Our first few days in Kenya were quite slow. We thought we would be preparing for the conference but it turned out that it was going to be more of a last minute affair! So we spent the first day shopping and driving around the city. The traffic here is crazy. I thought Romes traffic was fun but this is even better. I wish I could have a go!
We are staying at the International Bible Society guest house and through some contacts here managed to get in touch with some people who run an orphanage. We assumed it would be a large institutionalised place, but after driving out of Nairobi for 30mins we found a large house in a semi rural area that housed 10 kids between 4 and 8 yrs old. It is run by a pastor and his family and they are raising the kids as part of their family. They teach the kids English (the speak Swahili or a local dialect), reading, writing, etc. We got some time to play with them and it was amazing to see how many of them just wanted to sit down and read to us! The pastors son, Steve, told us some stories of when the kids first arrived (only a year ago). One boy, George, was not used to getting three meals a day so he would eat until there was no more food available – often making himself sick, In time he learnt that he would always get three meals a day, something we just take for granted.
Steve took us to the place he grew up and where all of these kids are from – the Mathare slums. These are the largest in Kenya and house 600,000 people. He was lucky because his family managed to work their way out of it and he has even been to university to study community development – in Kenya you have to have very high grades to get into university as there are not many places available. The past few years Steve actually move back to the slum so that he could work with the youth there. He was very excited to tell us about 3 of the kids he works with who are sitting their high school exams, something most people from the slums never get to do. It was an amazing time meeting Steve and his family. They are doing so much to give these kids a hope and a future.
Sunday turned out to be the only day off we would be able to take for two weeks so we decided to go on safari! We had been offered a cheap deal to go to Nakuru National Park. It is not as good as the Masai Mara, but they do have 6million flamingos, quite an amazing site – an very exciting when a Hyena decided he had an appetite for flamingo! We saw Rhinos, Water Buffalo, Zebra a Giraffe, Antelope, Gazelle and tons of cheeky monkeys. Quite a fun day despite missing out on Lions and Leopards - the park is 100sq Km so you can’t necessarily find all the animals. I will definitely be back to do a longer safari sometime.
On Monday we started helping out with the conference, setting up chairs, moving tables and other miscellanious tasks. I have been helping with registration so get too meet a lot of Kenyans, Ugandans and other East African residents (including quite a few Bishops!). They are very friendly and love to hear where I am from and what I am doing. I have had a lot of people who,. after speaking with them briefly, have invited me to come and speak at their villages and churches. All very flattering, and it would be an amazing experience, but unfortunately I don’t run our schedule and can’t make the team run around Africa getting to all my speaking engagements :) I spoke to one guy about the village internet cafe he is planning on opening, the next day he brought in his business plan which we went through together and figured out how to start the business with a third of the capital originally planned and focus more on getting the core service right before diversifying too much – hopefully he will be able to raise the money he needs now.
The general theme of the conference is the same as what we have been taught over the last few months – how to disciple a nation (love God, follow His principles and help others to do the same). Everyone I have talked to has been really inspired to go back to their churches and places of influence and get started.
This afternoon we are leaving for Arua in Uganda. It is a two day bus ride which will involve many potholes and a desire to never see a bus again (we have two more journeys to make after this one). It should be fun!
Our living conditions are about to deteriorate rapidly though – we currently have comfy beds that get made daily for us, an en suite and as much delicious food as we can eat, something we wont experience again until we are back in England in nearly 6 weeks time.
I don’t have any pictures for you this time as I forgot to bring my memory card reader – and even if I hadn’t the internet isn’t that fast!