No access in rural Kenya so I posted the last several days at one time. If you’re interested, please take the time to read. It was a life-changing trip. I’m excited to download the experience with the Rule29 team and start working on the various initiatives we’ll be helping out with for LIA. We will share along the way and hopefully this will influence you to do something locally, domestically or in Africa, India, China, etc. I think the biggest thing I took away from this week is that I/we need to do something to make this a better place and help our brothers and sisters in need.

What do you think?

Getting ready to head to the airport. We are back in Addis and it is Easter here. So the town is rather still. The exception is the shepherds on the streets with their lamb carcasses and the like for people to buy for their Easter dinner.

LIA is starting a new program to support the kids and families that live in the city dump. So after packing up we headed out there with our gear to document the situation. Typically there are hundreds or more living in the dump, but when we arrived we saw very few because of the holiday, which was a relief. The description we were given on what we were going to see was making me a bit anxious. As we left, I did see a family walking into the dump holding hands…and I thought there has to be a better option. I won’t bother describing the scene, smell or endless health issues that exist there. Just jump in your garbage can when it is full and take a nap, have a snack, and I think we could start to relate, a little bit.

We left to go have dinner before our flight…and I wondered what that family was doing. I’m ready for home.

Today was an adventure that provided yet another memorable day. We started early and took another jaw rattling drive, but this time 3 hours through the Kenyan mountains on muddy cliff teetering roads. We were hoping for no rain so we could get home.

Because of our tight schedule we split up. One team did video & interviews; one team did stills & interviews. I went with Justin and we walked a mountain path up to a remote farmhouse that was the home of an amazing family. I will write about the family in more detail once we get the video cut for the web, but this one family has changed an entire community through their passion, prayer and hard work. Creating youth groups, caring for local orphans, starting schools, building a church, and the list goes on.

Leaving the family’s home, we walked the community on remote paths through farm, jungle and open paths; through watering areas, huts, and groups of people getting on with the day. After our last interview we loaded the van to pick up the other team and hopefully hurry up the mountain and to the main road to catch our flight back to Addis. But as we started out of the narrow road the van got stuck. Even though we pushed it out simply enough, we then proceeded to get stuck 3 more times. The final time the van was teetering on a bank, literally inches from rolling over. Justin and I tried everything we could think of, with no progress, or we made it worse. The thought of missing our flight was a distant concern because we were just trying to figure out how to save the van. As we brainstormed ways to get it out, people from the community kept showing up. Our other team heard what was going on and was able to hike over. For the next 2 hours we tried lifting it, pulling it, and tethering it off.

Finally through digging out some of the bank, using the jack, lifting the van, and pulling it with some amazing handmade ropes, we lifted the van back onto the road. Two hours later we were pushing it slowly back to a wider part of the road. It was an awesome experience to do something like that with a community of strangers. The way we all communicated and worked together was great. Now we were muddy, sore, late, happy, free of any major injury and ready to go.
Gus our driver risked life and limb to get us to the airport…and we made it just in time. We didn’t care that we were muddy and nasty, it was a great day.

After our visits to the slums for the last few days, I realized that the poor and unhealthy issues that face the city population are matched by an equal need in rural areas. Aids is a high risk. Job training and job creation is tough. The perception that the city will provide more opportunity is false. Clean water is hard to get. Family sexual abuse is big and there are many elderly and orphan needs.

We traveled out to the beautiful countryside of Kenya. By the time we were 3 hours outside of the city, the rain had made the scenery green and movie like. It was a nice break from the 4 days of the slums.
As we reached our destination, jungle and mountains surrounded us. It was truly beautiful. We had interviews to do with some of the main LIA leaders in the rural communities. The stories they told of HIV orphans, abuse, etc. was a sobering contrast to the setting in which we were standing.

After the interviews we went to a local hostile that was a sleeping experience. 80+ degrees in the room and some sweet mosquito netting; we were in Malaria country. Tomorrow off to some remote communities.

Unfortunately Kibera was all it was supposed to be. It is the largest (or reportedly now only one of the largest) slum in Africa. Over 1 million people were living in such depressing conditions that my mind couldn’t even grasp it. Maybe 50-70% had HIV…no one really knows. The smell was intense, and I was overwhelmed being there, but I knew I had to see it. Add the aftermath and tensions of the recent uprising, and Kiberia is a potential time bomb.

At one of my lowest points, Stephen came up to me. Stephen is a local LIA helper and he feeds the 80+ kids everyday at the church we were in. He was so happy that we were there and wanted to show me the work they do. I felt the Lord with him, and it was comforting and empowering. The kids ate biscuits and tea and then finished with lunch of cabbage & rice and tea. That was their meal for the day. Same routine 5 days a week. Over the weekend Stephen said most of them eat nothing.

This school was a little sanctuary of hope: a hope that these kids would learn enough to pull themselves out of the slums, be healthy, be aware of HIV, or at least make a living to support themselves. It was a light that was amazing to see. These kids are surrounded by so much darkness. Like the rain that creates the nasty mud, the endless unhealthy dust in the dry season, the shear size of the slum, the constant danger, and even the lack of a pathway to walk on without stepping in human waste. And the list could go on, like the recent uprising which largely took part in the slum where 1,100 Kenyans were killed.

Meeting the people who get up for work and go there everyday was mind boggling to me. Such a huge undertaking, so overwhelming, so hard. One worker said everyday you look for those little victories, and that is the food you need to keep going.

Those are the people that will change Africa. LIA is one organization that I think does it the right way. They train the people to take care of and support themselves. Change mindsets, serve where it is hard and let it spread. I’m excited to be a part of it.