A day in Nairobi

Nick Kemboi, Edwin Angote, and I all spent today around Nairobi. We spent the morning with Mama Margaret, working with her on syncing finances with our books (we now have a universal system of record keeping to make sure that each of our donor's dollars are maximized in their use). We were also working on the water tank project to try to get it installed by the time I return on Monday.

We then went downtown to the World Social Forum. It was quite a distance out of town, but with it being a fairly unique meeting for this nation - we decided to check it out. Margaret also told us that Pastor Nick (who oversees the Tenderfeet center) was a keynote speaker (on the 24th) and that Lahash and Tenderfeet were listed as participants for the work in Kibera.

We popped into a tent and the speaker was raising the alarm on water rights and the exploitation of the developing world by the WTO and large multinational corporations. The WSF is pretty much a reaction to the injustices of the bigger guys who run the nations and finances of our globe, but there were booths there for the UN and other large agencies.


After a couple of minutes in walked Wangari Maathai, who was the first African woman to earn the Nobel Peace Prize. She's a personal hero of mine, and has worked tirelessly for the environment here in Kenya. She shared some thoughts and then chaired the rest of the panel.

Tonight we'll be headed back to Eldoret to work with the Renew program some more. Please pray for our journey, and that we'll been unified as a team here and be able to encourage the ladies during this week.

A chapter closed - the Team heads back home

Last night most of the team headed back to the United States. It's been quite a journey that we've shared together over the past couple months. It was an honor to travel with the team. Now the team will head back to jobs and lives in the United States - reconnecting with many of you readers - but with all of these experiences and friends in our hearts.

Thanks to each one of you for your interest as you've followed us on our journey of connecting with the friends here in East Africa in their missions of loving the planet's most vulnerable people. Thanks for your prayers as we've traveled. We've felt loved and protected and encouraged by them.

And thanks to each of the partners that we leave behind here in East Africa. We will be united in one in our struggle for justice, compassion, and advocacy for the weak.

I (Dan) will be here in East Africa for another week working on details with the organizations in Kenya. This afternoon Nick and Edwin and I assisted Mama Margaret in learning to use her new Digital Camera.

Finishing strong in Dodoma
We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya for a couple more nights before people head back to the United States from the Lahash team. The majority of the group will be flying out tonight (Jan 21) and I'll remain in Kenya for one more week.

Our time in Dodoma was so rich. We were amazed everyday at the maturity of the staff of the church, and felt that at each step we were learning so much.

Doug finished the week with several podcasts which the we'll be releasing over the next year via the Lahash website.

Anya and Dana continued their work of recording stories on our home visits into the communities around the city. The home visits have been a highlight for all of us - it's great to get to meet the people in their homes and hear their needs and see the impact firsthand.

Erin also assisted with recording stories, and she completed the week with coordinating volunteer requirements so that each of our partners can have visitors who are prepared for the job and fit well with the community.

Leisha also worked with Nick and staff at the Mennonite church on accounting procedures and analysis of the system.

Meri was sick most of the week, but was able to meet with the partners to make sure the sponsorship program was running smoothly, and she also updated the profiles and took new pictures of all of the kids at Dodoma. Thanks to all of the child sponsors. The kids are doing very well, and the assistance to the families is so appreciated. We hope to add another 29 kids this year to bring the total to 50.

I continued to meet with the partners and document the trip. Pastor Amos also had tremendous advice on making sure each of our partners were on board with the vision of Lahash, and he offered to host the first East Africa Lahash conference in Tanzania this summer. We are very grateful for his leadership.

We had some wonderful moments with the friends in Dodoma. They were incredible hosts and made sure we were well fed. The weather was very warm for the last several days.

On our final day in Dodoma the Lahash team had a final meeting to discuss the upcoming year with the Tanzanian partners.
And the photo below is the Lahash and Dodoma team together in front of the church.

HIV Care Home Visits in Dodoma

During the last three days we have visited several homes where our partners care for children in need and families living with HIV. For so many, the Lahash partners at the Mennonite church are essential to their survival.

We visited Sala and her three children in Kikuyu slum region of Dodoma. She has been diagnosed with HIV for two years, and although she is too sick to work, she is not yet on antiviral medications. When we arrived, she was sitting on the ground outside her home with her infant daughter on her lap.

Our partners have arranged for her to get her CD-4 count tested this week. This level assessment will allow Sala to have medications prescribed so that she may grow stronger and care for her family. Since she has been too sick to work, the church is giving her a small amount of food and money each month to help care for her family. She attends the Mennonite church whenever she is strong enough to walk the short distance, and she named her youngest daughter Esther after the pastor's wife who runs the Lahash sponsorship program on site.

