised to see us.
We spent the morning grocery shopping, cooking pancakes, and discussing what exactly we're going to be doing while we're here. I guess I haven't really filled a lot of you in on this. The plan is to work alongside some people we know here in helping create employment opportunities. These people already have a skill set (craftmaking), but they don't really have a way to market what they make. So we're hoping to find a way. Neither Ashley or I are business people...we're people persons, we like Kenya, and we are willing to walk around the slums. Interesting skill set. So after talking with Tall, it became clear that we really needed to make a trip to Kibera to talk with the women about our plans. Honestly, we weren't even sure who was definitely in with working with us. We've tried to coordinate this all from the U.S. before coming. But really, can you truly plan out much in Kenya? So we ventured off to Kibera to figure things out. Edwin is recovering from malaria, typhoid, and parasites (diseases seem to come in bunches here), and thus was not feeling that well. So he stayed home to rest.
We had our first matatu ride of the day. Pretty standard--lots of bumpy roads, hitting our heads frequently, traffic, etc. We walked forever far to get where we needed to be in Kibera. Tall isn't from there, and we learned later that he wasn't aware of a shorter route. I wouldn't expect him to be either...I mean I'm impressed he can manuever us around there at all. I'm pleased to say that I didn't feel alarmed really at being there. There were the standard kids yelling out, "How are you? How are you?" in their sing-song chanting voices. At one point I decided to joke around by dramatically saying, "Ni me choka," meaning, "I'm tired." (which I was after all the jet lag). This boy started cracking up laughing at my response. They're not used to hearing mzungus say full sentence swahili responses.
Eventually we arrived at Pamela's house. She had a whole table full of things she's already been making for us: bags woven from plastic bags, beaded necklaces, and more. Obviously she's been very busy. Emily came too. Both of these women are people we met last summer when we met with a group of women in Kibera. They were both happy to see us, and Ashley too, since they haven't seen her since last July. They gave us big smiles and hugs. We sat down to chat with Tall translating. It's always a bit awkward at first because I never quite know what we're going to say or how people feel about having some white girls march into their houses. But it went really well. We basically decided that we will be meeting up every day at Edwin's. We would rather meet in Kibera but don't feel like it's a safe place for Ash and I to be hanging out in every day. Emily was the first to agree that it wasn't a good idea for us because people would start noticing our continual presense and then you never know what might happens. We will be paying for their transportation costs of coming and paying a small fee for just showing up for the day. And then we'll pay them for the labor of each item that they make. Tall and Ash decided we need to be very strict about only paying people the daily fee if they arrive on time, otherwise they probably won't. Emily was the first person to be very excited. She started smiling and saying that she didn't care if she had to travel each day. She just really wanted to work. Pamela seemed a little reluctant to have to leave Kibera so often, but eventually she agreed. She might not come everyday, but she'll be able to committ to several days a week. They decided together that they would prefer to be payed every 2 weeks so that they have a larger sum of money to work with to pay for food and other expenses. Please pray with us as we start this. There is so much to consider and we don't really know what we're doing yet. But we pray that God would give us direction and bless this venture.
We are considering the idea of adding up to 2 more people to our group, but we're going to see how things go the first 2 weeks. I know 3 people doesn't seem like much. But I know that if this works out, it will be a great blessing for these 3 people that struggle to make ends meet. Besides, we aren't really sure if we can fit anymore people in Edwin's house. The living room is small and is going to be very cramped with so many people. We considered renting another space to work, but that can be complicated with landlords, and leases and city council members wanting you to pay money for having a business. We are hoping to work really hard the next 2 weeks and get lots of things made so that Tall came take them to a Masai market in July and try to sell stuff. Tall brought us all kinds of samples of wallets and clutches that he has been making. He has really good ideas because they are unlike anything else I've seen here. The plan is to go shopping for materials that we need on Monday and then start working on Tuesday.
We got to finish out the Kibera afternoon by visiting Popo and Rodgers. They were having dance practice with their dance team Vina. We had lots of fun joining in with them.
Today we went to church at Karen Vineyard. It's a very multicultural church with a mix of mzungus (mostly Europeans, although the guy speaking today was a New Zealander) and Kenyans. I like this church a lot because it's familiar to the way church is at home. Sometimes I wonder though if I'm missing out a bit on the Kenyan culture because there isn't much dancing and clapping and the volume level of a typical Kenyan church. I can still hear a church service going on somewhere in the neighboorhood from inside this cyber cafe where I am typing. The keys stick on this computer, and it takes several seconds for the computer to respond when you try to type several words at once or backspace, but at least the power is on. We were trying to get the modem ready to have the internet at our house. But it's Sunday and where we stay there are very few shops selling Orange (the internet company) minutes to top up (add minutes) to the modem. Actualy they have Orange minutes but they don't have them in as large amounts as we need for the internet to work because we want to pay for a whole month. Most people can't afford this service, so it's not a widely sold thing where we live.
soccer match. We found a nice place in Karen to watch it live. This is us above: Ashley, Tall, Edwin, and me
soccer match. We found a nice place in Karen to watch it live. This is us above: Ashley, Tall, Edwin, and me
