October 4, 2012 Kakamega

Greetings

After a little over a week from arriving I am starting to feel much better.  Still a bit weak and tired but the afternoon naps seem to be helping.  Today I took a couple of hour walk through the streets of Kakamega.  I was walking by the school yard near the guest house going into town as some of the children were leaving school.  It only takes one child to say “how are you” and with a simple response “I am fine how are you” with my hand out to grasp theirs to create an avalanche of eager and excited children running towards me to greet the mzungu.  Many of you might be thinking how can this be?  It’s not like Dave is the only white guy in Kenya even though sometimes it seems that way.  Let me try to explain my observation on this behavior.  Trust me its not like every time I go out I become an instant celebrity.  I see plenty of children and I respond to all the greetings that I possibly can.  A simple passing greeting doesn’t create the avalanche of children.  It is the response with a hand shake that does the trick.  Once I put my hand out to the child I am inviting all the children that see this to join in.  To see the smiles on these faces would make anyone want to do this over and over again.  If the crowd is large plan on shaking a lot of hands many of them twice before you are on your way.

Today I spent the morning researching micro-finance and savings schemes for developing countries.  To be completely honest I also spent a wee bit of time reading all the pundits reactions to the debate last night to which I have no comment.  I wrote down some thoughts and tried to brainstorm by myself on everything I could think of that needs to be addressed.  Two out of the four partner ministries that we are working with already have a program in place or close to it.  The other two need a little help.

I have been referencing Joe and the Orphan Report to help explain some of the issues that arise when aid money from the west comes in.  Another of the ways money never reaches those at the end of the line is aid inflation.  Here in Kenya if a non-citizen visits a National Park their entrance fee is going to be much higher then a citizen of Kenya.  Just a few examples of what I am talking about.  Let’s say you want to go and visit Mt. Kenya National Park for the day.  The entrance fee for a Kenyan citizen is 400 shillings and for a non citizen plan to shell out $55 or around 4600 shillings at today’s exchange rate.  This is over ten times the rate of a citizen.  I am not saying this is a bad thing.  What I am pointing out is that once $$’s are in the equation the price is going to go up.  It happens with hotels and just about every where there is the opportunity to do it.  Today I went to the chemist to get my malaria refills.  I went to the same chemist I went to last time because I felt I got a fair price compared to what it would cost me in the states.  Every trip that I have taken to Kenya I have used the once weekly 250 mg Mefloquine regiment as my defense against that pesky little killer.  I make sure that I buy enough that I can take some home so I can start taking them before I leave again.  I go into the chemist and I tell him that I need eight 250 mg Mefloquine tablets and he brings me the box.  I check the date and ask how much since there is no price on the box.  This is one of those situations where haggling doesn’t really work to well.  If I do not like the price I walk out.  Last October I paid 2700 (at the time about $27) shillings for eight tablets which was much better then the previous chemist I walked out of because he wanted to charge me over 4000 shillings.  The 2700 shillings was still much better then the $60 or so I paid back in the states in 09.  So today I decided that I had gotten a fair price on my last visit so this guy deserved repeat business.  Since I already knew what to expect with the price off I went to the chemist for my refills.  I arrived at the chemist and asked for eight 250 mg Mefloquine tablets.  The chemist brought them over and I checked the dates and they do not expire until 11/2014 so I asked how much.  Well the chemist looks over at another guy whom last name happens to be Patel and asks how much.  He sits and thinks a moment then tells the chemist 1280 shillings.  This is half of what I paid last year.  Are you starting to see the point?

I have no idea what the real cost of those malaria tablets should be.  I thought I got a bargain last year and today I really feel like I got a bargain.  Or you could look at it in the negative and say I was ripped off last year.  Any who the story is the same with all sorts of stuff ranging from construction materials, food, or whatever.  So in order to get our limited amount of money to those that really need it aid inflation is our enemy.  To help combat this the money has to come from a national with the mzungu in the shadows unseen.  Our friends here in the ministry have much greater purchasing power if the appearance is that this is their money.

Tomorrow the Bishop and some of his executive committee are coming to visit to discuss their micro-bank concept.  Our goal is to infuse a little money in the form of a loan to get these micro-banks started.  I believe that both sides of the pond agree that in order for the micro-banks to have full ownership the money has to be theirs along with all the trappings.  Our investors have no desire to gain any interest from this enterprise.  All interest and fees associated with these micro-loans will be used for administrative purposes with the respective ministries micro-bank.  However the principal has to be returned to satisfy the investor(s) requirements for more investment.

