Another week and a few more Challenges

This week is offering up a few additional challenges for everyone here at Omwabini. Heavy daily afternoon rains and no running water at the orphanage and Mama Mary's compound has caused us to alter our daily routine. We were starting to feel the inconvenience for sure. Even with the heavy rains the rain barrel is emptied for laundry, washing dishes and bathing etc...  They needed to make trips to the nearest protected spring to get a supply of for drinking water for everyone at Mama Mary's and at the orphanage. Fortunately after three days without the water is now running again.
 It helps everyone to remember what it was like when they had to walk to the springs for water and remember how much they’ve been blessed! Like most of our creature comforts in life we soon take them for granted.

 Applied Mechanics classes are postponed for a few days because the older student  hands were needed to help with the shelling and drying maize. The damp weather of the past month is threatening the recently harvested maize crop with mold so the decision was made to switch from hand shelling to machine shelling to speed up the process.  After purchasing fuel for the tractor, empty bags to hold the shelled maize and an additive to help prevent rot and mold the process could begin. When all was done over 50 bags of maize was shelled.  I will use the down time to make some mechanical repairs.
Back to class tomorrow.

                   Maize sheller at work. Notice the make shift rear tire repair to  the tire bead area. Fortunately they didn't throw out the old tires so there are pieces available.

                               Who needs an x-box when you have one of these
    

Armed Guards, Shelling the Maize and Sunday Worship

Now that the government exams are done many of the orphans are being taken back to their family communities and will be staying with grandmothers, uncles or aunts and in some cases they will stay with different families in their home church communities until classes begin again in the new year. A few of the more fortunate may still have a struggling mother waiting for them.

I was surprised to see an armed guard on stand by at both the elementary and high school at different times when I entered the school yards and wondered if the folks here knew something they weren't telling me. However they assured me that the extra security was common government practice during the grade 8 and gr 12 exams to ensure the integrity of the exams and that they proceed without interruption. The exam results determine entrance opportunities to specialty schools, colleges or universities as well as the standings of the school in the county.


The Form three boys that are taking the applied technologies course will leave for their family communities when the course is complete while the Form Four students in our group will be leaving Omwabini and be preparing to strike out on their own now that they have completed High school. There are about 40 - 50 children who will be staying here at Omwabini the entire time because they have no family or a home community that will have them.

Some of the children staying behind seen here taking their turn at shelling the maize cobs


Carolyn and I  joined Anna and Angela Bunyasi and their families for worship this morning at their home church. The energy and enthusiasm they pour into their singing and praise is amazing and the volume must carry across half of the town.  The pastor was very accommodating and delivered a good part of the message in English so we could benefit as well.

By Carolyn:

We had a lovely worship time with a local congregation and sound preaching on 5 – S’s from scripture: Serve – we were saved to serve. Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served but to serve, and gave his life as a ransom for many.” Step up – to lead, to act, not full of promise but of action, sometimes it means to swim against the stream. He urged his fellow countrymen to fight against corruption, expecting opposition – Proverbs 27:5,6 “Open rebuke is better than secret love…”. Speak out – don’t be silent, encourage somebody. Speak for the poor and needy. When you’re silent in the midst of sin it is sin! In love direct a brother who is in the wrong, confront sin. Stand strong – Be firm when you are attacked, challenged, criticized. Jeremiah 1:18 – God told Jeremiah he was a fortified city, a defense. Cowards are not fortified against the princes of darkness. 1 Corinthians 15:57, 58 – “but thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Stay humble – start humble and end humble. 1 Peter 5:5,6 – Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” Such sound advice to live by!  

A heart warming Story....

Today Carolyn and I met a very pleasant young man named Kevin and his wife Gladys who currently live in Nairobi. Kevin was one of Mama Mary's earlier orphan children and is one of Omwabini's success stories. Kevin left Omwabini in 2009 after completing High School. He now lives in Niarobi where he owns and runs a successful office supply business.

Today he, accompanied by his young wife, made a return visit to Omwabini bearing gifts of clothing for the young orphan children who now call this place home. His generosity and expression of appreciation to the folks here for being there for him during a very vulnerable time in his life brought an inexpressible joy to Mama Mary and it warmed our hearts to see the difference genuine love and a hand up can make in someone's life. Of course every orphan exit story here don't all have a happy outcomes but as we witnessed today those who embrace the love and faith in God that Mama shares with them are as well equipped as any to face the world.