The effects of HIV/AIDS in Dodoma, Tanzania is devastating many lives, yet there is intense hope behind the eyes of the friends that we have made. The love of Christ and the tangible support that the Lahash partners bring into so many homes is a bright light in this community.

Refreshment in Dodoma, Tanzania

After our time in Kibera we took a 6:30 AM bus ride to Dar Salaam, Tanzania. It was a grueling 15 hours on the road and we made it shortly after dark and crashed at a small hotel for the night. We woke up the next morning, dipped our feet in the Indian Ocean a bit, and then headed inland once more to Tanzania's capital city of Dodoma.

Our bus ride was once again full of stories - bathroom stops on the side of the road, consuming too many cookies to count, and a bus that stopped in at the mechanic's before driving 30 meters down the road.

We arrived safe at our destination and as we got off the bus Meri began complaining of pain. She ended up spending the night in the hospital for a bladder infection, and is recovering now and continuing with the work.

Dodoma is in the center of the nation. Its centrality, the locals say, is the only thing special about the place. The city is poor, barren, hot, and isolated. Usually at this time of year it is also the dry season and we were expecting it to be very warm. But as we pulled into town we encountered refreshing rain, and the hills were green and alive.

Our stop here is a Mennonite church that Lahash has partnered with to sponsor destitute children affected by the AIDS epidemic. Close to a quarter of the kids are HIV positive, and nearly all of the families have a family member who has fallen to the disease.

This afternoon Meri (our sponsorship director in the United States) and I met with the children briefly and it was so encouraging seeing their faces after working on finding sponsors and transferring letters through our Portland office from the kids to their North American friends.

Yesterday we were shown around the church by Pastor Amos and the wonderful capable staff here at the church. They run an amazing program, and it is always refreshing being around their expertise, insight, and compassionate outreach into the community. The church has chosen to be in this poor and dry city with a goal to reach the most vulnerable. You would think it would be a poor location to start a church, but their ministry is thriving.

I can't imagine a church that has a fuller and more mature interpretation of what it means to be the "body of Christ". The doors are open practically the whole week long with loving care and grace for everyone in the community. They are transparent, cutting edge, tireless, and full of truth and grace. Recently they were asked to host an HIV conference where the Vice President came to join the effort of covering the city with care for AIDS victims.

We worshipped today in the church and joined in the swirling song, praise, and dance movements. It seemed as if the whole church was colorfully clapping and dancing and taking turns leading the members with choir numbers. The young people prayed with energy and tears, and we felt like we had arrived home.

Doug spoke in Swahili about the Kingdom of God and how it is so much more than just about being "saved". It is about becoming right with God personally, but it is also about becoming a beautiful expression of the Messiah on earth - caring for the hungry, sick, naked, and poor. "Behold I come to make all things new."

I was also asked to share some words and spoke about the need for every person to join in the fight against AIDS. I also spoke about the equality in Christ, and how each member is just as important as the others. No person, regardless of location or nationality or status is more important than the others. We are all one in Christ.

The next few days we'll be visiting various members in the community and sharing in the daily life with the church members. Jo French is also coming in today from a conference upcountry.

Thanks everyone for praying for us! Your prayers refresh our moments here. Below are some more points that you can cover this next week:

• Pray for the vulnerable of Tanzania that they would have their daily needs provided for. Pray that the orphans will find love and care and support from local and international friends.
• Pray for our team - we continue to need prayer for our health, and also safety on the roads and around town. Pray that we would be unified and full of love and grace for each other.
• Pray for the Mennonite church here that it would continue to be blessed by God with the beautiful outreach into the community.
• Pray that the world would wake up to the crisis of AIDS.

Time for Change - A week in Kibera
Kibera is an overwhelming spot on this earth. With estimates of over 1 million people, and little or no sanitation, water, or other public services, it is often frightening or revolting. But it is also home to dear men, women, and children who desperately need justice and encouragement. Our last week was spent in these slums and we learned so much from our journey.

Today we woke up early and met with members of the Kibera Youth Self-Help Group. They provided tools and outfits for our team, and we went to work dismanteling a stinking trash heap just off one of the main streets in the northern corner of Kibera. The slum is unrecognized, so the government generally ignores the population - instead providing services and support to the other wealthy neighborhoods. Recently the city informed the people that the one garbage truck in the area had broken down - so the already trashed slum was teeming with refuse.

We were spending our week with Mama Margaret and the team of Tenderfeet Children's Center, and she suggested that we do the service project on our final day with her.