Take care and God bless

Dave                

October 3, 2012 Kamukuywa

Greetings

I have come to the conclusion that mosquito nets are just as effective of keeping the mosquitoes inside the net as they are outside of the net.  As with every night I try to drop the net early and check the bed for the nasty little pests before I drop it.  Usually I only have maybe one or two in the room with me.  Tonight I was able to get one of them before it got me.  Last night I wasn’t so lucky.  I was trying to get some sleep and I could hear that distinctive sound buzzing my head.  For a while I did not hear a thing hoping that the mosquito was really outside of the net.  A little while longer as I lay on my side I felt it.  I swatted my back and my thought was that I got it.  The proof came this morning when I got out of bed and where I was lying was a mutilated corpse with what looked like at least two full drops of my blood.  The little you know what took so much blood that it could not fly away.  To mosquitoes blood is money and just like us humans too much greed is a bad thing.

I have been telling everyone for years about tomatoes.  Here in Kenya there seems to be only one type of tomato available and it is similar to our Roma except a little larger.  Well today one of our passion fruit farmers was showing me her tomato plants that were planted right before the orchard.  She picked one for me and it did not look like a tomato at all.  I tried to tell her that it wasn’t a tomato but she insisted and I could very well be wrong.  She gave us some to take back with us.  Once I got back to the guest house I cut it open, took a picture and then ate it.  Not bad with a little salt however it really did not taste like a tomato at all and if you are not careful the barbs break skin.

This is a tomato really?



Today we were off to Kamukuywa to visit the four orchards that were planted near the base of Mt. Elgon.  The unusual drought that hit last winter took quite a toll on our seedlings however it has become quite apparent that those that did survive have survived very well for the most part.  The first three orchards that we visited today the surviving vines all have fruit on them and they look really great.  I was disappointed with the fourth orchard and even though there were a hundred surviving plants only a very few looked really good.  You could tell just by looking at the orchard that the caretaker had not been weeding.  The couple of vines that looked good had been weeded and the rest that did not look so good were surrounded by weeds and the vines were pretty pitiful looking.

As you can see in the pictures of the various orchards below these farmers took their training seriously.  They have all let the vines drop in single rows to the ground and the fruit is easy to pick and be seen.  The first three orchards are fairly close to each other and they have been sharing techniques and helping each other.  The fourth orchard was many miles away and this might have contributed to some of his lack of proper care.  All of these orchards are in their first fruits to be harvested.  I talked with Pastor Augustine whom has seemed to take somewhat of a lead role with the other orchards near him told us that he has been able to sell a little bag of four or five fruits for 20 shillings.  I had asked Robert how many fruits make a kilo.  We were told in the beginning that the farmers should be able to get 80 shillings per kilo and that each vine upon mature harvesting would yield one kilo per vine per week or so.  A kilo is two pounds and four to five fruits is a half kilo.  So if my math is correct Pastor Augustine is getting the 80 shillings per kilo as promised.

Pastor Augustine and his wife

Pastor Augustine and 20 shilling bags of passion fruit to sell

Passion fruit flowers

Passion fruit ready for picking

This is a half of a vine with fruit allowed to hang freely

This is what happens when you do not weed properly



As we explained to everyone last October we would provide enough chemicals to get them to the first harvests.  My understanding is that everyone fed the surviving plants accordingly as best they could.  We also told them that after the first harvests the chemicals would change to more maintenance chemicals (CAN) and some of the income generated from the sales of the fruit would help pay for the maintenance.  Our intention was not to continue sustaining their orchards.  However after looking at these plots I feel that we will have to come in and help boost a little.  Right now most of these orchards have lost up to half their vines plus and even though the surviving vines look great I am not sure if there will be enough income to buy the chemicals, pay back their loans, keep a little to help feed their families and most importantly give to the church.   

We are in the very early stages of ripening fruit and there are not huge yields right now.  What I have come to find out is that some of these fruits are being sold but not all of them are being sold.  Some of them have been given away to others in the church and the community with great joy.  As we were leaving Pastor Augustine’s orchard he was collecting ripening fruit from the vines and filling a plastic grocery bag like we have in the states.  Upon us walking off he hands Hezron the bag with such a smile on his face and much excitement it brought tears to my eyes.  Personally I want him to sell them to feed his family but Hezron tells me Augustine wants to be blessed so we must take it.  The bag was more then half full and had to weigh at least a kilo if not more.  These people are poor and that bag might have been anywhere from a half a days wage to a full days wage for many Kenyans.  We have just started a new job and I ask you how many of us would give away our first days wages.  We were already back to the vehicle and starting to move down the road when Augustine is yelling for us to stop.  His wife was running with a bag with a good five to ten pounds of maize for us as well.

