Matt and Cheryl in Africa

Visiting a local farm, seeing the staff again, leading a prayer dedication service, interviewing new house parents, and much more

2011-08-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

We had a long list of items to complete on our short visit to the village this summer. First, and most important, on our list of things to do, was to spend more time with the children at the village. We got to spend more nights in the homes of the children, and more days playing football in the field, or spending more time in the new playground with the younger children at the village.

It was also great seeing staff and old friends at the village as well. Some of them, like Meshack pictured above, we may not see again (at least working at the village, since he'll be retiring in a few months). Others, like Esther, seated next to Maureen, were new friends we got to meet and spend time with at the village. Of course, we also got to spend time with old friends like Ruth Major, from the UK, and new volunteers from the US like Karleigh Vroman and Rachel Gulden.

We also got to spend breakfast at the home of one of our newer staff members, Paula Magoi, visiting her family, and enjoying her hospitality. In addition, she invited us to a friends farm after the breakfast to get more of the local culture and flavor, and also get some new ideas for sustainability and farming at the village. The house was surrounded by 70 acres of fertile farming land including lots of pineapple bushes (I thought pineapples grew on trees until this visit), plenty of the usual maize fields, lots of dairy cows, banana trees, avocado trees, mango trees, sugar cane, and a few other assorted vegetables and fruits. We purchased plenty of avocado for the whopping price of 6 cents each, and pineapple for 25 cents a piece. In addition, the farmer gave us plenty of free sugar cane as a gift to the children at the village (Cheryl and I also tried chewing on a little sugar cane ourselves...very chewy but sweet). Of course, the time and the hospitality at the farm exceeded Western standards as we were fed and treated to lots of food and fellowship. We left the village at 9AM and expected to spend only about 5 to 6 hours visiting the farm, but we were not back until 6PM and we were thoroughly exhausted.

The next Sunday, we were asked to lead the Sunday service, and we were treated to some new dances and new songs at the village in addition to being given the opportunity to speak to the village children and staff. After the service, we had lunch with the families and then we organized a prayer dedication service for the village, the children and the staff. We began organizing this event several weeks before we arrived, as we decided to plan a day of prayer to provide healing, restoration, and dedication for the children at the village, especially those who have been abandoned, abused, neglected, battered, and broken before they came to the Open Arms Village. It was a wonderful time of prayer and healing for the village, that helped lay a foundation for the future.

We also got to visit a neighboring school in Eldoret to give us some fresh ideas for the future growth of the school at the Open Arms Village. In addition, we were able to spend a full day interviewing prospects for our next children's home, and also a children's counselor that is needed at the village. After a full day of interviews, we had to begin to say goodbye to all of our friends, and especially the children at the village as we prepared to have a little fun and relaxation at the end of our time in Africa. We'll share a little more about that in our next blog.

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Back in Africa

2011-07-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

It was a long trip to Kenya this time, but we had fun along the way. We stopped in London for an 8 hour layover, and hopped on the express train from Heathrow to downtown London. After going through security and immigration, it only left enough time to go see Buckhingham Palace, the changing of the guard, Trafalgar Square, lunch at Garfunkels with bangers and mash, mushy peas, a walk through St. James Park, and we could see Big Ben and the Eye (the millenium ferris wheel) from a distance.

We arrived in Nairobi early in the morning and barely had time to hop on a plane to Eldoret, but, after 35 hours of flying, it was great seeing familiar faces at the airport and even better, seeing the children greet us at the village when we arrived.

The flowers were in full bloom at the village, and a variety of beautiful and colorful birds greeted us at the village as well.
On the first full day at the village, we also got to try something new to us and to the children at the village...grilled rabbit. We have raised some rabbitts at the village for almost two years, but no one had tried to eat any until Melvin got out the grill and decided it was time to try something new. It was a huge hit. Good for the sustainability of the village, and the nutrition of the children...but probably bad for the rabbits. Just as big of a hit were the games we brought to play with the children at night. We tried to spend at least one evening in each of the homes while we stayed at the village. First we visited Amani house and handed out card games, matching games, and the most popular item of all, glow sticks. Things got pretty crazy when we turned off the lights and the children started dancing across the room.

After handing out licorice, and other forms of high energy, sugary food to the children we left them with the house parents. After leaving the children happy, energetic, and sleepless, we proceeded to plan the first project on our long list of things to do while we were at the village...a marriage retreat for the now sleep deprived house parents. The marriage retreat turned out to be a lot of fun and a learning experience for us as well as the house parents as we learned about different expectations, roles, and needs for men and women in African and Western society. We had a lot of laughs and a great time together.

We also got to spend some time with the babies at the new Open Arms baby house, an item high on Cheryl's priority list. Cheryl got to hold Dina and Diana (in the photo below on the right she's holding Dina and Diana is lying next to her) two of our newest babies at the village, twins that were abandoned and brought to the village. Dina is wrapped in a blanket made and donated by Rhonda Hobizal.

Two of our favorite babies at the village, Esther and Diana are no longer babies anymore. Esther (pictured above held by Cheryl) is growing quickly as a toddler, and enjoying the ability of walking and exploring everywhere she can around the village. Diana, almost unrecognizable in the photo to the right, has grown so fast, it is hard to believe. She is already in pre-school, which is customary here, at the age of 3. She is also at the top of her pre-school class, and learning quickly.

We will include more on the village, and what we have been doing in our next blog, soon to come out shortly.

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

The end of my Kenya trip and back home

2011-04-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

Matt at the feeding program in Kambi Teso Children's Home #6 is getting built

Right now I am sitting in the Nairobi airport where the air is hot and humid (sorry I didn't get this posted until two weeks after I wrote it). It always seems that way as I pass through here, but when you've been enjoying a much more temperate climate in Eldoret, Kenya, with highs in the low 80s year round, and you're flying to Portland, with a current high of about 45 to 50 degrees, the air in the Nairobi airport seems downright stiffling.

It has been a whirlwind tour the last twelve days in Africa and far too short. Nevertheless, it has been good as the Open Arms board has been able to map out a plan for the future of the Open Arms Village and how we can proceed as we add new children, new homes, and new ministry opportunities to the village. After a busy week with board meetings, the weekend seemed rather slow, as we were able to go swimming with the children in Upendo House on Saturday down at the river. Matt took on the role of a crocodile chasing after the children in the swimming hole as they giggled and screamed to get away. Sunday was a memorable day as the village participated in another guardian's day at the village where relatives, extended families, and friends of the children were invited to come and visit. Matt was asked to speat at the church service, as 53 children, about 35 staff members, and about 50 to 60 visitors and guardians from the community enjoyed the festivities. About a dozen adults responded to an invitation to become Christians, and all of the adults responded to a re-commitment to help oversee the welfare of the 53 children at the village.

The newest member of the Open Arms Village, Agnes, arrived just three days before Guardian's Day, less than 2 years old, living on the streets of Eldoret and all of her life thus far, and now a recent orphan. She is adjusting well to life at the village, but she is having a difficult time sleeping through the night. Nevertheless, she is smiling, happy, and eating well.

On Monday, Matt and David went into town to do a little shopping and get haircuts (a haircut in Eldoret is a much better deal - about $4 - and they do a good job). While we wre waiting at an appointment, Matt noticed the clock on the wall had a brand name of "Sicko". Must be a poor knockoff of Seiko but they didn't consider the awkward English translation (a quick Google search didn't reveal any web page that "Sicko" has for any clock manufacturers).

David also informed Matt of a few other strange and serious developments in Kenyan culture while they were admiring the Sicko clock on the wall. Recently, David recieved a letter from a pastor who called himself a "Minister to Road Carnage" (apparently the matatu drivers in Kenya have been getting worse and more lethal with their driving skills). On a much more serious note, David and Matt discussed the treatment of street children in Eldoret as a particular policeman in Eldoret has been on a recent rampage to eliminate the population of street children through any means possible, including shooting children, throwing battery acid in the faces of children, using whips, police dogs, and other means of intimadation and torture. Fortunately, a national journalistic team will feature an expose of the policemen's injustice hopefully ending his career as a policeman.

I just boarded the plane and the air conditioning feels wonderful. Looking forward to an uneventful flight and a warm hug from Cheryl when I get back to Portland.

Until next time,

Matt

Back in Kenya

2011-04-08T01:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, It has been awhile since my last post. I apologize, but I thought I would take a hiatus since I was back in the US, but I got the chance to come back to Kenya for some meetings this month, and Cheryl and I get to come back for a longer stay in July. Hopefully, I will interject a few blogs over the next few months as we continue our adventures in Africa. I also have to apologize for the lack of photos. They are on my camera, but I have not downloaded the program for my camera to my new computer yet. I will add some photos at a later time. I arrived back in Kenya on the evening of March 31 after an uneventful flight across the Atlantic with one layover in Amsterdam. I was feeling a little sleep deprived, but it helped that I had plenty of reading material and movies to watch on the plane. After I arrived in Nairobi, I was ready to go to bed. I woke up the next morning, and it seemed like I had never left Kenya. The weather was wonderful, about 80 degrees and sunny, the matatu drivers are still crazy, and the streets of Nairobi are still bustling full of people. I spent the morning and afternoon running a few errands in Nairobi for Open Arms, and then got to the airport early for my flight to Eldoret. They didn't know what to do with me at the check in counter. Even though they complemented me for showing up early (3 hours before the flight departed), they wouldn't let me check in my luggage until 2 hours before flight departure. I got to Eldoret safely, and we went out for dinner at one of our favorite places, Mamma Mias. It was good to see our old friend Ricki managing the restaurant, and to say hello to some of the waiters who recognized me from frequenting the place so often. We hopped back in the van and took some luggage over to one of the children's homes, and got to say hi to all the children in Upendo. It was so good to hear them say "Daddy Matt" and greet me with open arms. So many of the children have been growing, and I saw several new faces. Upendo House is bursting at the seams, beyond capacity, with 18 children, but soon the next children's home will be opened to help with the always growing demand for more children to come to the village. The next day we had church at the village, and afterwards, we got to go swimming with the children in the river. It was so cute to see Esther and Belle swim in the river for the first time. With the dry season, the river is very low, but there are some shallow pools that the smaller children can safely swim in. It was a great time seeing the children have so much fun. On Monday, our meetings got started with introductions, and from there we had four very busy days, with some marathon planning sessions that will help bring direction for the future of Open Arms over the next several years. It was great to actually see all the board members together from the three separate boards in the US, UK, and Kenya, get a chance to know some new people, and reacquaint myself with some old friends. It seemed like after some exhausting meetings every day I went to bed early every night. The only excitement was on Tuesday night seeing an Atlas Moth fly into the guest house which caused quite a bit of excitement. For those of you who don't know, the Atlas Moth, so I've been told, is the largest moth in the word, and this particular moth had a wing span of about 6 or 7 inches, although Cheryl and I saw one at Mt. Elgon, Kenya that had a wing span of about 8 inches. Some people thought it was a bat when it first flew in, but we managed to shut off the lights, and safely lead it outside, where it flew around one of our outside lights for awhile. Now the meetings are over, and I actually have a little time to blog. I will try and send another blog this weekend. Until then, Matt (and Cheryl the next time we come to Kenya)

Busy in Africa, back in America

2010-09-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

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

A Little Rest and a Lot of Work

2010-05-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

We are doing well in Eldoret, but it has been a very busy month. Sorry about the absence of posts for awhile, but it may not get much better as our schedule intensifies with the arrival of summer volunteer teams and the uncertainty of internet service at the village when we move out there in the next few weeks.

We started out May with a new term at school and the arrival of three new children: Ken, Zadok, and Victor, all brothers who were rescued by another agency and sent to us by the local district children's office. We also have just received a fourth new boy at the village this week named Martin.

We have had quite a lot of activity at the village: Sunday morning services with the children, a new youth group and children's church that Matt and Cheryl started, Wednesday afternoon Bible Study with the construction crew, and of course the day to day activities at the farm. The new dairy cow at the village has just given birth to a calf which has turned out to be quite a blessing for the village - maybe too much of a blessing - since the momma cow is giving at least 30 liters of milk every day. Along with the other dairy cow, this leaves more than enough milk at the village, so Matt has become a milk man along with an egg salesman.

The absence of two volunteers from the UK for five weeks, Dave and Linda Munsie, has also increased Matt's duties, since both of them were drivers for Open Arms (available drivers are scarce here since most of the Kenyan Open Arms staff don't have drivers licenses or driving experience and much of the other UK and US Kenyan staff are too scared to drive in Kenya - including Cheryl - can't say I blame them - I was driving in downtown Eldoret a few days ago and a matatu driver or what we might call a taxi driver in a van came out of a store parking lot and rushed across busy traffic just missing me by inches only to park on the other side of the street - that is a normal everyday occurrence in Eldoret).

