Tim and Ann Lewis - Kenya Trip Summary
– October 2012
This is our
fourth trip to Nairobi, Kenya. It has
been over three years since our last trip.
We flew on British Airlines and they let us take plastic trunks with
about 50 lbs. in each bag. Most were
just for supplies that were needed at the Made in the Streets (MITS)
orphanage. We left about 6 PM on
Tuesday, Oct. 9, and arrived the next day at 9 PM. Jackton, Millie, and Kehl Omondi, along with Abdi
Jackson (student we have sponsored for 4 years) were at airport to pick us
up. It was so good to see the faces of
people we love. They drove us out to
Kamulu where MITS has a boarding school for teens we rescue from the streets.
We stayed
with our friends, Charles and Darlene Coulston, who started MITS 17 years
ago. The Coulstons were wonderful hosts. We
ate most of our meals with them. We ate
toast, peanut butter and jelly most mornings with coffee. Lunches were usually sandwiches. At supper we
ate fish, chicken, burritos, hamburgers along with fresh vegetables and fruit
from their garden: tomatoes, okra, onions, bananas, mangos, passion fruit,
etc. Ann made a deal with Darlene. Darlene would do most of the cooking and Ann
would clean the kitchen. Charles and Tim
helped, too. In the evenings we usually
read, called Micah and Julie, or watched a movie.
The first 4
days we spent in Kamulu. Chapel each
morning was at 8 AM with the students.
Then we spent time going to visit some of our new properties and working
in the Learning Center where the students go to school. Tim got sick on the plane coming over, so he
missed much of those first days. While
he got out some, he stayed in bed much of the time trying to get rid of fever.
It was a joy
worshipping with the church at Kamulu.
The singing is lively and Spirit filled.
Joel leads and is backed up by a worship team of ladies. There is lots of swaying and clapping. Two former students shared communion
thoughts, one sharing in Swahili and the other interpreting in English. A choral song by students and adults was
sung. Then Francis Mbuvi preached in
Swahili and Jackton Omondo interpreted in English. Both these men grew up in the streets of
Eastleigh and the Mathare Valley slum.
Now they are leaders in the church and administrators at MITS.
Bible class
started at 9 AM. Charles led the class
in a small group Discovery Bible lesson.
We were very impressed how each person shared good comments. The class started by writing out a chosen
scripture. Then each one wrote the
scripture again in their own words. Lastly
each one shared what they intended to do that week to live out what GOD is
calling them to do.
The first
full week we were in Kenya, we traveled a lot with Charles and Darlene. On Monday morning we flew to the town of
Kisumu on Lake Victoria, which is the largest fresh water lake in Africa. My niece, Sarah, her husband, Chris, and
their new seven month old daughter live there.
Chris works with the Ring Road Orphanage in the slums of Kisumu. Ring Road was started over 10 years ago by
three Kenyan Christian men who realized something must be done for the children
who live in the slums.
After three
days we were back at Kamulu and MITS. That
afternoon was spent working at MITS.
After supper, Irene, who is the supervisor in the MITS girls’ dorm area,
came by to visit us at the Coulston’s.
She plans to marry Robin, who teaches the skill of woodworking on our
MITS staff, in February 2013. She told
us about how they started dating, how he proposed, and how many cows he was
going to give her family in order to marry her.
We learned so much about the Kenyan tradition of marriage.
On Thursday
after chapel, we left for our safari to Lake Nakuru National Park. We traveled with the Coulston’s north up through
the famous Rift Valley. It was a
beautiful drive. Darlene had fixed us a
picnic lunch that we ate while we traveled.
We stopped at Elsamere, the home of Joy Adamson, who is the famous author
of Born Free.
We arrived
at Mbweha Safari Camp after dark. The
main lodge was lit by candle light and a large fire pit in the center. A long half circle couch circled the fire
pit. We were taken to our stone hut with
a thatched roof named Dik Dik. A dik dik
is a small antelope. Our hut was
beautiful. Queen size bed in the middle
of the room covered with a mosquito net tied at the four corners. We ate our meals in a large, open air, thatched
roof building next to the main lodge. We
were served five star hotel meals at dinner.
After dinner we would gather around the fire pit and enjoy chai tea
before going to bed. This was an awesome
place for a great romantic getaway.