I am convinced that there is something to the passion fruit and if done properly the possibilities of helping many is great.  Even though we have lost many vines there are thousands of fruits on the surviving vines.  Pastor Robert alone has one thousand vines with most of them with dozens upon dozens on each vine.  To clarify a vine is actually supposed to be two vines upon reaching the wire.  One of them goes right and the other left.  Each one of these vines then has tentacles that reach to the ground and this is where the fruit will be as you can see in the pictures.  I am also convinced that the size of the orchard matters too.  Pastor Robert has one thousand vines however he has numerous people working his orchard at different times.  I am beginning to believe that unless there is a larger amount of people to work the orchards an average family orchard should not exceed 100 vines.  I know of a 10 acre orchard in Moi’s Bridge that employs dozens of people to work the orchard.  These little babies need daily maintenance to keep them going and without a commitment from all involved they will not survive.

Tomorrow is another rest day here at the guest house.

Take care and God bless

Dave                

October 2, 2012 Kakamega

Greetings

I received an email from verizon today that apologized for the outage with their email system.  They told me that my contacts and mail now work however until further notice everything else is not available.  I assume someday I will get a couple thousand emails all at once in my mailbox.  So I am not sure if emails from the 30^th or the 1^st ever made there way to me.  I only have emails from when they got the system back up and running.  So I apologize if any of you wrote me and I have not answered since I might of never seen them.

Today was another one of those Kenya days.  We were supposed to go visit some of the orchards in the Bungoma area.  However the driver with the RAV 4 had some issues with his vehicle today and they needed to be repaired.  We will try again tomorrow to visit the orchards.

So today instead of a visit to the orchards I spent the day with Bishop Hezron at the guest house discussing Orphans, micro-finance, and the challenges ahead.  After a good six hours of discussion both of us were starting to feel the drain.  The afternoon rain commenced and I told Hezron that I needed to go take a nap.  I am not sure if it is the altitude or the lack of proper nourishment but I can tell I am getting weaker and more tired easily.  My nap was only to be an hour or so but ended up being over four.  I hope I get some sleep tonight the driver will be here at 8 am sharpJ

I do want to dig a little deeper into our discussion of the challenges that we will face as we move forward in this venture.  However I am just not up to it today.  So tonight I am going to cut this short so I can get some more rest and open the Bible to the book of Acts for some more inspiration.

Take care and God bless you all

Dave 

October 1, 2012 Kakamega

Greetings

I want to wish all of you a happy October.  Usually I recover much faster from my first case of food poisoning.  Usually it is only a day or so but come on five days now enough already.  Food poisoning here in Kenya is not always a bad thing.  Personally I could use to shed a few pounds and during my ten week stay last summer I lost twenty pounds on my Kenyan diet.  I feel lighter already.

Last year it rained every day.  This year it seems to rain every day.  Last year I wrote my blogs in the dark.  I am writing this blog in the dark.  We plant six thousand passion fruit seedlings and it stops raining for months.  Thank God the rain came back this spring and those surviving passion fruit seedlings are now bearing fruit.

Today I spent the day here at the Sheywe Guest House relaxing anticipating our journey to the Elgon region tomorrow.  Yesterday Bishop Hezron, Pastor Robert, and Morris the General Secretary of Freedom International Ministry spent the afternoon with me discussing how we are going to move forward with the micro-finance venture.  But before I go further on where we are going with the micro-finance venture I would like to spend some more time discussing the challenges to making this venture a success.

Yesterday in my blog we discussed integrity and the differences between our two cultures when entrusted with sums of money.  Today I want to discuss what Joe describes as keeping the door closed and floating.  On my very first visit three years ago I went around for a month preaching self sufficiency.  I also said I wanted to come back to help my new friends here in East Africa.  I told them that I wanted to bridge that gap between the aid and the need.  I wanted to be an Advocate, an Ambassador, but more to the point to tell their story.  Instead of a bridge Joe uses a tunnel with doors on each side that just so happen to be kept closed by both the Here (Aid) and There (Need) sides.

As you know I have been gone for about eleven months and during that time my blogs were much less frequent.  I stated many times that information just did not seem to be flowing properly.  I would wait weeks upon weeks for news of our projects.  It is obvious that we have a communication problem in the spoken word.  Children in East Africa are taught English in schools however it is not American English and their choices of words to use are limited.  We just have too many words and too many ways to use them.  Confusion and misunderstanding is going to happen.  What I would like to discuss is the other communication problem and why our friends here in East Africa keep the door closed.

