Wrapping Up...

Well, this is my last post while I am in Kenya. Next week Tuesday I should be back in Texas ready to start work and school again. I will definitely put some more things on here after I have had the opportunity to organize myself back on my own computer and DSL internet… Well, I am praising God because for these last 10 weeks, I am able to end on an extremely good note. First, even today, I finished up my own personal training session with a group in Kakamega. I presented my Biblical Business Manual, gave them all copies and elaborated on each Scripture that was selected. It was mainly conducted in Kiswahili and I got a lot of assistance from my fellow co-worker, Andrew. It went very well, but the real treat was the question and answer section. I really felt like it made an impact once I saw how many questions each person had and how others in their group helped answered the questions. I think it will help change the dynamics of the group to be able to call upon each other from time to time to solve some of the business challenges they face. Some of the questions they asked were “what should I do when the weather is bad and my customers refuse to come to my shop,” “I sell a large variety of small items, how can I keep a record of everything to know what I have in stock and if I am making a profit,” and even “we have noticed some of the Asians and other foreigners come and do some sort of witchcraft that helps them sell their items, how can we compete with that?” I was very impressed with how everyone opened up and though it was the not the personal one-on-one business counseling I tried to do some weeks ago, I felt everyone who asked a question got an answer that was tailored to their situation and most importantly was that God got the glory at the end. It went very good and I wish I could even do more, but I think it is a great start for whatever may follow from other interns and the organization’s staff.

Next, this past weekend, I had to opportunity to be a part of another Buckner Orphan camp in Busia. This time, I helped to translate for the guests that came and just played with some the kids. It was a wonderful time, though the guests who came were heavily delayed in arriving due to their flights and weather. Nevertheless, the children had a wonderful time and so did the missionaries. It was a great opportunity for me since I was on the other side of the mission trip, and it was even better that I was able to communicate with the children. Being able to see their full personality, how they interact with one another and having the ability to ask them questions was a true blessing to me. When I first went to Busia, there were 33 children. Now they have 47! And all of the kids are looking so good, they are growing up and a lot more outgoing. I don’t know if I can describe fully how good it was to see them again. They remembered the songs we taught them over a year ago. Also, the twins there, Purity and Hamphrey, were so talkative and active when I saw them. I don’t even think I heard either of their voices last year. Even Leah Ndogo, who was sick with Malaria last year, was so talkative and active as well now that she was in the best of health. Also, the children have nicknamed Morine “Mayowa” for whatever reason, so they loved calling out Mayowa and seeing which of us would respond. Everything was wonderful. But with them growing up, also come with those challenges kids face in this world, especially as morality is decaying. They are facing some struggles and temptations but I thank God for the staff that remain with them. Each one of them cares for those children like they are their own and especially with God on their side, they will be alright. Continue to pray for them though. Here are just some of the pictures but I will put video and more later.

I don’t think there was any better way for my last week in Kenya to go than how I have spent it. God is good and now that this is over, I can’t wait to see what next He has in store for me.

A New Look, A New Outlook

Okay, so now is the end of week seven out of ten of my internship and though it has been bumpy, I think I am settled. I just finished my manual, and soon I will figure out how to distribute it. It is very basic but I made sure to include important points such as not cheating your customer, reinvesting profits in the business and writing plans down. If it can help one person, I will be happy. I do apologize that I haven't taken many pictures of me actually at work to show you, but I do have some photos of some other things I have been doing that I would love to share...

First, about 2 weeks ago, we traveled to the Kakamega Rainforest to relax for the weekend. We had a fabulous time and topped it off with a sunrise hike to the top of the highest hill there. Here are some scenes (of course you know I had to pose...)










And then the following week, an organization called RUSH (Reaching the Unreached through Self-Help) (http://www.rushuk.org.uk/main.php) held their annual medical day. For about 12 hours, from 6am-6pm, they distributed free medicine and had eye doctors, dentists, injections and psychians check any and everybody who came to the event. At the end of it, 1,500 people were checked and 200 teeth were pulled! It was very cool, unfortunately, I couldn't say for the entire event. That same day, the kids from Busia had their monthly foster meeting, so rushed to get my first opportunity to see them again. (These are the pictures of people registering to get checked and us packing bags of multivitamins for people to take home. Also if you look, I got a bit of a haircut, that really didn't leave much hair on my head)



Though I only got to spend about 2 hours with them, we really got to enjoy each other's company. They were really interested in seeing if I was able to remember their names, which of course I did! It was especially fun for me when I saw my namesake, Morine, who is now called Mayowa by everyone. Though its been only one year since we visited them, they all look like they had grown tremendously. We sang, ate candy and blew up some balloons at the Buckner office until it was time to go. That has got to be the most enjoyable time I have had in Kenya since, especially I was finally able to communicate with them fully. Thought that day was short, I plan to see them one more time, Aug. 3rd-7th, for their Buckner camp.