We got a break from the business of our schedule and spent two nights at a lovely lodge outside of Nakuru next to the Menengei Crater. It was a beautiful view to wake up to every morning, and the food at this lodge was by far the most spectacular food we have had in Kenya. It was a lovely way to spend our 2nd anniversary! And a wonderful two years it has been!

On the way back from Menengei Crater, we stopped at Lake Nakuru National Park. We decided to just go to the entrance and the gift shop to forego the expensive entrance fee since we are planning on going back there with some friends later in June. However, sitting outside the gift shop was a treat in itself as we were beseiged by playful monkeys that made several attempts at sneaking inside our vehicle and wanting food from us.

After we got back from Lake Nakuru, we celebrated Diana's 2nd birthday that night. We bought a nice doll for her in Nakuru and everyday for the next two weeks she sang happy birthday everyday and reminded us that she was now two years old.

We hope this month we'll be as exciting as May, but a little less busy.

We'll blog again soon,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Matt and Cheryl had a Farm...E I E I Yo

2010-05-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been fairly busy down at the Open Arms farm. We have been searching for a new cow for quite some time. One of our two milk cows got too old and so it became ground beef. However, searching for a new cow is not as easy as it seems. It involved searching at quite a few farms, negotiating, and finally when we found the right cow, we had to find a way to transport it to our village. I was looking forward to spending some quality time with "Bessie Mae" in the back end of a pick up truck, but as it turned out we had plenty of help to get the cow to the village and she behaved very nicely as we drove the 35 kilometers from one farm to our village.

"Bessie Mae" as we'll call her for now (some people who donated the money will actually name her) is a very large Friesian cow who will probably give about 25 to 30 liters of milk every day after her new calf is born in about a week from now. With the addition of this cow we will have plenty of milk for the village, the office and the babies in town, and even a fair amount left over to sell.

We have also been into chickens quite a bit lately...literally. Of course we have had our layer chickens laying about 90 eggs per day, and while the village and the office eats almost half of these, that still leaves a lot of eggs to sell every week...and Matt has been the designated egg man, finding restaurants and small stores who want to buy the eggs.

However, the chicken project that has really occupied Matt's time the past week has been the broiler chicken project. 61 chickens were ready to be slaughtered this week, and Matt had to get his hands dirty, cutting, plucking, cleaning, bagging, weighing, and marking each chicken. At the end of the big harvest day, Matt didn't "feel like chicken tonight" but he sured smelled like it. Cheryl wouldn't even let him enter the bedroom until he first took a shower.

If that weren't enough to deal with this week, Matt also had the opportunity to help slaughter a ram for a big feast at the village as the children prepared for Guardian's Day, a quarterly celebration where the children get the opportunity to interact with aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who get to spend the day with the children. While the ram had to be manhandled quite a bit since he wasn't eager to become that days meal, Matt somehow managed to avoid too much of the prep work for the ram as he prepared for the Guardian's Day ceremony.

We probably had close to 100 people attend the Guardian's Day ceremony as Open Arms staff, children, and nearly 50 relatives and friends of the children joined together to share a meal (which of course included mutton). It was a great celebration, but Matt will probably be avoiding mutton and chicken for awhile.

A Bugs Life - In Africa

2010-05-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

My Bad. I haven't written on this blog for 3 weeks. I could say we've been busy, which we have but that is still no excuse, even if you're fighting flying termites from hell and spiders so large they really belong in a horror movie.

The flying termites first showed up at our house last Saturday, April 24 just after dusk during a rain storm. They were attracted to the light and soon some of them found their way inside our house. Fortunately only about 3 dozen got inside before we closed all the windows and sealed all the cracks, but Cheryl was a little freaked out. We could hear them outside of our bedroom window hitting the window because we had our bedroom light on. The next morning we saw hundreds of wings left from these termites on our front porch and when I turned the corner I saw several thousand wings piled up under a security light that had been left on all night long. In that pile there were still hundreds of termites who had shed their wings and were now travelling who knows where.

We had talked to some of the staff previously about this annual migration of flying termites, and some of the staff said they enjoy collecting the termites and frying them. Cheryl said she wanted to try eating them until she saw hundreds of them crawling out of that pile last Sunday morning before we headed to church. She decided to leave them for any of the staff that might want to try them.

This Saturday, once again, at dusk, after a heavy rain, I spotted two of them on flying on the front porch, grabbed my camera, and within two minutes, there were over 100 flying around the light at the front porch. This photo doesn't do justice to the amount of flying termites we saw, but it gives you an idea.

We have also seen some extraordinarily large grasshoppers at our home in Eldoret, in addition to quite a few more at the Open Arms Village. We haven't had the camera ready when one comes hopping by but they're about 4 times the size of grasshoppers at home. And of course, the staff and the children at the Open Arms Village love to eat them as a snack (although they don't like some that are a certain color).

We have also seen quite a few spiders crawling around at the house in Eldoret, but according to one of our volunteers at the village, the mother of all spiders showed up in one of the homes at our village. Of course we have seen a fair number of average to good size spiders while we've been here, but apparently our village superviser confirmed and killed a spider that was in one of our volunteer's rooms at the village and apparently had a 12 leg span. Unfortunately, they were too terrified to take a photo, and the village supervisor grabbed a can of bug spray to dispatch of the gargantuan spider. I actually looked on the internet at spiders before we came to Africa and found out that the only spider that large is the Goliath Bird Spider which resides mostly in Brazil, but maybe some of the spiders here are eating some good meals or maybe this volunteer exaggerated the size of this spider as she fled the room and ran for help. This photo is not one of ours, just the one from the internet. Either way, Cheryl nor I are planning on eating any spiders soon.

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

P.S. We'll try and send more photos and stories in the next day or two to catch up on what is going on.

Ending the School Term, Easter Service, and other Events from Eldoret, Kenya

2010-04-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy but wonderful time in Kenya for the past few weeks. At the beginning of April we had a brief ceremony at Open Arms Academy comemmorating the completion of our first term. We had several local officials join us including two area chiefs, a representative from the District Education Office, and the District Children's Officer. In addition most of our staff from our Eldoret Office, all of the children at the village, all of the house parents, and almost all of the village staff attended the event.

The children were very excited to be wearing their brightly colored new school uniforms. We began the ceremony with a flag raising ceremony, the first of its kind at the Open Arms Village. We concluded the event by awarding the top achievers in each class a special award and giving all of the children some sweets and other sugary substances which the house parents sincerely thanked us for.

On Easter Sunday morning every one at the house in Eldoret and at the village in Mlango got dressed up for Easter. This included Baby Esther and Baby Diana who were the two best dressed babies at the Open Arms Easter service. The children gave a very brief but creative version of the Easter drama beginning with the Passion Week, and the oldest boy, Abel (the one in the blue shirt) playing the part of Jesus. We had a wonderful time with the children at the village, and after the service we all had lamb, potatoes, and lentils (fortunately no goat intestines for this meal). After the meal, we had the first ever Open Arms Village Easter Egg Hunt or at least something like it. None of the children at the village were familiar with this Western tradition, but a group of visitors from the UK brought plastic baby chicks which they hid in various spots throughout the village and every child had to find so many of them. At the end of the hunt, each child was wide eyed with astonishment and excitement as they received chocolates, oranges, cookies, and other prizes.

This week involved several visits to the village as Matt inspected the progress on the building project at the village. In fact, four of the five orphanage homes have been completed and the three visitor cottages are close to completion as the first phase of the building project comes to fruition. In fact, the roofs are up on all three visitor cottages, plastering, plumbing, and electricity is completed in the first two cottages, and rumor has it that the floor tiles on the first visitor cottage are being installed as I write this blog. We hope that the visitor cottages will be completed in time for our summer teams to be able to stay at the village in June, July, and August. Matt has also been leading a Bible Study on Wednesdays with the work crew during their lunch hour. He started a month ago and eighteen men showed up at the first Bible Study. The Bible Study has been growing every week with a few new visitors and this week forty people came for the meetings. In addition, Elly Amollo, the local contractor overseeing the building project at the village says the workers have become more industrious, hard-working, and they are even beginning to pray for each other.

Cheryl has been busy working at the office, but help has arrived. Ruth from Manchester, England, just came back to Eldoret this week. Cheryl had been overseeing Ruth's job as the Operations Director for Open Arms while she's been gone for the past four months but now that she is back, Cheryl and Ruth are sharing duties much to the relief of both of them. In addition, another couple from England, Dave and Linda Munsie, arrived a month ago, and Linda has been helping to improve the accounting systems for the Open Arms office and Dave has been overseeing the construction at the village allowing Matt a little more time to work on more projects.

Nevertheless, this weekend, Matt and Cheryl are relaxing, catching up on some reading, some blogging, and a little well reserved rest. We will keep you updated on our adventures and events at the village soon.

Kwahere,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

We Have a Place Prepared for You, Down on the Farm, the Open Arms Choir, and other Assorted Events in Eldoret

2010-03-22T01:48:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last two weeks working at the office and spending time at the village helping to get things running with the school and the farm. Of course sometimes things don't always go as planned down on the farm. Last week we found out that one of the milking cows was not pregnant but just old (that's why she had stopped producing milk) and so she was sent off to the butcher. This week we were at the village playing with the children during a school break and one of the young calves broke her right front leg while playing with the other calf in the field. The verdict is still out if the young calf will wind up being veal, but we are hoping for a longer life for this little calf. In the mean time, one of the sheep broke its hind leg and so the village has been eating mutton for a few weeks. Such is life down on the farm.

The chickens are doing fine laying eggs, but we have also been raising broiler chickens, but they don't seem to be getting bigger so I guess we'll have to change the feed. At least the children at the village are getting fed plenty of eggs, lots of "ugale" for the maize we raised last year, and some milk (much more milk in the future due to two generous donors who are going to buy two milking cows for us). We honestly didn't think we would be quite this involved with farming when we got here, but it is all part of running a village.

Of course we can't have a decent blog without an obligatory photo of Baby Esther and Baby Belle having a little play time.

The school is doing well, but we had to have two interview sessions in the past two weeks to hire new teachers. We are still a young school, but we are starting to find our groove as teachers are helping the children learn and grow. It has been a learning experience getting the school started but we will have completed our first term of Open Arms Academy at the end of next week, and some of our children are already advancing one year ahead in school (some of them need to because they have lost so many years of school already, and others are bright and learning so quickly).

Sundays at the village have always been a joy spending time with the children and having church at the village. The Open Arms choir at the village keeps on growing, and we are definitely looking forward to a great celebration with the children and the staff on Easter Sunday. We have already had some funds donated for musical instruments at the village so some of the children are learning how to play an electric keyboard. Hopefully I'll be able to buy a guitar in town in the near future so that I can teach some of the children how to play the guitar. Soon we'll not only have an Open Arms Choir but also an Open Arms Band.

One of our first long-term guests at the village, Elliott Berry, will be going back home to England after a three month stay in one of the homes. He has been an excellent house-guest, helping on the farm, helping to teach the children English in the school, and spending a lot of time playing with the children during their free time. We have also been spending some time getting the guest rooms in each orphanage home furnished over the past few months so future guests won't have to live in quite the spartan manner that Elliott has grown accustomed to. In fact, we have put new beds, wardrobes, carpets, and curtains in the rooms in the past month. In addition, we hope to have a permanent electricity supply installed at the village sometime in the next two months, and internet service won't be too far after that.

We are also completing our visitor cottages in the next two months so larger teams from the US and the UK won't have to stay at a hotel in Eldoret, when they can stay at our village, just a short five minute drive from the airport. Fortunately, it looks like we'll hopefully be ready just in time for our summer teams in June, July, and August. The roofs are up on all three cottages; plastering is completed on all the walls in the first two homes; and tile work, plumbing, and electical installations will commence in the next week or two. Finally, we can say we have prepared a place for you when you come to visit us at our Open Arms Village.

Even better yet, when electricity and internet service our installed at the village, we can also move the Open Arms Office in Eldoret, and ourselves, to the Open Arms Village in Mlango. We are looking forward to that day. Maybe you can come out and visit us this summer, join one of the summer teams, or become another long term guest like Elliott Berry. We hope to see you soon.

Pie Day, Future Cheer Leaders, and other Kenyan News

2010-03-15T03:11:00.000-07:00

Just saying hi again from beautiful Eldoret, Kenya. We have had a great week in Kenya with beautiful sunny weather, a high of about 78 degrees during the day, and a low of about 55 degrees at night. While the rest of you are adjusting to Daylight Savings Time, there is none here. Not really a need for one. The sun rises and sets at the same time every day of the year: about 6:30 in the morning and 6:30 in the evening.

This weekend was a great weekend for food and a little play time with the babies. Diana dressed up like a little cheerleader and a future cheerleader for Open Arms Academy. I will have to forgive whoever gave her the miniature Ohio State cheerleading outfit, but it did look cute on her.

