Busy in Africa, back in America

The last few months have been both amazing and familiar, wonderful and bittersweet, full of change, goodbyes, hellos, tears, and smiles. In early Jul

y we moved out to the village and began to enjoy more time with the children and more sleep at night (there were no dogs barking, no car horns honking, no Islamic call to prayer at 5AM from the local mosque, and even the roosters crowing were far enough away so not to be heard until after we were awake.

Shortly after we moved to the village, a team of 23 volunteers from the UK and the US came to stay at the village to help volunteer with a medical camp that Open Arms was sponsoring in the Kambi Teso slum of Eldoret. One of them brought a gift for the chief welfare officer at the village, Meshack via one of our volunteers Anna, who had heard that Meshack was a trombone player who had lost his instrument 10 years ago. When

Meshack picked up his trombone and began to play, it brought tears to the staff and volunteers who began to hear his rendition of Amazing Grace.

One of the first projects Matt began to work on when he moved to the village was to start a small convenience store or kiosk where the staff and construction workers at the village could buy our excess eggs, milk, and chickens, and where the local villagers could buy their local supplies. Meshack was the general manager, and Matt helped get the store stocked and got a lesson in what sells in Kenya (Matt spent 10 years working in the grocery business in the U.S. so he thought he knew). What sold the most in our little convenience store? Candy, soda (no surprise there), phone cards (to add minutes), bracelets and necklaces that the children at the village make and sell for the Western guests, kerosene (for lamps since most of our neighbors aren't hooked up to electricity yet), cooking fat (at a convenience store?), eggs, flour, sugar, and bar soap (for washing your clothes by hand). Anyway, the convenience store is doing well now, plenty of customers, and some happy neighbors who don't have to walk so far now to get their sugar, flour, kerosene, and bar soap.

After getting the store started, Matt and Cheryl got busy with setting up the medical camp along with the 23 other volunteers. Soon people started lining up at medical camp. It was five days of long hard work, helping with crowd control, praying with people, playing with children, helping the doctors and nurses, and distributing medicine from the prescriptions. We treated over 1800 people during the medical camp, prayed with hundreds of people, saw people with everything from cataracts to worms, and we even saw God heal some of them. 95 people decided to become Christians.

At the end of the week, we were pretty exhausted and tired, but still elated and excited to see what God did during the week. On the last day, we were tearing down the camp, and it started to rain as we were packing up to leave (it was the rainy season in Kenya) We hurried to get out of the area because we had already been stuck in the mud once on the way back to the village, and we made it past the area we got stuck in a few days earlier only to get stuck again further down the road, and this time we couldn't get out. We pushed and pushed the bus, only to get stuck even more. Finally after an hour we gave up since it was getting dark and decided to try again in the morning. We told the office that we were stuck and they sent out the truck to pick up as many of us as they could. We managed to fit 7 in the cab, and 20 in the back, and the rest of us began to walk back to town. Cheryl stood with 20 other girls in the back of the pickup in the driving rain while Matt began to walk the 7 miles back to the office with about 8 other guys. On the way back, the pickup truck got stuck in the mother of all traffic jams and Matt and the guys wound up beating the girls to the office. They were all cold and wet, and it was a good thing that electricity finally came to the village that night so everyone could take hot showers.

After all the hard work, Matt and Cheryl settled back at the village and Cheryl got her hair braided by the children. She also got to spend some time in the traditional village kitchen learning how to make chipatis and drinking chai. Matt and Cheryl watched Meshack play the trombone and church a few more times, and we had another team of volunteers from Portland come and help paint the children's homes and the school. We had a great time painting with them and playing with the children. As they enjoyed one of their last sunsets in Kenya, we were also preparing to leave Africa.

