On the Field

Read updates from Open Arms team members in Eldoret, Kenya!

Rob Humphrey, Chairman of the Board for Open Arms International, is at the Open Arms Village from May 1 to June 15. He has the unique privilege of being with the children at the Village as they adjust to their new lives. We will be posting regular updates from Rob about the children and new developments at the Village, as well as photos, so be sure to check back often!

May 26, 2008

Jambo! Habari asubuhi? (Hello! How are you all?)

I have watched the children from the Village grow in just the past three weeks both emotionally and physically! Ian, the by with the worms and malaria is doing MUCH better and is off all medication! I can't wait to see what he looks like a year from now. Since all of these children have recently lost their parents, they are traumatized. A couple of them scream at night, and have "seen" their mother walking across the field toward them, only to disappear. In spite of this, they are ALL loving the houseparents in a way I can only describe as a miraculous answer to prayer. All of them, ages two to nine have gladly accepted the houseparents as mommy and daddy. 

I'd like each of you to know that I have experienced a complete peace my entire time here. A peace in my heart and a peace in the community. Though fresh in the minds of the people here, it is recognized that the skirmishes were the work of a small number of gangsters. I have not been concerned for one second for my safety and walk freely about Kenya alone. Saturdays are spent at the local swimming pool with Tom's family and some OAI staff. Everywhere I go I am greeted with broad smiles and hearty handshakes. My biggest concern is avoiding those vendors who want to overcharge me for a banana or a "taxi" ride on the back of their bicycle just because I'm a musungu. =)

Rob


May 16, 2008

I had an amazing afternoon at the Village. I walked to the school, met the head teacher, had all 200 children sing me a song (they had practiced that day just for me!), then walked the kids home.

As I reported last week, the road grader came in, removed all the stumps, and the road looks great! Prior to the grading, we needed some neighbors to move fences that were along the length of the road. The width of the road is supposed to be 10 meters total, and one of the neighbor's fences was four meters too far in. This neighbor simply would not respond to numerous efforts by Tom. In fact, during direct communication, he simply would not speak. This man has known for a year that he needed to move his fence, so I handed the matter over to Chief Togom, who assured us he would handle this guy. The Chief was good to his word and the neighbor's fence has been moved! Yay!

Praise the Lord the government has approved the "Change of Use" application! This is a huge hurdle and I was holding my breath for this! This was approved carte blanche, no additional conditions or changes to our application. This means we can now submit the Environmental Review, which is the last step before building permits.

Good stuff!

Rob


May 9, 2008

This first week has been a fantastic opportunity to listen and learn from the Kenyan team. I can tell you that witnessing the day-to-day activities firsthand has left me very impressed with this team's effectiveness and intentional methods. By American standards, this team is top-notch, intelligent, and care deeply about their work.

On Tuesday morning, I was up at 4:00 am, and by 6:00 am, I was at the Village to finish distributing school uniforms to the children and to accompany them to their first day of school. Because it was their first day, we loaded them up in the truck, all 18 of them, and made the 10 minute drive to their first day of school! I can't imagine making a transition from living on the street or in an IDP camp one week, to a home with a proper bed, and off to school with a spanking new uniform the next. These children are HAPPY, let me tell you.

I am going to try and communicate something with you, and I hope you'll be able to hear my heart and see what I am seeing here from an American perspective. Sitting back home in the states, I read about the conflict in Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, the Congo, Zimbabwe... As I read, and as I spoke with others about these violent situations, there was always an underlying sense that, "This is what their people have been going through for years. This is what they know, this is how they live." I want you to know that living with the Kenyans in this period in their history, fresh after the violence and skirmishes of December '07- February '08, the horror to each individual is literally no different than what we would feel sitting at home in Portland, Oregon, if such an event occurred there. Imagine two- and three-year-old children lying face down in the middle of your street sleeping... completely exhausted, hungry, having just lost their parents to violence or HIV/AIDS. Picture yourself running from a mob of youth wielding machetes and fire, maybe making it away unscathed, maybe not. I have not met a single person here who had a sense of, "Well, that is the way here..." The are completely broken and heartsick at the overwhelming loss. To live even for a short time with a group of Kenyans who are committed to finding those children who have lost their parents or have simply been abandoned is an experience that leaves me without words. 

I hope that you know I am not writing to make you sad, but I feel a sense of responsibility to help accurately represent a cultural perspective.

There are three major priorities right now with the Village: access, water, and power. I am working with Tom on each of these items. Two days ago, we met with the local County Chairman and County Councilor to discuss the road to the Village. The access has been a public right of way for years, but has never been improved. Open Arms teams and work crews have worked hard to pull stumps and other obstructions over the past months, but the time has come for the county to improve the road by bringing in a full-sized road grader. The concern to date has been that the county wanted us to pay for the improvements, since we need it for our big project. Very similar to negotiations in the states. As we met with the Chairman and Councilor, we reported that we could not afford the huge expense for this improvement. We argued that the road improvements would benefit the entire community along this 2 kilometer stretch of road, and  that our Village was a benefit to the community as well. We offered to pay for fuel, oil, and the cost of the two operators for the day. We also voiced our concerns about timelines, as we have been told the graders were unavailable for many weeks, even months. If we could not get the grader before the rains come, the grading would be nearly impossible. Upon hearing all this, the Chairman, a locally powerful man, turned and picked up his phone. He called the local transportation department and asked that a grader be prepared for dispatch immediately. He turned to his Councilor and, pointing his pencil at him authoritatively, stated, "YOU will make sure this happens." He then turned to us and with as much authority said, "YOU had better be prepared. Councilor will call to mobilise the grader once he has received payment from you. If this does not happen today, you will be passed." We returned within one hour, paying just for fuel, oil, and the operators, and the deal was done. By the end of day, the grading was COMPLETE. Thank you, God! 

Oh, one last thing... pray for rain. The crops were planted a few weeks ago during the rains, but it has been sunny and clear for a couple of weeks now. Lack of rain in the next couple weeks will greatly reduce the yield of their crops at this critical time, and with the cost of food up 100% in the past four months, they desperately need a good crop.

Well, that wraps it up for now!

Rob