Updates in Kamulu

In Mathare slums today, a big rock that is located on the border of Mathare, fell on passers-by, 8 people died and so many injured. The rock was so big it caused a lot of damaged to property. It also covered houses, so many shanty houses all erected a long edges have been covered by the debris. The landslide is believed to come as a result or heavy downpour.

Mathare, near Mary Waithera's home

Kamulu Church of Christ is in preparations for the national youth conference, that will be held on the 19th of April. It will run four days, we anticipate a crowd of about 500 plus young people. Currently we in preparations, a committee has been set up,food menus have been made, pit latrines are being dug, since we want no interference with our dorm life once visitors start pouring in.

Tomorrow the Coulstons have organized an Easter service for our students and team. We will try and do it as the Israelites did it, singing and sighting scripture. We are excited about the service.

In education this week, teachers are reviewing what has been taught this term, end of terms exams will commence next week. Followed by a school break that will last a week.

John Wambu has finally managed to secure MITS titles to three of our properties. He has been working on this for the last 8 years. The Systems in Kenyan Lands offices have so many hindrances, these can derail you into giving out bribes, hence fake titles. John has been patient and we recommend him for this.

Joel Njue is still collecting documents to help us attain our re-registration certificate from the children's' department. As always we are always ready for any impromptu visits from their department. A fire drill exercise has been given to our students and secure points selected as fire assembly points in case of an emergency.

Paul Zakayo is having issues at his place of work...I talked to him today and he confessed that most of his co-workers are using drugs. He has done the smart thing by telling his boss about it, but his boss seems indifferent. He is confused as to continue working there or look for another place of work. David Mutimbi and George Omondi are fairing on well at their place of work, this week they are scouting for a national identification. It might take a while, but we are positive they will attain their IDs. Florence Mora, Veronica and Anastacia( who we later learnt that her birth name is Grace) are doing great in their places of intern ship and work.

A schedule/plan has been laid out for Lucy Akinyi, since her doctor recommended she change her line of skill which is Auto - Mechanics. She has been having pains on her back. We are now training her to work with computers, assuming she might still get employment at a garage and work as a secretary or a records keeper.

Currently, with increase of students, Philip has seen it fit to have four levels of classes. Beginners, Intermediate, Middle and Advance classes. All levels are fairing on well. Fast track is still a class that we register to sit national exams that is provided by the government. This time we will run it for two years to help cover the syllabus needed to prepare them for the said exam.

We give thanks to the youth group in Pepperdine who helped raise funds in order for us to treat our students during holidays seasons. Plans are in place to take our kids for a trip. Maybe around th month of November. Excitement is in the air already, Also a big thanks to Larry Haggerman of Iowa and his crew for fundraising for our medical department and Nursery centre.

Blessing too, to you who keep us in constant prayer and thoughts.

Base visits

Friday, 23rd team went out to Eastleigh, and split into two groups. This helps to cover the city area widely, and reach more street youths. One groups went to a common known market, Gikomba area. There had been disturbances in the area, some houses were burnt down and business demolished. A base is located near there and so many streets families live on the garbage heap that is there. We started visiting with the streets kids there. As Jane Abuti was talking, we heard gun shots, the police was trying to quite down the groups that were starting form up in protest. Since we were with street kids near that area, some police officers came to us saying we move our meeting to another place. A crowd had started gathering, curious onlookers were also interested in what we were telling the streets guys. When time for distributing the bread that MITS catering student had made, curious bystanders jumped on the bag that had the bread and chaos started, so we never got the chance to distribute the bread evenly to the street guys there.

Same Friday, the Eastleigh team had a case to handle, one girl had been dropped by the District Children Officer at our center. Issue is the DCO got the girl, Santana who is 14 yrs old, from the mother. The mother claims that Santana was involved in commercial sex and wanted to find her a place like MITS to help her change these norms. The Eastleigh team, did further investigations and found out that Santana's mother had been asked by the DCO a bribe of Ksh. 20,000 (USD240), so the DCO could help with allocation of Santana to a children's home. Santana's mother confessed that the DCO had initially asked for Ksh. 40,000, but she haggled to half and promised the DCO to find the other half later on. The DCO also was asked a couple of questions and later realized that she had also shared the said amount with the local police. A fight almost broke out between Santana's mother and the DCO after being told by our team there that we never ask for any amount to enroll students in to our program.

Later on Saturday, Jane Njeri an older lady of 24 yrs living on the streets was undergoing medication in our center. She had a tooth ache and was taking strong pain killers. As she came for her medication, Byron and Evans were getting busy trying to get her some food because she had not eaten some days in connection with the pain.

As Byron and Evan had prepared something liquid for her to take, they rushed it to her only to find her down on the floor, dead.

Evans and Byron reported the matter to the local police and took the body to the Morgue.

@ Francis Mbuvi's desk

I spent some time with the Eastleigh team and loads of wonderful things are happening. We had some exciting ideas of outreach which will take effect as early as next week!!! They include-- Going to a base especially with young boys and play games, sing, have a lesson and eat lunch. This will be a great way of evangelism both to the young and the older boys. Second-- start bible studies and fellowship at some of the women who come to Monday program and to church-- another opportunity to reach out to them and some of their neighbors. Third-- create stronger bonds with streetyouth by cooking and eating with them-- it will take more time but it is worth it. Other chances are that, Eva-- a girl who ran away last year has approached the team and requests to come back to MITS -- it may not happen but just the chance to remind her of Gods love is worth it. Priscah Kerubo who also ran away two weeks ago has come back with his parents asking to be forgiven and given another chance-- it may or may not happen but once again-- we will not skip the chance to tell her how much Jesus loves her. So grateful to God for all this opportunities to Serve him and to many of you who remember the kids on the streets, at Kamulu and the team in your prayers.

In other news, the team has decided to fully assist Elizabeth Mwikali (Maria) and her three kids. We will try and find her housing in an apartment within Kamulu. Then we help her settle done, and give her casual work. Her two older children Larry and Purity will be attending out nursery.
Steve Hen finally fixed the loader on our tractor with the help of Jerry Reiney. Hydraulic system had failed and the front loader was not working well. it took two years for the problem to get fixed.
All students have now been settled in classes. We now have four different levels of literacy. Advance, Middle, Intermediate and Beginners. Fast track will run for two years, this will allow for full coverage of the normal formal schools' curricula. It also give students ample time to study without rush.
A 9 year old who is also pregnant was rescued from the streets of Nairobi by a Lutheran church. Worries are that the organization needs another home that deal with such cases, because they don't take in pregnant girls.
Daniel MIcks from Tennessee is visiting with us, he is a counselor by profession. He will spending sometime with our students who are in dire need of sessions.
Harvest this time is bountiful, the farm has produced numerous bags of corn. This will help reduce the strain on our budget for food. We use the corn for different meals in our food timetable, famously known as Githeri and Ugali. Replanting is already in progress.

Kenya 2012, Day 4. Kisumu

I love Kisumu. Its the African version of west Texas. Laid back. Hot. Dusty. Good people.

We started the morning at 4:30, getting to the airport for our flight out to Kisumu. We took off right at sunrise and the view of the Great Rift Valley was spectacular. What a way to start the day.

Lunch was at a place on the shore of Lake Victoria called Tilapia Beach. They serve whole talapia that have been dried in the sun and then fried. Its served whole on the plate and you eat it with your hands…no silverware.

Before:



After:



I spent the afternoon at RingRoad orphanage visiting with the students and taking pictures. What amazing kids. Enjoy a few pics:

How do you take a bad photo here?

I’ll post more soon.

Kenya 2012, Day 2. Powerless.

I’ve titled today powerless, partially because we had no power all day until about an hour ago (6pm). That spoils the day when you are planning on teaching all day in the computer lab. As if that weren’t far enough off the grid, my watch decided to die. No computer. No phone. No watch. No power.

What I did have, nevertheless, was a good day spent connecting with staff and students.

Immediately after chapel, about 20 staff volunteered to meet with me to discuss the role Facebook can/will play in getting more people around the world involved in the ministry. We talked about the impact of the things that they do on a daily basis. They absolutely have a profound impact on a local level, but I helped them understand that they can shape lives and influence others across the globe through social networking. These guys already have Facebook accounts and we set up a plan by which they can systematically and purposefully share what they do with others.

Please take a minute to visit the MITS Facebook page to connect with the ministry. Also, the staff members welcome you to become friends with them. I will list below, the staff members who’d like to expand their Facebook network. If you’d like, send them an invite and suggest your friends do the same.

Moses Okoth
Brian Ochieng
Helen Muga
James Mwangi
Jackton Omondi
Victor Otieno
Willis Odhaimbo
Nzioka Okendi
Joel Njue
Charles Ndonyi
Kennedy Atsiaya
Kenneth Wambugu
Robin ndunda
Elizabeth Wangari
Irene Akinyi Otalo
Phillip Kariuki
Patrick Saulo

There’s two things I’m hoping for after our time together. I hope they are able to share weekly what they do. You’ll be amazed and grateful to read about their successes and challenges. I also hope that they will begin to see a benefit to sharing, in the form of making new friends, receiving encouragement and seeing that the work they do matters beyond their local community.

After the staff met, I got to teach the computer skills students a photography lesson. We met from 10 am to 1 pm. Again, with no power. We did have four cameras that had just enough battery life to last the duration of the class. The focus of the day was portrait photography. I used a few whole brain teaching techniques that made the fun and very active. The kids had a good time and showed a great deal of interest and improvement during the course of the day.

Looking back, there wasn’t a single moment where I thought to myself, “these are just street kids.” They asked great questions, loved the hand’s on assignments and worked very well with their learning partner. This is a tribute back to the teachers that have been working with them in their classes.

I should post a photo or two at this time, but I’m just too tired to go back to the room and get my camera bag. I’ll post later some of the pics that the kids took in class.

Now about being powerless.

The first hour of the day, immediately after chapel, was spent in a staff meeting listening to the teachers deliberate about what to do concerning two very difficult situations:

1. What do we do about a former student who is only 19 years old but has three small children to take care of? Do we help her get a job? Can she take on a job? Do we help her get her own place to live? Do we give her another chance here?

2. What do we do about a 12 year old girl who is living on the streets and has just discovered that she is pregnant? Do we bring her in to live in Kamulu with the older, teenage girls? Do we find another place to take her in?

I like to think that I have a lot of answers, but not this morning. There are no easy answers when the questions look like this. I guess the questions I think I had the answers to in the past might not have been big enough problems.

As I listened to the staff members talk on each side of both issues, I was just amazed at the wisdom present. Most staff members are younger or much younger than I am. I knew they had it together, but today I realized what a treasure they were. I cannot imagine having to make such difficult decisions like they do…as often as they do.

Kenya 2012, Day 1. Hope.

We had a great first day in Kenya. We spent the day in Eastleigh visiting the bases and then to Ruiru to help two MITS graduates get settled in their new jobs and new home.

When we got to Eastleigh I was surprised to see Mary there. Mary is one of our sponsored children. We have sponsored Mary, Mwanahawa and Duncan for four years. Duncan and Hawa are still living in Kamulu, so we got to visit last night and early this morning. Mary lives and works now in Hurlingham. She works at the Milele Salon. Mary surprised me this morning at the Eastleigh Center, since it was her day off. She has really grown into a beautiful young woman.

We also had the opportunity to visit some new bases with Joel, Moses, Evans and Larry. We walked quite a ways to some bases I hadn’t been to before. We found guys at each of the bases, who welcomed us. We spent time visiting, praying and sharing words of encouragement. You don’t (or I don’t) really fully appreciate the true essence of the Gospel until you are sharing it with someone who eats and sleeps on a pile of trash. I’ll plan on sharing my thoughts on this later in the week, but apparently, you can live on the street, survive on eating scraps out of the trash, and know Christ.

These guys’ base was in an industrial area on a pile of trash about 8 feet high. They had a lean-to tent set up against the wall, mad of plastic sheeting and cardboard. About 10 boys, ages 10 to 18 lived under the lean-to. One guy was asleep when we arrived and was partially covered in trash, to the point where you couldn’t really see him.

I am always surprised to see how friendly and receptive the guys on the bases are. They are quick to listen and eager to pray. One boy offered a memorized scripture. He said it was the command with a promise:

Ephesians 6: 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

After eating Rice and potatoes at the Eastleigh center (my favorite Kenyan meal), we went to Ruiru to help two girls transition into their new lives outside of MITS. Veronica and Florence have graduated from their catering skills program and started to work TODAY at their new jobs. They are both waitresses at a nice cafe. Florence took our orders for sodas and provided us with fantastic service.

It was very nice to experience the entirety of the MITS mission today, from the filth of the street bases to the students who have graduated and are employed.

After sodas, we took Florence and Veronica’s things to their new apartment. By apartment, I mean a 10x10 room. In it, they now have two twin size mattresses, four suitcases of clothes and an assortment of cooking utensils. Joel stopped at a store near the apartment to buy them a 10 gallon jug for carrying water, a lightbulb and a broom. I’ll post more photos later, but here’s the fornt door:

They share the rent for the room. Its about $20 US a month.

If there’s a word that describes the day, it’s HOPE. Everywhere I looked today, people had hope. It was all because of Jesus.

Elizabeths'(Maria) predicament!

For the past weeks, the team has been in deep discussion on how best to help Elizabeth Mwikali out. Elizabeth is a former single mother from our program. She has three kids as of now. She left us while she only had two, Purity and Larry. While with us she underwent the catering skill. We hired her and one other single mother (Catherine Ndunge) to be our cleaners at the Learning centre.

Elizabeth got housing near our premises, and work went on well. Eventually at some point a young man came into her life and misled her into moving in with him. Having done so we were obliged to talk to her in depth, but she chose to live with the young man.

Thy later on moved out to

another town within Nairobi District. Later on we learnt she was again pregnant and the boy had abandoned her, making her to suffer tones and move back to the Mathare slums where her sister lives with her family.

She started working on odd jobs around the slum area, her babies would become sickly, slept outside and were really suffering for food and basic commodities. Milly Omondi, went on one occasion to visit Elizabeth and found her in a pathetic situation, she reported back to the team, of great concern she had seen the three kids.

Hence our current predicament, we have tried different mechanisms to assist Elizabeth and her kids, we allowed her to bring them to our Eastleigh centre for the day, to be getting medical help and small education as she fends for herself. The team realized that this was not really helping her out because she was evading the responsibility of raising her kids.

Hellen Maina, our Nursery school caretaker, suggested we find a school for Elizabeth's two older kids as she also tries to find a reasonable wage job. We could also help her in finding a housing unit and help with initial rent.

The team saw this as a great idea, but later in after much discussion again with the team in Eastleigh, another insight came up. It was suggested that we completely change Elizabeth's' environs, and move her completely from the slum area to a place where we can have counselling and assist her in educating her kids, like in Kamulu. Move her from social evils and temptation that slum life come with.

Still in talks about this, but it was clear from all team, through Philip, that Elizabeth take the initative of seeking for our help instead of waiting to be told what to do. This will be a sign of maturity and will make her more responsibility on making decision related to the growth of her kids.

Pray over this.