January 9, 2013 Nairobi

Greetings

This morning Pastor Ososo and Councilor Ben showed up here at the Hostel.  We started off with Ben discussing the fish farmers association in Busia for an hour or so.  Ben is very busy with campaigning and raising funds for the spring election so he did not have a bunch of time to spend with us.  Once I get into Western Kenya I will meet with the management of the association and we can discuss the banking arrangements further.

After meeting with Ben it was off to the Kibera slum to address a personal issue with Pastor Ososo.  Afterwards we were off to Westgate Mall to meet with the owner of the Breezy Boutique to discuss a business arrangement for the jewelry project at the Matasia church.  I remember driving by the Westgate Mall a couple times before but this is the first time I have been inside.  Quite nice inside, Christmas decorations were still up, and a huge contrast to where I was an hour before.  Had a couple cups of coffee and Pastor Ososo had a sugar coated donut.  Now I know why it is so nice inside the mall.

Pastor Ososo brought some of the bone jewelry that the project had made and even though she liked them enough it was not something she would be able to sell in her shops.  She explained that the rent is very high in the mall and she needs to be able to mark up the product substantially.  With these particular pieces of jewelry they are too similar to the jewelry that is being sold at the Masaii market or other authentic Kenyan curio shops for the tourist market.  She needs uniqueness so she can justify the higher cost of the jewelry she sells.  She supports the idea of providing employment or engaging the needy through the sale of her products.  She loved the idea that this project is helping to support the eleven Orphans of the Matasia church. 

The meeting in my opinion went very well and she is very interested in working with the project to either supply jewelry on consignment and/or purchase (cash) the parts for her own jewelry making operation.  Pastor Ososo will be visiting her work shop next week with some paper beads (will look at and explain tomorrow) and possibly some other jewelry/parts now that he knows what she is looking for.  For me it is really great to see how far and how much further the seed that was planted in July 2011 will grow.  Not only is this jewelry/parts that is already being sold to the tourist market, it will possibly make its way into some of the higher end shops here in Nairobi and abroad.  My understanding is that she also sells her jewelry in Italy and online as well.

On my first visit back in 2009 Pastor Ososo told me that none of the pastors within his organization were getting paid by the church.  Now four years later with the help of the various micro-finance projects that the UMC church and YSAVE have been doing tithing among the members has increased.  Pastors are starting to get paid now.  Some of the money is also working its way into a small pension fund.  Even though it is not up to our standards it is a great start and in my opinion highly needed.

Kym was to come by tonight so I could take him out to dinner.  He had to work late in the hanger.  Hopefully tomorrow we can meet up.  Not sure where to take him but I did see a Chinese restaurant down the road on our way back from Westgate.  I hope I am up to it.  Last nights meal really didn’t go over to well.  Not sure if I made a mistake drinking the water that I was told was ok to drink or something else.  I did have the lettuce with oil and vinegar.  Last nights meal here at the Flora Hostel was pretty tasty.  The menu consisted of roast beef, sausage, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, green beans, cheese, something noodle soup, salad, bread, bananas, and oranges.  Bishop Hezron keeps telling me it is possibly the oil that doesn’t agree with me.  He might be on to something.  Last night my bottled water wasn’t that cold and the container of water on the table just came out of the cooler.  I knew I shouldn’t have drank it but it looked so so cold and I was willing to pay the price for a cold glass of water.  Let’s see if I make the same mistake tonight?  

Tomorrow it is back out to Matasia to look at the progress of the ground nut project, sim sims, cereal shop, expansion of the jewelry project, the new cookie operation, and the security guard project.  Not sure if we will have time tomorrow to visit any of the other projects or not.  Traffic in Nairobi can be a nightmare and it takes half a day to visit one place.

Take care and God bless

Dave