Friday
morning after a wonderful buffet breakfast, we left for our “Coulston guided”
safari drive in the Lake Nakuru National Game Park. We saw: a beautiful
starling bird, lots of Impala, zebra, cape buffalo, Egyptian geese, baboons,
Rothschild giraffe, pelicans, yellow billed storks, flamingos (hoped to see
thousands but only saw a few because the salt water lake was too diluted),
egrets, sandpipers, water bucks, vervet monkeys, Thompson and Grant gazelles.
We also saw a male ostrich, an eagle type bird, some crowned cranes, maribou
storks and one warthog. Our most awesome
surprise was getting to see 14 white rhino.
We enjoyed
seeing Makalia Falls. The students from MITS and the Coulston’s had
camped near the falls a number of years before.
The boys had climbed the cliffs and swam in this creek until a park
ranger told them there was a python that made its home in the cliffs.
Back at MITS
on Sunday afternoon we went for tea at Victor and Angie’s home. Angie served us Mandazi along with our
chai. Their two year old daughter, Kelsey,
kept us entertained. Abdi came by for a few minutes and we gave him 400
shillings so he could buy supper (spaghetti) and breakfast for his family. He lives in Mathare slum with his mom. Eleven people live in his one room home.
A typical
day at Kamulu: Students get up and fix
their own breakfast (bread) and then go to chapel (singing, scripture reading
and a short talk by Charles) at 8:00 AM.
There is a short staff meeting right after chapel. At 9:00 AM the literacy kids (13 to 15 year
olds) go to the Learning Center for school.
They study English, Swahili, math, science and Bible. The students all wear uniforms. The skills students (16 to 18 year olds) walk
to the Skills Center and learn a skill they can use when they leave MITS. The skills are: mechanics, farming,
tailoring, woodworking, cooking, cosmetology, and computers.
Lunch is
served at 1:00 PM. Brian, a former
student, cooks for 80 students at the learning center every day. Madeline cooks for about 30 at the Skills
Center. We ate Brian’s meals about three
times and they were delicious. He fixed
beans and maize (corn) for one meal and twice we ate green grams (lentils),
cabbage, and chapati. That was our
favorite meal. They do not drink
anything with their meals nor have dessert.
At 2:00 PM
all the kids spend two hours working on the farm where they grow much of what
they eat. They also have 3 cows, about
10 goats, and 200 chickens. They also have
two tanks where they raise tilapia.
After working on the farm the students meet at the Learning Center at
4:30 for one more class. At 5:30 the
students go to their dorms, cook their own supper and have a devo before going
to bed.
That’s a
full day. Ann used her time helping
teach in different classes and also did some teacher training with our teaching
staff. On most afternoons at 2:00 PM Tim had an hour of leadership training
with the adult staff. He taught from
Joshua 1, the book of Jonah, Jesus style of leadership, and the way Paul solved
conflict in Philemon.
On Wednesday
we went to the Eastleigh slum with Francis Mbuvi. We met our Eastleigh staff at the MITS
compound. A place for street kids to
shower and receive first aid was out front and a shade cover has been added. We
enjoyed Chai before we went out on the street to visit three bases. Bases are trash dumps, or alleys where groups
of boys and a few girls live. This is
where we meet most of the boys and girls that eventually come to our boarding
facility at Kamulu. The first base we visited was Lilliput. Some of the street boys there were members of
the church. Ann, Tim, and one or two of
our MITS staff were asked to speak at each base. The streets of Eastleigh are full of pot
holes and mud. There were lots of people
walking. We saw more Muslims than the
times before. If you ever read a travel
guide of Nairobi, it recommends that you not visit the Eastleigh or Mathare
slums. Of course, that’s the area we
feel GOD has called us to minister.
The second
base we visited was called Mlango Kubwa.
It is considered the worst base because of the evil that goes on
there. One old woman sells glue to the
children so they will bring or steal the things she wants in trade for
glue. You can smell the glue when you
walk down the street. Most of the boys
and girls have bottles to sniff glue so it will take away their hunger. The old woman was meeting with some City Council
members the day we were there. As Ann says “she was holding court”. She
was lying, telling them all the good she was doing helping care for the
kids. She asked Tim what he was doing
and Tim told her he was helping the street kids, too. She is very deceitful and enables street kids
to do bad things. We need to pray GOD
does something to change this base.
Francis and Tim agreed that you could feel the evil in that place.
The last
base was the Roundabout base. It was on
a trash dump behind a corrugated tin fence.
