Sunday in Mlolongo

We breakfasted with the other teams before they traveled out to other regions of Kenya and then bid a fond farewell as one by one, they packed up their vehicles and headed out. We left Little Daughters around 9am for a 10am service. In order to get to the church, Isaac, our driver, had to do a masterful job on a muddy, hilly narrow steep incline to get us there at all. It was incredible, I've seen some pretty slick driving before, but this was masterful. He had to avoid little kids and bota botas (motorcycle taxis) as we bobbed and weaved, spinning tires as we went. One of the elders of the church guided us for the last block or two.

After climbing the steep hill

Worship was wonderful. Our dear friend Pastor James from the ELCK presided over the service and volunteers and leaders from several other Pipeline churches were there as well. There was a lot of singing of the liturgy mixed in with Kenyan praise songs with gorgeous harmonies. We were introduced to the congregants, and I got to say a few words about who we are and why we are there. I referenced the Great Commission, little realizing that it was one of the major topics of the sermon. The church feed us a meal of meat, Ugali (a cornmeal staple that is much thicker than mashed potatoes, and cooked greens. It was very good, breaking bread with old friends is a great custom.

Children reciting their Bible verses

After our meal, we went to the clinic site to scope it out and plan for where each station of the clinic would be. The building is about the same size and shape as our last one, we decided to duplicate it with a reverse flow, since there is a road by one entrance and doing eyechart exams outside needed more room which was found at the other end of the building. We came away satisfied that the venue would work for a busy clinic. Tomorrow is Independence Day and from past experience we know that it will be either a very light or a very heavy day.

The Community Center hosting our clinic

Inside checking it out

We bought our team supplies and individual snacks for the week on the way home at The Hub (a very large mall near our convent) got back to Little Daughters and had dinner, agreed on timing of breakfast, supplies each of us would bring and a departure time of 7am. We hope to set up the clinic between about 8 and 9am, have a devotion and start serving patients with the Gospel and eye care. 

Bessings everybody, I hope to begin to share more pictures as the week goes on.

Saturday at the Nairobi Game Park and more

 I actually felt pretty good for only a little over 4 hours sleep, I did try to strategically sleep at the right times on the flights and limited my napping on the final leg of the trip, knowing we would get in late and I wanted to be dog tired then. We had a quick breakfast of cereal, bread, bananas and hard-boiled eggs along with instant coffee or tea. All of us brought individual serving packets from the States since the standard for instant coffee in Kenya seems to be Nescafe. I brought some Foger's Dark and it was pretty good. The van our group originally was scheduled to used had a bad tire and Catherine had to order another one on no notice. Amazingly enough, we only left half and hour late and our driver, Esther, was very good at both driving and being a guide in the game park. We saw Zebras, several Giraffes and Rhinos up close and personal, Hippos, Impalas and more and I was able to sneak in a few birds. There has been considerable drought in Kenya, it almost always coincides with our central Texas cycle. There had been recent heavy rain and the vegetation was quite lush. This makes for a much tougher safari because the wildlife is more spread out and there are more places to disappear in the tall grass. During drier seasons, the animals are not only more visible but also concentrated near watering holes. Even with a limited amount of species to view, I came back with 930 pictures including a nice flight sequence of a Sacred Ibis.

We ate lunch at The Veranda as it is our tradition to do after this game park. It is all outdoor seating under palm trees and the food is good. We joined a table of folks from St John's and also St. Marks, both in the Houston area. It was a fun group with a good mixture of veterans of these trips, some who had been a few times and others who were first timers. After lunch, we returned and all got about an hour of good napping in. We didn't want to overdo it, we need to start sleeping well here at night and get on track for the start of the vision clinic on Monday. We will have dinner at 7pm and get on the same page with each other for breakfast and when to be ready to go worship with our host congregations. More after our Sunday adventures. Blessings everybody!

Arrival in Nairobi and settling in at Little Daughters

 We were only about half an hour at landing, the Captain made up some of the time on the 8 hour flight. I was closer to the front of the plane, so when I got into the terminal, I waited for the others but didn't see them. Catherine texted me to go ahead and the others were able to find each other. It's good to travel with mostly folks that have experienced the chaos of foreign airports together before. 