On Saturday evening we were preparing dinner and quite by chance realized that everything we ate was a form of a pie. Cheryl and Renee made some Shepherd's pie, and Rachel and Renee made peach pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. In addition, Elliott ordered pizza pie since he is a 19 year old teenager who doesn't like much else other than pizza. The irony of eating all this pie is that I suddenly realized it was already "pi day" in Tokyo (get it - pi day - 3/14 - March 14). The student ministry I used to lead would always celebrate "pi day" by gathering together and making and eating as many different types of pie as possible. Here we are in Kenya once again, accidentally, celebrating that wonderful tradition.

On Sunday we had more leftover pie for breakfast, and leftover Shepherd's Pie for dinner, but in between we went to the village and celebrated our weekly worship service with the children at the village. The children at the village help lead the worship and also helped lead some skits during the service. Matt delivered his fourth sermon of the week at the village, a little higher than average. Matt also spoke at to the children at the village a week earlier, spoke to the Open Arms staff at the Open Arms office in Eldoret on Monday, and spoke to the construction workers at the Open Arms village on Wednesday.

Today seems to be a catch up day for everything we didn't get enough of this weekend. I think I'll go back to bed for awhile and sleep off some of the extra pie I ate this weekend, but not before I have another piece of peach pie!

Blessings,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Our time in Mozambique, and Back to Kenya

2010-03-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry we have neglected our blog site for the past three weeks, but we promise to be more diligent in the future. Quite frankly, we were enjoying our time of rest and relaxation in Mozambique to be concerned about writing things down in a blog. While most of the United States was being blanketed with successive snow storms during much of February we spent February 16 to February 27 on a sunny, warm beach in Pemba, Mozambique getting a sun tan, and enjoying all the amenities of a beautiful view staying in a beautiful hotel. Sometimes it really pays off to be doing missionary work in Africa!

Just before we left for Pemba, we had one last Sunday at the Open Arms Village with the children. Rachel Gallagher came with her mom to the village and we got to hand out new school backpacks for the children that a generous donor provided. Two year old Beatrice helped lead worship on Sunday morning, and Matt gave a sermon on the story of Gideon in the Bible. We also viewed the farm at the village, and got to see the new broiler chicken project at the village with the addition of over 100 chickens who will provide many future chicken dinners for the children at the village.

After one of many busy weekends along with dozens of extremely busy weeks in Eldoret, we really needed the rest in Pemba. We got a great deal on a beautiful 5-Star resort in Pemba right on the beach. Just sitting by the pool all day was as relaxing as it appears in these photos. One day we went snorkeling, another day we went shopping in Pemba, one day we went sea kayaking, and one day we walked around old-town Pemba, but most of the time we spent time at the pool or taking long walks on the beach. (Don't you just want to join us in Africa right now). While snorkeling we saw all sorts of tropical fish, coral reefs, and dolphins. While sea kayaking, we mostly saw a lot of waves, as both of us capsized while trying to exit or enter the surf.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife in Pemba, mostly the largest snails we have ever seen, lots of crabs on the beach, and on one late night stroll along the beach, we saw dozens of eels trying to apparently spawn in the tidepools during a full moon. They splashed around quite a bit when we approached the tidepools, but it was quite a site. We also saw the largest baobab trees we have ever seen (they apparently grow quite well along the coast of Mozambique and Madagascar).

After 12 days in Mozambique, we were rested and relaxed and ready to go back to Kenya. We stayed two more days in Nairobi before we headed back to Eldoret. The last night we were in Nairobi, we went and watched a movie in a movie theater for the first time in six months (there are no movie theaters in Eldoret but Nairobi has several of the dozen or so movie theaters in East Africa). We decided to watch Avatar in a beautiful theather (unfortunately it wasn't in 3-D so we'll have to wait until we come back to the US to see it in 3-D), and after 3 hours of sensory overload in the theater (the special effects were amazing), Matt took Cheryl to the Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi for some gastronomical overload. Cheryl had never been to the Carnivore before but it is one of the most famous restaurants in East Africa for good reason. After they sat us down at the table, they began to pile roast beef, 3 types of chicken, 3 types of sausage, ostrich meat, crocodile meat, 3 types of pork, and probably a few other types of meat on our plate, until we finally said enough (not a place for vegetarians).

We arrived back in Eldoret on March 1, and we have been busy since then catching up on overseeing the Open Arms staff, hiring a new teacher at the school, a new staff employee at the office, overseeing construction at the village, selling eggs from the village, and introducting ourselves to the new children at the village. Before we left for Mozambique, the Open Arms Village had just brought Mary to the village and they had just hired a new set of house parents, Paul and Sarah Maswai. Now they have accepted four more children to the village: Desmond, Naomi, Rhoda, and Caleb. The number of children at the village is now at 31, with 3 babies at the home/office in Eldoret. With the new set of house parents, and a new orphanage home just completed (the Amani Home, which means "peace" in Kiswahili), the Open Arms Village will continue to grow rapidly over the next few months.

Other changes that occurred while we were in Mozambique included the addition of some furniture for the new orphanage homes. Rachel Gallagher and Renee Scobel purchased some carpets for the children's bedrooms and also some carpets, sofas, and chairs for the living rooms. In addition, washing machines, dining room tables, and other assorted items are helping to convert the Orphanage Houses into homes.

We wish all of you the best and we miss you, but right now we don't miss the cold, rainy weather back in Portland, and even more snow in other parts of the country. Come out and visit us this Spring or Summer. It stays warm (but not too warm) and sunny here in Eldoret year round.

Have a blessed week.

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Going on Vacation and Other Assorted News

2010-02-14T04:09:00.000-08:00

We are preparing to leave Kenya for a forced vacation, courtesy of the Kenyan immigration office. Not that we aren't complaining, we are actually looking forward to a little rest and relaxation. However, we were supposed to leave Kenya on Friday, heading for Tanzania, but a funny thing happened as we were about ready to head out of town. We knew that after six months were done we would have to leave Kenya for about a week or two, but we didn't know that Kenya had just changed their immigration laws in January requiring us to leave East Africa for a week or two if we wanted to return to Kenya.

Matt had already spent a great deal of time planning a vacation in Tanzania spending some time at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro and visiting some of the national parks to see some more scenery and wild animals. It is surprising how much harder it is to plan a vacation here since no travel search engines include the continent of Africa and no local travel agents cater to planning trips outside of Kenya. Nevertheless, Matt persevered to create the ideal itinerary only to be detoured after a brief visit to the local immigration office the day before we were planning to leave for Tanzania.

The detour has left us in Eldoret a few days longer, but rest assured we will leave Kenya before our visa expires. We were actually able to throw together another vacation at a beach on the coast of Mozambique. Nevertheless, we will be back in Kenya in two weeks with a new visa. Perhaps all this is for the best. We will probably enjoy a more relaxing vacation on a warm sunny beach and we won't run the risk of being eaten by lions in the Serengeti (Matt actually watched a movie a few years back where tourists ran out of fuel in the Serengeti and they consequently became a tasty meal for some local lions).

Speaking of tasty meals, Matt and Cheryl enjoyed a delicious Valentine's Day dinner today at Mamma Mia's Restaurant in Eldoret. It wasn't what Matt had quite envisioned, spending the evening looking into Cheryl's eyes at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, but it was nevertheless a romantic evening in Eldoret.

Things are progressing well at the Open Arms Village this week. We will be bringing on a new set of house parents, Paul and Sarah Maswai tomorrow. As they move into Home #4, we will prepare to accept 20 more children over the next few months. We are already planning on accepting 4 or 5 new children at the village in the next week.

We are also doing well at the school. We are planning on hiring one more teacher in the next few weeks to help prepare for the influx of new children at the village. Of course the babies are doing well also. We have had a lot of fun with all three babies back in the house. You'll enjoy this video of Baby Esther using the Johnny Jump Up to do a little dance.

There will be a lack of hands to help with the babies when Matt and Cheryl depart for Mozambique on Tuesday. Rachel's mom Miriam will be leaving on the same day which only leaves Renee to assist Rachel with three babies while we are gone. Please keep Rachel and Renee in your prayers as they will be knee deep in dirty diapers, formula, and baby wipes while we are gone.

Babies, buildings, beautiful views, and bodily hair follicles

2010-02-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

It seems that as the weeks progress, our perspectives, or at least what we think is important has been altered by Africa.

Take ear hair for instance. When I was a young boy I was always fascinated by the amount of ear hair that my 7th grade social studies teacher could collect in one ear, or the one single long strand of hair on my mother's chin that, no matter how long I would stare at her chin, my mother seemed oblivious to my fascination (actually she was purposefully ignoring me so she could avoid the fact that she was going through menopause).

However, no matter how long I may try to ignore the fact that I am getting older, the reality is that I am growing hair everywhere except the top of my head. About two months and a half months ago, my electric razor and my beard and mustache trimmer both gave up the ghost during the same week, probably due to the fact that they didn't convert very well to 240V electricity under the East African system. I tried to strain as much battery power out of each of these devices as I possibly could, but after a few weeks nothing happened. I finally resorted to shaving with foam and a hand razor which was fine for most of my face, but did nothing for my neatly trimmed beard.

I went around Eldoret shopping for electric razors and beard trimmers that would be suitable for my purposes, but all I found was a 1950s era razor that was good for giving the top of my head a buzz cut (one that I already had due to the natural erosion caused by aging and alopecia) but it did nothing for my goatee style beard or worse yet my nose hair and ear hair. After a period in time, I had more hair in my nose and my ears than I had on top of my head, and my goatee became noticeably straggly and bushy. The other American and UK staff here began teasing me recently about the amount of hair in my ears, and my dear sweet wife Cheryl even noticeably reduced the amount of times she would kiss me on any given day due to my straggly beard or possible the sight of ear hairs poking out of the side of my head (To the Kenyan staff and other people we have encountered in Kenyan culture, they seem amazed that we kiss our spouses in public. Any public display of affection between spouses here is shunned upon culturally, but when they look at us kissing, they think we are just crazy wazungus (white people), and they shake their heads). May I say on the record right now, that I am a crazy wazungu, crazy in love with my wife, and I would like to kiss her when I can, but when my bushy hair was getting in the way, it was time to get serious about this issue.

I called Rachel Gallagher, whom I knew was coming in a matter of weeks, and explained my predicament, she agreed to purchase a nice mustache and beard trimmer (with a nose and ear hair trimming attachment) at Costco, and she brought it with her. After she arrived this week, she eventually placed the trimmer in my hands, and after much more ribbing and teasing about the length of my nose and ear hair, I charged up the trimmer (with an adapter so that I wouldn't burn out the battery) and I proceeded to trim my goatee, my nose, my ears, and my entire face. I even went to the local barber in Eldoret, and got a haircut (if I haven't mentioned it already, I get the best haircut I have ever had in my life, and all for only about $4 US dollars).

Having said, all this, I might mention that not one Kenyan bothered to notice or tease me about my scruffy beard, my nose hair, or my ear hair. Perhaps it's because they are too polite to comment; perhpas it's because they just don't care. There are more important things to comment on or talk about on a blog than ear hair or scraggly beards.

Which brings me to the more important parts of this blog. This week has been less hectic in many ways with the arrival of Rachel Gallagher. She has been dearly missed with her organizational and leadership skills. Things have been progressing with the building of new orphanage homes, new visitor cottages, staff housing, and the school at the Open Arms Village in the past week. We are just weeks, if not days away from completing our next two orphanage homes, although one of them will be temporarily used as a central office for Open Arms. We are also making significant progress on our visitor cottages which should be ready in time for summer teams that are coming to the Open Arms Village in a few months.

The school is continuing to progress nicely now that all the facilities and teachers are in place. We still have to think about starting a library at the school, and eventually, as the village grows with new homes, we will need to hire more teachers, but things seem to be going well with the school as it adjusts and grows.

Mary, whom I blogged about last week, is doing well. She is playing with the children, smiling, laughing, and going to school in the nursery school. She is doing well, and she seems very energetic and well adjusted in spite of what she has gone through in her four young years.

Since Rachel has been back, our lives have also been full of babies. All three babies, Diana, Esther, and Belle are back in the house again, and we have had our hands full. It has been a fun experience, and with the arrival of Rachel's mom, Miriam, we have had even more hands to care for and feed babies.

We got to begin this week with another trip to Cario View to admire the view of the Rift Valley and relax. Diana got to play in her very first inflatable playhouse while we enjoyed the view. Today, we are relaxing again, but just enjoying the view of Eldoret from our house. The dogs are out front relaxing and actually asleep (they save their noisy howling for late at night when we are deep asleep). The neighbor is building a new fence (probably to keep our dogs from sneaking into his yard). Sounds of all different birds are echoing from the windows of our house. It is relaxing...think I'll go take a nap. Bye for now, until next week.

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

A New Resident at the Village

2010-01-29T03:44:00.000-08:00

We have had a great, wonderful, busy, relaxing, challenging, fulfilling and frustrating time over the past two weeks in Kenya.

