Rainy Season

By Sara:

Here is a set of pictures that shows the progression of growth in our yard from the beginning of the rainy season.  We took each one exactly one week after the one before.

Trip to Turkana in Kenya

By Anthony:

We recently spent a week traveling around Kenya visiting World Renew programs and partners, and Bible colleges.  Part of the reason for this trip was to look at some places we could consider working at in the future.  There is a lot we could write about the trip and the colleges, but this post is going to focus on visiting the town of Katilu, in Turkana district, of Northwest Kenya.  World Renew is doing direct implementation in this area, and we wanted to see what projects they were doing.  (Direct implementation means they are doing work directly instead of how they normally work by giving consultation and financial assistance to a local development organization).

The first day we drove across the border to Kitale.  We were proud of ourselves that we navigated the border crossing without paying someone for help with the vehicle documentation (both times, there and back), something even our Ugandan friends don't always feel up to doing.  If you've never been to a border crossing in these countries, it is nearly impossible to describe the chaos, confusion, and traffic jams there.  There are many little offices you have to visit, filling out forms for immigration, your vehicle, police check, etc.  It makes me claustrophobic just remembering it.  Try to picture 1,000-2,000 trucks lined up blocking most of the road, and having to drive off the road or on sidewalks just to make it through.  But we made it. We were also pleased to have no issues with police wanting bribes. 

The next day we drove from Kitale to Katilu (in Turkana), with a World Renew staff member named Simon.  He took his friend Patrick, a government agricultural officer, with us who also has a home in the Katilu area.  It was a very long drive and although it is an international highway, it was perhaps the worst and longest road we've been on in our lives.  So bumpy!

It started out very beautiful with a very nice road. 

But the farther we went away from Kitale, the more potholes there were.  It must be harder to get the construction work done farther away from the big cities (or the government cares less about the more remote places). 

But it got worse.  Eventually instead of dodging potholes, we had to dodge the remaining pavement.

Although this might look like a smooth dirt road below, let me assure you that much of the time we were going about 30 kilometers an hour (18mph) or less in order not to be jarring everyone in the vehicle up and down.  Even though it's a dirt road, it was like going over speed bumps and potholes for 5 hours of driving.  The whole drive took about 7-8 hours.

The region of Turkana is a little bit insecure since the Turkana tribe and the Pokot tribe frequently raid each other to steal cattle.  There are people who own guns and sometimes vehicles are in danger of being attacked on the road.  Because of this World Renew had us travel with police for our safety.  The buses and taxis travel these roads daily without police protection.  But just to be on the safe side, for a couple stretches of the road, World Renew staff make sure to have police riding along in the vehicle.

While in Katilu, we stayed at a Catholic teaching center for catechists.  Being in such a remote place there are not a lot of guest houses around, but this was a wonderful welcoming community and we really enjoyed getting to know our brothers in Christ there.

In this area, World Renew works with several communities, but all of the people they work with are Turkana.  They mainly work not with the original residents of the area, but Turkana people who fled their homes during the post-election violence in Kenya back in 2007-2008.  They fled to this area and lived in IDP camps.  Because of this they are very poor, but have been aided by World Renew and other organizations.  World Renew is transitioning from giving relief to now bringing development programs and trainings.

Here is a photo of Simon in front of water tanks that World Renew helped put up to improve the water supply and irrigation for the people of a few of these original camp communities.  They also recently have been giving agricultural training, including the use of a shade house, showing the community how they can partially sustain themselves through kitchen gardens.  Most of the area is just sand with shrubs.  But in the places where they have irrigation, gardens can actually grow.

Here is the first community we met with, and they shared about their history and how World Renew has helped them.  It was very exciting to find out that the language of Turkana is very similar to Ateso, so much so that we used some of our Ateso and the people were shocked at our knowledge and understood most of what we said!

Here is one of the World Renew Kenya staff, Chris, who has been working in Turkana for many years now.  He does not live there but has traveled there regularly to work with these communities.

In the photos below is this same community group, with several World Renew staff and some other government visitors.

Next we visited one of the agricultural programs the government workers are doing to help in the area.  These women are working on a government farm in which they have been given some land to garden.  In the video they are greeting all of you.