The toughest part of leaving was all of the goodbyes. We said goodbye to members of our volunteer team who were heading back to America before us. We also had to do some last minute shopping in town so we said goodbye to the Nakumatt where we did all of our shopping (we also said goodbye to our favorite taxi driver, Douglas, standing with Matt in front of the Nakumatt store). We ran into our friend George at the Eagle Hardware Store in Eldoret and said goodbye to him. We said goodbye to Elizabeth at our favorite souvenier shop in Eldoret. We said goodbye to a random lady in a phone charging station (where you go to give your phone an electrical charge when you live without electricity but with a cell phone) and goodbye to downtown Eldoret.

The hardest part of course was saying goodbye to the children and the babies. We got to spend some time playing with Diana and Esther before we left. We even got to celebrate Esther's first birthday and watch her take her first steps in life. We also spoke at out last Sunday morning service at the village while wearing some traditional African clothing. There was a going away campfire for us at the village a few nights before we left, and some kind words were said, but the hardest part was watching our last sunset in Eldoret and a goodbye party at one of the children's homes the night before we left. We said some goodbyes to the children and the houseparents, but as we left we had a lot of mixed emotions about saying goodbye to some lifelong friends, some children, and babies and getting ready to say hello to friends and family in Portland.

Before we left Kenya, we spent two days in Nairobi accompanying our friend Ruth from the UK and saying goodbye to her as we visited the Giraffe Sanctuary where Cheryl got kissed by a giraffe. We also visited the Kozuri Bead shop in Nairobi where hundreds of mothers are employed to help provide for their families. We helped support them as Cheryl spent most of our remaining money on souveniers. We also went to the National Museum in Nairobi and got a little culture before we got on the plane ride home to America

In Portland, friends and family were waiting for us as more tears, tears of happiness, were shed, and lots more hugs were given. It was great to get back to familiar faces, foods, sounds, and scenery, but occasionally something or someone triggers our memories of things, people, and life in Kenya. We have adjusted fairly well, moved back into our house, and back to work, but there are still some things that are difficult to become acclimated to. The driving in Portland is actually kind of boring now after driving on potted roads with constant obstacles. The food in Portland is more familiar and we have no complaints except for the few pounds that we've put back on in the past few weeks. We actually found ourselves craving Mexican food when we got back since there are no Mexican restaurants in Kenya.

We thought of a lot of things we haven't had for the past year (mostly very minor things). No flavored creamer for our coffee. No television (they have television in Kenya, but almost exclusively soap operas in Swahili). No reliable internet. No good ice cream (mostly stuff that tasted like ice milk and is more expensive). I am sure I can make this list a lot longer and maybe include some more in our next blog.

Of course there are also things we will miss now that we're back in Portland. Most of all the children at the village and the life-long friends that we have made over the past year. We look forward to seeing them again when we got to Africa again next year.

Until then,

Matt and Cheryl

Happy Madaraka Day, Happy Fourth of July, a Great Safari with Friends, and Other Assorted Tallman news

Hi everyone. We apologize again for our tardiness with blog entries. I just noticed that we didn't submit any blogs in June. In our defense, the month of June was absolutely bonkers, with a little fun in the middle, but enough about excuses, and our schedules are only going to get busier in July and August, so we best be writing this blog.

June started out with Madaraka Day, which commemorates the independence of Kenya. We went to a local celebration of the event on Tuesday, June 1st. Matt got to give a brief speech to the community about his thoughts on Madaraka Day. It was a fun event for the community, but they love their celebrations, and sometimes they can drag on for hours (this celebration lasted about 4 or 5 hours). Just the other night I was reminded once again of our own independence day, when I sat around the dinner table with quite a few friends from the UK and reminded them purposefully of how I was celebrating our 234th anniversary from the shackles of British oppression. Other than that, our 4th of July here was uneventful since the only place you can go to watch fireworks or celebrate the 4th in Kenya is at the US Embassy in Nairobi (I've been told that every US Embassy in the world offers a celebration for any US residents living abroad who want to participate.