On Monday, January 18 we started a new week with our usual staff meeting, but found out after the staff meeting that one set of the house parents at the village, Daniel and Lydia, were resigning. That sent us into a bit of a scramble as we have been deciding who we can hire to replace them. Fortunately, we have a set of house parents who we just hired that can assist with the transition, and we just interviewed six sets of prospective house parents, but the announcement to the children of Tumaini House was still not easy on Sunday, January 24.

We have been working on a few projects lately, trying to get new beds made for the children at the village including all of the future children at the village we will be accepting over the next two or three months as new homes open up. In addition, we are still helping the school operate at a good level; this week blackboards were finally installed in all of the classrooms.We also have made a lot of progress with building at the village, with roofs being placed on two of the visitor cottages that will house short term missions teams.

We also had two new visitors from the UK come to stay at the Open Arms Office with us for the past two weeks. They will be our first wazungu (white) residents at the village (at least ones that will stay more than just a few days). It has been fun bantering back and forth with them about the different words and accents the UK and US have developed. Occasionally, I have to double check to make certain I understand what they are saying. Of course, since Kenya used to be a British colony (so did the U.S. and the Brits occasionally like to remind us of that), Kenya has developed many of the same colloquial terms as modern English in the UK. When I went to the gas station (petrol station) to fill the truck with some fuel, the attendant asked me if he could look under my bonnet. I wondered if he was suggesting that we do something indecent, but after I calmed down, he assured me that all he wanted to do was check the engine oil.

Of course I can understand the English of our UK guests much better than I can understand the English of most Kenyans. It seems almost impossible to have a conversation with most Kenyans over the phone so face to face conversations seem to be the preferable mode of communication. Nevertheless, Kenyans begin learning English in primary school, albeit with a Kenyan accent. I learned a few days ago that the comprehension level of Kenyan English goes two ways when a carpenter at the village told me he couldn't understand my American English so the foreman told him the same thing I told him in Kenyan English and he finally understood what I was saying.

During the middle of this week, we also received a new guest at the village who is now a permanent resident of the Open Arms Village. The local District Children's Officer remanded Mary into our care on Wednesday and she arrived at our Open Arms office in Eldoret late that afternoon. Her parents both died of AIDS leaving her an orphan. In addition, many tribes here consider AIDS orphans a pariah and often no other relative is willing or able to care for them. Mary arrived hungry, malnourished, with a distended stomach, and having a severe case of jiggers (a parasite that bores into the feet and legs people here, often leaving them unable to walk if not treated). She looked up at all these wazungu (white) faces greeting her at the office and looked terrified. What was worse, none of us knew Kiswahili very well, so we couldn't talk with her very well. Nevertheless, Cheryl gave her some bread, and she devoured it and seemed a bit happier.

However, when we got to the village, and she was surrounded by a group of friendly, welcoming Kenyan children at the village who spoke her language, she immediately responded, and even ate a large bowl of stew and ugali as we all sat down for dinner. Afterwards, Matt read to the children, and they had a wonderful time of prayer with the children before heading back to the Open Arms office in Eldoret. The next day I checked on her, and she had a full night sleep, and even ran around playing with the younger children that morning. Mary still has a long way to go to recover, but she is responding well, and she is even beginning to smile.

Matt and Cheryl also had a chance to smile last Saturday when they went to a new area near Eldoret where they had not gone before. There was a lovely pool to relax at in this 85 degree warm, sunny weather we're having right now at the end of January, and we had a wonderful time dipping our feet in the pool and playing with the babies. There were also beautiful gardens and a river that surrounded the pool along with some very large poinsettas and other colorful plants. We are also looking forward to a little time off this weekend, but you just never know. Nevertheless, in two weeks we will need to take a forced vacation and leave Kenya for two weeks because of visa restrictions. We are planning on going to Tanzania and visiting a few national parks, hopefully seeing elephants, lions, and Mount Kilimanjaro. We'll be sure that our blog after that vacation is filled with plenty of photos and videos.

Until next week, kwahere.

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Back to Work and Back to School

2010-01-17T06:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been two weeks since our last blog. We've had a busy time between getting the school started, getting the office back to work, helping to finish orphanage homes, moving in new house parents, and preparing to admit new children to the village. Last Saturday, Matt left Cheryl and the two babies alone at the house at 8AM in order to help move in our third set of house parents at the village. After driving over 100 kilometers to move in the house parents, he received a call from the carpenters who are building new beds for the children at the village and went to see the first sample bed. He arrived back at the home at 6PM and that was on our day off. Both Matt and Cheryl were exhausted, but now new recruits have come from the US and the UK and more are on their way soon.

We are very excited that Open Arms Academy is offiically opened as of Friday, January 8, and we have 26 children officially admitted into the school - 8 in pre-school and 15 in a primary grade school ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 5. We have hired three primary teachers, one who is the headmaster, and also a nursery school teacher. We will be hiring more teachers as the school continues to grow, but for now we have a very good student/teacher ratio of 6.5:1.

Starting a school took more work than Matt and Cheryl realized: purchasing textbooks, school supplies, blackboards, chalk, workbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, rulers, desks, chairs, etc., etc. and the list goes on. We are about 65% complete on the conversion of the old Tumaini and Upendo homes into classrooms. We have 3 to 4 usable classrooms and a school office currently available, and we will have 3 to 4 more classrooms available within the next two weeks.

We also have a new set of house parents, Joel and Sally Too, and their two boys, Caleb - age 4 months, and Tim - age 4 years, who have moved into the village. One more home will be opening up in the next two weeks, and we are already in the process of admitting new children to the village. This week we are preparing to admit one new girl to the village who is an orphan, malnourished, ill, and has a severe case of jiggers (parasites that bore into a person's feet and often leaves them unable to walk until treated). We hope to help her and a lot of other children find shelter, food, medical treatment, and place they can call home.

Today we had a wonderful day at the village with the children and house parents as they had church. Afterwards, we went on a short hike as Cheryl, Matt, two guests from the UK, one of the house parents, and ten of the older children hiked to a waterfall near the property. It was a lovely sunny day, (about 80 degrees for those of you in cold, rainy, or snowy regions of North America right now). We really hope you are doing well, and we hope some of you can come out and visit us soon.

Blessings,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Happy New Year and Other After Christmas Specials

2010-01-03T00:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone back in the US and elsewhere reading this blog. We would have posted this weeks blog earlier but our internet was down for four days this week, and seven days in the past month - a common occurrence here.

Nevertheless, we are back up and running today. We actually had quite a bit happen this week, so this may be a lengthy blog. It may be even longer due to the fact that I forgot to mention an important detail in last weeks blog - our Christmas safari at Mount Elgon National Park which is West and North of Eldoret, Kenya. The park is situated on the border of Kenya and Uganda and we were debating when we could go, but we were glad that we could go the weekend of December 20 because the weather was beautiful, and that turned out to be the only window of opportunity we had during this busy holiday season in Kenya. Most of the last two weeks in Eldoret it has been raining. This is a good thing since the region has been facing drought conditions for quite some time.

Nevertheless, our weekend at Mount Elgon was beautiful sunny 75 degree weather. The night before we drove into the park, the small cottage we slept in greeted us with some wildlife of its own - a giant moth which captivated us for a few minutes as it was captivated by the porch light in front of our bungalow. As we drove in to the park, we saw the outline of Mount Elgon (about 13,000 feet in elevation) looming in the distance. We also saw quite a number of babboons and water bucks as we entered the gate into the park. We drove further into the park with the assistance of a guide who was well armed to ward off potentially dangerous poachers and animals in the park. We drove into some densely wooded areas and saw more water bucks, gazelles, a very large wild pig (probably 500 to 700 pounds), and other assorted furry creatures. We stopped at two different caves, one being the largest in Kenya, and saw evidence of a wide variety of water buffalo, hyenas, zebras, babboons, water bucks, and other assorted creatures who occasionally took shelter in these caves. We also heard, but didn't see, a lot of bats in the caves. You can hear them but not see them in this eerie video I took.

As wecontinued further up the road, we saw some terrific views of Mount Elgon, Acacia trees, and other scenic vistas. We sat down and had lunch at one of these vistas, some other little critters, unbeknownst to us, were already beginning to enjoy our lunch, as Cheryl enjoyed the experience of having ants in her pants. Nevertheless, we continued to enjoy the panoramic view, but the most spectacular view was five large shadows towering above the middle of the road, which turned out to be four very large and one younger giraffe which resided in the park. The scene was almost surreal as we slowly got out of our truck to take some photos and videos of the beautiful animals. We concluded our day with a few more scenes of more babboons and other assorted creatures before we concluded a wonderful day in the park.

After Christmas, we went out to the village on Sunday, December 27, for what we call Guardian's Day, a chance for relatives or friends of the children to spend time with them. While all of the children are either orphaned or have been abandoned by their parents, most of them have other relatives or friends that want to see them from time to time. Overall, the day was an enjoyable time for the children and relatives as they spent the day together at a church service and shared a meal together.

On Tuesday, December 29, Matt and Cheryl were invited to spend the day at the home of the area chief, Chief Togum, to celebrate the engagement of his daughter. Each province in Kenya, (I believe there are 8 provinces), are subdivided into various districts, and these districts are also subdivided into areas, of which Chief Togum is responsible for, about 20,000 people. Over 500 guests showed up for the party, which had some wonderful food and even a little music as the two families negotiated over the traditional dowry which was to be paid to the bride's family (just the opposite of our ancestral European or Asian traditions of paying dowry to the groom's family). Typically the dowry consists of a number of goats, sheep, and/or cows. After the negotiations were over, the future bride and her attendants cut some cake for the guests and had a few speeches to give just as the rain began to pour on the festivities. Nevertheless, the guests were not dismayed as the festivities carried on for over eight hours.

Later the following weekend, on Saturday, January 2, Matt and Cheryl were able to attend the wedding of the brother of one of the house parents at the village. The wedding was held in Eldoret and about 400 people were in attendance. Many of the events and scenes in this wedding were similar to any typical American wedding with lots of people, a procession of attendants and groomsmen, the bride in white, vows made by the bride and groom, a meal after the wedding, in addition to cake cutting and speeches made by the famiies of the bride and groom. The major differences were the length of the ceremony (3 hours), along with a 5 plus hour ceremony (we didn't stay until the end - the babies were complaining). and the ceremony started two hours later than planned (we are finding that we need to plan on attending all social functions in Kenya about two hours later than originally scheduled). The differences between this urban wedding in Eldoret and the rural engagement party near the small village of Kipsaret revealed a little more about the variety of cultural and economic differences in various parts of Kenya, not to mention some of the differences with typical American culture and economics. The engagement party in rural Kipsaret had about 500 guests and only about 10 older vehicles. The wedding in urban Eldoret had about 400 guests and about 30 newer vehicles. The engagement party in rural Kipsaret had wonderful food, no electricity, and some music playing on battery operated speakers. The wedding in urban Eldoret had a full sound system with electricity and also some wonderful food. At both celebrations, Matt and Cheryl got quite a few stares as the only wazungus (white people) not to mention the fact that they were holding adorable Kenyan babies which brought a lot of attention and willing arms wanting to hold the babies.

Matt and Cheryl also brought in the New Year by having a small party at the Open Arms house/office in Eldoret. They invited Open Arms staff and a few local friends to come and eight people joined to help them bring in the New Year. Even the babies stayed up for a little while as Diana was fascinated by blowing bubbles. After the babies retired, the festivities got a little noisier with a rousing game of spoons. At midnight the room erupted in pandemonium with party poppers and noisermakers and even a spontaneous conga line. Finally the New Year began with some solemn prayer as both young and old alike offered sincere prayers for the New Year. May this year bring you and your family many blessings and exciting new adventures as God leads and protects you.

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Sikukuu Njema (Merry Christmas in Swahili)

2009-12-26T00:47:00.000-08:00

As I write this blog Christmas is over in Kenya and in the continental US (it is still Christmas in Hawaii, and I believe in some parts of Alaska). We spent Christmas eve in Eldoret doing some last minute shopping and errands for the children at the village as we prepared Christmas stockings for all of them. We finally did see the Christmas Eve rush in Eldoret as last minute shoppers prepared to purchase gifts in the local Nakumat, cramming the aisles, and barely leaving any room for us to get to the checkstands. We knew that all was well in the universe as we walked by the large robotic Saint Nicholas and heard him singing Jingle Bells on Christmas Eve (please read our previous blog to understand this). We finally got back to the Open Arms office/home in Eldoret in time to eat a quick dinner and make final preparations for the stockings.

We were hoping to get the stockings done in time to send them to the village on Christmas Eve so the children could wake up with the stockings in front of the fireplace, but it was already too late in the evening for us to travel out to the village so we opted to get up early on Christmas Day and hopefully catch the children waking up. We made our best effort by getting up at 5AM on Christmas Day, but getting two babies fed, diapers changed, babies clothed, and getting us clothed and showered, in addition to loading up the stockings, babies, and other assorted presents took their toll as we arrived at the village at 8AM expecting to find impatient little ones eagerly waiting for their presents.

