Traveling 15-5-2010

Traveling 15-5-2010

week of 3-5-2010
- met with contractors Ajay Shah and Charles Mutuku. Had productive meeting with Assoc. for Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK). LDSC has had a contract with them to supply wheelchairs to those in need for 4 years. The handovers of the wheelchairs are some of the most personal and rewarding experiences we have as the Charities couple. Meeting with APDK helped clarify the procedures for dispensing the wheelchairs. For the most part, APDK finds and distributes the wheelchairs to those in need from all over Kenya. However, we get personal applications occasionally and are able to see the way wheelchairs touch those who have struggled for so many years to get by with the aid of only family. Many children are carried by their mothers to school for years. Older mothers are carried by their children. Many walk on all fours with flip flops protecting their hands. They seem to be happy, accepting what cannot be changed, as do those around them. But wheelchairs can change many lives and release burdens that have been carried for years.
- We were notified by the Area Welfare Manager that the Presiding Bishopric approved a project to feed orphans in Kisumu. We decided to take a trip to that area to check into the logistics. The drive is 7 hours, through the beautiful Rift Valley and brilliant manicured tea plantations. We stay with the Foxes while there. We left on Saturday about 1:00, arrived at 8:00 pm. Except for the long rutted dirt detour, all went well until the dark descended. Driving in Kenya is eventful at best, but in the dark it is hazardous. We shared the major through-route to Uganda with pedistrians, people pulling loaded carts, bicyclists, motorcyclists, speed bumps, and enormous potholes. The highway is narrow, and John has to swerve to miss potholes and oncoming semi-trucks. At the same time he has to spot and dodge dark people walking, riding bikes, and pulling loaded handcarts. In the first picture you can see a semi-truck that has overturned after hitting a particularly large pothole in the side of the road. The semi trucks are interesting...they pull trailers that are platforms with large loads strapped on. The trucks are, therefore, taller and less stable than those in the US. In the last few days we have seen many off the road in various condition (turned over, broken down not quite out of traffic with the driver laying down underneath trying to fix the problem, on the center median stuck in the wet dirt while trying to cross over to the opposite side to avoid a traffic jam). I would not want to have to make a living driving trucks in Kenya.
- The orphanage we went to see was sponsored by the Kenyan Ambassador to the US. Though we are told that orphanages are not ordinarily the kind of projects LDSC gets involved in, we are doing as directed by the Presiding Bishopric. The Balochi Project (can be looked up online) is a feeding program for children orphaned by the death of one or more parent, usually through disease. AIDS is prevalent in Kenya. The Project was initiated by Ambassador Peter Ogego (also online), who saw the need and donated property for the building. The building was funded by Quiet Way (online), an organization started by a senior RM from Utah who was impressed with a Kenyan woman he had met on his mission. Quiet Way has funded many good projects in Western Kenya. The building of the Project is almot complete; it is intended to feed orphan children who are taken care of by families that struggle financially to feed their own. Meals will be provided to local orphans before school and at lunchtime, when all children go home to eat. Two hundred orphans have been identified within the surrounding community of approximately 2-3000 people.
Each project in Kenya has a local committee to supervise. The Church is trying to strengthen communities by supporting these committees in their goals. Each committee has elected officers who are responsible to conduct the project in accordance with the people they serve. When we arrived, the committee had been assembled and we were toured through the impressive building they are constructing. The building has a large area to feed the children and serve as a community center, a kitchen, offices, and storage and classroom areas. It is made of stone with openings to let the light and breezes through. They have gutters on the roof with downspouts attached to large tanks to supply water. One tank of 10,000 L was already filled with water.
We met the Ambassador's family at the compound. Alex Ogego, the eldest brother, lives on the compound as well as the 85 year old mother who has had gout and is not very active physically. After meeting the sweet mother in her bedroom, we all sat in her living room for about 15 minutes, as is customary. We were then directed past Alex's home to the home of Ambassador Ogego. While he and his family are in residence in the Washington DC area, his home is maintained by a live-in caretaker. The entire committee of The Balochi Project and their attendant security force (the District Police Commanding Officer and 4 security police) were treated to an incredible lunch at the abmassador's home. The home is in a beautiful setting near Lake Victoria. The cement floors are uncarpeted because of the mud that is everpresent. The walls are made of painted stone. There are no screens, and doors and windows are left open to catch the breeze; the door to the kitchen was open and baby chicks popped into the dining area periodically. A small TV was turned on in the living room, probably to show us that the home has solar-powered electricity. No electric lines are nearby. They had an indoor porcelain toilet, which is a luxury. There was a small sink between the kitchen and toilet room with cold water and soap, to which we were all directed before and after lunch to wash up. The Africans eat with their hands, scooping the food with either ugali (heavy dough-like corn-based mixture that takes on the taste of whatever food you are dipping) or chapatis (like thick fried tortillas). We had a veritable feast of fresh fish (the tilapia was hanging on a line outside the window of the kitchen as we walked in), Nile perch, calf liver, chicken. Being treated to this amount of protein must be a sign of great wealth in a land of such starvation and unemployment.
After lunch, we were taken to the local market. As part of the project the Church has agreed to supply large amounts of food. We needed to see what was available. The market is not in a building, but is housed in many small stalls. Each stall is manned by women, many of whom have their young children with them. The children stay with their mothers, not wandering nor even moving much. In the attached picture you can see a woman selling 1 of 3 types of fish available in the market: dried herring. I saw other fish being sold dried...tilapia and Nile perch. There were many stalls with greens and grains. There were stalls selling 4 different qualities of salt: very coarse for animals, smaller crystals for cooking, two other grades of varying whiteness for eating/table use. There were stalls that were reminiscent of a scaled-down version of the French Market with a variety of tee-shirts and plastic stuff. There was a large, fenced-in livestock market, with people holding their cattle, sheep, and goats for inspection and purchase. There was a hardware store, with among other things, logs, hand-hewn lumber, bungee straps (made of strips of bicycle inner tubes). There were 2 bicycle fundis under trees (most common means of conveyance other than walking). I'm not quite sure how we will purchase the food. It is certainly not like making a contract with the local supermarket to provide food for the needy ward members and bill the Church. It will be a learning experience. Fortunately they will not be ready to feed the orphans until September, so we have a while to figure it out.

As a tribute to the ingenuity of the Africans, I noted the following on our trip:
Cheap methods of slowing cars: sporadic speed bumps on major highways, unrepaired potholes of varying size and placement, policement placed at random spots to pull over speeding cars and trucks.
Mass transit: boda bodas (bicycles with padded bookracks that transport up to 3 people), piki piki (motorcycles that wait on the highway to transport people). Bikes are also used for commercial transport (impressive loads I saw on this trip): corrugated tin sheet, 5-20L cans of water; 5 foot high stack of something attached to the bike rack; large loads of grasses as high as the rider; 2 heavy milk cans; bicycle; couch. Another commercial carrier is the handcart which may be constructed of 2" tree limbs on an axle supported by car tires and pulled either by a person or by 1-3 mules. If mules are used, the driver can stand with the reins and a whip in his hands. These travel on the edge of major highways and must be dodged. They also ply the streets of Nairobi.
Roadside markets: vegetables, live animals (chickens, turkeys, goats); cow hides; crafts.

As I close, I will tell of the ward we attended this week at Busia. We drove 2.5 hours to attend the small branch that has been in existence for 8 months. The Branch President is the only Melchizidek holder in the area. There is a family that has been members for 18 years, but most are new but eager. The building is a walled in house with barbed wire and broken glass on the top of the wall. There is a 24-hour security guard. The Spirit is strong, the numbers are few. It was a wonderful experience.
HIV is rampant. John was called on as a doctor to go to the hospital to check on a ward member who is dying. She is 32, with 2 small children and a husband. As we entered the hospital, we found Elizabeth in a 20-ward bed. This was the community hospital where care is minimal but inexpensive. Each bed had a patient and an attendant there to feed them. A large dish of food is brought on a trolley and each attendant gets the food and washes the dish afterwards. It looked like they were eating rice and a bean-type mash. The young woman was misdiagnosed and lay in the hospital bed for 9 days before being dismissed, later to return. She is now in the process of dying. Very sad. Medicine, especially at the national hospital, is very primitive. Her husband has accepted the fact that she will not live much longer. Life here is tenuous.