A few weeks ago I was blessed and privileged with the opportunity to go to Kenya for a week. Why Kenya? Well, as many of you already know I have been working together with AFCOE (Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism)-Europe for the past couple of months as one of the staff there. Now starting this course (Mid-February) AFCOE-Europe has started an extension of the classes here in Kenya. They did this because many people in Africa are longing to be trained as missionaries and come to a school like AFCOE-Europe, but are not able to because of how difficult it is to get a visa for Africans. So now there is an extension of AFCOE-Europe in Rongo, Kenya and this is where I went and spent a week.
The reason I went was to see what needs they had there, and to make sure things were running well, as well as to talk with the Evangelist who is overseeing the project down there and see how we can best support the project there. Then I would bring back a detailed report with me to Germany.
But enough of why I went. Here's what happened when I went:
Here is one of the first sights I saw in Kenya: the Rift Valley. I flew into Nairobi and were I was picked up by Evangelist Jared Oreto who is overseeing the project in Kenya. We then made our journey to Rongo by car, which took about 6-7 hours. Nairobi is up on a plateau, and this picture is taken when we were coming down from the plateau overlooking the valley.
This is Jared Oreto, he is an Evangelist in kenya and he has his own ministry there in Rongo called Revival Time Ministry. His ministry does a number of things from preaching, to singing, to putting messages on the radio, to selling books at a little shop in Rongo. This is really a man of faith and God is really blessing his efforts there.
This was about the most exotic wildlife I saw in Kenya. There were a few of them by the road waiting for handouts of fruit and vegetables. And no there aren't elephants and lions running around everywhere, they are just in the big game parks so I didn't get to see any of them.
When you first get into the rift valley it is very dry. Its very hard to find water there, especially since they havn't had rain for 3 months. Then when the dry period is over they will get more rain that they know what to do with.
The closer you get to Rongo the greener it becomes.
Here are some pictures from the market that we drove through.
See those motorcycles, those are African Taxis. And the fancy ones like this picture have an umbrella.
My First meal in Africa. Small sweet bananas, beans, and chopate (don't know if its spelled right). The Chapati are almost like thin pancakes.
Here's a picture in the classroom at the AFCOE-Europe Kenya Extension. When the electricity goes out people are used to it and they just make do. They just light some lanterns and keep studying and singing! Doesn't stop them a bit!
The Walk to the Outhouse.
There are two Avocado trees on the property with Avocados that were almost ready to be picked. But the Avocados there are huge!!! And they taste very good!
The Red Kenyan Soil
Going to get water at the well.
An Kenyan Sunrise.
The plan is to build more permanent structures on the property. They have already started making some bricks.
The Two in the middle are the latrines. And the ones on the ends are "Showers" these are rooms where you bring a bucket of water into and then wash yourself with that bucket of water.
(I stayed at a hotel nearby most of the nights. Not much of a hotel, but a hotel nonetheless, and it had running water. But it cost like 6 euros a night to stay there so it wasn't quite a Hilton.)
Ahhh Kenyan food is soo good! In the middle there are a type of Yams. And in the pot on the top right there is a type of Peanut soup. Also they just eat onions and garlic raw and whole with nothing else besides.
I was told though that the garlic keeps the mosquitoes away though so I ate some before bed. Since they have had a drought lately though there weren't really many mosquitoes though, which was a blessing.
Here is the little book shop that Jared and his wife run in Rongo. They sell Bibles and other christian books that are not easy to get ahold of in Kenya.
Jared has translated the Great Controversy by Ellen White into the local language. This is a huge blessing for people who don't speak English. He has also translated a few other books into the local language but they have yet to be printed.
Here's a picture of the outside of the Book store.
So I had my try at eating sugar cane with just my teeth, but its very difficult as my teeth are not used to it. The Kenyans can eat sugar cane very fast because their teeth are so strong!
It was such a blessing to be in Kenya. I will post another blog post with more pictures in a few days.
Ah and as for the title, Karibu means "welcome" or "welcome to" in Swahili. Swahili is the national language in Kenya. A lot of people also speak English at least to a degree because they learn it in school. But then each tribe has their own language. I was in the tribe of the Luo where they speak Luo.