However, I suppose this is importing Western culture and expectations onto African understandings of Christmas. Here there seem to be very little expectation of the children eagerly waiting to open presents under the Christmas tree although they do give gifts to the children, especially new clothing. Christmas Day seems to be centered around a Christmas Day church service and a Christmas Day feast. We celebrated the church service at the village, and Matt was the surprise guest speaker even though he didn't know this until he was asked to come to the front and speak to the children. Many of the children came up and led songs, even two year old Beatrice did a wonderful job of leading the congregation in a great rendition of "Our God is Able".

However, as Matt and Cheryl arrived at 8AM with two babies, we didn't think the village knew what to do with us other than to give us some tea. The children were busy doing chores, taking showers, and getting dressed for church, but Matt and Cheryl wondered when they would be able to present their carefully prepared Christmas stockings to the children. They had communicated to the house parents that they wanted to give the children Christmas stockings on Christmas morning, but the house parents and the children seemed too preoccupied with chores, showering, preparations for church, and preparations for the afternoon feast. Finally at 11:30am Matt and Cheryl were able to get the attention of the children and the house parents in Upendo Home long enough to lay out the Christmas stockings on the fireplace and explain the tradition of Christmas stockings. The expression on their faces changed from one of nonchalance to one of eager excitement as they began to realize that their were actually presents in these stockings, even new Christmas clothes! We figured that somewhere in our communication to the house parents and the children, something was lost in translation (we theorized that the house parents actually thought all that we were going to give the children for Christmas was a new pair of socks - Christmas stockings).

As we sat in front of the fireplace, we explained how the Christmas tradition of stockings began. For those of you who don't know, this is likely the closest traditional explanation to the historical truth. In about 250 A.D., a baby named Nicholas was born into a small community in what is now modern day Turkey. He was born into a wealthy family, but as a young man he became a Christian and decided to give away all of his wealth to the poor and needy in his community. However, he decided to do this in a unique way that would insure that the proud impoverished people of his community would receive his gifts since many, if not most of them refused charity. When he found about a family in need, he would take some gold coins and stuff them in a stocking. Then he would proceed to quietly climb on the roof of that home and drop the stocking down the chimney. For his acts of charity and his Christian leadership he was eventually appointed as the Bishop of Smyrna in Turkey, and after his death, he was eventually nominated as Saint Nicholas (or jolly old St. Nick as some of us in Western culture have added on our very nicknames and cultural traditions to this story). For those of you who are interested and still want to take the Christmas quiz in my previous blog, I have just given you two answers as a freebie.

We also gave another gift to each house, a Nativity set, crafted in Nairobi, but nevertheless a rare site in Kenya as most houses don't use Nativity sets or even recognize them. However, as we began to explain the Nativity set, the children began to instantly state the characters in the Christmas story as their knowledge of the Biblical story far exceeded any recitation of Western Christmas traditions or decorations. The children also decorated a simple Christmas tree which consisted of a freshly cut fir bough planted in a pot and decorated with tinsel (a tradition they inherited from the West and is honored in some Kenyan households).

The children had lined up patiently listening to this story, but also eyeing these stockings closely, and finally they began to open up the stockings as they pulled out candy, toys, stuffed animals, books, oranges, puzzles, coloring books, and a new Christmas shirt which they all wore to the church service. There was also a new one dollar coin in each stocking in tribute to the origins of Christmas stockings. The children played with their new toys, and gobbled down their new candy, as the house parents profusely thanked Matt and Cheryl for filling these young children with lots of sugar.

After the church service was over, the family prepared to eat a meal of boiled potatoes, sausage, a roasted ram, cole slaw, and sodas. The children were served first as the family began to feast and celebrate. The carefully cooked ram was a little tough, but tasty as a local health inspector came to the village and inspected the meat before it was cooked for the safety of the village. That poor ram had just sired two twin ewes as the newest addition to the Open Arms Village, and what was his reward, but becoming dinner on the Christmas table.

After the feast was over, we gathered back at the Upendo House for some Christmas cookies that Cheryl had baked on Christmas Eve, a tradition which the children quickly embraced and consumed. While the children consumed their cookies, Matt set up his computer to watch a movie with the children, a rare treat for them. Since movie selections here are scarce, and Christmas movies are almost non-existent, Matt selected the movie "Because of Winn Dixie". The other choice was likely "Little Mermaid" but since Matt and Cheryl had already watched this movie with Diana for the 100th time (it's her favorite movie), they opted for this wonderful children's movie.

After the movie and more Christmas cookies, Cheryl and Matt left the children in their sugar induced state and made a hasty departure back to Eldoret with two weary babies and two weary adults. They sat by the small "Charlie Brown" size artificial Christmas tree in the Open Arms office, holding the two babies, drinking chai tea, and eating more Christmas cookies as they reminisced on the activities of their first Christmas in Kenya (and their first Christmas outside of the US).

From Kenya we want to wish you a Sikukuu Njema and a blessed New Year!!

Matt and Cheryl

Signs of Christmas

2009-12-23T05:57:00.000-08:00

Here in Eldoret, signs of Christmas are a bit different than they typically might be in the US. Some things we take for granted in the US are rare; some just don't make sense; others are non-existent. Not to say people don't celebrate Christmas here. Actually most do. However, there isn't the sense of overwhelming materialism as people rush to the malls to do their last minute Christmas shopping in America.

First of all, there are no malls in Eldoret in spite of the fact that it has a population of over 600,000. The closest thing is a Nakumat, or an Ukwala, both supermarket chains here that are like a VERY small Walmart but about 10 percent the size of a normal Walmart. One sight that always makes me scratch my head is a lifesize robotic Santa Clause in front of Nakumat who jiggles and shakes (not completely out of the ordinary) but who likes belting out "The Yellow Rose of Texas (a major disconnect even if you are from Texas).

The stores here are not all decked out in Christmas lights and other Christmas decorations and neither are the houses although a few businesses and houses have artificial Christmas trees (the don't grow natural Christmas trees here). Of course we have a Christmas tree at our house/office in Eldoret and we have strung up a few Christmas lights.

We celebrated a Christmas party with the children in the feeding program at Kambe Teso on Friday, the 18th. The party focused mostly on giving these children beef stew for their lunch meal (beef is a luxury here and most families eat it only on special occasions; this is probably the only meal with beef these children will eat all year). Cheryl also baked several cakes the night before, enough to feed 120 children, and it was a big hit with the children. Several families that have sponsored children with Open Arms were also given food baskets purchased at the local Nakumat that will give them plenty of food to feed their families through the Christmas season.

We also had a Christmas dinner with the Open Arms staff here in Eldoret and out at the village. There are 26 employees in total and 22 of them joined Cheryl and I for dinner that evening. We took them out for dinner at Mamma Mias, a local restaurant owned by an Indian businessman who offers some good Indian, African, and American cuisine. We had a great time as most of the staff enjoyed their only dinner out all year, and some of them likely enjoyed their first dinner out ever. We had a Christmas quiz that evening which had some interesting results. I made most of the questions centered around the Christmas story in the Bible, but Cheryl thought some questions were too difficult so she added a few cultural questions that may seem obvious in our culture. Interestingly, most everyone did excellent on the Biblical portion of the quiz but most people didn't do as well at the cultural portion of the quiz (my theory is that most Africans did not inherit the cultural portions of Christmas from their colonial counterparts - in the case of Kenya, the British - but they do tend to be more Biblically literate than Americans or Europeans).

Here is the quiz as follows. I made it up myself, and I've given it or a similar quiz in various venues, but no one has gotten 100% as of yet. The best anyone did at the Christmas dinner was 15 out of 20 correct. Try your hand at it and e-mail the answers back to me.

To be fair to those who took the test in Eldoret, try and take this without consulting the Bible or any other resources other than your own memory.

A Christmas Quiz

1. How many wise men or Magi came to visit Jesus?
a. one
b. more than one
c. seven
d. three

2. Where was Jesus born?
a. Nazareth
b. Jerusalem
c. Eldoret
d. Bethlehem

3. To which continent did Jesus’ family flee when King Herod tried to kill him?
a. Africa
b. Asia
c. The Middle East
d. Europe

4. Which two people prophesied at Jesus’ circumcision?
a. Zechariah and Elizabeth
b. Simeon and Anna
c. Ananias and Saphira
b. Mary and Joseph

5. Where did Jesus grow up?
a. Nazareth
b. Jerusalem
c. Bethlehem
d. Caesarea

6. How old was Jesus when he was circumcised?
a. One day old
b. Eight days old
c. Eight years old
d. Fifteen years old

7. Jesus was born in a manger. The manger was also used as:
a. A storage container
b. A room for storing grain
c. A feeding trough for animals
d. A hostel for travelers to sleep in

8. Who was the Roman Emperor during the birth of Jesus?
a. Augustus
b. Quirinius
c. Tiberius
d. Julius

9. Who witnessed the birth of Jesus?
a. Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, and wise men
b. Mary, Joseph, shepherds, King Herod, angels, and wise men
c. Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, angels, and wise men
d. Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and angels.

10. Which prophet prophesied where Jesus would be born?
a. Isaiah
b. Jeremiah
c. Zechariah
d. Micah

11. Who started the tradition of celebrating Christmas with a Christmas Tree?
a. Jesus
b. St. Nicholas
c. Martin Luther
d. St. Augustine

12. In which modern country was St. Nicholas born?
a. Greece
b. Germany
c. Turkey
d. Israel

13. Where does St. Nicholas currently live?
a. Eldoret
b. The North Pole
c. Heaven
d. Jerusalem

14. Who started the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings under the chimney?
a. Jesus
b. St. Nicholas
c. Martin Luther
d. St. Augustine

15. Who is the most famous reindeer of all?
a. Donnor
b. Blitzen
c. Comet
d. Rudolph

16. What sign did the wise men follow to find Jesus?
a. A rainbow
b. A dove
c. A star
d. A road sign

17. What day is Christmas celebrated?
a. Saturday
b. Sunday
c. 1st January
d. 25th December

18. What is a White Christmas?
a. A Christmas when it snows
b. A Christmas where everyone wears white clothing
c. A Christmas when all the presents are wrapped in white
d. A Christmas when the Christmas tree is sprayed with white flocking

19. What tradition takes place under the mistletoe?
a. A special kiss
b. A special dance
c. A special gift
d. A special poem is recited

20. What does the phrase “deck the halls” mean?
a. Decorating a house with holly
b. Dancing at a Christmas party
c. Attending a Christmas church service
d. Wearing a special Christmas outfit

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we will be spending time at the village with the children and the house parents and introducing them to the tradition of Christmas stockings, a tradition they are completely unfamiliar with. They do exchange gifts every year at Christmas and the children typically receive a gift of new clothing but stockings will be a new and hopefully exciting tradition for them. The second existing home of children at the village, the Upendo house (that is Kiswahili for "love") which includes Peter and Stella Kimeli and the 14 children they care for, moved into their new home just in time for Christmas. The children were excited as they wandered around from room to room exploring their new home.

In addition, shortly before the house was ready, both houses were hooked up with electricity from the generator that runs the well (this is a short term solution for electricity but it provides electrical power for the village at least a few hours every day). As the electricity was turned on for the first time earlier this week, at least one or two of the house parents and all of the children got to experience their very first hot shower. What a great Christmas present (although we have to ration the time some of them want to spend in the shower, with it being such a novelty).

Tomorrow, on Christmas Eve, Cheryl and I will go to the village laden with Christmas stockings for the children and house parents. We'll fill the truck full, eat lots of lamb at the village Christmas dinner, and share the Christmas story with 28 children and 4 house parents. We will send another blog this weekend after all of us have celebrated Christmas with our families. Cheryl and I want to wish you a Sikukuu Njema (Merry Christmas) for you and your loved ones.

Mungu Acuba Riki (God bless you)

Matt and Cheryl

Police, cars, and Cheryl's knee again

2009-12-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

This week in Kenya had a few interesting occurrences. The week started out with Cheryl bedridden with a prognosis of a torn miniscus in her left knee and the likelihood of not being able to walk for 4 to 6 weeks and the possibility of surgery according to the physical therapist. She had been stuck in bed for three days already and Matt went into town to find some crutches so she could pull herself and her gimpy knee out of bed.

After one day of hobbling around on crutches and much prayer from a lot of friends and family, Cheryl was happy to have some sense of mobility but her armpits were getting sore from the crutches so she sat down to do some e-mail on the computer. While sitting at the desk doing e-mail, she heard a pop in her knee, and got up to grab her crutches. While getting up she put a little weight on her left knee and realized there was no pain. From then on she has been walking pain free. In fact, yesterday Matt saw her running across the street. Thanks for your prayers and God's healing touch. Now all Matt needs to figure out is what to do with the crutches; but I'm sure someone we'll need them here in Eldoret.