The photo above is of Anya Holcomb helping scoop the trash onto the rolling carts that are everywhere in the slum. The photo below is of the trash heap when we started a little after 9 in the morning.

The photo that comes next is when our work was done at about 1:30 PM - several hours later and many water bottles and sodas later. The work was very exhausting, and somewhat humiliating carting large loads of foul smelling trash through the streets to one of the dumping sites.

The local population at first made fun of us and shook their heads in amazement. But by the end of the day we would get encouragement all along the way to the dump spot. Somehow the word got out that we were involved in the project, and on the last run Doug, Anya, Dana, Nick, and a few other Kibera locals were stopped by the Municipal Council of Nairobi. They threatened to arrest the team for picking up trash without a permit.

Doug and Nick argued that this was the responsibility of the local government, and that they needed to come pick up the trash - the people were suffering. Doug then offered to be arrested for picking up the trash and was ready to board the vehicle. The council members realized how rediculous their position was, and drove off. At that same time a garbage truck finally arrived!

It was a good realization of how the people in the slum are mistreated. They have little or no rights, and the city and government ignore them except to tax them and to take bribes for the illegal industries that thrive in the winding mud streets. Our interviews opened up this world to our team and we began to feel the pain of the injustice of the system.

We ended our time in Kibera praying for the team there and that God would break down the corruption and bring hope to our new friends there who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Despite being trapped many continue to give thanks to God who is in control of each person's day to day lives. It was very inspiring being around the faith of the Kibera locals.

We walked around a large chunk of Kibera during our past week, but after checking the area maps we realized that we only were exploring a tenth of the slum. Kibera is huge, and each little rusted tin roof is home to dozens of people with so many sad stories of unemployment, AIDS, lack of education, corruption, and other illegal activities.

When we were in one of the homes we were interviewing a lady who sold an illegal brew out of her home. She attended church and prayed at times, but reasoned that it was better to sell this brew than have her family go hungry. Several customers came by while we were there, and eventually a plain clothes policeman stepped in for his regular bribe. It was so powerful seeing the whole situation unfold before us.

We walked many miles with our good host Mama Margaret.

We also met the young and energetic Shadrack who is in need of brain surgery. Dax Mitchell, a friend from Texas, is heading up the effort to see Shadrack have a successful surgery.

A Week with the AIDS Virus in Eldoret, Kenya

The team is resting this afternoon after an intense week in Eldoret followed by another extremely eventful road trip.

Our time in Eldoret was focused primarily on HIV/AIDS care and support for families and individuals impacted by the epidemic. Our team visited many different families and brought gifts to the kids, women, and men who were in serious need. Dana and Anya collected some in-depth interviews of the local people and their life stories. The stories were full of hope, courage, disappointment, sadness, love, and grace. It was pretty draining to hear so many people share on such deep levels.

Each morning we would wake up to some tea and bread - then Doug would share some thoughts from the Bible with us. Then we'd head out into the slums of Eldoret.

We covered the hillsides of southern Eldoret carrying bags of medical essentials, shoes, clothes, toys, sugar, tea, flour, cooking oil, and other varied supplies. At one point we decided to split into two groups to cover more ground and provide a more intimate setting to share life details.

Our interviews revealed a very deep wound on Kenyan society inflicted by AIDS. Below is one of the stories that we encountered.

Grace is a young Kenyan lady. She was married at 16, and now has three children. She and her husband both contracted the AIDS virus. He went practically insane - turning to drinking and sex in a quick spiral toward death. He began to beat his wife and two daughters, and then one day came and took every last possession to sell for purchasing beer. At that time his wife was pregnant with their third child. Grace began to be psychologically disturbed and found her way to Dr. Oronje's clinic and the care of Nick. She was assisted through her pregnancy, and in December 2006 gave birth to her newest daughter.

She currently lives in a small mud shack with a simple mattress, a few cooking items, and her three daughters. HIV can be transmitted through breast milk, so Grace must feed her daughter formula to give her every chance of testing negative for HIV in a few weeks. Lahash and SCF are working to provide a better room for her family, support and counseling, a new bed, prayer, and protection from her husband. Thank you to each of you for your part in her story. Please continue to pray for her and her three daughters.