All of us have issues of some kind and most of us have been in situations where money just did not seem to be there.  There are only a very small fraction and I mean a really small fraction of people that can’t relate to money problems.  Our children today grow up believing that we only need to go to that machine that says ATM and presto money.  Our Kenyan friends believe the same thing to an extent.  We are that ATM machine.  In America most of us figure out a way through our vast resources to get out of our problems with some success.  Here in Kenya the resources to get themselves out of a bind are not that easy to obtain.  Many people have found themselves in front of the loan shark or that one person they can go to for a quick fix.  However it is not uncommon to borrow money at rates that would make us think twice about taking it.  Depending on how desperate someone is the more willing they are to agree to rates in the hundreds of percent.  It is not uncommon for someone to ask for a loan on 5000 shillings and the shark asking for 10,000, 15,000, or even more upon repayment.  Before you know it you are taking out loans to repay other loans.  How many times have you done that with a credit card?

Well it appears that is what happened to one of our loans and the door was kept closed so I would not find out about it.  The payments were made for a while and then they were discontinued for a lengthy period of time so he could pay off another loan.  Since he knew that we had donated the money to the ministry he felt that he did not really have to pay it back since it was a gift.  Even though I stated that the gift is to the ministry he still had to pay back the ministry in the form of a loan.  We came last summer to provide a few loans to experiment with our micro-finance venture.  He has since been run through the grinder and is in the process of repaying his loan.  One of the other problems was that no one understood that if he could not pay his full payment he could have paid at least a little until he could get caught up with both loans.  I never said that he could pay partial payments and the assumption was he had to pay his full payment.  He felt he did not have the full payment so he did not pay anything.  To us partial payments are one of our resources to get us out of a bind.  Partial payments were never discussed so it was not an option.  Please do not think that anyone or everyone should have known that he could have paid partial payments.  What we take for granted and what we know is light years ahead of my friends here in Kenya.  They only know what they know or have been told.  I can’t stress this enough.  I believe I have mentioned it before and I will mention it again because it is very important to helping understand the forces at work here.  These people are ignorant to our ways and to what we know.  I do not say this in a bad way because they truly admit their ignorance and want so desperately to be taught how to fish.

Joe describes this behavior as the float.  Yesterday we had a certain amount of money to build a church and some of it was skimmed off to pay for a dying wife and other issues in the community.  Our pastor or project guy is not only working with us but others that he has connected with.  Some times multiple avenues of money or aid is coming in and it is not uncommon for our people here on the ground to take money from this project to pay for another project.  I have talked at length about being transparent with everything we do.  This is going to be a tall order for my friends here in Kenya.

It is an understatement to say that my friends here in Kenya have no problems with money.  Let’s face it they do and their resources are not as readily available as ours.  Part of our micro-finance venture has to incorporate discipleship.  My friend Aaron mentioned this three years ago along with training.  Yesterday during our discussions on the micro-finance venture training and discipleship were brought up.  We have to incorporate both of them into the program or we will fail.  One of our benefactors had a problem that he did not share for fear of not getting his loan.  The opportunity was too great for him to pass up.  However what he probably did not know was that with a little more discussion and transparency everyone around him would have tried to come up with a solution to help him.  I think the result would have been the same and he would have still got the loan however it would have been in a way that he could manage. 

In order to reach those Orphans in the shadows we have to help the church community and every one in it to become self sufficient.  There is no way we can truly reach the “Ones” if there is not a micro-finance and or some sort of saving scheme incorporated into the project.  With out this we are just another entity providing funds to help people without really ever getting to those at the end of the line.

Tomorrow Hezron, Robert and I along with a new driver will be heading up to visit the orchards north of Bungoma near the base of Mt. Elgon.  It does not look like we will be able to visit our friends on the mountain this trip.