We spent the rest of the week meeting with teachers who are helping us to get the school started. Lots to do between now and January 4th when we open the school, but we are making progress. In the interim, most of the children are taking some extra tutorial help until Christmas with the help of our new teachers in order to catch up on their classes. Many of the children are several years behind in their education because of their circumstances (many of them missed out of several years of school because of the loss of their parents, a loss of income to assist them with school, or simply because some of them were living on the streets).

On the way back from the village this week to meet with the teachers, Matt got pulled over by a policewoman for the first time. Matt was determined not to give the officer a bribe, but she was determined to find something wrong with the truck. She spent several minutes walking around the truck and discovered the annual inspection sticker had expired. Matt caught some interspersed comments between Swahili and English regarding court dates and jail and decided to call the Open Arms office in Eldoret. One of the staff members talked to the police woman and mentioned that they had the truck inspected but that they had still not received the new sticker. Eventually the officer let Matt go and Matt hopped in the truck only to realize the vehicle wouldn't start. Matt called the Open Arms office again and one of the staff members came out and helped him push start the vehicle; later they realized the battery terminals were dirty and needed cleaning. The problem was corrected; the truck, Matt, and Cheryl are mobile again, and no more officers have pulled over Matt. However, Matt is carrying the paperwork for the inspection report with him from now on.

Progress at the village is carrying on at a good pace. The 12 children in Home #1 are beginning to make their new house a home. Homes #2 and #3 will be completed before Christmas and Matt and Cheryl plan on spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Tumaini and Upendo Homes as they enjoy celebrating Christmas in their new homes. Home #4 will be completed possibly before the end of the year and more children can move into the village as we begin a new year at the Open Arms Village. In addition the Visitor Cottages for guests coming from the US and the UK are almost halfway completed with preparations being made to place roofs on all three Cottages before the end of the year so that the Village can accomodate teams and individual visitors as they arrive in 2010. As you prepare for Christmas this year, and complete your busy holiday shopping, as many of you try to stay warm in frigid winter weather, we will keep you informed of our everyday events as we prepare for Christmas. Bear in mind as your hands go numb in this wintry weather that it is 80 degrees and sunny here for Christmas, so consider not only reading our blog but come and visit us in this New Year.

Blessings,

Matt and Cheryl

Cheryl's knee and other assorted news

2009-12-05T23:18:00.000-08:00

Most of our interesting news this week has been overshadowed by Cheryl's knee. On Friday night as she was going to bed, she felt a sharp pain in her knee and just about passed out. For most of the night she was in pain and got very little sleep. Matt gave her advil and ice packs but otherwise felt helpless. The next morning she was still in pain and could not walk on her leg or even get out of bed.

By the grace of God, it just so happens that a physical therapist from Connetticut had just arrived to stay with some missionary friends one block away, and we called her. She came over in ten minutes and gave Cheryl a brief examination. Her initial diagnosis was a torn miniscus or torn cartilidge but she will come by again today to examine Cheryl further. Either way, without a miraculous recovery (which we are praying for), physical therapy is the first and best prognosis for treatment outside of surgery which hopefully and prayerfull won't have to be considered as an option. We are very thankful that Kim, the physical therapist, is staying here for five more weeks. We are also grateful to God that with the help of Advil, ice packs, lots of bed rest, and God's healing touch, Cheryl got a full nights sleep last night, her pain has subsided, and she has begun getting a little more mobility in her knee.

Other than this major incident, we are busy with getting the school started. We invited ten people to come and interview with us on Tuesday and twenty people showed up. We had to turn quite a few of them away unfortunately, but I guess word gets around when the unemployment rate in Kenya is over 65%. We are grateful that we found some qualified applicants and we will be meeting with them this week to help get the school started and begin meeting with the children before school starts on January 4.

We are also busy preparing the school building classrooms by refurbishing the old temporary orphanage homes and making them into classrooms. We are knocking out some walls to enlarge rooms, put in new and larger windows to add natural light, and painting the inside of the rooms before January 4th. In addition, the building of the new orphanage homes is progressing nicely. The second and third homes are almost completed and the Kimeli household along with their fourteen orphans will be moving in sometime in the next ten to fourteen days. I included a cute photo of Lizzie, one of the orphans in the first new home, who has already settled in and is enjoying her new diggs. As the fourth house nears completion possibly before the end of the year, we will be looking for more house parents and orphans to fill up empty homes as we approach a new year. On our way to check on the village construction I took this photo of another overloaded vehicle. I don't know how they do it and still keep the suspension of these vehicles above the speed bumps and pot holes on the roads here.

I have included a brief video of the Tumaini household moving into their house along with a few photos from our past weekend retreat to celebrate Matt's 50th birthday. We'll update you on the progress and recovery of Cheryl's knee in the next blog.

Adios or Kwahere for now,
Matt and Cheryl

Move-in Day, Turning 50, and other Assorted Items

2009-11-30T02:12:00.000-08:00

Today, November 30, Matt is turning 50 years old. He has appreciated birthday greetings from afar, especially the ones reminding him how old he has become. Last weekend when we were at the village, Matt's lovely wife Cheryl announced to the children that he was having a birthday and she wanted them to guess how old Matt was becoming. The first response came from Joseph who guessed that Matt was turning 100 years old. That seemed appropriate since Matt has not received any rude or funny birthday cards yet. However, as the kids contiued guessing eventually one of them guessed he was turning 50.

Speaking of eventful days, that same day, Sunday, November 22, the children in Tumaini home were moving into their first permanent home. They have waited for almost 2 years while living in temporary housing in a mud hut with no electricity or modern facilities. Electricity and water are being hooked up this week and for the first time in their lives many of these children will be enjoying what we take for granted except when we go camping: a hot shower and a flush toilet. They were so excited to be moving into their new homes, it's like they were celebrating Christmas a month early as the children began running around the house, exploring all the rooms, setting up their beds, and beginning to make their new house a home.

On the way to the village that same Sunday, Matt almost hit a blind man, a goat, avoided a close call with a truck driver, detoured around two broken down cars, passed one car that was operating on one cylinder, and almost collided with two Matatu taxi drivers, which gave everyone else in the car quite a thrill, and aged Matt ten more years, so he is really 60 years old in Matt years.

This weekend, Matt and Cheryl enjoyed a peaceful weekend, celebrating his birthday in the quiet solitude of a small retreat center overlooking the Rift Valley. On Saturday afternoon as they were relaxing, reading a book on the deck of their cabin, they heard a loud cry and screaming erupting from the valley below them. At first they thought either a small war had broken out in Kenya or somebody else was turning 50, but as it turned out, a local village had gathered to honor a longstanding custom in villages throughout East Africa - the rite of male circumcision - a way to painfully introduce young African boys into the joy of becoming men. As several young boys in a small village in the Rift Valley became men, Matt realized he was becoming an old man by some standards (53 is the average life expectancy of a male in Kenya). Of course some of his friends might try and remind him that he is becoming an old man by any standard. To those who would say that, Matt would respond that "you are only as old as you feel" and as Matt drove back to Eldoret from their retreat center, he was feeling pretty old.

Graduation Day, Move-In Day, and Just Another Ordinary Day

2009-11-21T00:55:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon (or good night in the U.S.). As all of you in the U.S. are fast asleep with it being 1AM on the West Coast and 4AM on the East Coast, it is noon here in Eldoret. We had a fairly eventful week as we said goodbye to Rachel Gallagher last Sunday as she travelled back to Portland, Oregon with Baby Belle.

The week began fairly busy but uneventful as Cheryl went about her work of learning the process for becoming the interim director of operations, while Matt continued to work as the Open Arms mule, delivering eggs from the farm, picking up supplies for the village, delivering food and workers for the feeding program, and trying to prepare for the start of the new school at the village. On the way to the feeding program, some children took quite literally what it means to be the family mule, as they transported themselves and some supplies to their home.

Towards the end of the week, on Friday, we were invited to a graduation ceremony, for some of our oldest nursery school children, who are graduation into Primary School. Now mind you, I barely remember nursery school but nursery school for Kenyan children is a bit more arduous beginning at 3 years old and continuing for the next 2-3 years as they go through three levels of nursery school in preparation for primary school.

Because Open Arms won't have an operating school until January, we have been sending our older children to a nearby school, and the school decided to have a "simple" ceremony to celebrate that ancient passage of graduation from nursery school to primary school. About two dozen children were being honored in this ceremony, along with 150 parents, family, friends, and about 250 other students, teachers, and administrators from the school. Five children from the Open Arms village were participating in this ancient rite of passage.

We were told that the ceremony was starting at 9AM, and being time conscious Westerners, we wanted to be there on time, but alas the pressures of Kenyan culture are beginning to change us. Matt had to run an errand delivering 20 trays of eggs to the market at 7:30AM. Unfortunately, for various reasons, he was still at the market at 9AM as Cheryl and the other girls were patiently waiting for them. They arrived at the graduation ceremony at 9:40AM and found themselves as the first arrivals for the ceremony. Matt had to go and run a few more errands as the Open Arms mule, and finally arrived with some of the rest of the Open Arms staff at 10:30AM. The ceremony had still not started, but Matt was surprised to find that he was the featured guest speaker at the ceremony. Fortunately the ceremony did not start until 11:20AM so Matt actually had 50 more minutes to collect his thoughts. As the ceremony dragged on with every faculty member, student, and village elder in the community eagerly wanting to share a poem, a song, a speach, or a dance, Matt had 3 more hours to collect his thoughts before he came up and shared a 10 minute speach about the importance of education, perseverance, and a relationship with God. Cheryl was also surprised when she was asked to hand out some of the diplomas during the ceremony. The ceremony ended about 2 hours later with some refreshments. Matt and Cheryl now wonder how long the primary school graduation will be for students at the first Open Arms Academy graduation ceremonies in a few years.

Matt and Cheryl are enjoying a relaxing Saturday as this blog is being written. Tomorrow, they get to celebrate another rite of passage for the children at the Open Arms Village. Moving In Day for the first children at the orphanage as the first permanent orphanage home is completed. After several months of patiently waiting, 12 of the children and their house parents will be moving into Tumani Home (Hope Home in Kiswahili), the first of many homes to be completed in the next few months. Will show some photos and videos of that special day in our next blog. Hopefully it won't be a five hour ceremony that starts two and a half hours late, but you never know in Kenya.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day,

Matt and Cheryl

Planes, trains, and automobiles

2009-11-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

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

Two months and counting

2009-11-07T04:43:00.000-08:00

As of this afternoon, we have been in Eldoret for two months. We are starting to feel like we are settling in, but there are still some unsettling or unusual experiences we have to deal with on a regular basis. Matt was driving through downtown El.doret yesterday, and he is starting to get used to the feel of driving in Kenya. However, there is no sense of common courtesy on the road, it is pretty much everyone for himself (and every chicken, goat, and cow for that matter). As Matt turned right to go down one of the main streets of Eldoret, two cars behind him turning right didn't just follow him - they passed him in the intersection as people, cows, and goats dodged the oncoming traffic. However, that wasn't an isolated incident. The same thing happened about eight times before he got back to the house (and Matt is not normally a conservative or slow driver by US standards - he has quite a collection of speeding tickets in the past thirty years to prove that).

What slows drivers down here in Kenya is not the goats, cows, pedestrians, cars, or even the police, but speed bumps and pot holes, and lots of them I might add. On a one mile stretch of road leading out of Eldoret, one would usually encounter about 25 speed bumps and about 200 pot holes. What usually keeps the mechanics around here pretty busy are broken axles, worn shock absorbers, and bent wheel rims. The tire shops also do a pretty good busy with tires being constantly out of balance.

Earlier this week, Cheryl took a road trip to Kisumu to pick up passports for two of the babies at the house, Belle and Esther. Kisumu is approximately 75 miles from Eldoret but it took about 3 hours to get there (apparently there are quite a few more of those speed bumps and potholes on the road to Kisumu). She left Eldoret at 6:30AM with a car full of people including Ruth who was holding one of the babies, Roselyn, who works as the local child sponsorship director for Open Arms in Kenya, Levi who also works with Open Arms and was driving the car, and a local immigration officer from Eldoret, along with two babies. Actually seven people (albeit two of them being babies) is actually a fairly uncrowded vehicle by Kenyan standards. Kenyans, as well as many other Africans, have taken car pooling to a new level.

After a long day at the immigration office, and a quick glance at Lake Victoria (a first for Cheryl)the five people and two babies clambored back in the vehicle for the long road trip back to Eldoret. Along the way, Roselyn mentioned she needed to drop something off to some relatives of hers just off the main road, which in Kenyan really meant that they needed to drive on a side dirt road for 30 minutes and drink Chai tea for an hour. They arrived back at home in Eldoret very tired at 7:30PM that night and grateful for some dinner and sleep.