The government has been helping many people through what is called an "irrigation scheme."  They are channeling water from this river which has given about 500 families very good land for farming.

There are lots of donkeys around in Turkana, and I hope to get one someday.

We drove and visited another community nearby that World Renew is also working with.  Can you find the road?

Photos of the second community group including the chief of the area.

Driving in Africa is often interesting.

One exciting thing for me was that our translator for the visits was a Reformed pastor in the area (Reformed Church of East Africa).  There are many Reformed churches in the Turkana region.

We really enjoyed our time in Turkana and perhaps some day we can make brief visits there to do TLT or livelihood trainings.  If we did, we could even have a head start on the language because of its similarity to Ateso.  We don't know, but we will see where God leads.  Here are some other random photos from the long drive.

The Painted Veil - Movie Recommendation

By Anthony:

One of our favorite movies is called, "The Painted Veil."  It's basically a love story, but also a movie about medical work overseas and living in a foreign culture.  Here is the summary from IMDB: A British medical doctor fights a cholera epidemic in a small Chinese village, while being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.  It stars Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, who both did a great job acting.  It's rated PG-13.  Be warned there are some sex scenes.

It's hard for us not to like this movie as we are missionaries and it's always fun seeing people try to fit into a new culture, and see the ways that they do that well, and the ways that they do it badly.  The setting of this movie takes place in the early 1900's and the characters fit the time period, being a bit ethnocentric.  Yet, even with their flaws, they serve the people and form some good relationships.

We also like that the movie's love story is quite unique for Hollywood.  It shows a more realistic view of marriage.  It shows that marriage involves suffering, and also that forgiveness is essential.  It shows a marriage which doesn't begin with romantic love.  In most movies, people fall wildly in love and then supposedly live happily ever after.  In real life, even as most marriages begin full of excitement and romantic love, things get difficult at times, and it's not all happily ever after.  But the beautiful thing is watching how the suffering and shared experience transform the characters.  The movie shows the shallowness of romance, and shows what real love is like.  But I won't say more than that, don't want to spoil it for you.

On top of that, it is a movie that I think shows a good illustration of sanctification.  Each of the characters goes through changes in the movie.  In certain ways they are both unlikeable to begin with in different ways.  You get frustrated with both of them.  But over time we see them learn and grow and become less selfish.

There is not a lot of talk about spirituality or the Christian faith.  But the characters do have some interaction with nuns working in the city helping cholera victims.  Because of this there are a few interesting faith conversations, and the characters definitely grow as a result of their interactions with the nuns.

This movie is very moving in many ways.  Please give it a watch and let us know what you think.  There is also a book, which the movie was based on, which we have read.  The book's story is fairly different, but we also really like the book, for its own powerful message different from the messages of the movie.

How to Start a Farming God's Way Garden

By Sara:

This is something that happened a while ago, so it isn't very current news, but just something fun to share.  It is photos that show how to set up a garden using the Farming God's Way technique.  This took place in Amuria, with KIDO, one of the Ugandan development organizations I work with.

First, we had to dig up all of the weeds in the plot where we were going to plant (weed as if you're never going to weed again).

It was quite the task.

In the first day of work, all we did was clear the weeds and mark out the outside boundaries of the plot.

Here are the KIDO field officers (from left to right): William, Geofrey, and Emma.  But wait, that mzungu in the middle isn't KIDO staff; that's Ben, who was my fellow livestock intern at World Hunger Relief.  He came over from Kenya for a couple weeks to visit me and Anthony.  It was fun to do farm work together again!  We got made fun of for not being "real" farmers because we weren't wearing rubber boots like Geofrey.  But look at those fancy shoes that Emma's wearing...

The second day, we picked up all of the (now dry) weeds and marked out the lines where we were going to plant.

We also cleared large quantities of trash out of the plot.  This is just a small amount of what was in there.

Then, we dug the planting holes.
 
We used composted manure as fertilizer in the holes.  We went to collect that from Geofrey's uncle's home in the village.  Carrying around a box of compost was pretty interesting.

While some people dug holes, some added compost and others were planting the seeds.

Once everything is prepared, you cover the whole garden with mulch (but no pictures of that here).

And here are a couple of slightly ridiculous pictures from that same time, when there were four former World Hunger Relief people all staying at our house.