Our luggage all arrived and we collected it in record time. One of Catherine's friends met us and shepherded us through the rest of the security and helped us get to where we were meeting our driver. Other teams came into a different terminal, so we had a separate vehicle for us and our luggage from them. We arrived at Little Daughters of St Joseph convent around midnight, got our room assignments and parted for our rooms. I got the only room in the compound that still has an electric heater on the shower head and it didn't work. After all that travel, I decided a cold shower was more important than sleep, so I bit the bullet. It was refreshing to say the least. I was able to get about four and a half of on again, off again sleep and felt pretty good this morning before having breakfast and heading out for a safari at the Nairobi National Game Park. More to follow about our Saturday. Blessings everybody and thanks for sharing in our mission!

From Paris to Nairobi

Everyone got through security except for me. My hip replacement set things off and I had to wait in line to scan my shoes and then a good frisking. All is well.

We are now boarded, one more flight to go and we'll be in Nairobi by 8.45 pm.

I spoke too soon.  There were mechanical issues with our plane, another big Airbus and we were about an hour late getting into the air. The flight has been smooth. We're about 3 hours from Nairobi at this point. I always like an aisle seat because I practice what I  preach and make a point of staying hydrated. I have had kidney stones before and am keeping 2 DVTs at bay with compression socks. Anyway, this means a stretch is necessary whether nature calls or not. I had aisle on the first 2 flights but was assigned a middle on this one. Luckily for me a couple was in the row and wanted to sit together. They had 2 little girls in the row in front of us along with their Uncle who kept then occupied with Angry Birds and videos. Mom took the older daughter to the bathroom and the one near us was occupied for maybe 20 minutes. I got concerned for them and a large line had formed.  I woke her husband up and he banged on the door. Nothing. He forced the half locked door open and it was empty. There was a big sigh of relief and everyone laughed. Mom had gone to a different area.

This flight has free WiFi but it's only good for texting apps  it was more than $30 for full internet access and i didn't need it  I've used WhatsApp to keep Catherine posted and to plan tonight abd tomorrow, Facebook  Messenger for others and regular text to friends back in the States.

in Minneapolis

In Minneapolis

We arrived at our gate a little early and began to look for our next gate, which was G9. We were in A. A cart driver noticed us and wondered our next flight. He confirmed G9 and it was all aboard for a very long ride, maybe 2 miles. He dropped us at a pretty good restaurant near G9. I had a Swiss cheeseburger that was very good but unusual.  Instead of a bottom bun, it was sitting in a metal cup of cole slaw. We ate and chatted for quite a while, since our layover was nearly 4 hours. We went to the gate and took turns freshening up, made phone calls, and I posted the previous blog story. I also rearranged gear between the backpack and my carry-on.  When we were finally boarding, while we were told to have our passports and boarding passes out, a facial recognition scan was all they did. Or so it seemed. We lined up single file in the long gangway leading to the Airbus 330. An officer with a huge black dog went up and down or line sniffing for who knows what. I didn’t see anyone pulled out of the line like I was in Houston one time when I had beef Jerry in my luggage.  That one ended in everyone laughing including me! Once everyone was seated on the huge plane,  we took off for France about 10 minutes late.

We’re waiting for dinner, it’s about 6. 30 pm which is 2.30 am in Nairobi,  meaning we need to sleep as much as we can on this leg of the journey to get a leg up on jetlag.  We need to be sharp by Monday when the clinic starts. I might take some Tylenol PM to help with that once we eat. I’ll stop here and pick it up later in the flight. Thanks for coming along with us via the blog. I hope it inspires some of you to join us in this mercy mission soon.

The Mission Begins! Thursday May 28th Travel

We all arrived for our flight 2 hours ahead. We couldn’t check in at the kiosk with a credit card as a security measure due to an African destination since fraud has been rampant. It was good because we got personal attention at the checkin counter.  I have TSA Pre-Check but Melissa beat me to our gate because I was behind a  nursing mother with formula in 2 carryons and she got extra scrutiny. Our flight to Minneapolis looked to  be on time. Right before boarding, they asked for 23 volunteers to  check their  carry-on since the flight was full. The only problem was that it would be checked through to our final destination and I  had a laptop and about $12000 of photo equipment in mine. I asked at the desk what my odds were being in boarding group 6. “Not great.” Fortunately Melissa was able to check hers and when we were boarding the gate agent waved me through with her. Both Melissa and I had mentioned Nairobi and she put 2 and 2 together and had mercy on me. Thank you Jesus! Something had told me to bring a mostly empty backpack with me. It was in my checked bag last night. This allowed me to move the most important stuff into it quickly when things looked bleak. It is under the seat in front of me as I write this and I’ll rearrange a bit during our layover in Minneapolis.

We’re flying the Delta, KLM, Air France route this time after 3 years of missed connections in London with British Air and American Airlines. So far, so good. Andrea and Elizabeth should be arriving in Nairobi during our layover in Minneapolis.

 

Ready to serve the people of Kenya again in His name in Mlolongo!

 It's that time of year again and we are getting ready to saddle up for our mission trip to Nairobi once again. This year, we have a team of 6, with 5 of us being veterans. That experience will come in handy, as we will be serving in Machakos County in a slum called Mlolongo. This is the first time on of our teams will serves with two local churches, so we expect to have great volunteers with a lot of enthusiasm for spreading the Gospel as we serve the people's vision needs. Many times, the first morning of the clinic looks like things will never work as our team and the volunteers figure out how things work. Usually by Tuesday afternoon, the clinic is running like a well-oiled machine, I expect things will get going much quicker as each one of us will be able to get a station of the clinic ready quickly and also get our volunteers up to speed.  

We were prayed over and sent as missionaries at all three of our church services at Redeemer Sunday, which happened to be Pentecost. It doesn't get better than that! I always read a chapter a day in the Book of Acts for the 4 weeks leading up each trip, reading about how the early church grew in leaps and bounds, being led by the Holy Spirit, always gets me fully charged up for the work we are about to do. 

The Dream Team

If you would like to see any of the services, they are available in Redeemer Austin's YouTube channel. 

In between the second and third services, we divvied up various items we need either for the clinic or for the school in Kongasis. While some of us get two checked bags and a carry-on, we have traveled light for years and will only have on suitcase, a carry-on and the personal item that fits under the seat in front of you. Years ago, we used to take multiple footlockers filled with reading glasses, lenses and frames for making distance glasses, medications, tools and other things necessary to run a clinic. Sometimes, your carry-on was all you got. It's pretty doable for the guys, the ladies had a little more difficulty. Over the years, security has tightened up in Nairobi and we would often have to pay to bring supplies into the country, even though we are an NGO (non-profit) and have government approval. All of the team members pay their own way and for their lodging, with much help from generous friends, so it always seemed a little unfair to have to pay to do good works. We eventually woke up and realized most of what we were bringing had been ordered from China and we were carrying it with us when we could order the same things from Kenya and rent storage space much more cost effectively. I figure out of the 25 kilograms (52 pounds) that we're each allowed to bring in a checked bag, maybe 15 to 20 pounds will be for the clinic and the rest will be personal items like clothes, meds, etc.

Things you can be praying for are uneventful travel with no missed connections since the last three years has seen our teams scattered to the four winds. Some of us ended up in Doha, Qatar through no choice of our own last year, other times I've been in Istanbul or an extra day in London or Amsterdam due to missed flights or delays. Also, the jet fuel situation in Europe is very tight, so we are hoping our flight from Charles DeGaulle to Nairobi actually is able to fly out and that our layover of about three hours is enough. Some of us are traveling starting Wednesday to be able to visit the school on Friday, some are leaving Thursday, staying over for photo safaris and other activities and hope to visit the school on our way back to town Monday, June 8th before leaving that night. 

I will try to update the blog on a daily basis and there will be multiple stories during our travel. We have formed a WhatsApp group for the team, so we will know where everyone is whenever we have WiFi in airports or hotels. This is a big improvement in our ability to communicate compared to when I first went on these missions in 2009. Here I am on my 24th trip and the world has changed little by little!

Blessings everybody, see you in the next post!