Take care and God bless

Dave          

September 30, 2012 Kakamega

Greetings

I would like to thank all of you that wrote back to me with your thoughts and comments on my various forms of communication.  Since I posted my last post on a Saturday some of you won’t see it until Monday.  I truly believe everyone that believes in God’s word wants to take care of all Orphans and anyone else in need.  What I also believe is that the power of money has made it almost impossible to reach those that needed it most.  In America it takes only a moment to get our child a glass of fresh, clean, sparkling, clear, and for the most part bug free water.  To top it all off if we go to the fridge with its water dispenser we can get some ice either crushed or cubed to make it cold.  All this in less time then it took me to write these sentences.  This morning I went to get my morning cup of Joe.  One of the waiters asked where I was sitting and commenced to bring me a cup and some hot water for my 3 in 1 coffee mix bags.  He put the cup on the table and opened the thermos bottle.  He poured some water into the cup and behold some floaties.  Plenty of floaties and I am not even sure what kind of floaties they were.  He took the cup went to the side of the porch and threw the water and the floaties onto the grass.  He then came back to my table and put my cup back on the table.  He started to pour me some more water.  Well some more floaties came out.  Still not sure what they are but this time he took my cup and thermos back inside.  He came back with a different thermos and I am not sure if it was a different cup or not.  He then poured me some hot water.  This time there were no floaties in the cup.  However there are still floaties in the cup they are just too small to see.  This is the same water that Kenyans drink and if it wasn’t boiled properly I would be paying the price for days to come.  I know because it did not take but my first meal to become a victim.  I looked down into my cup to make sure that it was ok to put my pre-mixed coffee into.  I could see to the bottom of the cup so in my mind it is ok to drink.  However how many of you would drink this water when you looked in the cup and noticed that the water is not exactly clear and it is not exactly colorless?  Trust me that this water that I received this morning even though it was a little brown in color and you could still see small particles in it was much better then what the majority of Kenyans drink on a regular basis if they get any water at all.  Something so simple for us and yet for millions of Kenyans the ritual of getting any kind of water can take most of the day.  Be reminded that this happens in many more countries all over the world and here in Kenya I would say they have it better then some other countries.

I apologize if it took so long to get to the point since I tend to go off and tell a story.  My point is that something so simple for us “water” is a real chore for most people her in Kenya.  The same is repeated with food, for clothing, for shoes, for just about everything we take for granted.  Every morning we send our children off to school either because it is free or we can afford to pay private tuition.  Even though school is free here in Kenya many parents still can’t afford to send their children to school because they can’t get past the school fees, the cost of uniforms and other expenses.  On top of all this what if someone gets sick?  So what does all this have to do with the power of money and those that need it most?

Yesterday I met with Bishop Hezron for hours to discuss Orphan care and projects.  As I continue to write my blogs I will be trying to convey back to you the problems that the Hezron’s of the world face when some aid comes in.  We talked and talked about as much as we could of Orphan care and the pitfalls that come with it.  Hezron asked a question and I will try to put it in a fashion that we can understand.  “I have been entrusted with $30,000 to build a new beautiful bricks and mortar church”.  “I have been told that all this money has to be spent to build the church”.  “However I am a very poor man and my wife Melissa is dying”.  “I have all this money what do I do”?  Hezron probably does not need the whole $30,000 to save his wife so what does he do?  Please before you answer take yourself out of your situation and try your best to put yourself into his.  What would you do?  I know what I would do.  I would take some of that $30,000 and then try to figure out a way to return it.  Some of you might be more creative then I but I am sure you get the point.

Let’s face the facts and realize that most everyone would take some of that money to save their wife or their child.  We know our Lord and our partners will forgive us.  It is also true that my partner might abandon me but that is the risk I take.  I will somehow find those replacement funds.  Now let’s take that $30,000 that has been reduced to let’s say $25,000.  I am now going into the community to build the church.  That left over $25,000 is a fortune to those that have little or nothing.  Everyone knows that Hezron has been given plenty of money to build the church.  How does everyone know this?  Well some missionaries came a year ago and told us they want to build us a church.  You should not have to praise God under the trees and in the rainy weather.  To most Kenyans “you want to do something for me ok I will take it”.  It doesn’t matter if it is something they need or not.  You want to give me something, fine, and thank you.  To most missionaries coming over for their first trip have no idea on what it takes to get a glass of water in Kenya or much anything else we take for granted.  It’s a non thought.   They went home to raise funds because they were told that it would take $30,000 to build our new friends a beautiful new church.  Our missionaries are overjoyed we can do this.  Our transparency has opened Pandora’s Box.  Before you know it everyone has a hungry or dying child.  What does a man of integrity such as Hezron do?  As Joe states in his report integrity to us is much different to integrity in another country.  We now have lost some more funds maybe all the funds to build the church.  Our missionary friends come back for a return visit and see the church started but nowhere near completion.  Our missionaries are so disappointed that they become four of the five missionaries never to return again.

I find it amazing how Hezron’s question parallels the analogy that Joe explained in his report when talking about scraping, community leakage and aid inflation.  Here in America our instructions were clear and precise.  This money is restricted to the construction of the church period.  I do a project at the factory every dime I spend better be related to that project or mister CFO will be putting me through the grinder.  I have literally spent many millions of dollars during my career in Maintenance and Engineering without once taking a dime to pay for my dying wife or child.  Was it because I had integrity or was it that my other needs were taken care of or both?  Believe me in my line of work I had plenty of chances and opportunities to skim if I chose to do so and I would have probably never been caught.  Granted don’t think I have not taken my share of gratuitous gifts or free lunches.  In my line of work there was no such thing as a free lunch and part of the vendor’s budget was earmarked for customers like me.  It’s all part of doing business.  All the major corporations that I worked for had a strict ethics policy that dictated how we were to accept the gifts.  However here in Kenya integrity for Hezron is that he has taken a promise to his people to help the poor.  What is Hezron to do?  His integrity is on the line his people are starving and some of them are dying.  He has all this money.

