Day 5 Kakamega May 13, 2011

It appears that day 3 parts one and two have been removed.  There was a message that they had been temporarily removed.  I do hope that they put them back.  If not I will repost them later.  I write the blog in word and then post it to the blog to save on airtime.  Yesterday was a down day to spend some time writing up the projects that I had looked at the previous two days.  I was able to check my emails and luckily post to the blog before power went out for about 9 hours during the day.  I did not get a chance to do very much writing.  The afternoon was spent at the terrace of the hotel with Pastor Ososo, two of his pastors, and Ben Okello from Busia.  We were able to discuss some of the projects that the various churches are doing and possible areas of interest with the United Methodist Church in Busia.  We spent a great deal of time discussing the desire to market fresh fish to the poor in Nairobi at a reasonable cost.  Lake Victoria Africa’s largest lake produces an abundance of processed fish sold mostly in the Far East and Russia.  After dinner we called it an early night because we had to be off at 5:00 am to meet Ben and his cousin in downtown Nairobi for a early departure to Western Kenya.

Today woke up 4:30 am met with Pastor Ososo and my driver to start an early journey to beat the traffic into downtown Nairobi.  I met with Ben and his cousin and we left Nairobi at 6:26 am.  Ben told me that we would be in Nakuru for breakfast in two hours.  We pulled into the Midland hotel for a breakfast brunch at 8:26 am.  After breakfast we got right back on the road and Ben told me that he would have me to my destination just before 1 pm.  We arrived at the hotel in Kakamega 10 minutes before 1 pm.  Given the condition of the roads and just plain nasty traffic I found it amazing that he was able to get me to Kakamega in 6 hours driving time.  By bus it would have been 11 to 12 hours and misery all the way.  Thank you Ben.

After Ben had dropped me off at the Sheywe Guest House in Kakamega Bishop Hezron Okaba and his lovely wife Melissa joined me for lunch to discuss the next few days agenda and how we were going to get my nightly rate dropped from 1500 Ksh to 1000 Ksh (80 Ksh = $1).  I remember being stuck in a ditch on the first trip to Kenya last year.  We were driving along then came to a truck that was stuck in the ditch blocking the crest of the road that we were driving on.  Our driver stopped and looked at the situation and stated he had a few choices.  He could drive forward and end up in the ditch or he could drive backwards and end up in the ditch.  The third option would be to just stay until the road dried up.  Our driver decided to go forward.  We all new once he left the crest of the road we were just going to slide in the ditch.  We were right.  Once we left the crest of the road we slid right into the ditch.  Our awesome driver knew this and decided to speed up so we could get some momentum maybe get lucky and find a way to get out later down the hill.  I think we made it about 50 yards driving on our side in the ditch before the mound of mud in front of the van stopped us dead in our tracks.  Of course all of us in the van have never experienced driving a van on its side in a ditch.  We had a very good laugh.  We sat for a short time before we were rescued by about 11 men that came to assist us out of the ditch.  The kind men spent well over an hour and were very muddy from getting us out of the ditch.  Of course knowing the obvious that we were not from Kenya they then asked for 1,000 Ksh.  Hezron was not going to have it.  He explained to them that we were missionaries and that they should have freed us from the clutches of the ditch for free.  I thought 12 bucks for 11 guys to get us out of the ditch was a bargain.  I certainly was in no condition at the time to help.  I supervised from atop the hill under a tree to keep from getting wet.  After what seemed like quite a long time an agreement was made for a payment of 400 Ksh or about 36 cents per man.  Not bad for an hours labor.  Hezron is a good negotiator and was able to get my nightly stay reduced to 1000 Ksh.

We will be meeting with the widows in the morning to discuss their existing projects and their desire to start a yogurt business.  With this yogurt project I want to spend some time researching what it is going to take to start this business, viability and get to know more of these amazing women.  On Sunday we will be visiting the Eldoret area for the day before returning to Kakamega.  Later in the week we will be off to Kitale and Mt. Elgon.  The plan as of now is to spend a couple of weeks in Western province before possibly heading into Uganda.  It’s good to have a flexible schedule.

Take care and God bless

Dave