Eldoret has perhaps the best treatment and prevention center in all of Africa for HIV/AIDS. Indiana University has connected with the local hospital and together they offer testing, counseling, pediatric care, food donations, AIDS medications (ARVs) and life skill trainings. People come from all over the nation to visit the AMPATH center. Dr. Oronje is one of the paid staff at the facility.
We were given a full tour of AMPATH and saw where people were tested for the virus, where families (like Grace's) get food supplements. and where the thousands of HIV/AIDS patients pick up their daily ARV doses. We saw a lady giving blood to test for her CD4 count (immunity level). Finally the team each went through the AIDS testing process ourselves to find out our status and understand the process better. It was actually a frightening process seeing our blood climb up the test strip and wondering if there was a possibility that we had acquired HIV somehow. Thankfully each of the team members tested negative. For many in the area - a positive test will result in tears and possibly suicide attempts. Even for those coping with AIDS the stigma is so strong that they would never tell their neighbors and families.
We left behind many dear friends in Eldoret. The enthusiasm in the area is so strong for fighting AIDS. The young people have assembled into an impressive force. There are volunteers from churches, doctors, sport coaches, counselors, future social workers, and artists.

Last night we took our tickets that we had purchased earlier in the week to the bus station for our short (5 hour ride) to Nairobi. We found out first that our bus was in for repairs, so they transferred us to another bus line. We waited for 4 hours as bus after bus came through with no room for us on any of them. By this time it was 1:30 AM. Finally a creaking hulk of a bus came through and the crowd surged for seats (we found out that these weren't numbered seats). We got on and found out that only the back seats were available, and that the widows were broken (it gets cold driving at night by bus). We decided to get a refund, and joined a large rowdy crowd asking for their money back.

Finally we got a refund and decided to get into the little van we had been using all week to venture south to Kenya's capital. It was a cold ride with exhaust fumes and luggage making things extremely uncomfortable. With nearly 6 kilometers left to go, we ran out of fuel and finally made it to our guesthouse at about 11 AM!

Thanks for your prayers everyone. We need them as we travel these rough roads, as we encounter sicknesses (Erin fought Malaria for a couple days), cultural differences, overwhelming poverty, and frail stories of hope.

Through it all we are discovering the faith and strength of our African brothers and sisters. We are seeing that hope is alive despite the pain that many have endured. We see that God has a place for each person to love and care for the helpless neighbors we encounter. We come face to face with our own faults. And we see that God is a God that transforms lives - bringing people to face their fears and failures and turn toward the warmth of grace and a life of love. We are honored by your prayers and support.

New Year Happenings
We celebrated New Year's Day here in Eldoret, Kenya after a nice little day drive on an Akamba bus line. We are joining Nick Korir and Dr. Oronje and their amazing team with their courageous fight against AIDS. There are over a dozen members of the Silas Christian Foundation with more and more joining in the battle. We are here to support them and record stories and pictures to give their movement a voice.

Eldoret, Kenya was rainy the week before we got here. The roads are muddy, and many have turned to streambeds. The little white ambulance has been stuck since we arrived. Most of the time we've just been walking around the area.

The slums here are more rural than the ones in the capital of Nairobi. There are several thousand people living on a hill and the poverty is intense. The families cannot find enough money to make ends meet, and don't have any land for gardening. This has led to a breakdown of family structures and many have become unemployed - with many turning to prostitution or beer brewing. This is a frightening combination for the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A couple years ago the Silas and Munyaka slums led Kenya in infection rates.

Nick and Doug and I grew up together in the early 1990's, and Nick still lives in the area. He founded the Silas Christian Foundation 3 years ago when he saw hundreds falling sick and observed people dying every week from the sickness. Since that time the team has joined with Dr. Oronje and many other community members in offering counseling, prayer, advice, representation, and gifts of food, soap, rent assistance, and school supplies for kids. It has become a beacon of hope in the area and it's really rewarding to be here and see the inroads that they've made into the community.

Anya and Dana are both perfecting their skills at interviewing the HIV positive clients in the area. Many of the rest of us are encouraging the friends here and taking pictures of the work. We are also delivering packages of clothes, food, and essential living supplies to single mothers, families with AIDS, and toys to some kids. Everyone has been very grateful and most have been open about their personal stories. This is despite the fact that many times their neighbors and family members don't know the fact that they are HIV positive. The stigma still has a stranglehold on businesses, communities, and churches.

We are staying at a local church hostel where many of Nick's family have been cooking some delicious food for us. We arrive back at the house each night exhausted and sunburnt, and settle down for a good meal of Kenyan cusine.

Nick told me he had a surprise when I arrived, and he brought a couple of us to his home and his wife. When we arrived he brought out his newborn son! He had named him little Daniel - which was a really kind honor. His wife is a kindergarten teacher and they are dreaming of setting up low income school that will assist the poor kids and orphans in the area.

We are spending the rest of the week here in Eldoret. Thanks to all of you for your prayers. Our team is feeling strong and unified right now, and excited to join in partnership here.

I apologize for the lack of photos in this post, the connection is really bad. We'll get some up soon. We love you all.