My answer to Hezron is what I have been trying to tell him since I arrived a few years ago.  We want to do projects to help those that need it most.  I have been doing projects for over thirty years and not once has my integrity been questioned until now.  Our definitions of integrity clash and the Kenyans have no clue of our definition only theirs.  They might not say it to my face for fear of offending me and them being cast as the one whom ran away the mzungu but it has happened.  I will talk about their closed door mentality in a different blog.  During my discussions with my partners I have been telling them that I need them to become self sufficient before we can make others self sufficient.  That is why I have concentrated on getting some of these projects to the pastors and other leaders.  I can see that they live in poverty, I can relate to the temptation that this money will bring them, and I have seen my friends here in Kenya hand out money sometimes like candy to those that have less because that is what is required of them.  One of our main goals is that all our partners/leaders within the church are able to sustain themselves until their congregations are able to do so.

 

My integrity and their integrity are at odds with each other.  As the go between it is now my job to get answers to this problem.  Of course one of my answers was to address the needs of my partners the pastors and leaders so they will not be compelled to skim a few shillings for themselves.  Another answer is to address the other needs of the church or community so our partners do not feel compelled to skim a few more shillings to help those in need.  I know you might be saying these are simple answers but they are not in any way simple answers.  The need is so great that there will always be people coming out of the bush in need.

True I gave an example of money going to build a church however the same is with any money or aid that comes in.  This is only one of many examples of how the power of money and all its ability makes it almost impossible to reach those that need it most.  There is only so much of the pie and there are too many people in front of those at the end of the line. 

I do believe if we are going to try and get to those Ones at the end of the line we are going to have to make the pieces of the pie smaller so everyone can get a piece.  Did the community really need a $30,000 church?  Could a couple thousand dollar church have the same effect?  As Joe puts it we tend to try and Americanize what ever we do.  We need to get in the habit of doing it as if a Kenyan was doing it. 

Our goal is not to come here and make anyone rich or have what we have in America.  Maybe our missionaries that raised the $30,000 could have raised a couple of thousand for a church, a couple thousand for a school, a couple thousand for a clinic, depending where they are a few more thousand for a well etc.  After all is said and done hopefully five to ten thousand could be set up to fund a locally ran micro-finance and savings enterprise to get everyone in the church community to a modest sustainable level.  Then maybe once everyone is adequately sustained based on that communities norm this community of believers can be taught that those in the shadows, those that have the least, and those that can’t fend for themselves should be brought to the front of the line.     

Take care and God bless you all

Dave

September 28, 2012 Kakamega

Greetings

I missed a day on my blog.  I got on the computer last night and couldn’t bring myself to write anything.  This morning I am still having problems as my mind continues to race a mile a minute.  Not only is the micro-finance venture on my mind the Orphan project is eating me alive.  There is so much to say about Orphans and this blog is really not the place to spell it out.  However it is my blog and I need to say something.  Here goes!

Yesterday I spent the day continuing my reading assignment “The Orphan Report” by Joe Knittig of the Global Orphan Project.  I actually finished the report and found it to be exactly what I was looking for.  I spent the last three years hiding from what I saw on that back street in Uganda and kept pushing it off and pushing it off.  After reading this report I realize that even though our idea of Church based Orphan care was the way to go our implementation would have failed miserably and would have had dire consequences.  Joe explains in chapter twenty two on a scale of one to ten with one as a terrible phony orphanage to ten as a well executed perfect Orphanage the best he has seen executed is a seven.  He goes on to say that he has been involved with some very painful level one orphanages as well.  As Aaron and I travel to Uganda with Bishops Hezron and Moses we will need to realize what we are up against on both sides of the pond.  My expectations of a first successful Church based Orphan care project will probably not be a level ten execution and as Joe states it might not even be close.

The report makes a very good argument of why not to proceed and as I sit here with tears in my eyes and my hands shaking I still can’t bring myself to say no.  During our whole lives we are conditioned to believe that orphans are simply children without both living parents or just one of them gone.  This seems to be the standard that is used.  However is this the standard that our Lord uses?  What about those street children that I saw in Uganda?  Many of them have parents that are living and are not really orphans according to the secular standard.  What about a young girl maybe ten or eleven years old caring for her multitude of younger siblings while her mother is gone for long periods of time looking for work or food to bring back to her children.  Years can go by before the mother or father comes back.  Are these children not Orphans?  As Joe puts it a true Orphan is a child without a Champion.  Thanks Joe for helping me understand.     