At the village, things have been progressing at a fairly busy pace. The farm is going nicely. The egg production is going well and Matt has been busy with egg sales in town. In addition, the milk production at the village has increased significantly with the introduction of one Fresian/Holstein cow named Mama Rubina. Matt has already been involved in milk sales in town but with the recent addition of another Holstein named Tina who will give birth to a calf in October, the village should be positively swimming in milk. One other cow is expecting to deliver at that time, and another cow will be expecting next Spring. At this rate, I think the village will need to start a cheese and yogurt shop before too long. We have also had some wonderful donated computers at the Open Arms Academy that the children have been thoroughly enjoying.

Matt has had the opportunity to speak at a few churches in the past two months that could be described as memorable. Matt and Cheryl were invited by one of the houseparents at the village to speak at their home church in a rural area about 50 kilometers from the village (nevertheless, it took over 3 hours to drive there). The church was an Anglican church that had gathered three congregations inside a small church with over 200 people that normally would fit less than 100. As Matt began to preach, he heard the sound of sheep, goats, chickens, roosters, and other assorted livestock but this didn't surprise Matt since they were next to a farm. However, when roosters began clucking in front of the pulpit and a sheep walked right in front of Matt he began to wonder what was going on until the church offering began. Since many people in this rural area had very little or no money, they brought rice, beans, corn, chickens, sheep, potatoes, and whatever they had to give to the church. In addition, Matt received an honorarium of one healthy rooster which he promptly donated to the Open Arms Village farm on his return to town. Rooster Cogburn is doing quite well on the farm with his small following of local hens.

A few weeks ago, Matt and Cheryl had to say goodbye to Baby Diana as it was decided that after she turned two years old, it would be best for her to be integrated into one of the houses at the village. It has been a little less noisy around the house in Eldoret without feeding Diana or changing her diapers, but since Matt and Cheryl are moving out to the village tomorrow as we are writing this blog, we will get to see a lot more of Diana once again.

A few weeks after the Madaraka Day celebration in Mlango, about 200 people from the area came to the Open Arms Village to join us for a Baraza on Friday, June 11, which is basically like a local town hall meeting. Open Arms staff came and shared about current progress and future plans for the Open Arms Village, and local village elders and residents asked questions and make remarks about Open Arms and how we can best serve the community. It was a productive day, but we were ready for a little bit of a break.

That weekend, some old university friends of Matt, who now live in Oklahoma, came out for a visit. Randy serves as a pathologist in Oklahoma but every two or three years he comes out to volunteer for a month at a hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. This summer he brought his whole family and it was really great to see he and Luann and their children all grown up. They got to see the village and spend a little time in Eldoret, but we decided it would be great if we were able to spend the next weekend with them at Lake Nakuru National Park.

Cheryl and Matt had already been in Nakuru once before, but we had never been able to spend any time inside the park. We stayed two nights at an amazing lodge inside the park called Sarova Lion Hill Lodge, and we had three of the most spectacular days in our lives. We were greeted outside of the gate by monkeys that tried their best to steal or collect food from us. As we entered the park we were greeted by baboons, then zebras, water buffaloes, and over a million pink flamingoes (the flamingoes flying over Lake Nakuru have been one of the most photographed areas in Africa).

That evening we went on a game drive and saw our first rhinos, and our first lions in the wild. Reportedly, the park has more rhinos, both black and white, than any other park in the world, and we saw about 50 of them including a mama and baby rhino. The second evening we also got to see a whole pride of lions including three baby cubs that literally walked right by

our vehicle within six feet of our faces. We also saw two male impalas charge each other over territorial rights, saw two dozen giraffe, over one thousand water buffalo and zebra (not exaggerating) jackals, hyenas carrying away a carcass, all kinds of birds. The only two down sides of the park are that it is too small for elephants since they like to migrate a bit, and also the fact that the local university tried an experiment to release millions of mosquitos to counteract malaria bearing mosquitos. Wherever Matt and Cheryl walked around the lodge during the morning and evening, they were swarmed by thousands of mosquitos.