                               A surprise visit and gifts from a former Omwabini orphan Kevin




                                                                Mama Mary with her special guest




By Carolyn:This morning was so special! I had baked a chocolate cake (Nairobi Chocolate Cake from allrecipes.com) and brought it into to the primary school office to be handed out to the staff, cooks and dorm moms. I left it to the kitchen and office staff to deliver the pieces of cake, but they said they must first sing a song for the cake and say a prayer as this was a time of celebration for them, the end of a school year and the last day they would all be together before the break. After hands up and high tens’s and much laughter the cake pieces were handed out. Something as simple as baking a cake we take so for granted back home but here it was such a special thing - perhaps because they don’t own ovens and still cook on charcoal stoves.

Applied Technogy classes in full swing.....

It is both a challenging and rewarding experience teaching these very eager young men the basics of applied technologies. Challenging because it is often difficult to find  points of reference because student exposure to technologies is very limited, but rewarding because they are a very eager and motivated bunch. It is always a challenge to get them to stop working when it is time wrap up for lunch and at days end.
Currently I have the same 28 students with me for the full day. They will be rotating through six different work stations getting exposure to and hands on experience in different  areas of applied technologies including small engine repair, design challenges applying hydraulics and levers to creating and working with different types of electric circuits.

The activities draw a crowd of curious onlookers to the doorways and windows.

  This is a common site in our village. A farmer will bring his cow or calf to "greener pastures" along the roadway, tie it up and then pick it up again later in the day and walk it home.

Saturday in Kimilili

No classes on Saturday so I took opportunity of the down time and walked through a different section of town the town track down some "accessories" that could be used in the student projects.

Kimilili, like most Kenyan towns are full of many small shops that are about 10' x 10'. Many of  the shops/stands carry local produce  or house very basic supply shops, repair shops or trade shop like this tailor shop. A few of the shops carry manufactured goods are imported from China and India.

 This is typical of a local automotive engine repair shop I came across Many of the repairs have a short life because  lack of tools and knowledge but they work with what they have and what they know.

.This one of the very few three story structures that is going up on the main street. No scaffolding or safety harness used here.

Meanwhile back at the orphanage...
Carolyn and the kids spent much of Saturday doing puzzles, crafts, etc in the small room that functions as the library. With very little else to do here the orphans take advantage of every opportunity to be in the library to do crafts and puzzles.

Suppertime at the Orphanage

Normally Carolyn and I aren't out after dark but we wanted to drop in on the supper meal at the "center" for a few pictures to see just how they manage to feed that many orphans at once.
Also we wanted to get a few pictures for our grand kids to see how their efforts at fundraising at a lemonade stand this past summer and another one tithing from his allowance was a reason that all the children here could enjoy some beef pieces in their gravy with their evening meal - as Carolyn put it, a very rare and special gift for them for sure.










                     Supper is usually served between 7 and 8 pm. A long lineup of kids wait for their scoop.





     Carolyn in the cookhouse with the pots of ugali, kale and and the special treat of gravy with pieces of beef















Two ladies at Mama Mary's place where the maize is stored clean the chaff from the grain by pouring the grains back and forth from one bucket to another and let the wind carry the chaff away








As high school exams wrap up the applied mechanics course I teaching continues to grow. I may soon have to limit the numbers so the each students participating can each get some worthwhile "hands on" practical experience. This week the classes begin after school and continue about six. Beginning next week the students will be with me full days.

Success with Tractor Repairs and the first evening of Classes

 My challenge was to repair a major injector pump fuel leak on the tractor. After assessing the problem I advised Victor, James' brother, that we would need to get seals and bushings for the injector pump. He believed that he knew of a small shop in a town about an hour away that might be able to help and asked, should we take the Matatu, a local shuttle van or Omwabini's van.
After my last Matatu experience, my quick response was lets take the van. I'll pay for the fuel.

Word got out that we were headed to Kitale and  it wasn't long before we had a van full of people who wanted to take advantage of the excursion and we were off.

We did locate the repair shop/shed, and thankfully they had buckets full of salvaged injector pump parts and were able to scab a bushing and seals from an old injector pump to solve our problem.

                                                Workbench at the injector pump repair shop

Fortunately the makeshift repair job did the trick so now they can use the tractor to shell maize without leaving a puddle of diesel fuel on the ground.

           Every once in a while we will drive by someone working on a vehicle or doing some welding and my reflex thought is "that's not safe".

This young roadside vendor sold each of us in the van a boiled egg to hold us over until we got back for lunch.