I have seen plenty of orphans during my visits to East Africa.  However I have seen them in what I would say is a state of contentment.  I might be using the wrong word but that is the only one that comes to mind right now.  It was the street children that hit me the most.  It was the street children that God beat me over the head with.  It is those children in the shadows that nobody wants that God is telling us to help.  So out of ten orphans as Joe states there is One Orphan that is being left in the shadows.  Those Ones are too hard to manage and do not fit into the model of the secular global orphan scheme.  As Joe states the word orphan brings peoples emotions to a heightened level and the more gruesome the marketing the more money flows in.  This has become a multi billion big business with high expectations and you better get results.  When working with the Ones you are almost guaranteed bad results.  Why would anyone want to invest in a loosing proposition when the other nine (or the many) will perpetuate the money flow?  The Ones are cast aside as collateral damage and left to fend for themselves.  The ends justify the means?

The other day before I finished reading the report I had asked Hezron about the street children and he told me that we wanted to stay away from them because they were too much trouble.  That struck me as odd at the time and today when I meet with him I am going to dig further into his thinking.  Back in December 09 was Hezron just pointing it out to point it out or was God telling him to point it out.  I would of never realized what I was seeing if Hezron wouldn’t have pointed it out.  I guess this is why they are in the shadows.  How many more shadow children are out there?  After reading Joe’s report I can understand why Hezron would want to stay away from the Ones.  It’s a loosing proposition.  The internal and external forces on both sides of the pond are going to certainly crush anyone that tries to help.  I don’t believe God is calling on me and the people that he has put in front of me to continue to perpetuate the nines.  Granted the nines can use some help but there is plenty of organizations, people and money helping all ready. 

We also need to remember that Satan plays a role in this and he is a liar.  He will use anything in his means including good people to tell his lies.  Every trip I make I get a little wiser.  It has come to pass that some around me have other agendas and that is to be expected.  I will still love them for in my own mind and my own situations I can relate.  My prayer is that the lies will eventually be exposed and we will all grow more powerful in God’s word to expel the evil that is all around us.   

The good news is that there are many others out there that are hearing the call to help the Ones.  I would put Katie Davis in this group and if you haven’t read her book “Kisses from Katie” please do so.  I am not looking for the orphan that is living in a loving relationship with her grandparents or other relatives.  I am not looking for the orphan that is in a single parent home being adequately taken care of.  I am looking for that Orphan that One Orphan nobody wants.  Granted some of our projects will benefit and help sustain some of these orphans however I am not looking for them since they are in plain sight and out of the shadows.  I hope I made that clear to my friends on this side of the pond (Africa).  God calls on us to help all Orphans and all Widows.  Of course our Lord also tells us to help anyone in need.  When we go into a community we will be helping orphans, Orphans, and others as well.  There would be dire consequences if we just went in to help the true Orphans and no one else.  As I continue to blog on this subject I will try to explain using Joe’s words (I hope you don’t mind) and my own words to convey the multitude of challenges ahead.

During our discussions in the next couple of weeks with Bishops Hezron and Moses I am going to pose the questions and I am going to tell them that this could get really ugly.  If we are not up to it we are not going to do it.  I believe their job is going to be much harder then mine and if they feel they cannot do it I will completely understand.  I have read the dangers that Joe presents on the There side and many would say only a fool would attempt to rescue the Ones.  My prayers are with you two Bishops as I prepare to make your lives more miserable then they are now.

To any of my friends on the Here side (First Worlders) (is Worlders a word?) that will be willing to help with prayers and/or support be forewarned that this could be a complete failure and many lives could be hurt in the process.  Getting into this our first goal was to cause no harm.  However we have already caused some harm and our intention will be to continue to cause no harm.  Going forward we will most likely cause some more harm.  I pray that it will not be intentionally done on any of our parts.  I ask all that are involved and those that aren’t.  Is this worth it?  Please respond to this blog, message on my facebook, or any of my multitude of emails with your comments.  I don’t want to move any further without at least a little more input.     

Our micro-finance venture is on hold as we review our successes and failures.  My belief is that the micro-finance venture is workable and will be successful in due time.  Right now it needs some more tweaking.  Any church based Orphan care project that we implement will need to have a micro-finance component to the equation. 

Thank you Joe for allowing Aaron and I to read your report before it is published.  The insight you have acquired is priceless.  You have stated that you are still miles away from perfecting Orphan care ministry.  In my realization I was hundreds of miles maybe light years away and I appreciate you bringing me closer to understanding what is really going on in the realm of Global Orphan Care.