In spite of the driving in Kenya, or maybe sometimes because of it, there are a lot of things we love about being here. The people are wonderful, the scenery is spectacular, the climate is perhaps the best in the world (it was sunny and 75 degrees today), and we love spending time with the babies and the children at the village. We hope that things are well back in cold rainy Oregon, where the car pooling is less crowded, and the drivers are a little more courteous.

Matt and Cheryl

Happy Hallow's Eve, Kenyan Costumes, and Drunken Policemen

2009-10-31T03:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings (Jambo) on this Hallow's Eve from Eldoret, Kenya. Of course everyone in the U.S. is celebrating with costumes, parties, and giving away candy tonight, but we can't find a trace of that here. Cheryl thought she found a hint of Halloween here when she found a wide assortment of wigs on the supermarket shelf a month ago and asked Rachel Gallagher if the wigs were costumes in preparation for Halloween. Rachel informed her that they were not costumes, but that Kenyan women frequently used wigs and extensions to change their hairstyle.

We all got a laugh out of that one, but none of us laughed at an incident that happened last night when David Gallagher and Matt were out with the ministry leader for our street children in downtown Eldoret. Our ministry leader for street children, Morris Mordecai, does a fantastic job of regularly meeting with the hundreds of street children in downtown Eldoret, counseling them, speaking with them, loving them, and feeding them, helping them get off the street. Open Arms had received a donation of nearly 100 quarts of milk from a local dairy to distribute to the children and David and Matt went downtown with the milk ready to help Morris distibute the milk. Unfortunately, they were met with what appeared to be a mob of angry street children being dispersed by the police with whips.

Matt and David intervened by talking to the police and pleading with them that their interests in helping the street children were entirely peaceful, and eventually the police allowed them to continue their gathering undisturbed while Matt, David, and Morris spoke to the children and distributed milk. Of course the street children in Eldoret face their own challenges in relating to the broader Eldoret community, since many of the children are involved in theft and also addicted to sniffing glue, the local drug of choice (I believe there is a BBC documentary on YouTube about the street children of Eldoret which is well worth watching). In defense of the street children, they are often abandoned, orphaned, and they steal and sniff glue to alleviate their ongoing problems with hunger, homelessness, and all of the related challenges that come with these two blights. Open Arms is beginning to offer short term and long term solutions to the challenges these children face, but there is still a lot of work to do.

However, starving children and children sniffing glue was not necessarily what disturbed Matt the most during this evening. As Matt and David confronted the policemen, they smelled alcohol on the breath of most of the officers. The only thing scarier than a mob of street children or a Freddy Kreuger Halloween costume tonight, was several drunken policemen holding assault rifles and whips in downtown Eldoret. That is something really scary to think about this Halloween. Be safe and enjoy some candy corn today!!

Matt and Cheryl

P.S. Happy birthday to my sister, Beth Tallman!!!

Sour milk, babies, and more Kenyan fun

2009-10-24T02:35:00.000-07:00

This week wasn't quite as adventurous or as scenic as last week, but it was nevertheless memorable. We had our hands full of babies (or at least Cheryl did) changing diapers, feeding them, bathing them, and allowing them the priviledge of enjoying our company at 3AM are all part of a day's (and night's) work with the babies entrusted to us. Matt even changed his first diaper all by himself this week (it was a little loose, but at least it didn't leak (praise God for the absorbent power of Pampers).

We got the babies registered with immigration services here, and hopefully we will get them passports in the next week. Belle is planning on going on her first plane ride with Rachel Gallagher for Christmas, and Esther Ruth is going to do the same on a plane ride to the UK with Ruth Major. Otherwise, Cheryl might have to juggle three babies at once during the Christmas season (with a little help from Matt now that he knows how to change diapers all by himself).

We also went through the process of applying as a school over the past month, but this week it seemed to reach a fevered pitch as we were introduced to the bureaucracy of Kenyan government. It seems easier at first because people in government here are too polite to admit how hard it is, but in the end it is just as difficult as American bureaucracy. Ultimately, in the end things were signed, and it looks like, with a little more work, we will be able to start a school in January at the Open Arms village.

Speaking of the village, this week Matt went out to the village several times to check on the progress of the orphanage homes and to assist people from the Public Health Department who were inspecting the village in preparation for the start of the school. After their inspection, Daniel and Lydia, the house parents for some of the children, invited the two inspectors and Matt for lunch. As lunch was set in front of the guests, Daniel proceeded to offer them the local village delicasy to drink...sour milk. They drink it there like we eat yogurt in America. However, as Matt saw the chunks of curdled milk plopping from the pitcher into his cup, he questioned if he would like it as much as yogurt. As he politley slurped down a big gulp into his mouth, the taste of putrid, sour, fermented milk filled his taste buds and his nostrils, and he wondered if he was going to lose the lunch he had already consumed. He tried to sip down a few more gulps and wash down the chunks with a glass of water, but as he looked up, he saw that his guests had already emptied their cups with a smile and he had barely made a dent in his glass.

Well, I think it is back to taking care of babies. I think I hear them wanting more formula, burping up more curdled formula, and wanting Daddy Matt to change some more diapers. Until next week, enjoy a few more baby photos.

God bless you,

Matt and Cheryl Tallman

Hippos, Crocs, and much more at Lake Baringo

2009-10-20T02:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry we weren't able to submit a new blog during our usual time this past weekend but we were at Lake Baringo in Central Kenya where the weather was warm, the scenery was spectacular, the wildlife was extraordinary, and the internet reception was questionable. We left Eldoret Saturday morning after another busy week working at the village, trying to get the school started, and trying to help out at the Open Arms office. It was a much needed break from the business of our work in Eldoret and our first adventure outside of the area.

We drove on a long windy road for two hours and 60 miles until we saw Lake Baringo in the distance. Then we drove another 90 minutes and 30 miles until we finally arrived at the lake and began to take in the scenery. The lake is very large, the 3rd largest in Kenya, It looked about 20 to 30 square miles in size, with 3 or 4 islands in the middle. We were greeted at the hotel by three ostriches, 2 peacocks, 20 guinea hens (and a partridge in a pear tree).

The weather in Baringo was noticeably warmer and more humid due to the lower elevation, but we also noticed the effects of drought in the region due to the dry creek beds surrounding the lake and the lower water level in the lake. However, we probably wouldn't be able to get to where we were staying during a regular rainy season since we drove to our final destination through about a dozen dry creek beds that would have been swollen with water in wetter conditions.

The first evening we walked down to the waterfront and were greeted by four or five good sized crocodiles that were happily eating the leftover fish entrails left behind by the local fishermen. The next day we went on a boat ride in the lake and got to see wild hippos for the first time (check out the video at the bottom of this blog), Kenyan fish eagles swooping just like many bald eagles I've seen in the past to catch a fish in the lake (also check out that video at the bottom of this blog, a few other storks, cranes, and of course more crocodiles. When we got back to shore and were walking back to our room, we saw a curious friendship between what's called a cliff rocks hyrax (I think they're related to the badger in North America), sitting on top of the back of a local goat. They sat there for some time, and eventually the hyrax jumped off the back of the goat and they played with each other for awhile longer until we disturbed them as we walked by to go to our room.

That night we watched the sun set over the lake as we fed ourselves, our three babies, and the local mosquito population. In the morning we were greeted by Colombus Monkeys walking around in the yard and the trees just behind our balcony (check out the video at the bottom). After breakfast, we took a leisurely drive back home to Eldoret the next day, looking at more crocs in the Kerio River at the bottom of the Rift Valley, a proper African sized ant hill, and even enjoying lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the Rift Valley (the photo below was taken from our dining room table). It was a memorable trip, but now we get to go back to starting a school, playing with orphaned children and babies, cooler weather, and no hippos or crocs.

Kenyan worship, a herd of goats, and a street fight

2009-10-10T01:49:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Matt was invited to preach at a church in Eldoret (Halleluya Church). The service started at about 10:30 and the church began to sing and dance and celebrate with the worship that is typical for many if not most African churches. The length of the service was also typical of most African churches. After numerous worship songs and about 30 testimonies, Matt was offered the platform at about 12:30. He spoke for about 45 minutes (probably a little brief for an African sermon), but afterwards, as the service continued, the Bishop, his wife, Matt, Cheryl, and two elders exited early to have lunch as the service continued until about 2PM.

They had a wonderful homemade stew with rice, (no goat intestines this time), and some typical Kenyan chai tea. Afterwards, Matt and Cheryl went to the Bishop's house and watched some Kenyan Sunday afternoon television with the family which mostly consisted of various preachers speaking in Swahili, although one show was broadcast in English with an American evangelist. The Bishop invited us to stay for a nearby outdoor evangelistic service they have in a neighborhood every week. As we got out of his car, we saw several singers on a stage singing and several dozen people in front of them dancing and singing. As we continued singing dozens of onlookers watched, dozens more walked by, and a large herd of goats walked right through the middle of the worshippers. Cheryl and Matt smelled the aroma of raw sewage directly behind them in a ditch, and a street fight began to erupt less than twenty feet from the crowd of worshippers. The street fight subsided, the goats managed to find greener pastures, and the congregation of worshippers continued to grow as the night went on.

Speaking of Kenyan worship, every weekday morning, the staff at Open Arms International enjoys a brief time of worship and prayer to begin every work day. Matt took the liberty to videotape one session so I hope you enjoy these Kenyan worship songs as much as we do (at least I hope I'll be able to download the video - we'll see - it's about ten minutes long) (sorry couldn't download it. I will try later).

We are enjoying a nice three day weekend as we are writing this blog. In fact we get two of them in a row thanks to what is called Moi day this weekend, and Kenyatta day next weekend courtesy of the first two presidents of Kenya (this is the equivalent of President's Day in the U.S.). Next weekend we might go out of town for the weekend and go see some wild hippos and crocodiles (we will certainly send photos in our next blog if that is the case). For now we are just busy putting formula into bottles and changing diapers.

At the village, things are progressing at a good pace. It is probable that the first orphanage home will be completed sometime in the next week. However, we still need to hook up water, sewer, and electricity. It looks likely that we might finally get this situation resolved with the well, and get good water supplied to the village so that we can hook up the homes to water in the next week. The sewer might be done in two weeks. We don't know when electricity will be supplied to the village, but we can likely move the children into the first two homes before the end of this month (even without electricity - they certainly don't have any right now, and the homes they will be moving into are much nicer than what they are living in now). We'll keep you updated on our progress and blog again soon.

Blessings,
Matt and Cheryl

Monkeys, digging wells, and roasted maize

2009-10-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

This week was busier than some and slower than others. Slower because all the teams that were here last week have gone back home (the film crew and a team from the UK). We started out the week returning some equipment that was utilized by the film crew, and while Levi and Matt were driving around Eldoret, a large grey monkey ran across the road, a rare sight for this part of Kenya. Birds are plentiful here in Eldoret (I think I mentioned that in a previous blog), but land mammals (other than the human type), are more common down in the Rift Valley or further South where we will be going hopefully to visit sometime in the next 4 to 6 months. However, one new mammal arrived at the OAI village last Saturday, a brand new baby cow (the village now has four dairy cows to provide milk for the orphans and the surrounding villagers.

Matt spent the rest of the week working at the village and keeping an eye on new activities related to the construction of the village. The most significant activity this week is the arrival of the well drilling company to repair a well they had dug over a year ago which has never properly worked. The drilling company is still at the property as of the writing of this blog, but hopefully they will be done in the next day or two so that a clean, fresh, and reliable source of water will be available to the village for years to come. Progress on the rest of the village is moving along nicely. One of the orphanage homes should be done in the next few days, and three others should be completed in the next month or two.

Cheryl has been working at the office training to be the interim operations director for OAI Kenya, coordinating teams, the budget for the Kenyan staff, and a variety of other duties. In addition, both Matt and Cheryl have occasionally and eagerly been assigned baby duty, and they will be taking care of Belle for the next several weeks while David and Rachel Gallagher are in the U.S. for several OAI functions including the OAI fundraising banquet next weekend. (Which reminds me, if you are in the Portland area, and you haven't purchased a ticket for the OAI fundraising banquet at the Portland Zoo, feel free to call the Portland office at 503-296-9989 - the banquet is on Saturday, October 10).

While out at the village this week, Matt has been able to enjoy a little more of the local cuisine. He had roasted maize, a much better delicasy than goat intestines. You cook ears of corn over a fire and it tastes a lot like popcorn and it is very filling. However, the favorite Kenyan food for both Matt and Cheryl has been chipote, a flat bread cooked over a hot griddle. It goes well with everything. I need to sign off now, but I'll try and add a few photos and videos to the blog later. We'll keep you updated about the village and the adventures of Matt and Cheryl.

goat intestines, reality TV, and driving in Kenya

2009-09-26T03:32:00.001-07:00

This week was very busy, but full of stories to tell so we apologize for not getting them on here sooner. We started the week with a film crew from Los Angeles coming to visit the village. One member of the film crew (who happens to work with Open Arms) was the brain child of this particular venture. Their idea is to create a reality television series called "Camp Kenya" where they introduce families from the US into the Open Arms village in Mlango, Kenya and have them work at the village doing all sorts of tasks (cleaning out the chicken coup, washing clothes the old school way, milking the cows) and introducing them to Kenyan culture. They had a family from the San Francisco come out to film the pilot episode, but if the series is accepted, they will have several families come to compete in various projects including assistance in building the rest of the village.