I feel definitely that whether my manual becomes a huge success or something else to add to the trash around here, this experience has taught me a lot and I feel more prepared to travel down the path God is laying out for me. Whether that keeps me in Kenya, takes me to my home in Nigeria, puts me in the remote parts of Asia or even has me to work in America, I want to be a part of the change that takes place in this world before Jesus comes. Mungu, niongoze.

Getting It Together

Okay, this is the end of Week 5 of the Internship and I think I have in mind what I will do...

First, let me tell you that I have spent the past 2 weeks visiting clients and working on portfolio analysis for my supervisor. I had the opportunity to visit a total of 5 business (a retail shop, a farmer, carpenter, tailor and a seller of something used to make alcohol) and I realized that I do not know how most of these businesses are ran! My most usefully visit was when I spent 5 hours at the retail shop talking with the owner and helping with his customers about his business and his expansion plans once he receives a loan. My other visits have not been as successful. I really get the impression that because I do not look like a foreigner, people do not believe I only want to help them. When I visited 3 of the other businesses, they seemed to scared of me. I even asked another lady three times if I could visit her and she continued to find ways to avoid me. Because I am primarily targeting the clients that are paying back their loans very poorly, I think they believe that I want to visit their businesses to find what I can repossess to get the money back. So, with that obstacle in my way and my time in Kenya slowly dewindling, I decided to produce a very basic business instruction manual. I remember how at the previous training seminar I was a part of, we covered a wide range of topics in-depth and quickly, and all of the participants only picked up one or two lessons from the entire two-day program. Because of this, I really do not want to hold my own lessons along the same line, in fact, I might not even present anything at all. I want to just create some very simple 1 to 4-page phamphlet that goes over basic essential business topics that are each backed up by Scriptures. With Scriptures, the lessons gain a tremendous amount of validity and people will be more willing to put them into practice. And if nothing else, it is a way to witness and/or strengthen the Christian walk of the people of Kakamega. And thanks to an idea from a fellow intern, I will also find and/or design some posters and phamphlets for our office about business and living positively with HIV.

Also, I have been living in Kenya for over a month now and I am really starting to enjoy it. I think I will miss it when I return home but I hope to utilize some of the lessons I have learned while living here. One of the biggest lessons, or at least biggest differences I have experience here, is how slow life is. Some days I can go to work and by the end of the day, I have done very little. Some nights I sleep over 8-9 hours! It seems that the only guaranteed thing I can look forward to each day is tea time (which is exactly 8:30am and 4:00pm everyday at work). If you know me, you know I am use to driving my car for hours each day getting to school, work or someother place. You know I took on 17 graduate hours last semester while working part-time and controlling my expenses so I could afford to come to Kenya. Now, I just sip tea and do my best to make sure each passing day is useful. I hope to take away from this experience the attitude of relaxing and getting some rest every now and again. We shall see how it goes.

One thing I read recently that really encouraged me while it seemed like I was doing nothing at work was Gal. 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

PICTURES!

This is the reason I love to come home early from work. Her name is Guru (or Gunther, or Valerie or something... she anwsers to whatever) and she is my nieghbor so she invites herself over all the time. This is her smiling for the camera!

























This is all of us at Shikhoho Village, the birthplace of the program director, Peter. As you can see, I and my friend Meera stopped for just a little bit to take a picture. And here is a boy from the village who was trying to cover himself from all the rain that came down shortly after we arrived.








These are some pictures from the training session I told you all about. It was about 39 people in attendance. It was a lot of fun, especially since I had to use a lot of Kiswahili.

























Finally, I will leave you with a picture of me standing on a pier outlooking Lake Victoria. We visited Kisumu for a day and had to see this amazing (yet polluted) lake. The picture illustrates my thoughts right now, contemplating the best way to make a difference around here... Until next time...

Back again for the first time

Well, its the end of 2 weeks of living in Kenya, and it has been eventful...

First, I must say that this time is completely different from my previous trip to Kenya, because it is not as structured and my living conditions are much different. I will get to that later.

First, everything starts from June 2nd, Saturday. The completion of my 28 hour trip from JFK, New York to Nairobi, Kenya. I love how God works, because I heard shortly after I arrived in Kenya that JFK airport was closed because of terrorist threats, but that did not stop my flight plans. Also, a week after we left Nairobi, there was a bomb that went off not too far from the hotel we stayed in, once again being spared of tragedy. I don't glorify any of the awful things that have happened around the world lately, but I know that my God has been keeping me safely.

For an entire week since we arrived in Nairobi, we had our orientation session. One of the most powerful things we did was walk through the slums of Kibera (most easily seen on the movie, The Constant Gardener. We even walked along the same railroad tracks) and saw all of the people living in poverty, yet living, not dying. There is a picture painted that everyone is just dying in these slums, but I saw many people, though they somewhat put themselves in their situation, are making the most of it. It was a lesson on what type of sustainable development we came to Kenya to do... Many people come and toss money around, but problems still remain. We emphasis that we did not come to give out money but to make sustainable changes that can truly benefit these people. We soon traveled from Nairobi to Kakamega (Western portion of Kenya) to continue our orientation and get to work with our host organizations. Before I continue, I think it really is an experience that my fellow interns see more than myself, the effects of being different. I wouldn't call it discrimination, but whenever we all walk together in a group along the road (11 of us, 9 whites and 2 blacks including myself) everyone stares and calls out "How are you?" in an nasal attempt of the English accent. It is quite bothersome and I know my fellow interns really could do without the extra attention but maybe they can share that lesson when other minorities in America face some sort of discrimination. It really is terrible in every part of the world.

Onwards to my experiences. I moved into my host family's home last Saturday. I have a dad, mom, a younger brother, Conrad, and cousin, Felix. Also, my home does not have electricity or running water. So, we take baths with a bucket of hot and cold water and pour water down the toilet to flush it. Not to bad for some character building... Also, at first, it was frustrating, but now I think it is somewhat hilarious, but no one in Kenya can pronounce my name! They always stop on Mayo... Fama..., it is such a challenge to them. So, now I go by Abraham, my middle name. Also, I found out that there is somewhat of a negative view of Nigerians here in Kenya. This is due to number of Nigerian scams that have affected people in Kenya and the negative images of witchcraft and corruption they see on Nigerian movies. So, I just simply introduce myself as Abraham from America. It kind of simplifies things. Anyways, I started work on last Monday. Primarily, what my co-workers do is spend the morning visiting various loan groups, asking how much they have saved and/or paid towards their loan for the month or 2 weeks. If they aren't saving or paying enough, we scold them, if they are doing good, we praise them and move on. So far, there has been quite a bit of scolding. Then we return to the office and work on the records. Well, that's what they do, I think I will try to find a different way to pre-occupy my time starting on Monday, since I do not have the same obligations as they do. I will try to visit some of the clients at their businesses and see what I can do to help them.

Oh, I must also say that the same week I started work was the same week that they had their yearly training sessions for Western Province. So, the last two days of the training, Thursday and Friday, I went along with the trainer (the business manager from Nairobi) and one of my fellow co-workers. While I was there observing, they asked me to help with the trainings! Woah, you have to understand that all of the lessons are taught in Kiswahili and I still a novice to the language. Well, I put my nervousness aside and taught two lessons, "How to select a business to start" and "pricing and costing" in Kiswahili. Well, not in all Kiswahili, as the lessons got more technical, I started using more English, so the fellow trainers had to re-iterate what I said in Kiswahili. It was interesting, and I realized as long as I don't mind people laughing or looking at me crazy, I can be successful. It went well and people commented on the skills they were able to go back to their businesses with. I was pretty pleased. I know this is a short summary of the past two weeks, but I have very little time to use the computer since, and even less to organize my thoughts. Also, my usb plug to upload my pictures is missing, so I can not show you anything yet. Check back later and I hope to finally have some pictures too. Until then... tutaonana baadaye (see ya later)