Hezron is going to join me for lunch soon and he does not realize I am going to feed him a peanut butter and fluff sandwich.  If he likes it he can have another or two.  TSA left me a card right next to my fluff but did not take any.

Take care and God bless you all

Dave

September 27, 2012 Kakamega

Greetings

Yesterday after my return from the orchards I decided to go and have some beef filet.  I think I have said it before but I will say it again.  Ordering beef filet is a tricky business.  I must say most of the time I get a piece of meat that is flavored very well and as with last night you can cut if with a fork.  Sometimes I am not so lucky and get a piece of someone’s shoe.  While I was sitting down last night to write my blog and get a meal I sat at a table next to a group of five missionaries from the states.  One of them turned around and struck up a conversation.  Again I do not believe in coincidences and God had put us together at that very moment to meet each other.  It just so happens that this group is providing low to no interest micro-loans through local micro-bankers to fund various projects world wide.  The group is called Heavens Family and they are out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  They were in Kakamega to look at some of the area projects that their area micro-banker was initiating.  They invited me to join them to view two of their projects today and I gladly accepted.

Heavens Family is much further along then we are and I was so appreciative to gain such a wealth of knowledge today from all of them.  This morning after breakfast we went to look at a tomato greenhouse that had just been erected outside of town.  Part of their program is to use farming techniques from an organization Care of Creation that our group in 2009 had visited when Care of Creation was based at Brackenhurst.  So I was quite familiar with the concept and had seen the results when we visited Craig back in 09.  Now I got to actually see the application in the field.  The greenhouse is the project of a group of ten widows whom have each taken ten percent to stay within the limits of the programs loan limits.  I believe the total cost of the project was about two grand without the Care of Creation training that Heavens Family provides.

Maize at Care of Creation in Brackenhurst 2009



Heavens Family tomato greenhouse project Kakamega

Inside view of tomato greenhouse with widows

Dick Samuels of Heavens Family addressing widows



After the tomato greenhouse we came back into Kakamega to see a new sewing center of a group of about twenty widows.  If anyone is interested to see more of this organization you can visit their web site at www.HeavensFamily.org and tell them Dave sent you.  Sadly the group was only in town for the rest of today.  They were on their way up to Bungoma and Kitale to view some projects being implemented by that area micro-banker.  Thank you Heavens Family for allowing me to spend the morning with you reviewing your projects.  It is much appreciated.

Inside the sewing center with Pastor John and widows

Two of the widows at the sewing center



After the projects it was back to the Sheywe to capture all the thoughts racing through my mind and asking God what that was all about.  It still amazes me that while I am in the states I can go eons with virtually no idea on what God has in mind.  It’s like being in a void.  I work and I sleep.  But once I get into mission mode the doors start to open, bells start to ring and the action begins.  It is as if my every step has already been planned out ahead of time.

I did get a chance to talk with Hezron today about orphans and street children in Uganda.  Hezron has a good 30 years of experience working in orphan care throughout the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and The Congo.  As I continue to read my other assignment “The Orphan Report” I will continue to ask questions of my friend to help me prepare for our journey into Uganda in a few weeks.

As promised I am including a few more pictures of the orchards from yesterday.  I did not mention that right before we were to head back to Kakamega from Bulimbo yesterday Pauline had stopped by to see us.  Pauline had some personal issues with her family and had to leave for an extended time and had asked someone to take care of her orchard while she was gone.  The caretaker did not do a very good job and virtually all of her vines had died.  Robert was gracious enough to replace all of her seedlings so she could start over.  She doesn’t have to walk very far to see the results of a well maintained orchard.

Pauline and her orchard

Pastor Robert and Bishop Hezron at Pastor Roberts Orchard

View of Pastor Roberts orchard other direction

Another picture of the Mumias widows orchard

Another picture of Charles's orchard



As you know we lost one of our passion fruit farmers Stephan and his wife in a car accident earlier this year.  I asked Robert what had happened and he said they had been killed in a head on collision with a semi-truck.  The truck actually ran over them since they were in such a small car.  Such a horrific tragedy and they left behind a few children that are now living with their grandparents.  It sounds as if the children are in good hands and will be adequately taken care of.  Please keep this family in your prayers.

Tomorrow I will continue to do some reading since I acquired another book to read.  Luckily is looks pretty short.  I was told that once I read it I would be compelled to take off all my clothes and give them away.  I will however keep a pair of shorts and maybe a tee shirt.  Also some shoes because the rocks here are pretty pointy and my feet are so delicate.

Take care and God bless

Dave