They participated in campfires every night, including one in which we had a goat roast. Matt has participated in several goat roasts in Kenya before, but this was the first one for Cheryl. Matt told Cheryl that goat tasted like lamb, but after tasting the goat meat, Cheryl described the meat tasting something like an old sheep. At this particular goat roast, the cooks also offered goat intestines, which neither Matt nor Cheryl nor any of the members of the reality show had ever tasted before. Matt decided to be the brave one (or the foolish one depending on your perspective), and partake of the goat intestines through the encouragement of one of the Kenyan house parents. In fact, Matt was the only muzungu (white person) to eat the goat intestines. They actually tasted better than Matt expected, but they had a strong after taste which left one's mouth tasting like a goat smells. It is highly unlikely Matt or Cheryl will ever have goat intestines again.

Matt has been running this week around the neighborhood. He was inspired by a few Kenyan runners who visited the village earlier this week. Thinking Matt could start a conversation with one person who looked a little older and shorter than many of the Kenyan runners, he met Moses and tried to impress Moses with the fact that he was actually trying to run in Eldoret. While muzungus running in Eldoret might be a little bit less common, it turned out that Moses Tanui was not entirely impressed with the length or speed of Matt’s running accomplishments in the past week. Having won the Boston Marathon twice, and having been the first person in the world to run a half marathon in under an hour, Moses Tanui was one of many current and former Kenyan runners that Matt and Cheryl met that day.

Having gained some confidence in running through the streets of Eldoret, Matt decided to upgrade to driving through the streets of Kenya. The first time seemed fairly successful as Matt drove out to the village. No goats, chickens, cows, bicyclists, pedestrians, or other drivers were harmed during the incident, but Matt’s blood pressure rose significantly. On the second attempt driving, Matt once again succeeded in driving to the village without harming any animals or bicyclists, but Cheryl’s blood pressure rose significantly as she sat in the front seat and watched Matt narrowly avoid all of the above and more. Lots of horn honking, swerving, and girl’s screaming (including Cheryl, Ruth, Renee, Rachel, and three babies in the back seat), but all arrived safely to their destination.

One day this week, Matt and Cheryl helped with an Open Arms medical clinic at Kambe Teso in the slums of Eldoret. They spent most of the morning packing up medical supplies, gathering food for the feeding program, and setting up the tent. Shortly after lunch nearly one hundred people were already lined up to receive treatment from the clinic. Matt continued sorting and setting up supplies, while Cheryl began to assist as a pharmacist with no medical background whatsoever. Fortunately, Rachel was able to supervise Cheryl and the other volunteers who were in the same boat to make sure that they were giving out the proper dosages. By the end of the day, they had fed over one hundred children, treated and served over two hundred adults and children and all were exhausted.

On Thursday, Matt and Cheryl and the rest of the Open Arms staff spent the day at Poa Place, Eldoret’s version of a zoo/amusement park. The children loved playing in the playground and seeing a variety of monkeys, snakes, and ostriches. They had one more campfire that night and said goodbye to the film crew and the Beck family who participated in the reality show. On Friday, Matt and Cheryl went back to reality, cleaning and sorting the garage to place things back in order from the medical camp, do some policy and curriculum writing for the OAI School, and reorganizing the bedroom. They had ordered a bedroom dresser and a book shelf from a local store so they wouldn’t have to live out of a suitcase, and the dresser arrived a week late (nothing is really late here, it just arrives or occurs whenever). Matt and Cheryl were both very excited to regain some sense of order and normalcy in their bedroom (although the book shelf has still not arrived). Today looks like a very relaxing day, catching up on e-mail, writing a bit, and finishing this blog, speaking of which, we probably need to say goodbye until next time.

Blessings,

Matt and Cheryl

Running, Eating, and Sleeping in Kenya

2009-09-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

Matt went for his first run in Eldoret yesterday and then he felt ambitious enough to go for another run yesterday. It isn't unusual to see runners on the streets of Eldoret since Eldoret is considered the running capital of Africa. Many of the top runners from the continent train here due to the climate, the high elevation, and the training that was initiated by gold medalist Kip Keno starting forty years ago. What is unusual is seeing a runner moving so slowly, especially a muzungu (white man). The first day out running Matt met with quite a few stares, but by the second day they just shook their heads and muttered "crazy muzungu". Matt and Cheryl also went out for a walk in the neighborhood with one of the dogs (or should we say that the dogs took Matt and Cheryl for a walk).

Matt and Cheryl also went shopping trying to find a little furniture in town so they don't have to live out of a suitcase any longer. Still waiting on some furniture to arrive since the selection in town is limited. Matt also went to have his first haircut outside of the United States. It turned out to be his best haircut ever; he even got a scalp massage and a shampoo for one third of the price he paid for his last haircut in the states. In fact, quite a few things are cheaper here: food, rent, clothing, health care, taxis, and a list of other items, as long as your willing to bicker and negotiate (sometimes they like to start with a higher price knowing that we're muzungus, but it helps to get the inside perspective on what is considered the going price for things.) Other items are the same price or higher such as gasoline, utilities, and imported goods.

We eat most of the time at the house and we have had really pretty good meals although there is a lot of formula and baby bottles scattered around the kitchen with three babies in the house. We have had a lot of chicken and fish, rice, potatoes, squash, milk fresh from the cow (we boil it and let it cool before we drink it), eggs fresh from the farm, good coffee, and a lot of Kenyan chai tea. Matt and David made pancakes and bacon this morning for breakfast for the girls and the babies and it turned out to be a hit. Eating out is usually a bargain with good meals available at anywhere from $2 to $8 in Eldoret and Indian food seems to be the best bet since there is a contingent of the Eldoret population from the Indian sub-continent. We will be attending a goat roast probably this weekend (Cheryl's first one) which should provide some really good food and good stories. A few things we would have missed (but which we wisely brought with us) are Peanut M and M's (although they will be gone in the next month or so at the current rate of consumption), peanut butter (although I have seen peanut butter on the shelves at the stores in Eldoret for the first time), Charmin toilet paper (the toilet paper here - let us just say the newspaper would be preferable ) snack bars, protein bars, and trail mix which all will be consumed likely sometime before Christmas. Some things we miss so far are baked goods (although Rachel made a really good peach cobbler yesterday - but we haven't really spotted any bakeries in Eldoret as of yet), steaks (it seems most of the cattle are used for dairy around here) creamer for our coffee (we like the liquid kind but we brought some pretty good powdered creamer), Tillamook Cheddar Cheese (there really isn't any cheddar cheese in town), and fast food (probably a very good thing but there are no fast food franchises in Eldoret; you have to go to Nairobi for that.) Nevertheless, most of the things we miss or the things we brought once we run out are things we really don't need and things that will offer us a healthier diet (not to mention a little weight loss).

Sleeping in Eldoret can be a challenge sometimes with three babies in the house. Nevertheless, the babies have begun to sleep more at night, and the two oldest, Diana and Belle, have learned to sleep through the night most nights. The same cannot always be said for Matt and Cheryl. After we got through with the challenges of jet lag, our sleep had to compete with the three dogs barking in the back yard, the rooster crowing from 5am to 8am incessantly which Matt would really prefer eating rather than hearing in the morning, the Islamic call to prayer at 5am from the local mosque, and the squawking of crested cranes and a variety of other cranes at certain times of the day and night. Amazingly, perhaps out of exhaustion, both Matt and Cheryl have begun to tune out the noises and sleep better, but they are both looking forward to moving to the OAI Village in Mlango which is in a quieter rural setting.

More on babies, driving in Kenya, and a Rift Valley adventure

2009-09-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

We've had plenty of time with the babies at our house in Eldoret. For now we are staying in a rented house in town with David and Rachel Gallagher; two other volunteers, Renee Scobill and Ruth Major; three babies, Belinda Caroline (Bel), Esther Ruth, and Diana; and three dogs, Mocha, Java, and Chai. The babies are a real joy to work with, and Matt is even pitching in with the feeding chores although he hasn't changed a diaper as of yet. The house is also used as the office for the Open Arms International Kenyan staff during the week, and today approximately two dozen staff and visitors have visited and worked at the house for various reasons. Hopefully we will be able to move everyone, including the offices to the OAI village in Mlango sometime in the next two or three months when construction on the first phase is completed and water and electricity become available at the village.

In addition to helping out with the babies, we also helped out with the feeding program for homeless orphans in the slums of Eldoret. It was difficult to watch some of the children with distended stomachs suffering from malnutrition, but also encouraging to know that we were offering them a nutritious meal, likely the only meal they would receive that day.

Driving back and forth to the village, to appointments, or to the feeding program everyday has been an experience in itself. Neither Cheryl or I have had the courage to drive any vehicles yet in Kenya, but just being a passenger has been an adventure in itself. Driving on the left side of the road has been hard enough to get used to, but entering busy intersections simultaneously with six or seven vehicles, twenty to forty people, and various cattle, goats, and chickens without any sense of order (I am not exaggerating) is slightly disorienting. Cheryl is convinced that she won't take up driving in Kenya, but Matt may get the courage sometime in the next few weeks. More on that later.

Matt drove out to a village above the Rift Valley with David Gallagher on Saturday and we saw some spectacular views of the valley floor, and vistas of various overlooks and cliffs above the valley. We were fairly high in elevation, over 9,000 feet, and walking around the village almost took our breath away. We stopped and visited with a farmer and created quite a stir with the children who had likely never seen any Wazungus (white people) before. About two dozen of them followed us around the village as we talked to the farmer and his brother. Finally, they gathered up the courage to talk with us after we convinced them we weren't going to eat them, and after I took a few photos of them, they all wanted to be in the photos. It has been a busy week, and we look forward to sending more blogs your way soon.

The newest members of the Open Arms village

2009-09-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of two of the newest members of the Open Arms village, Cheryl Tallman (who just arrived to Kenya two days ago), and Esther Ruth (who just arrived two weeks ago at only one day old).

Into Africa

2009-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday evening, September 6th without incident and with all of our luggage. We took a brief tour of Nairobi on September 7th, including a trip to the elephant sanctuary, a giraffe center, a memorial sight for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing. Then we exchanged some money at the bank, grabbed a quick meal, and hopped on another plane to Eldoret, Kenya on Monday evening. We've spent the last two days unpacking, recovering from jet lag, visiting the village, and helping take care of the three newest members of the Open Arms village. Today we had a site meeting with the foremen on the construction of the OAI village (they have been making quite a bit of progress on the orphanage homes - it looks like the first one will be completed within the next week or two, and two other homes will be completed within the next month). We also met with the District Commissioner of Eldoret about the possibility of starting a school at the village and he gave us some helpful advice along with assuring us that we would be able to start the school in January (the earliest we had hoped to start the school). On the way out to the site, we had a hilarious conversation with the project manager, Andrew Kiptoo, about the custom of polygamy in Kenya. He asked what Matt thought about gaining a second wife while he was here in Kenya and then he proceeded to tell Cheryl that according to Kenyan custom, she could choose who Matt's second wife would be. Matt then proceeded to ask Cheryl who she would choose, and she informed Matt that she would choose someone who would make his life miserable. At that point, the conversation changed to Kenyan politics. We are out of time for today, but we are looking forward to sending more photos and stories about our experiences here. Have a wonderful day.

Matt and Cheryl

Things are heating up!

2009-07-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

We've started empyting out our house room by room as we get ready to leave for Africa. We've emptied out the garage, most of the cupboards downstairs, and we've started cleaning up the office as we get ready to leave for Africa on September 5. It's hard to believe that we're less than six weeks from our departure date, but we still have quite a bit more to do. However, this heat wave is a killer, unusually warm for Portland in late July. It's supposed to be 102 degrees tomorrow, so maybe we'll try and find some air conditioned place to cool down. I almost wish we were already in Eldoret, Kenya where it's a temperate 79 degrees today.

2009-07-11T19:18:00.001-07:00

Getting Ready

2009-07-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

It seems like there is so much to do until we get to Africa, but we are checking things off the list every day. Cheryl and I got our shots this week (Cheryl still has to get a few more needles stuck in her), and we have cleaned out our garage so we can start to store our things in the garage and the attic while we are gone (I think I'd prefer getting more shots than cleaning out the garage again - much less painful). Most importantly, we have opened a blog account so that you can keep up on our adventures as we get ready to go to Africa and especially while we are there. We'll keep you updated as we progress. I have to sign off now so we can get ready for my graduation/going away reception tomorrow.
Adios Amigos
(or in Swahili - Kwahere)
Matt and Cheryl