Planes, trains, and automobiles

Good morning (or good evening back home in Portland - although it's past midnight there now, so it's no longer evening). We are doing well, staying busy with plenty of activities this week. Cheryl got on a plane on Sunday night with Ruth and two of our babies, Belle and Esther, to Nairobi to try and acquire visas for the two babies, so that Ruth and Rachel can take the babies home to family for Christmas. The babies, Ruth and Cheryl, did surprisingly well with the babies, and they were met by David and Rachel who arrived to Nairobi late Sunday evening. They got up at 4:30 or 5AM the next morning to cart babies, diapers, formula, and bottles over to the UK and US embassy where the US embassy had requested a 7AM appointment for which they had to arrive at 6:30AM. The visa for Belle was granted and Rachel is going home with Belle this weekend for a two month stint back in the states. Ruth got a notice that her visa is ready so she is going back to Nairobi on Monday to pick it up. What a process!! Anyway, they got to spend a little fun time during lunch and the early afternoon to shop in Nairobi and eat lunch at Java House, the Kenyan equivalent of Starbucks, and it is a treat. There's nothing like it in Eldoret, and shopping here is still very limited. It's surprising that for a town of 600,000 plus (Eldoret had about 250,000 people when I first came to visit four years ago) and growing fast that Eldoret has the shopping store capacity of a US town of 6,000 with about 4 to 6 moderately sized grocery stores (nothing close to a Walmart). It's interesting that most of the essential shopping here is done in open street markets, where locals often get the best deals but where muzungus (white people in Kiswahili) will often be charged higher prices than in the regular grocery stores (that's why we have Matrine, one of our Kenyan staff, do much of our shopping at the market). In addition, it is quite likely because of the predominence of subsistence farming throughout Kenya, that most people eat what they can grow on their own property and often do not buy groceries at the store or at the open street market.

We have even began our own subsistence farming initiatives at the Open Arms Village with growing potatoes, beans, cabbage, maize and raising hens for eggs, goats, sheep, rabbits, and dairy cattle for milk. So far we have been able to raise enough of all these items to feed the entire village and our office staff plus raise additional money from the sale of eggs, potatoes, and milk to the community. Matt seems to be the local egg delivery man in Eldoret since we are now producing nearly 100 eggs per day at the village, more than enough for the children at the village, the staff in town, and also to assist with the feeding programs. He has a local restaurant in town that regularly buys eggs, and they are encouraging the Open Arms Village to take on their next project, raising broiler chickens for the village and to sell to the restaurants in town. Matt now feels like his next purchase at the local Nakumatt variety and grocery store in town will be a pair of bib overalls.

Matt has also taken over most of the primary driving responsibilities for the village and the Open Arms staff since the other two staff drivers are on leave or on vacation (Metrine is on vacation and Levi's sister passed away so he is on leave). Matt started the week by taking the girls and the babies to the airport on Sunday. Then on Monday he began by taking Daniel, the village farmer and house parent, to the Eldoret feed store to buy chicken feed, molasses for the grain to feed the cows and goats, and a large variety of other assorted items for the farm and the village. Then he began taking three of the staff to assist with the daily feeding program at the Kambi Teso slum of Eldoret. On Sunday he will drive the staff to the village for church in the morning, drive Rachel and Baby Belle to the airport in the afternoon, drive Ruth and Baby Esther to the airport on Monday morning, drive Roselyn to see one of the sponsored Open Arms children at a school 40 kilometers away, and probably deliver some more eggs and other errands in the afternoon. (A lower percentage of Kenyans and exptriates here have drivers licenses or simply prefer not to drive - I can't say that I blame them). He really hopes that Metrine and Levi will be back soon.


Meanwhile, Cheryl is as busy as ever with taking care of babies, changing diapers, sterilizing bottles, filling them with formula, while at the same time learning Ruth's job as operations director so that when Ruth leaves for 3 months in early December, the wheels of this Open Arms operation in Kenya will continue to operate smoothly. We appreciate your prayers so much and hope that all is well at the homefront. We will miss our family, friends, and loved ones this Thanksgiving, but nevertheless we are so thankful for where God has placed us, and the opportunity we have been given while we are here. Of course we will also miss shopping at Walmart, turkey, and pumpkin spiced lattes at Starbucks, but surpisingly, and I know this is shocking news, a human being can survive without these three seemingly basic essentials. We hope to talk, and see you soon. Feel free to Skype with us on the internet or e-mail us at mattandcherylinafrica@gmail.com because we'd love to hear from you.

God bless you,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman