Legos - The International Toy of Choice

While on school break, the staff at Agape has a number of different programs for the boys.  Here's a quick video of the boys playing with Legos in the dining hall.  I was relieved to see that my children aren't the only ones who like to put Legos in their mouths!

Happy Birthday Connor!!!

Happy Birthday!  Believe it or not, our little girl, Connor turned 9 years old today.  We love her so much and are so proud of her!  We held a birthday party for Connor with our friends here in Kenya on Saturday, and then did presents this evening after dinner.  Just last week, they had real Betty Crocker icing and cake mixes at the local grocery store, which made Connor's birthday feel even more special!  Here are a few pics and videos; make sure to wish Connor a Happy Birthday!

"Happy Birthday to you . . . "

Tammy made this picture frame for Connor for her birthday, with a big picture of her two best friends in the US, Hannah and Anna.  (Connor prefers friends with names that are palindromes.  I guess that means that one day she'll marry a guy named Bob, Asa, or Otto.)  The frame is made of cards that Hannah gave to Connor the week before we moved to Kenya.  

Connor and Janice taking care of Baby Joelle.  And yes, these are the same plastic chairs you find in the US.  Someone told me that it doesn't matter how remote of an area you go to, there will always be stackable, plastic chairs.

The party in full swing!  Cake, Monopoly and Connect 4!!!

Janice, Connor, Lyla, Louisa, and Seth

Janice & Connor

Lyla & Louisa

Connor & Louisa . . . and Sutton silently approaching with the dreaded "bunny ears of death."

What can inspire such jubilation?  Connor receives the much coveted . . . Nintendo DS!  

A Day at Agape

Here are a few photos (and a video) from earlier this morning at Agape.  There are about 40 boys on campus right now (during school break).  These boys are either fresh off of the street, or their home lives are bad enough to where they cannot go home even temporarily.  In another week, school will be back in session, and there will be three times as many boys on campus.  Things will be slightly more busy!

Isaiah and Shaban

Barrack, Kevin, and Enoch

Kevin

Durant & Sidikazi

Shem & Dennis - Former Agape boys who are now grown and on their own. They are working on some construction projects at Agape.

Boys playing checkers

The video below is of Abel, who is a part of Agape's outreach team, teaching a class in Agape's Orientation Program for boys fresh off of the street.  This 2-week class is critical, as it sets the foundation for the Christian instruction that the boys will receive and sets initial expectations for the boys while at Agape.  Please be in prayer that these boys will stay at Agape and will resist the urge to run back to the streets.

A Trip to Visit Reunited Families

As I wrote back in June (see The 4R's - Reintegrate), a big component of Agape's mission is to eventually reunite former street boys with their families throughout Kenya (and sometimes into Uganda and Tanzania).  This reunification of families is facilitated by a team of pastors that make up Agape's Reintegration Team.  Yesterday, I had the privilege to travel with John, the manager of the team, and Ted, on of the other pastors, as they went to visit the former Agape boys in their homes and to meet with their families.  On average the team visits around 50 families per week to ensure that the boys are doing well and are being properly cared for.

We left early on Monday morning to travel 90 kilometers (that's about 56 miles to you Americans) west to a small village called Usengi with the goal of visiting six reintegrated boys.  The road out to Usengi was in pretty good shape, but it still took us about two hours to drive the 90 kilometers.  Here are a few photos of the trip along the way:

There are some incredible rock formations on the drive to Usengi.  That is a house on the right side of the picture to give you a sense of scale on how big these rocks are.  It's incredible to look at these rocks and think, "God put these here."  It reminds me of Romans 1:20, "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse."  Praise the Lord!

This rock formation is known as Kit Mikayi, which is Luo for "Stone of the First Wife."  Polygamy is still somewhat commonplace in Kenya, especially in rural areas.  John told me a Luo joke that when a man has one wife, he will have a heart attack when someone tells him that his wife has passed away, but when a man has two or more wives, his response will be, "It is okay, I have another wife."  Needless to say, polygamy leads to some major issues in Kenya, the generation of more street children just being one of the issues.  

Just head north on this dirt road about 8 kilometers, and you will arrive in Kogelo.  What is special about Kogelo, you might ask . . . this is the hometown of the father of the 44th President of the US . . . Mr. Barack Obama (we'll meet Obama later in this post; well, not quite).

Upon arrival in Usengi, we went to the home of Humphrey, who happened to be at school at the time.  Because Humphrey was not home, John and Ted proceeded to share the Gospel with Humphrey's aunt and uncle, Rose and Boniface.  Here's a clip of John Mwalo preaching to Rose, Boniface, and their firstborn little girl, God's Will (yes, that is her name).  John is speaking in the local tribal tongue, Luo.

During the time with this family, another family member joined the discussion, as well.  At the conclusion of our time with the family, all three family members made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ!  Praise the Lord!  The challenge now will be to find a way to disciple these new believers, being that there are no good churches in the area.  Please be in prayer that we can find a way to continue to teach these newest members of the body of Christ.  

After our meeting, our hosts offered us some freshly caught (and deeply fried) Tilapia and Nile Perch.

We continued on to the next boy's house, Frederick.  Frederick's family had a large plot of land right on the shore of Lake Victoria where they had a "plantation" which primarily grew tomatoes and a little sukuma wiki (kale).  During this visit, three more Kenyans made an initial profession of faith in Jesus Christ; pretty amazing!

Here's a quick video discussing how Patrick's home is constructed:

After this visit, we conducted two more home visits, and then conducted a last visit to a boy's house named Samora.  Samora's mother died of AIDS, which is why he ended up on the street.  Agape reintegrated Samora with his maternal grandmother.  Samora lives in a very rural area, and a few of the small children were terrified of me when they first saw me.  I was probably the first mzungu (white person) that they had ever seen.  Here are a few photos of the visit with Samora's family:

Some of Samora's Cousins

Kitana (sp?)

Milicent & Kitana

Obama . . . I told you that you'd meet him later.  Kenyans don't pay much attention to whether their children wear girls or boys clothes.  I thought Obama was a girl at first; you can probably understand my mistake.

Obama is a ham, but was terrified of me when I first arrived.

Samora's Cousins

Kitana and Obama

Samora's aunt, grandmother, and another aunt.

Pascal & Samora

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a pretty amazing fact.  The Reintegration Team at Agape has taken over 200 children home to their families over the past year!  Praise the Lord!  Please be in prayer for the following:

• That the Lord will move in the hearts of the boys' families, and that they will come to know Jesus as their Savior.
• That the boys will stay home once reintegrated.  Thus far, the recidivism rate is pretty low, but some boys still go back to the street.
• That the Lord will provide enough food at home for these children.

Thanks for joining me on my first trip to the field with the Reintegration Team!

Playing the Kenyan Name Game

I was meeting with two of Agape's pastors and a teacher from a local school, and they explained to me how Luo (the tribe local to the Kisumu area) children receive their last names.  I had noticed that many of the Agape boys had the same last name, but I had previously assumed that they were just common names (like Smith or Jones in the US).  What I found out was that the Luo give their children a last name based upon the events surrounding their birth.  The most common are the time of day:

Otieno - Born 7 PM - 12 AM
Oduor - Born 12 AM - 2 AM
Okiny - Born 2 AM - 8 AM
Onyango - Born 8 AM - 11 AM
Ochieng - Born 11 AM - 3 PM
Odhiambo - Born 3 PM - 7 PM

Here are some other events Luo use for naming purposes:

Okoth - Born during the rain or during rainy season
Oyoo - Born "on the way" . . . possibly on a trip or on the way somewhere
Ouma - Born face down
Okelo - Somebody brought a gift

Anyway, I thought this was pretty interesting!

Funny & Tasty Food in Kenya - Restaurant Edition

After church yesterday, we headed downtown Kisumu with the Gibbs for lunch at Green Garden, a local restaurant.  One of the first things that you will learn is that Kenyan restaurants cook everything from scratch, so your food will usually take at least 30-45 minutes (if not longer).  This really isn't a problem, as long as you prepare the kids for the wait.  Anyway, the food at Green Garden was delicious; here's a sampling:

Connor ordered Chicken Soup with Noodles (not to be confused with Chicken Noodle Soup, much to Connor's chagrin) with a side of beef samosas.  The soup turned out to be pretty good, just not Campbells.  Beef samosas are my favorite food in Kenya, and Green Garden's samosas didn't disappoint!  They are kind of a cross between a wonton and a taco.  

We had a good time ordering the cheese pizza that Sutton and Seth shared.  Green Garden had a number of different pizza types on the menu with a variety of different toppings . . . none of which appealed to the kids.  So, I had to explain to our waitress how to make a cheese pizza.  After going back and forth on whether the bread came first, then the sauce, and then the cheese, we got the order right.  One key point of clarification was needed, though.  Initially, they planned to make the pizza with just tomatos, not tomato sauce.  After some discussion, our waitress stated, "Oh, you want tomato gravy!"   Now, we know that Kenyan pizza sauce is "Tomato Gravy."  Oh yeah, the pizza was awesome!

Blake & Esther both ordered chicken kabobs, a variety of kuku choma (barbecue chicken) . . . very tasty!

I had Chicken Curry (African style) with a side of chapatis.  The curry and chapatis were awesome, the chicken . . . not so much.

Tammy's was hands-down the best entree of the afternoon . . . lasagna.  Who would've thought that the best lasagna we've ever tasted would be made in Kenya?  Our waitress told us that the cook's name was Abby, so Tammy went back to ask if Abby could make a platter of lasagna for us.  Upon arriving in the kitchen, Abby turned out to be a nickname for Abraham!  Anyway, Abby said that we could bring our own dish by anytime, and he would make us an entire lasagna.  Pretty cool!

Calvary Chapel Lakeside - Kisumu

While school is out of session at Agape, we've been attending church in Kisumu at Calvary Chapel Lakeside. Some fellow missionaries, Matt & Peggy Pottenger, planted the church a few years ago, and we've really enjoyed the worship and teaching at Calvary Chapel.  The pastor is Kenyan and does an excellent job of expository preaching.  Here are a few photos of the service yesterday:

Calvary Chapel Lakeside

Seth doing what he does best:  charming the ladies (Kenya Grace & Rachael)!

Connor striking a pose.

Sutton's new friend really liked Sutton's toy airplane.

Funny & Tasty Food in Kenya #3

The latest installment of "Fun & Tasty Food" . . .

Tammy attempted to make cheese grits out of Maize Meal.  Kenyans use this meal to make their staple food, ugali (ooh-golly), which looks like mashed potatoes but really doesn't taste like anything.  If you serve a meal to a Kenyan and don't serve ugali, then they will say that they haven't eaten.  If dinner was the meal, the following morning they will say that they "slept hungry."  Kenyans are very funny about their ugali.  I thought the grits were pretty good, but Tammy disagreed saying that the meal was ground too fine.  

There are a ton of corn meal and flour options to choose from.  Chapatis are like tortillas (but thicker; think Taco Bell Gorditas).  Mandazi is like a donut.

I finally found some cookies that I like.  The strawberry wafers taste just like the ones in the US.  In the British tradition, most cookies are referred to as biscuits.  Not quite Bojangles!

American brand Heinz, but not quite Ramen.

We've started using shelf stable milk instead of the bag milk (see Funny & Tasty Food in Kenya #1), because, well, it last a lot longer.  I think it tastes just like regular milk, but the kids disagree.  Picky, picky.

Breakfast cereal has been quite a struggle thus far.  They have a lot of Temmy's cereals, but despite the different flavors listed above, they all taste a lot like plastic.

Chicken anyone?  We just got a bag of chickens from Njeri, one of Agape's managers.  Evidently, they are delicious, so I'll let you know.  A quick Kiswahili lesson, the Kenyan word for chicken is kuku (coo-coo).  The Kiswahili word for barbecue is choma (choam-uh).  So, barbecue chicken is kuku choma.  Barbecue goat is really popular here or mbuzi (em-boozee) choma.

Preparing to jik the chicken (see "Just Jik It").  Don't they look cozy!

Escargot Anyone???

Now this is what I call a snail!  He's training in Kisumu for his upcoming match in Tokyo with Godzilla.

Used Car Shopping in Kisumu

Thus far, shopping for used vehicles in Kisumu has been an amusing experience.  To begin with, almost none of the vehicles' names match their US counterparts' names.  A few examples: a Prado is a Land Cruiser; a Pajero is a Montero . . . the list goes on.  There are also a number of Japanese models here that they don't even have in the US.   Toyota has the Wish, Noah, Voxy, Ipsum, Gaia . . . to name just a few.

Originally we were planning to buy a 4-wheel drive SUV because of some of the rougher roads in the area, but the prices are really high.  You will pay at least $16K for 10-12 year old SUV here.  If you want to get a nice SUV you can pay as much as $40K.  Needless to say, we won't be getting an SUV.

Instead, we began pursuing cheaper options.  Because of past good experiences with Toyotas in the US, we're taking a look at the Wish and Ipsum.  We also looked at the Noah, but it's a little too "minivanish" for us.  Tammy firmly believes that minivans automatically add at least 5 years to your true age!  Here are some photos of the vehicle types we have been looking at (they all seat 7):


 Toyota Wish - Kinda like a station wagon


Toyota Ipsum - getting closer to a minivan, but still kinda like a station wagon


Toyota Noah - definite minivan territory

You can get one of these for about half the price of an SUV.  Sutton and I spent part of this morning going to around 7 different dealerships.  The funny thing was that every dealership had the same exact price for each model; a little pricing collusion maybe?

Be praying that we somehow figure out how to negotiate a good deal!

*UPDATE*  We are dealing with a new Tammy here in Africa.  After viewing the different options in Kisumu this morning, she has opted for the Noah (or the Voxy).  Yes, you heard me . . . she has selected a minivan.  Now begins the process of finding one that we like (at a good price).


Toyota Voxy - a boxy Noah; probably should've been called a Noxy.