The food was marvellous that weekend at the lodge, and Matt and Cheryl enjoyed the company of Randy and Luann and their children. Matt managed to gain a few pounds with all that wonderful food. The upside/downside was that one week later Matt got an intestinal bug that left him frequenting the bathroom for the next three days, and enabled him to lose all the weight he gained on the safari and probably ten more pounds on top of that.

Matt and Cheryl came back to Eldoret refreshed and plunged right into busy work preparing for the summer volunteer teams that will be arriving beginning July 13 and trying to get a lot of last minute work done at the village to prepare for those teams to stay at the village. In addition, they, mostly Cheryl, have been working hard at preparing to move to the village tomorrow.

Probably the only other significant thing we have encountered in the past week in Eldoret has been in regards to the treatment of street children. It has been a subject that has grieved our hearts ever since Cheryl and I have been living here. We have seen street children in Portland sometimes when we have gone downtown, often children who have been abused or simply run away from home, but never to this magnitude. Some of these children as well have run away from home and others have run away from abusive situations. Some are forced onto the streets by their parents to beg because they have no money to eat at home. Many others are true orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS or other diseases or perhaps they have been displaced because of the political violence that erupted here two and a half years ago.

On the streets they face more abuse, poverty, disease, starvation, addiction to glue sniffing (the drug of choice here, to forget the pain of loss or hunger) and they are often forced into prostitution or street gangs. In addition, they are stigmatized and ignored by society, and unfortunately, the solution that the police have is to make the problem of street children disappear any way they can. They often round up the street children with whips, dogs, guns, and sticks forcing them out of the city, or rounding them up and putting them in prison, once again subjecting them to rape and drug addiction. Many of these children are younger than 10 years old, some only 5 years old. A few are born on the streets like Beatrice who now lives at our village and is thriving (if you want to learn more about the street children of Eldoret and see Beatrice before she came to the Open Arms Village Google Ross Kemp's documentary on the street children of Eldoret which has been featured on the BBC and other networks - Beatrice is prominently displayed with a shaved head, almost unrecognizeable, in the first video)

This crisis with street children came to a head this week when one of the street children was shot in the back of the head by a policeman. A few nights ago, one of our volunteers went out with Morris Mordecai, our Open Arms staff member working with the street children, to see how the children were doing. They couldn't be found anywhere, so Morris and Anna went to the city jail, and found 130 street children there sitting in their own feces and urine, in a small hall with no bed to sleep on except the cold, concrete urine soaked floor.

The next morning, Matt, Rachel, and Morris went to speak to the chief of police about all of this and proceeded to endure a one hour lecture in which he explained this wasn't his problem, that the policeman who shot the boy in the back of the head was acting in self defense, and that he was dismissing our claims and said we knew nothing about the problem of the street children of Eldoret. We went downstairs to give the street children in jail some bread and milk, and as we came outside we saw 30 more street children being unloaded from a truck, and prodded into the inhumanely overcrowded jail cell by police. (I am normally never this critical of police, but after watching police collecting bribes everyday on the streets of Eldoret and then nationally claiming that they do not accept bribes, while the United Nations ranks Kenyan police as the most corrupt police force in the world, I suppose I have become a little jaded. The experience with the chief of police yesterday only reinforced that criticism).

I know ending this blog with such a depressing and seemingly hopeless problem might be a little discouraging but I thought I should share it with those of you who read this. The good news is that Rachel has talked with the head of the Remand Center where most of the children have now been taken (our version of a Juvenile Detention Center) and she said we want to take the youngest 8 street children from the Remand Center and bring them to the Open Arms Village (that is all we have room for right now at the Village). It might only make a small difference in the challenges hundreds of street children face everyday in Eldoret, and we fear, after meeting with the chief of police, that the police may resort to a more permanent solution to the "problem" of street children by continuing to round them up and even kill them (it has happened here before on a small scale and most notoriously with the street children of Brazil two or three decades ago), but this will make a world of difference for eight street children who have no future right now. We will keep you updated.

Blessings,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman