After a night of 8 or 9 thirty-minute naps, a blissful hot shower and a bowl of cornflakes, our driver arrived at 7am to take us south two hours to Kakamega to visit the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). The road to Kakamega is a well-travelled tarmac road with lots and lots of truck traffic. The tire grooves in the road were sometimes 3 to 4 inches deep and speeds were moderated by occasional speed bumps.

The countryside we travelled through was beautiful: rolling hills with volcanic outcroppings, small houses dotting the hills and small farms in the valleys and flatlands. The rural areas appear to be so much poorer than what we saw in Eldoret: children with no shoes, houses with no electricity and lots of women and children carrying water jugs and firewood. Every ten or fifteen minutes we would pass through small towns with roadside markets for food, clothes, firewood and other basic living necessities.

At KARI-Kakamega, we were greeted by the Centre Director, Dr. Francis Muyekho, and we met with him and seven of his staff for three hours. It was such a joy at the beginning of the meeting when they asked we open in prayer. There was shared rejoicing to know that God had brought some of His children together to fellowship and share ideas to help the poor of Kenya. Each of his staff shared what they were doing in areas of agricultural research in such areas as maize, legumes, roots and tubers, horticulture and food processing.

We learned so much about the lack of farm management and food marketing practices, and the extreme challenges village farmers face in just eking out enough food to feed their families. Simple things we take for granted like good seeds, storage bins and fertilizers are challenges that make their crop yields only achieve about 20% of their potential and force them to sell their crops when prices are lowest. We also learned the western region that KARI serves (which the village of Kager is in) is one of the poorest in Kenya, with only 3% formally employed, 8% informally employed and the remaining 89% either subsistent village farmers or completely unemployed.

We also learned of a couple organizations that might be potential partners: C-MAD (Community Mobilization Against Desertification) and CARPA (Christian Agricultural Related Professional Association). Rhoda Nungo, invited us to her home where she demonstrated an Energy Saving Stove and a Fireless Cooker, both solutions to significantly reduce the amount of firewood used for basic cooking.

We then travelled on with our driver, Amos, to the city of Kisumu. The 90-minute trip was slow-going and a real kidney buster, as the road we were on was a mixture of pavement, dirt, potholes, ruts and ridges. Kisumu is located on the shores of Lake Victoria, the 3rd largest city in Kenya and a commercial center for the western region.

After checking in and a short nap at St. Anna Guest House, our long-awaited meeting with David Kayando finally happened. It was a real joy to shake David’s hand and give him a holy hug after almost one year of exchanging e-mails and dreaming together about the Jubilee Village Project. It is truly amazing to see how God has weaved David and my hearts and lives together to get us to this point in our journey.

John, David and I had dinner together and a great time of fellowship. We learned more about Kager village (and how to pronounce it the correct way: kă-GĕR) and David’s role as an apostle and church planter. We also learned that David’s father, Bishop Christopher Kayand0, is the spiritual leader of a Kenyan denomination and travels all across Kenya in this role.

Both John and I continue to receive great encouragement from the people that God is allowing us to meet and the relationships we are being able to build. We are so thankful we made the decision to spend time in Eldoret and Kakamega – they are doing some great work at both places and we hope we might be successful in building a bridge for these solutions to work in Kager village.

Asante (thank you) Abba Father.

Ned

We were up at the crack of dawn yesterday — it seems like the sun just popped out over the equatorial horizon at 6:15. By 9:00 am, we had flown to Eldoret (in northern Kenya at 7,000 ft altitude) and were picked up by Abraham Boit from AMPATH (Academic Model for for the Treatment and Prevention of HIV). AMPATH is a program initiative between Moi University and Indiana University with the goal of reversing the HIV/AIDS crisis in Kenya.

We spent half the day with Abraham and his colleagues learning about and walking through the four farms they operate to produce and distribute vegetables and fruits on a massive basis – over 10 tons per week. Through this program, they feed over 30,000 people each day with a diet that helps people fight and resist the HIV virus and the devastating affect of AIDS. Coupled with the medical care programs provided through Moi University and some 15 or so community clinics spread through northern Kenya, they are treating over 72,000 people affected by AIDS.

Although it is hard to describe these farms in words, they can be best described as HIGHLY productive farms cranking out crop after crop. John was almost giddy to see the sound farming and agronomy best practices they have in place: hybrid seed selection, composting, soil enrichment, greenhouse growing, crop rotation, leaf picking and drip irrigation. Abraham is very open to having us send farmers from Kager to take part in their 11-module program that covers high-production farming from A-to-Z. The training they have created is excellent and we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for the day. We also met Naman Nyabinda who runs AMPATH’s agricultural extension programs for village-based training and mentoring of farmers (FPI – Family Preservation Initiative).

Naomi Lundman (DePauw undergrad, Notre Dame MBA) served as our tour guide for the afternoon as we toured the town of Eldoret. We wanted to see what farming resources are available in Kenya, so we visited grocery stores, hardware stores and seed stores – the resources in Eldoret appear to be very good. The challenge for any village farmer is gaining access to these resources from both a transportation and working capital standpoint.

After a good afternoon nap at the Indiana University House at which we stayed (jet lag is probably more appropriately called “jet slam”), we had the real pleasure to have dinner (there are good Chinese restaurants in Kenya) with Dr. Joe and Sarah Mamlin (and their friend Jim who is a retired anthropologist). The Mamlins can best be described as “giants” in the HIV/AIDS global relief community and it was fascinating to hear them share about the program they helped start from scratch with Indiana / Moi Universities back in 1990 (if you google Joe Mamlin, you can read more about their work and his Noble Peace Prize nomination). It was very encouraging to share with them the vision of the Jubilee Village Project and the work we have planned for Kager – their response was that “we are spot on.” They said a grass roots, village-based model is just what is needed to complement the top-down, massive coverage model that AMPATH has developed.

It was a truly blessed day and we learned so much. We met the most open and hospitable people at AMPATH/IU/Moi, and we feel we have made new friends who welcomed up with open arms and are willing to share their resources and knowledge with us in the future.

God is good!

Ned

(Slideshow at Bottom)

As I boarded the plane to start our adventure to Kenya, it was my only hope our plane would perform better than my nose diving 401-K. The flights to Chicago and London were pretty uneventful, although about ¾ of the way across the Atlantic, I started feeling in my legs thre reason why people pay so much more for Business class.

Our flight from Heathrow to Nairobi was a lot less crowded, which I was glad as it was going to be another eight hours in the air. Of all the flying I have done in my life, I have to say this was the most incredible “look out the window” experience. It was truly amazing as we crept across the top of Africa across the Saharan and Libyan Deserts. For three hours, from horizon to horizon, nothing but sand and rock — blue, brown and blue and nothing else. The enormity of the Saharan is mind blowing. The barren desert skin is sliced open occasionally by a steppe plateau, but for the most part, it is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles of sand.

From 36,000 feet, I could see great lines of sand dunes crawling across the desert floor like snakes looking for rocks to escape the brutal heat. Then out of nowhere appeared a distant pattern of honeycombs and circles carved in the sand. As we flew closer, I could see it was some sort of man-made oasis carved out of absolutely nowhere. Deep drilled wells and irrigation were obviously the source of life for this community. What it was I have no idea. It left me with a great curiosity to understand why anything would be built in the middle of the world’s largest flying pan.

As darkness set in, we proceeded to sail over the Darfur Mountains and down the Great Rift Valley, the Nile River out of site beneath us, with locations like Luxor and Aswan flashing on my headset map.

As our wheels touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International, I was glad our 24-hour trek was over. Much to my surprise and delight, we breezed through Customs and they didn’t even look inside our big blue tub containing the New Life water purifier system. We were thankful our taxi ride to the Gracia Guest House was not in our hands. After a whole day of travel, I know neither John or I were in the right state of mind to try to drive on the left-hand side, weave through the police roadblock chicanes or avoid the bicyclers and walkers on the pitch black road.

As I lay my head down last night, I couldn’t help but think about the week ahead and how much we have to learn. The thing I am most excited to learn, though, is to discover “the good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). God has been working for eternity in this little corner of His Kingdom named Kenya, and it is so exciting to join Him in His work.