Long weekend trip to Lake Victoria and Western Kenya

Two weeks ago our friends, Kurt and Angie, asked if we wanted to join them and a Kenyan friend, Rosemary, on a trip to western Kenya to visit a children’s center and an orphanage that Rosemary started. We would also be helping to hand out Operation Christmas Child boxes from Samaritan’s Purse. We readily agreed, as we do not often receive opportunities such as this!

We knew it would be a little tough since Robb would just be returning from an eight day Personnel Forum in Bristol the day before leaving, but we also did not anticipate that Char would catch a really good upper respiratory cold the day after he left for Bristol! We started to vacillate but still believed it would prove to be a great experience. Char was almost better the day of departure.

We set off at 7am Friday for the town of Port Victoria on Lake Victoria which was about a 9 hour drive north west of Nairobi, often over challenging roads.

Micah endured the long drive so well, though he refused to sleep (he gave in to about a 20 minute nap). He always thinks he is going to miss something!

It was an interesting, exhausting, challenging, and exciting long weekend! Rosemary is the receptionist at AIM IS and she has started two orphanages as well as a children’s center. We were able to visit the children’s center and one of the orphanages. The children’s center is in Port Victoria where Rosemary’s husband grew up and where they have a not quite finished house with running water but no electricity, which we all stayed in over the weekend.

The children’s center accommodates about 120 kids, most of whom have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. They live with guardians, either grandparents, aunt/uncles, or foster families (who are poor – they often don’t have food and many kids do not have shoes), and they come to the center every day where they are provided with three meals (when available) and learning.

There are two volunteer teachers who care for the kids every day and teach them. The center itself sometimes does not have food for the kids (Kurt and Angie brought them a huge bag of beans and corn, and we were able to buy them a huge bag of rice there.) One of the teachers, Rose, who has been more or less running the center (Rosemary lives in Nairobi) has begun to search for a paying job so she can pay for her own children’s school fees. Rosemary does not have the funding to pay these two women so she is faithfully trusting the Lord to either provide funding to pay Rose or to provide a replacement when she leaves.

Handing out the boxes here was great! The kids were organized by gender and then by age. Micah was wonderful! We explained to him that most of these kids have nothing (including shoes, as he could see by the many bare feet) and that they do not have parents. He understood why he would not be receiving one of the boxes, and he wanted to be right in front handing boxes to the kids! He enjoyed watching the kids open their boxes and assisted many in opening their sweets (or candies), which was the highlight for him (and which was funny to us because he hardly ever gets candy!) He actually ate only one candy!

The amazing part of this process was witnessing the patience of the kids as they waited for all of the kids to receive a box. The kids were instructed to receive their box and then go sit down and wait until every child had received a box. Those who received one first just sat in their chairs holding their boxes in their laps, and they waited!

People who make and send in these boxes for kids have no idea where in the world they will end up. This was evident by the numerous girls who received hair brushes, combs, and hair accessories in their boxes. They were excited by them, however, most girls have extremely short hair and cannot use these items. Nice to be enlightened for future boxes we fill!

While in Port Victoria we were given a tour of sorts around the town. It was very warm and humid there. Lake Victoria is very large. It is bordered by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. We were quite close to the Ugandan border. It is peaceful and beautiful there, and the air is fresh and clean. What a reprieve from the smog and noise of Nairobi!

Being right on the lake, Port Victoria is a fishing town. The men usually fish at night and by early morning women are spreading out tiny little fish, like minnows, on large tarps to dry in the sun. I imagine one eventually grows accustomed to the smell! They also catch larger fish, like Nile Perch and Tilapia. Their fishing boats are what one would expect from a small, remote town, simple and carved out of wood!

As we walked to the shore at several locations we had quite a large entourage of local kids joining us.

As has been typical here in Kenya, but even more so here, the kids were fascinated by Micah. They crowded around him, pointed at him, touched him, and sadly, also laughed at him. Understandably, this became a bit overwhelming for Micah. The two men who led us on our walk finally told the kids to back off and leave Micah alone!

Sunday, we drove several hours to Rosemary’s mom’s church to hand out more boxes. There were more kids than boxes but part of the reason for this was that all the kids in the area came to the church and began getting in line for a box. Word got out fast!

We then drove to the orphanage which was just around the block. When the kids at the church figured out where we were headed they all started running over to the orphanage. This was a frustrating, and sad experience. The boxes were supposed to go only to the orphans. It was clear that there were many more kids there than the orphans and it became a mob, several times. It was complete chaos. Parents were coming to the front holding out their kids and pleading for a box. We gave a box to a little girl with a cleft palate only to see her soon after with her mom who pushed her to the front again for another box! There were also kids in the mob who had already received a box at the last church!

Rosemary just gave up. After she and Robb made several attempts to control the crowd and the box distribution she finally just came back up to the platform and sat in her seat with her arms crossed. There were TONS of kids, no control, and no way to control it. We only had about 15 boxes left, so we decided to leave the boxes with the pastor and let him give them out at another time or as he saw fit. We left at that point. We had a long drive ahead of us!

We should have left much earlier as it is not safe to drive at night. We ended up having to drive in the dark for about 2-1/2 hours. I, Char, was actually scared! There are no street lights so you cannot see, and most cars do not switch their high beams to low as they pass so you often feel completely blind! First, we almost got rear ended. At one point a bus a few cars in front of us stopped in the middle of the road to let on or off passengers. We heard a loud screeching behind us and Robb quickly pulled into the opposite lane to avoid being hit from behind. We were so thankful that there were no cars coming in the opposite lane!

We then got pulled over at a police check (which are common, but not a great thing for westerners as they try get a bribe from you.) The policeman who approached our car started to accuse Robb of driving too close to him and trying to knock him over with our car (yes, we came near…he pulled us over!), then he shined his flashlight in all of our windows. Amazingly, he finally just let us go without asking for a thing! If nothing else, they will complain about being cold and ask for money to buy chai.

The Lord continued to watch over us! As I mentioned, you really cannot see a thing on the roads at night. You cannot tell exactly where the cars approaching you are, and as a truck approached we realized that he was coming at us in our lane passing a vehicle in his own. Of course he flashed us to move over and Robb was able to pull off the side of the road a bit, which was a huge blessing as there is often no where to pull over!

Lastly, we were almost home when we drove into a storm – it was downpouring and the roads were already flooded! Now we really couldn’t see! It was pouring the whole rest of the way home! We got home at 8:30pm! It was a nightmare, and we were exhausted!

We were praising the Lord for keeping us safe as we travelled back from our weekend adventure! Although we were very tired, and Robb had to go to work and Char was starting at Tumaini the next day, we were so thankful to have had that experience. It not only helped us to remember why we’re here – to help make a difference in peoples’ lives – but also gave us a renewed perspective on how so many people here live with so little but still seek to serve the Lord and give to those who are needier than they.