MITS had helped this base solve some problems in the past and they were
very receptive to our visit. There were
about 15 boys and one girl with two small children. We had a good Bible study with them. We sang and one of the street boys led a
prayer. Ann sang “Jesus Loves Me” with
the children. We don’t think they
understood English but it was the right thing to do for a five and two year old
that lived on the street with their mom.
Some situations are heartbreaking.
We returned
to the Eastleigh Center where we were served a delicious meal of green grams
(lentils), beans, cabbage and chapati.
It was the best chapati we had ever eaten. After visiting for a while with the staff we
returned to Kamulu. All our staff comes
to Eastleigh at least once a month to work on the streets. This experience keeps them aware of the roots
of our ministry.
On Thursday
after chapel, John Wambu, our facilities manager, took Ann and Tim on a tour of
all our facilities at Kamulu. We saw the
dorms, Skills Center, farm crops and tilapia fish ponds. We are building a new tailoring building at
the Skills Center so there will be more room for our expanding sewing
business. We make all our own school
uniforms and we are now selling them to the community for their schools. We saw new construction on some staff housing
and also some new construction on the girl’s dorm. We are also making a classroom out of a metal
storage unit behind our chapel to be used in our Sunday school. John is doing a great job. I don’t see how he coordinates it all.
Thursday
evening we were invited to the girl’s compound where we enjoyed singing before
breaking into groups for a Discovery Bible study. The girls made some excellent comments. This was one of the highlights of our
trip. After the devo, Irene invited us
for chai and snacks in her room.
On Saturday Tim
went with Charles, Darlene, and Wambu to the acreage that MITS and Healing
Hands bought for future development. It
was about a two hour drive. The land is
on the road to Mombasa. Along the way we
saw a herd of giraffe and a female ostrich.
On Sunday
the Coulston’s drove us into Eastleigh and we worshiped with the church that
meets in our MITS compound. A number of
people who live on the streets were in attendance. Some of them were people we met at the bases
on Wednesday. We were very excited to
see Lucy, Mary and their babies. Lucy
and Mary had come through our MITS program.
When they left they made some poor choices and were living with family
back in Mathare. We were so glad they
had been coming to church services and were trying to keep a relationship to
the church and GOD. Larry Conway
preached and Byron led the singing. It
was very lively and joyful with standing and lots of clapping. Of course it was all in Swahili but the
Spirit of GOD was definitely present.
Sunday night
we ate a lovely meal with Jackton and Millie’s family. Jackton’s niece and nephew, Nancy and Davis,
were there. Millie cooked a wonderful
meal and we saw a video of Kehl’s progress with hydrocephalus. Visiting was great. We gave Jackton some Starbuck’s coffee and a
coffee bean grinder. We love spending
time with this wonderful family.
Monday and
Tuesday were typical days with the students. We loved eating Brian’s green grams, cabbage
and chapatti again with the students on Monday.
Ann did some teacher training and Tim did his last class with the staff
on Tuesday. In the afternoon we did some
packing for our trip home. We ate supper
with Francis and Mauryn’s family Tuesday evening. We gave Francis some Starbuck’s coffee and a
coffee grinder, too.
Our last
day, Oct. 31, we went to chapel one last time.
Charles then drove us to the Skills Center. Ann ordered some jewelry made by our MITS
students and we ordered some wooden Christmas ornaments, too. Students gave us
letters to be mailed to their sponsors when we return to the US. In the afternoon we walked to a small store
run by Wachira, a church member who is in a wheelchair. He was shot by thugs a few years back because
he refused to pay them protection money.
We ate supper on the garage roof.
Charles grilled us hamburgers.
Darlene cooked pan fried potatoes.
The flowers were beautiful and the honeysuckle gave off a sweet
fragrance. After we washed dishes, Joel
and Angie came by to say goodbye. We
gave them some knit caps for their children.
Jackton and
Millie took us to the airport about 7:30 PM.
Our flight left at 11:40 PM. We
took three bags home with us. We left on
time and arrived in London at 5:00 AM.
Tim turned 63 on our flight.
Since we were flying west, his birthday lasted about 32 hours. We had a five hour layover in London so we
spent a while at Starbucks. Tim had a
chai tea latte and Ann had an iced hazelnut coffee. Our flight left on time and we arrived at DFW
around 2:30 PM.
Tim and Ann Lewis at Eastleigh Church
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