Joys of 2011: Good Visitors

An evolving theme that we've begun to recognize throughout our lives is the blessing our families have poured over our lives.  This year, Steph's mom, Matt's dad, Steph's sister, and then Steph's mom, dad and sister all came to visit us in Kenya.

Of course, a cynical person may attribute the increased attention to the "grandbaby factor."  This is true.  Yet, how many people in your family would be willing to fly across the world to visit for a few weeks, or help do dishes and clean your house? This year has been filled with wonderful time with family and we want to appreciate all they have done to make this a year of blessing for our family.

Joys of 2011: Good Neighbors

It was this year that we finally got to really know our neighbors.  Our closest neighbors are the Puleis, Ann and her husband Daniel, their 4 kids and a variety of grandkids.  Ann works at the MFSP demo farm and has always been a great person to talk to.  This year we regularly went to her house in the evening to say hello, took trips to Ngong together, or worked together on issues of the program. 

In the other direction lies the Sekento household.  This is a traditional home with many husbands, more wives, and more children than you can count.  The Sekento women have truly been a blessing to us, helping us wash laundry (ie: diapers) daily.  First we worked with Nalotuesha and later Nalomai Sekento and both brought cheer and effort to their work.  A third Sekento also helped us do some work we couldn't do otherwise.  Nalomai has an adopted son named Kintolel who is finishing standard 8 this year.  He is extremely hard working and we've given him a variety of tasks to do: reinforcing our fence, watering trees, and digging a trench to plant a live-fence around our property.  We've also enjoyed Kintolel's work ethic in the midst of a culture that rarely rewards hard work.  Between these neighbors we've built some great relationships and always know that there are people close by who are willing to help.

Nalomai, Steph (with Sophie), Nalotuesha, and Matt (with Lizzie)

Joys of 2011: Good Dams

Another work-related joy for this year was the development, submission and ultimately the approval of a project to build 12 sand dams in the MIDI area.  Since we arrived in Kenya, we've been hearing from MCC people about sand dams.  After visiting Kola and experiencing the transformative power of a well-run project, we began praying for something like that in our community. Check out a blog we wrote on May 4, 2009 for more of our thoughts on sand dams.   It took a few years, but now we're finally there.  After working several months with Alvera Stern and the MIDI staff, we developed a concept paper, no small task in and of itself.   Multiple delays plus the on-going economic slowdown (which put downward pressure on funding) meant that it was months before we heard much good news.  In June, we learned that a single donor had given over $35,000 and had chosen to fund the first year of the MIDI project.  Then, after changing a concept paper to a formal proposal and many re-writes, we got the green light.  The project started in December and will run for three years.  Our dream is to see a dam built before we leave, and moreso, to come back in a few years or decades and not be able to recognize this community because it no longer needs to beg for food and water.

The water is stored within the sand behind concrete walls, built in dry riverbeds

Joys of 2011: Good Goats

2011 saw the continued progress of one of our major projects while in Kenya, the Kajiado Goat Restocking project.  In total it empowered 61 self help groups, representing approximately 14,000 people to buy a total of 10,000 goats.  While the goats were what catch people's eye, it is the formation of self help groups that has had a truly trans-formative effect on the community.  Here is a link to an article I wrote about this project for MCC
http://www.mcc.org/stories/news/kenya-goat-project-demonstrates-group-power.

Throughout the year Matt had the opportunity to train and interact with groups from both the MFSDP and MIDI operational area.  The groups that impressed me the most were ones that had dreams.  You rarely hear a community-member dreaming about the future, but by teaching people to recognize and solve their own problems you create a culture of dreaming.  People dream of having water, of good schools, plenty of food and no more food aid.

So one of our great joys this year was seeing this project transform lives and communities.  It revealed how our small efforts can bring about God's Kingdom when we remain faithful to His calling.

 

2011 Joys: Good Food

This year both of us grew to be masters of the culinary arts.  Matt did more of the cooking once the girls came, and we began to plan our meals a few weeks at a time to foster buying all our vegetables at market at once.  Some of the favorite dishes we had this year were:
1. Barbeque Chicken wraps with mesquite flavored lentils and peppers. 
2. "Crusty Mexicans"-a casserole with a doughy bottom layered covered in a spicy kidney bean and beef glop.  This is especially good with chips and lettuce.
3.  Pakistani Kima: A potato/tomato based curry with tumeric, and curry powder over rice.
4. Lasagna: Matt loves making lasagna from scratch (except the noodles) and has a record of making the entire thing in 45 minutes by himself.
5. Alvera Stern's frozen chocolate cake: Best served with a chocolate icing chilled in the freezer (and it keeps forever)

All of these meals have been special for us, making the aftermath of a difficult meeting less stressful or topping off a great day's work.  While there is so much we can't control here, making a good meal often feels like some normalcy to our abnormal lives.  We praise God for good food and new food: it brings us joy every day.

Merry Christmas and enjoy your Christmas foods!

Eating mini-pizzas on Valentine's Day

The Joys of 2011

After taking an extended hiatus (which is a nice way of saying we couldn't come up with anything we thought was particularly interesting to share) we're back for an end-of-year extravaganza: a countdown of the top joys of our last full year in Kenya.  We hope that you all enjoy remembering together with us the many blessings the Lord has shown us this year.